Material Witness

REVIEW: The Roots of Betrayal by James Forrester

What is it about pirates that so enthralls us? In other criminals the murder, mayhem and misogyny would be regarded as repulsive. But pirates are increasingly romanticised in fiction - from The Pirates of Penzance to Jack Sparrow, they are no longer the terrifying villains of old but now are viewed as swashbuckling heroes.

William Harley, Clarenceux King of Arms, the herald at the centre of James Forrester's excellent series, confronts this question of pirates himself. Clarenceux (as he is known), now in his second Elizabethan conspiracy-thriller The Roots Of Betrayal, is thrust into the pirate life when he finds himself in the company of the wonderfully named Raw Carew, a privateer prowling the English channel in search of "Catholic treasure".

Clarenceux too is seeking the same treasure, although he understands that it is not gold, but a document whose content is so explosive it threatens not just Elizabeth's legitimacy on the throne but also the lives of those who have it in their possession and even those who see it. 

As their twin quests collide, so do their very different world views. Clarenceux is essentially an academic, a researcher who travels the land documenting the heraldic claims of the landed gentry. He has had adventure forced on him by his protection of, and subsequent loss of, said document. (For back story, see Sacred Treason).  Carew, by contrast, is the bastard son of a nobleman who fled a life of poverty in Calais - where he had been abandoned to his fate with his prostitute mother - for a life of crime on the high seas. Carew is a charismatic man of action, governed only by his desire to make a living for himself in his chosen profession and his Robin Hoodesque credo of looking after the poor and oppressed.

Despite witnessing Carew's violence, philandering and piracy - and indeed being its victim - Clarenceux, a religious man, cannot help but be drawn to the man, and ultimately they end up allies of sorts, drawn together by a mutual quest for survival.

The relationship between the two men and their adventures is the heart of an enjoyable novel that moves along at a good enough pace, with action and intrigue balanced by Forrester's natural inclination towards detail - political, social, historical. (In real life, Forrester is historian Ian Mortimer).  

Both men have also been betrayed. Carew has been betrayed by his father; but Clarenceux is not entirely sure by whom he has been betrayed. The document, much sought after both by crown loyalists and rebellious Catholics alike has been stolen from him, placing his life in danger. The Queen's attack dog Francis Walsingham - still smarting at being out-manoeuvered by Clarenceux in the original quest for the document - seeks to pin treason on Clarenceux, who is left without a soul to trust until he runs painfully into Carew.

If on occasion Forrester gets bogged down in period detail, he can be forgiven because ultimately the vivid Tudor canvass he paints enriches a lively story. And if the plot is perhaps just a little too reminscent of Sacred Treason, it doesn't matter too much as Carew arrives to give it a steroidal shot in the arm.

This is a fine historical novel, full of intrigue and drama and I look forward to the promised third part of the trilogy, The Final Sacrament, when it is published next year.  

 

REVIEW: Purge by Sofi Oksanen

Shortly before I read Purge, I heard an academic on the radio talking about how, for all its dangers and privations, the 1939-45 war was "straightforward" for Britain and its people. This remark was made in the context of a former Ukrainian soldier and UK immigrant, who had essentially survived the war only because he had chosen, when captured, to fight for the German army rather than go to a camp.

"At least the British always knew who the enemy was," the academic said, and I paraphrase, "for many Europeans on the ever-moving front line between Germany and Russia, life was much more complicated."

I kept this thought in mind throughout Sofi Oksanen's Purge, a clever, subtle psychological thriller which tells the story of two women trapped between nations and ideologies, forced into compromise and crime in the desperate battle for survival. The first, Aliide, is an Estonian peasant who spends the latter part of the war and then the Cold War locked in a loveless marriage with a Party official as she seeks to hide a secret past and present that represents imminent danger to her. The second, Zara, is a young Russian woman who leaves poverty and boredom in the east for freedom in the west only to find that her freedom holds its own awful price - sexual slavery.

The story evolves in parallel with the relationship between the two women, after Zara arrives on Aliide's doorstep bloodied and beaten, fleeing for her life. As the two women spar their way through a suspicious and largely silent introduction, their stories unfold through trips back to their earlier lives. Zara has her head turned by a flashy friend returning to their hometown, dripping with gold, telling stories of the riches within her reach.

Meanwhile Aliide journeys through Estonia's painful past and the transition from German occupation to Soviet state to fledgling democracy. Each regime demands its own sacrifice for personal survival, and throw Aliide into conflict either with the state, her neighbours even her family. The Soviet era is particularly fraught with danger as petty jealousies and ancient grudges are pursued through insidious betrayal to the secret police.

The banality and pointlessness of so much of the surveillance and snitching is in direct contrast to the devastating impact it has on lives and families. The climate of fear and suspicion reduces individuals either to party clones or to shells of their former selves - terrified of everyone and everything, even their own thoughts.

And so this is not just the story of Aliide and Zara, of course, it is the story of Estonia and countless other nations caught in the frontline between conflicting ideologies and eras.

Purge has a sort of stealthy brilliance that crept up on me and took an iron grip that I didn't notice until I neared its breathless finale. But brilliant it undoutedly is, seamlessly combining the agonising struggling of the individual with the crushing weight of important themes.

Inevitably, given that the writer - a young woman of Finnish/Estonian extraction - is from the Nordic region, she will be lumped in with the great Scandinavian crime wave currently taking over the globe. And while that might well help build Sofi Oksanen's profile and sales, on the evidence of this book she does not fit into this category (just as Finland is not part of Scandinavia). And that's not a value judgement, just a warning: don't come here expecting the new Larsson or Nesbo. Oksanen has a fresh voice, one that I look forward to hearing more from.

 

 

 

REVIEW: Unknown by Didier van Caulewaert

The less time I have for reading, the more I come to appreciate short novels, books that can be polished off over the course of a couple of three hour flights, plus maybe an hour at lights out.

I chose to read Unknown, by French writer Didier van Caulewaert, primarily on account of its length - 235 relatively small pages - and to a lesser degree for a plot that seemed to have Bourne-like potential. (And certainly not for the film tie-in cover, which is usually a turn off.)

Of course being a short novel isn't enough in itself - although sometimes I wonder if the publishing industry believes that if a thriller isn't a 380 page monster it's not worth printing - but when it packs as much in as Unknown does it is a particular pleasure. And Unknown really does pack a great deal iin. Multum in Parvo, as it says on welcome signs in Rutland. (England's smallest county).

The premise is a simple one: a man is released from hospital after a couple of days in a coma. When he returns home to his Paris flat, neither his wife nor his neighbour recognises him, and a man claiming both his name and to be his wife's husband unceremoniously kicks him off the property. Martin Harris suddenly finds himself very much on the outside looking in at his own life. Utterly bewildered and increasingly doubting his own memory and sanity he sets off on a frantic 36 hour race to answer a most fundamental human question that most of us only ever ask ourselves in the abstract: Who am I?

Of course in the modern world we leave more traces than we did a century ago - even if we perhaps know, and are known to, far fewer people, and so Harris is not entirely without resource. Even so, the only human help he can find is from a virtual stranger - the taxi driver who knocked him over causing his injury in the first place.

In the interest of suspense I can't say a lot more about the plot, but what I can say is that this is a clever and tense thriller, and one with a tremendous ending; the sort of ending that makes you rethink the entire narrative (like The Sixth Sense movie).

On top of the terrific plot, this is a philosophical gem (well, it is a French novel, after all). Before you finish, you too will be asking "who am I?" and dwelling on the fragile nature of the immensely complicated existences we lead in the modern world and the maze of electronic data and organic memory that forms our identity.

I loved this little book. I loved it because I read it in 24 hours, because it thrilled me with its tight and tense plotting and because it made me think. What more could you want from 235 relatively short pages?

 

REVIEW: Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen

With the triumphant publication of Mercy, the Nordic crime full house is complete. Swedes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians and now a Dane. Denmark, indeed, might be considered in the ascendant. First, The Killing (Forbrydelsen) - comfortably the most mesmerising piece of television I have seen since series one of The Wire - and now Mercy, a tremendously tense and engrossing novel.

Where to start? A fiendish, cruel and unpredictable plot. A broken cop accidentally setting off in search of redemption, navigating a complex and emotional maze as he goes. On top of that his only assistance comes from a sidekick named after the lion of Damascus. Then there is a sprkinling of political intrigue, plenty of highly satisfying cop in-fighting, all topped off by an absolutely breathless finale.

I must admit to finding it difficult to settle into the rhythm of the novel at first, in part because the cop novel cliches seemed to arrive thick and fast, and I wondered if this wasn't another me-too troubled cop solves clever crime story. But it really isn't, and quite quickly Jussi Adler-Olsen demonstrates that his thinking is satisfyingly original, even a little off-beam, and so Mercy eventually became hugely enjoyable.

The story revolves around two lost souls. One, politician Merete Lynggaard, is held for five years in solitary in a locked cell, and being tortured for reasons she doesn't understand and which her captors will not reveal. The second, Carl Morck, is returning to active duty after recovering from being shot during an operation in which one close colleague died and another was left quadraplegic. Morck is racked with guilt about his part in the operation and his survival. Already a difficult man, although a fine detective, his colleagues now find him impossible.

They find a way to side-track him by establishing him as the head of a new unit, Department Q, which is set up to reinvestigate cold cases. Banished to a boiler room office in the basement, Morck settles in to an unhealthy laziness as he sleeps through most of the day as the files gather dust on his desk.

He is shaken from his stupor by an assistant, Hafez al-Assad, whose arrival, purpose is a mystery to Morck, a mystery that deepens rather than clears as the story proceeds. Assad, between cleaning the basement and seeking out east for his daily prayer, begins to scour the cases and is quickly drawn into the disappearance of the Lynggaard, about which precious little is known. As Assad probes, Morck's insticts awaken and very quickly the two men find the merest hint of a trail, which is just enough to put them into a race against time to find and save Lynggaard.

Adler-Olsen's writing reminds me a little of Steve Mosby, and in particular his novel Still Bleeding, because while everything appears reasonably conventional, it never quite is.  It is, however, highly satisfying and as the promised series develops I look forward to seeing how the author plays his two main characters, because in Mercy he displays a rare emotional intelligence and insight that should serve the series well in future.

 

On the Stand: Imogen Robertson

I became an instant fan of Imogen Robertson early last year when I first encountered her amateur Georgian detectives, Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther in her debut novel Instrument of Darkness. It was immediately evident from that novel that the Daily Telegraph had picked a real talent to win its Novel in a Year competition in 2007.

The two novels that have followed, Anatomy of Murder and Island of Bones, confirmed those first impressions. This is an historical series to rival the best in the genre.

I am very grateful to her for taking the time out to answer a few questions...

Favourite author:

Nevil Shute. Today that is. Like most people I find it impossible to stick to one favourite, but I do envy Shute’s prose and I find the books deeply moving.

Favourite book:

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers. A great detective novel, with the best marriage proposal in Latin ever delivered in 20th century literature.

Favourite character:

Stephen Maturin from the Aubery-Maturin novels of Patrick O’Brian. I love his intelligence and awkwardness, and the way his fascination with natural history can blind him to what else is happening around him. I read through the entire series in the matter of a couple of months some years ago, and suspect he is one of the spiritual Godfathers of my own character, Gabriel Crowther.

Best book read in 2011:

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Bit of a cheat this, because I read it when it first came out, but I did reread it this year when I was preparing for a workshop on historical fiction. Meant to just look for a passage to use for teaching, then couldn’t stop. The way Waters manages to convey the tone of a certain age is remarkable. Reading her is a masterclass in historical writing.

Best crime city:

London. Of course. The way we are all piled on top of each other in this city of secret corners, back alleys and crowds. Sit on a London bus for an hour and you’ll have a story.

Best film adaptation:

No Country for Old Men. The Coen brother’s film of the book by Cormac McCarthy. One of the most frightening but beautiful films I’ve seen in years. I never thought they could match the poetry of McCarthy’s prose, but they do. I still have nightmares about being out on the Mexico border being chased by Javier Bardem

Book that gave you the thriller bug:

I’ve read mystery and crime novels since I could smuggle a flash-light into bed, but as an adult I think it was Nicci French’s The Memory Game. I missed stops on the tube and fell of escalators reading that one.

New/Young author to watch:

I met Diane Janes at an event last year and so bought her first book The Pull of the Moon. I loved it. A brilliant thriller, taught and atmospheric. I’m really looking forward to the next one. ‘Why Don’t You Come for Me?’ which is out in May.

What do you snack on while writing:

Coffee, cigarette, sugared almond. Coffee, cigarette, sugared almond. Repeat till word count is completed.

Who would play you in a film of your life:

On my good days, Emma Thompson. On my bad days Richard E Grant in Withnail mode.

 

My thanks to Imogen and to Helena Towers at Headline for facilitating the interview.

REVIEW: Island of Bones by Imogen Robertson

They are crime fiction's odd couple: the aging anatomist who has his renounced title and estate to pursue a quiet life dedicated to science; and the glamorous and wealthy young naval widow (and landowner) with an inappropriate sense of curiosity and a healthy disregard for the tedious rules of society.

Gabriel Crowther and Harriet Westerman have brought an engaging freshness to the historical crime novel, throwing light into the dark and secretive corners of Georgian England from deepest, rural Sussex (Instruments of Darkness) through conspiratorial London (Anatomy of Murder) and on to feudal, pagan Cumbria in this latest outing, Island of Bones.

As in the previous novels in the series, Island of Bones is notable for the combination of revealing historical detail, inctricate plotting and strong and entertaining characterisation.

Crowther and Harriet, who by now have obtained a degree of notoriety for their macabre investigations are called upon to investigate the discovery of an unexplained body in the tomb of the Earl of Greta, on the Earl's former lands near the town of Keswick. The land, not at all coincidentally, briefly belonged to Crowther who inherited it following the murder of his father (by Crowther's brother), the incident that convinved him to turn his back on his history.

The body turns up clues which hint at long-forgotten mysteries surrounding the original transfer of land to Crowther's father following the disgrace of the Earl of Greta who joined the ill-fated Jacobite rebellion. Crowther cannot resist delving deep into a history of familial malevolence, betrayal, jealousy and murder and with Harriet's impulsive and irresistible assistance his investigation begins to dislodge long-held secrets.

There is a touch of the MIdsomer Murders about Island of Bones - and I mean that in the most complimentary way. There is a truly outstanding supporting cast of utterly eccentric rural characters held in thrall to an extraordinary mix of pagan folklore, old wives tales and marvellous ghost stories.  This is a long way from the contemporary sophistication of Georgian London, and Robertson evokes the dark, local landscape skilfully. Where it diverges from Midsomer Murders is in the strong and compelling story-telling.

Robertson spins her tale brilliantly, playing show and tell with her readers, dropping tantalising hints into the mystery and illusory glimpses of the truth while ratcheting up the tension.

Crowther and Harriet, odd match though they might be, are the perfect leading pair for Robertson's dramas, their contrasting darkness and light, professional and energetic passion merged to just the right effect. These are splendid novels that will win a wide audience.

REVIEW: Lucifer's Tears by James Thompson

Lucifer's Tears is the second in James Thompson's Inspector Kari Vaara series of novels set in Finland, and offers a signficant change of scene from the acclaimed Snow Angels (Material Witness review) as the policeman has moved south to Helsinki from the Arctic Circle.

Although he has swapped the tundra for the city, Thompson continues to explore the themes that made Snow Angels so interesting: the Finns and Finland - both still relatively unknown quantities even to their European neighbours, never mind the rest of the world.

In my review of Snow Angels, I noted that Thompson had shown a degree of bravery in exploring themes that his adopted countrymen can be somewhat defensive about: violence and alcoholism. Both of these are in evidence in Lucifer's Tears, but here he goes even further into controversial, sensitive territory, exploring Finland's role in WWII and in particular its involvement with the Nazis.

Vaara is thrust into this historical minefield when a superior asks him to investigate the possible participation in war-time crimes on Finnish soil of an elderly Finnish war hero whom Germany is asking the government to extradite. Vaara is expected to cover up any incident but when he realises his grandfather might also be implicated in any crime he is compelled to follow through with his investigation, exploring a nation's darkest secrets.

In parallel, the detective also investigates the sexually related murder of the wife of a high profile Russian businessman. Vaara, and his new partner Milo, an abrasive young cop with a high IQ and similarly inflated view of his own talents, quickly recognise an elaborate set-up and focus on the businessman as their prime suspect. This is turn drags them into the political sphere.

As you can probably tell, there's a lot going on in Lucifer's Tears, and that's before you get to Vaara's personal life. He is suffering a debilitating series of headaches that increasingly impinge on his ability to function.  His American wife Kate, who manages Helsinki's top hotel, The Kamp, is pregnant and her siblings, John and Mary, visit from the US, apparently to help Kate after the birth. Thompson uses this device to explore further Finnish society and norms and some of the books most entertaining passages comes as Vaara either explains (or often defends) Finnish culture and norms to his in-laws.

Lucifer's Tears is a fast-paced, almost breathless novel that never lets up. But while the narrative draws together a number of story strands, it never feels too much and Thompson remains firmly in control throughout, skilfully engineering the plot towards its exciting climax.

The Finnish history and social lessons are not obtrusive but will likely not be for everyone. But this is a very interesting and overlooked corner of Europe, one with a remarkable story and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  

But crimes series typically stand or fall on the strength of the lead character, and this is where Thompson wins handsomely. Kari Vaara is complex without being a cliche and sufficiently Finnish to be intriguing. He is also decent, fair-minded and rational - and carries the story.

Thompson is now building a terrific series, and I am already very much looking forward to seeing the promised next installment, True Finns.

 

On the stand: Marcia Clark

A few years back, I used to run a series of small interviews with writers called 10 Questions aimed at just giving a little bit of insight some of the authors reviewed here (and some who are not). For no very good reason it stopped but I've decided to revive it to try and mix the blog up a little and vary the content from the usual reviews. I've renamed it On the Stand, to accommodate those who answer fewer (or indeed more) than the standard 10 questions.

For this relaunch I am delighted to welcome Marcia Clark to the site. Her debut novel, Guilt by Association, has been chosen to launch the new Mulholland Books imprint for Hodder here in the UK in May. Marcia is currently best known for being the lead prosecutor for Los Angeles County in the OJ Simpson murder trial, but the positive reviews being earned by Guilt by Association may be about to change that.

The aim of the Mulholland imprint - which is shared by Hodder with Little, Brown in the US - is to bring the best of US fiction to UK audiences, focusing on suspense, crime, police procedurals, spies and supernatural suspense. It is named after the stretch of road in Los Angeles that has played host to the mysteries of some of American crime fiction's most famous writers including James M Cain, Michael Connelly and James Ellroy.

Marcia Clark

Favourite author: Many of them, here are a few - Raymond Chandler, Robert Parker, James Ellroy, PD James, Ruth Rendell, Sarah Waters, Laura Lippman, David Baldacci, Armistead Maupin

Favourite book: It's impossible to single out just one

Favourite character: Spenser, the private detective in Robert Parker's series

Best book read in 2011: It's too early in the year. Too many books, too little time...

Best crime city: LA - lots of ironic juxtaposition of great wealth and crushing poverty, glamour and grime

Best Film Adaptation: Primal Fear, based on the brilliant book by William Diehl, another of my favourite authors

Book that gave you the thriller bug: The Nancy Drew series, when I was five years old

What do you snack on while writing: Raw almonds and red licorice

Who would play you in a film of your life: I have no idea who'd really play me, but if given the chance to pick, I'd choose Scarlett Johansson (laughing)

My thanks to Marcia Clark for participating and Kerry Hood of Hodder for facilitating. Next up On the Stand, later this week, will be legendary crime writer Sara Paretsky.

10 Questions archive: John Connor, Alex Scarrow, RJ Ellory, Martin Edwards, Peter James, Ed Lynskey, Steve Mosby,  

REVIEW: The Dead by Charlie Higson

Charlie Higson has gone all George Lucas in the second installment of his marvellous young adult zombie series and written a prequel to the hugely entertaining first book, The Enemy.

The Dead takes the action back about 12 months to the days just after the spread of the disease that wipes out the vast majority of the over-14 population and leaves the rest as flesh-eating zombies. The children that are left, who are locked in a gruesome battle for survival, are still suffering the shock of their new circumstances. (By a year later, in The Enemy, the battle for survival is no less difficult, but the children are organised and wearily adjusted to their plight). 

The action starts with a nice modern touch with the description of the viral Scared Kid video that becomes an internet phenomenon as the disease takes its hold: webcasting his terror even as the first zombies are gathering outside his window.  

Not long after we first meet Ed and Jack. They, along with a number of their schoolmates, are holed up in a dormitory in their Kent boarding school fighting a nightly battle against marauding zombie teachers and desperately trying to find a way to survive. Eventually they decide that flight not fight would offer their best chance and they make a break for freedom leading a strange bunch of kids that includes a couple of nerds, a handful of rugby players (useful in a fight) and a group of kids that have found a strange messianic religion while being holed up in the school chapel. The group does not get far and is quickly caught up in an ambush in an out-of-town shopping area.

They are rescued from an annihilation by the arrival of a coach driven by an apparently uninfected adult, Greg, who already has on board another group of child refugees, including an entertaining gaggle of girls who have managed to make it back from a school trip to France. ("France is a dump," says Courtney, one of their number).

With very few options available to them Jack and Ed's gang join Greg's coach trip to London, a destination that pleases Jack in particular, as he has decided he wants to see his Clapham home once more.

There's not much more to say about the plot that wouldn't be a spoiler, but suffice to say the kids end up holed up in the Imperial War Museum fighting a similar battle for survival that the supermarket kids faced in The Enemy.

In addition, Higson begins to peel away some of the layers of mystery surrounding the disease and the hordes of flesh-eating adults threatening the children, as the nerd group decides that understanding the enemy will be a key to beating it. Some of the back story to characters first met in The Enemy is filled in.

He also ventures a little further into the pyschology that grips the kids than he did in the The Enemy, and to an audlt reader - one reading it aloud to an 8-year-old, that made the story all the more interesting.

For the young adult - and indeed 8-year-old - audience, the book has a bit of everything: a fast-moving plot filled with suspense and drama; strong, easily identifiable characters; rip-roaring action scenes; witty dialogue; and even a hint of romance. Despute the nature of much of the story, it is hugely entertaining and I enjoyed it, as did my 8-year-old son.

Once again this is not a book for the faint-hearted. Kids kill and kids die (even the cool, popular and handsome ones), often in fairly gruesome circumstances. But for those with the stomach for the cannibal run, it's a great read.  

REVIEW: The Sentry by Robert Crais

Over a decade or so, Robert Crais has put together one of the finest PI series of the modern era. The collaboration between the author and his lead characters, private eye Elvis Cole and enforcer Joe Pike has produced some memorable novels in a genre in which the vast majority of work is quickly forgettable, even when it's good.

Part of the reason for this is that Crais has a very clear emotional investment in his characters, and that elevates the books above the ordinary. In addition, the two lead characters are highly complementary. Elvis Cole is fast-talking wiseacre, the self-proclaimed "world's greatest detective". He is charismatic, smart and sensitive. Pike, by contrast, is a silent killing machine, deadly and military-trained but with a highly developed sense of loyalty and personality morality that wins friends but would not win over many trial judges.

Until the 2007 novel, The Watchman, the tenth book in this series, Elvis Cole had been the lead in every book. This is the thirteenth book and Pike has now been the lead in three of the last four. In my review of The Watchman I described his elevation from sidekick as "a welcome change of pace in the series". Alas, I now fear he is out-staying that welcome.

Put simply, Elvis Cole is better company. He is more entertaining, garrulous, emotional and volatile. Pike is dour and uncommunicative, to the point he feels pre-programmed and predictable. The series would benefit from the return of Cole to centre stage and Pike to the shadows.

The novel starts as Pike intervenes in the vicious beating of a man in his own restaurant, in an apparent gang attack. As the man's niece arrives to pick up the pieces, Pike finds himself attracted to the woman, one Dru Rayne, and subsequently getting involved in her life and that of her uncle, despite their unwillingness to let him too close. When Dru and her Uncle disappear Pike delves further into the case - with the assistance of Elvis Cole - and discovers that nothing is quite as it seems in their lives. He quickly finds himelf in the midst of a federal narcotics investigation and the increasingly bloody search for a stash of missing cash.

This is a good crime novel - full of enterprising plot twists, and written in Crais's easy engaging style. It is well paced and cleverly plotted, mixing action, intrigue and investigation. But it lacks the charm and grace of earlier books in the series - first rate novels such as LA Requiem, The Last Detective and The Forgotten Man. It lacks the leading man, and I hope to see Elvis Cole back in the saddle soon.