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class="site-main"> <header class="page-header"> <h1 class="page-title">Tag: <span>books</span></h1> </header> <article id="post-6649" class="post-6649 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-books category-reviews tag-book-review tag-books tag-mark-billingham tag-police-procedural tag-reviews"> <header class="entry-header"> <h2 class="entry-title"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2024/07/09/the-last-dance-mark-billingham/" rel="bookmark">The Last Dance – Mark Billingham</a></h2> </header> <div class="entry-content"> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-attachment-id="6650" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/2024/07/09/the-last-dance-mark-billingham/image-47/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-4.png" data-orig-size="283,445" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="image" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-4.png?w=283" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-4.png?w=283" width="283" height="445" src="https://espressococo.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/image-4.png?w=283" alt="" class="wp-image-6650" /></figure> <p></p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> <p>Meet Detective Miller: unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated…</p> <p>A double murder in a seaside hotel sees grieving Detective Miller return to work to solve what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Will this eccentric, offbeat sleuth find answers where more traditional police have found only a puzzle?</p> </blockquote> <p>Reader, I’ve got a confession to make. And for a crime book reader, it’s a biggie.</p> <p>Ready?</p> <p>I’ve not read any of Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne books.</p> <p>There. I said it.</p> <p>I <strong>have</strong> read one of his standalones (Rabbit Hole) and did really enjoy it! But for me it’s one of those things where when it’s a big series, I need to read them all, in order and the tottering TBR pile of books gives me some properly filthy looks when I even <em>broach</em> the subject of starting a series with so many books in it.</p> <p>But now we have a <strong>new</strong> series! Perfect chance to jump in. And The Last Dance was shortlisted for the Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year too!</p> <p>Now, Mark Billingham is no stranger to the Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year shortlist. He won the inaugural award back in 2005 with <strong><em>Lazybones</em></strong>, followed up by a shortlist spot in 2008 with <strong><em>Buried</em></strong>, a second win in 2009 with <strong><em>Death Message</em></strong>, and shortlists in 2010 for <strong><em>In The Dark</em></strong> and 2011 for <strong><em>From The Dead</em></strong>. Taking a year off in 2012 he returned to the shortlist in 2013 with <strong><em>Rush of Blood</em></strong> and 2016 with <strong><em>Time of Death</em></strong>.</p> <p><strong><em>The Last Dance</em></strong> marks his <strong>eighth</strong>(!) appearance on the shortlist, and a new detective, Declan Miller. Can this book make it a hat trick of wins?</p> <p>I absolutely loved this one. Declan Miller is mourning the death of his wife and possibly back on the job too soon. The book has a delightfully dark humour running through it, an intriguing case and in Declan Miller, a fantastic main character. Ably abetted by his new partner DS Sara Xiu, Miller twirls through this case. Billingham is clearly having a lot of fun with this new character, and it absolutely shines off the page. A pure joy (if you can say that about a book where people get bumped off!)</p> <p></p> <p>Roll on book 2 (which is fortunately out now so I don’t need to wait!). Highly recommended.</p> <p><strong><em>The Last Dance</em></strong> by Mark Billingham is published by Sphere and is out in paperback now</p> <div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://espressococo.com/2024/07/09/the-last-dance-mark-billingham/" data-text="The Last Dance - Mark Billingham" data-via="dakegra" data-related="wordpressdotcom">Tweet</a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://espressococo.com/2024/07/09/the-last-dance-mark-billingham/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20The%20Last%20Dance%20-%20Mark%20Billingham&body=https%3A%2F%2Fespressococo.com%2F2024%2F07%2F09%2Fthe-last-dance-mark-billingham%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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Got through 2023, and here’s a fresh new year.</p> <p>Reading-wise, 2023 was pretty good. I read 82 books in total, including a couple on December 31st. I’d originally set my goal at 52 on the basis that a book a week is pretty good for me, then promptly smashed through it sometime in mid-August.</p> <p>January, as you can see, was a cracking month for reading. Helped somewhat by having already started a book on 31st December, then by the way the holidays fell and ultimately by catching Covid and being confined to the sofa, not able to go anywhere or do anything.</p> <figure class="wp-block-table is-style-stripes"><table class="has-fixed-layout"><thead><tr><th>Month</th><th>books read</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>January</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>February</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>March</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>April</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>May</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>June</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>July</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>August</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>September</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>October</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>November</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>December</td><td>6</td></tr></tbody></table><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">books read in 2023</figcaption></figure> <p>Breaking down the numbers, <strong>58% </strong>of the books I read were crime, with only 25% sci-fi or fantasy. Definite shift from previous years! I suspect the crime book numbers were influenced by going to <a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/07/25/theakston-old-peculier-crime-writing-festival-2023/">the Theakson Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate</a> in 2023. I’m very much looking forward to going again in 2024 and not being the newbie this time! </p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img data-attachment-id="6379" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/2024/01/01/resolutions-for-2024/image-31/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image.png" data-orig-size="986,1544" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="image" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image.png?w=319" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image.png?w=654" width="654" height="1024" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image.png?w=654" alt="" class="wp-image-6379" style="width:451px;height:auto" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image.png?w=654 654w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image.png?w=96 96w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image.png?w=319 319w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image.png?w=768 768w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image.png 986w" sizes="(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px" /></figure> <p>My favourite books of the year, <a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/12/19/favourite-books-of-2023-part-1/">part 1</a> and <a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/12/21/favourite-books-of-2023-part-2/">part 2</a></p> <p>I also only read six non-fiction books this year. I’m not sure how many I usually read, but fairly sure it’s more than that. Three cracking books made my <a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/12/22/favourite-books-of-2023-non-fiction-edition/">favourite books of 2023: non-fiction edition</a> list.</p> <p>Also, considering that I call myself a book blogger, I’ve only written 27 blog posts this year, and not all of those were reviews. Ooops.</p> <p>So for 2024 I’ve set my goal at 52 books again. But I also have a couple of aims.</p> <p><strong>Read some big chonky books</strong> that I’ve picked up over the years. You know, the big 500+ page monsters. I’ve been putting those off as they take a while to read, so slow down the OMG MUST HIT MY TARGET.</p> <p><strong>Take my time with a crime book</strong> and see if I can figure out whodunnit. I almost want to break it down chapter by chapter – who have we met? What do we know about them? What clues do we know? Maybe turn this into a series of (spoiler-filled) posts. Pick a classic crime novel and play detective!</p> <p>Have a go at <a href="https://twitter.com/runalongwomble">@runalongwomble</a>‘s <a href="https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2023/12/26/the-2024-booktempters-tbr-challenge"><strong>2024 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge</strong></a>. I love the idea of having different aims for a month and Womble has come up with some great ones here!</p> <p><strong>Read more non-fiction.</strong> I’ve got a bit of a backlog of books building up, so it’d be good to get through some more of them.</p> <p><strong>Review more books! </strong>Really, as a bookblogger this should be taken as read (there’s a pun in there somewhere), but I’m going to try and be better at keeping notes and writing up reviews as I go.</p> <p>On that note, I also want to <strong>catch up with my NetGalley backlog</strong>. I have 47 books on my NetGalley shelf, but somewhat embarrassingly I’ve read half but either not written up a review yet or not posted one up. Ooops. No more NetGalley books until I’ve caught up!</p> <p>Right, that’s more than enough I think.</p> <p>Do you have any bookish aims for 2024? I’d love to hear about them!</p> <ol class="wp-block-list"></ol> <div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://espressococo.com/2024/01/01/resolutions-for-2024/" data-text="Resolutions for 2024" data-via="dakegra" data-related="wordpressdotcom">Tweet</a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://espressococo.com/2024/01/01/resolutions-for-2024/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Resolutions%20for%202024&body=https%3A%2F%2Fespressococo.com%2F2024%2F01%2F01%2Fresolutions-for-2024%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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This year I’ve read more books than ever before, so we’re back to the ‘here are some of my favourites’ list.</p> <p>Kicking off with one I read in 2022 (hey, it’s my list, I can do what I like)</p> <p><strong><em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/06/06/children-of-the-sun-by-beth-lewis/">Children of the Sun</a></em></strong>, by Beth Lewis <em>[Hodder, March 2023]</em></p> <p>One of my all-time favourite authors, Beth Lewis has given us some incredible books. <em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2016/09/01/the-wolf-road-beth-lewis/">The Wolf Road</a></em> is just stunning, and last year’s <a href="https://espressococo.com/2021/10/04/the-origins-of-iris-beth-lewis/">The Origins of Iris</a> was wonderful. Dark, raw and startlingly original, it will linger long in the memory after you turn the last page. It took me a while to recover myself after reading. <strong><em>Children of the Sun</em></strong> is an incredible book about cults and family and belief and loss. Lewis’s writing is, as ever, just beautiful. Hugely recommended.</p> <p>Moving onto 2023, we started the year with</p> <p><strong><em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/03/14/end-of-story-by-louise-swanson/">End of Story</a></em></strong>, by Louise Swanson <em>[Hodder, March 2023]</em></p> <p>Oh, this book is <em>amazing</em>. Loved Louise’s earlier books (writing as Louise Beech), this is her first foray into a dystopian sci-fi. 2035 and fiction has been banned. Writing novels is a crime. Reading stories to children is punishable by law. The writing is beautiful, the setting is horrific, and it finishes with an ending that’ll leave you stunned. Hugely recommended.</p> <p><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/03/14/needless-alley-by-natalie-marlow/"><strong><em>Needless Alley</em></strong>, by Natalie Marlow</a> <em>[Baskerville, January 2023</em>]</p> <p>From a dystopian future to Birmingham, 1933. William Garret, private enquiry agent, specialises in helping men with divorces, but it all goes awry when he meets the beautiful Clara, the wife of one of his clients. Gloriously gritty Brummie Noir. A hugely impressive debut, and one which I highly recommend.</p> <p><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/07/12/the-devil-takes-you-home-gabino-iglesias/"><strong><em>The Devil Takes You Home</em></strong> </a>– Gabino Iglesias <em>[Mulholland, 2022]</em></p> <p>Utterly stunning. A father takes a job as a hitman to save his daughter and goes on a journey into darkness. Dark and bleak, but breathtakingly good. Not for the faint-hearted, but when I finished it, I knew that it would be top of my books of the year list, and I was only eight days into the year. It’s THAT good. If you read one from this list, read this one.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/07/12/games-for-dead-girls-jen-williams/">Games for Dead Girls</a></em></strong> – Jen Williams <em>[HarperVoyager, March 2023]</em></p> <p>Huuuge fan of Jen Williams’ books, so very excited to get my hands on an ebook proof of Games for Dead Girls. Played out over dual timelines, a macabre game in the past turned into tragedy, whilst present-day Charlotte returns to the caravan park to research local folklore and uncover the secrets of what went on all those years ago. Stitch-faced Sue is a fantastically spooky creation that will linger long after you’ve finished. Just hope she doesn’t come for you…</p> <p><strong><em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/05/19/grave-danger-alice-james/">Grave Danger</a>/Grave Suspicions</em></strong> – Alice James <em>[Solaris, 2023]</em></p> <p>Murder and mayhem with everyone’s favourite estate agent by day, necromancer by night, Lavington ‘Toni’ Windsor. These books are funny, dark, gory, a love story with a side order of whodunnit. What more could you want? Hugely recommended, if you hadn’t guessed.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/07/11/all-of-us-are-broken-fiona-cummins/">All Of Us Are Broken</a></em></strong> – Fiona Cummins <em>[Macmillan, July 2023]</em></p> <p>The short version is simply this: Go buy a copy. Brace yourself, for you are not ready for what is about to unfold. Read it, take a deep breath, then tell all of your friends. Quite simply, it’s her best book yet. And those other books, my friends, are really bloody good.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/04/17/beautiful-shining-people-by-michael-grothaus/">Beautiful Shining People</a></em></strong> – Michael Grothaus <em>[Orenda Books, April 2023]</em></p> <p><strong><em>Beautiful Shining People</em></strong> is a book that just wraps itself around you and refuses to let go. Part love story, albeit an unusual one, meshed in literary science fiction. Like the title, this story is beautiful, the characters shine and you watch entranced as they come together, each with their own secrets and past, each trying to figure out where and how they fit in this strange new world. It’s a world of superpowers battling with deepfakes and AIs rather than conventional weapons. Of quantum computing and how it’ll change our society. Of Big Corporations and whether they’re good or bad. And how humanity is dealing with all of this.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/07/12/blacktop-wasteland-s-a-cosby/">Blacktop Wasteland</a></em></strong> – S.A. Cosby <em>[Headline, 2020]</em></p> <p>It’s an exploration of character and family, but also of place, with the sweltering heat of rural Virgina oozing off the page. It’s also very gritty and graphic in places, and the story moves as fast as Bug’s superior driving skills. Combining heart in your mouth action scenes with heart-rending, moving moments with Bug’s family, Blacktop Wasteland is brilliant. Short and perfect, and a book I <em>will</em> pester you to read. This is me pestering you to read it.</p> <p><strong><em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/07/12/the-associate-victoria-goldman/">The Associate</a></em></strong> – Victoria Goldman <em>[Three Crowns Publishing, September 2023]</em></p> <p>Goldman has followed up her excellent debut with another great installment of the Shanna Regan mysteries. Long may the series continue. As with book 1, <em>The Redeemer</em>, there’s a strong theme exploring Jewish identity and life here, and it’s fascinating to see this side of the community. Not something I’m familiar with, and not something I’ve seen much of in crime fiction. It’s interwoven throughout the novel, and I really enjoyed the twists and turns that Goldman throws into the narrative. </p> <p><strong><em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/07/12/the-only-truly-dead-rob-parker/">The Only Truly Dead</a></em></strong> – Rob Parker <em>[Audible, 2023]</em></p> <p>The first two books in Rob Parker’s superb Thirty Miles trilogy were (and indeed are) superb. Book three just cranks the dials hard over to eleven and beyond. Proper edge of your seat stuff, the stakes have been raised and no-one is safe. </p> <p>I really can’t recommend this book highly enough. Warren Brown (DI Ripley from Luther) is back for a third turn at narration duties and elevates what is already a superb story to stratospheric heights. The first book accompanied me on dog walks, the second on the college drop off and pickup, but book three was with me in every spare minute I had. Utterly brilliant, hugely recommended.</p> <p><strong><em>All The Little Liars</em></strong> – Victoria Selman</p> <p>Deliciously dark tale of secrets and lies, toxic relationships. A young girl goes missing from a party by a lake. But did her friends kill her? Told across two timelines, this is Selman on fine form. Absolute edge-of-your-seat stuff!</p> <p>Nice round dozen to get you started! Stay tuned for part 2…</p> <div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://espressococo.com/2023/12/19/favourite-books-of-2023-part-1/" data-text="Favourite books of 2023: part 1" data-via="dakegra" data-related="wordpressdotcom">Tweet</a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://espressococo.com/2023/12/19/favourite-books-of-2023-part-1/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Favourite%20books%20of%202023%3A%20part%201&body=https%3A%2F%2Fespressococo.com%2F2023%2F12%2F19%2Ffavourite-books-of-2023-part-1%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=196&d=identicon&r=G 4x' class='avatar avatar-49' height='49' width='49' loading='lazy' decoding='async' /><span class="screen-reader-text">Author </span> <a class="url fn n" href="https://espressococo.com/author/dakegra/">dave</a></span></span><span class="posted-on"><span class="screen-reader-text">Posted on </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/12/19/favourite-books-of-2023-part-1/" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date published updated" datetime="2023-12-19T23:58:56+00:00">December 19, 2023</time></a></span><span class="cat-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Categories </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/category/books/" rel="category tag">books</a></span><span class="tags-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Tags </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/book-reviews/" rel="tag">Book Reviews</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/book-review/" rel="tag">book-review</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/books/" rel="tag">books</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/fiction/" rel="tag">fiction</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/reading/" rel="tag">reading</a></span><span class="comments-link"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2023/12/19/favourite-books-of-2023-part-1/#comments">2 Comments<span class="screen-reader-text"> on Favourite books of 2023: part 1</span></a></span> </footer> </article> <article id="post-5309" class="post-5309 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-books category-reviews tag-audiobook tag-books tag-review"> <header class="entry-header"> <h2 class="entry-title"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2021/03/18/far-from-the-tree-rob-parker/" rel="bookmark">Far From The Tree – Rob Parker</a></h2> </header> <div class="entry-content"> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1593686075l/54360805._SX318_.jpg" alt="54360805. sx318 " /></figure> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>Brendan Foley has worked to balance the responsibilities of a demanding job and a troublesome family. He’s managed to keep these two worlds separate, until the discovery of a mass grave sends them into a headlong collision. When one of the dead turns out to be a familiar face, he’s taken off the case. </p><p>Iona Madison keeps everything under control. She works hard as a detective sergeant and trains harder as a boxer. But when her superior, DI Foley, is removed from the case, her certainties are tested like never before. </p><p>With stories of the Warrington 27 plastered over the news, they set out to solve the crime before anyone else. The local constabulary is small and under-funded – Brendan knows they can’t crack this case alone, and he’s not letting a rival force take over. Not with the secrets he fears are lurking. Their investigations lead them into the murky underworlds of Manchester and Liverpool, where one more murder means little to drug-dealing gangs, desperate to control their power bases. </p><p>But as Madison steps into the ring for the fight of her life, the criminals come to them. It’s no coincidence that the corpses have been buried in Foley’s hometown. The question is, why? Foley might not like the answer…</p></blockquote> <p>Browsing through the titles on Audible a while back I discovered Far From The Tree, an ‘Audible Original’. I’ve only read one other of Rob Parker’s books (the brilliant <a href="https://espressococo.com/2020/11/27/a-wanted-man-rob-parker/">A Wanted Man</a>) so jumped at the chance to have a listen to this.</p> <p>Twenty seven bodies are found in an unmarked grave. Is this the work of a serial killer? DI Brendan Foley is on the case. Then it turns out that one of the dead is someone close to home, and what was initially ‘just’ a murder enquiry turns into something a <em>lot</em> more personal.</p> <p>It’s a great story, and I loved the interplay between Foley and DS Madison as they work to uncover exactly what has been going on. There’s a real grittiness to the story, which feels worryingly plausible. It’s also not one for the faint-hearted, with some seriously visceral scenes of violence. It’s a story of family, of the hard men who run the streets and what they’ll do to keep control.</p> <p>I love a good crime story, and this one is absolutely top notch. It’s got a real sense of place, which regular readers of this blog will know is something I really look for in a book. Parker is clearly at home here, and you can tell it’s his patch.</p> <p>With audiobooks, the narration can be the make or break for me. Fortunately <em>Far From The Tree</em> is superbly narrated by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1546206/">Warren Brown</a> (DS Ripley from Luther), I loved every minute of the near nine hour runtime. I’d plug my headphones in whilst walking the dogs, and must admit to going just once more around the block to get another chapter in. The dogs didn’t seem to mind!</p> <p><em><strong>Far From The Tree</strong></em> by Rob Parker, read by Warren Brown, is available exclusively on <a href="https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Far-from-the-Tree-Audiobook/B089DCHVJ9">Audible</a>.</p> <div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://espressococo.com/2021/03/18/far-from-the-tree-rob-parker/" data-text="Far From The Tree - Rob Parker" data-via="dakegra" data-related="wordpressdotcom">Tweet</a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://espressococo.com/2021/03/18/far-from-the-tree-rob-parker/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Far%20From%20The%20Tree%20-%20Rob%20Parker&body=https%3A%2F%2Fespressococo.com%2F2021%2F03%2F18%2Ffar-from-the-tree-rob-parker%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=196&d=identicon&r=G 4x' class='avatar avatar-49' height='49' width='49' loading='lazy' decoding='async' /><span class="screen-reader-text">Author </span> <a class="url fn n" href="https://espressococo.com/author/dakegra/">dave</a></span></span><span class="posted-on"><span class="screen-reader-text">Posted on </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/2021/03/18/far-from-the-tree-rob-parker/" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date published updated" datetime="2021-03-18T21:23:18+00:00">March 18, 2021</time></a></span><span class="cat-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Categories </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/category/books/" rel="category tag">books</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/category/reviews/" rel="category tag">reviews</a></span><span class="tags-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Tags </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/audiobook/" rel="tag">audiobook</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/books/" rel="tag">books</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/review/" rel="tag">review</a></span><span class="comments-link"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2021/03/18/far-from-the-tree-rob-parker/#comments">8 Comments<span class="screen-reader-text"> on Far From The Tree – Rob Parker</span></a></span> </footer> </article> <article id="post-5009" class="post-5009 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-books category-reviews tag-books tag-orbit-books tag-reviews"> <header class="entry-header"> <h2 class="entry-title"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2020/09/14/the-trials-of-koli-m-r-carey/" rel="bookmark">The Trials of Koli – M.R. Carey</a></h2> </header> <div class="entry-content"> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582815001l/51829857._SY475_.jpg" alt="51829857. sy475 " /></figure> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>Beyond the walls of Koli’s small village lies a fearsome landscape filled with choker trees, vicious beasts and shunned men. As an exile, Koli’s been forced to journey out into this mysterious, hostile world. </p><p>But he heard a story, once. A story about lost London, and the mysterious tech of the Old Times that may still be there. If Koli can find it, there may still be a way for him to redeem himself – by saving what’s left of humankind. </p></blockquote> <p>So, here we have book 2 of M. R. Carey’s Ramparts trilogy. Following hot on the heels of book 1 – <em><a href="https://espressococo.com/2020/04/27/the-book-of-koli-m-r-carey/">The Book of Koli</a></em> – we find our hero out in the wide world.</p> <p>And what a world it is. I love a good post-apocalyptic dystopia, and as I’ve said many a time before, Carey is particularly good at them. He’s also built a wonderfully rich world in this Ramparts trilogy, albeit probably not one I’d relish spending much time in!</p> <p>It probably goes without saying that this being the second book in a trilogy means this is not a good place to start. But of course, you’ve read the first book, haven’t you? </p> <p><em>(if not, why not, and get thyself to a bookstore, pronto. Read the first book then I’ll see you back here when you’re done)</em></p> <p>Good, so you’ve read the first. And therefore you’ll need little encouragement to pick up this next installment. Koli is a wonderful character to spend a little more time with, and this time around his adventures are bigger, bolder, and an order of magnitude more perilous. But we also get to spend more time in the company of Spinner back at Mythen Rood, and find out a little (well, a lot) more about the Ramparts…</p> <p>Utterly splendid. Book 1 was great, book 2 is even better, and I really cannot wait until book 3!</p> <p><em><strong>The Trials of Koli </strong></em>by M. R. Carey is published by Orbit and is out now. Many thanks to Nazia Khatun at Orbit for the advance copy of the book to review, and to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour.\</p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-attachment-id="5014" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/image-3/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image.png" data-orig-size="1000,1000" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="image" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image.png?w=500" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image.png?w=840" width="1000" height="1000" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image.png?w=1000" alt="" class="wp-image-5014" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image.png 1000w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image.png?w=150 150w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image.png?w=500 500w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image.png?w=768 768w" sizes="(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px" /></figure> <div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://espressococo.com/2020/09/14/the-trials-of-koli-m-r-carey/" data-text="The Trials of Koli - M.R. 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https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=98&d=identicon&r=G 2x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=147&d=identicon&r=G 3x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=196&d=identicon&r=G 4x' class='avatar avatar-49' height='49' width='49' loading='lazy' decoding='async' /><span class="screen-reader-text">Author </span> <a class="url fn n" href="https://espressococo.com/author/dakegra/">dave</a></span></span><span class="posted-on"><span class="screen-reader-text">Posted on </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/2020/09/14/the-trials-of-koli-m-r-carey/" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2020-09-14T08:00:00+01:00">September 14, 2020</time><time class="updated" datetime="2020-09-13T21:57:58+01:00">September 13, 2020</time></a></span><span class="cat-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Categories </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/category/books/" rel="category tag">books</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/category/reviews/" rel="category tag">reviews</a></span><span class="tags-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Tags </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/books/" rel="tag">books</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/orbit-books/" rel="tag">Orbit Books</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/reviews/" rel="tag">reviews</a></span><span class="comments-link"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2020/09/14/the-trials-of-koli-m-r-carey/#comments">3 Comments<span class="screen-reader-text"> on The Trials of Koli – M.R. Carey</span></a></span> </footer> </article> <article id="post-4482" class="post-4482 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-books category-reviews tag-books tag-orenda-books tag-reviews"> <header class="entry-header"> <h2 class="entry-title"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2019/05/05/turbulent-wake-paul-e-hardisty/" rel="bookmark">Turbulent Wake – Paul E. Hardisty</a></h2> </header> <div class="entry-content"> <figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img data-attachment-id="4488" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/final-turbulent-wake-cover/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/final-turbulent-wake-cover-.jpeg" data-orig-size="1525,2343" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="final-turbulent-wake-cover-" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/final-turbulent-wake-cover-.jpeg?w=325" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/final-turbulent-wake-cover-.jpeg?w=666" loading="lazy" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/final-turbulent-wake-cover-.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-4488" width="424" height="651" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/final-turbulent-wake-cover-.jpeg?w=424&h=651 424w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/final-turbulent-wake-cover-.jpeg?w=848&h=1302 848w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/final-turbulent-wake-cover-.jpeg?w=98&h=150 98w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/final-turbulent-wake-cover-.jpeg?w=325&h=500 325w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/final-turbulent-wake-cover-.jpeg?w=768&h=1180 768w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/final-turbulent-wake-cover-.jpeg?w=666&h=1024 666w" sizes="(max-width: 424px) 85vw, 424px" /></figure> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p> Ethan Scofield returns to the place of his birth to bury his father. Hidden in one of the upstairs rooms of the old man’s house he finds a strange manuscript, a collection of stories that seems to cover the whole of his father’s turbulent life.<br>As his own life starts to unravel, Ethan works his way through the manuscript, trying to find answers to the mysteries that have plagued him since he was a child. What happened to his little brother? Why was his mother taken from him? And why, in the end, when there was no one else left, did his own father push him away?<br>Swinging from the coral cays of the Caribbean to the dangerous deserts of Yemen and the wild rivers of Africa, <em>Turbulent Wake</em> is a bewitching, powerful and deeply moving story of love and loss … of the indelible damage we do to those closest to us and, ultimately, of the power of redemption in a time of change. </p></blockquote> <p>When I was asked if I wanted to take part in the blog tour for Paul E. Hardisty’s latest book, I was told that it was something a little different from his <a href="https://espressococo.com/2018/07/04/strakers-journey-paul-hardisty/">Claymore Straker</a> series. I was intrigued.</p> <p><em>Turbulent Wake</em> tells the story of a young man who discovers a manuscript in his recently deceased father’s estate. The manuscript appears to be a collection of short stories which turn out to cover his father’s life, but which turn out to be rather more than they appear.</p> <p>I was absorbed by the structure of these stories within a larger story – each a facet of his father’s life, each providing a glimpse into the past and uncovering some uncomfortable secrets. Hardisty has shown that he’s a deft hand at the thriller in his Straker books, but the writing on display here is on another level. Fascinating to see how a young man’s life builds from a series of vignettes, played off against his son’s own story in the present day. </p> <p>Some of the early stories are deeply uncomfortable, revealing a hidden traumatic childhood which is as hard for the reader as they are for the son. I think this is what I found the most interesting thing about the book – we’re reading about a son reading about his father, from his father’s own point of view, and discovering things about his father’s history as the son does. Seeing how our own reactions compare with the son’s as he finds out so much that he didn’t know about his father’s (and indeed his family’s) life is an unusual experience, but one which works well.</p> <p>Already a fan of Hardisty’s books, Turbulent Wake has put him firmly onto the “can’t wait to see what he comes up with next” list. </p> <p>Recommended.</p> <p>Turbulent Wake by Paul E. Hardisty is published by Orenda Books and is out now. Many thanks as ever to Anne Cater and Karen Sullivan from Orenda Books for inviting me to take part in the blog tour.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-attachment-id="4489" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/turbulent-blog-poster-2019/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/turbulent-blog-poster-2019.jpg" data-orig-size="2480,3508" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="turbulent-blog-poster-2019" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/turbulent-blog-poster-2019.jpg?w=353" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/turbulent-blog-poster-2019.jpg?w=724" loading="lazy" width="2480" height="3508" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/turbulent-blog-poster-2019.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4489" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/turbulent-blog-poster-2019.jpg 2480w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/turbulent-blog-poster-2019.jpg?w=106&h=150 106w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/turbulent-blog-poster-2019.jpg?w=353&h=500 353w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/turbulent-blog-poster-2019.jpg?w=768&h=1086 768w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/turbulent-blog-poster-2019.jpg?w=724&h=1024 724w" sizes="(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px" /></figure> <div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://espressococo.com/2019/05/05/turbulent-wake-paul-e-hardisty/" data-text="Turbulent Wake - Paul E. 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https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=98&d=identicon&r=G 2x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=147&d=identicon&r=G 3x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=196&d=identicon&r=G 4x' class='avatar avatar-49' height='49' width='49' loading='lazy' decoding='async' /><span class="screen-reader-text">Author </span> <a class="url fn n" href="https://espressococo.com/author/dakegra/">dave</a></span></span><span class="posted-on"><span class="screen-reader-text">Posted on </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/2019/05/05/turbulent-wake-paul-e-hardisty/" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date published updated" datetime="2019-05-05T10:06:59+01:00">May 5, 2019</time></a></span><span class="cat-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Categories </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/category/books/" rel="category tag">books</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/category/reviews/" rel="category tag">reviews</a></span><span class="tags-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Tags </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/books/" rel="tag">books</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/orenda-books/" rel="tag">Orenda Books</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/reviews/" rel="tag">reviews</a></span><span class="comments-link"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2019/05/05/turbulent-wake-paul-e-hardisty/#comments">1 Comment<span class="screen-reader-text"> on Turbulent Wake – Paul E. Hardisty</span></a></span> </footer> </article> <article id="post-4459" class="post-4459 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-book-extracts category-books tag-books tag-extracts"> <header class="entry-header"> <h2 class="entry-title"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/27/under-the-rock-ben-myers/" rel="bookmark">Under The Rock – Ben Myers</a></h2> </header> <div class="entry-content"> <figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img data-attachment-id="4470" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/utr-pb-cover-indd/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg" data-orig-size="1521,2338" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"UTR pb cover.indd","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Under the Rock – Benjamin Myers" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=325" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=666" loading="lazy" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4470" width="263" height="404" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=263&h=404 263w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=526&h=808 526w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=98&h=150 98w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=325&h=500 325w" sizes="(max-width: 263px) 85vw, 263px" /></figure> <p>Today I’m joining the blog tour for Benjamin Myers’ <em>Under the Rock: Stories Carved From The Land</em>, which is published by Elliott & Thompson in paperback now. </p> <p>I’ve got an extract from part one for you today, and more about the book later.</p> <p><strong>An Extract from Part 1 – Wood  </strong></p> <p>Already Mytholmroyd, only a half-mile away, feels long behind me as I walk deeper into the woods and The Rock towers like something that has been forced from the earth by its fiery inner workings.<br></p> <p>The outside world is entirely obscured from view as I mount a wooded hillock, pulling myself up in places by using the smooth girth of silver birches. Altitude comes quickly when you are young and fearless and don’t look back, and The Rock rises taller still.<br></p> <p>A squirrel sniffs the air. Twitching, it shakes the leanest boughs, makes a break from a branch and then, with limbs splayed, takes a bold leap onto the limitless ladders of the sky. <br></p> <p>Above, crows circle, calling a warning to all the creatures of The Rock: the first human presence in a long time. These creatures have policed this place throughout the ages. The descendants of the same crows that chuntered through Ted Hughes’s childhood sleep patterns continue to rule The Rock today. They always commanded top billing in Hughes’s ‘Crow’ cycle of poems: ‘There is a doorway in the wall – / A black doorway: The eye’s pupil / Through that doorway came Crow.’ As intrinsic and immovable as the ravens of the Tower of London, they preside from their vertical-dropped outcrop before fulminating like black confetti flung at a doomed marriage or a funeral for a forest.<br></p> <p>The bluebells of April and May are still in evidence, but are flattened down now, wilted and spent, their thin stalks forming a crunchy carpet and their brilliant violet tepals faded in colour, curled into decay. Bracken fronds that smell of childhood have unfolded everywhere. With stealth their branches reach for the sun just as their roots bury quickly into the soil. Fossilised evidence of this pernicious fern, held fast in compacted sediment, has been dated back 55 million years, making it one of the species most adaptable to climate change. I push my way through them and the resistance they offer is like wading through water.<br></p> <p>There is an overpowering sense of stillness.<br></p> <p>With the throb of blood in my ears I reach the top of the knoll. Here I catch my breath and discover a small circle of stones, perhaps eight or nine feet across, arranged as if to form a fireplace or perhaps the base of a chimney used for some other industrial purpose. Looking down behind me through columns of trees and the tide of bracken to the wooded plateau below, I sit and eat an apple. <br></p> <p>The stone wall of crows above watches on, hard at my back.<br></p> <p>And so an obsession begins.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator" /> <p><em>Under The Rock </em>by Benjamin Myers is published by <a href="http://eandtbooks.com/">Elliott & Thompson</a> and is out now in paperback. Many thanks to Alison Menzies and <br><a href="https://twitter.com/eandtbooks">@eandtbooks</a> for a copy of the book to review. The blog tour continues tomorrow.</p> <figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img data-attachment-id="4470" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/utr-pb-cover-indd/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg" data-orig-size="1521,2338" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"UTR pb cover.indd","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Under the Rock – Benjamin Myers" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=325" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=666" loading="lazy" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=666" alt="" class="wp-image-4470" width="331" height="508" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=331 331w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=662 662w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=98 98w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/utr-pb-cover.jpg?w=325 325w" sizes="(max-width: 331px) 85vw, 331px" /></figure> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p> In Under the Rock, Benjamin Myers, the novelist perhaps best known for The Gallows Pole, winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2018, returns to the rugged landscape of the Calder Valley in a bold and original exploration of nature and literature. The focus of his attention is Scout Rock, a steep crag overlooking Mytholmroyd, where the poet Ted Hughes grew up. In solitude, Ben Myers has been exploring this wooded ten acre site for over a decade and his Field Notes, scribbled in situ are threaded between sections entitled Wood, Earth, Water and Rock. Taking the form of poetry, these Field Notes are “lines and lists lifted from the landscape, narrative screen-grabs of a microcosmic world that are correspondent to places or themes explored elsewhere, or fleeting flash-thoughts divined through the process of movement”. </p></blockquote> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-attachment-id="4471" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/utr-blog-tour-poster-indd/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/under-the-rock-blog-tour-pic.jpg" data-orig-size="592,842" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"UTR blog tour poster.indd","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="UTR blog tour poster.indd" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/under-the-rock-blog-tour-pic.jpg?w=352" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/under-the-rock-blog-tour-pic.jpg?w=592" loading="lazy" width="592" height="842" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/under-the-rock-blog-tour-pic.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4471" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/under-the-rock-blog-tour-pic.jpg 592w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/under-the-rock-blog-tour-pic.jpg?w=105&h=150 105w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/under-the-rock-blog-tour-pic.jpg?w=352&h=500 352w" sizes="(max-width: 592px) 85vw, 592px" /></figure> <p><br></p> <div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/27/under-the-rock-ben-myers/" data-text="Under The Rock - Ben Myers" data-via="dakegra" data-related="wordpressdotcom">Tweet</a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/27/under-the-rock-ben-myers/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Under%20The%20Rock%20-%20Ben%20Myers&body=https%3A%2F%2Fespressococo.com%2F2019%2F04%2F27%2Funder-the-rock-ben-myers%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class='loading'>Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div></div> </div> <footer class="entry-footer"> <span class="byline"><span class="author vcard"><img alt='' src='https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=49&d=identicon&r=G' srcset='https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=49&d=identicon&r=G 1x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=74&d=identicon&r=G 1.5x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=98&d=identicon&r=G 2x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=147&d=identicon&r=G 3x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=196&d=identicon&r=G 4x' class='avatar avatar-49' height='49' width='49' loading='lazy' decoding='async' /><span class="screen-reader-text">Author </span> <a class="url fn n" href="https://espressococo.com/author/dakegra/">dave</a></span></span><span class="posted-on"><span class="screen-reader-text">Posted on </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/27/under-the-rock-ben-myers/" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2019-04-27T07:00:58+01:00">April 27, 2019</time><time class="updated" datetime="2019-04-25T22:11:05+01:00">April 25, 2019</time></a></span><span class="cat-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Categories </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/category/books/book-extracts/" rel="category tag">book extracts</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/category/books/" rel="category tag">books</a></span><span class="tags-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Tags </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/books/" rel="tag">books</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/tag/extracts/" rel="tag">extracts</a></span><span class="comments-link"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/27/under-the-rock-ben-myers/#respond">Leave a comment<span class="screen-reader-text"> on Under The Rock – Ben Myers</span></a></span> </footer> </article> <article id="post-4462" class="post-4462 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-books category-guest-posts tag-books tag-guest-posts"> <header class="entry-header"> <h2 class="entry-title"><a href="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/24/guest-post-the-innocent-ones-neil-white/" rel="bookmark">Guest post: The Innocent Ones – Neil White</a></h2> </header> <div class="entry-content"> <figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img data-attachment-id="4463" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/the-innocent-ones-neil-white/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg" data-orig-size="311,475" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="the-innocent-ones-neil-white" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg?w=311" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg?w=311" loading="lazy" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4463" width="191" height="292" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg?w=191&h=292 191w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg?w=98&h=150 98w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg 311w" sizes="(max-width: 191px) 85vw, 191px" /></figure> <p>Delighted to welcome Neil White, author of The Innocent Ones, to the blog today for a guest post. It’s not Neil’s first time here, as he’s already had a chat with us about <a href="https://espressococo.com/2015/07/22/the-domino-killer-neil-white/">plotting his novels</a> and <a href="https://espressococo.com/2017/03/09/from-the-shadows-a-guest-post-by-neil-white/">setting up a new series</a>. So I was intrigued to see what he’d come up with this time around for his new book. More about that new book later (it sounds fantastic), but this time Neil is here to talk about influences. They’re hard to define…</p> <p>Without, as they say, further ado, over to Mr White.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator" /> <p>Influences are hard to define, because our whole life influences us, those small things along the way, like the people we meet and the places we visit. For a writer, it’s more about looking at what impressed me along the way and made me want to emulate it.</p> <p>Books are the first thing to consider, because to be a writer, you have to be a reader first.</p> <p>As a child, I followed the well-worn path of Enid Blyton, and I longed to visit islands where weird uncles forbade me from going in secret tunnels. As a young kid on a Wakefield council estate, this was never going to happen, but perhaps that was why I was a dreamer. In Enid Blyton, I read about lives and places I could only imagine, so my imagination was fed and took me away on different adventures.</p> <p>The Three Investigator Series from Alfred Hitchcock was another big favourite, and I remember reading it in bed and feeling that delicious thrill of terror, where I was scared to turn the page but knew that I had to. From then, that was what I sought in books, that churn of the stomach, the tightness of the chest, and it took me to horror for a while. Stephen King was in his pomp when I was a young teenager and I lapped those up. And James Herbert. And Peter Straub.</p> <p>My father was a big science fiction fan but I could never quite get it. I did read all the Doctor Who novels, and in fact loved them more than the television versions. You don’t get wobbly sets and naff costumes in the novels. Instead, you got the vision of the storyteller but unhindered by costume and set budgets. Once I decided I wanted to be a writer though, it was always going to be crime.</p> <p>I was thirty when I decided, having just qualified as a solicitor (I went to university late – that’s a whole other story) and I needed a new challenge. I’d ditched horror by this stage, after finding myself rarely scared anymore, but crime never failed to intrigue me. I’d even chosen crime as my preferred field in my legal career. Perhaps it was those Petrocelli episodes back when I was a child (if you don’t know it, Google it).</p> <p>My throwaway line has always been that I became a writer because I never learned to play the guitar. Perhaps there is some truth in that. One big draw for me in my musical preferences was the quality of the lyrics. From the age of around fifteen, books took a backseat to music, but I was always drawn to some well-spun words, particularly when they tell a story.</p> <p>I grew up surrounded by Johnny Cash, my father’s obsession, and his songs were always small stories set to music, and often about criminal justice, in a loose sense. Prison songs, gunfighter ballads, tales of murder and revenge. When I think back through my favourite artists, lyrics have always been at the forefront.</p> <p>Paul Weller, back in his Jam days, was my first big love. I was only seventeen when The Jam disbanded, but I managed to see them twice, and in the years that followed I would spend many happy hours talking about his lyrics or reading the album sleeves. Going Underground is just about perfect lyrically, summing up that feeling you get when the world around you seems insane. Town Called Malice is a perfect little tableau of small-town life in Thatcherite Britain.</p> <p>The Style Council occupied my devotion for the next few years, and I was always straight to the record shop to buy the new single on twelve-inch and pour over the musings of the Cappuccino Kid.</p> <p>The quality waned though and my next loves were The Smiths and The Pogues, both lyrically-fantastic. Shane McGowan is one of the best lyricists the UK music scene has produced, even through his boozy haze, and Morrissey one of the most unique and poetic.</p> <p>One of my favourites though is Paul Heaton. I’ve followed him through all his versions, from The Housemartins to the Beautiful South and then into his solo career, and I don’t think anyone can touch him for lyrics. Sharp, often witty, he just nails it for me.</p> <p>The reason I’m talking about music rather than writers is because I think prose isn’t about words or descriptions, but about rhythm. The words have got to bounce and roll, with no missed beats or bad notes. The reading should be effortless, and it’s the rhythm that drives it.</p> <p>That isn’t to say that writers haven’t influenced me. I was trying to write when Lee Child’s first book, Killing Floor, came out (and if we’re going back to music, it’s also the title of a Howling Wolf song). When I read it, I realised that I wanted to write like that, where the pages just turn themselves.</p> <p>In terms of style, however, my main influence was W.P. Kinsella. Many of you might not know of him, but he wrote many whimsical tales set around Iowa and similar areas, often with a baseball background. His most famous book is Shoeless Joe, which was made into the film Field of Dreams, with Kevin Costner and Ray Liotta.</p> <p>What I loved about his writing style was that it took the reader straight to the porch of an Iowa farm, corn blowing in the breeze, and there was a real poetry to his writing. It was his style that was the first that I tried to mimic, and again it was about the rhythm. To give an example of how I tried to emulate it, here first is a paragraph from Shoeless Joe:</p> <p>“Two years ago at dusk on a spring evening, when the sky was a robin’s-egg blue and the wind as soft as a day-old chick, as I was sitting on the verandah of my farm home in Eastern Iowa, a voice very clearly said to me, “If you build it, they will come.””</p> <p>This is a paragraph from my second novel, Lost Souls:</p> <p>“She was standing by an open-plan lawn in a neat suburban cul-de-sac, with the hills of the West Pennine Moors as a backdrop, painted silver as the rising sun caught the dew-coated grass, just the snap of the crime-scene tape to break her concentration.”</p> <p>The rhythms are similar.</p> <p>In terms of influences, there have been many, but the biggest one in terms of finding my style was W.P. Kinsella.<br></p> <hr class="wp-block-separator" /> <p>Thanks Neil, fascinating stuff! </p> <p><em>The Innocent Ones</em>, by Neil White is published by <a href="https://www.twitter.com/HeraBooks">Hera Books</a> on 24th April 2019. You can find Neil on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NeilWhite1965">@NeilWhite1965</a>. The blog tour continues tomorrow!</p> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-attachment-id="4463" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/the-innocent-ones-neil-white/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg" data-orig-size="311,475" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="the-innocent-ones-neil-white" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg?w=311" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg?w=311" loading="lazy" width="311" height="475" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4463" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg 311w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-innocent-ones-neil-white.jpg?w=98&h=150 98w" sizes="(max-width: 311px) 85vw, 311px" /></figure> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p> By day, the park rings with the sound of children’s excited laughter. But in the early hours of the morning, the isolated playground is cloaked in shadows – the perfect hiding place to conceal a brutal murder. <br><br>When London journalist, <strong>Mark Roberts</strong>, is found battered to death, the police quickly arrest petty thief, <strong>Nick Connor</strong>. Criminal defence lawyer, <strong>Dan Grant</strong>, along with investigator <strong>Jayne Brett</strong>, are called to represent him – but with bloody footprints and a stolen wallet linking him to the scene, this is one case they’re unlikely to win. <br><br>Until help comes from an unlikely source…when the murder victim’s mother says that Connor is innocent, begging Dan and Jayne to find the real perpetrator. <br><br>Unravelling the complex case means finding the connection between Mark’s death and a series of child murders in Yorkshire over twenty years ago. Father of two, <strong>Rodney Walker</strong>, has spent years in prison after being convicted of killing of 6-year-old <strong>William</strong> and 7-year-old <strong>Ruby</strong> back in 1997.  </p></blockquote> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-attachment-id="4464" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/img-20190219-wa0005/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/img-20190219-wa0005.jpg" data-orig-size="1024,512" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="img-20190219-wa0005" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/img-20190219-wa0005.jpg?w=500" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/img-20190219-wa0005.jpg?w=840" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="512" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/img-20190219-wa0005.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4464" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/img-20190219-wa0005.jpg 1024w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/img-20190219-wa0005.jpg?w=150&h=75 150w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/img-20190219-wa0005.jpg?w=500&h=250 500w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/img-20190219-wa0005.jpg?w=768&h=384 768w" sizes="(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px" /></figure> <div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/24/guest-post-the-innocent-ones-neil-white/" data-text="Guest post: The Innocent Ones - Neil White" data-via="dakegra" data-related="wordpressdotcom">Tweet</a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/24/guest-post-the-innocent-ones-neil-white/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Guest%20post%3A%20The%20Innocent%20Ones%20-%20Neil%20White&body=https%3A%2F%2Fespressococo.com%2F2019%2F04%2F24%2Fguest-post-the-innocent-ones-neil-white%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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More about the book later – today I’ve got an extract for you.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator" /> <p><em><strong>Chapter One</strong></em></p> <p>I had Scheherazade drop me on top of an old refinery, rusted out and half collapsing. Around me the stretch of this new world’s sky seemed endless, a bright sienna-colored cloth drawn over the stars above. I watched Schaz jet back off to orbit—well, “watched” is probably a strong word, since she had all her stealth systems cranked to high heaven, but I could at least find the telltale glint of her engines— then settled my rifle on my back and started working my way down, finding handholds and grips among the badly rusted metal.<br></p> <p>It’s surprising how used to this sort of thing you get; the climbing and jumping and shimmying, I mean. On a world free of the effects of the pulse, none of that would have been necessary— I would have had antigravity boots, or a jetpack, or just been able to disembark in the fields below: scaling a three-hundred-foot-tall structure would have been as easy as pressing a button and dropping until I was comfortably on the ground.<br></p> <p>Now, without all those useful cheats, it was much more physically demanding—the climbing and jumping and shimmying bits— but I didn’t mind. It was like a workout, a reminder that none of that nonsense mattered on the world I was descending toward, and that if I wanted to stay alive,  reflexes and physical capability would be just as important as the few pieces of tech I carried that were resistant to post-pulse radiation.<br></p> <p>By the time I made it down the tower I’d worked up a decent sweat, and I’d also undergone a crash course in the physical realities of this particular planet: the vagaries of its gravity, of its atmosphere, that sort of thing.<br></p> <p>Most terraformed worlds were within a certain range in those kinds of measurements—on some, even orbital rotations had been shifted to roughly conform to the standard galactic day/night cycle— but it’s surprising how much small differences can add up when you’re engaged in strenuous physical activity. A touch less oxygen in the air than you’re used to, a single percentage point of gravity higher or lower, and suddenly everything’s thrown off, just a bit. You have to readjust.<br></p> <p>I checked my equipment over as I sat in the shadow of the refinery tower, getting my breath back. Nothing was damaged or showing signs of the radiation advancing faster than I would have expected. I had a mission to complete here, yes, but I had no desire to have some important piece of tech shut down on me at an inopportune time and get me killed. Then I wouldn’t be able to do anyone any good.<br></p> <p>As the big metal tower creaked above me in the wind, I kept telling myself that—that I was still doing good. Some days I believed it more than others.<br></p> <p>After I’d recovered from my little jaunt, I settled my rifle onto my back again—a solid gunpowder cartridge design common across all levels of postpulse tech, powerful enough that it could compete with higher-end weapons on worlds that still had a great deal of technology intact, low-key enough that on worlds farther down that scale like this one, it wouldn’t draw undue attention—and set off across rolling plains of variegated grass.<br></p> <p>This world was very pretty; I’d give whoever had designed it that. The sky was a lovely shade of pinkish orange that would likely shift into indigo as night approached. It perfectly complemented the flora strains that had been introduced, mostly long grasses of purple or green or pink, with a few patches of larger trees, mostly Tyll-homeworld species, thick trunks of brown or gray topped by swaying azure fronds. Vast fields of wheat— again, of Tyll extraction—made up most of the landscape that wasn’t grassland; that made sense with the research I’d done before having Scheherazade drop me off.<br></p> <p>The research told me that this world had been terraformed for agricultural use a few hundred years ago or so; it had seen only mild scarring during the sect wars, which meant it was a little bit perplexing that the pulse had knocked it almost as far down the technology scale as a planet could go—all the way to before the invention of electric light.<br></p> <p>Still, trying to understand why the pulse had done what it had done was a fool’s errand: I’d seen systems where one planet had been left untouched, another had been driven back to pre-spaceflight, and the moon of that same world had lost everything post–internal combustion. There was never any rhyme or reason to it, not even within a single system—the pulse did what it did at random, and looking for a will behind its workings was like trying to find the face of god in weather patterns. <br></p> <p>I knew that much because I was one of the fools who had let it off the chain in the first place. That’s why I was here: trying to right my own wrongs.<br></p> <p>In a very small way, of course. I was only one woman, and it was a big, big universe. Also, I had a great many wrongs.</p> <hr class="wp-block-separator" /> <p>I can’t wait to read more. Huge thanks to Harriet Collins from Simon & Schuster UK for inviting me to take part in the tour, and for the review copy of Drew’s book.</p> <p><em>The Stars Now Unclaimed</em> by Drew Williams is published by Simon & Schuster and is out now. You can find Drew on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/DrewWilliamsIRL">@DrewWilliamsIRL</a></p> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img data-attachment-id="4456" data-permalink="https://espressococo.com/the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams/" data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams.jpg" data-orig-size="314,475" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams.jpg?w=314" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams.jpg?w=314" loading="lazy" width="314" height="475" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4456" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams.jpg 314w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams.jpg?w=99&h=150 99w" sizes="(max-width: 314px) 85vw, 314px" /></figure> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p><em>AN IMPOSSIBLE MISSION</em><br> A century ago, a mysterious pulse of energy spread across the universe. Meant to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity, it instead destroyed technology indiscriminately, leaving some worlds untouched and throwing others into total chaos.<br><em> AN UNSTOPPABLE ENEMY<br></em> The Justified, a mysterious group of super-soldiers, have spent a hundred years trying to find a way to restore order to the universe. Their greatest asset is the feared mercenary Kamali, who travels from planet to planet searching for gifted young people and bringing them to the secret world she calls home. Kamali hopes that those she rescues will be able to find a way to reverse the damage the pulse wreaked, and ensure that it never returns.<br><em> THE END OF THE UNIVERSE<br></em> But Kamali isn’t the only person looking for answers to unimaginable questions. And when her mission to rescue a grumpy teenaged girl named Esa goes off the rails, Kamali suddenly finds herself smack in the centre of an intergalactic war… that she started. </p></blockquote> <div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/08/the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams/" data-text="The Stars Now Unclaimed - Drew Williams" data-via="dakegra" data-related="wordpressdotcom">Tweet</a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/08/the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20The%20Stars%20Now%20Unclaimed%20-%20Drew%20Williams&body=https%3A%2F%2Fespressococo.com%2F2019%2F04%2F08%2Fthe-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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Reblog'><div class='likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder' style='height: 55px;'><span class='button'><span>Like</span></span> <span class='loading'>Loading...</span></div><span class='sd-text-color'></span><a class='sd-link-color'></a></div></div> </div> <footer class="entry-footer"> <span class="byline"><span class="author vcard"><img alt='' src='https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=49&d=identicon&r=G' srcset='https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=49&d=identicon&r=G 1x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=74&d=identicon&r=G 1.5x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=98&d=identicon&r=G 2x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=147&d=identicon&r=G 3x, https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/7ff0c30d0d9f948e8610c230b291d9d9f438ff7980262f19076f9c83903fa8b8?s=196&d=identicon&r=G 4x' class='avatar avatar-49' height='49' width='49' loading='lazy' decoding='async' /><span class="screen-reader-text">Author </span> <a class="url fn n" href="https://espressococo.com/author/dakegra/">dave</a></span></span><span class="posted-on"><span class="screen-reader-text">Posted on </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/2019/04/08/the-stars-now-unclaimed-drew-williams/" rel="bookmark"><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2019-04-08T07:00:16+01:00">April 8, 2019</time><time class="updated" datetime="2019-04-07T23:30:51+01:00">April 7, 2019</time></a></span><span class="cat-links"><span class="screen-reader-text">Categories </span><a href="https://espressococo.com/category/books/book-extracts/" rel="category tag">book extracts</a>, <a href="https://espressococo.com/category/books/" rel="category tag">books</a></span><span class="tags-links"><span 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data-orig-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/the-courier-cover-1.jpg" data-orig-size="835,1280" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1549454542","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"The Courier aw.indd","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="The Courier aw.indd" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/the-courier-cover-1.jpg?w=326" data-large-file="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/the-courier-cover-1.jpg?w=668" loading="lazy" src="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/the-courier-cover-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4445" width="363" height="556" srcset="https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/the-courier-cover-1.jpg?w=363&h=556 363w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/the-courier-cover-1.jpg?w=726&h=1112 726w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/the-courier-cover-1.jpg?w=98&h=150 98w, https://espressococo.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/the-courier-cover-1.jpg?w=326&h=500 326w" sizes="(max-width: 363px) 85vw, 363px" /></figure> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>In Oslo in 1942, Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly<br> avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In great haste, she escapes to<br> Sweden whilst the rest of her family is deported to Auschwitz.<br> In Stockholm, Ester meets the resistance hero, Gerhard Falkum,<br> who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and<br> allegations that he murdered his wife, Åse, Ester ’s childhood<br> best friend. A relationship develops between them, but ends<br> abruptly when Falkum dies in a fire.<br> And yet, twenty-five years later, Falkum shows up in Oslo. He<br> wants to reconnect with his daughter Turid. But where has he<br> been, and what is the real reason for his return? Ester stumbles<br> across information that forces her to look closely at her past,<br> and to revisit her war-time training to stay alive…</p></blockquote> <p>So this marks the third appearance of Kjell Ola Dahl’s books on the blog, and roughly a year apart. First we had <a href="https://espressococo.com/2017/04/10/faithless-kjell-ola-dahl/">Faithless</a>, then <a href="https://espressococo.com/2018/04/12/the-ice-swimmer-kjell-ola-dahl/">The Ice Swimmer</a>, books five and six in his series featuring his detectives Gunnarstranda and Frølich. Classic slices of Nordic Noir, both.</p> <p>And so now we have <em>The Courier</em>, a standalone historical thriller which delves into the dark history of Norway in WWII. The story is told across three time periods – 1942, 1967 and 2015, though the modern-day element bookends the story.</p> <p>It’s a fascinating tale, told in Dahl’s signature style of short, punchy sentences, once more ably translated by Don Bartlett. It’s a style that in previous books took me a little while to get into, but here it’s like sinking into a familiar, favourite armchair and you’re soon lost in the story.</p> <p>As with his earlier books, Dahl shows a deft hand with plot, juggling the two main threads between 1942 and 1967 and revealing his cards only when he’s good and ready. Even though we know how things turn out in the quarter century after the earlier chapters, there’s a real sense of menace and genuine peril in the earlier sections. </p> <p>It’s not just the plot though, character and especially the relationships between them is where Kjell Ola Dahl excels. Fascinating to see Ester grow from the girl who loses her parents to Auschwitz, a courier who is forced to flee to Sweden to escape the Gestapo herself, to the woman she becomes some 25 years later. The world has changed and so has she, but then everything changes again when an old face makes a startling reappearance.</p> <p>I don’t usually read a lot of historical fiction, but couldn’t resist seeing what Kjell Ola Dahl, the Godfather of Nordic Noir, would come up with. It’s proper, hard-boiled Noir with a wonderfully gritty, distressingly authentic edge.</p> <p>It’ll keep you thinking for a long while after you’ve finished. Highly recommended.</p> <p><em>The Courier</em> by Kjell Ola Dahl is published by <a href="https://twitter.com/OrendaBooks">Orenda Books</a> on 21st March 2019. You can find Kjell Ola Dahl on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/ko_dahl">@ko_dahl</a>. </p> <p>Huge thanks to Anne Cater and Orenda Books for inviting me to take part in the blog tour, and for the review copy.</p> <div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-official sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-twitter"><a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="https://espressococo.com/2019/03/30/the-courier-kjell-ola-dahl/" data-text="The Courier - Kjell Ola Dahl" data-via="dakegra" data-related="wordpressdotcom">Tweet</a></li><li class="share-facebook"><div class="fb-share-button" data-href="https://espressococo.com/2019/03/30/the-courier-kjell-ola-dahl/" data-layout="button_count"></div></li><li class="share-email"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-shared="" class="share-email sd-button" href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20The%20Courier%20-%20Kjell%20Ola%20Dahl&body=https%3A%2F%2Fespressococo.com%2F2019%2F03%2F30%2Fthe-courier-kjell-ola-dahl%2F&share=email" target="_blank" title="Click to email a link to a friend" data-email-share-error-title="Do you have email set up?" data-email-share-error-text="If you're having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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