Whoz Crazee Now

I have finally got round to reading my son-in-law's copy of Whoz Crazee Now the autobiography of Slade front man Neville Holder better known as Noddy. Much of the Slade story has been told in various publications since the group broke through to become one of the most popular acts of the "Glam Rock" era. Even today Merry Christmas Everybody is still the number one Christmas anthem. Noddy's story begins on a council estate in Walsall, the heart of England's Black Country so called because of the pollution caused by the mining and other heavy industries. His long struggle through the familiar path of gigs at pubs, clubs and campuses until teaming up with Dave Hill and Don Powell, bringing in Jimmy Lea and being brought under the experienced wing of ex-Animals bassist Chas Chandler kept me glued to the page. The book was originally published in 1999 and is, no doubt, out of print but Noddy's no holds barred tale of the dedication and hard work that it takes to succeed and the problems that accompany success are well worth tracking down a copy. Unusualy for me I devoured this fascinating book in one sitting but then, I always thought Slade were the greatest!

The Girl in the Cellar

The Girl in the Cellar by Patricia Wentworth is another of her Miss Silver mysteries which intrigue me because of the miniscule part that the name detective plays in the story. The Girl in the Cellar is a mystery of murder and lost memory. It was published in 1961 and so holds to the standards of the so-called "Golden Age" of detective fiction that is; just one murder, no excessive violence, no coarse language and moderately good manners all round. How refreshing it is ! In this book it is the telling of the story rather than a labrynthine plot that keeps the pages turning for Miss Wentworth gets away with rather more in the way of coincidence than would be allowed a modern writer. Nonetheless this is another first class entertainment that well stands the test of time.

Rapscallion

Mathew Hawkwood is a Bow Street Runner. He is rough, tough, and dangerous to know and even more dangerous to cross. When the authorities in Regency London have a serious problem Hawkwood is the man they send to sort it. He is street wise to PhD standard and fought his way through the ranks to become a captain in The Rifles. Starting to get the picture? That's right, Hawkwood is Sharpe in civvies and you can't say fairer than that. Rapscallion is the third Hawkwood adventure from the pen of James McGee and it is every bit as good as it's predecessors. French prisoners in the Napoleonic wars are sent to the Hulks, decommissioned men-of-war turned into floating prisons with a reputation for appalling conditions and reckoned escape proof. However, word has reached the Admiralty that escapes are being effected in a way that has to have an extensive organisation behind it. A young Lieutenant is sent undercover to investigate. He winds up dead. Another is sent. He disappears. It is time to send for Hawkwood. This is a first class adventure story with our hero constantly confronted by danger and death, a page turner par excellence. I look forward to Hawkwood's next outing.

The Affair of the Thirty-Nine Cufflinks

The Affair of the Thirty-Nine Cufflinks by James Anderson is the third murder mystery that this author has set at the country home of the Earl of Burford. The central characters are again the Earl and Countess, their daughter Lady Geraldine and Chief Inspector Wilkins. The Burford's are playing host to nine members of the familly following the funeral of Great Aunt Florrie. The will is read and her daughter-in-law Clara, incensed at being virtualy cut out of it, issues threats of disclosure of personal secrets of other familly members that could ruin their reputations. That night she is murdered and circumstances dictate that the killer must be from among the assembled guests. James Anderson drives the action along at a handsome pace whilst creating an amusing country house atmosphere which, allied to his light brisk dialogue, has just the right overtones of Wodehouse. This is another first class entertainment from this author and is sure to please any fan of the Agatha Christie school of detective story.

Blood on the Strand

Blood on the Strand is the second investigation by Susanna Gregory's Restoration spy Thomas Chaloner. The title comes from the opening scene where Mathew Webb, a wealthy merchant, is murdered as he returns to his home in The Strand following a dinner given by the Guinea Company at Africa House. The killing of a beggar outside Westminster Abbey during a service celebrating the third anniversary of the restoration of King Charles the Second whilst Chalenor is on security duty diguised as a street sweeper could not possibly be connected to the muder of Webb or could it? Why are members of the wealthy and powerful Company of Barber-Surgeons so often found where Chaloner is searching for answers to the complex riddles of which Restoration politics is composed? The Surgeons are allowed to disect corpses of felons for scientific purposes but as the faces are always covered who can be sure which corpse is which. As Chaloner digs deeper into the morass of plot and counter plot he is constantly beset by the quandary of spies through the ages - who to trust. Once again Susanna Gregory leads us through a labyrinth of inventive schemes via a narrative that keeps the pages turning until we arrive at a satisfying conclusion. One thing does have me puzzled. Why does Chaloner, and presumably Miss Gregory, look back with nostalgia to the brutal, dour and bigoted regime of Cromwell. True, King Charles may never have won prizes for efficient administration but surely he had to be an improvement on what went before!

The Blackstone Key

In 1795 Britain is at war with France but the east coast smugglers still ply their trade across the Channel. There is a ready market for Brandy, silk and other luxury items that they bring in but are they also providing a courier service for French spies? This is the plot of Rose Melikan's excellent first novel The Blackstone Key. Mary Finch received an invitation to visit an uncle she has never seen because of a familly feud started before she was born. On the road from Cambridge to Suffolk she comes on a man dying at the side of the road as a result of an accident. Whilst trying to render assistance she discovers that he is carrying a watch that is the twin of that which she inherited from her father and is engraved with her uncle's initials. She meets an Artilliary Officer, Captain Holland, who offers to escort her to her uncle's house which they find deserted and where they are set upon by smugglers. Mary and Captain Holland make their escape and are taken in by Mrs Tipton owner of a nearby house. The next day she sends for Mr Sommerville, the local magistrate, who arrives accompanied by Mr Deprez a mysterious character with more than a touch of Jane Austen's Mr Darcy about him. The smugglers are couriers for French spies who have penetrated the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich and are transmitting information back to Paris. Coded documents are discovered at her uncle's home, could he have been part of the plot? Captain Holland is stationed at Woolwich, Mr Deprez has contacts at the Admiralty and Bow Street but one of them is not all he seems. Rose Melikan drives the narrative along like a Revenue Cutter in full sail and negotiates the twists and turns of the plot with consumate ease. This is her first novel but I hope that it is the first of many.

Moriarty

Professor James Moriarty is in the words of Sherlock Holmes "The Napoleon of crime, organizer of half that is evil and nearly all that is undetected" in the Victorian underworld. In this book John Gardner continues the story of his exploits begun in the two previous volumes The Return of Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty. The Professor has been forced to spend some years abroad to evade capture by the police. Slipping back into London he finds that his criminal empire is being taken over by a new master villain Sir Jack Idell popularly known as Idle Jack. How he re-establishes his organisation and deals with one of his close associates who is betraying him to Idle Jack is the substance of this book and very entertaining it is as one would expect from such an experienced writer. This work is the third part of what was planned as a quadrilogy (it is the right word, I've checked) un fortuately John Gardner died in 2007 with the fourth part unwritten. As Gardner wrote some sixteen James Bond novels at the behest of the estate of Ian Fleming is it too much to hope that perhaps someone could be found to complete the final volume of this excellent series.

The Last Theorem

There are a great many books and films masquerading as science fiction when, in fact, they are nothing of the kind. Take Star Wars as a classic example. The basic plot of a small band of heroes versus nasty regime could have been set in any time or place. It is only marketed as science fiction because George Lukas chose to set it "long, long ago in a galaxy far,far away". Any pretence at science is solely in the hands of the set and costume designers. The true science fiction novel has a plot that stems from the science itself and the science must be either current developments or extrapalations thereof. The greatest exponent of this type of novel was the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke whose death in March of this year was a blow to all lovers of the genre. Sir Arthur was fascinated by science from an early age and joined the British Interplanetary Society when it was formed in 1933 and as an officer in the RAF worked on the development of Radar. With this background it is not surprising that his fiction works are based firmly on fact, a standard that he has maintained right up to this his final work. The Last Theorem is, like other of his later novels, a collaboration this time with Frederik Pohl another revered name among science fiction fans. Set mainly in Sir Arthur's beloved Sri Lanka it concerns a young man, Ranjit, who succeeds in developing a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, a goal of mathematicians since the seventeenth century. The fame that this brings him is not without it's dangers as international organisations seek to use Ranjit for their own ends. At the same time other species in the galaxy, alerted to the presence of the human race by the streams of photons generated by nuclear weapons tests, see Earth as a threat and set out to anihilate us. Like all good collaborations the narrative is seamless but one would expect no less from two such outstanding talents.

Fat Chance

In 1995 the play Cell Mates by Simon Gray opened at the Albery Theatre in London. It starred Stephen Fry and Rik Mayall and was about the friendship between the spy George Blake and the small time criminal Sean Bourke in Wormwood Scrubs prison. In "Fat Chance" Simon Gray details the trials and tribulations of getting the show on the road. It is the usual show business story of booze and egos and proves what I beieve most people suspect, that show business people in general and stars in particular are best viewed from a distance when they are playing a part.

Sejanus

Sejanus is another excellent historical novel by David Wishart featuring the Roman amateur sleuth Marcus Corvinus. Assisted by his beautiful wife Perilla he finds himself commanded from beyond the grave by the formidable Empress Livia to bring down Sejanus, the most powerful man in Rome. Lucius Aelius Sejanus is commander of the dreaded Praetorian Guard and the Emperor's deputy in Rome. As the Emperor Tiberius is permanently ensconced in his palace on the Isle of Capri this makes Sejanus Emperor in all but name and he has used this power to wipe out every member of the Julian familly who might have a claim to the throne. Tiberius is happy to let him do this but Sejanus' plots run deeper than the ailing Emperor imagines. Corvinus' task is to find sufficient evidence to put before Tiberius that will persuade him to bring down the man he has trusted for so long. Finding people with the relevant information, and more importantly, getting them to "grass" on a man with such a blood chilling reputation is not easy but Corvinus receives help from an enexpected source almost as frightening as his quarry. Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus was a Roman noble who lived at the time though his detective work is the product of the writer's imagination. Likewise his penchant for talking like a Glaswegian taxi driver - know what I mean pal - though thankfully the four letter words are rare and in context. David Wishart writes an excellent flowing narrative and his classical scholarship shows without being showy. Know what I mean pal?

The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower by Stephen King is the seventh and final volume of his Dark Tower epic and if one has not read the preceeding six will be pretty much incomprehensible. It is very difficult to write about one volume of this saga (and I use the word in it's dictionary definition) in isolation. From it's beginning in Volume One The Gunslinger King weaves a complex web of narrative with doors into other parallel worlds, crossing time zones, introducing new characters, killing characters and sometimes resurecting them further down the line. Without this background the reader is lost as so much that has gone before is brought to conclusion. Or is it? In the previous volume The Song of Susannah King introduces himself into the story as his characters seek him out on their passage to the Tower. In this final volume he plays an even bigger part and I am not altogether sure that this device, brave as it is, works. The ending of a seven volume narrative has to be special. A long and dangerous quest has to have an ending worthy of the sacrifices demanded of the characters involved and I have to admit that King's neo-Budhist ending was not quite satisfying for me. However, I am sure that the legions of followers for whom King can do no wrong will dismiss my minor criticism and they are probably right to do so. Perhaps I should start again with The Gunslinger and follow the adventure Roland-like and reach the ending that King wishes the reader to perceive. Such a project,I fear, would be likely to lead me to the Dark Tower of divorce. Stephen King writes that he was inspired to write this by reading Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came" what a pity he is not alive to tell us what he thinks of this book.

The Benevent Treasure

Patricia Wentworth has created another of her classic country house mysteries. The country house in question is Underhill and it was built in the sixteenth century by Ugo Benevento, an Italian nobleman, who has fled his native land bringing with him a considerable fortune in plate and jewels. In England he marries an heiress, changes his name to Benevent and builds Underhill in which he hides his jewels hence The Benevent Treasure. The action of the story takes place in what appears to be the late nineteen forties when Candida Sayle is invited to stay with her great aunts the Benevent sisters. However, what appears to be an act of generosity to a relative in reduced circumstances turns out to be a plot that places Candida in fear of her life. Fortunately a knight errant is at hand to come to her aid and, combined with her fortitude in the face of danger, she wins through in the end. The final scene where she refuses to benefit from the treasure because of the circumstances by which it came to her show the difference in morality between the age in which the book was written and the present day. When one considers that this gap is a mere half century it is a telling comment on the times in which we live.

The Tomb of Zeus

Barbara Cleverly is justly famous for her novels featuring Joe Sandilands oof Scotland Yard but in The Tomb of Zeus she introduces a heroine, Laetitia Talbot. In 1928 Mis Talbot, an aspiring archeologist, arrives in Crete to join the famous Theo Russell who is second only to Sir Arthur Evans as an expert on Minoan civilisation. Russell has spent his life, and his wife's fortune, in a search for the fabled Tomb of Zeus and has only accepted Laetitia into his team because of her father's wealth and connections. Things soon begin to go wrong and the past of the small group of English people round Russell looms as large as the ancient Cretan civilisation that they have come to explore. The aptly named Miss Cleverly has given us another enthralling read and I, for one, look forward to her next Laetitia Talbot novel promised for 2009.

Dead Line

Dead Line by Stella Rimington is a first class spy novel set round a Middle East peace conference due to take place at Gleneagles, the luxury golf complex in Scotland. I am sure that I am not alone in noticing that these conferences always take place at luxury venues. MI6 receives information from a highly placed Syrian source that there is a plot to disrupt the conference probably in such a way as to put the blame on Syria. Apart from the fact that two individuals are involved there is no information as to who they are or what they plan to do. As MI5 deals with espionage inside Britain the problem is passed to them and lands on the desk of Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle. Stella Rimington has created a lead character that is just the right side of believable for example when she is injured she is off work for a month not bouncing back in ten minutes sporting a grimy bandage a la Bruce Willis. The writing is pacy and compelling and the plot as complex as a spy thriller should be. No black hatted villains or Boy Scout heroes all have their personal problems and the conflicts between agencies, even those belonging to the same country, are portrayed in all their petty pointlessness. Miss Rimington (I am sure that she was made a Dame at some point although it is not mentioned in her CV at the back of the book) has used all her experience as a Director of MI5 to produce a book that keeps one " glued to the page" as the saying goes. If she ran MI5 half as well as she writes spy novels then Britain was indeed in safe hands.

The Prophet Murders

For the first time I feel justified in writing "and now for something completely different". The Prophet Murders by Mehmet Murat Somer is set in Istanbul amongst what must be an extensive network of homosexuals and transvestites. Does this world really exist in Istanbul or is it the author's imagination? Having never visited Turkey I have no idea but it certainly makes an exotic background for what is, in fact, a fairly routine murder story. The narrator is part owner of a club where men go to pick up transvestites most of whom seem to work as prostitutes. As the story opens several of the "girls" from the club have died and all were originally mnamed after prophets from the Koran. The narrator does the detective work aided by some well placed friends and the identity of the killer is obvious from half way in. Nonetheless this is a very entertaining book with an excellent narrative flow due in no small part to the translation by Kenneth Dakan.

October Skies

Alex Scarrow has produced another thumping good read in October Skies to follow his previous outstanding novel Last Light. Switching between 1856 and the present he tells a gripping story of a lost wagon train and the documentary film maker who stumbles on the remains of their last camp and tries to piece together their tragic story. In the manner of the famously ill-fated Donner Party a group of settlers composed mainly of Mormons together with some others are trapped in the forests of Wyoming by the onset of winter. The Mormons, under their charismatic leader John Preston, insist on their own separate camp and offer minimal cooperation with the others who they consider ungodly. A camp of Paiute hunters is discovered nearby and when one of the tribesmen walks into camp carrying the mutilated body of one of the Mormon women only the firm intervention of the wagon master,Keats, keeps things under control. In the present time the film maker and his partner find the diary of an Englishman with the party which chronicles the steady break up of the group and the descent into to madness of the Mormon leader. However, there are forces at work that want the story of the wagon train suppressed as it links with one of the candidates in the Presedential election and they are ready to take extreme measures to ensure that this is so. Alex Scarrow has cleverly intertwined the past and present in a story that never slackens it's pace or it's grip on this reader.

A Conspiracy of Violence

A Conspiracy of Violence is the first novel by Susanna Gregory that I have read and it is her first with a new main character. Thomas Chaloner is a spy who used to work for Cromwell's spymaster John Thurloe but now finds himself unemployed. The action takes place in the third year of the Restoration. The newly enthroned Charles the second takes a very pragmatic attitude towards former supporters of Cromwell. Whilst those who had a hand in his father's death are remorselessly hunted down others are either hired by the new government or allowed to slide quietly into retirement. Thurloe is one of this latter category and is still consulted behind the scenes and uses his influence to recommend Chaloner to the Earl of Clarendon who sets him to work searching for treasure supposedly hidden in the Tower of London. Needless to say this only leads to more complex plots and danger for Chaloner. This is a very well written and researched novel which gave me hours of pleasure and I heartily recommend it.

The Affinity Bridge

In The Affinity Bridge George Mann has very cleverly blended two popular genre, the "gaslight" thriller and the "alternative history" into a very pleasing read. The story starts in the fog shrouded streets of Victorian Whitechapel but this is a rather different London. True the gaslights, the handsome cabs and the fogs as well as the top hats, titles and floorlength dresses that are the essential props of the Victorian murder mysteries that we love are all present, but so are steam driven cabs and trams, airships criss cross the skies and clockwork robots do the menial work in offices and well off households. The main characters are Sir Maurice Newbury, Gentleman Investigator to the Crown, and his assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes. Miss Hobbes is what is known as "fiesty" an essential characteristic in females in modern fiction. Sir Maurice and Veronica follow a convoluted trail through an airship crash and murder by a ghostly policeman leading to an arrogant industrialist and a mad scientist. A plague virus that turns people into flesh eating zombies and Sir Maurice's predilection for a drop of laudenam (shades of Sherlock) give this adventure a unique flavour. I liked it and look forward to the next Newbury and Hobbes investigation.

Knots and Crosses

Ian Rankin is one of the most popular and respected of the current generation of British crime writers but until now I had never read any of his work or seen more than a brief glimpse of a TV adaptation. Rankin has written about a dozen Rebus investigations and it seemed to me the obvious thing was to start with number one entitled Knots and Crosses where Detective Sergeant John Rebus is chasing a serial killer. In modern detective stories one murder is no longer sufficient to tickle the taste buds of the reader nothing less than a minor massacre will do. The key to the investigation lies in Rebus' own past in the British Army's elite SAS regiment realisation of which places even greater pressure on a man already carrying enough psychological burdens. Rebus has the obligatory prickly relationship with his superiors and inspires mixed reactions from his colleagues, he is a lone wolf in an organisation were team work is the aim. I must admit that I approached this book with a certain amount of trepidation as the "gritty" style of modern writers is so different from that of my favourite authors but I devoured this at one sitting carried by a powerful narrative flow. Rankin's reputation is well earned.

The Alexander Cipher

There is a long tradition of the Lone Wolf Hero in British fiction. Starting with Sapper's Bulldog Drummond, John Buchan's Richard Hannay and Dornford Yates' Mansell the unofficial adventurer has captured the public imagination for decades. These all had two things in common. They had military experience and independant means and plunged into their adventures either through force of circumstance, as Buchan's Hannay, or to relive the thrills of front line soldiering like Bulldog Drummond. After the Second World War these characters became less and less believable as the post war Labour Government taxed independant means out of existance and retained many of the wartime measures that restricted the freedom of private citizens. However, the public had not lost it's taste for Lone Wolf adventurers and so a new generation was invented who either charged for their services or who, like Hannay, found adventure looking for them. In the Fifties and Sixties Alistair Maclean became the benchmark writer for these tales though inventing a new hero for each story unlike the previous generation who wrote around one. Then came the Americans who had founded a whole nation on the Lone Wolf principle and whose heroes were very definitely outsiders as against the semi-establishment figures of the classic British stories. These characters either had no visible means of support or, as in the case of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt, the writer invents a whole Government departmnet to pick up the bills for his derring do. Since the arrival of the Americans there has been one attribute without which no hero qualifies as a Lone Wolf and that is the ability to seriously annoy the kind of wealthy and powerful people who can send squads of ex special forces hit-men to, unsucessfully of course, end his story prematurely. Here we come to the hero of Will Adams The Alexander Cipher who manages to annoy not one but TWO such men. The hero is Daniel Knox, archeologist, Egyptologist and scuba diving instructor which latter occupation has been forced on him through offending the wealthy and powerful. As the story opens he has been searching the reefs off Sharm-el-Sheik for traces of the lost treasure of Alexander the Great in company with an Australian called Rick. After beating up an Egyptian shipping tycoon he sets out for Alexandria one step ahead of the hit-men. There he hides out with an old friend who is called in to assist at a newly discovered tomb that is partly below the water table and thus requires divers. At this point another tycoon he had previously offended becomes involved. Knox's only chance of survival is to uncover the secret of Alexander's tomb and hope for the protection of a grateful Egyptian government. Will Adams has written a first class page-turner of a story (my highest mark of approval) and I look forward to many more from this writer.

The Blood Detective

In The Blood Detective Dan Waddell has created an original take on the police hunt for a serial killer who leaves cryptic clues on the bodies of his victims. Nigel Barnes, a geneologist, decyphers the clues which relate to a series of muders in Victorian London. If Barnes theory is right then the killer intends to strike no less than five times. The police team always seem to be one step behind the killer who manipulates the investigation by laying clues to duplicate the Victorian case which resulted in a miscarriage of justice. Waddell has linked the past with the present in an intriguing fast paced story with great characters and a cracking climax.

Foreign Body

The modern phenomenon known as "medical tourism" is the theme of Robin Cook's latest novel Foreign Body. Americans who require expensive surgical procedures are traveling to India where there are modern hospitals that will perform the operations for less than half the cost of hospitals in the USA. Even with travel costs to account for the patients can still acheive considerable savings. The Indian hospitals that offer this service are modern, state-of-the-art establishments with first class staff and were set up solely to cater for this market as few Indians themselves could afford to use them. An American company that owns a string of hospitals in the USA is alarmed at the way that potential customers are being lured away and are determined to put a stop to it. A small group of ambitious young executives are given funds and set about the task of ruining the reputation of Indian hospitals with ruthless zeal. They plan to scare away potential clients by producing a death rate that will portray the Indian hospitals as unsafe. Mr Cook has produced another of his ingenious plots backed up with all the medical jargon needed to provide verisimilitude which is hardly surprising as he is a qualified medical practitioner. This book is just the thing for passing a rainy day but not if you are waiting to be called into hospital for surgery.

The Salisbury Manuscript

The Salisbury Manuscript by Philip Gooden is this writers first foray into the world of the Victorian whodunnit and a very creditable effort it is. This is not his first novel, however, as he is the author of a series of Elizabethan murder mysteries. This book opens with a murder on a bleak hillside on the outskirts of Salisbury which is the site of an ancient hill fort and burial mound. The action then turns to the main character in the book, Tom Ansell, a young lawyer from a London firm which represents a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral. Ansell is despatched to Salisbury to receive a manuscript from Canon Slater which comprises the rather compromising memoirs of his late father. Slater requires that these be locked away until after his death. Needless to say this unfortunate event occurs much sooner than the Canon anticipates. Ansell is suspected and arrested and in order to clear his name begins to make his own enquiries among the many unusual characters within the Slater familly and the community that lives within the shadow of the great Cathedral. In this he is assisted by his fiancee, Helen Scott, who is a very independant minded and foeceful character for the period in which the book is set. Would an unmarried middle class young lady be given the freedom that Miss Scott has in the eighteen seventies? Perhaps it is churlish to mention this when Mr Gooden has provided us with such an entertaining story. I am sure that Mr Gooden plans more adventures of Tom Ansell and Helen Scott and if they are as good as this they will be worth waiting for.

Attila: The Judgement

Attila: The Judgement is the third volume of William Napier's engrossing telling of the conflict between the nomadic tribes of the steppes and the divided Roman Empire. The outline of the saga is, I am sure, known to most readers. Attila, inspired by his fanatical hatred of Rome and the civilisation it headed, brings together the normaly divided tribes of the steppes and launches a savage war not of conquest but destruction. The Roman Empire now divided between East and West suffers weak and ineffectual leadership. The Eastern Emperor, Theodosius, is a scholar who believes that negotiation and reasoned argument is the way to solve all disputes and cannot or will not understand that Attila is impervious to reason. In the West Valentinian is at the centre of a corrupt court and spends his time in ever more obscene religious rituals that he hopes will turn Attila away. One thing that both Emporers have in common is a distrust of the one man who can save the situation, Aetius the Master General of the Legions. Although urged by his friends Aetius refuses to do the one thing that could have saved the Western Empire which is to depose the raving lunatic Valentinian and take the throne himself. Had he not been so scrupulous the history of Western Europe could have been changed for the better. In the event he manages to defeat Attila but only at the cost of the destruction of the Roman Army. His reward from a grateful Emperor Valentinian is to be murdered and his body thrown into an unmarked grave. So that is the story of Attila. The West threatened by a rapacious horde contemptuous of the civilised values it stood for lead by a fanatic who believed he was on a God given mission of destruction. Opposing him a divided Europe whose leaders could not or would not grasp the size of the threat they faced and exiling or executing any who advocated serious defensive action. Does this not seem depressingly like todays headlines? Oh well on to the next book.

Jack in the Box

Jack in the Box by Graham Ison is what our American friends call a "Police Procedural" That is, it attempts to provide a story following actual investigatory techniques. Graham Ison, being a retired senior police officer, is in an ideal position to supply this. His lead detective is DCI Harry Brock a long time career copper with no illusions about his job or the society in which he does it. His "sidekick" is DS Dave Poole a very well read black man. Incidentaly, why is it that all black men in fiction are six feet tall? I know a lot of black men who are well under average height but perhaps they do not fulfill the white liberal image of the "noble savage". The story opens with the discovery of a burning box which contains what is left of a body. Brock and Poole are called in and with very little to go on Brock suddenly links this with a report of a missing artist. Oh really! Well it is fiction and very good too. This is a real page turner and I devoured it at one sitting much to my wife's disgust as she wanted me to do some gardening. Thank you Mr Ison.

The Chatelet Apprentice

On the front cover of The Chatelet Apprentice by Jean-Francois Parot translated from the French by Michael Glencross is an extract from a review by the Mail on Sunday "Reads like a cross between a Maigret mystery and Les Liasons Dangereuses". Frankly, I dislike this kind of shorthand description. The Chatelet Apprentice is nothing like Les Liasons Dangereuses apart from it's eighteenth century French setting and it's only resemblance to Maigret is that it is a detective story. Monsieur Parot, who is both an historian and a diplomat, has written a book in a higher league that Simenon's Maigret potboilers. He effortlessly conveys the atmosphere of the period with it's glitter and grace alongside it's casual acceptance of squalor and brutality. The hero, Nicolas Le Floch, is recomended to Antoine de Sartine Lieutenant General of the Paris Police by his godfather the Marquis de Ranreuil. Sartine sends him to work for Commisioner Lardin at the Chatelet prison in order to learn police methods hence the title of the book. The action of the story begins a year later when Commisioner Lardin disappears and de Sartine appoints the young Le Floch to head the investigation. To outline more of the plot would perhaps spoil what is a first class mystery for other readers. Suffice it to say that it contains all the twists and surprises that one would expect and in addition a feast of information on this, to English readers, relatively unknown period of French history. That Parot can introduce this information unobtrusively into his narrative is an object lesson to all would-be historical novelists.

Nightshade

Nightshade is the latest in Paul Doherty's series of medieval mysteries featuring Sir Hugh Corbett. Doherty is a very good writer, in fact he is about half a dozen very good writers as he has written under a different name for every one of his various series of historical mysteries each featuring a different main character. Doherty is very well qualified to take his place in the crowded ranks of those who write historical thrillers as he holds a history degree from Liverpool University and a Doctorate from Oxford. His CV also tells us that he is headmaster of a school in London. How he holds such a responsible post and finds time to write so much leads one to suspect insomnia. Nowadays all his books, both new and reprints, are brought out under his own name which is appropriate now that he is such a well established writer. Nightshade is the sixteenth book featuring Sir Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the Secret Seal to King Edward the First and his assistant Ranulf-atte-Newgate Principal Clerk to the Chancery of the Green Wax. Yes folks, the civil service liked high sounding titles even then! The story begins in the aftermath of one of the most daring robberies in British history. King Edward had deposited his not inconsiderable treasure in a vault in Westminster Abbey (why not the Tower one asks oneself) but this seemingly impregnable depository is entered and the treasure stolen. One item, the dagger wielded by a member of the Order of Assassins who attempted to murder King Edward,has turned up in Essex in the hands of Lord Scrope, a wealthy and detested landowner who had shocked the Court by his massacre of the Free Bretheren a wandering band of religious mystics who he claimed were heretics. Scrope also holds the Sanguis Christi, a large ruby studded gold cross that he had stolen from the Knights Templar as he escaped from the Saracen siege of the city of Acre and which he had promised to give to King Edward. Edward sends Corbett to Mistleham, site of Scrope's Castle to seize these artefacts as he fears the Templars will try to retreive the Sanguis Christi. At this point the village of Mistleham is terrorised by a mysterious bowman who appears able to pick off people at will and then disappear. What is the motive for these murderous attacks? Could it be revenge for the deaths of the Free Brethren or are the Templars softening up Lord Scrope prior to demanding the return of their treasure. This is another Doherty classic for lovers of the historical genre.

Under Enemy Colours

Under Enemy Colours is the first novel by Sean Thomas Russell and I, for one, hope that it is the first of many. The notes on the cover compare this book to Patrick O'Brien and Bernard Cornwell. The comparison with Cornwell is apt but Russell is far more entertaining than the wordy and pedestrian O'Brien. I would compare Russell to Alexander Kent and Dudley Pope. Stories of Nelson's navy and it's battles with the French and others have been entertaining British readers ever since the early nineteenth century. The pattern of the stories has hardly changed during all this time with the hero winning through despite being outnimbered and outgunned and hampered by incompetant if not downright malicious superiors. This novel follows this pattern and why not? When you have found a winning formula stick with it I say! The hero of Russell's story is Lieutenant Charles Hayden who is sent by a devious First Secretary of the Admiralty to be First Lieutenant to the cowardly, malicious, incompetant, tyranical but very well connected Captain Hart. Hayden arrives at Plymouth to find the ship a shambles and the crew mutinous with the Captain away on extended leave. Despite the disaffection which is rife throughout the ship and the dispirited attitude of his fellow officers Hayden gets the ship ready for action. However, when Captain Hart arrives his reward is a tongue lashing in front of the entire crew. Somehow, despite the actions of the vindictive Captain, Hayden conducts succesful engagements with the enemy and survives Hart's attempts to end his naval career. This is the sort of book treated with contempt by the literati. In other words, it is a first class page-turner which will give hours of pleasure to anyone who will accept it for what it is. I look forward to many more adventures of Charles Hayden.

The Confession of Piers Gaveston

The Confession of Piers Gaveston by Brandy Purdy is an intelligent and imaginative account of the life of one of English History's most notorious characters. Gaveston was a young man, son of a Gascon Knight in the army of King Edward the First, who is sent by the King to be companion to his heir also Edward. Gaveston has come down to us as a manipulative seducer of the young prince who used his position to gather great wealth and power. Purdy paints a different picture though whether from diligent research or sympathetic imagination I do not know. Whichever it is Purdy tells a compelling story. Gaveston's mother is burnt as a witch whilst his father is away fighting for King Edward. Along with two servants he is turned out to fend for himself at the age of nine and soon finds that his good looks are the surest way to provide them with food and shelter. Arriving in his father's camp he received training in arms and became an expert soldier and jouster. It is as a manly example to his son that the King sends Gaveston to the Prince's household in Hertfordshire but as soon as he arrives the young Prince falls for him with the terrible consequences that follow for all concerned. Both Shakespear and Marlowe wrote plays on the life of King Edward the Second centred around his affair with Gaveston and thus ensured that this remained in the public mind ever since. At Cambridge University gay students founded a Gaveston Society indicating that six centuries after his death his name is still synonymous with homosexuality. Perhaps it is only now in todays less censorious atmosphere that a book giving a more sympathetic interpretation of Gaveston's life and actions could be published. Whatever the truth, and who can say at this distance what it is, Brandy Purdy has written a most interesting book which gives the general reader an alternative insight into a life that for generations has been cast as a monument to vice, perversion and villainy.

The Triumph of Caesar

Someone has recently worked out the number of slaves a Roman household would have to own to enjoy a modern familly's standard of living. Exactly how he or she calculated the human equivalent of a washing machine, dishwasher, constant running hot water, transport and having entertainment always available I do not know but the figure arrived at was ninety three. There were, of course, very few Romans who owned ninety three slaves. Many owned none at all and of those who did even the wealthiest fell short of this figure. So what does this prove? Well, the average Western familly lives like a Roman Emporer so quit moaning could be one answer! Another is settle down in your centrally heated living space in your clean clothes and as you digest a meal that most Romans could only dream about read The Triumph of Caesar by Steven Saylor. This is the twelfth and latest of his justly praised Roma Sub Rosa series. Sub Rosa refers to the tradition of hanging a rose above a meeting indicating that the proceedings were confidential and secret. No Rupert Mudochs or Max Cliffords in Rome then! The main character in this, as in all the Sub Rosa series is a Roman private eye Gordianus known as The Finder and like all good fictional detectives he is not in it just for the money but for truth and justice and all that jazz. OK I'm a Cynic! In the decade or more of civil conflict in Rome Gordianus has shown himself to be, despite his son Meto being a senior aide and admirer of the newly created Dictator for Life, no supporter of Caesar. In the opening chapter he is sent for by Calpurnia, the wife of Caesar, who is convinced that there is a plot against his life and that Gordianus can discover who is behind it. She reveals that she has already hired Hieronymus of Masilia, a friend of Gordianus, to do the job but he was found in an alley behind her villa with a knife between his ribs. Gordianus, who can never resist the chance to take a high moral tone with the aristocracy, agrees to do the job in order to find the killer of his friend and will not accept a fee from her. He does, of course, in the end but that is liberals all over! Like all of Saylor's books it is well researched and unobtrusively informative. Hands up all those who knew that Caesar was awarded an unprecedented four Triumphs by the Senate. These took place over a period of eight days and form the backdrop to the action of the book. To complicate matters Calpurnia is under the influence of an Etruscan Haruspex named Porsenna who claims to be able to read the future in the entrails of animals. He did not, however, foretell the death of Hieronymus. Further, her uncle, Gnaeus Calpurnius, a Pontifex or senior priest is always on hand to pour scepticism on her concerns. Gordianus discovers the notes and reports that Hieronymus has made on his investigation which lead him to interviews with many of the leading figures of the day. Marc Antony, who is currently estranged from his friend Caesar. Cleopatra who has come to Rome to get Caesar to publicly acknowledge their son Caesarion as his heir and Cicero the elderly ex consul and enemy of Caesar who is besotted with his teenage bride. Then there is young Brutus, supposedly a friend and aide to Caesar and we all know how that ended. Once again Steven Saylor blends fact and fiction into a satisfying story which I wholeheartedly recommend.

The Art Thief

Noah Charney is a graduate of Cambridge University and the Courtauld Institute and is considered an expert on art crime so it is hardly surprising that his first novel is entitled The Art Thief. Mr Charney knows his stuff and it is perhaps his over eagerness to impart it that eventualy put me off. Charney writes in a light and witty style that originally reminded me of the late and sadly missed Kyril Bonfiglioli. The difference is that there was a glint of steel beneath the banter in Bonfiglioli's, too small, output. Charney, on the other hand, does not know when to change the mood and after about one hundred pages I had had enough. Don't get me wrong! I am sure that thousands of people will read this book and think it is brilliant but it does not work for me. Mr Charney brews a nice cup of mayhem but there is too much froth on the top for my taste.

The Forgotten Legion

The popularity of novels set in Rome and it's empire is proven by the numbers published and bought. I admit to being part of this market. The most frequent era used as the setting for these books is the end of the Republic and the first century of the Emporers, in other words from Marius to Vespasian. The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane is set at the time of the Triumvirate, approximately ten years between sixty and fifty BC when power was shared between three men, Julius Caesar, Pompey Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus. The action centres around the determination of Crassus to be publicly acknowledged as a great general, the equal of Caesar and Pompey. Some years previously it had been Crassus who had put down the Spartacus revolt but somehow Pompey, who had taken only a minor role, managed to be the one awarded a Triumph by the Senate. Crassus had brooded on this injustice ever since and it eat at him like a cancer. He took the opportunity, when made Governor of Syria, to launch a disastrous attack on Parthia which led to total defeat with the deaths of himself, his son Publius and most of his legions. The prisoners taken by the Parthians were given a choice of being executed or signing up to defend Parthia's eastern borders. As Mahomed Ali would later put it, no contest. Into this tragic story of forty thousand men sacrificed on the altar of one man's ambition Ben Kane has woven the lives of four very different characters. The first is Tarquinius last of the true blood Etruscans trained by his mentor Olenus as both a warrior and a soothsayer. The Etruscans always believed that they originated in the far east and Tarquinius is determined to travel there. We are next introduced to Brennus, a warrior of the Alobroges tribe of Gaul who is told his future by the tribal sage who predicts that he will travelwhere no Alobroge has gone before. Brennus is captured by the Romans and sold to a gladiator school. The action then moves on over a decade where Romulus and Fabiola, twins born into slavery, are now being sold by their master. Romulus is sold to the gladiator school where he meets Brennus and Fabiola to a brothel where she meets the young Brutus who falls for her and eventualy buys her. Ben Kane has written a real page turner of an adventure story just the thing for that long flight or train journey. I have, however, two small reservations. Firstly he appears to have taken his knowledge of the Spartacus revolt from the rather fanciful novel by Howard Fast or the even more fanciful film that starred Kirk Douglas. Contemporary records show a far less noble character than either film or book. My second complaint is far more serious. Mr Kane has looked up the Latin words for many everyday items and insists on using them. Worse, he puts them in italics to make sure we all get the message. Ben,mate, you are writing a book in English so a shield is a shield NOT a scutum! Apart from these minor irritants this is a very entertaining book and I look forward to the promised sequel.

The Silent Pool

At some point over the last couple of years an executive at Hodder Headline made the decision to reprint the detective stories of Patricia Wentworth. I do not know how much this person is paid but it is not enough for this is the kind of move that brings the publishing industry into high regard amongst those of us who enjoy a GOOD READ. Patricia Wentworth is one of that elite group that come to mind when the so called Golden Age of detective fiction is mentioned. Dame Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Marjorie Allingham may all be more instantly recognisable and their sleuths, Poirot, Miss Marple, Lord Peter Wimsey and Albert Campion may have been the stars of film and TV adaptation but Patricia Wentworth and Miss Silver are their equal. Unlike the above mentioned Miss Silver is never allowed to take centre stage at the expense of the other characters. She is the observer who sees most of the game and can analyse the evidence from an impartial viewpoint even though she may be contracted to one of the parties involved. To Miss Silver Justice (with a capital J) is all. In The Silent Pool Miss Silver is visited by Adriana Ford, a famous actress now retired and living in a country house surrounded by impecunious relatives. She beieves that on three ocasions someone has attempted to kill her but can provide no concrete evidence to support this. Miss Silver advises her to change her lifestyle to provide fewer opportunities for any potential killer should one exist. The narrative then turns to the cast of characters around whom the story unfolds. Miss Silver is invited to stay at the house by Miss Ford who is still concerned for her own safety, and assumes her usual quiet role as observer and adviser. The drama is played out amongst the familly and staff of the house whose characters are better rounded than in some other detective novels. At the end, of course, Miss Silver is at hand to guide the police in the right direction and all ends in a satisfactory manner. I am sure that readers new to her work will find Miss Wentworth's handling of plot and character provide a standard of civilised entertainment rare in modern detective fiction and it is therefore doubly commendable of Hodder to have given a new generation the opportunity to enjoy it.

There was considerable acclaim in the book pages of the British Press on the publication of The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie and on reading it I can understand why. The Rose Labyrinth is located in the heart of Dan Brown country and the cast of characters consists of the well educated and well rewarded middle class types who are able to pursue mysteries of this kind. Who amongst us has not asked themselves at times how the hero could afford the flights, car rentals, bribes and other expenses that are an integral part of the modern thriller? The plot concerns writings of the sixteenth century mathematician and mystic Dr John Deewhich have been hidden and can only be found by decoding clues found in the works of Shakespeare and amongst writings and artefacts passed down the female line of Dee's familly. These documents are also being sought by a group of American Evangelical Christians (well it makes a change from the Vatican) who believe that something called The Rapture is about to happen as predicted in the Book of Revelations and that Dee's writings are a way of kicking it off. There is a modicum of violence and a touch of the supernatural but mainly it is a brain busting slog through the clues that leads to the conclusion. Mrs Hardie must have done considerable research to pull all the quotes and references together for this, in many respects, very clever book. These days if a book does not grab me within the first few chapters I reckon that life is too short to persevere but, with disbeief in suspension, I found the Rose Labyrinth a ver enjoyable read right to the end.

I have recently read, and can thoroughly recommend, Blood Rock by James Jackson. This story is set during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, the epic clash between the Knights of St John and the forces of Suleiman the Magnificent which set the boundaries of Muslim expansion for four hundred years. It would have been easy for Jackson to have produced a formula adventure story constrained as he is by the events of recorded history. He avoids this by introducing characters that have all the human failings along with their strengths. None of the leading characters have immunity to sword or bullet neither does the presence of the enemy stop the political manoeuvring between different factions of the Order. The introduction of a traitor into the story brings an element of mystery and suspense with red herrings drawn across the trail until the final revelation. My one reservation, and it is a very small one, is the too convenient demise of the traitor but that is right at the end of what is a first class piece of story telling.

The official Jeffery Archer Blog is well worth a look. The man seems to be permanently travelling or visiting theatres or art galleries. When does he find time to write his books?