Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

On Kindle via Project Gutenberg

This is the sequel to "The Three Musketeers" and in my opinion is a more enjoyable book.   All the quartet from the previous novel are reintroduced this time to cope with the machinations of Cardinal Mazarin, an Italian of such reprehensible character as to make them long for the good old days of Cardinal Richelieu.
Anne of Austria, the Queen Mother, is Regent for King Louis the Fourteenth and is very much under the influence of Mazarin which causes a group of nobles to form an opposition party known as the Fronde.   D'Artagnan as a lieutenant in the Musketeers must support the Queen which also means Mazarin whilst Athos and Aramis are with the Fronde. Porthos is persuaded to join D'Artagnan though neither are keen to support anything to do with Mazarin. Into the plot comes a young man who is the son of the infamous Lady de Winter who was executed at the behest of the Musketeers in the previous novel.   Needless to say this young man is bent on vengeance and contrives to cause the quartet a heap of trouble before he is overcome.
Twenty Years After is an excellent book that I had intended to read for years but never got round to and I can thank a dose of the 'flu for finaly bringing me to settle down to it.
As the saying goes they don't write them like that any more which is all the more reason to cherish them now.

Come like shadows by Simon Raven

Out of print and picked up in a secondhand bookshop - yes there are still a few.

Twenty years ago I discovered Simon Raven and read every one of his books that I could get my hands on.    Unfortunately this was a difficult prospect even then as, like many quality writers, one edition was all that his publisher would risk.   It is still possible to come across a volume in one of the increasingly rare secondhand shops, charity shops are only interested in recently printed mass market stuff.  
"Come like shadows" is one of a series of novels that Raven entitled "Alms for Oblivion" and wove stories around a range of exotic characters.
This novel concerns Fielding Grey, a novelist ex soldier, who is hired by an American film company to work on a script based on The Odyssey.   He travels to Corfu where the film is to be shot and all is well until a team of academics from the University, one of whose trust funds is putting up the money for the film, arrive to check on progress.   They reveal that the University had been taken over by the students, this being the early seventies, who were incensed that Homer only wrote about Kings and warriors and were demanding that working class characters be introduced.   The students insist that one of the actresses, a Vanessa Redgrave type, be given supervision of the script and the producer gives Grey the job of ensuring that her intervention causes least possible harm.  
This, like all Raven novels, is excellent.   His subtle prose brings acceptability to highly coloured characters and situations and wafts the reader along like a Rolls Royce limo and produces the same feeling of being somehow introduced to a higher plane.

The Killing Way by Anthony Hays

Set at the Court of King Arthur this story owes more to Ellis Peters than Thomas Mallory.

Ambrosius the High King of the Britons has called a meeting of his Lords to select his successor.   It is well known that he favours Arthur his most competant general but on the eve of the meeting a young girl is found murdered outside the hut of Merlin, Arthur's friend and counsellor.   That this is intended to blacken Arthur's reputation and sabotage his election is obvious to him and so he asks Malgyn a crippled ex soldier to investigate.

Like the late Ellis Peters Anthony Hays prose style tends to stroll rather than race to it's conclusion but nonetheless this is an entertaining read.

The Istanbul Puzzle by Laurence O'Bryan

Starting out as a Dan Brownish search for ancient artefacts it then turns into a conspiracy thriller concerning a lethal virus.   By the end I was unsure who was supposed to be doing what to whom and why and I cannot help the feeling that Mr O'Bryan was as much in the dark as I was.

London is being torn apart by Muslim demonstrators following a police raid on a mosque.   Sean Ryan, an American working in Oxford, learns that a collegue has been murdered in Istanbul and flies there to investigate where he is instantly targeted by assassins.   Rescued by Isabel Sharp from the British Embassy (the love interest) they survive numerous adventures before the climax in London.

I cannot escape the feeling that Mr O'Bryan originaly intended this to be about a Muslim plot to take over Britain until someone (his publisher?) decided that it was too much of a risk to go ahead.   The result is that the reader is left with a conspiracy without a satisfactory explanation for it's existance.

Newton's Fire by Will Adams

 Will Adams has a well deserved reputation for fast paced, all action global conspiracy thrillers usualy combined with well researched links to historical events.   Newton's Fire is a fine example of this genre and kept this reader turning the pages and compensated for being trapped indoors with a terrible cold and even worse weather.
Luke Hayward is a Newton expert who is contracted to find some missing manuscripts.   Little does he know that he is on the fringes of a world wide conspiracy that includes big business, the Vice President of the United States and a group of extreme Zionists in Israel.   The idea is that the Zionists would destroy the mosque known as the Dome of the Rock and start an all out war with Israel's Arab neighbours.   The Vice President is a member of an extreme evangelical church who believe that such a conflict would presage the second coming of Christ and so she puts all the resources of the American secret service at the conspirators disposal.   Hayward and a handful of friends manage to frustrate this terrifying prospect and the best part is that the book is so good that by this time I has forgotten how prepostorous the whole thing was and happily rolled along to the death defying conclusion.
Just one more thing (as Columbo might say) chapter twelve contains one of the best descriptions of our so-called Special Relationship with the USA that I have ever read.   Worth the price of the book for this alone!

The Chosen Seed by Sarah Pinborough

This is the final volume of the "Dog Faced Gods" trilogy and it is a fitting climax to a remarkable series.   Pinborough is not the first writer to attempt to combine the supernatural with a police thriller but I cannot think of anyone who has done it better.
Although the book can be read alone the reader will only fully appreciate the story if having read the previous two volumes - "A Matter of Blood" and "The Shadow of the Soul".   With this in mind it is very difficult to give a summary of the plot without effectively spoiling it for the reader therefore I will refrain.   All I will say is that I recommend obtaining all three volumes and then settling down to one of the most entertaining reading experiences it is possible to get.

                                                            ENJOY!

Silk Road by Colin Falconer

At the end of the Crusading era the Christian kingdoms of Palestine are clinging on by their finger tips despite the fact that they have managed to arrive at some sort of compromise with many Muslim rulers based on commercial expediency.   Suddenly the Tatar hordes of the sons of Genghis Khan explode into the area destroying the centuries old civilisations of the Euphrates valley as they go.   The Grand Master of the Templars decides to contact them to see if a pact can be arranged against their mutual enemy the Saracens and sends a French knight, Joseran, as his emissary.   The Pope decides to send a Dominican Friar, William of Augsberg, as a missionary to spread the Gospel amongst the Tatars and Joseran is made reponsible for his safety, not an easy task as William's fanaticism leads them into otherwise avoidable dangers which task Joseran's wit and courage to the limit to recue them.   The Tatar leader at Aleppo sends them on to the Court of the Great Khan north of modern Beijing, an immense journey over freezing mountains and baking deserts.   On the way Joseran meets and falls in love with Khutelun, daughter of a Tatar Khan, which leads to more trouble and then when they arrive near the Tatar capital a civil war breaks out.   Sometimes you just know that the whole mission was a mistake!
Don't get me wrong this is a rip-roaring adventure story well researched and well written that will be enjoyed by male readers and quite a few female readers too.

Warlord by James Steel

Despite being blest with fertile soils, ample rain and plenteous mineral wealth the Democratic Republic of Congo is a poverty stricken shambles.   Under the corrupt reign of President Mobutu life for the ordinary citizen was hell on earth, their property and their bodies at the mercy of anyone with a gun and a uniform.   For the people of Kivu Province the situation was made worse when thousands of Hutu militia from Rwanda crossed the border fleeing retribution for their massacre of Tutsi tribesmen.   The central government, barely in control of the western half of the country, virtualy wrote off Kivu and left it to the rival militias.   However, the province had huge mineral wealth including the rare earths so badly needed for modern electronics and so a group of Chinese businessmen came up with a revolutionary solution, they would lease the province from the central government.

Alex Devereaux heads a military solution company (they don't like being called mercenaries these days) and having just finished a lucrative job is looking forward to a long period of rest and recreation when a Chinese businessman, Wu Fang, arrives to offer him a contract to supply a battalion of fighting men to provide the security in the new state of Kivu which the Chinese are setting out to create.   Wu Fang and his partners are putting up six billion dollars for infrastructure projects and to put mining in the province on a sound commercial footing but without Alex establishing law and order it will all be in vain.   The Chinese have a local politician called Rukuba to front the operation and Alex, intrigued by the sheer scale of the plan agrees to set up the security.   Needless to say that although Alex and his experienced professionals make mincemeat of the amateur thugs of the militias there are other forces at work that will bring the operation to a halt.

As readers of my blog will have noticed I am an historical novel fan and very rarely read a book set in the present day but I am very glad that I took the time to read Warlord.   The majority of the book is taken up with descriptions of the planning and execution of the military operations against the militias and what excellent descriptions they are.   Is James Steel an ex-soldier?   I think that he must be as he takes the reader through the intricate details of setting up the operations and coping with the interferance of politicians, journalists and NGOs all of whom have their own agendas.   This book kept me up until the early hours as I just could not put it down!   Highly recommended!

The Eagle of the Twelfth by M.C. Scott

This is the third in a series of novels telling of the career of Pantera, by appointment spy and assassin to the Emperor Nero.
The novel opens as Pantera has been sent to Parthia disguised as a merchant and accompanied by two soldiers he has picked  from the Legion Fifth Macedonica, Cadus a centurion and Demalion a squadie with a knowledge of horses.   In Parthia the King Vologases has been overthrown by Vardanes  who, to consolidate his reign, was pushing for a war with Rome.   Pantera has been sent to effect regime change.   He does.
On their way back to rejoin General Corbolo Pantera reveals that he has been ordered to return to Britain but that Cadus and Demalion have been transferred to the Twelfth Fulminata a Legion with a terrible reputation.   To make matters worse the Twelfth has been removed from the command of General Corbolo and given to Gallas, a politician whose only concern is his own advancement.   Corbolo has struck a deal with the Parthians that no Romans would cross the Euphrates but Gallas promptly takes the Twelfth across which leads to them being virtualy wiped out.
Demalion, now a centurion, is one of the few survivors and is instrumental in rebuilding the Legion but no sooner have they accomplished this than they are put under the command of another incompetant and lead to anihilation in Judea and this time they face the shame of losing the Eagle.
During the battle who should turn up advising the Hebrew King but Pantera.   Has Nero's number one agent turned traitor or are the plots becoming deeper and darker?   Will Demalion and the one other survivor of the massacre be able to rescue the Eagle?   Will Pantera come to their rescue?
Manda Scott has written another ripping page- turning yarn about the era that I love and the best part is that the next volume in the series has just come out!

The Eye of Osiris by R. Austin Freeman

On Kindle via Project Gutenburg

I have always enjoyed detective stories set in the Victorian and Edwardian eras written by modern authors and it is interesting to contrast their style with the authors who began and developed the genre.   Such a one was R. Austin Freeman whose main work was published in the first three decades of the twentieth century and acheived great popularity.   His detective, Dr John Thorndyke, was both a doctor of medicine and a barrister and his cerebral approach to detection lead to his being classed as a "rival to Sherlock Holmes".   Like Holmes his cases are always narrated by a third person and in "The Eye of Osiris" this is a medical practitioner, Dr Paul Berkley.
Berkley is acting as locum in a practice in Fetter Lane off Fleet Street and visits one Godfrey Bellingham, a gentleman in reduced circumstances.   Through Godfrey he learns of the mysterious disappearance of John Bellingham and how the lawyer, Jellicoe, who drew up and is executor of John's  will is attempting to have him declared dead and to exclude Godfrey from inheritance.   Berkley takes the case to Thorndyke, not least because he has become enamoured of Godfrey's daughter Ruth, and Thorndyke begins an investigation on his behalf.   When parts of a human skeleton are discovered in the area where John Bellingham was last seen it would appear that Jellicoe is home and dry but Thorndyke's ability to see past the obvious means that the truth is brought to light and that justice is done.
I found this a very enjoyable book with a good plot and the author playing fair by presenting all the clues to the reader.   Some modern readers may, however, be put off by the writing style.   Like all writers of his era Freeman is very wordy.   I think that this can be partly put down to the elaborate manners and courtesies of the age which would not tolerate the terse conversations which are found in modern novels also that those who could afford to buy and read books then would appear to have had a higher standard of literacy than is found today.   As this can be downloaded free from Project Gutenberg I would recommend any lover of detective stories to give it a try.

The Final Winter by Iain Rob Wright

From Kindle

This is a very fair example of the novel of the supernatural, which is not my favourite genre as they are often very similar and strain to produce the thrills.   Wright, however, has managed to produce something rather more original than the usual run.
The whole world is being smothered in a blanket of snow, even the tropics and the deserts crouch under arctic blizzards.   In a pub called The Trumpet (this must be in the West Midlands) the main character Harry watches the reports on the bar TV until the signal finally fails.   Keeping him company as he tries to drown the grief of losing his wife and son to a traffic accident are Steph the barmaid, old Graham an ex soldier, Nigel a lorry driver and Damian the local gangster.   As the power is cut off and the snow falls relentlessly they are joined by the staff of the local supermarket who report seeing creatures so frightening that they are disbelieved by the others until events prove their veracity.  
Further description of the plot would merely spoil a good few hours read for anyone ready to take a chance on an unknown writer.