M is for... how to murder a man

how to murder a man by Carlo Gébler is a fascinating story set in Ireland in the 1850s. Thomas French takes the job of land agent and with many tenants in arrears sets about taking the land back by paying the tenants exactly what they owe and passage to a new life in America. However the ribbonmen, a terrorist conspiracy not unlike the later Klu Klux Klan, denounce this abuse of tenant right and make arrangements to have the agent killed. Intertwined with French's fate is the tragic love-story of Tim and Kitty. Her father forbids the romance and Tim in a fit of pique signs up with the ribbonmen... Gébler's rural Ireland is extremely well-drawn and the characterisation of not only the good but the evil in this story goes a long way to explaining the humanity or lack of it which drives men to fight for or against peace. Based loosely on a true story...

N is for... Dr No

I'm a big fan of the Bond films so when I came across an old sixties paperback of Dr No recently, I thought it might be fun to read whether the books matched the quality of the movies (or vice versa). Dr No was in fact not the first Bond novel but the sixth. However there are only a few references to previous adventures so series sequence is not that much of a problem. Ian Fleming is a rather descriptive author and although his style wins no marks for complex plotting (the story is told in a slightly plodding sequence) his ideas are quite fresh and conversations true to the post-Colonial British days in which he writes. Suprisingly there is a lot less sex and action than you would expect... The plot of course concerns the secret of Dr No's heavily guarded island - why is one of the world's largest exporter's of guano dust so keen to stop anyone visiting his island? Is it as good as the films? Well perhaps not, as the cinematic version seems a little less dated. However at less than 200 pages, reading Dr No is not a bad way to spend a few hours relaxing...

O is for... Joseph O'Connor

Set in Nicaragua in the 1980s Desperadoes by Joseph O'Connor concerns the search for a missing Irishman in the warzones of the country. Frank and Eleanor Little arrive to identify the body of their son Johnny but discover instead that the body has been mis-identified. With the rock-group that Johnny was a part of, they set out in a multi-coloured tour van to find out what has really happened. Full of likeable and strange characters this novel is poetic, funny and tragic at the same time.

P is for... Ellis Peters

The Devil's Novice by Ellis Peters. With any long running series of books featuring the same characters, there is a danger of the reader suffering the literary equivalent of deja-vu. Nevertheless I find reading a Brother Cadfael book a refreshing way to rest the brain between heavier novels. In The Devil's Novice a young man Brother Merriet, who seems meek during the day, is at night visited by violent and terrifying dreams. Does the boy harbour a dark secret and what is his connection with the disappearance of a young cleric who was on a mission of political diplomacy? Many of the Cadfael books have been made into fairly entertaining television films, although the part of Cadfael I had always pictured to be more like Sean Connery than Derek Jacobi... All the books in the series are well-researched in medieval religious and medical practice, and each retains interest by delivering the clues and plot-twists just at the right pace to keep the reader guessing...

R is for... Ian Rankin

The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin is the 9th novel in a series concerning DI Rebus. The writer is new to me and despite dipping in late to the series I found no trouble picturing the main character, a policeman of the old school, struggling to give up the hard-drinking. Set in Edinburgh, this novel begins with three mysteries: is the Professor of German at the local university really an SS war criminal as alleged?; how did the Bosnian girl who works as a prostitute under the name Candice come to the city and what is her connection with local gangster Tommy Telford?; and was the hit and run that has put Rebus' daughter in hospital an accident or something more sinister? Fast paced yet complex...

S is for... The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza

The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza by Lawrence Block is the fourth novel featuring Bernie Rhodenbarr, lazy bookseller by day and burglar by night. When Bernie and his poodle-washing sidekick Carolyn decide to visit the house of a pair of out-of-town doglovers, they don't reckon for the amazing find in the couple's safe or the fact that they are only the second of three burglary attempts on the same night. And when the victim's wife turns up dead the next morning, the easy job looks set to become a very hot caper indeed. Lightweight throughout Block's witty prose makes this a undemanding little whodunnit of a highly diverting kind...

T is for... The Trickster

The Trickster by Muriel Gray is set in a small skiing town in the Canadian rockies. Sam Hunt has rejected his Indian upbringing and lives happily with his wife and children despite the fact that prejudice against the colour of his skin has led him to a menial job on the town of Silver's skiing slopes. However an ancient evil has reawakened in the railway tunnels in the mountains above the town, and Sam must return to the native teachings of his childhood in order to save his family and mankind from its threat. Gray, despite her Scottishness, has a Stephen King-like ability to interweave strong characters and the North American small-town setting, with the darkness of a horror-driven plot.

V is for... Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord

Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernières is set in an un-named South America country, held in the grip of warlords running the coca trade to feed the world's drug habit. Dionisio Vivo, a lecturer in philosophy, becomes a national hero when his outspoken letters against the trade, and the corrupt government which allows it to flourish, are printed in the national quality press. Highly comic, the book follows the romance between Dionisio and Anica, the daughter of an arms-dealer and the attempts of the coca lord El Jerarca to permanently silence his critic. de Bernières has a knack for painting even his minor characters vividly and sympathetically and with great wit. The dark reality beneath the comedy is never far away however, and towards the end of the book this becomes all the more disturbing to read because of the almost flippant tone early on.

W is for... Working It Out

Working It Out by Alex George is a funny first novel. Johnathan Burlip, a corporate lawyer with an unfortunate way with animals finally ditches his overbearing girlfriend but also loses his job. Forced to work as an all-round lawyer for a less salubrious law firm, he is soon embroiled in his half-brother's debt problems with a local hoodlum. He also has to deal with his parents who refuse to believe that he isn't gay even when introduced to his latest girlfriend, the unpredictable Kibby. The novel loses steam close to the end but with colourful characters and funny situations, George shows a great deal of promise for the future...

Z is for... The Zigzag Kid

The Zigzag Kid by David Grossman and translated by Betsy Rosenberg, is a novel about finding out who you are. A week before his bar mitzvah Amnon Feuerberg is sent by his policeman father and the woman who has effectively been his mother, Gabi, to visit his uncle, a distinguished educator. However the train journey is quickly interrupted by the first of a series of strange characters his parents have set up for him to meet. Not quite following the plot of this game, Amnon discovers Felix, a notorious master criminal, is also a traveller on the train. With Felix he then embarks on a different adventure altogether, and one which reveals the hidden past of the boy's dead mother... I found the book at first a little uneasy and later a little too romantic but in places Grossman shows a fine flair for imaginative writing. The boy's description of the ever-increasing dares of childhood play, and his anxieties about family loyalty were also strong points. Rewarding if not altogether convincing.