Review: All The Old Knives by Olen Seinhauer

Synopsis: Nine years ago, terrorists hijacked a plane in Vienna. Somehow, a rescue attempt staged from the inside went terribly wrong and everyone on board was killed.

Members of the CIA stationed in Vienna during that time were witness to this terrible tragedy, gathering intel from their sources during those tense hours, assimilating facts from the ground with a series of texts coming from one of their agents inside the plane. So when it all went wrong, the question had to be asked: Had their agent been compromised, and how?

Two of those agents, Henry Pelham and Celia Harrison, were lovers at the time, and in fact that was the last night they spent together. Until now. That night Celia decided she’d had enough; she left the agency, married and had children, and is living an ordinary life in the suburbs. Henry is still an analyst, and has traveled to California to see her one more time, to relive the past, maybe, or to put it behind him once and for all.

But neither of them can forget that long-ago question: Had their agent been compromised, and how? And each of them also wonders what role tonight’s dinner companion might have played in the way things unfolded.

All the Old Knives is Olen Steinhauer’s most intimate, most cerebral, and most shocking novel to date—from the New York Times bestselling author deemed by many to be John le Carré’s heir apparent.

I came to this through a back-handed compliment from another reader - and the premise intrigued me so much so that I read it in one sitting! And verdict - definitely one for my espionage shelf!

The narrative alternates between Henry and Celia as the meeting is arranged and finally takes place. There is the most important reflection on not only past events but also of their own relationship at the time. The narrative is punctuated with emails and other documents from the period adding context and background to the events that led to this meeting.

This is a wonderfully engrossing cat and mouse standoff between two people trained to lie and be deceptive - as Celia reflects, "...  we are both trained in manipulation ... we are both less than trustworthy ...".  Who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist remains in doubt right up to the very end.

The narrative is intense, well written, skillfully plotted and slightly ambiguous with nothing being given away - Steinhauer maintains his poke face throughout.  This is also a tale of love, revenge and betrayal - as all the pieces are placed on the chessboard, does the real narrative reveals itself, and we are forced to do a double-take and retreat back through the pages to see what we missed - and when.!

I can see why this was picked up to be made into a film - it will make for a rivetting drama, and the book itself is definitely up there with the great espionage tomes of past generations.

Review: No Light Without Shadow by Luke Gracias

Synopsis: On 06/06/06, the world’s population crossed 6.66 billion. Any further increase could only occur at the cost of other species and future generations.

This triggered the Devil’s Game. A Treasure Hunt for the twelve missing pages of the Devil’s Bible, which hold the Devil’s Prayer. A game designed for Jess Russo, the daughter of the Devil, to unleash Armageddon. Each page Jess finds encourages people to be selfish. To hoard for themselves and theirs, wiping out every chance future generations and all other species have of survival. Only her elder sister Siobhan can stop her, by finding the pages of the Devil’s Prayer hidden across the globe before Jess does.

When the bells of Amalfi Cathedral toll twelve repeatedly one night, Inspector Luca Reginalli races to find four ancient frescoes and a note in a jade sarcophagus. The cryptic note offering the Twelfth Page of the Devil’s Prayer in exchange for Siobhan goes viral. The treasure hunter Siobhan becomes the hunted.

From the Templars of Tomar to the Doomsday Chest in London, from the Tomb of Amir Temur to the Shadowless Pagoda of Wuhan, Siobhan and Reginalli follow the trail of carnage left by each page of the Devil’s Prayer.

Can they save the world from its own destruction?

Firstly please read The Devil's Prayer first and foremost as this is the sequel and makes numerous references to the first.

This is essentially the story of the survival - the survival of mankind, of the environment, of faith, of life on earth in all its form. And it preempted by a game - a battle of wits - between good and evil, light and dark, the emissaries of God and the Devil in the form of two sisters (Siobhan and Jess) and the respective mysterious religious factions that support them in their quest.

Codex Gigas

Their quest: find the twelve missing pages of the Devil's Bible - the Codex Gigas - that make up the Devils Prayer which will either save or destroy mankind, depending on who is holding the majority of the pages. The sisters' quest will take them from their hometown in Australia throughout Europe and Asia ... the path to the pages of the Devil's Prayer was littered by a trail of dead bodies ... such was the determination of each faction to take possession.

There is an abundance of research that went into the narrative, which I always appreciate when historical and religious overtones merge and meld with modern fiction. It will provoke thought and discussion and argument but ultimately the message is quite clear - the earth is the only thing we all have in common.

Review: The Heretic by Liam McIlvanney

Synopsis: From the award-winning author comes a much-anticipated sequel to the Scottish Crime Book of the Year The Quaker …

Glasgow 1975

A deadly fire

An arson attack on a Glasgow warehouse causes the deaths of a young mother and child. Police suspect it’s the latest act in a brutal gang warfare that’s tearing the city apart – one that DI Duncan McCormack has been tasked with stopping.

A brutal murder

Five years ago he was walking on water as the cop who tracked down a notorious serial killer. But he made powerful enemies and when a mutilated body is found in a Tradeston slum, McCormack is assigned a case that no one wants. The dead man is wearing a masonic ring, though, and Duncan realizes the victim is not the down-and-out his boss had first assumed.

A catastrophic explosion

As McCormack looks into both crimes, the investigations are disrupted by a shocking event. A bomb rips through a pub packed with people – and a cop is killed in the blast. The cases are stacking up and with one of his own unit now dead, McCormack is in the firing line.

But he’s starting to see a thread – one that connects all three attacks…

Following on from "The Quaker", "The Heretic" sees DI Duncan McCormack return from London back to the Serious Crime Squad based at Temple Police Station. He is not a welcome figure, despite having caught two serial killers, one of which was a serving police officer; his colleagues are quick to label his a "grass" and a "scab"; he is not a local so will always be considered an outsider.

However, McCormack's prime target is local crime boss Walter Maitland, who seems to be made from teflon, as nothing sticks This raises questions as to why Maitland is always one step ahead of the police - is the game rigged?. At the height of the "cleansing workers" strike, a vagrant is brutally murdered and left, with no identification, amongst the piles of garbage (trash), in the hopes of not being immediately found. McCormack is quickly taken off the Maitaland case and handed the less glamourous murder by his boss, DCI Haddow, who hates McCormack with a passion.

Crime has spread its tentacles, like a giant octopus, into all facets of local life, so that solving one unremarkable murder will take McCormack and his team full circle and back to their main quarry. Many seemingly unrelated threads are slowly woven together to form a cohesive, yet disturbing outcome.

McIlvanney's narrative is as gritty as the landscape itself: all the violence, social and religious prejudices and sectarianism of the time are to be found here. His characters display all the complexities and foibles of humanity: flawed, corrupt, ambitious, fragile, human.

Image by Nick Hedges

The 1970s and early 1980s were dark periods as steelworks, coal mines, engine factories and other heavy industries went out of business, leading to mass de-industrialisation. This led to mass unemployment and high levels of urban decay, with great swathes of derelict and contaminated land. The tenement housing on the peripheral had been built quickly, cheaply and with few amenities, and at length became run down and by the mid-70s were slums that could put Victorian England to shame. The streets were granite-setted, noisy, but solid; the population tightly packed in apartments that are mostly small, dark and dirty. Poor social housing, high levels of unemployment and poverty and the lack of social mobility scarred the landscape.

McCormack is heard to remark that "..... crime rises, like the bloody heat ..".  Strathclyde Police was the territorial police force which formed as a result of the amalgamation of eight regional police forces in 1975. Crime was mostly gang related and insular - as former head of Strathclyde's Serious Crime Squad, Joe Jackson relates:

"They only worked with the guys from their area and it was very hard to break into that. We could always get some people who would be grasses and we could work on that, plus there would be decent people in the areas who would help us build a picture of who was in the gangs and who was associated with them. But it was a tough game."

The Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 finally enabled women to be recruited on the same terms and conditions as men. Women were finally incorporated into the same line management structures, undertaking similar work to their male colleagues, for the first time. Up to this period, female officers could only join as part of a "completely separate" unit known as the Policewomen's Department which was seen as a "support" for male officers, remaining in the office, doing the admin work, and up to 1968, forced to retire when they were married. Nevertheless challenges remained in relation to cultural attitudes and equal representation - read more in this 2017 interview with retired Detective Chief Inspector Nanette Pollock in The Herald.

McIlvanney, as I have mentioned, has nailed the time period, and despite multiple references, I would definitely recommend reading "The Quaker" first. Looking forward to reading more.

Review: The Challenges of King by KM Ashman

Synopsis: The fight for England began long before 1066…

AD 1045. Godwin of Wessex, one of the most powerful earls in the country, prepares for the marriage of his daughter to King Edward of England. The mood is jubilant, his family’s relationship with the Crown secured through matrimony. But one man seeks to undermine him at every opportunity.

French-born Bishop of London, Robert of Jumièges, has the ear of the king. As a trusted adviser, his position is one of power and privilege, and he wields it to gain ever-greater influence over the English Crown for his kinsmen in Normandy, at Godwin’s expense.

As the bishop’s control increases, the king’s relationship with the House of Godwin frays until, eventually, it breaks down completely. With civil war looming, Godwin fights to pull England back from the brink. But with the king under Norman influence, it could be too little, too late.

The Challenges of a King is the first book in a thrilling new series from K. M. Ashman exploring the politics, promises and intrigue that led three men to contest the throne in 1066, and to the final successful invasion of England. Perfect for fans of Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell.

"Challenges of a King", the first in a forthcoming series is set in England during the 1040s and 1050s when Edward the Confessor was King,  details the rise and fall of the family of Godwin, Earl of Wessex.

The House of Godwin came into prominence under King Canute, when they emerged from obscurity to remain in the limelight and as part of the political machinery of Anglo-Saxon England until the reign of Edward the Confessor. The two eldest sons of Godwin, Sweyn and Harold, were also elevated to earldoms.

The narrative alternates between Edward and the Godwins, and gives us a sense that Edward was in control of his own destiny and of the political machinations that would ultimately lead up to the events at Hastings as we know them. One cannot but side with the Godwins against Edward's Norman advisers, who were attempting to divert the succession away from the Anglo-Saxon dynasts.

Whilst the action is predominantly confined to the halls of power, we get a true sense of the impending drama that is about to unfold. Looking forward to the next in the series.

Apparently There Were Complaints by Sharon Gless

Emmy Award­–winning actress Sharon Gless tells all in this laugh-out-loud, juicy, and touching memoir about her five decades in Hollywood, where she took on some of the most groundbreaking roles of her time.

Anyone who has seen Sharon Gless act in Cagney and Lacey, Queer as Folk, Burn Notice, and countless other shows and movies, knows that she’s someone who gives every role her all. She holds nothing back in Apparently There Were Complaints, a hilarious, deeply personal memoir that spills all about Gless’s five decades in Hollywood.

A fifth-generation Californian, Sharon Gless knew from a young age that she wanted to be an actress. After some rocky teenage years that included Sharon’s parents’ divorce and some minor (and not-so-minor) rebellion, Gless landed a coveted spot as an exclusive contract player for Universal Studios. In 1982, she stepped into the role of New York Police Detective Christine Cagney for the series Cagney and Lacey, which eventually reached an audience of 30 million weekly viewers and garnered Gless with two Emmy Awards. The show made history as the first hour-long drama to feature two women in the leading roles.

Gless continued to make history long after Cagney and Lacey was over. In 2000, she took on the role of outrageous Debbie Novotny in Queer as Folk. Her portrayal of a devoted mother to a gay son and confidant to his gay friends touched countless hearts and changed the definition of family for millions of viewers.

Apparently There Were Complaints delves into Gless’s remarkable career and explores Gless’s complicated family, her struggles with alcoholism, and her fear of romantic commitment as well as her encounters with some of Hollywood’s biggest names. Brutally honest and incredibly relatable, Gless puts it all out on the page in the same way she has lived—never with moderation.

Check out the reviews on the official Simon & Schuster page

Index, A History Of The ... by Dennis Duncan

A story of ambition, obsession and alphabetical order .....

Most of us give little thought to the back of the book - it's just where you go to look things up. But here, hiding in plain sight, is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. Here we might find Butchers, to be avoided, or Cows that sh-te Fire, or even catch Calvin in his chamberwithaNonne. This is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past. Here, for the first time, its story is told.

Charting its curious path from the monasteries and universities of thirteenth-century Europe to Silicon Valley in the twenty-first, Dennis Duncan reveals how the index has saved heretics from the stake, kept politicians from high office and made us all into the readers we are today. We follow it through German print shops and Enlightenment coffee houses, novelists' living rooms and university laboratories, encountering emperors and popes, philosophers and prime ministers, poets, librarians and - of course - indexers along the way. Revealing its vast role in our evolving literary and intellectual culture, Duncan shows that, for all our anxieties about the Age of Search, we are all index-rakersat heart, and we have been for eight hundred years.

Blog Tour - Gods of Rome

I am participating in the upcoming Blog Tour for "Gods of Rome" by Gordon Doherty & Simon Turney. "Gods of Rome" is the final part of the story of Constantine the Great and Maxentius.

Gods of Rome

For one to rule, the other must die.

312 AD is a year of horrific and brutal warfare. Constantine's northern army is a small force, plagued by religious rivalries, but seemingly unstoppable as they invade Maxentius' Italian heartlands. These relentless clashes, incidents of treachery and twists of fortune see Maxentius' armies driven back to Rome.

Constantine has his prize in sight, yet his army is diminished and on the verge of revolt. Maxentius meanwhile works to calm a restive and dissenting Roman populace. When the two forces clash in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, there are factors at work beyond their control and soon they are left with carnage.

There is only one way Constantine and Maxentius' rivalry will end. With one on a bloodied sword and the other the sole ruler of Rome...

My review here >>> Gods of Rome

Masters of Rome

Their rivalry will change the world forever.

As competition for the imperial throne intensifies, Constantine and Maxentius realise their childhood friendship cannot last. Each man struggles to control their respective quadrant of empire, battered by currents of politics, religion and personal tragedy, threatened by barbarian forces and enemies within.

With their positions becoming at once stronger and more troubled, the strained threads of their friendship begin to unravel. Unfortunate words and misunderstandings finally sever their ties, leaving them as bitter opponents in the greatest game of all, with the throne of Rome the prize.

It is a matter that can only be settled by outright war..

My review here >>> Masters of Rome

Sons of Rome

Four Emperors. Two Friends. One Destiny.

As twilight descends on the 3rd century AD, the Roman Empire is but a shadow of its former self. Decades of usurping emperors, splinter kingdoms and savage wars have left the people beleaguered, the armies weary and the future uncertain. And into this chaos Emperor Diocletian steps, reforming the succession to allow for not one emperor to rule the world, but four.

Meanwhile, two boys share a chance meeting in the great city of Treverorum as Diocletian's dream is announced to the imperial court. Throughout the years that follow, they share heartbreak and glory as that dream sours and the empire endures an era of tyranny and dread. Their lives are inextricably linked, their destinies ever-converging as they rise through Rome's savage stations, to the zenith of empire. For Constantine and Maxentius, the purple robes beckon...

My review here >>> Sons of Rome