Recommended Reads Blog
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Blacktop Wasteland
Blacktop Wasteland
S.A Cosby
Today’s #RecommendedRead is the multi-award-winning Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby. Believe me when I say it is worthy of all the praise that it has earned.The book is set in the US State of Virginia and follows Beauregard “Bug” Montage. A skilled mechanic and loving family man, he’s long since moved on from his former life as a ‘wheelman’ – the best getaway driver east of the Mississippi. Now he runs his own garage with his cousin, Kelvin, and takes part in illegal drag races in the over-powered Duster left him by his long-gone father.
But when life deals him repeated blows and everything starts to fall apart, he is unable to turn down one last job…This book is so many things, but first and foremost it is a fantastic, page-turning thriller. The action is relentless, vividly described and visceral. The plot twists and turns, and Cosby invokes a real sense of jeopardy; he’s brutal when he needs to be, but isn’t afraid to be tender if necessary.
The central character, Bug, is wonderfully complex. Likeable and unpleasant by turns, you find yourself rooting for him, whilst despairing at some of the choices he makes.
The book itself is a study of poverty, embedded as it is in rural communities for whom the ‘American Dream’ is just a fantasy. Cosby depicts both poor black Americans in a society where overt racism is still rife, and self-confessed white trash, with an equally harsh, yet oddly sympathetic eye.
But what elevates it most is Cosby’s use of language. From the vivid descriptions of the sun-baked Virginian plains, which verge upon the poetic, to the authentically rendered-dialogue, the pages are filled with idiosyncratic turns of phrase.This was an absolutely fantastic read, and I can’t wait to see what Cosby writes next.
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Dead Mans Grave
Dead Man’s Grave
Neil Lancaster
Neil Lancaster is a former Military Police officer and Metropolitan Police detective, and so, as a writer of police procedurals myself, I was excited to read something by somebody who really knows what he is talking about!
Dead Man’s Grave is the first in a new series starring DS Max Cragie, a former Metropolitan Police detective who relocates from London to Scotland, after an armed operation goes wrong.
The book starts with the discovery of a grave by the head of one of Scotland’s most notorious crime families, inscribed with the ominous words ‘This Grave Can Never Be Opened‘ . The murder of the crime boss uncovers a blood feud dating back to the 1890s and leads to the unmasking of a corruption conspiracy at the heart of Police Scotland.
As you’d expect from a man with Lancaster’s experience, the book is packed with authentic police procedure, but more importantly, it’s a damned good read! The plot is complex, with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. Several times throughout the book, the story seems to be heading for a conclusion, but Lancaster throws in a sudden swerve that takes the story off in a different direction, until it finally reaches an explosive and satisfying conclusion.
From the outset, the characters leap off the page; from Cragie’s gloriously foul-mouthed boss DI Ross Fraser, to the sparky DC Janie Calder, they are all expertly realised. Cragie and Calder make for a compelling duo, with just enough revealed about their backstory to hint that the series has legs.
In the interests of disclosure, Neil and I share the same publisher, which in part is how I obtained this advanced reader’s copy. But as I have always made clear, books only appear on this blog if I have genuinely enjoyed them and think others will also.
So I have no hesitation in making this a #RecommendedRead.Dead Man’s Grave is available for pre-order from HQ Stories, and is published in July 2021.
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Truth Games
Truth Games
Caroline England
Today’s #RecommendedRead is something a little different for me. Having read a number of police procedurals and thrillers over the past few weeks, I was looking for something with a different pace and less structure, and so I jumped at the chance to read a copy of Caroline England’s domestic psychological thriller.
I will say from the outset, that this is a masterclass in slow-burn plotting.
The protagonist of the book is Ellie, a mother of three living in suburban Greater Manchester. All we know, when the book opens is that something happened almost twenty years previously during a stoned game of truth or dare in a student house in Leeds…
Ellie’s story slowly unfolds in the present day as events in her somewhat humdrum domestic existence are interspersed with hidden memories of a confusing childhood, flashbacks to her traumatic student days and muddled night terrors.
Her relationships with her parents, her partner, and the collection of friends and former flatmates that remain part of her social circle are all re-examined. The description of modern family life is rendered expertly, with a forensic eye for detail; everything feels plausible and somehow grounded.
But the real skill in this book is the way in which tiny clues are seeded throughout the book. What really happened back then? What is really happening today? With this sort of slowly unfolding story, the reader has time to think about what they suspect really took place and try to second guess what the next revelation will be, or the real explanation behind strange events – yet time and time again, England confounded my predictions.
The truth when it is finally revealed is shocking, yet all the evidence was there and it all adds up. The final denouement is fiendish.This was my first Caroline England novel, but reading through the comments from other authors, I can see why she is so highly regarded.
I highly recommend this.
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One Good Deed
One Good Deed
David Baldacci
David Baldacci is one of the most prolific of the ‘big name’ authors writing in the crime and thriller genre today, and I have been a huge fan for years. I have an entire shelf, double-stacked, of his books and will need to reorganise my bookcases before I can add more to my collection.
In addition to some great standalones, Baldacci really excels when it comes to juggling multiple series. At any one time, he usually has two or three separate series on the go, switching between protagonists, before introducing a new character and writing several starring that person. Typically, he writes modern thrillers, often with FBI or Secret Service agents, or in the case of John Puller, a military investigator.
Following the logic that he’s never let me down before, when adding books to my Amazon wish list for Christmas, I saw One Good Deed, subtitled ‘Introducing Aloysius Archer’, and I didn’t even read the jacket blurb. I just clicked add.
So I had absolutely no idea until I plucked the book off the very generous stack that my family had bought me for Christmas what a departure it was from his usual fare.Unlike his other series, this one is set in 1949. Archer, a young man who served his country admirably in the Second World War, leaves prison early after serving time for a crime he did not commit. Following the terms of his release, he catches the bus to the town of Poca City, where he is to meet his parole officer weekly, find gainful employment, and avoid drink and loose women.
Within 24 hours of signing into the local hotel where all new parolees start their new lives, he meets a beautiful woman, is employed as a debt collector by the wealthiest man in town and convinces his parole officer that there is no need of her offer of a job bashing in hogs’ skulls at the local pork farm.
All seems well and Archer is looking forward to biding his time and getting his life on track. And then there’s a murder…I really enjoyed this. Most of what I read and write is contemporary, so this was a refreshing change. I’m in no position to express an opinion on how accurate the details are, but it certainly feels authentic and Baldacci has clearly spent time researching the time period. The dialogue is snappy and reminiscent of the various movies of the time that I have seen, the characters are vividly described and the plot is a cracking whodunnit.
The advantage of writing a novel set seventy years ago, is that so much of what we take for granted in modern fiction is not available. That’s not to say that it is easier to write in that period – far from it – but it allows for a different type of story to be told that just wouldn’t be possible nowadays, and that brings its own pleasure. The fact is, DCI Warren Jones could have solved the case in 48 hours. His team of CSIs would have identified the murderer from the DNA evidence left at the scene, their alibi would have been destroyed by their mobile phone location history, and they’d probably have been caught on CCTV.
Instead, we are treated to good old-fashioned detective work; tracking down witnesses, wearing out the shoe leather, and fine, deductive reasoning. The book is generous in length, but paced perfectly and draws the reader in with plenty of twists and turns, and expertly crafted reveals. The motives and the reasons behind the shocking events when they are finally uncovered are both complex and simple – just like all the best stories.There is a sequel due later this year, and I will be adding it to my wish list for next Christmas.
I heartily recommend this book.
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Pieces of Her
Pieces Of Her
Karin Slaughter
Today’s recommended read is another from the pile of Christmas and birthday presents.
I have enjoyed Karin Slaughter for years. I first discovered her around about the same time I stumbled across Lee Child, so that’s another massive thank you to Manchester City Council’s public library system.
I started with her Grant County series, continued with her Will Trent series and kept on going as the two series merged. I’ve never been to that part of the US but Slaughter is a native of the state of Georgia and these books capture the good, the bad, the ugly and the quirky of that unique state. Slaughter’s unflinching, often brutal stories are nevertheless beautifully written and I find them a true pleasure.
Alongside her series, she also does a mean line in standalone thrillers, and Pieces Of Her is her 2018 entry (I am baffled as to how I missed its publication, but hey-ho, I got it for Christmas).The story concerns Andrea, a meek, unfulfilled young woman living above her mother’s garage. The two women are in a coffee shop, when a gunman enters. What happens next stuns Andy and turns on its head everything she thought she knew about her mother.
Slaughter excels at writing richly-layered, flawed characters and pushing them to their extremes, and this book is no different. Even better are her complex, clever plots that really do keep you guessing.
For example, in this book, I was pretty convinced early on that I knew what the big twist would be. It was the only logical explanation. That’s fine; even if I’ve figured that out, I know that I am still going to enjoy a damn good ride.
But readers can be a fickle bunch – for everyone that feels somewhat smug that they have guessed the author’s intentions (yeah, that’d be me), there are those that get in a huff and write grumpy Amazon reviews claiming that the book is predictable, the author is running out of ideas etc etc.
So about 100 pages in, Slaughter had one of her characters voice my theory – and promptly shot it down. Emphatically. No room for deception by the character. Basically Slaughter is telling the reader directly that if you think that I have taken the easy way out and gone for the obvious explanation, you’re wrong.
Awesome, now we’re cooking!
And so for the rest of the book the reader finds themselves slowly unpicking the story as each clue is revealed, piece by piece. What puts Slaughter at the top of her game is her very clever manipulation of the reader. She is extremely good at giving you just enough information so that sometimes you feel that you are running a few pages ahead, feeling triumphant that you have foreseen what’s happening next. Then on other occasions pulls the carpet from under you, confounding your expectations. That’s a real skill.
So, like all of Karin Slaughter’s books, this one that I heartily recommend and I look forward to seeing what NetFlix do with it!
