"The Daylight Gate," by Jeanette Winterson

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

In my last post I admitted to not having read very much Oscar Wilde and to neglecting the classics in general. In this post, I have to admit that I have read very little of Jeanette Winterson's writing. I think that I read "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit" a long time ago, but nothing else since. And, to be honest, I am not sure that I would have found my way to reading this novel, had I not been loaned it by a friend and Hammer horror fan (this is published by Hammer).

In common with the last book that I read and reviewed on this blog, "Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol," Jeanette Winterson's novel takes its starting point from historical events.  In "The Daylight Gate," she takes real-life figures from historical records of the 1612 Trial of the Lancashire Witches - both the accused and the accusers - and weaves them into a fictional narrative. This was something that I know little about, but since reading this novel I have been finding out more about the history from this fascinating website.

Although I enjoyed the story and the historical background was interesting, I don't think that this has inspired me to seek out other novels by Jeanette Winterson. I do concede, though, that as I have not read much by her before I don't know how typical this novel is of her normal writing style.  I found that her prose was very bare - quite short sentences, to the point, with not much extraneous detail - and I think that it was probably too bare for my taste.  It's odd that the same friend who I borrowed this book from had also loaned me "The Woman in Black."  When I wrote about Susan Hill's ghost story here, I wrote that I found her descriptive writing hard to grip on to.  Curiously I found it hard to get a grip on Winterson's writing in this novel due to the paucity of description.  Just call me awkward; I'm sure my husband probably does.

I also felt that, although there are grim and gruesome parts of this book, it wasn't especially scary - and I did have the expectation that it would be because this was published by Hammer.  In this respect I felt that "The Woman in Black" was more effective, although I should admit that my limited horror reading does incline more towards the ghostly than the witchy (despite having called our cat Pyewacket, which is the name of a witch's familiar in a play I love called "Bell, Book and Candle").  One reason why I favoured "The Woman in Black" was that Susan Hill took us more into Arthur Kipps's fear, reactions and emotions - and fear can be incredibly catching - while Jeanette Winterson's sparse style seems to take the dictum of "show, don't tell" to extremis.  I didn't feel that I got much of a sense of the inner life of her characters - although the lesbian love story part of the novel was poignant and effective - and I wanted more insight into them.  

If you are interested in reading or watching something about witchcraft and history, I would be more inclined to recommend "Vinegar Tom" by Caryl Churchill.  This is a theatre work which I have never seen staged, but I remember reading and enjoying the script when I was at university.

Although this did not necessarily work for me, I am still intrigued to read more that has been published by Hammer and I do like a good ghost story.  In particular I am keen to get my hands on "The Greatcoat," by Helen Dunmore....

"Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol," by Gyles Brandreth

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

This is the most recent in Gyles Brandreth's series of novels that feature Oscar Wilde as detective, and you can also find reviews of some of the previous entries in the series on this blog.  This novel takes place at a time nearing the end of Oscar's tragically short life, so it looks likely that this is the last in what has been an entertaining series.

The framing narrative for this novel takes place after Oscar Wilde has left Reading Gaol.  Oscar is in Dieppe, and is approached by a mysterious man who asks him to write about his time in prison - it is this account that forms the spine of the story.  This finds Oscar at his lowest ebb, having just been found guilty of gross indecency, suffering dysentery in prison, deprived of books, writing materials, fine food, drink and society.  In the solitary hell of Wandsworth Prison, a brutal warder bursts into Oscar's cell at night, raging against him, and then drops dead.  When Oscar is moved to Reading Gaol, the mystery follows him.

This is a more pared down entry to the series with a smaller cast of supporting characters by dint of its claustrophobic, insular setting.  Neither Conan Doyle nor Bram Stoker feature as characters - and I did miss them - but, according to the acknowledgements, many of the other characters were real-life figures at the time who Brandreth has similarly fictionalised.  The lack of Conan Doyle, although he is mentioned, does mean that the element of reverse engineering of Holmesian plots - which I wrote about in previous reviews of the series, and sometimes found problematic - is less prevalent in this novel.

I am still less adept at recognising where Oscar Wilde ends and Brandreth begins than I am spotting the Conan Doyle allusions.  I keep thinking that I should read more of the classics - I have read very few since leaving academic life - and then I get distracted by the latest Janet Evanovich or Howard Jacobson (granted, the latter is rather more literary than the former). I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't read Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol," so some of Brandreth's phraseology might be trying to emulate it in ways that I am too poorly read to recognise.

This is a good breakfast book series, which I enjoyed (although I am not sure reading about dysentery is the best breakfast reading) and I always find it interesting when an author merges real historical figures with fiction.  They are entertaining mysteries that draw on Wilde, Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker but - aptly as I did write that I should read more classics - I do feel inclined to go back and re-read the Sherlock Holmes stories or novels, "Dracula," or "The Picture of Dorian Gray" while I doubt that I would return to read this series again.

This year's project

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

I've had an idea for my reading this year, which was hinted at in my previous post when I said that I was consecutively re-reading the Merrily Watkins series of supernatural mysteries by Phil Rickman.  This year I am going to be all about the series.  This might mean that I will post a bit less frequently on here - and it might be a good thing to have a little blogging break - but I will keep popping in with random thoughts and other one off reviews (I badly need to catch up on my review copies).

So far I am thinking this year that I will (re)read the following series:

The Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman

I've currently nearly finished the fifth, "The Prayer of the Night Shepherd," which might be my favourite, as its plot deals with Conan Doyle and the possibility that the hound was inspired by Hereford legend rather than Devonian.  As a south-west girl, I heartily refute this: I've even visited the grave of the guy who was meant to have inspired the character of Hugo Baskerville and got a bit freaked out, which I wrote about in the course of a review here.  As it has quite a human rather than supernatural resolution, I've never quite understood why "The Hound of the Baskervilles" gets described as horror - but Rickman has the interesting idea that Conan Doyle shied away from the supernatural because, in the words of one of Rickman's characters, something happened that "disturbed Conan Doyle enough to send him into complete denial and turn the Hound into a detective story with a weak ending".

Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series

I love this series, but I'm a bit behind (I haven't read the last one yet) and my experience of reading them has been quite disjointed.  The plot is very complex and I think I've lost track, so I need to go back to the start to get a hold on how it all develops.

The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I love these but haven't read them for probably about 10 years, so it will be nice to re-read them.  I'm including in the series the Eoin Colfer addition to Douglas Adams' work, as I haven't read this yet.

I'm not planning on re-reading the Harry Potter series as, during a recent bout of headaches, I started to listen again to the audio versions by Stephen Fry.  As I'm feeling the Fry love at the moment (not literally, alas), I will probably continue to listen to the series on my IPod while walking to and from work.  I don't tend to write about audiobooks on here, as they feel like cheating.

This has started me on thinking about series, and how some series of novels are ripe for this kind of consecutive reading while others are not.  I love the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, but I don't think that they would repay being read in a row.  To want to re-read a series it needs to show development of writing style, ideas, plot or character (and preferably all four).  I think that the ones I am planning to read have this - whereas, funny though the Stephanie Plum novels are, Stephanie is pretty much as bad in her bounty-hunting job in the nineteenth novel as she is in the first and she seems scarcely any closer to resolving her love triangle: re-reading the series consecutively would just expose how static the series has remained, but it's fun to dip into them occasionally.

Has anyone got any suggestions for series that I should visit this year?

"Torn," by Casey Hill

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

I haven't written much on my blog this year so far.  I have a few reasons: a writing funk; other stuff going on in my life, and - my main reason - I decided at the start of this year to re-read Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series.  I'm nearing half way through the series but, as I don't tend to write about re-reads as it feels like treading old ground, I haven't written a review of any.  Also, when I read a series consecutively I don't think it would make interesting blogging if I write about each book one at a time so that you get a series of very similar reviews in a row.  I do love the series though, so I might write a review at the end of the series as a whole (although you can read my review of the last in the series, "The Secrets of Pain," here).

I did take a brief break from my re-reading to dip into my review pile again.  This time I came up with "Torn," by Casey Hill (which I gather is the pseudonym of a husband and wife writing collaboration), which was kindly sent me for review a while ago by Simon and Schuster.  This is a forensic thriller in the mould of Patricia Cornwell or Kathy Reichs.  It is the second in a series featuring Reilly Steel - an American forensic investigator working in Ireland - and Chris Delaney, a young policeman partnered with a portly older colleague, Pete Kennedy.  In this novel, they are called out to investigate the very grim murder of a controversial journalist who has been left to drown in his own septic tank.  They soon come to realise that this is one of a number of outlandish, gruesomely imaginative murders and that there is a fiendish serial killer at work.

I initially found it hard to get into this book.  I think that was partly because I hadn't read the first in the series - which is unusual for me, as I am normally a bit anal about reading series in order - and found that I was a bit alienated by frustrating veiled hints of past traumas for both Reilly and Delaney.  So, I read a few pages and then left their world to spend a bit more time with Merrily.  But then, two days ago, I picked it up again and found myself unexpectedly gripped by the story and wanting to reach the denouement.  Casey Hill uses a literary template for the murders which is a gift to crime writers (and has been used by others such as Matthew Pearl), and this gives an added layer of interest to the narrative for a book geek like me.

This is a good, solid forensic thriller which was an entertaining diversion for a couple of days from my Merrily marathon. I'll be adding this to the book swap shelf at work in case any of my colleagues also fancy reading it.

"The Dark Winter," by David Mark

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

 I thought that it was time that I had a dutiful dig into my review pile.  "The Dark Winter" was the one that I most fancied reading at the moment.  It seemed like a serendipitous choice when I read the words "a fortnight until Christmas" in the first chapter, as this was the time of year that I started reading the book. 

David mark's hero is Aector McAvoy, a policeman in Hull.  At the start of the novel he is out with his young son when he hears screaming from a local church, which he instinctively runs towards and confronts a killer who has stabbed a young girl.  A murderer seems to be targeting people who are sole survivors of tragedies, killing them in the manner of the death that they had previously evaded.  But who is the mysterious killer with tears in his eyes, and what is his motivation?

This is a good mystery, with a strong sense of place (although, as I've never been to East Yorkshire, I can't attest to its verisimilitude). I did guess a couple of developments along the way, but the denouement was still twisty enough to be satisfying and did have elements that, to me (as a fairly regular reader of crime, but not an expert), seemed pretty original. McAvoy is an interesting central figure, refreshingly free of the alcohol problems or broken marriages that seem to haunt fictional detectives, but he is a man with a mysterious past (being viewed by his colleagues with suspicion, hatred or awe due to his hushed up involvement in bringing down a corrupt policeman).  I also enjoyed Trish Pharaoh, his superior officer, who is a particularly strong and memorable character.  This book does read as if the start of a series, as both McAvoy and Trish Pharoah are well realised figures and I can imagine that David Mark could certainly develop a series with McAvoy at the centre if he should want to (and a quick Google search suggests that might be the case).

I enjoyed this book, but I think that it might be destined for the book swap shelf at work.  It was worth a read, but I'm not sure that it is one that I would be tempted to return to and re-read.

Thank you to Quercus Books for sending me a review copy of this novel.

A crafty interlude....

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

I thought that it might be quite nice to do a post about what I like to do when I am not working, reading, blogging, cooking or cleaning.  My problem is that it feels like that doesn't leave me a hell of a lot of time for other stuff - but, when I do get time, I also like doing cross stitch to relax.  If you are a friend of mine, or if you have come to this blog through social media like Twitter, you might already know this.  But if you have found this blog by serendipity or through a random search gone awry, then you probably don't.

This is really just an excuse to put up a picture of something that I have recently finished doing.  This photo is pre washing and ironing - hence the hoop mark - and I am planning to stretch it (which I hate doing) for framing.  I bought the kit in Aberystwyth for my 21st birthday (I'm now 37), but I would like to stress that I haven't been doing it for quite that long (as some of my friends would have you believe).  I will admit though that I have been sewing it for over 10 years: part of the slowness of this is due to also doing a PhD during this time while supporting myself by working, however, since I finished the PhD a few years ago, I haven't had quite such a good excuse for a while.  It's just been hard to find the time.

This is it:

I've also finished a bookmark with Tigger on it recently, and I have been doing the following project for a while which I hope to finish soon:

There is a twist on a phrase which says that those who can write, those who can't review.  I think of cross stitch as a similar outlet for me: I don't have the creative vision to design something to sew or to come up with a novel to write (although, like many, I have aspirations to do so), but I can follow a pattern.  And it's a nice feeling to have made something.

I am just starting to do another cross stitch project which is a bit smaller than the puppies.  I hope that it will take me less than 10 years to finish.....

"Apocalypse," by Dean Crawford

Stuff and Nonsense by Amy Cockram is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

I have previously read Dean Crawford's two earlier books, "Covenant" and "Immortal," and I have written about them in previous posts in this blog.  I enjoyed them a lot, so I was keen to read his latest book as soon as it came out.  I was lucky enough to receive his first two books as review copies but, as I didn't get a review copy of this one, I had a quick trip to the library.

Like his earlier books, "Apocalypse" features the team of Ethan Warner and Nicola Lopez who, when this novel opens, are still struggling to survive working as bail bondsmen.  They are once again recruited by the Defense Intelligence Agency to assist with a case.  This time, the investigating officer at a murder scene receives a phone call from the chief suspect who just happens to be able to predict events in the future.  In a trail that is laid out for the investigating police, their suspect instructs them to contact Warner.  The ensuing adventure leads them to the Bermuda Triangle, which is a fun myth for Dean Crawford to play with and an idea that I found very interesting (although I don't necessarily believe in it, the Bermuda Triangle is cool).

Once again, a big pleasure of this book is the relationship between Ethan and the feisty Nicola.  In my review of Crawford's last book I wrote that I felt there is more to develop in their characters, and the reader learns more about them in this novel - and the addition of a new character (who I rather liked) helps to act as a catalyst for this.  And, I have to say, "Apocalypse" has a pretty great cliffhanger for the next book.

If you like the books of James Rollins or Chris Kuzneski, then you will probably like this and you should read "Apocalypse" now.

Sorry.  My whole review was leading up to that lame joke at the end of the last sentence.