Tag Archives: Zaffre

JANE CABLE REVIEWS TWO NOVELS WITH LINKS TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR

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I am coming to think that I enjoy a saga more than any other sort of book. Yes, I poke fun at so many of them being ‘The Something Girls’, but it does mean you know what you are getting; a well constructed and multi-layered story about female friendship – and finding love – in the face of adversity. You often have the added security of knowing that if you enjoy the book, there will be at least two more to follow.

Poppy Cooper’s debut, The Post Office Girls, bears all the hallmarks of a quality saga. The classic cover featuring the three protagonists, a war going on to throw them out of their comfort zones, and some very assured writing.

The writing is, in fact, a delight. The main character, Beth, is just eighteen years old and the author has slipped easily into the head of one so young, making her an utterly believable and compelling character. It was done with such skill that I even forgave the exclamation marks. Because they were right!

The Post Office Girls, once it gets going, is a good pacey story too. In classic saga style three girls from vastly different backgrounds decide to do their bit in World War One by working at the sorting office erected in Regents Park for the duration. Beth is a shopkeeper’s daughter from the Home Counties whose parents are horrified she would dare do such a thing. Milly is from the East End and is a bit of a loose cannon, and gangly Nora comes from a very wealthy background indeed. They all have different views on life – and on how they should each support the suffrage movement, which plays an increasing role in the book.

It was a brave move to pick a man with moral objections to the war as Beth’s potential love interest and I am really looking forward to seeing how this plays out in subsequent books. The Post Office Girls is set in 1915, pre conscription, so it was less of an issue then, although as a reader you shudder to know what James will face.

This book strikes just the right balance between the internal conflicts of the characters and the action that surrounds them. There is peril and drama, without ever going over the top. There is plenty of laughter and quite a few tears, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone.

To review alongside The Post Office Girls I chose another book with links to the First World War, but this one a dual timeline. Patricia Wilson’s Summer in Greece is marketed as a holiday read – just look at that cover, with its promise of Greek Islands.

It isn’t a promise the book delivered for me and I felt a little let down that much of the present day action takes place in Dover, with just a couple of trips to Greece, and the Greek parts were so very beautiful it made me especially sorry that was the case.

Far more of the 1916 timeline was set in the Mediterranean and centred around the sinking of the hospital ship Britannic. There is a gritty truth in the way both this and working in a field hospital are described with no question at all of young VAD Gertie flitting between beds mopping brows.

If I am totally honest there were a few too many twists and turns in the contemporary narrative for me and I found myself wondering how many more tragedies could have possibly have befallen poor Shelly as one unheralded surprise revealed itself after another. But I know many readers will enjoy the story; after all there is a reason why Patricia Wilson is so very successful.

MY WRITING JOURNEY – PATRICIA WILSON

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At fifteen I left school and went to work as a Co-op window dresser. By the time I reached 35, I had two clothing alteration and repair shops, seven staff, a small catering business, a party-plan business selling childrenswear and toys, a husband and two children. I hardly had time to think, yet I was delighted by my own success. Then a catastrophic event caught me off guard. For the first time, I asked myself: Why am I working myself to death?

At around this time, A Place in The Sun started on TV. It seemed so appealing to retire to a warm country, so I made a plan to retire at 45. After another ten years of hard work, my goal came to fruition. We sold everything and bought a lovely place on Crete. After such a hectic life, I found it impossible to just stop, lie on a sunbed all day, and drink cocktails in the evenings. I decided to teach myself something that I wanted to do but had never made the time before. I would treat the task like a part time job for a year, and commit to it for three hours a day, five days a week.

I learned to sail single-handedly, play guitar, self-sufficiency, scuba and free dive, paint, distil raki and make wine, use a computer, plaster and do stonewalling, photography, video, until after about ten years, I ran out of things I wanted to learn. I know, I thought, I’ll write a book. Being dyslexic, it was the most difficult thing I ever attempted! My computer had Word installed, which was my greatest friend. It had a spellcheck, which I managed to confuse, and had endless patience. For the first time in my life, I found myself able to put my thoughts down on (virtual) paper. What miracle was this? I cannot describe the joy it gave me. I wrote simple poems, short stories, letters to people, a journal of my adventures in Greece. I thrilled whenever anyone said, ‘Thanks for the letter, I really enjoyed it.’

Naively, I had every confidence in my blockbuster’s success, assuming I would easily find an agent and get published. Soon enough, I faced up to my first total failure since leaving school – no one was interested in that first novel.

The following year we moved to a remote mountain village where I happened upon a machine gun buried in my garden! I showed it to the locals and with tears in their eyes, the old village women told me such moving tales from WW2. I felt a duty to record these events, so I created a character who was an amalgamation of these brave women and told their stories. That I was living in the house where such tragedy happened only hyped up my own emotion, which poured onto the pages.

That manuscript became Island of Secrets, represented by my agent, Tina Betts, then my publisher, Bonnier Books UK. The team at Bonnier guided me into producing a moving novel based on brave women and historical events surrounding the machine gun. From that moment, I decided to write about injustice, forgotten wrongs, and empowered women. All my novels link the Greece islands with Britain and are based on real, if little known, events in Greek/British history.

My fifth novel, Summer in Greece, is out on 15th April. RMS Titanic’s sister ship, HMHS Britannic, was a luxury liner that sailed out of Belfast, heading for Greece to rescue soldiers wounded at Gallipoli in WW1. My novel is a story of tragedy and triumph – tears and laughter, and a drama that continues to this day.

 

 

 

 

 

A Day in the Life of Camilla Grebe – author of The Ice Beneath Her

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Frost is delighted Camilla has found the time to write A Day in the Life for our readers. Her books is excellent, and her advice to aspiring writers, is too. Read on.

a-day-in-the-life-of-camilla-grebe-author-of-the-ice-beneath-herI’m equally fascinated and amused by the misconceptions about life as a writer. You know, all the talk about creative anxiety, the booze and the glamorous lifestyle. To be honest, my life is nothing like that, although I consider myself extremely privileged to be able to work with what I love. And yes, I get to travel a lot and meet really cool people.

As a mother-of-two (and a dog owner), I wake up quite early to prepare breakfast and walk my nine-year-old Dalmatian, Ella. We live by the sea in downtown Stockholm – a beautiful location. As we walk pass the old ships we often stop for a coffee on one of the piers and watch people (me) and bark at dogs (Ella).

I mostly work from home, although I sometimes visit the Royal Library to write, surrounded by thousands of books – the library’s collection includes all works published in Sweden since 1661.

Before lunch I’ll go for a quick run or hit the gym – sitting in front of a computer all day can be really tough on your neck and back, so I need to work out. Also, I’ve discovered that the best way to solve a creative problem is to go for a run, as it really clears your thoughts.

I usually have lunch with a friend. Writing is solitary work, so I need to socialize during lunch or dinner, or else I fear I might turn into a hermit.

After lunch I spend another four to five hours working. Apart from the actual writing, I work on plots and do research into all kinds of strange subjects. For The Ice Beneath Her

a-day-in-the-life-of-camilla-grebe-author-of-the-ice-beneath-hercamillagrebebook

I talked to a medical examiner about beheading (!), read articles on Inuit mythology and had a long e-mail correspondence with a man in Greenland to find out exactly how one would dig a grave when the ground is frozen solid. If someone should overhear me on the phone when I did research, chances are they’d think I’m a serial killer.

I have dinner with my family and always end up watching TV on the sofa afterwards. I’m a big fan of British and Scandinavian crime series and movies. If someone disturbs me in the middle of a movie, I’ll calmly explain that, hey, I’m working, not just relaxing in the sofa (since I need to watch TV in order to be a good writer!).

It is, at least partly, true.

Before I go to sleep I always read for an hour or two in bed. When it comes to books, I don’t exclusively focus on crime. I try to read different genres – everything from historical novels to horror and biographies. In fact, that would be my best advice to anyone who wants to become a writer: Read a lot. Read all kinds of books, good ones and bad. And learn to tell the difference.
The Ice Beneath Her is available now. Published  by Zaffre at £12.99  E-book available.

 

 

Crime Roundup – Books we Mean, we Haven’t Become Vigilantes

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It’s summer and Frost has had a great time reading some recent crime novels.

Angela Marsons, who lives with her partner, Labrador and swearing parrot has written a corker:

Silent Scream, a D.I. Kim Stone novel.

Crime Roundup – Books we Mean, we Haven’t Become VigilantesSILENTSCREAM

D.I. Kim Stone does not excel at people skills, it must be said, but her sidekick Bryant invariably saves the day at that level. However it is Kim who takes her team to the edge of what is allowed, and strays over in order to get to the truth of things. In doing so her past is revealed and explains her own demons. Though this novel has sold a million internationally as an ebook, this is Silent Scream’s first outing in print. Well worth reading, with a good twist at the end. I almost got ‘who dun it’ but not quite. Clever.

Brenda Novak has set Her Darkest Nightmare in Alaska, a place I’d love to visit, so on that level I enjoyed the novel.

Her Darkest Nightmare.

But I was also gripped by Novak’s writing and taut plotting. Not sure I could work with psychopaths as Dr Evelyn Talbot does, but she has learnt to live with fear, after being targeted and tortured by her boyfriend as a teenager.  Not one to read at bedtime perhaps unless you’ve locked all the doors and windows, and looked under the beds, all of them. But I am a bit of a wimp. It’s one that stays with you. This is the first in a new series from this New York Times bestselling author.

Christopher Farnsworth’s Kill File’s opening sentence made me laugh. I quote:

I know what you’re thinking. Most of the time, it’s not impressive. Trust me. 

Kill File

 Oh, I do, I do, if I go by what I  read a great deal on social media. Thoughts put down unfiltered…

This contemporary thriller has its foot down all the way, and believe me, it’s driven by an expert:  great writing, interesting and refreshingly original concept. John Smith, the main character, has a special gift/curse, he can access other people’s thoughts. It is something John Smith has put it to good use in the past, only to find that his latest investigation lands him in deep water. I really liked this, bit like being on a roller coaster. Well worth taking on holiday.

Anna Smith’s Kill me Twice is a well trodden path, that of secrets threatening to destroy lives from the sink estates of Glasgow to the corridors of Westminster in another case for Rosie Gilmour.

KILLMETWICE Those who are already fans won’t be disappointed and it should gather in new ones as Rosie ducks and weaves to expose the truth of a presumed suicide – which wasn’t, and there’s sexual abuse too, linking powerful figures across the nation.

The Last Thing I remember by Deborah Bee is intriguing. Frost has already reviewed this, but I thought I’d have another look, and it stays crisp, the tension sharp, and all this right up to the last page.

The last thing I remember.

This is a debut thriller from the Creative Director at Harrods with TV rights already optioned by Alan Moloney’s Parallel Films. I  concerns a mugging victim who can’t move, or speak.

I have a friend who has been in just such a state: struck down by a virus she has been aware, but trapped inside her body. Fortunately my friend is recovering, but this is the clever plotting behind The Last Thing I remember.

Sarah has been mugged, and can hear, but not move, or speak. She has to piece together her life by listening to the people around her. Kelly is in the waiting room. She’s just a kid, a schoolgirl, but why is she there? Questions, questions, but slowly the picture is put together.

I really liked this concept. It isn’t an easy one to manage, but Bee’s done it, easy peasy.

Silent Scream by Angela Marsons pub by Zaffre

Her Darkest Nightmare by Brenda Novak  pub by Headline

Kill File by Christopher Farnsworth pub by Zaffre

Kill me Twice by Anna Smith  pub by Quercus

The Last thing I Remember by Deborah Bee pub by twenty7