Book Review: The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths

The House at Sea's End is the third in the author's Ruth Galloway series. Ruth is a forensic archaeologist, and for a fan of Patricia Cornwell and co the book description of this book on Netgalley sounded right up my street. It was especially interesting that the book is set in the UK which makes a nice change for me. (Just a note, this was meant to be a Coming Soon review but a combo of being ill and a nightmare with my web access it is now available!)

In this book Ruth has just returned to work after a period of maternity leave. She is finding it hard to get the balance between work and motherhood right, and her problems are further exacerbated by having to work with D.C.I Nelson - the married father of her baby daughter Kate.

After a team of archeologists studying coastal erosion in Norfolk discover bones at the foot of a cliff Ruth is called in to advise the police. When she establishes the six skeletons are around 60 years old and that the deceased probably came from Germany the team are drawn into a wartime mystery and the secrets being kept by protective locals. As Nelson and his team investigate recent deaths begin to look less natural than they did at first glance. So who is still trying to protect a decades old secret?

I had absolutely no problem with this book standing alone, as there was enough reference back to what had happened earlier, and inferences about what had gone before, that I felt I understood the present situation the characters found themselves in. I loved Ruth. As the working mum of a toddler, the battle she is goes through wondering if she is a bad mother for trying to do both, and for not being the sort of person who wants to spend every waking moment with their offspring, was all too familiar. The situation with Nelson and his wife's interest in Kate made me squirm for her. Reading parts from his perspective I also actually managed to find some sympathy for him too, which surprised me a little. Around them are some colourful characters that give the book a real feeling of life and there were plenty of unlikely nominees for the role of murderer.

As mentioned I love this type of novel, but a lot I have read in the past are set in the US. It's always nice to read about more familiar locations and experiences etc. The small villages and bleak countryside depicted had an atmospheric feel that added nicely to the unfolding story. If I was to compare this with the work of another author it would have to be one of my favourites, Val McDermid.

The plot was a good blend of historical mystery and crime novel. As a subplot the relationship between Ruth and a visiting friend who worked together excavating mass graves in Bosnia, and the developing story what had happened some years ago while there, was also interesting. If I had any one complaint it would be that I would have liked a bit more about either the forensic archeology process or the police procedural elements included to balance the development of the various relationships and the personal lives.

I really enjoyed this book, Ruth is a character I warmed to so much and I'll definitely have to find time to go back and read the first two books.

Format: E-book, ARC
My Rating: 4*

Book Review: Shut Up: We All Have Issues by Corey Deitz

I picked this up as a freebie when it was randomly brought to my attention at the top of the list of humourous foreign language kindle books on Amazon.es I had never heard of Corey Deitz before (and am now waiting for comments enquiring about what rock I've been hiding under) The description read thus:

"This book is one man's quest to rid himself of all his psychological demons by exorcising them with self-deprecating humor.

By day, Corey Deitz is a radio personality. By night, he's just another poor, neurotic slob curling up in a fetal position and sobbing like a little girl in the corner of a room. Deitz has issues and doesn't mind putting them on display in the hopes the reader will realize in comparison, he or she is not as bad off as previously thought.

This book is a landmark in understanding the human mind and the author should be commended for allowing his pathetic fears, mental ticks, and social anxieties to be put on display like a piece of salmon at Sigmund Freud's favorite delicatessen.

Deitz's philosophy is clear: why pay hundreds of dollars to a shrink with a fancy business card when this book is dirt cheap. In a world full of pretentious psychiatrists and expensive couches, Shut Up: We All Have Issues is a fresh look at getting your head straight at futon prices"

I think it was the title that caught my attention more than anything. I've been a bit of a grump lately over certain people I know who never stop moaning but don't really have anything to moan about!

What I got certainly wasn't what I expected. There was far more humour at the expense of others than self-deprecating humour, and maybe I need to check my sense of humour but I don't find mocking people who hoard dead animals in their freezers all that funny. Yes, in places I found myself agreeing with the author's rants and it raised a smile or two but most of it I found un-funny, and a lot of the American political humour went right over my head. I know a little about US politics but not enough to get the jokes in this book.

As far this book providing a way of getting your head straight at futon prices, up to 85% in the book was just a series of anecdotes that often rambled off on odd tangents. It was only after that point that there was any element of how the book might help the reader (and you need to bear in mind there were shedloads of footnotes so that 15% wasn't all advice)

I wasn't expecting much in the way of a self-help book but I was expecting something that might make me look at my life in a more positive light perhaps. This was a very odd read, and now I've reviewed it I will be deleting it from my kindle.

Format: Kindle, freebie
My Rating: 1*

Normal service is resumed...

Don't you just hate it when everything goes pear-shaped! My new year's resolution (if you can call it that, it was a bit half-hearted and more of a general aim) was to get fit and lose weight. I started well, using my new toy (X-Box 360 with Kinect) then last week I came down with tonsillitus. It must be some sort of mutant super-strain, I've never had it this bad before!

Anyhow, I now wonder how any mum with a pre-schooler ever manages to get over an illness when you have to amuse them but I did manage to a bit of extra reading so it wasn't all bad. However when I came to write my reviews I discovered my internet had gone haywire. It was totally random as to whether I could access sites or not. Twitter -yes, Facebook - no, RSPB - yes, Blogger - no. Somehow with a lot of patience and several fleeting moments where I thought I'd maybe just lob the stupid thing out of the window it now seems to be working again (well, I can access the web, Chrome has been sacrificed sadly)

I'm crossing my fingers as I type this but it should be back to normal now...wish me luck!

Book Review: The Demi-Monde: Winter by Rod Rees

What happens when the world's most advanced computer system goes awry? The Demi-Monde is the best simulation ever invented, designed to train the US Military in the most realistic way possible without any deaths. Programmers have created a world occupied by dupes based on real people including the world's greatest psychopaths. They have deliberately created friction by developing racial and religious tensions, with the aim of causing conflict. However the programme develops in an unforeseen way when one of the dupes is able to bring the President's daughter over from the real world to the Demi-Monde. The team in charge of the Demi-Monde bring in young singer Ella Thomas to go into the Demi-Monde to retrieve her. Once there Ella is stunned by what she finds and the threat posed to the real world.


Having completed the book I'm not quite sure how to classify it: fantasy,sci-fi, dystopian or steampunk. I'm not really fussed though because I loved this book. The author has created this amazing, detailed world based on a skewed version of the real world, including various historical elements and characters such as Robespierre, Henry Tudor and Nazi Reinhard Heydrich. The Demi-Monde is a dark place, reliant on Victorian technology, with fantastical spiritual and fantasy elements. Author Rees performs some fantastic linguistic gymnastics, creating new religions such as mysogynistic HimPerialism and the feminist HerEticals. I thought his use of language was brilliant.


The plot moves at quite a pace and the main characters were well developed. Ella, as a woman and a "Shade" or as she prefers woman of colour, has to overcome her initial disgust with the world she has entered in order to focus on her mission. She is smart and resilient, and I enjoyed her developing relationship with faux psychic Vanka. The President's daughter was far from the prissy spoilt girl I was expecting, although not necessarily in a good way, and priviledged Lady Trixibell was an interesting character even if I found her pretty unlikeable as events unfolded. Meeting the real life historical figures added a different dimension and as a fan of historical fiction this aspect held a lot of appeal for me.


I don't think there is really much I can say about this book in the negative (apart from the overuse of the word ersatz perhaps) I'll definitely be looking out for the next book in the series to see where the author is going to take the Demi-Monde.


Format: Kindle, ARC
My Rating: 5*

2012 E-Book Challenge

This year I have signed up to take part in the E-Book Challenge hosted by Workaday Reads I figured as I am aiming for Server level, reading more than 100 e-books in the year I needed a post to keep track of them. So this is it.

I was about to include the book I finished today but realised as I started it last year it probably shouldn't count, so the list will have to start some time very soon!

1) The Demi-Monde by Rod Rees

2) Shut Up: We All Have Issues by Corey Deitz

3) The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths

4) Head Games by Kevin Baker

5) Last Stop Freedom by Ann Nolder Heinz

6) Thomas Knapp and the Prophet of the Universe by David Daedalus

7) Surviving the Fog by Stan Morris

8) The Girl in the Box by Sheila Dalton

9) The Mountain of Gold by J D Davies

10) A Storm Hits Valaparaiso by David Gaughran

11) Renouncing the Future by Stephen Kata

12) The Fulcrum Files by Mark Chisnell

13) The Saintmaker by Mary Carroll Patrick

14) The Dead See by Marcus Gibson

15) Casino Shuffle by J. Fields Jr

16) Showstoppers by Helen Smith

17) Cedardale Court by Nathan Lee Chris

18) Animal Kingdom by Iain Rob Wright

19) All the Secret Things by Sheila Cragg

20) Illusion by Frank Peretti

21) A Summer in the High Sierra by Laurence Brauer

22) Dawns End Poisoned by Bonnie Ferrante

23) Enza by Kristy K James

Book Review: World Mart by Leigh M. Lane

Some time in the not too distant future the corporate world and government have become one and the same, antibiotic resistant diseases have wiped out many and global warming has wreaked havoc on the world we know. Society has been divided into the Corp elite and Mart underclass, ruled by the secretive Corporate. The lowest of the low are deviants, widely held to be inferior criminal types. 


George and Virginia, who have some memories of life as it is now, are fortunate to be part of the Corp, and in a way their American dream is still alive in so far as they hope that by spending most of their income on their children's education they might be able to obtain middle management jobs and improve their lot in life. However that dream is shattered when Virginia is hospitalised as a result of a terrorist attack. As a result they both have their eyes opened to a few things Corporate would rather the masses didn't know.

World Mart paints a bleak but all too plausible picture of a future where the climate is even more out of kilter than it is at present, where the failure of the present to deal with landfill and pollution has resulted in all sorts of problems and rationing, and where monopolistic corporations have gained a stranglehold on the world. As the book unfolded seeing George, and Virginia in particular, realise that they are being manipulated and controlled by the elite ruling class was a ray of hope. By contrast teen daughter Shelley, reeling from tragedy, despite seeing herself as rebelling chooses to believe the party line. I found the parents' actions  and feelings understandable, but found their daughter a bit inconsistent. She vacillated between wanting to make a stand and be a rebel, and being terrified by the outcome of her actions, but it seemed a sudden about face and she came over as more than just a confused teenager, I wanted to give her a slap at times.

There are incidents of violence and murder but the delivery of these events is matter of fact and the way the story moves quickly on makes it seem unexceptional, which I found a bit disturbing. Perhaps this is what the author intended in this dystopian future, but I'm not entirely convinced. 


I found the backdrop a scary possibility and liked the plot but found some of the elements didn't sit quite right for me. I also felt that the carefully constructed hierarchys that were set up in the first part of the book became almost redundant later on as it became much more of a personal tale, with the issues between the Corporate and the terrorists pushed to one side.


It was a reasonably good read but the characters weren't quite compelling enough to draw me back to it in the way some books do.


Format: Kindle, review copy
My Rating: 3*

Happy 2012

Just a quick post to say Happy New Year to everyone who reads the blog. I hope it's a happy, healthy, prosperous year for us all.


There are no real resolutions being made in my household, although I'm going to try and make better use of my time so I can fit in a bit of exercise. As much as I love reading sitting on the sofa with a kindle is doing nothing for my waistline! Good luck to everyone who is trying to tackle a resolution, or even a 2012 reading challenge.