HISTORICAL FICTION REVIEW: Estocada - Graham Hurley

RELEASE DATE:  01/06/18

PUBLISHER:  Head of Zeus

SYNOPSIS:

1937. Dieter Merz is the Reich's most celebrated fighter ace. Flying for the infamous Condor Legion over the battlefields of Spain's civil war, Merz has been able to unleash the full potential of the Luftwaffe's new fighter against his Republican opponents. In Dieter's hands, the Messerschmitt Bf-109 is as graceful as a matador's killing strike: la estocada.
Dieter's aerial prowess has brought him into close contact with the top echelons of the Nazi regime. He is not a political man — all he wants to do is fly – but for how long can he deny the toxic nature of Hitler's rule?
Scotsman and ex-marine Tam Moncrieff is recruited by a nameless intelligence agency in London to go to Germany and sound out Hitler's resolve. Does he really intend to invade Czechoslovakia? Do his generals support him? Can the march to war be stopped?
As duty collides with conscience, fate will bring both men together. These are desperate times calling for desperate measures. To avoid war a killing strike is needed: la estocada.
The question is, who is the matador, who is the bull?

REVIEW:
 Graham Hurley is an author who always brings his thrillers to the fore with indepth characters who feel fully formed and believable for the story.  They have foibles, they have strengths and of course when they speak the words feel organic rather than something that is being used to drive plot forward to force a situation.  It's always something he does well and in this title really helps being the situation to the readers mind in crystal clarity.

Add to this a solid plot, good use of prose and a cracking overall arc that really keeps you glued as each of the pages turn regardless of which side of the conflict the characters are on.  All round another solid story and one that I've not only enjoyed but passed onto my grandfather who is not only making his way through it currently but loving it, a true compliment from a very fussy reader indeed.

THRILLER REVIEW: The Underneath - Melanie Finn

RELEASE DATE:  03/05/18
PUBLISHER:  Apollo

SYNOPSIS:

Ex-journalist Kay and her family are spending the summer in a rented farmhouse in Vermont. Kay is haunted by her traumatic past in Africa, and is struggling with her troubled marriage and the constraints of motherhood. Then her husband is called away unexpectedly on business and Kay finds herself alone with the children, obsessed by the idea that something terrible has happened to the owners of the house. The locals are reticent when she asks about their whereabouts; and she finds disturbing writing scrawled across one of the walls.
As she starts to investigate she becomes involved with a local man, Ben, whose life is complicated by his own violent past, his involvement in a drug-trafficking operation, and his desire to adopt an abused child. Their two stories collide and intertwine, heading towards a dramatic denouement.
The Underneath is a tense, intelligent, beautifully written thriller which is also a considered exploration of violence, both personal and national, and whether it can ever be justified.

REVIEW:
To be honest this is the sort of book that sounds downright depressing when you read the blurb, but its the fact that it has such a feeling of hopelessness that makes it resonate with me as a reader.

The principle character is a complex lead as she struggles to make sense of things both professionally as well as personally during what is initially thought of as an escape from the real world in order to put her life in order.

its a complex story and whilst we have an arc that leads from real world horrors to an area where you'd think you'd be safe, it goes to show that some things that are closer to home can hit way harder than atrocities thousands of miles away.

Back this up with solid prose, an organically grown plotline and characters that shape the world for the reader, all round makes this a book that will stay with you for a long time.

SCI-FI/FANTASY REVIEW: Terra Ignota 2: Seven Surrenders - Ada Palmer

RELEASE DATE:  05/04/10
PUBLISHER:  Head of Zeus

SYNOPSIS:

The Year is 2454.
The sun is setting on a hard-won golden age. For three centuries, humanity has enjoyed peace and prosperity fuelled by technological abundance, oracular data analytics, careful censorship... and just a little blood.
In a world dominated by seven factions, or 'Hives', the price of peace has been a few secret murders, mathematically planned to ensure political and economic balance. But now the secret is out, the balance is slipping and war beckons.
Convict Mycroft Canner knew this war was coming – he committed his terrible crimes to forestall it. Now, he has just one card left, a wild card no degree of statistical genius could have predicted: a thirteen-year-old child with the power to work miracles. Turning thought into matter, matter in life, this child has the power to save the world, or to doom it.

REVIEW:
When an author comes to the table with quite a unique tale you'll find that they either capture the reader or that they're thrown into a wary state of never going near it as the reviews can be can overly complicate a tale with all the hidden meanings and contexts that can  be drawn between the authors musings and the real world, but there are times when a book has such complexities that it raises more questions for the reader than it answers as well as gets them to question thier own standings and ethics.

Such is the case with this, the secon dbook from Ada Palmer.  Within its rich tapestry of world building, political intrigue and machinations are never far from the fore front with sequences that make you question life as well as how people act alongside seeing it through new eyes as he characters within seek to find thier own way and moral compass.  Its definitely a series that is quite deep philosophically and whilst its a fantasy in some respects, for others its more of a Sci-Fi epic.

Back this up with characters that make the world feel alive, dialogue that takes you from various points with ease alongside an overall arc that whilst at first appearing a little messy is full of little nuggets of info that will later come back to haunt you, so much so that a reread of the both books in the series after completing this, will allow you to pick up details that truly herald something pretty epic for the third outing.  Magical.