I thought I’d sneak a couple of short book reviews into that week between Christmas and New Year. Too bloated with turkey, booze and chocolate to concentrate on reading, I often find I’m scouring the web at this time for stuff to read and do!
The Last Kings of Sark by Rosa Rankin-Gee
This is the story of new graduate Jude, who is engaged to be a tutor during the summer to Pip, a sixteen year old boy and Sofi, a young Polish cook from Ealing. The action takes place initially on the island of Sark (one of the smaller Channel Islands between England and France).
It’s an odd household. Eddy, Pip’s father, is often absent, away on business. Esmé, Pip’s French mother, mostly stays upstairs and never appears to eat anything. Pip doesn’t want a tutor, but it is to prepare him for school on the mainland for the sixth form. Sofi, meanwhile is full of life, and not a very good cook! When Eddy goes away on an extended trip, the three drop lessons and get a life. Needless to say summer doesn’t last forever and the trio have to part after an extended farewell. The last part of the novel looks back several years later at where the three of them are now, and how they wish they could rekindle that summer.
This was a beautifully crafted novel, but not enough happened in it for me. Narrated by the quieter Jude, Sofi dominates the story and her weird little flashes of insight can’t make up for her limited ambitions and love of partying. Pip is underdrawn, and I couldn’t bond with Jude either, and wanted to know why Esmé was so reclusive. This could have been brilliant, but was rather so-so for me. (6/10, review copy)
The Orphan Choir by Sophie Hannah
This was another novel I really wanted to love – Sophie Hannah turning her hand to a short horror novel in Hammer’s new imprint.
Set in and around Cambridge and Hannah’s invented Spilling, The Orphan Choir concerns Louise Beeston, a woman who is slowly being driven mad on all sides (we think): by her neighbour’s late night parties that always end with the same Queen song played at loud volume; by her husband who wants to get their expensive house sandblasted, which will mean covering the windows and living in the dark for weeks; by Dr Freeman, the choirmaster of the boarding school where her seven year old son is a chorister – Joseph has to board, and he is taking him away from her; and the voices of children singing! She finds escape, persuading her husband to buy them a second home in a gated community near Spilling, but after an idyllic start the voices start again. Is she going mad?
While I could understand Louise’s problems, especially with her son having to board at only seven years old, I didn’t like her at all. The first half of this quite short book went on for so long with the spat between Louise and her noisy neighbour, I got a bit fed up with it, then the second half rushed by, getting twistier and twistier in Hannah’s trademark style, and I reached the end thinking what just happened? However, Hannah is always readable, and her twisty plots are something else – I look forward to her next horror outing, but this one missed being a hit for me. (6.5/10, own copy)
Dr Who: Last of the Gadarene by Mark Gatiss
I love all Mark Gatiss’ TV work, but I’ve not read one of his novels before. This Dr Who one, reissued as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations probably wasn’t the best place to start, I should have tried one of his Lucifer Box novels perhaps?
This novel features the third incarnation of Dr Who, as played by Jon Pertwee together with his assistant Jo Grant. The Dr was Earth-bound at this stage of Who-history and worked for UNIT, investigating supernatural phenomena. Set in a disused RAF base in East Anglia, which is taken over by a secretive organisation. Local villagers go missing, only to return grinning inanely, having been taken over by the Gadarene who are invading Earth as their own planet is dying.
It may have had a classic plot, but there were quite a few boring bits in this novel, and the Doctor didn’t appear until over a quarter of the way in. I didn’t quite warm to Gatiss’ style of writing here either – a little overdone in places, and quite adverby. Basically though, I’m not a fan of the third doctor – his outfit, cape and yellow vintage car (Bessie) wasn’t my cup of tea, even if the Maggots (remember them?) scared me stiff (though not as much as the Yeti). (6/10, own copy)
Sorry to end my book reviewing of the year with several books that didn’t quite make the grade for me – but you may think differently!
I will be back in a day or two with my BOOKS OF THE YEAR post.
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To explore further on Amazon UK, please click below:
The Last Kings of Sark
The Orphan Choir (Hammer)
Doctor Who: Last of the Gaderene: 50th Anniversary Edition (Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Collection)
Hi, I suggest you read “The Vesuvius Club” by Gatiss which I thought wicked fun!
Thanks Peter. I had hoped that his other books would be more fun – I happen to have that one too…
I’ve not read any of these authors, though I do like Mark Gatiss and have been considering his Vesuvius Club – will look forward to your review!
I’ll add it to my bedside pile then 🙂
I have the Orphan Choir, and this will be the first time I’ve read one of Sophie Hannah’s novels and it sounds as though it’s not her best.
I think her first few crime novels are her best – I loved Little Face and Hurting Distance. In her later books, she’s getting too complex and I find it nigh impossible to keep on top of the twists. I do like her pair of coppers whose relationship develops through the crime novels as a side-arc. With this one, although it was a great idea, it had started to get complicated and the shorter novel length didn’t give room to work it out fully.
While these were disappointments your post brings back a vivid memory of watching the Maggots from behind the sofa! Actually I watched a lot of Dr Who from behind things – the sofa, a cushion, my fingers etc etc etc!
You and me both Col. A combination of Dr Who, and the state of our student’s coffee machine after the holidays (we were meant to clean it) was enough to put me off maggots or life. We do some experiments with maggots at school (proving they breathe) and I’m always petrified that the tiny wriggling critters will escape and take over the world!