The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins

I picked this book up purely because it was written by Wilkie Collins who also wrote The Woman in White; one of my most favourite books of all time. The Moonstone is written in the same style as The Woman in White in that it is made up of narrative by the characters within the book who are associated with events at that time. It's an interesting way of telling the story being more formal than the usual character driven monologues - but then it was written in the 19th century so the language and style of the characters reflects this era. It's essentially an old fashioned detective story with the characters all providing statements regarding the events which occur along the way. The plot is complicated at times but mostly I managed to keep up with it - the biggest difficultly when reading these old classics is getting your head around the language in the first place and getting used to the differences in sentence construction.
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The plot focuses on a large yellow diamond called the Moonstone which is stolen from an Indian shine during the British occupation of the territory in all together unsavory circumstances (much like the world-renowned Orlov Diamond). The diamond makes it's way back to England - but not without it's followers. Three Indians who have devoted their lives to returning the diamond to it's rightful position are also in pursuit. When the owner dies he leaves the diamond to his niece, Rachel on her birthday... and in doing so also leaves the threat associated with it. But the same night the diamond is stolen from the house and even after all the inhabitants have been questioned, it's whereabouts remains a mystery. And so the plot follows through with the characters giving their version of events as they happen which ultimately leads to a very unexpected conclusion!

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I really enjoyed reading this book. The story was really good and I had a hard time putting it down. The characters that Collin's has created are great. Some of them are so funny - especially Betteridge, always accompanied by his own version of the holy bible! And Miss Clack - the deliciously irritating bible-toting busy-body. And the end of the story finishes in a way I never anticipated with a good old fashioned plot twist. I can't quite say that this book has managed to usurp the greatness of The Woman in White in my heart, but it's definitely lodged itself there as another favourite due to it's pure genius. Gotta love Wilkie Collins :)

Blue Dahlia - Nora Roberts

I'd never heard of Nora Roberts when I picked up this book a few weeks ago. I read the back and it sounded cool so I thought I would give it a go. And as it turns out, it's really really good! So good I couldn't put it down... even during my weekend away in the New Forest. The characters and the story-lines are great. The only downside is that it ended really suddenly. There I was reading away, with still about 10 pages left in the book to go, turned the page thinking that a new chapter was about to start and... nothing... just the first chapter from the next book in the series :( Bummer. It does end well, but it just takes you by surprise a bit. Roberts is so good at engaging you in the characters and the plot that you feel like you're in the story and in their lives and you don't expect it to end.

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Still, Blue Dahlia is the first in a trilogy named 'In the Garden' and from what I gather each follows the story of one of the three main women characters. Black Rose will follow Roz's story, Red Lily will follow Hayley's - with each intertwining the lives of the other two so that each story will continue. It's a good idea... and would be an even greater idea if I already had Black Rose sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, damn it, coz then I wouldn't have to wait! I suppose I am a little impatient but it's because I enjoyed it so much. I really want to know what happens to them all. Roberts is very good a leaving lots of tid-bits dangling in front of you... which I suppose is a clever idea to get you hooked and invested in the characters and buy the other books. Well, it certainly works!
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Anyway... Blue Dahlia follows the story of Stella, the other of the three women who have become friends in this trilogy. It's a good job I read this one first otherwise it would have been weird, and even more annoying, lol. It tells how the three women came to be in each others company. Stella Rothchild has the perfect life; two kids, a job she loves and a lovely husband. But when tragedy hits she moves back home to her roots in Memphis where she takes up a job as the manager of a garden centre owned by Roz Harper. Stella by nature is organised and efficient and plans everything, and so her world is thrown into disarray when she meets sexy landscape gardener Logan Kitridge who seems to be her polar opposite. He is easy-going and chilled out, takes life as it comes and hates filling in forms. But eventually the attraction grows between them and they find that although they are both very different, they are also the same and looking for the same things :) However, one person in Roz's house (where Stella and her children live) is not happy with the union: The Harper Bride, the ghost that has haunted Harper House for years. She makes her presence known as she watches over the children of the house and does what she thinks is best to protect them.
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So it's a kind of ghost story too and not just a mushy romantic novel. It is a bit lovey dovey in places with much talk about babies and relationships, but it's what you'd expect from a women's novel - lots of emotion! But it's hard to not enjoy it solely because of that as Roberts' art of storytelling and the emotion she puts in is what brings them all to life. And she does a grand job. The dialogue is easy and brilliantly funny in places... you'll find it hard not to smile as you read. The setting of the garden centre and the nature of the business of growing plants also has it's place in cleverly mirroring the lives of the characters - they all grow together, develop and go through cycles also.

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But like I say, the book does end pretty abruptly - and leaves lots of questions that need answers. Although Logan and Stella's relationship, which is the main crux of this book, is pretty much tied up okay, we still want to know the details of what happens there after - because we need to know! I'm sure the question of whether Hayley and Harper (Roz's son) get it on will be answered in Red Lily; and whether Roz's shame at having lost her pride to her second marriage will abate will come in Black Rose; and although we know who the Harper Bride is in Blue Dahlia, we don't know why she went mad, why she acted so ferociously against Stella and Logan, or how she died and came to haunt Harper House so I assume that will all be addressed in both the other books also. I am just impatient I guess... I'm so invested in these characters I'm going off to eBay to see if I can snatch a deal... :)

Haunted - James Herbert

Having never read a James Herbert before I didn't really know what to expect other than what the blurb on the author gives away at the front - Britain's No 1 writer of chiller fiction apparently. Cool. I chose it as my next read pretty much because it's a nice skinny little book of 228 pages as opposed to the mammoth 700 odd pages of my last read.

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The story follows David Ash, a 'ghost-hunter' who works for a paranormal research institute in London. He receives a letter inviting him to Edbrook House to investigate the paranormal activity being witnessed by it's residents. Ash doesn't believe in ghosts, and spends most of his time disproving their presence... something which seems to be fairly common in his line of work. Although, the reason for his non-belief lies locked in his past... And so he goes to Edbrook, with all his wizzy gadgets and ghost-disproving equipment fully convinced that he'll find the true source of reality creating the 'ghosts' within. But nothing can prepare him for the horrifying secret he will unearth within it's walls.... mwah ha ha ha!!

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And so it was a nice little weekend read... like a weekend break away in the country where you can just chill out (no pun intended!) rather than a full blown two week jaunt to some far off destination to see all the sights. That's all this book is really... just a nice easy read... no meaningful subtext, no hidden messages... no major character assassinations. It's good. Not all books need to have deep and meaningful metaphors hidden within or leave you with a sense of awe. But that's not to say it doesn't have substance - it does for sure, and I can see why Herbert's books are so popular. However, since the book was written in the 80's you have to make allowances for the passing of time and some parts of the book couldn't help but raise an unintentional smile from me. Such as the part when Ash orders a pint of bitter and a shot of vodka from the country bar, hands over two pound coins and receives change; and the way he only needs a single 10p piece (you remember the old skool ones?) to make a non-local call back to London. Ah, those were the days.... lol. But it's worth a read for sure if you've a weekend free. I wouldn't say it chills you to the core with it's spookiness though so no need to be scared :)

Labyrinth - Kate Mosse

I really enjoyed this book. Kate Mosse (with an E, not the cocaine snorting supermodel...) is a fantastic writer. It's fast paced, sympathetic to it's subject and really engaging to read. I'd describe the story as a cross between Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Mitch Albolm's The Five People You Meet In Heaven. Labyrinth a really really good book but unlike The Da Vinci Code, it's not as in your face with all that irrelevant descriptive rebellious twaddle that got a bit irritating by the end of Brown's story (as much as I enjoyed the plot). I'm probably not going to even begin doing it justice in the review I write here.

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The story of Labyrinth flits between two main characters; Alice Tanner in the 21st century, and Alais Du Mas in the 13th century. Whilst on an archaeological dig in the Sabarthes Mountains, Alice discovers a hidden chamber with a strange labyrinth symbol carved into the wall with two skeleton remains in a shallow grave. And so begins the puzzle unraveling in the 21st century side of the story... murder, deception, cult rituals, kidnappings and discovering the truth of the past.

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Meanwhile in the 13th Century... 17 year old Alais resides in the Cite of Carcassona with her husband Guilhem, her sister Oriane and her father Bertrand Pelletier, Intendent to Viscount Trencaval. This part of the story is set just before the crusade war as the North invade the South in an attempt to eradicate all heretics as instructed by the catholic church. Once evening Alais' father reveals to her that he is one of three guardians chosen to protect the Holy Grail and due to the imminent war on their land he needs her help to keep the secret safe and so begins Alais's story to achieve this.

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When I started to read Labyrinth the first thing I did was read the Authors note at the beginning which had the effect of making me think "oh god, it's going to be a history novel whereby you have to be dedicated historian to understand what on earth's going on". Not the case at all. All you need to know is that the people of the South were pretty much free to follow whatever religion they wanted. But the Catholic church wasn't happy about this and instructed a Crusade to invade and wipe out anyone who denounced God, known as heretics. The North helped the Crusade under cover of wanting the same thing, but really they only wanted the lands of the South for themselves. But all this is pretty easy to follow in the story... it's not like you have to have a PHD in French history to understand the significance of events.

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I won't reveal too much else about the actual storyline as I won't be able to do it the justice it richly deserves. All you need to know is that Mosse's writing is excellent. The way she dovetails the two stories together is expertly done and she has this knack of being able to pick out exactly the right word needed for her descriptions so that you totally understand where she's coming from and what the characters are thinking at feeling.

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But I think it's her interpretation of what the Holy Grail is that makes the story for me. It's such a clever idea and although I'm not religious at all, it's definitely a theory I could believe if I was that way inclined. One of the key concepts she reveals in the book is what better way to keep a secret than to have it concealed beneath another secret... a cunning idea for sure. The idea she portrays the Grail as being is very interesting in the fact that it can apply to all religions... it's not tied to one thing... which makes more sense to me that other Grail offerings.

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I shall leave you with the extract of a poem Alais quotes within the book in the language of the Midi. It doesn't sum up the whole idea of the book and the story it's trying to tell. I just liked it :)

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"Res contr' Amor non es guirens, lai on sos poders s'atura"

There is no protection against love, once it chooses to exert its power

Liberation Day - Andy McNab

Well, this one was definitely better than the last I am pleased to report :D. The plot is good although it does finish pretty quickly - as I suppose most operations on the ground usually do. The epilogue at the end ties things up nicely though with an element of hope. The bad thing that I thought was going to happen at the end of this book didn't, so I reckon it'll probably happen at the end of the next. But I think we'll have a McNab break for a bit.

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The plot of Liberation Day opens with Nick Stone in a good place - he's a happy guy for once. Yay! He has a girlfriend he's willing to give up doing deniable ops for, with the possibility of a good job as a bar tender at the local snooty yacht club while she run's her mum's B&B. Nick Stone? A Bar Tender? In a yacht club? Yeah right... that was never going to happen was it, lol. Anyway, desperate for a US passport so he can stay in the country with his girlfriend and be on the same continent as Kelly he carries out one last job. The job amazingly goes well with no hiccups and a delightful package of a severed head is offered up as confirmation. Excellent... everything sorted, nothing more to worry about, right?

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Wrong. Stone employers have pretty much stitched him up again. It seems that the 'one last job' they need him to do turns out to be the small task of fighting the war on terror (since this story is set after the Sept. 11th attacks). So obviously this is going to take a little longer than merely a quick job to dispose of a few bodies and pick up a pint of milk on the way home. And so Nick is forced to trot off again, this time to the south of France to disrupt the financial chain between terrorists based in the US (posing as normal citizens) and Al Queda. Unfortuately this pisses his girlfriend off (she's not really into violence and has slight tree-hugging tendancies) and she hot-foots it off. Poor Nick, just as things were starting to look up too. Still we knew it wouldn't last.

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And so the story develops from here really. It is a pretty good story and not overly complicated so is easy to keep up with. From a woman's point of view (yes, yes, I know...) it was nice to see a bit more of Stone's emotional side - not much of it mind... bit it was there none the less. He seems genuinely cut up that Carrie (the girlfriend) couldn't understand and had left him. Still, like the experienced deniable op that he is he cuts away and gets on with the job. The two other guys in his team are great characters also. There is some nice banter between them all and you get a really nice sense of commeraderie between them - the scenes described in the safe house are good for a chuckle :) - and at last you're glad that Nick finally has some help with him. Again we see a bit more of Stone's emotional side here as he reveals the bond between them. Alot of the dialoge takes place through the radios that all three use to stay in contact while actually doing the job. This is pretty good as it puts you right in the thick of it along with them. There's not too much jargon in there either so it's pretty easy to work out what they mean when they refer to 'trigger', 'go complete' and 'foxtrot'.

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So all in all a durn good book and a whole lot better effort than the last one. McNab's crown has been fully restored to his rightful position :D

Last Light - Andy McNab

Ok, where do I start... Probably with the fact that it took me ages to read this book. And I really do mean ages! I started it back in October and I only finished reading it at the beginning of Feb. Shocking behaviour I know but I can't be held entirely responsible...

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Last Light I think is probably McNab's poorest effort in the series so far. I just couldn't get into it at all. It just seemed to drag on forever... and ever.... and ever... Probably not helped by the fact that it took me so long to get through which probably made it seem worse. For me there was just far too much description of things that as reader I really didn't give a monkeys about. Normally McNab's descriptions of the why, what and where are really interesting and help move the story along and give you insider knowledge as to all the goings-on. But this time around it just annoyed me. There seemed to be far too much of it and not enough raw action and the main point as to the story was a bit lost on me since I was getting a bit bored of wading through all the descriptive text. It may be that the format was beginning to get bit old also. It seemed to be the same as all the past books.

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However, you still do have to feel a bit sorry for Nick Stone. At the beginning of this story he is really down and out... proper style. He has nothing... which I admit did seem a bit odd since in Firewall the Russian Mafia Boss had given him the deeds to over a million pounds worth of property... so what happened to all that lot I have no idea. Maybe Stone spent it all on Kelly's treatment but he never mentions it which is strange. Therefore he takes a job he doesn't want to do in order to get the money he needs for Kelly's therapy. Needless to say, in an attack of conscience it goes all wrong and thus he has to head off to Panama to finish the job... and this is where the story begins to flag I'm afraid. For me anyway. I'm sure there are loads of other out there who loved it :).

But anyway, it hasn't put me off reading more of McNab's work... at the moment I'm half way through Liberation Day which has been pretty good so far... but from the other reviews I've read I get the impression something really really bad is going to happen a the end... eek!

Never Look Back - Lesley Pearse

I think I’ve been going through one of my book “lulls” of late since I haven’t managed to read anything since October. It happens. Next, I’ll probably go into one of my “read to the exclusion off everything else” phases. Anyway, I went to Los Angeles in January and it’s amazing what a 10+ hour flight each way can do in re-introducing the greatness of reading, lol.

I finished this book in Jan whilst I was away but just hadn’t got around to writing about it yet. It’s a pretty hefty book so I did well to read it within 10 days I reckon. The story focuses on the life of Matilda “Matty” Jennings and her epic journey as she leaves England to begin a new life in the States in the 1800’s (very appropriate for my trip then!), firstly in New York and then travelling across the country on a wagon train – alone and… pregnant! Not a good position for a woman to be in in those times of course.

The story is great. Poor old Matty has a great head on her shoulders and successfully turns her hand to anything she needs to in order to survive. But life never seems to run smoothly for her and you can’t help but hope as you turn the pages that surely she’s got to catch a break soon…? But alas, life is never that kind. She is a lovely character; kind, sensitive, wiley and canny, loved by everyone (except the bad guys) and although life gives her all the things she needs materialistically speaking, you sense there is always an emotional need that is never fulfilled for her. She spends most of her life trying to make lives better for those less fortunate and again, she does a great job. I think she dies happy. I guess I am an old romantic though and I really wanted her to get the guy and live happily every after. I know I might be giving a little away here so I do apologise, but to be honest when you read the story you know deep down that she’s not ever going to get the fairy-tale ending. But then, would our Matty have been any happier with that than the life she led otherwise…? Probably not :)

It’s a fab book; Lesley has done us proud again! I've released this book into the wild via http://www.bookcrossing.com/ and it's BCID is: 675-5135918. Enjoy it.