Contemporary Novels

Fletch is retired from journalism and living on the French Riviera. He’s also stinking rich and hasn’t filed a tax return for two years. This makes the IRS is edgy, edgy enough for Fletch to be blackmailed into going to the American Journalists’ Association’s congress to dig up dirt on his former colleagues and especially on Walter March, president of the Association. When said March is found murdered, it doesn’t take long for Fletch to put his newfound high tech spy equipment to good use...

Fletch’s Fortune is hilarious, well written and the first reader will undoubtedly seek out the other Fletch books for further enjoyment.

If it weren’t for the sex scenes – and even those are pretty innocent – one might be excused for thinking to have strayed into a Three Investigators adventure. The story centres around three small silver statues depicting the three Fates or Moerae: the ancient Greek sisters Clotho, who spins the thread of life; Lachesis, who measures it; and Atropus, who cuts the thread and ends it. Worth a fortune, those who know where to find them will go to great lengths to rob the rightful if unwitting owners. Three Fates is pleasant reading with everything working out well for the good guys while the baddies get their just desert.

Each new edition of this novel, first published in 1938, warrants another reading. Set in newly-settled central Florida somewhere in the 1870’s, The Yearling tells the story of twelve-year-old Jody Baxter and his fawn, Flag. It leads up to where both are yearlings and a conclusion that is at the same time shocking and poignantly inevitable. The Yearling is a book to be enjoyed by young and old alike and belongs on every bookshelf.

If you've ever wondered what happens to ideas that don't make the grade as a full-length novel, here's a new one. Faye Kellerman, known for her Peter Decker / Rina Lazarus thrillers, took hers and compiled an anthology of short stories. Suffice to say they should have been canned rather than embarrass a good writer like Kellerman.

Seizure is about a US senator with Parkinson’s Disease and a biochemist who has invented a technique which cures the disease in mice. Inevitably the twain meet, with predictable results.

The action such as it is starts on page 377 (of 459) at chapter 23 (of 27). All that goes before is longwinded intro best avoided if the reader wants to stay awake for the denouement. Frankly, it is hard to believe that Robin Cook himself wrote this novel which is inconsequential drivel from beginning to end.

Quoted from the blurb: “The final scenes of Beach Road unveil a truth so unexpected that it will leave readers gasping in shock.” Don't be misled, you might gasp but it will be in disbelief that such drivel was published under the name of an accredited writer like Patterson. Definitely to be avoided if you like a good twist at the end of your thriller — this is a bad one.

The author fell into the trap of thinking there must never be a dull moment and devised so many sub-plots that the essence of his book is completely bogged down. The main protagonist is Spider Shepherd, a British undercover cop who infiltrates and exposes a trio of his collegues who rip off drug dealers. If everything that has absolutely nothing to do with this were left out, Soft Target might make a readable short story. As a novel, however, it fails.

At Risk was initially published as a 15 part serial in a magazine and converts into a very disappointing novel. The characters are shallow, there is no plot to speak of and the only thing of mild interest is the author’s attempt to end each chapter with a cliffhanger, as befits a serial episode.

Best avoid this book if you haven’t enjoyed Cornwell before as it might put you off her others. She doesn’t deserve that.

Zambezi is the somewhat tedious account of a man’s search in the wilds of Africa for his lost daughter, his resultant sex with her boss and their fight with her terrorist lover. Thrown in is a journalist of the highest stereotypical order, some scenes with man-eating lions, a bit of local politics, a philosophical African guide and lots of decorous sunsets – such are the makings of Zambezi, all leading up to an incongruous all’s well that ends well conclusion. It seems as if Mr Park read Wilbur Smith and decided he could too. Sadly, he can’t.

Being a Deaver fan, I was very disappointed with this book. It is set in pre-Second World War Germany and is about an American assassin who is hired by his government to “touch off” a high-ranking Nazi in Berlin. Throughout the novel this reader couldn’t escape the feeling that Deaver is on unfamiliar ground. His German characters are superficial and contrived and start each sentence they utter with an irritating “Ach”, possibly to insert some local authenticity but failing dismally. The skimpy plot limps to an unsatisfactory end where the reader may be excused for feeling slightly duped.

The title is a direct translation of Tiergarten, literally meaning zoo, and refers to the Nazis who are likened to savage beasts. Very predictable.

Stephen White in his novel poses the interesting premise of a man who hires an agency to kill him should he ever become too incapacitated to enjoy life fully anymore, then changes his mind when that time arrives. Unfortunately the pace lags, for instance the first half of the book is taken up by the actual hiring the “Death Angels” which rates no more than a few introductory pages. When the actual story begins, it is filled with mostly irrelevant introspection and unrealistic physical feats by a man who is near death. As Kill Me is written in the first person, many readers will only finish it to see how the author gets out of implementing the title.

One gets the impression that Ms Steel writes either for the elderly with memory deficiency or for the mentally challenged. Every single plot component in The House is endlessly repeated lest it be forgotten, a quite useless exercise as actually nothing much is happening. The House is a very dreary, very predictable and very forgettable novel.

This is a novel with witchcraft as the main protagonist, all others are secondary. It is set in modern Johannesburg where an albino Nigerian has established an empire of primitive terror feeding on ancient beliefs. When one of the victims whose organs he has harvested for muti is found, it is up to two detectives, one black and the other white, to solve the crime and flush out the powerful witchdoctor.

It is unfortunate that Kunzmann frequently feels obliged to comment on past irrelevancies which have no bearing on the story, i.e. on page 213: “Further down the road, the Carlton Tower, tallest of the city skryscrapers, stands nearly empty, a relic of a time when big businesses felt safe here in the city, when blacks needed passes to get into work, when the townships and homelands were still wage-slave borderlands.”

The blonde of the title is newly-appointed federal judge Cate Fante who has a dirty secret. When inevitably the secret comes to light, her judgeship is terminated and it is up to herself to reinstate what is left of her selfrespect and honour. Dirty Blonde is not exactly a riveting page-turner, but adequate for when nothing better is at hand.

Koontz has an uncanny ability to match humour with suspense and Life Expectancy is vintage. On the night Jimmy Tock is born, his grandfather dies and with his last breath predicts five terrible dates in the life of his grandson. How they come to pass and how his faithful family rallies round Jimmy to see that he survives the onslaught of a murderous clown makes compulsive reading. A totally unpredictable end provides a cherry on top, as befits a tale about a master pastry chef.

Hiaasen has a pack of devoted fans and rightly so as another author to couple such a delicious strain of black humour to almost surrealistic scenarios would be hard to find. In Stormy Weather newly-weds Max and Bonnie Lamb are caught up in hurricane Andrew devastating Florida and when Max takes to happily videotaping the carnage, both Bonnie and a hurricane-addicted recluse are so disgusted that Bonnie is all for losing him when he gets kidnapped by the other. In the aftermath of the storm shady characters converge, some bent on revenge for personal losses and some to rip off owners of houses badly in need of repairs. All these plus a skull-juggling millionaire and an honest cop contribute to a tale slightly reminiscent of Stephen King’s epic The Stand, yet in a class of its own. If this is your first Hiaasen book, it will have you looking for more.

A rather well written novel with a bad ending. The story is of naïve Sophie Massot, wife of a French millionaire jewel magnate, who tries to save House Massot after her husband walks out. She finds he left behind more than numerous mistresses and has to ward off the attentions of her husband’s trusted manager before she finds true love. By and by Sparkles is entertaining enough to hold the reader’s attention, but towards the end the novel unravels and Ms Bagshawe seems at a loss to bring it to a credible conclusion. There are just too many improbabilities which is a pity, as it spoils what could have been a good Aga saga.

A story about a childhood trauma surfacing in the adult – hey, that’s a new one. Louise Wener’s novel deals with British lawyer Daniel Ronson’s voluntary disappearance and the efforts of his dysfunctional family to find him. Foremost in this endeavour is his sister Claire, described elsewhere as eccentric and a promiscuous free spirit, who tracks him to Florida and the scene of his guilty conscience. There she also gets acquainted with a strange couple who provide a sub-plot possibly meant as comic relief, all the while hanging on to her devious ex-husband who is along for the ride. Not a normal person in sight.

On the whole this is a novel without character, plot or substance. Why Ms Wener felt compelled to write it only she will know.

Can three self-professed fairy godmothers who run a charm school convert a “nerdy dork” into a supermodel in two weeks’ time? Apparently. Will she then be happy? Apparently not.

Sleeping with Beauty is about a born-clumsy teacher, a senior class reunion, a memorable schoolgirl crush(ing) and a lifelong friendship. Very predictable and with rather too much introspection, it is, however, entertaining enough to spend a few lost evenings with. Donna Kauffman has published several more books in the same vein, called the Glass Slipper novels.

The question here is whether parents are guilty of murder when they don’t seek medical help for their dying child because they devoutly believe that only God can heal. The State prosecutor believes so and in the resultant court case the bereaved parents are defended by Charles Arnold, who pulls out all the stops to obtain a verdict of mercy. Dying Declaration is a novel in the genre of evangelical Christian fiction and is delightfully inspirational quite apart from being very well-written. Definitely recommended if you like court room drama spiced with human inter-relations.

This is the UK version (slightly amended) of The Upright Man, sequel to The Straw Men. If you haven’t read The Straw Men, you’ll be out of your depth here as cross referencing is all too frequent and mostly confusing. As such, this book stands very shakily on its own feet as there is no plot to speak of and the storyline just rambles on from, seemingly, where the first one left off. The end being inconclusive lends itself to yet another sequel and a probable series. If you feel you must read this book, rather read The Straw Men first and take it from there.

Like most prolific mystery writers, Roberts has created a continuum character and through the more than twenty books in her futuristic Death series (set in the 2050's), we have become acquainted with the tough Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the NYPSD. In Survivor in Death Dallas faces the seemingly unmotivated murder of a nine-year-old girl’s entire family. With the help of her husband Roarke and her partner Detective Peabody she hunts for clues, meanwhile having the desperate task of protecting her little eyewitness from the homicidal maniacs whose favourite means of murder is cutting throats.

Nora Roberts is a gifted writer whose books are a pleasure to read. Survivor in Death is no exception.

This is an eco-thriller, i.e. science gone criminal. It is about genetically modified crops and avian ’flu, the connection between the two unfortunately having escaped me. Both, however, prove to be killers and it is up to solicitor Madeleine King and virologist Karl Housman to prevent an epidemic of such magnitude as the world has never seen. With the help of eco-warrior Jake Brewster and private investigator Frankie Carson they unearth Genesis II, a programme sanctioned by Britain’s Minister of Agriculture, which allows for the production of commercial GM crops. The usual conspiracy theories abound and the end is unsatisfactory, to say the least.

Set in Australia, Black Tide maintains a cracking pace throughout in an obvious effort to prove that a woman can take it on the chin as well as any man (if not better!). It is about a Greenpeace ship scuttled by a container vessel in the Southern Ocean and one of the survivors, journalist India Kane, vowing to find out who and why. She runs into a Mafia-like organisation and faces danger in all shapes and sizes before she finally brings the culprits to book. Painfully short on credibility, it’s quite an entertaining novel but not one to be immortalised in the Hall of Fame for Classics.

Katie Fforde writes nice books about people we want to identify with in situations we would like to be in. Warmly wrapped up in tried and trusted romance genre mode, Practically Perfect takes the reader on a merry romp in rural England with Anna, an interior designer (not to be confused with interior decorator) and her longtime dreamlover Max, accompanied and often hampered by Chloe (a friend-indeed neighbour), Rob (an officious bachelor) and Caroline, a rescued greyhound. Predictable, yes, but highly enjoyable.

This is a novel in the Alexandra Cooper series. There have been six before and undoubtedly there will be an eighth after. This one offers two for the price of one with a serial rapist at large and an entombed skeleton to be identified. Alexandra Cooper, the intrepid Assistant DA of Manhattan, unsurprisingly, does both. Unfortunately neither she nor her two sidekick detectives come alive from the paper they are written on. Many pages of the book are dedicated to unnecessary background and while the educational jaunt through New York’s Botanical Gardens is still bearable, the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe are dragged into the shaky plot just often enough to become irritating. I cannot recommend this novel to a discerning reader.

Attorney Paul Madriani takes on the defence of an ex-Army Ranger charged with the murder of a high profile computer software executive. It soon becomes apparent that powerful forces are behind an unassailable frame-up and for Madriani to prove his client’s innocence is impossible. Pitted against the Death Dwarf, a DA with a difference who has yet to concede a conviction, Madriani has no option but to try and bluff his way out. Steve Martini is known for his wellwritten and clever court room dramas and Double Tap is no exception.

Fans of psychologist Alex Delaware and homicide detective Milo Sturgis won’t be disappointed and a treat awaits those who meet this crimefighting pair for the first time. In Gone a young prospective actress is found dead, several others are missing and it is up to Alex to make sense of a murderer’s warped mind. As is usual in Kellerman’s novels the process of detection is logical and the reader can follow each step as the mystery is unravelled. No blood and gore and only a hint of physical violence make for an enjoyable read.

Filled with inconsistencies and peopled with caricatures, this novel has little to recommend it. Kate Klein is an out of New York housewife and mother of three under-fives, married to a man she merely likes, the love of her life having absconded (but of course making a reappearance). She is surrounded by a bunch of tofu-feeding, perfect mommies all impeccably dressed and made up, while she resorts to hamburgers and chips for her kids’ lunch, dresses in cheap, grubby cargo pants, greying elastic-less underwear and limits her makeup to an antiquated lipstick used equally on cheeks and lips. Why, is not explained, as money doesn’t seem to be an object when it comes to her kids’ outrageously expensive playschool or lavish parties. But, inevitably, Kate is bored and when one of the mommies is murdered, she takes it onto herself to solve the crime. Yawn. I've read better from unpublished writers.

This novel hovers between murder mystery and psychotic thriller and as with many literary hybrids, fails dismally. The main character nurses a childhood trauma ad nauseam for more than thirty years, wallowing in self-pity all the way. It makes for a dreary self-flaggelatory piece of prose with, despite the author's heavy-handed effort to cast suspicion on the wrong character, a wholly predictable outcome. Quoted from the cover: “They buried three girls. They buried a killer. But did they bury the truth?” Add a fourth one: Who cares?

A brilliant cameo from the life of one of the world’s greatest statesmen, the novel encompasses seven days in February 1945. The end of World War 2 is imminent and the leaders of the three allied nations, America, Russia and Britain, meet in the Crimea to finalise the details of peace. Franklin Roosevelt is only weeks away from his death and wants nothing more than be known to history as the founder of the United Nations, Joseph Stalin demands the bulk of the spoils of war and Churchill is there to negotiate the best terms possible for Europe and especially the beleaguered Poland. Dobbs’s novel gives life to a part of history not generally known and insight into the agonising decisions which often go with leadership. Churchill’s Triumph is the fourth in a series, the others being Winston’s War, Never Surrender and Churchill’s Hour.

In this episode of Grafton’s alphabet murder mysteries, PI Kinsey (Shoot ’em Dead) Millhone is hired to find a woman who vanished 35 years ago. Chapters in this novel are more or less equally divided into past and present and as the plot is set in a small town just about all the locals come into play. Kinsey delves and when someone slashes her car tyres she knows she’s hitting a nerve, but where? Inconsistencies in earlier witness accounts add up and with a bit of luck Kinsey comes to a conclusion but, to be honest, when finally the culprit is brought to light, the reader might be excused for not immediately knowing who the person is. There are just too many characters to keep track. However, that said, the book is a pleasure to read and difficult to put down.

Difficult to get a grip on, this one. Set late in the reign of Queen Victoria, at first it seems a mystery, with a murder to be solved on the first page and all, but then it gradually morphs into a fully fledged romance. Nothing against romances, it’s a nice escapist genre, but even here Lie by Moonlight (an unexplained title) doesn’t convince. The two main characters, a reformed burglar turned PI and an unconventional teacher, are constantly agonising over their obvious mutual attraction, yet do their level best to thwart a happy ending. Four kidnapped high society teenagers are added to a wholly unbelievable plot where murders abound which nobody seems to pay much attention to. The dialogue is contrived, perhaps to simulate how English is perceived to have been spoken in those days, without success however. In the end the multiple murderer has an near endless and wholly lucid chat with an intended victim, explaining exactly why the various people were killed and tying up all the loose ends where the plot unravelled. Altogether a very shaky novel.

Based on the historical memoirs of Crown Princess Lady Hyegyŏng (her husband called her his Red Queen) this novel consists of two highly divergent, both in content and style, narratives. Part One, Ancient Times, is a vivid account of court life and intrigues in 18^th century Korea. Told by the Crown Princess, it describes her life as a child bride to the psychotic Crown Prince Sado and her fight for survival, her own after the infamous Imo Incident when her husband is most brutally killed and also that of her son Chŏngjo, the Grand Heir, whom she must protect against his murderous grandfather, King Yŏngjo. Interesting reading, which cannot in truth be said of Part Two, Modern Times. Here we meet Dr Barbara Halliwell, a totally boring 40-somethingish Oxford scholar who travels to Seoul to deliver a paper on globalisation at an international conference. Prior to her departure she has anonymously received a copy of the Crown Princess’s memoirs and is fascinated by the it. A mysterious rapport between the two women is intimated which unfortunately falls flat. In fact, the novel would have benefited if the flaccid second part had been left out. Now it detracts from a spellbinding sojourn into largely unknown history and does the memory of the Red Queen an injustice.

“Given the choice of groping after something in the dark, or hoping to find it easily in the light, people pick the light ninety-nine times out of a hundred,” says Harry Nautilus. The hundredth man, he then explains, is the likes of his partner Carson Ryder, a detective famous for having bagged a psychotic killer the year before. Now once again the two are faced with a bizarre case, this time a couple of headless corpses found posed in conspicuous places with seemingly unrelated words written on their torsos. Kerley’s style is witty and easygoing, while the plot is sufficiently convoluted for the reader to want to know how it all ends. This is a strong debut novel featuring a detective with a past, supported by a streetwise partner and two beautiful pathologists. Undoubtedly we will see more of him, which is something to look forward to.

Professor Carlo Bacci developes a drug which induces true love and believes the world will be a better place for it. A private Swiss bank owned by the Kappel family agrees to fund the business details. To prove the efficacy of the drug Bacci’s daughter Isabella and the elder Kappel son and heir, Max, unknowingly serve as guinea pigs. Could it go wrong? That is the theme of this scintillating novel refreshingly devoid of gory violence, torrid sex, foul language and all the other accoutrements so dear to modern thriller writers’ hearts - and which still manages to keep the reader spellbound. True has a credible plot and characters one can identify with. In short, a true good book.

Prefrontal Determinants of Aggressive-Type Overt Responsivity, PREDATOR, is a new research study where Dr Benton Wesley analyses convicted killers’ brains to determine if they differ from “normal” ones. His prize subject is a violent psychopath borrowed from Death Row, Basil Jenrette, who turns out to pose more than one problem for Wesley and his partner, now Director of Forensic Science and Medicine at the National Forensic Academy, Dr Kay Scarpetta. As usual, Cornwell confronts her readers with gruesome scenarios of torture and murder and baffling clues interspersed with the personal problems of her wellknown characters Wesley, Scarpetta, her wayward niece, Lucy, and of course the victimised Pete Marino. As usual there are enough twists and turns to keep the reader engrossed up to the very last page, with a satisfactory, if abrupt, conclusion. Vintage Cornwell.

The novel on the whole is narrated by a present-day young girl who finds a strange book in her father’s library which eventually leads to an improbable quest to find, and drive a stake through the heart of, Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula. Much of the story is told through letters, from the girl’s father, his mentor and her presumably dead mother. While responsibly done, this style nevertheless is sometimes confusing as there is much going to and fro of time and place. The Historian is a big book, 642 pages, and I found myself tempted to skip some of the lengthier ramblings and theorising. Somehow, it doesn’t succeed in marrying fantasy and reality and while many references are made to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, there is no comparison. I found it all very boring.

A serial killer, an inexperienced detective and a suspect with a watertight alibi are the protagonists in La Plante’s latest thriller. The London Homicide Squad are faced with the murder of a beautiful young student, brutally raped and garotted with her own pantihose. The modus operandi is the same as six previous killings over a period of twenty years and it is up to the team of Detective Chief Inspector Langton and his team to unravel the knots. Joining them is Anna Travis, an ambitious young detective on her first murder case.

La Plante never falls into the trap of burdening her characters with excess emotional baggage to pad out a relatively thin story. Instead, she lets the reader take a closer look at the often relentless slogging involved in bringing a murderer to book. Although progress is slow and often one step forward is followed by two backwards, Above Suspicion never lags. It is definitely one up on most contemporary murder mysteries and one hopes to read more of this team, especially the sometimes blundering but extremely credible Anna Travis.

An afterthought. In the book the profiler, Parks, tells us why these murders were committed, in fact, why they were just about inevitable. He does not explain, however, why it is that serial killers (in novels anyway) always use exactly the same MO even over several years. Surely they must realise that these murders will be connected somehow and that the possibility of being caught is then multiplied by the number of victims. If someone can answer this, please contact me via this website.

This is as good as it gets. Already known from previous Deaver novels, quadruplegic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme and his partner policewoman Amelia Sachs are this time faced with a plot so devious it holds surprises up to virtually the very last page.

Geneva Settle, a young schoolgirl, is researching a crime committed 140 years ago by her ancestor, a freed slave. Unknown to her, others are interested in a secret her ancestor held. As the narrative proceeds at an electrifying pace, several attempts to kill Geneva are made. Why?

With the help of the NYPD, it takes Rhyme’s brilliant mind to find the meaning behind the twelfth tarot card, the hanged man, in the assassin’s rape pack and to unravel the intricate threads that lead to the mastermind behind it all.

Highly recommended for those who like a thriller with a twist.

Pick up a Gerritsen thriller and you’re guaranteed a gripping all-nighter. Vanish is about conspiracy theories and illegal immigrants who vanish without a trace. The plot is not always watertight. The reader is left wondering about one of the character’s obsessive crusade against the US government for which no plausible motivation is given, and the end is a bit too smooth. However, one tends to overlook such minor deficiencies as the author maintains a cracking pace throughout. This one, like all Gerritsen’s previous novels, comes highly recommended.

In Cover Up the action revolves around a smalltime stud-owner (Rob Harding), a murderous stallion (Cape Fear, not to be confused with Goldeneye who is the good guy), an out of cash bookie and best friend (Steve Armstrong), a Czech jockey (Tomas aka Bouncer) and his nubile sister (Ivana). Throw in two innocent teenagers, a betting scam and a three year-old cover up and you have 313 pages of intrigue at British racing. The book tends to stretch credibility at times, but taken at face value not a bad read.

Halfway into Falling Awake you wonder what it is all about. Nothing much happens and even after the denouement the novel still goes on for another five chapters, presumably to make up the requisite number of pages. It is about solving crime through lucid dreaming, and interesting premise which should have been exploited in-depth but isn’t. Isabel Wright is a frustrated dream interpreter, Ellis Cutler an enigmatic dreamer and when they meet sparks must fly. Unfortunately this novel is such a mishmash of romance (“ ‘You are so lovely,’ he said. She could not speak so she smiled tremulously and raised her arms to welcome him into her bed.”) and mystery (“A funeral always made for a bad day. Knowing that it was probably his screwup that had put Katherine Ralston into the ground made things a lot worse for Ellis Cutler that afternoon.”) that it is neither fish nor flesh. For those on a bland diet it might just work, however.

What happens when a young couple desperate for a baby come across a kidnapped toddler and take him for their own? What if the suspected kidnapper turns up to retrieve the child and gets killed in the ensuing fight? Then turns out to be wearing a police badge? And a resulting drug war involving the child’s real mother claims multiple victims? Such is the setting for John Gilstrap’s Even Steven. The main protagonist, Bobby Martin, is no hero and dealing with a wife who refuses to face reality, a dead cop, a psychotic pursuer and the FBI nearly gets him down. There is murder and mayhem all round, well written with a satisfying conclusion. Certainly recommended for those who don’t demand too much in a thriller.

Ms Sykes writes well, but she should know that some things are simply not done even if it seems like a good idea at the time. To combine satire with chick-lit can only spell disaster, which is exactly what Bergdorf Blondes is. In a nutshell, Bergdorf Blondes are those champagne bubble socialites of New York who are lucky (or cunning) enough to have their hair done and blonded at Bergdorf, a fashionable department store. The narrator is an unnamed brunette referring to herself simply as moi, whose main interests in life are potential husbands and a bikini wax, yet the reader is expected to believe she has a degree from Harvard and a job as a writer at some big fashion magazine. While moi agonises her way through several love affairs, her mother wants her to marry the Earl next door (she, the mother, lives in England) but I seriously doubt anybody yawned to the end of the novel to find out if she eventually does. The style of writing suggests bubbling humour and clever plot nuances, unfortunately there is neither. Bergdorf Blondes is a shallow book about shallow people and definitely not representative of the entertaining genre.

Yet another Holy Grail Tale, or rather, two, linking two young women across a timespan of 800 years.

In 2005 Alice Tanner discovers two skeletons in a cave in the mountains of southwest France. This precipitates a series of events plunging her into a lifethreatening search for an ancient Egyptian document hidden by what pans out to be her 13th-century alter ego, Alaïs.

In Carcassonne, in the year 1209, Alaïs and her people are threatened by crusaders from northern France, intent on wiping out the perceived heresy prevalent in the Cathar region. Her father is called to the defence and he asks Alaïs to protect a Holy Grail secret he is joint guardian of.

Labyrinth is a very predictable book. The villains do bad things to the good people who suffer heroically. There is no middle road in either story and the resemblance between characters of the now and then is contrived. Alice's flashbacks are manipulated with, it seems, the sole purpose of ramming the concept of reincarnation down the reader’s throat.

Neither heroine is impressive and the abounding secondary characters stir no emotion. Kate Mosse has, according to herself, set out to write an adventure novel with female protagonists but she failed to create somebody with whom the reader can identify. While written in impeccable language and with authoritative and genuinely interesting historical insight, Labyrinth is in itself a novel without life.

Rob loves Ashley enough to leave London and his best friends to join her in Manchester. He soon finds, however, that at his age (he is 32) making new friends is difficult if not impossible. Desperately unhappy, he lets Ashley convince him to advertise for a “bloke-date,” with disastrous results. Then, when he has given up all hope, his luck changes and at a party he runs into someone he can really relate to, someone who shares his interests and laughs at all the right moments. The perfect best pub-crawling mate. Only problem is, she’s a girl.

Somehow they convince each other that platonic friendship is possible and after even Ashley has accepted Jo as Rob’s buddy, things run smoothly. For a while at least.

Brand New Friend is written in a sparkling style which makes it virtually impossible to put down until the very end. Disguising a thin storyline with astute observation of both the male and female psyche, it is an appealing novel, at times hilariously funny.

If you have to choose only one book for a rainy day, this one is a safe bet.

Eminently readable, but try to remember the essentials the next day, and you probably won’t be able to. It’s that kind of book. Central figures are Eddie Malloy, a crippled ex-jockey turned raconteur and Frankie Houlihan, an ex-priest, now a security officer. Malloy is engaged by American tycoon Vaughn Keelor to arrange the take-over of Britain’s racetracks while Houlihan is appointed his bodyguard. Personal intrigues abound and there is a lot of soul-searching which has little to do with the plot. There is even a love interest for those romantically inclined. Things turn ugly and people get hurt, and the end is rather predictable. This is purportedly a novel about British racing, but Dick Francis can still sleep soundly.