My Dad Reviews...Singing To The Dead - Caro Ramsay

Just a reminder of my Dad's tastes:

DISLIKES: romance, books that have too much swearing in (I guess that's my Dad not going to read my next book either, then - I thought it was just my Mum I had to keep away from it). Also doesn't like horror, and books with vampires, pterodactyls and the living dead in them. Also, something called an ungoliant. No, I have no idea either - I think my Dad has been at the sherry.

LIKES: thrillers, spy novels, war stories and books with elves in (the elves can swear their little heads off as far as he's concerned). Oh, and maps. He bloody loves maps. If you ever meet him, for goodness' sake don't ask him for directions. Not even to the bathroom.

PREFERS: Philip Marlowe to Miss Marple, Inspector Morse to Homicide.

SINGING TO THE DEAD - Caro Ramsay

Publisher: Penguin
Published: May 2009
First Lines: Detective Inspector Colin Anderson held a handkerchief to his nose, trying not to breathe, his eyes watering in the acrid smoke, and looked at the remains of the ground floor flat, 34 Lower Holburn Street.

This is an extremely well written story.It is mainly about two boys who go missing on the streets of Partick, just west of Glasgow city centre. The police, who are the remains of Alan McAlpine's team, (you can read about them, and what happens to Alan in Caro's book Absolution) so it is like old friends time. There are two new members of the team, DCI Rebecca Quinn who appears as a hard nosed *****(another name for a female dog) and DS Katherine Lewis who tries to charm everybody and doesn't quite make it - she even got up my nose. *

The story is quite involved and features two storylines, the second being a poisoner using a form of cyanide ( I say a form of cyanide as it was different to the one I used to test in the toolroom, which appeared to be more deadly**).

During the investigations many other characters are introduced and the son of one of the policemen also disappears, feared to be kidnapped by the same perp(s)***.

The reasons for the kidnappings are woven into the story. Whilst it is fairly easy to work out who did it, it is not easy to work out why. It is the same with the poisonings, even though the twist at the end came as a bit of a surprise. This was a very well written story, the characters developing as the tale progressed, most of them likeable.

Notes from me:

* Even I don't do that very often
** A note to the police - I had no idea that I am Dr Crippen's daughter.
*** Sometimes I think my dad watches too much CSI

Pre-Festival Round Up

A fairly short post today and a long weekend off for me as I'm off to this festival early on Friday morning to see Sonic Youth, Primal Scream, the Buzzcocks, The Pastels, Yo La Tengo, My BloodyValentine, The Membranes...and loads more. The great thing about this festival is that I get to sleep in a proper bed, and wee in a proper loo. Bliss.

So there'll be a review from my Dad tomorrow and then I'm back on Monday. Have a lovely weekend.

It's obviously Russel McLean Day today as my favourite Dundonian (admittedly, I don't know that many, but he'd still be my favourite) is all over the place. First of all, a review of THE GOOD SON at January Magazine. Next another great review - this time of THE LOST SISTER in the always excellent THE SKINNY. And finally, Russel himself on what books he's looking forward to in 2010, including Tony Black's LOSS, which I am very excited about myself.

Robert Downey Jr talks about Sherlock Holmes.

Philip Kerr interviewed in The Socialist Worker.

Alexander McCall Smith on Corduroy Mansions.

And, finally, lovely to read something about children getting excited about books.

A Win LOSS Situation

Based on previous posts about what's coming up in Scottish crime fiction in 2010, here's a summary by month. Let me know if I've missed any out. And now, over to you. What are you looking forward to crime fiction wise (Scottish or otherwise) in 2010. Let me know either in the comments or via e-mail to the usual address and I'll draw two random lucky winners who will each receive a copy of Tony Black's LOSS, which is the one I'm most looking forward to in January. Of course, you'll have to wait until January to get your prize but if you've read the first two in the series, you know it will be worth waiting for.

JANUARY
M C Beaton - DEATH OF A VALENTINE
Tony Black - LOSS
Quintin Jardine - BLOOD RED
Alanna Knight - QUEST FOR A KILLER
Peter May - VIRTUALLY DEAD
Manda Scott - THE FIRE OF ROME

FEBRUARY
Gerald Hammond - SILENT INTRUDER
Charles Maclean - NIGHT

MARCH
Shona Maclean - A GAME OF SORROWS
Alexander McCall Smith - THE DOUBLE COMFORT SAFARI CLUB
Louise Welsh - NAMING THE BONES

APRIL
Chris Ewan - THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO LAS VEGAS
Stuart MacBride - DARK BLOOD
G J Moffat - FALLOUT
Craig Robertson - RANDOM
Peter Turnbull - DELIVER US FROM EVIL

MAY
Alex Gray - FIVE WAYS TO KILL A MAN
Peter May - FREEZE FRAME
Ken McClure - A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE
Shirley McKay - LINES OF INQUIRY
Aline Templeton - THE ROAD TO NOWHERE

JUNE
Kate Atkinson - STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG
Karen Campbell - FADE TO GREY (or perhaps it's called SHADOWPLAY)

JULY
Allan Guthrie - BYE BYE BABY (novella)
Pat McIntosh - A PIG OF COLD POISON

REST OF THE YEAR
Helen Fitzgerald - HOT FLUSH - Autumn
Helen Fitzgerald - AMELIA O'DONOHUE IS SO NOT A VIRGIN

So, over to you...

Ideas, Sex and Comedy

Iain Banks banks on banks.

Val McDermid and Lindsey Davis on tomorrow's FOUL PLAY with Simon Brett. And for those not in the UK, there's usually a 'Listen Again' option after the show has aired.

The smallest library in Britain - what a great idea. I hope we see more of these, although in Glasgow it would smell of wee and have been taken over by a drunk.

And another idea - this time from the very funny Douglas Lindsay - a Barney Thomson story advent calendar style - "Told in 19 parts and finishing on Christmas Day, BARNEY THOMSON AND THE WESTMINSTER CHRISTMAS MASSACRE tells a heartwarming and festive tale of murder, greed, death, blood and mince pies."

The Indian Express on Ian Rankin's THE COMPLAINTS. Just to warn you, this one probably has an annoying pop-up, so my pop-up blocker tells me.

And more sex please, we're British.

Looking Forward To 2010 - Part 4

G J Moffat - FALLOUT
Publisher: Hachette Books Scotland
Date: April 2010
From Amazon: 'Logan Finch has made a new life for himself with his daughter Ellie. But a blossoming relationship with DC Rebecca Irvine is about to be put to the test when Irvine's old flame, drug-addicted rock star Roddy Hale, enters her life again. And there's a small matter of a professional killer following her every move. Alex Cahill, close-protection operative and ex-US army special-forces soldier, hates babysitting celebrities. Maybe this time will be different. Kara Priest is a Scots girl about to break into Hollywood and is back in Scotland for the premiere of a low-budget film as a favour for a friend. She is the target of a disturbed stalker and needs Cahill and his team to watch her back. As the clouds roll in to blanket the sky at the end of an Indian summer, violence erupts all round, putting everyone at risk. For Logan, there are impossible choices to be made: between his best friend and the woman he loves. Between who lives and who dies.' I still haven't read the first one, but this looks good.

Craig Robertson - RANDOM
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Date: April 2010
A debut novel. This from the publisher: 'Glasgow is being terrorised by a serial killer the media have nicknamed The Cutter. The murders have left the police baffled. There seems to be neither rhyme nor reason behind the killings; no kind of pattern or motive; an entirely different method of murder each time, and nothing that connects the victims except for the fact that the little fingers of their right hands have been severed. If DS Rachel Narey could only work out the key to the seemingly random murders, how and why the killer selects his victims, she would be well on her way to catching him. But as the police, the press and a threatening figure from Glasgow's underworld begin to close in on The Cutter, his carefully-laid plans threaten to unravel - with horrifying consequences.'

Manda Scott - THE FIRE OF ROME
Publisher: Bantam Press Date:
January 2010
From the Random House website: 'AD 34: Sebastos Pantera is twelve. Training for the time when he too will be a soldier of Rome, he follows his father to a garden tomb on the outskirts of Jerusalem where he watches him greet two men and a heavily pregnant woman. In a moment that changes his life forever, he sees a wounded revolutionary being brought out of the tomb alive . . .Twenty years later, Pantera returns from five years undercover in Britannia as assassin and spy for the Legions. He is sick of spying, but a deadly combination of old loyalties and a sense of unfinished business combine to lure him homeward to the city of Rome where, his former mentor and spymaster, the Machiavellian Seneca the Younger, charges him with rooting out the revolutionaries responsible for the city’s seething unrest. Pantera discovers that the main troublemaker is none other than his closest friend, Saulos, a recent convert to the new religion of Christianity, and Saulos is planning the biggest single act of terrorism the Roman Empire has known. Spying, forbidden secrets, an ancient manuscript and an apocalyptic fire combine in a gripping thriller that will change the way we think about the ancient world.'

Alexander McCall Smith - THE DOUBLE COMFORT SAFARI CLUB
Publisher: Little Brown Date:
March 2010
Eleventh in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. From Amazon uk 'Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are called to a safari lodge in Botswana's Okavango Delta to carry out a delicate mission on behalf of a former guest. The Okavango makes Precious appreciate once again the beauty of her homeland: it is a paradise of teeming wildlife, majestic grasslands and sparkling water. However, it is also home to rival safari operators, fearsome crocodiles and disgruntled hippopotamuses. What's more, Mma Makutsi still does not have a date for her wedding to Phuti Radiphuti and is feeling rather tetchy herself. But Precious knows that with a little patience, just as the wide river will gently make its way round any obstacle, so will everything work out for the best in the end ...'

Aline Templeton - THE ROAD TO NOWHERE
Publisher: Hodder
Date: May 2010
From Hodder's catalogue: 'A young woman has been wrongly accused of murder - or is she devious and deadly? When a landslide crushes the cottage she has been living in, she becomes engulfed in events she struggles to understand, and DI Marjorie Fleming herself is drawn into a nightmare of danger and death.'

Peter Turnbull - DELIVER US FROM EVIL

Publisher: Severn House
Date: April 2010
The nineteenth in the Hennessy and Yellich police procedural series and another one I can't find anything about other than that.

Louise Welsh - NAMING THE BONES
Publisher: Canongate Books
Date: March 2010
From Amazon 'Some secrets are best left buried - Knee-deep in the mud of an ancient burial ground, a winter storm raging around him, and at least one person intent on his death: how did Murray Watson end up here? His quiet life in university libraries researching the lives of writers seems a world away, and yet it is because of the mysterious writer, Archie Lunan, dead for thirty years, that Murray now finds himself scrabbling in the dirt on the remote island of Lismore. Loaded with Welsh's trademark wit, insight and gothic charisma, this adventure novel weaves the lives of Murray and Archie together in a tale of literature, obsession and dark magic.'

Internationally Flavoured Sunday Summary

Posh people can be neds too.

More on the Mma Ramotswe Cookbook.

Un orage dans une tasse de thé? And, continuing the European theme, I think this article about the filming of Craig Russell's book BROTHERS GRIMM - or Wolfsfährte in German - says that Craig Russell leaves his corpses in Hamburg. Or maybe not. My German is slightly rusty.

David Ashton has written a screenplay about Shah Jahan, which is being filmed with Ben Kingsley.

Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh visits an Edinburgh project which helps to get people off drink and drugs.

Guest Blogger - My Dad

Since I am busy this weekend, I am handing over today's blog post to my Dad. It all started when he rang me up last week (not like him, as my regular reader will know - it's usually "Hello Dad," "I'll pass you over to your mother.") Anyway, this is how the conversation went.

"Donna, I'm reading a book by Charles Cumming."

Now, all well and good, but somehow, underneath the seemingly innocuous words, I could hear an accusatory tone. "Are you, Dad?" I said.

"Yes, I am." Again, the slightly clipped and accusing tone.

"And...errrrr...is it good?"

"He was born in Scotland, you know." Ah, here it was.

"Oh, was he?"

"Yes, but he's not on your list of Scottish authors." I could actually hear the italics.

"Oh dear, I'd better sort that out then, hadn't I, Dad?"

"Yes." That word conveyed so much. That's all he said but what he meant was "Yes, young lady, because right now you are, most definitely, the world's worst blogger of Scottish crime fiction. I am convinced the stork dropped you on your head from a great height."

"Then you can write me a review, right?"

"Yes." That one was chock full of smugness.

"So, how would you like to do a guest blog for me?"

"What about?"

"Anything you like?"

"Really?"

OK, so that was a mistake. "Well, no, within limits."

"Maps?"

"No, Dad. Stuff you read."

"I read maps."

Sometimes it's tough, dear reader. "OK Dad, point taken. But I was thinking more books and things."

"I'll have a think about it. I probably won't do it. But I'll have a think. Not promising anything, mind."

"And remember, pater, it can't all be about Lord Of The Rings."

"Pearls before swine" said my Dad, before the phone was slammed down.

Ten minutes later, this appeared in my inbox. Obviously, I have been forgiven. Although, given the amount of digs...maybe not. It was accompanied by a little note that said "Please do not take anything out." As in "Please leave in the bits where I have been horrible to my only daughter."


That lazy little blogger's been at it again. She phones to say "Dad will you write something for my blog." I think she must have a mental block, or maybe just mental.

She disturbs me as I was reading a novel by Caro Ramsay. there were no Elves, Orcs or damn great Spiders, only that DCI Quinn who seems a bit of an ogress. When I asked what I was to write about she suggested one or two things which at the time did not appeal, and said to write about anything.

My liking for books covers many subjects and authors, spy novels, mystery stories and general fiction, books that grip my imagination from the beginning or tell of social issues. In the past I have read Hemingway, Dickens, Steinbeck, Robert Ludlum and Colin Forbes. My bookcase has a book by Donna Moore, plus others by authors you may actually have heard of, such as a complete set by Stephen Booth.*

Yes,the book I am reading at the moment is by Caro Ramsay. SINGING TO THE DEAD. I have only got to page 218 so I will probably give the verdict at a later date. This is the second one by this author that I have managed to obtain from our local library, the first one I enjoyed a few weeks ago. The library I speak of is part of Cambridgeshire Libraries and has a good selection of both fiction and non fiction with a section for crime novels which are mostly paperback, some of those authors I even know or have met.**

I think that all habits form when one is young, such as reading habits, I try to read books by an author in sequence, a habit formed many years ago when I read books by W E Johns. I think as a lad with scabbed knees I read most of his books, along with the Beano, Dandy and Eagle comics.There was no television in those days, just the radio and reading to pass the time, if we heard a doodlebug pass over, and we heard a bang it was OK to carry on reading. When Donna was smaller (yes she was smaller***) I would tell her stories, usually Enid Blyton or fairy stories that I could remember, she was quite happy if I had forgotten and made it up as I went along.

So much for trying to think of something to write, now that bit that Winnie the Pooh had a little of, is beginning to hurt, so goodnight till it be the morrow (with apologies to Bill Shakespeare).

* I shall ignore the slight and just mention that the set of Stephen Booth books actually belongs to my Mum, if we're being picky here.

** My Mum and Dad both loved their visit to Crimefest in Bristol earlier this year. They were so thrilled that 'proper authors' (as in, 'not our Donna') actually took the time to chat to them.

*** Everyone's a critic. I AM BIG BONED, ok?