In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, two men secretly agreed to divide the Middle East between them. Sir Mark Sykes was a visionary politician; François Georges-Picot a diplomat with a grudge. The deal they struck, which was designed to relieve tensions that threatened to engulf the Entente Cordiale, drew a line in the sand from the Mediterranean to the Persian frontier. Territory north of that stark line would go to France; land south of it, to Britain. The creation of Britain’s ‘mandates’ of Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq, and France’s in Lebanon and Syria, made the two powers uneasy neighbours for the following thirty years.

Through a stellar cast of politicians, diplomats, spies and soldiers, including T. E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle, Barr vividly tells the story of the short but crucial era when Britain and France ruled the Middle East. It explains exactly how the old antagonism between these two powers inflamed the more familiar modern rivalry between the Arabs and the Jews, and ultimately led to war between the British and French in 1941 and between the Arabs and Jews in 1948.

In 1946, after many years of intrigue and espionage, Britain succeeded in ousting France from Lebanon and Syria, and hoped that, having done so, it would be able to cling on to Palestine. Using newly declassified papers from the British and French archives, James Barr brings this clandestine struggle back to life, and reveals, for the first time, the stunning way in which the French finally got their revenge.

The Review

The blurb above gives you a good all-round picture of the scope of this book. The first thing I should point out is that this book reads like a well written novel. Any history book holds the possibility of killing a subject with a dry regurgitation of facts. The skill lies in presenting them in such a way as to make them interesting, relevant, and memorable. James Barr has achieved this with consummate ease. I don’t say that lightly – I’ve always read quite a lot of history books and some of them tried to write in a novelistic way and failed miserably. They tend to indulge two serious errors: they get too flowery, using a lot of adjectives and pointless description; they write as if the historical figures are characters in a book – and so start telling us what they were thinking (without and evidence to back it up) Many’s the history book I’ve flung across the room after a few pages of twaddle like that. Anyway, I only mention it because this book reads like a novel – but in the good ways. Barr does not claim to know what a character was thinking – unless there is a diary or letter to back it up. He does not sink into the mire of purple prose. He keeps it moving. He kept me interested.

This was a little like one of those crime novels where we know who dies and we just want to find out who did it and why. There must have been countless points where it could have turned out differently. Moments in history where the Middle East could have developed into a peacefully place – even with a Jewish homeland integrated there somewhere. For that to have happened there would have had to have been no oil and no Suez. Even with the British holding on to Suez it might have been OK – had the British politians really been interested in peace and the handover of power. However, once oil entered the equation there never was going to be a peaceful solution. The British of the time played the part of the modern day Americans: lots of talk about liberty and self-determination but only if that meant getting or keeping the oil. There were one or two noble figures along the way, along with a few sad victims. Like today the real victims are the people who live in war torn lands because the people around them want more; more land, status, oil, power…

If you are interested in this period of history or this region you should buy this book (or borrow it from the library). If you want to get an idea of why there are so many problems in the Middle East today – read this book. The period covers the incubation, birth and nursery of the present day struggles. It feels impartial, perhaps with a very slight English bias. You don’t need any prior knowledge (I didn’t really have any) and the book is pretty much jargon free. It is also an entertaining read.

Barr has written another book: Setting the Desert on Fire: T.E. Lawrence and Britain’s Secret War in Arabia, 1916-18 which is now on my Amazon wish list (I’m a bit skint at the moment else I’d have bought it already.
If you are reading this Mr. Barr, James, would you mind writing a book about France in the 1930′s. The one’s I have got are rather dry and exceedingly stuffy and I would so like to read an interesting one.

James Barr is on twitter as @James_Barr he also has a web site: http://www.jamesbarr.org.uk. This book was published by Simon and Schuster who kindly sent me this copy to review. I am on Twitter too as @sethlynch

A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle That Shaped the Middle East, James Barr
Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd (4 Aug 2011)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1847374530
ISBN-13: 978-1847374530
Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 4 cm

The Blurb

Edward A. Grainger’s Gideon Miles hits the trail in this fast-clip western novella written by Heath Lowrance. The U.S. Marshal finds himself in the sleepy town of Little Ridge, Montana, on the search for a wanted man. But just as Miles enters town, he’s spotted by a hard case who recognizes Miles as the lawman that killed his friend. Now Miles must face the wanted man, who claims his innocence and is raising a daughter on his own, while the hard case and a ne’er-do-well partner are gunning for him.

The Review

This is a short tale about Gideon Miles riding out to a frontier town to bring back a wanted man. I like the way this one plays. Miles encounters some serious bad cases – along with out-and-out racists. Miles handles it all: the Sheriff who calls him ‘boy’, the outlaws who happen to spot him and want revenge, the restaurant owner who doesn’t want blacks in his place. I don’t want to spoil the story by going into detail but I did like the way the outlaws were with each other: especially at the end. That was a nice touch.

Lowrance uses this story to demonstrate Miles’ integrity. It’s Old School integrity, where a man will obey the law he has sworn to uphold despite not agreeing with it. You get the feeling with Gideon Miles that, had he been born white, he might have become a lawyer before going on to a State Governorship somewhere. Miles is out there because he is black. Being a fast-draw and handy with a knife allows him to survive. He’s a loyal friend and a reliable man. Cash has an element of the unpredictable – as shown in the story Michelle from The Adventure’s of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles. This gives him the edge over Miles.

Miles to Little Ridge, Heath Lowrance
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 106 KB
Publisher: BEAT to a PULP (9 Dec 2011)
Language English
ASIN: B006K5QR88

Manhunter’s Mountain

The Blurb

Manhunter’s Mountain shows a powerful side to Cash Laramie as he makes his way down the side of a mountain with a prisoner in tow, and two prostitutes eager to flee a mining town that’s gone bust, looking to make a new life for themselves. An early winter storm promises to make the journey more than a normal struggle. And, leaving town with two of its most precious gems, the prostitutes, puts Cash in the crosshairs of an angry gang of men who are willing to keep the women in town … at any cost.

The Review

I’ve already said I prefer the character of Cash to Miles. Just to make it clear this preference has nothing to do with the writing: this preference came out in my reading of Vol1 of the Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, which all written by Edward A. Grainger. In fairness to Miles he could probably have done all the things Cash did in this novella – except, being black, he might not have made it out of the remote mining town alive.

This novella sees Cash riding into a remote town on the trail of a wanted man. The town is remote, in the mountains, and many trails are closed off by the snow. It’s a gritty and enjoyable tale. There are a fair few moments where it looks like Cash won’t survive the town itself. His escape is made with the town’s two remaining whores (the only women in town): something the town’s folk – rough and ready silver miners – are not too pleased about. A few of them decide they are going to tack Cash down and bring the women back. If that wasn’t bad enough a bounty hunter turns up and he is after the same man Cash has in his custody. Now it looks like Cash Laramie is standing between one of the nastiest bounty hunters around and his bounty. Add to this the mountains in winter and you have the elements of Manhunter’s Mountain. It’s a great little tale – as it Miles From Little Ridge.

Manhunter’s Mountain, Wayne D Dundee
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 200 KB
Publisher: BEAT to a PULP (4 Jan 2012)
Language English
ASIN: B006TMY8TM

Both these books were kindle versions and they are both selling for a lot less than they are worth. Snap them up today.

The third book in the hugely acclaimed Martin Beck series … someone is assaulting and killing young girls in the once-peaceful parks of Stockholm. Detective Inspector Marin Beck has two witnesses: a cold-blooded mugger who won’t say much, and a three-year-old boy who can’t say much. The killer will strike again, and the police are getting nowhere. Can Beck crack the case before time runs out?

The Review

I read this not long after Unwanted. I didn’t realise that the themes were related until after I pulled it off the shelf and decided to read it. If I had I might have gone for something else – I can only stomach so much child killing in a month. Instead I read it over a weekend and “enjoyed” it. The first few pages sent shivers down my spine – not metaphorically but literally. I felt a surge of tingling energy as I read because I knew I was reading something special. This specialness had put me off reading this book – the first two in the series were so good I was afraid they couldn’t keep up the pace. I think I can accept that all ten are going to be in the zone even if they do vary in quality. It’s been a while since I read books one and two so I can’t remember if they did this but there were a few points in this book where the quality dropped. Not a big deal, I’m talking about three or four times where a word annoyed me (eg, he said angrily – where I’d delete angrily). Those trivial points are the only gripes I have about an excellent book.

Martin Beck seems to be in a transitional state during this book. He no longer has his old team around him – although for this case he did work with a few of them. His wife, normally a nagging influence in the background, was hardly there at all. Beck has also been promoted. There were a few pointers back to the previous two books too.

This story is about a child serial killer. The killings are unpleasant and provoke vigilantes to start beating people up in case they are the killer. You get the feel of the fear which haunts the parents of children in the city. You taste the sanctimonious recriminations when another child is killed: how could anyone let their child out when they know a killer is on the prowl? What Sjöwall and Wahlöö portray is a city in the grip of fear. The killer doesn’t is going to kill and if the kids are kept away from the parks he’ll take them from your yards.
There are a lot of other nice touches in this book. The influence of drugs on the youth – while Beck is searching for a man who sexually assaults children, a girl in her late teens offers to sell him photographs of herself naked. Beck assumes this is so she can buy drugs. There are also the people who turn up during the increasing police rides: the people who have no where else to sleep other than a park bench, the mentally ill who roam the streets, the victims outside the scope of the book: a woman found naked and tied up in a flat. These are images flashed across the page in the course of the book. Pictures of a waning society.

If you haven’t read the Martin Beck books yet – start today.

The Man on the Balcony, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Fourth Estate; (Reissue) edition (7 July 2011)
Language English
ISBN-10: 000724293X
ISBN-13: 978-0007242931
Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2 cm

Brit Grit is Paul D Brazill’s first flash fiction and short sharp story collection. The no frill tales cast a bleary eye over Britain’s’ grubby underbelly in nine hard-hitting crime stories. The collection includes Guns Of Brixton, which was chosen for The Mammoth Book Of Best British Crime 2011.

The Review

I liked reading some modern English noir for a change. I’ve read books like Brighton Rock but the England there is a very foreign place. America produces an abundance of the stuff, some bad some supreme. This was unashamedly English, and I liked it for that.

I liked it for a lot more too. The stories have the feel of gritty realism, laced with a deep sardonic humour. This is Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels crime, fast paced, knowing geezers, neat one-liners (I wouldn’t touch him with Roman Polanski, or any other five-foot Pole). Then they begin to sink in, the realism fades and a surrealism prevails. This is a collection of dark parables where criminals eat their victims and gangsters dress in drag to rob diamond stores. Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t fairy tales, the characters are realistic, flawed, broken people populating a world where hope is only a smash and grab away. These tales, with a small twist and a stretch, could probably be found in the court records. Mostly likely they are found in back-street pubs – a grain of truth mixed in a pint of exaggeration.

The writing itself is compelling – Brazill has had he work published all over the place and it doesn’t surprise me. There’s quality here. Some of these tales were better than others but there were non duds, no fillers.

I got to the end and thought I’d like to read a Brazill novel. Then realised I’d fallen into a trap, he doesn’t need to write a novel any more than Maupassant needed to write one (although he did). Brazill is mastering a different craft – the craft of the short story. A few years ago it was a dying skill: here we have the wool dyer, the roof thatcher and over there the short story writer, ain’t they quaint? Now we have the kindle, the nook, and any number of other eBook devices and with them a renaissance in short story writing. This time last year I’d read few modern short stories (I read Gogol, Maupassant, O Henry, writers from a lot of generations back.) This year I’ve read quiet a few quality collections: Dig Ten Graves and The Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles are both reviewed on this site. I’m most of the way through Beat to a Pulp: Hardboiled and Off the Record.Most of these collections – including this one are 86p on Amazon. Why not give them a try?

There’s a review of this book by Eva Dolan on her blog, Loitering with Intent, and another by Heath Lowrance on his Psycho-Noir blog.

Paul D. Brazill has his own blog here: You Would Say That, Wouldn’t You? He can be found on twitter here: @PaulDBrazill

Brit Grit, Paul D Brazill
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 93 KB
Publisher: Trestle Press (10 Aug 2011)
ASIN: B005GVPDIM

In the middle of a rainy Swedish summer, a little girl is abducted from a crowded train.
Despite hundreds of potential witnesses, no one noticed when the girl was taken. Her mother, left behind at the previous station, alerted the crew immediately. But as the train pulled into Stockholm Central Station, the girl was nowhere to be seen.

To Inspector Alex Recht of the Stockholm police, this looks like a classic custody row. But none of the evidence adds up and young Investigative Analyst Fredrika Bergman is convinced the case is far more complex than her boss is prepared to admit.

So when the missing child is found dead in the far north of Sweden, with the word UNWANTED scribbled on her forehead, the rule book is finally thrown out of the window. Now on the trail of a ruthless murderer with a terrifying agenda, will Alex and Fredrika manage to put aside their differences and work together to find the killer, before it’s too late? .

Review

This book starts of like a classic Swedish crime novel in the mould of Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Martin Beck novels, and Henning Mankell’s Wallander series. It lost a lot of this feel early on – because this book does not focus on a solitary, depressed, detective, but on a small team. Mainly upon three of the team: Recht and Bergman as mentioned in the blurb and Peder, another member of the team. In this way it is a little more like the original series of The Killing. And there is a sticker on the book which reads “for fans of The Killing.” It also deviates from those other two in that it is not so well written. I feel a bit harsh saying that, this book is not badly written (there are a few parts which could be tidied up) it just hasn’t reached those heights, yet. I have a good feeling that Kristina Ohlsson will improve with each book she writes.

I don’t want to spoil the story beyond the publicity text above, so I won’t give much of the plot away. This is a bleak tale of a killer who kills young children – and babies. It makes for uncomfortable reading in parts. The children are targeted, which means the mothers didn’t stand a chance. The first abduction was engineered so that the mother and child were separated, and the child then abducted for a crowded train. And if she hadn’t been taken then she would have been taken later, perhaps when playing in the park – or at any time when the opportunity arose. And then we see some of the parent’s grief – although not to the extent of The Killing.

I couldn’t have read the book if it dwelt too much on the abductions – I have two young daughters and it is left me feeling panicky. Instead we focus on the three main detectives – with occasional scenes from other points of view: including the killers accomplice, and another detective. Fredrika Bergman is a female and a civilian, which makes her unpopular. She is also an intellectual, the final nail in her coffin at work. Because she is different she sees the case differently. The routine and experience which allows the elder male detectives to do their jobs well is of no help here – children are normally abducted by someone close to them. They are not normally the targets of a serial killer.

The characters are well-developed, although I could have done without some of that development. Bergman is thinking about adopting, which would make her a single parent. She is in a relationship with a married man who won’t leave his wife and doesn’t want children. Peder’s marriage is breaking down and his has a mentally handicapped brother. Recht’s family is almost on the level but he has a wayward son who has emigrated to Colombia and not been seen since. Not every character needs a dysfunctional background – I think everyone in this book has one. Sometimes the ordinary, balanced family, can make for drama in unusual situations like working on a case such as this one. It doesn’t need the added dimension of x,y or z. This would have also worked well as a balance to the other character’s home life. Given what we got, it does work well. The main focus is Bergman and although not wholly sympathetic I was on her side throughout. Peder was handled well. He came across as a bigot and misogynist at first. Although he may have still been so by the end we’d seen enough of his other sides that it was toned down and he gained some sympathy along the way. It would have been easy for Ohlsson to have played Peder as a straight villain – the foil to Bergman’s hero. She didn’t do that, although she let us think she would – which is a nice touch.

There were a few annoying niggles in the text. There were a few paragraphs were almost the same line was repeated. There were a few lines like “he said angrily” which began to grate on my a bit. There were also some well handled sections. The Mother of the abducted child had not been overly helpful with one aspect of the case. Fredrika Bergman goes to visit her, angry that her holding back may have delayed finding the killer. She plans to have a real go at her until the mother answers the door:
“Sara opened the door at Fredrika’s second ring. She looked pale and haggard, with such dark rings under her bloodshot eyes that all Fredrika’s anger and frustration melted away…This was a woman who had just experienced her worst nightmare in real life. Criticism had very little place here.”

All in all I liked this book – and I’ll be looking out for the next book in the series.

Unwanted, Kristina Ohlsson
Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd (29 Sep 2011)
ISBN-10: 1847379591
ISBN-13: 978-1847379597

It’s all over now. The world as we knew it is gone forever and there will be no future generations to read this. One ugly day in March the undead came and none of us were ready. How could we be? Within months, the entire planet was one writhing, bloody infestation, and all the governments, all the churches, all the great men of power and insight and wisdom, became as meaningless as the tinny tune of a broken music box.

So why do I bother to keep this journal? Good question. If there is no hope for tomorrow, why chronicle these events as I see them? Well, I’ll tell you why.

It’s the only thing that keeps me from going completely ape-shit insane.

Review

Well, I’m enough of an egotist that if you name you lead character Seth or S Lynch you are going to land yourself in my good books. Aside from that trivial point – which I’ll make again and again – this is a great short story. Only, it isn’t really a short story it’s a first chapter. It’s a great first chapter. E-book publishing and writing like this has allowed writers, such as Heath Lowrance, to revert to Dickensian methods to sell their books. Most of Dickens’s novels began life a serialisations in newspapers. We are seeing that happen here, with Deadland USA. It looks like the Hawthorne story will be going that way too. It’s quiet a nice way to read a book, and it allows the other to throw out a few suggestions – in the form of a short story – and see what takes off. You’d better watch out though, as I think everything Heath throws out there is going to take off.

I’ve not read a Zombie book before this one. I have seen a whole host of them. I watched a lot of them as a late teen. They ranges from the dubious, Zombie holocaust to the brilliant George A. Romero’s …of the dead series. Night of the Living Dead , a great film with a disturbing ending, was topped by Dawn of the Dead – I haven’t seen the remake but I have seen the 1978 original a number of times. This is the best Zombie films I’ve seen and Deadland USA feels like Dawn of the Dead.

An important factor of this book are the explanations of how a zombie can catch and kill a fit individual – ie they are mindless and slow, so how do they ever get to eat you? I particularly like the way the zombies got out of the hotel window. I was wondering how they could possibly give chase once the survivors had used the ladder. The answer is obvious (once you’ve read it). I thought that was a nice touch and it shows that Heath has been thinking about his zombies. To make them a suitable foe, and to stay within the zombie framework, you have to be imaginative – you have to get inside the empty mind of one of the undead and groan around in its carcass for a while. These zombies are as deadly as they can be without bending the rules (I’ve seen a film where a zombie strolls along moronically, then stoops to pick up a knife, which it can hardly hold, and throw it with power and accuracy killing an escapee). I don’t believe we’ll see a scene like that in this series.

I like the title too. Mindless Commercialism instantly evoked images of Dawn of the Dead with the zombies attracted to the mall. If you haven’t seen the film, don’t worry, you don’t need to. Just go to the mall. And I can point the finger and laugh and the mindless fools who consume without purpose. Then I’ll notice the finger being pointed at me, as I upgrade my phone, by a new laptop, whatever. Commercialism is something easy to fall for. Some people make it obvious, but we’re all doing it. And it will never hurt to cut back. Just think, before you buy, would it be so bad if I didn’t? (Is there an exemption for books and music? If not can we get a ruling on it – for books at least)

Another review of this book can be found over on Eva Dolan’s blog.

The second book in the series – Deadland USA Ballroom Blitz – has just been released (and yeah, I bought it – you weren’t quick enough with that ruling.

Heath Lowrance has a blog here: http://psychonoir.blogspot.com/I have linked to this site under writers. He is also on Twitter as @HeathLowrance.

Deadland USA – Mindless Commercialism, Heath Lowrance.
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 41 KB
Publisher: Trestle Press (29 Oct 2011)
ASIN: B006136I92

The adventures begin with a simple tale involving Cash Laramie. These first two have the feel of the Western serials I used to watch on a Saturday morning. We get a snippet of Cash in action. There are shootouts and at least one woman bedded. Then we meet Gideon Miles, the black marshal. This is a nice touch. Gideon is a target for racial abuse. He can handle it. I don’t mean he’ll just take it with a shrug saying ‘it’s all water off a duck’s back.’ I mean he can outdraw anyone around and is pretty handy with a knife. If you are going to use the N-word to Gideon you’d better make sure your affairs are in order first. Teamed up with Cash they are a formidable pairing. Which is why they are not teamed up that often through these stories. If they were they’d be pretty short stories indeed – Cash and Gideon had some arse kicking to do, which they did. They are together enough for us to enjoy the way they get along with each other.

The tales move along like this until we get to Melanie. I don’t want to spoil anything but this one changes things. Cash isn’t quiet the man we thought he was. It’s not that we got him all wrong, more that there’s is a side to im which we are now seeing for the first time. It’s a side that makes for good Noir Fiction. This tale was my favourite of the collection.

These books have made my look at westerns in a new light. I’d never thought of them as noir fiction before. Now I can’t understand why not. Lone stranger, with a past we can only guess at, turns up in a small town and kick up a storm of vengeance and killing. Pretty much sums up a lot of spaghetti westerns.

This book costs 86p on Kindle Amazon UK. If you have a kindle buy it. Then dip into the stories when you get a spare ten minutes. Better still turn of the X-Factor and give yourself some reading time.

Edward A. Grainger (David Cranmer) is on Twitter as @CashLaramie. He also has a blog here: http://davidcranmer.blogspot.com/. I am on Twitter as @SethALynch

The Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, by Edward A. Grainger
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 412 KB
Publisher: BEAT to a PULP (8 Jun 2011)
ASIN: B00558VIBC

I just watch the remake of True Grit last night – a great film.

That Damned Coyote Hill, Heath Lowrance

If M R James ever wrote cowboy stories they’d be a lot like this one.

Hawthorne is a mysterious figure drawn on by a desire for revenge. Why? Who knows – who cares? They guys he is after are bad and Hawthorne has decided to be the man who makes them pay.

Then there are the people of Coyote Hill.

Then there are the Coyotes.. .

Everything I’ve read by Lowrance is fantastic. He’s an imaginative and creative story teller. Start here if you like, or with Dig Ten Graves, or The Bastard Hand. It doesn’t matter too much where you start, if you have any taste and a little bit of style, you’ll end up reading the lot.

I want more by Lowrance, and I’d like to see more of Hawthorne. He has a new novel out in 2012 and there are a few more shorts to read.

Heath Lowrance has a blog here: http://psychonoir.blogspot.com/I have linked to this site under writers. He is also on Twitter as @HeathLowrance.

That Damned Coyote Hill, Heath Lowrance
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 37 KB
Publisher: Trestle Press (12 Oct 2011)
ASIN: B005VEM9FO

Smooth Criminals, a Reading Challenge for 2012

The challenge is to read and review eight books in the year 2012. The book shave to fall under eight specified genres. Here is my selection.

Hardboiled Classic

The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler. I’ve seen film versions and heard it as a radio play. When I came for an interview for my current job this was the book I brought with me to read. So it was in the bag I dropped with the bottle of drink. The glass bottle of drink. So it is the book I left in a bin on a street in Hastings.

Noir Classic

The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M Cain. I enjoyed both film versions and I happened across it in a second-hand shop in Bexhill last week. It’s on my shelf waiting to be read.

Prison Book

Papillon, Henri Charrière, it’s about time I read this.

Book written by a writer who did time

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, again, it’s about time I read this.

Book with psychopath protagonist

I really don’t want to read Tony Blair’s memoirs, so I’ll go for Jailbait Justice, Danny Hogan

Gothic Novel

Tricky one. I’ve read The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole and The Monk by Matthew Lewis. They’re both free in ebook format. I think I’ll go for The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe When I read those other two I also read her Sicilian Romance. I liked that so maybe I’ll like this too. Besides, it’s free from Guttenberg.

Classic where the plot revolves around a crime

Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It’s been on my kindle and on my bookshelf. Time for it to be in my head too.

The “Why the hell am I doing this to myself?” book

I’m really tempted to put Ulysses here. It’s on my shelf and ready to go. But no. I’ve started that book too many times to punish myself with it now. I’m going to put The Road, Cormac McCarthy. It’s one I’ve given up on in the past as it annoyed the hell out of me.

Léo Malet is one of my favourite crime writers. He happens to have been a combination of things I admire: a member of the Surrealist group in the 1930′s and the instigator of French Noir crime fiction. Before Nestor Burma – Leo Mallets detective French crime tended to be imitations of American Hardboiled crime. Knock-off Chandlers and Hammetts. Through the early part of World War Two, this was how Mallet made his money – it was also the cause of his split with The Surrealists. Then Malet stopped writing novels set in American cities which he’d never visited and wrote one set in the city he’d live in for most of his adult lie, Paris. The rest is French Noir, Hardboiled, Crime-Fiction History.

My French is not good enough to read the original versions (except any lines where Burma says: I’d like a coffee please, or can you direct me to the train station, I have a train to catch.The problem is that Burma knows Paris inside out and so doesn’t need directions. He doesn’t drink much coffee either, preferring something stronger. So for me, for now, this is good-bye to Nestor Burma. I’ve read all the books which have been translated into English, and look longingly at the forty or so which haven’t.

This story opens with Burma waiting for his secretary at the train station. She’s been down in the South. He then finds himself at the fairground where somebody jumps him and tries to throw him out of a scenic railway. I’m not certain what a scenic railway is but it goes up high and if you fall out of the carriage you can be crippled or die. Each of those things happened to the two people who fell out of this carriage (on separate occasions). One of them had been thrown out after a struggle with Burma. There are a few femme fatales, some no-good delinquents (I think that’s the suitable mid-1950s turn for them.) Then there are the twists and turns as Burma puts the case together (see, I’m trying not to let you know the butler did it).

The ending itself is a little sour. Being the last book I’ll be able to read of Mallet’s for a while I like that. I don’t part easily from this series. If anybody were to start translating them they have a ready market in me.

Death of a Marseilles Man: A Nestor Burma Mystery, Léo Malet
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Macmillan; British Ed edition (20 Oct 1995)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0333649516
ISBN-13: 978-0333649510

Spike Milligan: His part in our lives, Maxine Ventham

I’m not sure what to make of this book. I love Spike Milligan, he was one of my early hero’s and has remained so to this day. This books is very light reading and is a collection of short tributes to Milligan. Some are interesting and insightful, some are a few anecdotes, and some I’ve heard before. The part I’m not sure about: I get the feeling that many of the people who contributed did so out of a sense of duty and might not have done so otherwise. They obviously liked Spike but were perhaps not too keen on this project. Although these are supposed to be spontaneous tributes I get the impression they were sent questionnaires with questions like: When did you first realise Spike is a genius? The more interesting parts come from people who contributions were taken from other sources – such as Harry Secombe’s auto-biography. These are the sections from writers who weren’t sent the questionnaire (if one was sent and I suspect it was). I also don’t like the comments about Shelagh Milligan (who wrote the forward to the book.) There are lots of parts about how good she was with Spike etc. Along with quiet a few on how Spike was unhappy in his first marriage (Shelagh was his third and final wife.) I find it disturbing because between this book being compiled and going to print Spike died and Shelagh effectively cut his children out his will. I’m also dubious about the inscription on his tombstone, part of which reads: I love you, Shelagh. That just doesn’t feel right.

I borrowed my copy from Bexhill Library – one street away from the street where The Devonshire Arms used to stand – a pub Spike used to drink in. I do like that about Bexhill, being able to imagine Spike Milligan here both as a young man doing his military training and then going to the De La Warr for reunions.

Anyone can be 52, it takes a bus to be 52A, Spike Milligan

Follow me on Twitter @SethALynch

Spike Milligan: His Part in Our Lives, Maxine Ventham
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Robson Books Ltd (24 Jun 2004)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1861057180
ISBN-13: 978-1861057181

I read the first few graves in late July. Then I went through some edits on Salazar and put it on hold. I cam back to it in September and read all the rest. This is the kind of book I would have loved in my late-teens/early twenties, when I was filling my head with Camus, Kerouac, and Colin Wilson. I loved it now – I just don’t have the same set of friends around to share it with. Except you, I didn’t mean to forget you. If only we were in a field late at night watching out for shooting stars, with no work in the morning (because we don’t work). I’d be filling you head with how good with of these stories are. My thumbed and scribbled copy (e-books didn’t exist) would be in your coat pocket. And, even though I’ve already recited each tale in turn, you will go home and read it from cover-to-cover: so tomorrow you can recite each tale back to me. Our copies of The Bastard Hand having been devoured months ago.

Each short story, grave, has a death in there somewhere. They grow darker as you delve deeper in to the book, upping the dose to keep you high. These tales, full of dark humour, could have come straight from the writing shed of Roald Dahl – perhaps after he’s spent a night drinking wine with Kafka. This is the Roald Dahl of Tales of the Unexpected. Dark stories – not all with a twist at the end: a few start off pretty twisted. I’d never thought of Dahl as being a noir writer before, but I do now. These books aren’t for children (neither are Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected) but I think I’d like to read a children’s story by Lowrance: with all the sinister undercurrents of James and The Giant Peach, or Matilda.

I’ve been avoiding talking about the graces themselves, deliberately. I don’t like to talk about the plots of the novels I review, in case I spoil them. As these are short stories I can’t even hint too much. There is a nice one (which reminded my of The Magic Finger, and is where I first picked up the Dahl theme) where the hunter becomes the hunted. This is echoed much later in The Bad Little Pet. There are some great lines too, here’s my favourite: It lay dead in the tub, already seeming to go stiff, like a snakeskin or a used condom.

These stories would have inspired André Breton. They are full of dark surreal images, a delving into the subconscious desires of man. He would have loved the humour, the gallows humour, the weak laugh into the face of the abyss, is what surrealism was all about. I have a short anthology of Humour Noir by Breton, these stories would have been given a honourable mention had Breton been writing it today.

I read a story a night, and wished there were more. I’ve downloaded That Dammed Coyote Hill, to get my fix. I’ll leave it a while first. I’m part way through another collection: The Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles. by Edward A. Grainger. It’s a book I downloaded after reading a blog post about it on Heath Lowrance’s blog. I warn you now – if you head over to Heath’s blog at Psycho Noir don’t read his book recommendations or his series on noir through time – it’ll cost you a pretty penny. If you are wiser than me, you’ll print of the posts and keep them in your pocket ready to pull out each time you enter a second-hand bookshop.

If you decide to buy this book you could ask Heath for a Kindlegraph.

Heath Lowrance is on Twitter: @HeathLowrance
, as am I as @SethALynch.

Dig Ten Graves, Heath Lowrance – currently priced at £2.12
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 185 KB
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Language English
ASIN: B005G4GMGQ