Category Archives: Books

The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid

Posted on by

The Skeleton Road Book CoverThe Skeleton Road by Val McDermid was first published in 2014 and it’s the third book in her Karen Pirie series.

Fraser Jardine is a demolition quantity surveyor, he’s been doing it for some years now but had always managed to avoid going onto the roof of any building that he was inspecting, which is just as well as he has a terrible fear of heights. But the day comes when he’s the only person available and he has to go on to the roof of a large and very tall and crumbling Victorian Gothic building, the John Drummond in Edinburgh. Fraser is a complete wreck, but when he reaches one of the roof’s decorative pinnacles, he’s in for an even worse time. There’s a skeleton lying inside the pinnacle, and the skull has a hole in the side of the head.

This is obviously a job for Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie, head of Cold Cases. As all the clothes have been rotted away by the weather and time there’s really nothing to go on, it seems unlikely that the murder victim will ever be identified.  But there is a tiny bit of possible evidence to be researched, and the trail leads to the time of the Balkan Wars some decades previously.

So this one was quite different from the first two books in this series, with the investigation moving to Croatia where Karen is told about some of the atrocities in that horrendous war.

The blurb says: Atmospheric, spine-chilling and brimming with intrigue and suspense , this is Val McDermid’s richest and most accomplished psychological thriller to date.

I actually found it to be a bit too dark and sad for me, but I suppose that given the fact that the very first shot of the Balkan War was fired in Kirkcaldy where McDermid grew up, then it’s fair enough that she wanted to incorporate it in one of her books.

Another Country by James Mackenzie

Posted on by

Another Country by James Mackenzie is subtitled A Guide to the Children’s Books of the Lake District and Cumbria. It was published in 2008 by Girls Gone By.

I just wish that I had been able to read this book before my visit to the Lake District in the summer. Anyway, it means that I have a good excuse for going back there and doing some more exploring, trying to visit some of the actual locations from some favourite children’s books.

This is a good read, it’s very well set out and researched, the only problem is that there are now a lot more books that I’ve had to add to my ‘would like to read list’.

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves

Posted on by

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves was first published in 2006. This is the first book by Cleeves that I’ve read, and when I started to read it I realised that it is one that I had seen on TV years ago, but I didn’t remember the ins and outs of it  – so carried on reading. I’m glad that I did because there are so many details in the book that you don’t get on TV.

It’s January in Shetland, so it’s freezing and snowy, but the Up Helly Aa celebrations are something to look forward to, even if a lot of the locals see it as being a bit embarrassing, something for the tourists really.

But when Fran Hunter discovers that the splash of red that catches her eye in the distance turns out to be a scarf which has been tightened around the neck of her teenage neighbour Catherine, and the local ravens had already discovered her, the island is gripped with fear.

A young girl had disappeared some years ago and her body had never been found, the locals are suspicious of the man who had been under suspicion back then, but Jimmy Perez isn’t so sure. The mainland police have come over to Shetland to help with the investigation, which Perez doesn’t mind at all, in fact he’s not even sure if he wants to give up his career in the police and go back to his home of Fair Isle where a family croft is now available for him.

I’ll continue with this series as I enjoyed being in the company of Jimmy Perez and his team.

 

The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley

Posted on by

The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley was published in 2024 by Simon and Schuster. I think this is the third book that I’ve enjoyed by this author. The setting is mainly 1613, Scotland and England.

King James VI’s eldest son Henry has just died, he was just 18 and he had been very popular with the ordinary people, he had been tall, handsome and healthy so it was a shock when he started to have nose bleeds and digestive problems. Inevitably people were suspicious of his demise, none more so than Sir David Moray who had been Henry’s tutor and companion since he had been a young prince. Sir David was more of a father than his father the king had ever been. But jealousy at court led to the finger of suspicion being pointed at Sir David.

The King’s Messenger Andrew Logan is given the task of arresting Sir David and bringing him to the King in London for a ‘trial’ but the outcome of course would be a foregone conclusion. A scribe has also been ordered to accompany them and as he is in ill health his daughter decides to go too.

This is a great read and the 373 pages flew past too quickly for me, I really didn’t want it to end.  Sorrow, adventure, romance and honour, all wrapped in a lovely map of Scotland and England endpapers, with a key showing the locations.

If you do read it don’t miss the sections at the end of the book: ABOUT THE CHARACTERS and A NOTE OF THANKS. They are both informative and if you are like me will spur you on to do some more historical research of your own.  What a miserable ‘family’ life Queen Anne had with King James, I hadn’t realised that he didn’t allow any of their five children to live with their mother – or him. Did he think that was normal as his mother Mary, Queen of Scots had been deprived of him? Surely the children would have been safer with their mother.

It looks like this book won’t be published outside the UK until the 4th of March.

 

 

 

 

The Song in the Green Thorn Tree by James Barke

Posted on by

The Song in the Green Thorn Tree by James Barke was first published in 1947. It’s the second book in a four book series about the life of the Scottish poet Robert Burns.

At the end of the  first book The Wind that Shakes the Barley, William Burns, father of Robert and his many siblings  has died, really from overwork and poverty. Robert and his elder brother Gilbert have decided to take on another farm as tenants. They think that with hard work which they aren’t afraid of they can improve the soil and drain the land which will make it a good paying farm but in reality Mossgiel turns out to be just as bad a farm as the one that had killed their father, with thin and stony soil.  They’ve made exactly the same mistake that their father did. Mossgiel isn’t far from the village of Mauchline – or Machlin as for some reason it is named in the book.

Robert is soon introduced to the ‘howffs’ of Machline and although he’s not a massive drinker he enjpys the cameraderie of the places, especially Poosie Nansies which is frequented by the tinkers and lower classes. He’s drawn to the place as there’s always so much noise coming from it, fun laughter and singing.  It’s the songs that Robert is most interested in and he collects tunes and songs that otherwise would have been lost forever, songs which are still sung nowadays.

There’s no doubt that this was a formative period for Burns with his poems coming thick and fast. This was probbaly because he was immersing himself in the company of the young women of the neighbourhood, and they inspired him to write poems to them. But I think he had impregnated three women at this time, within a year – or was it four women? Anyway he was on the ‘cutty stool’ in the church, being berated by the minister for his shameless fornicating.

At the end of this book Burns is getting ready to sail for Jamaica where he has the promise of a job as a bookeeper, and he’s going to take his latest squeeze with him who is of course pregnant. At the last minute he gets a reprieve with the printing of his poetry in a book becoming popular and selling out,  and his friends think that he’ll be a star in Edinburgh.

I wasn’t at all sure about reading this series but I’m really enjoying them.

 

 

 

The Inn at the Edge of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis

Posted on by

 

The Inn at the Edge of the World Book Cover

The Inn at the Edge of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis was first published in 1990. The setting is a Hebridean island, more precisely an inn which is owned by Eric and Mabel, incomers, an English couple who have moved there to get a complete change in their lives. It’s really Eric’s dream,  Mabel hates the place and the inn is obviously failing. When Mabel can’t stand it any longer she leaves the island, Eric has no idea if she’ll ever come back or if she has just gone to find a more exciting venue, and man for her Christmas.

Eric decides to advertise the inn in some London weeklies in the hope of enticing some guests to stay at the Inn at the Edge of the World and amazingly he gets several people more than interested, five of them book up the inn for the duration of Christmas. They’re a mixed bunch, but all wanting to dodge the Christmas season.

Jessica is a fairly well known actress who is now known mainly for doing adverts and voice overs.

Jon is a struggling actor, much younger than Jessica but he has followed her to the island and as he’s a narcissist he can’t imagine that Jessica won’t be interested in him.

Harry is a retired army officer who is spending his time writing a book about General Gordon. He had actually grown up on the island.

Anita works in a large store, but she’s very disgruntled.

Ronald is a psychoanalyst and his wife has just left him. He’s a man-baby and expects women to do everything for him, just like his mummy did. But even his cleaner has abandoned him as she knows his sort.

I expected a bit more from this book, it’s difficult for me to enjoy a book when there are very few likeable characters, but more than that there wasn’t really a sense of the atmosphere of being on a Hebridean island, and I found the whole thing a bit predictable. There’s even a touch of Robert Burns’s Tam O’Shanter in the story, and selkie allusions that came as no surprise, maybe they weren’t meant to be though.

 

 

My Scotland by Val McDermid

Posted on by

My Scotland by Val McDermid was first published in 2019, it has beautiful photographs by Alan McCredie and a foreword by Nicola Sturgeon, and is published by Sphere.

This is a beautifully produced book, with sumptuous photographs which are linked to some of her book locations. To begin with the focus is on Fife, where Val was born and grew up, there are plenty of places to ignite the imagination of a novelist, and it seems she has been salting away ideas since she was a youngster. This first chapter was all very familiar to me as I lived in Kirkcaldy for 26 years, and in the area where she lived, but it was nice to read of her links with the various places.

The East Neuk coastal communities feature, she mentions that most people probably never get through the doors of  the old fishermen’s cottages but by coincidence, I also have relatives who lived in George Street, Cellardyke – as her aunt and uncle did. The atmospheric St Andrews nearby couldn’t be missed out.

There’s a chapter about Glasgow, a place she fell in love with as a young journalist, and then fell in love with again after she had moved away, and returned to find it much changed. It’s a city that’s close to my heart – as I was born there.

Obviously Edinburgh features, often there are excerpts from her books, linked to whichever area the chapter is about, and she mentions that even when a book had a mainly English setting she would feel the need to send her characters to a favourite area, somewhere in the Highlands where she had holidayed. At Loch Leven, by Kinross, Val is photographed on a bench where in a book she had placed a murder victim, overlooking the island where Mary, Queen of Scots had been held prisoner and eventually escaped from.

Linlithgow also gets a mention, for the ugliness of the 1970s/80s buildings that have been stuck right next to beautiful 18th century buildings. It’s one of my favourite towns, it’s so historic, but there’s no doubt you have to avert your eyes from the concrete brutality that was given planning permission in the centre of the town.

Obviously the Isle of Skye features too, a favourite place for lots of people, more than the places though this book is a really entertaining read and Val McDermid comes across as having a really warm and friendly personality. It was good to be in her company while I read it.

I borrowed this one from the library.

 

Hex by Jenni Fagan

Posted on by

Hex by Jenni Fagan was first published in 2022 by Polygon.

Hex was inspired by the 16th century North Berwick witch trials. It was a time when King James VI became obsessed with witchcraft and it was the women of Scotland that paid the price, any female who was just a wee bit different, spurned advances from men,  had an interest in herbalism and healing, or had something that a man wanted – maybe money or land – was in danger of being targetted and accused of being a witch. The book is dedicated to Geillis Duncan.

Iris, a 21st century woman is trying to contact Geillis via a seance. Iris wants to contact Geillis to comfort her in her last night on earth, in the cold filthy cell which is three levels below the High Street  (Royal Mile) in Edinburgh.  Geillis is due to be hanged on the 4th of December 1591 and Iris does manage to contact her.  Geillis tells Iris about the torture she had had to endure, which led to her confession of witchcraft and to her implicating others,  all innocent of course, just to get them to stop the pain and humiliation.

Iris is furious at the way 21st century women are being treated, and she tells Geillis about it.  In many ways there have been no improvements in the way men behave towards women and she rages at the daily attacks on females by men. “Sharp tongues get women killed.”

The Scotsman describes this book as being ‘Elegant and angry in equal measure.’

This was a great read, there were just a couple of things that annoyed me. There is no way that a 15 year old girl (Geillis) would use the word okay in 1591, and she wouldn’t know the word ‘teenage’ either.

It’s a very quick read at just 101 pages.

 

 

 

Library books

Posted on by

I thought I’d mention the books that I’ve borrowed from the library – so here goes.

 

I had a look at the online catalogue to request the next book in Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie series, but my attention was caught by her book titled My Scotland so I picked it up recently and have just started to read it, I think I’ll really enjoy it and it has lovely phoptographs by Alan McCredie.

The Inn at the Edge of the World Book Cover

 

I also borrowed The Inn at the Edge of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis. I know it was a blogger who recommended this one, but have no idea who. The setting is a remote Hebridean island.

 

 

 

Next is Hex by Jenni Fagan. It’s a retelling of the North Berwick witch trials.

 

 

Raven Black by Ann Cleeves. I don’t think I’ve read anything by her but I have watched some of the Shetland series on TV.

 

 

 

Lastly I requested The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley which is historical fiction. The setting is Scotland and England in 1613

 

So it seems that all the books I have from the library at the moment have Scottish settings.  January has been a very Scottish month, I must broaden my horizons!

Feel free to tell me what you have borrowed from your local library recently.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley by James Barke – Burns Day

Posted on by

The Wind That Shakes the Barley by James Barke was first published in 1945 and it’s a fictional account of the early years of the Scottish poet Robert Burns.

His father William Burns has moved to the village of Alloway (an incomer) and built with his own hands the small cottage that we now think of as Burns Cottage, despite not being a builder. He intended to farm in a small way, and when he has finished the building he brings Agnes Brown to view it, she’s happy with it and they decide to marry. It’s a much tougher life than either of them would have thought, although William is a hard worker the soil is poor, stony and boggy, and it’s difficult to earn enough money to pay the rent to the landowner, never mind to feed and clothe the children that are born to them. William wants his sons to have an education so for a few years he determinedly pays for them to be tutored.

But that ambition falls by the wayside as money becomes tighter and the eldest son Gilbert and Robert are used to pull the plough, like animals, despite having little in the way of nourishment and strength.

William Burns is an Old Light (Auld Licht) Presbyterian, very strict in his religion, so by rights his God should smile on him, but things just get worse over the years. To make matters worse William realises that his second son Robert (Robin as they call him) has an eye for the girls, William’s not happy about it, and neither is Agnes. But Robert is always after the local girls, in love as he thinks but really in lust. His first illegitimate child arrives, but marriage was never on the cards. This book ends with the death of William, haunted by worries to the end.

This book was loved by readers at the time, but apparently the Burns scholars/fans of the day were not at all happy with it.  It’s well-written for the most part but at times it is  a bit clunky, particularly the love scenes. I was surprised that there’s not all that much in the way of description of Alloway and its surrroundings. We visited a few years ago and I was struck by how scenic and pretty the place is, it isn’t more to the fore, it’s described as a miserable area.

Most of the book is written in plain English but occasionaly it’s written in the Ayrshire dialect, which is probably a bit challenging for some people. I really liked this one which is the first in a four book series by the author. I read it to celebrate Robert Burns’s birthday, he was born on the 25th of January 1759.

You can see some of the photos that I took here when we visited Alloway a couple of years ago.