A Large Measure of Snow: a tale from Kinloch

Denzil Meyrick is the author of the DCI Daley series of books set in the fictional town of Kinloch. H has also published a number of short stories and shorter books, some of which involve characters from the main series. In A large measure of Snow, Meyrick provides the reader with an amusing tall story based on the exploits of Sandy Hoynes, the skipper of the Girl Maggie and Hamish, his first mate.

It is December 1967 and the town of Kinloch is experiencing a series of heavy snow storms, so much so that the town has been cut off from the rest of Scotland and supplies are running low. When the decision is made for some of the fishing boats to venture through snow storms to Girvan for relief supplies, a jounalist asks to join the expedition in order to write an article about this daring journey. The problem is that the journalist is female and Hoynes strongly believes the superstition that women aboard a boat are bad luck.

This is the story of that fateful journey which includes an encounter with large lobsters, a Viking ship from the past and a seagull watching over the boat on its dangerous voyage. A fun story that helps explain more of the character of Hamish who features in the DCI Daley novels.

Hidden Depths

Returning from a night out with friends Julie Armstrong returns home to find the body of her teenage son, Luke, arranged among flowers in the bath. Later in the week the body of student teacher, Lily Marsh, is found in a pool by the lighthouse. Her body is also displayed surrounded by a variety of flowers. Vera and her team need to discover the connection between two apparently unrelated murders, except for the way the bodies are found, as well as quickly finding the killer as a another young girl has disappeared.

Long held secrets in this small community are unearthed as the investigation continues. There are many suspects, particularly among a group of men who share the hobby of bird watching and were close to the scene where the second body was discovered. 

The novel is character driven focusing on the past and present lives of the victims and their families plus the suspects. We also learn more about Vera and members of her team.

Hidden depths is the third book in the Vera Stanhope series and part of the plot formed the basis of the first episode in the first series of the Vera television series.

Holes

Holes by American author, Louis Sachar, is a book that my granddaughter is currently reading for school. 

When Stanley Yelnats (Stanley spelt backwards) was sent to a juvenile detention camp, Camp Green Lake, for a crime he did not commit, he thought that it was possibly due to a curse placed upon his family many generations ago when his great, great grandfather had broken a promise made to Madame Zeroni. Since then family members regularly seemed to encounter bad luck.

There is no longer a lake at Camp Green Lake - the lake dried up more than 100 years ago - just dry dirt. Each days the boys in the camp are given the task of digging a hole measuring five feet by five feet in the hot sun. This task is meant to be character building but Stanley soon realises that there is nother reason why the boys are digging holes.

Holes melds together three stories and three time periods - the story of Stanley as he copes with life at Camp Green Lake, the story relating to the curse supposedly placed upon his family and the story of Katherine Barlow (later known as Kissin' Kate Barlow') and Sam the onion seller who lived in the area when there was a Green Lake.

This is a story about the importance and power of friendship, the destructive nature of cruelty of various kinds, coincidence and fate as well as how events in history can affect lives. It is a tall story laced with humour about a young boy coping with the challenges fate has imposed upon him.

Originally published in 1998, Holes won the Newberry Medal in 1999 for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children for that year.

Notes for Holes

The Jigsaw Man

When DI Anjelica Henley returned to active duty at the Serial Crime Unit she did not expect her first case to be similar to a previous case which resulted in the arrest and trial of Peter Oliver, known as the Jiigsaw Man. Oliver is serving a life sentence in prison so depositing a series of body parts in London has to be the work of a copycat killer.

The SCU is short of staff but Henley is not impressed when she realises that a trainee detective, Salim Ramouter, has been assigned to asist. However her team works well together when investigating the growing number of related crimes. 

The Jigsaw Man The is the first novel written by English author, Nadine Matheson. As the plot unfolds the reader learns more about the back-story of the lives of the main characters, the stress incurred by police as a result of investigating crime as well as the original series of crimes perpetrated by Oliver. Who is the copycat killer? Why is someone copying the crimes committed by Oliver? How did they obtain information about the original series of crimes that was never revealed? There are many questions that Henley and her team strive to answer in order to stop the killing.

This is a gritty, detective novel often portraying the crimes in graphic detail. There is plenty of action and suspense until the end of the novel.

Transient Desires

When two injured American tourists are found lying on the dock at the back entrance to a hospital, Commissario Guido Brunetti and Commissario Claudia Griffoni investigate. The two girls had been for a joyride on the laguna with two young Italian men when the boat was involved in an accident. Both of the investigators believe that there is more to the story than is initially revealed.

Transient Desires by Donna Leon is the 30th title in the Commissario Brunetti series of books set in Venice. Much of the book is about living in Venice and the relationships between Venetians and other Italians. It is also about the differences and tensions that may arise between the various law enforcement agencies as the two detectives work with the Carabinieri and the Guardia Costiera in order to solve a horrible crime.

The novel was written in 2020 and has occasional references to fewer tourists in Venice including the comment that it had not been wise to wish that there were no tourists in the city.

Once again I enjoyed spending a short time in a world inhabited by Guido Brunetti and his family as they discussed issues affecting their everyday lives, including the environment, as well as philosophical theories. I look forward to the next installment.

Dark Tides

Dark Tides is the second book in the Fairmile series by Philippa Gregory. Commencing in June 1670, twenty-one years after events in  Tidelands, the first book in the series, this novel continues the story of Alinor, her daughter Alys and grandchildren Sarah and Johnnie who now live in London. Alinor and Alys operate a small warehouse on a wharf in a poorer area on the Thames and just manage to make a small profit. 

Their lives change when Livia arrives from Venice claiming to be the widow of Alys' brother Rob. She begs for their assistance and promises to repay them generously if they assist her to bring Venetian antiquities into England to sell. But is Livia really who she says she is? 

Alinor is convinced that her son is still alive and she asks Sarah to travel to Venice to find Rob and to verify Livia's stories.

Meanwhile Alinor's brother, Ned, has left England to make a new life in New England in America. Ned's story runs parallel with the events in London and Venice as he struggles to decide where his allegiences lie when it is obvious that unrest is brewing between the English settlers and the American Indians who Ned has befriended.

A bibliography, if readers want to further investigate some of the events mentioned in the novel, is provided at the end of the book.

The Girl in the Mirror

The girl in the mirror is the first novel written by New Zealand author, Rose Carlyle. Summer Rose and Iris are identical twin sisters but with different personalities and interests. It is soon obvious that all is not as it seems.

When their father died he left a will that would divide and cause havoc in his large family, having had three wives and seven children, when he decreed that the family fortune was not to be divided but would go to only one family member.

Summer Rose, her husband Adam and her step son are in Thailand when they request that Iris should join them to sail the family boat, Bathesheba, to the Seyshelles. As she loves sailing Iris jumps at the opportunity and soon Summer and Iris are on their way. Mid-journey diaster occurs and Iris' life is never the same.

This psychological thriller takes the reader on a dramatic ride as the many twists and turns in the plot are revealed.

Telling Tales

Ten years after Emma discovered the body of a school friend in a ditch the woman accused of the murder commits suicide in prison. Jeannie Long refused  to admit to the killing of Abigail but it is not until her death is publicised that a witness provides evidence to prove her innocence. Vera Stanhope is then called in to discover any irregularities in the original investigation that led to Jeanie's conviction. Then another body is found in a ditch. Are the two murders related? And if so, who is the murderer?

As Vera investigates the murders she uncovers many long hidden stories about the villagers of Elvit and many possible suspects before the truth is revealed.

Telling Tales is the second book in the Vera Stanhope series by Ann Cleeves. It formed the basis of the second episode of the first season of the television series, Vera.

The family inheritance

It was Felicity's fiftieth birthday party, The guests had arrived and were admiring the new extensions to the house. Felicity's parents had not yet arrived but that was not unusual as her father was known to be difficult. The guests were getting ready to toast Felicity when disaster struck. Her mother phoned to say that her father was dead ... and that was the end of the party.

In The Family Inheritance Tricia Stringer provides the reader with the story of what turns out to be a dysfunctional family that implodes after the reading of Felicity's father's will. 

The novel largely concentrates on the effects of the will on the lives of Felicity, her daughter, Greta, her mother, Hazel, and Alice, a mystery woman who appears at the funeral. Long held family secrets are finally exposed impacting on the future lives of the family members both financially and emotionally. 

This is therefore a story of the attempts to reunite a family as its members readjust to the drastic changes in their lives and reaccess how their future lives will be lived, forge new friendships and grasp new opportunities.

Mammoth

A story narrated by a mammoth is definitely an original concept which in the humorous and thought provoking  book, Mammoth, by Chris Flynn works well.

It is 2007 and the remains of a mammoth and a tyrannosaurus bataar are stored in a large room waiting to be auctioned the following day. They are later joined by fossils of other prehistoric life plus an Egyptian mummy. To fill in the time Mammoth or Mammut as he calls himself, with frequent interjections from his companions, proceeds to tell the story of his long life, demise and adventures after his bones were initially unearthed in 1801. As it had been 13,354 years since Mammut died, his is a long story, made even longer with the interruptions and banter from his companions who also contribute information about their previous lives.

 As well as covering life in the times of mammoths and, even earlier, dinosaurs, events leading to the extinction of these creatures are discussed in Mammut's story. References to climate change are made as well as to more recent events such as  the relations between the newly independent American colonies with the French, the Irish Rebellion in 1803 and the encroachment of white settlers into Indian territory. The illegal smuggling of dinosaur bones is also referred to.

At the beginning of each chapter there is a drawing of a mammoth in different stages of decay as time elapses. However at the end though there is once again a picture of a triumphant mammoth suggesting that all is not lost and there may be hope for the future. In the final sections of the book the author describes an actual auction of bones and fossils that took place in 2007 and what happened to some of the purchases. There is also a bibliography at the end of the novel.

Mammoth is an entertaining book well worth reading.

Books & Publishing (28 February 2020) - The elephant in the room - interview with Chris Flynn

Theresa Smith Writes (24 May 2020) - Book review: Mammoth by Chris Flynn