How to be Remembered

Tommy Llewellyn turned one and no one, including his parents, remembered him. His presence was still there but no one remembered who he was. This happened every year. Tommy was taken to a foster home where he was looked after by Miss Michelle until he turned eighteen, though he had to reintroduce himself to her every year on the day after his birthday.

As he grew older Tommy was determined to find a way of defeating this jinx that was affecting his life. Each year he would experiment to try and find out what would prevent this annual event from occurring. When in the foster home, Tommy met Carey but she, of course forgot him. When he left the home Tommy was determined to find Carey and re-establish their relationship.

Eventually Tommy decides that his life will always be different but is determined to work out how to still create a life with a new family even though there will always be parts of his life that he leaves behind each year.

History for Tomorrow: inspiration from the past for the future of humanity

Roman Krznaric has written this book about challenges faced by society today and explains how society dealt with challenges in the past. His Book, History for Tomorrow, is divided into 10 challenges - Breaking the Fossil Fuel Addiction, Nurturing Tolerance, Kicking the Consumer Habit, Taming Social Media, Securing Water for All, Reviving Faith in Democracy, Managing the Genetic Revolution, Bridging the Inequality Gap, Keeping the machines under Control and Averting Civilisational Breakdown.

Roman Krznaric is a social philosopher. In each of the ten chapters he presents a current or future problem before recounting how challenges in the past were faced and how techniques used might be useful when considering how members of society might work together to deal with challenges today. The chapters where he describes groups working together to make decisions instead of the reliance on the hierarchical government occurring in most societies today are worth considering - though getting agreement on such changes is unlikely. Time is running out due to society's over use of fossil fuels and often blatant disregard of the environment.

As the author writes - History is not simply a means of understanding the past but a way of reimagining our relationship with the future and Humanity needs to look backwards in order to move forwards.

At the end of the book are extensive endnotes, bibliography plus an index.

The Black Loch

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the three books in the Lewis Trilogy by Peter May - The Black House, The Lewis Man and The Chess Men. The Black Loch is a sequel to the Lewis Trilogy (or number 4 in the series).

Fin MacLeod and his wife, Marsaili, arrive back on the island of Lewis after they are informed that their son, Fionnlagh, is under arrest for the murder of an eighteen year old girl, Caitlin Black. Fin cannot believe that his son is guilty and sets out to establish what really happened. Having grown up on Lewis he encounters a number of people he went to school with. Most are not pleased to associate with someone whose son might be a murderer. Fin no longer works as a policeman but he is able to use his detective skills to help him determine the truth.

Much of The Black Loch by Peter May deals with environmental issues including large-scale salmon farming and the occasional mass beaching of pods of whales. Descriptions of the island are an important part of the book as are the present and past interactions of the characters with with Fin. At the end of the book Fin and Marsaili decided to move back to Lewis from Glasgow to live. Perhaps there may be another book in this series in the future.

The Chilling

 

In the days before television I remember listening to part of a radio serial set in Antarctica where there was the danger of falling down a crevasse - very scary. Reading the debut novel, The Chilling, by Australian author, Riley James, caused part of that long ago memory to resurface.

Kit Bitterfield has the opportunity to spend a winter in Antarctica assisting her friend, Sally, in a project involving Wendell seals. On the journey to Macpherson Station they learn that another ship, The Petrel,  has become stuck in the ice. While waiting for orders to attempt to rescue the passengers they then learn that the ship is on fire. By training Kit is a dentist though she now works primarily on research projects so, because of her medical training, she is involved in the search for the passengers of the stricken vessel. They only locate one passenger who they take back to their ship. Where are the remaining passengers? What caused them to leave the ship? How did the fire start?

Being in Antarctica was a very different experience for Kit. Early on it was explained to her about the mood swings suffered by some of those spending a winter in Antarctica. If a boiling point is when people cannot contain their anger, the chilling point is when they cannot suppress their hostility or lack of sympathy. (p 45) All is well initially at MacPherson Station, apart from the concern about the missing people from the other ship, but then a malaise begins to afflict many of the staff. What has happened to cause this?

Nick, the geologist rescued from the other ship, has lost his memory though his general health rapidly improves. Kit hopes that Nick will recover his memory and be able to explain some of their concerns. Meanwhile the search for the passengers of The Petrel and their general scientific investigations continues while the the survivors of The Petrel disaster attempt to make their way across the ice to Macpherson Station - provided that they do not starve or freeze to death. In The Chilling Riley James has written a tension filled thriller of survival in an extreme climate and terrain.

We Solve Murders

A new series of books by Richard Osman is definitely something to look forward to. We Solve Murders introduces readers to a new group of characters, Amy Wheeler who works as a private security officer, her father-in-law, Steve, who is a retired policeman enjoying his retirement and Rosie D'Antonio, an author who Amy has been hired to protect.

Amy and Rosie are residing on an isolated island when they learn of a series of deaths of influencers not far from where Amy has been recently. She begins to suspect that she is being framed for the deaths. There is only one person that she trusts so she contacts Steve requesting his help in finding out who is really responsible.

Steve is reluctant to leave the seclusion of his home, his well established routine and friends in England but he agrees to travel across the world in Rosie's private plane to assist his daughter-in-law. Then the fun begins. As well as avoiding being killed, Steve, Amy and Rosie endeavour to work out the true identity of who is really behind the deaths and why they are being targeted.

We Solve Murders is another enjoyable cosy crime novel with a range of zany characters working together to solve a crime as they attempt to live their normal lives. Richard Osman is currently working on the next installment in the The Thursday Murder Club series before working on the next We Solve Murders book. I look forward to reading further books in both these series.

Dervla McTiernan unofficial book club book for October 2024.

Between a Flock and a Hard Place

One of the fun aspects when reading this series of crime novels by Donna Andrews is when will the birds referred to in the title first make an appearance. In this thirty-fifth book in the series, a flock of wild turkeys make their presence felt right from the start. How and why did they all arrive in the one location in the town and who was responsible? Needless to say these questions are added to Meg's ever expanding to-do list.

In Between a Flock and a Hard Place, Meg sets out to inspect a home site which is being renovated as part of a television show. The locals are not impressed by the intrusion of the television crew in their lives but they are even less impressed when a flock of wild turkeys arrives in the middle of the night. Who brought the turkeys into their neighbourhood?

Meg and Randall Shiffley are even more concerned when they discover the state the house is in. As a number of the major supports have been removed Randall shuts down the site until repairs can be made. Meg, of course, offers to relocate those affected by the building project to rooms in her own house until it is safe for them to return home. Plans are made to capture the turkeys but as proceedings are about to begin a body is located in the house. Another project to be solved.

I look forward to these cosy crime novels published around this time each year. It is a joy to once again catch up with Meg and her family and the weird and usually amusing situations they find themselves in.

The Dark Wives

When a body is found in the grounds of a children's home Vera and her team investigate. Josh Woodburn, a university student, had only worked at Rosebank for six weeks when he died. But Vera and her team are not only investigating Josh's death. A fourteen year old girl - Chloe Spence - has also disappeared. Then a second body is found.

Rosie Bell is a new addition to the team, working with Joe, Charlie and Vera to solve the murders and locate Chloe. Vera greatly misses Holly who had died when working on a previous case. Would Rosie be able to fit in as a successful member of Vera's team? 

The Dark Wives is number 11 in the Vera Stanhope series written by Ann Cleeves. As the detectives work to solve the murders and locate Chloe the reader gets to experience much of the Northumberland scenery plus a glimpse of the history of the former coal mining area. Three large standing stones, the Dark Wives, feature throughout the novel.

Ann Cleeves has written another suspenseful character driven murder mystery which will keep readers involved until the novel's conclusion.