Books I Read In July

 Fiction

'Revelation' by Bill Napier

This book is pretty much like 'Nemesis' (1998) by Napier that I read in April: http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html It combines heavy duty science, in this case the possibility of deriving power from zero-point energy with a kind of Dan Brown academic-in-an-adventure story. This one has chemical formulae in it. Napier is pretty good at explaining the science but it does leave a very peculiar book. In this one a glacier scientist is brought in to help extract a frozen Soviet aeroplane from a breaking up ice sheet in the Arctic. It seems to hold diaries from Lev Petrosian, an Armenian scientist who worked on the US atomic and hydrogen bomb programmes before suffering persecution by the authorities during the McCarthy era. The hero of the book, Dr. Fred Findhorn, rushes all over the planet along with an translator of Armenian, trying to find out what Petrosian discovered. They face an array of enemies from US intelligence to a Japanese corporation to millennial cult, all seeking to get their hands on what Findhorn has uncovered. We also go back to see what Petrosian suffered and the book is pretty decent on the paranoia of 1950s USA and to some degree how it actually drives Petrosian towards the Soviets.

The book is frenetic, going between Scotland, the USA, Greece, Japan and Switzerland. There is a lot of casual but brutal violence. A scene in a Swiss chalet is particularly violent. As with 'Nemesis' there is a lot of expositionary conversations and Findhorn tracking down specialists at a conference on a small Greek island who are happy to talk about the possibilities of what Petrosian may have found seems very contrived. Findhorn who has a brother with a secure flat and happy to fund flights all over the place; two young translators happy to go along with an older man whose life is constantly in danger also stretches credibility, but I know from many thrillers, not just Brown's but also Ludlum's that these are well established traits. Napier seems to feel obliged to add in tons of science in a way that most thriller authors are not. I guess it is nice to learn something real from fiction, but it does conflict with the frenetic pace he is also seeking, leading to a very 'bitty' feel to the novel. This was the only remaining Napier book I had and while both were curiosities I am certainly not seeking any more of them.

'The Manor of Death' by Bernard Knight

This is the 12th of the 15 books in Knight's Crowner John series. The 15th is a prequel. However, this book really feels like closing the sequence. The novels have not covered a great deal of time, so far running from November 1194 to April 1196. However, at the end of this one a lot of what we have become familiar with in the books is brought to an end. Sir John De Wolfe is to be sent from Devon to work in London. His bitter wife, Matilda has again withdrawn to a convent, but this time probably for good; his Welsh mistress, Nesta, has married a stonemason and returned to Wales, selling up her inn, which is then passed to John's Cornish bodyguard, Gwyn and his family to take over running. Thus, all the things that have been built up over the previous books are no longer as they were. It is naturally rather bittersweet, but I guess by this stage Knight felt he was rather going round all of the old established patterns once more. Given the society of the time, there were few options short of killing off one or more of these characters. As is made clear, John cannot marry Nesta and she is not happy to remain simply a mistress; he cannot divorce his wife even if she becomes a nun.

All of this only comes to fruition towards the end of the novel, though the groundwork is laid throughout. Most of the book focuses on pirates operating from the port of Axmouth which while a small seaside town was a significant port in the Middle Ages. De Wolfe has a very frustrating time trying to get any information on what is happening. With the priory that owns the town and various officials standing on their privileges they constantly rebuff his attempts even when the number of murders of witnesses increases. Ultimately De Wolfe pulls of a 'sting' operation and we finally get through to him dealing out some justice.

I am tempted to seek out the three remaining books to see what happens. However, you could finish the series on this one because it is clear that what follows will be very different from the 'police procedural' with an established 'cast' of characters in and around Exeter.

'Resistance' by Owen Sheers

I saw the 2011 movie of this novel, which had been published in 2007, about ten years ago and was not overly impressed. It is superficially an alternate history story set around the Second World War. In contrast to many using this as a starting point it is not set in 1940/41 with a German invasion then, but rather one coming in 1944 following the defeat of the Normandy landings that June. The biggest change in fact is a one far less explored and that is that by 1944, the Soviets have been pushed beyond the Urals and while they break out during the course of this book, the ability to shift troops from the Eastern Front to France and then Britain has allowed a slow German conquest of the UK.

The novel is set in a small isolated valley in eastern Wales where the Mappa Mundi medieval map from Hereford Cathedral has been concealed. A team of six German soldiers, let by a captain Albrecht Wolfram, who was a scholar of such work in Oxford before the war, are sent to locate the map. This brings them into contact with the women on the handful of farms in the valley who at the start of the novel have been left by their husbands who are all part of the Auxiliary Units, particularly the Special Duty Branch, to act as a guerilla force and as intelligence agents, respectively, in the event of an invasion. We see very little of the men, only a George who lives nearby but was not from the valley and his recruiter 'Tommy Atkins' who is taken by the Gestapo and later killed by Wolfram's unit.

I can see why the movie was very uninspiring because very little happens in the book, so the director, Amit Gupta, had little to work from. The book is a very different thing. Where it shines is not in terms of the alternate history. This is really only required to set up the 'bubble' of the cut off valley populated by women and girls and their interaction with a very small unit of occupiers. Sheers is a poet and the strength of this book is that for much of the time, it is effectively a prose poem describing the valley through the seasons; its plant and animal life, seen through the eyes of various characters. We often jump quite quickly from one to the other and witness things though almost all of them during the course of the book. Even the developing (inevitable) romance between the captain and Sarah Lewis appears very slowly and is rather rushed to the end, rather weakening the choices that both make. Much better are the other interactions between the two sides, notably the modus vivendi that the soldiers develop with Maggie, effectively matriarch of the valley.

In terms of narrative there are many things you might challenge. However, it just about hangs together. The reason why I would recommend this book, though, is not for the story, but for the beautiful images of a particular place from how the light moves through the valley, how the ice and the water moves and changes, how the animals behave, even the buildings and their contents, the nearby ruins. The descriptions are so rich it is a pleasure to read them. It does not make an exciting book and certainly not a great movie, but as something else, much more poetic, it works well to engage you.

Non-Fiction

'Macmillan. A Study in Ambiguity' by Anthony Sampson

It is interesting that while contemporary Conservatives will talk about Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill and even Stanley Baldwin, I cannot recall any mentioning Harold Macmillan. This is despite him serving as prime minister for 6½ years during one of the most prosperous periods of modern British history. I guess for many in his party his criticism as Lord Stockton of the first two Thatcher governments has made him a pariah. Certainly with the zealous anti-EU attitude prevalent in the party of the 2020s, him being a link in British European policy between Churchill's attitude into Heath's and a period when collaboration with other capitalist neighbours seemed to be something almost inherently Conservative, can make him seem a 'traitor' not just to the party but even to the country as a whole.

As a consequence, there is now rather an ellipse in how the Conservatives see themselves as if the period probably 1956-1975 has been edited out. It does mean that strands of what would have once been seen as mainstream Conservatism, with actually a modern perspective, is absent from current thinking. Anything that comes even marginally close to anything Macmillan might have pursued is deemed to be 'weak', even 'unpatriotic'. Given how much the party has turned the clock back to attitudes Macmillan would have seen in his youth (he was born in 1894 and fought in the First World War) I imagine if alive today he would have felt even more detached from his party than he did in the 1980s.

Writing in 1967, Sampson measures Macmillan against standards that are far higher than any which we could expect to be applied in the 21st Century. The failures in terms of establishing a superpower summit, difficulties with the EEC and with moving African states to independence would be seen as just everyday foreign policy challenges. The so-called 'Night of the Long Knives', a strong Cabinet reshuffle and even the Profumo Scandal, rather than being isolated incidents analysed to a great extent are often occurrences that can happen in a single week in UK politics today. Given the books towards the end of his life, I am sure he had detected the qualitative deterioration in British political life. Thus, while the tone of Sampson's book is one of disappointment, as much for Macmillan himself in not achieving his goals, the record set against say, the last three Conservative prime ministers actually seems quite decent.

The Conservatives have a lot to be grateful for from Macmillan. In particular Sampson shows how, despite his age or maybe because of it - he was 62 when he first became prime minister, he was able to deftly heal the rifts which had developed over the Suez fiasco which had threatened to rend the party apart. He was then able to get it through two elections so as to cap 13 years in office. Macmillan was also alert to the requirements of modern politics and the uses to which snappy slogans, television and aircraft could aid him not simply in speaking to the electorate but also showing the UK prime minister as still someone notable in the world.

Sampson provides good detail without drowning out the story. I was particularly interested in Macmillan's approach to economics and his engagement with planning which stretched across the political spectrum in the 1930s and 1940s and ironically was an attitude that brought him closer to the French approach of the post-war period than the British one. He did lay the groundwork for Harold Wilson's engagement with planning. It is important to establish this context, to fill in the ellipse not just simply in terms of Conservative policy, but also the wider course of British economic policy which in just over a decade saw a move from boosting Keynesianism via corporatism and planning, to, even under a Labour government, under Callaghan, the winning out of monetarist approaches that then caused so much of the pain of the 1980s and beyond for large chunks of the British (and indeed American) population.

Overall, this was a book of its time in terms of its basis for judgements. It is a useful reminder of a neglected, pretty important component in both Conservative and British history in general. It is also a reminder of the kind of standards politicians were expected to work to, that now, especially in the past 3 years, seem utterly forgotten and even somehow portrayed as not 'truly Conservative'. That sense of responsibility not just to one's personal benefit but to the wider community is utterly absent now in a way which was not the case when Macmillan was in charge.

Books I Read In April

 Fiction

'Fools and Mortals' by Bernard Cornwell

Having been disappointed by the Grail Quest (2000-03) books I read and finding 'The Fort' (2010) and the Starbuck (1993-96) tetralogy alright but not outstanding, I was eager to see Cornwell getting back to the kind of quality that is seen in his Sharpe series. This book, set in 1595-96 and seen through the eyes of William Shakespeare's brother, Richard, proved to be both engaging and refreshing. For Cornwell to be writing about a group of actors at the time when William Shakespeare was working on 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' is a departure from the war stories he typically writes. There is intrigue and some fights, but the rehearsing and running of however, Cornwell puts his attention to historical detail - which can he never neglects - to really good use in this novel. It highlights the challenges of setting up and sustaining a theatre company; the challenges of being censored and negotiating with patrons. Richard is a performer of women's parts, as women were not permitted to act until 1660 but is ageing and is seeking ways to continue his career as he has to shift into male roles. All round, Cornwell balanced all these factors very deftly, while giving a real sense of jeopardy and at the same time richly conjuring up London of the late 16th Century. I think keeping it to quite a narrow focus allowed that richness to come out. I certainly feel that this was the best Bernard Cornwell book I have read in a long time and would certainly recommend it.

'Void Moon' by Michael Connelly

This is the last of the Connelly novels that I have been given. This one features Cassie Black a woman who with her lover, used to rob successful gamblers at Las Vegas casinos. On probation she has got a good job working for a Porsche dealership in Los Angeles. However, news about her daughter she was compelled to give up for adoption drives her to seek the 'one last job' to get funds. This job turns out to be much more complex than it first appears and soon involves two organised criminal bodies competing for the money. Connelly is very adept at representing the Nevada and California areas he clearly knows well. This novel is fast paced, alternating between Cassie's perspective and that of Jack Karch who is put on Cassie's trail by the owner of the casino that she robs from this time. It does manage to avoid slipping into many of the tropes we know around Las Vegas crimes, though there are perhaps one too many crashing through the glass roofs of casinos.

It is a stark, hard boiled environment. The details of Cassie breaking into the target room and overcoming all the security measures, is rightly praised by reviewers. The tone of that 'clinical' approach is repeatedly brought home as Karch tortures and kills without compunction as he hunts down Cassie. However, the US penal system is also an antagonist. Cassie is seen by her probation officer as being ambivalent in her responses, even though she is holding down a good job and this is sufficient for her to get an unannounced; armed visit from the probation officer. Cassie's partner on her last robbery was killed by being thrown from a hotel room window. While Cassie was far away from him at the time, under US law, because they were together on a criminal activity it is her who gets charged with his manslaughter. This sense that the justice system latches on to perpetrators and piles on whatever charges seem in even quite removed vicinity to the criminal and seeks to punish at all stages, rather than rehabilitate comes through very sharply in this novel. That harsh regime does provide motives but will jump out for UK readers as being alien.

Overall a crisp thriller that aside from a few points comes over as credible and engaging. It would make a great movie. While she is probably too old for the role now, but if Jennifer Lopez had played Cassie in line with her performance in 'Out of Sight' (1998), it would have been something worth watching.

'God Save the Queen' by Kate Locke [Kathryn Smith]

This is sort of a steampunk novel. It is set in the 2012 but in a world in which the Black Death mutated turning aristocratic people into vampires or werewolves. Queen Victoria, a vampire, is still on the throne of Britain. There are 'halvies', people born to concubines with traits of a vampire or a werewolf but also of humanity, like a 'daywalker' in the Blade series. There are also 'goblins' who combine werewolf and vampire traits but are confined to cannibalism in the sewers. The bulk of the population are humans who after a failed uprising in 1932, live very Victorian existences in a desultory world in which the aristocracy party. Technology has advanced but is different in style, so mobile phones are 'rotaries'. Clothing is still very Victorian or 1980s Gothic. 

The protagonist, Xandra Vardan is a member of the Royal Guard and her siblings work for the police and a private security firm. Children of a lord, they have a privileged existence, but in detective work and security are faced with the challenges of this society. Xandra is drawn into investigating the apparent murder of her sister, Dee, after being confined to the New Bedlam insane asylum. She is soon mixed up in an entanglement of conspiracies with some seeking to overthrow the regime and others experimenting on halfie children to try to produce better strains. Throughout she is uncertain both on who to trust and who she might betray herself. There are dramatic scenes as she tries to find the truth and hares through London to do it. There is also a nice romance between Xandra and the Scottish lord who is head of the werewolves, which in the hands of another author would have been handled differently, but Locke handles honestly, so providing a nice counterpoint to the entwined conspiracies.

Locke is Canadian and a professed Anglophile. She almost goes too far in levering in London slang and phrases. However, for non-British readers, I imagine this adds to the sense of this alien world. I spotted to elements that jar with this. In the UK 'French doors' are actually known as 'French windows' and no-one over here pours syrup on bacon! Aside from that, I found this novel growing on me as I went through it. At times it seemed a bit too much but steadily it comes together. The world building while drawing perhaps on some over-used tropes, is successful. However, Locke does not need to provide all the details, especially the complex genetic stuff at the end, to justify what she has portrayed. She needed to have more faith that the reader could come along with her without having a lesson. Locke is a prolific author, under a string of names, producing 39 novels, 2001-2022, mixing romance, modern fantasy and steampunk. If I come across any more of her books I would certainly buy them as, if nothing else, an old Goth cannot resist the styles in them!

'Nemesis' by Bill Napier

While Locke gave quite a bit of detail on genetics in an appendix, Napier piles in mathematical formulae in the body of his text. This is a weird mixture, being, if it was a movie, along the lines of  'Armageddon' (1998) meets 'Seven Days in May' (1964) and in part 'The Da Vinci Code' (2006 from 2003 novel) though that was produced after this book was published in 1998. It appears that the Russians, following a military coup in the 1990s, have altered the course of an asteroid so that it crashes into the centre of the USA. A team of Americans, along with a British astronomer Oliver Webb whose point of view we most see through, are brought together to identify the asteroid and work out how to divert it. There is a great deal of tension in the team, which is not handled subtly. 

There is a lot of science and mathematics in the early sections of the book as we are told about asteroids and meteorites; the damage such a collision would provide; what the impact on sea in terms of different levels of tsunami and climate would be and why you cannot simply blast an asteroid apart. There is not simply exposition, but there is also formulae as if we might want to work it all out for ourselves. As the book progresses, the thriller element increases. One of the team is murdered and we see Americans conspiring to use the incident to trigger a nuclear war anyway and then Webb goes to Italy to track down the manuscript of a Renaissance astronomer who may have identified the most likely candidate for the asteroid. He gets mixed up in brutal killings, with prostitutes, a cabaret and everything Napier can throw at it. 

There is perhaps a good idea somewhere in this book, but there is simply far too much going on and Napier does not seem to be entirely in control of it. I could almost imagine this book being written by a team each trying to get their bit in. Yes, we want to see that the disaster portrayed in the book is a credible one and that suggestions we might come up with would not work. However, we do not need mathematics and extensive sections about energy calculations in water and so on. The idea of it being revealed in a historic text works well, but Napier goes off on such an extreme situation that it morphs into yet another kind of book. We are not really sure of his age or his nature. At times he is bookish and geekish at others more of an action hero than Robert Langdon with a librarian throwing herself at him in messages who we do not ever see in person. There is probably enough in here for two or three different books. I have another thriller by Napier on my shelf and I wonder if it is handled any better than this one.

Non-Fiction

'Gestapo' by Rupert Butler

Published in 1981 this is one of those populist history books, often about aspects of the Second World War, that were numerous in the 1970s. While what it says is accurate, the style is far from academic. It is really a series of vignettes about the Gestapo and its activities across the life of the organisation. If it was a television programme then it would be a 'docu-drama' as Butler produces incidents and especially dialogue that we can guess occurred but of which there is no record. As the book progresses, the focus on the Gestapo itself becomes looser and we see things from the side of the Abwehr; the Resistance especially in France and Denmark and the assassins of Reinhard Heydrich as much as we see things from Gestapo perspective. Many of these incidents are well known anyway. Perhaps the most interesting elements are the less commonly aired ones. 

There is interesting material on the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 and on the struggle between various German agencies in the running of France; the coverage of the Venlo Incident and Operation Valkyrie are pretty well handled too. It might seem odd to say that a book about such a sinister organisation is easy to 'dip into', but because of this vignette approach, that is the case. This is a useful book if you were thinking of writing a story set during the Nazi regime and wanted to get up to speed about the secret police machinery without going into more detailed, academic sources. I guess books like this which used to be sold as more in Woolworths or newsagents than bookshops effectively have been replaced by Channel 5 and Netflix documentaries these days hence them not being published in the way they were 40 years ago.