Nora by Nuala O’Connor

426 pages

Publisher: New Island Books

Library book

Book Club Read

 

Blurb

Dublin, 1904. Nora Joseph Barnacle is a twenty-year-old from Galway working as a maid at Finn’s Hotel. She enjoys the liveliness of her adopted city and on June 16—Bloomsday—her life is changed when she meets Dubliner James Joyce, a fateful encounter that turns into a lifelong love. Despite his hesitation to marry, Nora follows Joyce in pursuit of a life beyond Ireland, and they surround themselves with a buoyant group of friends that grows to include Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and Sylvia Beach.

But as their life unfolds, Nora finds herself in conflict between their intense desire for each other and the constant anxiety of living in poverty throughout Europe. She desperately wants literary success for Jim, believing in his singular gift and knowing that he thrives on being the toast of the town, and it eventually provides her with a security long lacking in her life and his work. So even when Jim writes, drinks, and gambles his way to literary acclaim, Nora provides unflinching support and inspiration, but at a cost to her own happiness and that of their children.

 With gorgeous and emotionally resonant prose, Nora is a heartfelt portrayal of love, ambition, and the quiet power of an ordinary woman who was, in fact, extraordinary.

 

Review

This is going to be one of my ‘I’m not entirely sure what to say’ reviews.

Don’t get me wrong. Nora’s story captivated me. I loved her voice and the way she picked her words and formulated her sentences.

“Sometimes I crave a little alone time to just let my thoughts scatter.”

That’s just one example. I have a much longer list of Nora-sayings written down in my reading-notebook.

Nora was also an easy read in so far that I got swept up in the tale, found it hard to put the book down, and couldn’t wait to get back to it when I had to pause my reading. At the same time, Nora is anything but an easy read when it comes to the content of her story and in my mind, I retitled it…

The things we do for love…

Because you would need to love somebody deeply in order to put up with everything Jim Joyce put Nora through. From James refusing to marry her for the longest time, through the various locations where they lived in sometimes abject poverty dependent on others just to keep a roof over their growing family’s heads and food on the table, to a life led making sacrifices for James’s art, it takes someone special and an extraordinary level of love and trust to stay the distance.

I wonder if I would have had a better understanding of Nora and James if I’d known more about them and if it would have made a difference if I had read, for example, Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake.

 I’m not sure how to write this review without summarising the journey the Joyce family made, and honestly, if you're curious about that, you're far better off reading this beautiful book.

Ultimately, Nora was a gorgeously written book about an anything-but-easy life. I was happily surprised to discover it was universally loved and admired by the members of my reading group, even if one or two felt the need to remark on the more erotic scenes in the story. I’m very happy I read this story. And it just goes to show that it is indeed true that behind every great man there’s a great woman because it is hard to imagine James Joyce reaching the heights he achieved without Nora facilitating his life and art.

 

 

Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot #36

Publishing Date: Nov 1959

Publisher: Harper Collins

Kindle Edition

 

Blurb

 

Two teachers discover the body of the school's unpopular games mistress, shot through the heart from point-blank range. The school is thrown into chaos when the 'cat' strikes again, and Julia Upjohn knows that without Poirot's help she could be next.

 

Review

 

Before starting this book:

If I remember correctly, I first read this book when I was 15 years old and on holiday in Norway with my parents and brother. I had run out of (Dutch) books to read and because I was at risk of getting bored, my mother bought me this title and encouraged me to read it. I loved the story and it turned out to be the start of a life-long reading relationship with the Queen of Crime. To this day I remain grateful she brought me to Agatha Christie. All of which means that Cat Among the Pigeons was the first full length novel I read in English. Since all of the above happened 45 years (I’m really getting old 😊) ago, it is safe to say I remember very little about this mystery.

 

After I finished Cat Among the Pigeons:

In the first paragraph, I stated that I remembered very little about this mystery, but my memory must be better than I gave it credit for. Less than 25% into the story and well before the first murder, I had a pretty good idea about one aspect of this story. And this continued. The more I read, the more I remembered. It made for a weird reading experience. It felt as if I was always a step or two ahead of the story. Having said that, there were one or two big revelations that did surprise me.

At last, I get to the review proper.

Cat Among the Pigeons has both thriller and mystery elements. I think it’s safe to say that it starts as a thriller involving a revolution and jewelry, then morphs into a traditional mystery set in an English boarding school, before the two merge and everything is revealed.

I was going to put a summary of the story here. In fact, I’d already typed out several paragraphs before deleting them again. There is an awful lot going on in this story, and the cast of characters is huge. I’m not sure I could give a coherent summary without the use of numerous (potential) spoilers. And spoiling even one aspect of this story would be a crying shame.

This is a very good Christie. The way the story is set up, in two different countries and in two different genres, it could so easily have turned into a mess. I’m very happy to say it didn’t. The thriller aspects work as well as the mystery parts, they are both well plotted, they do not get in each other’s way, and actually managed to complement and strengthen each other. All the characters, both minor and major, are vividly drawn, and as (almost) always, the dialogue sparkles. Besides, who doesn’t love an observation like this one:

“Miss Bulstrode had another quality which demonstrated her superiority over most other women. She could listen.”

Hercule Poirot doesn’t appear in this story until the last quarter of the book. And while it is always a shame when we get less of our favourite Belgian detective, the timing did make perfect sense in this setup.

While I’m not sure this is the best of the Christie stories I’ve recently read, it is definitely the story I enjoyed most. I lost myself in this book, the characters captivated me, and the mysteries kept me on my toes.

I’m thoroughly enjoying my reconnection with Agatha Christie. A few decades may have passed but it seems that my reading tastes having changed that much. My mam knew what she was doing when she picked Cat Among the Pigeons from the tiny collection of English books in that Norwegian shop. I’ll never stop being grateful; for her and for all the wonderful things she introduced into my life.

Romantic Company by Curtis Sittenfeld

 

320 pages

Publisher: Doubleday

Release Date: April 6^th, 2023

NetGalley

 

Blurb

A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamily handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions. Romantic Comedy is a hilarious, observant and deeply tender novel from New York Times–bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.

But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actor who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the "Danny Horst Rule," poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.

Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder whether there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her...right?

With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.

 

Review

I’ll be honest and admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book. Would this really be a romance—would it have a romantic arc, would there be angst, would things almost go wrong before (most importantly) concluding on a happy ending?—or was I about to discover the title was Romantic Comedy because the story broke all the rules and didn’t give us that all-important HEA? My concerns only increased when I came across the line “Romance doesn’t require a happy ending”. Spoiler alert: yes! it does.

At the risk of actually spoiling the story, I am going to say here that I worried about nothing. Romantic Comedy is indeed a romance in the truest sense of the word, and a delightful one at that. Allow me to list everything I appreciated.

It was wonderful to have two main characters who have some lived experience under their belt. Both Sally and Noah have been through relationships that didn’t last the course and neither of them is looking for love when they first meet.

The road from meeting each other to ending up together is anything but smooth but the obstacles in their way, self-inflicted as they may be, make sense for who Sally and Noah were. The way they reconnected after a two-year separation (as a result of and during the Covid lockdown) made perfect sense. Whatever angst there was, mostly on Sally’s part, felt realistic and was never overdramatic. And, most importantly, I completely bought the fact that these two, apparently mismatched, characters would find each other.

On a non-romantic level, I loved the insights we got into how a weekly comedy show like Saturday Night Live operates, just as I loved the references to songwriting, performing and music in general.

This story hosts a large cast of secondary characters and all of them were well presented and fully formed.

I also want to give a special shout-out to the ‘Danny Horst Rule’ as introduced in this story. Goodness knows it is true that while society at large happily accepts that average-looking men end up pushing above their weight and connecting with women who are more beautiful and successful than they are, the opposite is almost always met with disbelief and scorn.

And then I have one or two very personal reasons why this book resonated with me. Like Sally in the story, I’m a huge fan of the Indigo Girls and I loved how passionate she was when she spoke about them. Noah’s reflection that he isn’t overly fond of having to play his first-ever hit all the time, also made me smile since I have a daughter who would happily never again play the first song she wrote but finds herself doing so occasionally anyway because it is her granny’s favourite.

I’m looking forward to the ‘official’ reviews of this book when it is released. Provided there will be any, of course. As a rule, romances don’t get reviewed by major newspapers and most other major review sites. It is almost as if romance is less worthy as a genre since it is mostly written and read by women. And that makes me wonder if they’re about to come up with a term like ‘literary romance’. I hope that doesn’t happen for the same reason that I’m not a fan of the term ‘literary thriller’. Adding the word literary to a branch of genre fiction doesn’t achieve anything apart from diminishing the rest of that particular genre. While I’m willing to concede that there are badly written romances and thrillers available, I want to say those are vastly outnumbered by well-written and well-plotted books featuring characters with depth and real stories with real messages. What’s more, who is to decide what is literary and what is not? As with many qualifying definitions, the answer appears entirely arbitrary to me.

Since I don’t want to end my review of this fantastic book with a rant, allow me to summarize my thoughts. Romantic Comedy was fabulous. The story and characters pulled me in from the start, the setting is fascinating, the sparkling dialogue is intelligent, and the overall reading experience was uplifting and very fulfilling. In fact, I enjoyed this book so much that I’ve already recommended it to another person even though it won’t be released for another week or two. For me, this book deserves 5 glorious golden stars!

 

 

The Deadly Weed by Cora Harrison

Reverend Mother Mystery #10

240 pages

Publisher: Severn House

Publication Date: March 7, 2023

 

Blurb

The Reverend Mother's investigative skills are called into action when a local tobacco factory burns down and fingers are pointed at one of her ex pupils...

1920s. Cork, Ireland. Early one morning the Reverend Mother receives news of a deadly fire at the local cigarette factory, a place where she'd been so proud that some of her pupils had been given a steady job. In a city full of poverty, unemployment and political unrest, these ex pupils of hers had surely been blessed with such prospects. Now, though, she is worried . . . What happened at the cigarette factory and why are there rumours circulating that one of her 'girls' was responsible?

Inspector Patrick Cashman is under pressure to quickly find the cause of the fire - and identify a suspect - to placate the visiting Lord Mayor and Commissioner and secure his hopes of promotion. Patrick turns to his friend, the journalist and law student Eileen MacSweeney, for help, along with the ever insightful and calm Reverend Mother. From the fog-ridden streets of the slums to the green pastures and prosperity of nearby Youghal, together they begin to unravel a seedy history of greed, ambition and a desire for power.

 

Review

It has been a while, but I read mysteries by Cora Harrison in the past. I was a huge fan of her historical Burren mysteries and especially the main character Mara, Brehon of the Burren. Which explains why I got very excited when I discovered The Deadly Weed on Netgalley and why I didn’t hesitate before requesting the book.

Like The Burren Mysteries, the Reverend Mother series is set in the past. But, while the Burren stories take place centuries ago, the Reverend Mother investigates during the first quarter of the last century at a time when WW I and the Irish War of Independence were still fresh in everybody’s mind and Ireland was struggling to make the transition from occupied land to independent nation.

The Reverend Mother lives and works close to Cork’s harbour in an area of great poverty and deprivation. She runs a school for children from the poorest areas of Cork in an effort to give them a start in life and an opportunity to lift themselves out of the abject poverty they were born into. When a relative of hers opens a cigarette factory in Cork and needs employees with nimble fingers, the Reverend Mother is delighted when she manages to secure a job for six of her former pupils. Her delight turns to deep concern when, after the factory is set alight and the overseer dies from smoke inhalation, one of those girls is accused of setting the fire and causing the death.

Officially the crime is being investigated by Patrick Cashman, also a former pupil of the Reverend Mother’s. He finds his efforts hampered by politics and even the assistance of Eileen MacSweeney, another successful ‘graduate’ from the Reverend Mother’s school does little except deepen his worry that he has sent a young girl to prison for a crime she didn’t commit.

In the end, it is up to the Reverend Mother to figure out what happened and why even if it means digging into her own family’s past.

I enjoyed this book and for once I’m not sure if it is the mystery or the surrounding story I enjoyed most. The mystery was more than intriguing enough to keep my interest and the solution was both satisfying and plausible. What’s more, the clues were there for the (astute) reader to pick up on and I am happy to say that I was more than halfway there myself when the solution was presented.

The historical setting, the ins and outs of convent life, the descriptions of the Cork slums, and the insight into the emergence of the Irish police force (the Garda) intrigued me as much as the mystery though. It is at times hard to believe that only 100 years ago Ireland was at the start of its journey as an independent country, and the descriptions in this book brought the situation at the time into full and at times horrific focus.

This is not a thrill-a-minute sort of story. In fact, there didn’t seem to be a lot of urgency to solving of this crime, and there weren’t any hard-stopping moments or confrontational scenes. The quiet pace of this story and the thoughtful manner in which the Reverend Mother dealt with both this crime and her day-to-day activities seemed to fit the setting and her character perfectly. The cast of secondary characters was delightful because it featured personas both from the top and from the bottom layers of society. The writing in this book is beautiful and the details shared are wonderfully balanced with dialogue and descriptions.

As I said at the start, it has been some time since I last read a Cora Harrison book. I won’t wait as long before I pick up another title by her this time around.   

The 4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie

 

Miss Marple #8

223 pages

Publisher: Agatha Christie Ltd/Planet Three Publishing

Library book

 

Blurb

For an instant the two trains ran together, side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth witnessed a murder. Helplessly, she stared out of her carriage window as a man remorselessly tightened his grip around a woman’s throat. The body crumpled. Then the other train drew away.

But who, apart from Miss Marple, would take her story seriously? After all, there were no suspects, no other witnesses... and no corpse.

 

Review

Poor Elspeth McGillicuddy. There she is, on a train to visit Miss Marple, when she witnesses a murder taking place in a passing train. She dutifully reports the crime to the police who duly investigate only to find no trace of evil doing. Since there appears to be no corpse and there are no other witnesses, they put her claim down to a bad dream. Miss Marple on the other hand, knows Elspeth and takes her claim seriously and after undertaking a few train journeys of her own, she has a pretty good idea of what may have happened to the body of the unfortunate victim. Miss Marple has no way of actively investigating the crime herself but, never one to be held back, she has a solution.

Enter…

Lucy Eyelesbarrow, who basically operates as Miss Marple’s eyes, ears, and legs is a fabulous character. First of all, there’s her name—Eyelesbarrow, how does Christie come up with names like this one? But most of all I love the idea that after successfully graduating from Oxford she decided to forgo a distinguished academic career to become a sort of highly skilled domestic labourer taking on jobs on a short-term basis for fast amounts of money.

Lucy Eyelesbarrow takes on a job in Rutherford Hall which happens to have grounds bordering the relevant train tracks and on a very expedient bend as well. Miss Marple takes up lodgings not too far away, allowing Lucy and later Detective Inspector Dermot Graddock to confer with her about what they discover and give voice to their frustration that the solution remains out of reach.

Apart from Lucy, Miss Marple, and Elspeth McGillicuddy, the following cast appears in this mystery and must therefore be considered suspects (with the exception of the investigating officers, of course):

Mrs. Kidder – Housekeeper

Mr. Crackenthorpe – Master of Rutherford Hall, invalid and very disagreeable and stingy with money.

Emma Crackenthorpe – Mistress of Rutherford Hall – Mr. Crackenthorpe’s daughter.

Edmund Crackenthorpe: Formerly the eldest son, killed in France during WW II.

Cedric Crackenthorpe – Middle son, a painter who lives abroad.

Harold Crackenthorpe – Youngest son, works in the City, married an Earl’s daughter.

Alfred Crackenthorpe – Eldest son, black sheep of the family.

James Stoddart-West – Alfred’s school friend.

Edith Crackenthorpe – Deceased daughter.

Mr. Bryan Eastley – Edith’s husband, still close with the family.

Master Alexander Eastley – Son of Edith and Bryan.

Dr. Quimper – GP.

Mr. Wimborne – Family Solicitor.

Martine – A French woman who might be the mysterious victim?

Inspector Bacon – Local Police

Detective Inspector Dermot Graddock – Scotland Yard and Sir Henry Clithering’s godson.

Lucy soon discovers that this is not a happy family. Mr. Crackenthorpe is rather stingy and seems to take delight in not helping his offspring financially, mostly because he feels hard done by as a result of his own father’s will. Unsurprisingly, his children, particularly his sons, aren’t all too fond of their father.

Two further murders take place later on in the story, which narrows the cast of suspects a little but it won’t surprise anybody when I say that the ultimate solution is rather surprising. It doesn’t come out of nowhere however, and looking back, the clues were there although I have to admit I missed them and failed to come up with the answers before Miss Marple revealed them in a rather shocking and delightful finale.

As I mentioned before, I really liked Lucy as a character. Another favourite was young Alexander because of his fascination with the crime and his determination to search for and find clues. While the other characters are all described vividly and come to life on the page, I can’t say I liked them very much. The three brothers were equally awful and selfish. Emma doesn’t show any selfishness but I found her a little bland, although that worked nicely in contrast to her brothers’ awfulness. I did like Dermot Graddock and the fact that his role in this story meant that Sir Henry Clithering got a mention in this book.

And that’s all I’m willing to say about this story. If you would like to know more you’ll have to read it. 😊

I picked this title because I’m currently listening to the All About Agatha podcast and this title is coming up soon. Past experience tells me that Catherine Brobeck and Kemper Donovan will be a lot more critical of this story, the characters, and the mystery than I am. In fact, if I have a criticism it is that Miss Marple doesn’t appear more prominently in this story. Other than that, this was a delightful mystery, well-plotted and executed, and a great read. Just what I would expect from the Queen of Crime.

The Close by Jane Casey

# 10 Maeve Kerrigan

416 pages

Publisher: Harper Collins

NetGalley

 

Blurb

 

At first glance, Jellicoe Close seems to be a perfect suburban street – well-kept houses with pristine lawns, neighbours chatting over garden fences, children playing together.

But there are dark secrets behind the neat front doors, hidden dangers that include a ruthless criminal who will stop at nothing.

It’s up to DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent to uncover the truth. Posing as a couple, they move into the Close, blurring the lines between professional and personal as never before.

And while Maeve and Josh try to gather the evidence they need, they have no idea of the danger they face – because someone in Jellicoe Close has murder on their mind.

 

Review

 

As a rule, I don’t read books in a series out of order. I made an exception for this title when I found it on NetGalley simply because the blurb intrigued me. After finishing the story, I can say that being unfamiliar with the previous titles was somewhat of a mixed blessing.

Allowing the blurb to lure me into this book was the right decision though. The mystery (or should I say mysteries?) in this book was captivating, intriguing, and very well plotted. The blurb only reveals some of what is going on in this book which means we are dealing with an intriguing and action-packed story. I can’t say too much about all of that without risking spoilers, but I want to mention that this book kept me on my toes and managed to put me on the wrong footing as to the identity of the perpetrator(s). I loved the creepy insights into a murderer’s mind and the descent into madness they revealed while keeping their identity under wraps. In fact, the mysteries in this book and the outcomes were faultless and it was a delight to try and puzzle along (even if I got it wrong for the most part).

What didn’t work as well for me was the interaction between Maeve and Derwent. I don’t hold that against the book, though. This is book #10 in an ongoing series and I imagine that what transpires in this book has been set up over the course of the earlier releases. Furthermore, it is not as if you need to have read those earlier books to appreciate the complicated relationship between these two. There are enough references to what has gone before to ensure a new reader isn’t grasping around in the dark. Personally, I could have done with the blurb specifying that this book (series?) is almost as much about their complex interactions as it is about the mysteries they solve, but that is mostly because I’m not a huge fan of romance playing a (big) role in crime fiction. Again, if I had read one or more of the earlier titles, I would have been aware of this fact so it’s not something I hold against the author.

Overall, this was a gripping mystery with fascinating, lifelike, and well-portrayed characters. The plotting is tight, the resolutions are clever and (for the most part) surprising, and the writing was faultless. I’m not sure I’ll go back to read the previous titles but I will almost certainly read future titles in this series.

 

 

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

Publisher: Magpie

Released: February 2023

320 pages

E-book

Netgalley

 

Blurb

A book deal to die for.

Five attendees are selected for a month-long writing retreat at the remote estate of Roza Vallo, the controversial high priestess of feminist horror. Alex, a struggling writer, is thrilled.

Upon arrival, they discover they must complete an entire novel from scratch, and the best one will receive a seven-figure publishing deal. Alex’s long-extinguished dream now seems within reach.

But then the women begin to die.

Trapped, terrified yet still desperately writing, it is clear there is more than a publishing deal at stake at Blackbriar Estate. Alex must confront her own demons – and finish her novel – to save herself.

This unhinged, propulsive, claustrophobic closed-door thriller will pull you in and spit you out…

 

Review

If the blurb sounds somewhat dark, it is because this is a dark story. Very dark. If I had to summarize the plot in one sentence I would say: All is fair when the goal is hitting the top spot on the bestsellers’ lists. But that statement may not be strong enough to convey what takes place on these pages.

Take five young writers desperate for their big break, add one bestselling mentor and put them together in an isolated house in the middle of nowhere for a month. The idea is that they each write a book from scratch during those four weeks. The means of keeping the writers on target are, how shall I put it, unconventional. But the promised reward to the person who produces the best story is huge, so whatever reservations our main character and narrator Kate might have are pushed to the back of her mind as she and the others dedicate their time to producing 3000 words every day to be judged by the fabulous Raz.

And that is more or less all I can tell you about the plot without spoiling the story. What I can say is that the story slowly but steadily gets darker, creepier, and more mysterious. While it becomes obvious that things are probably not exactly what they appear to be very early on, the full extent of the darkness doesn’t become clear until much further on. What’s more, it isn’t always clear whether or not we are dealing with something supernatural. Is Kate imagining things or are otherworldly powers (also) at play?

Kate, when the story starts, has issues and is very insecure. This state of mind is made worse by the fact that Wren, who used to be her best friend until they had a nasty falling out is also one of the contestants. But when one of the competing authors disappears, most other concerns take a back seat and Kate finds herself relying on strengths and qualities she didn't know she possessed.

In fact, this is as much a story about learning to have confidence in yourself and trusting your instincts and abilities as it is a cautionary tale asking the characters how much of themselves they are willing to sacrifice in return for fame. Overall, this was a thrilling but not always comfortable ride.