Book Log 27/2013 - Chris Mould: Pip and the Twilight Seekers: A Spindlewood Tale

Spindlewood #2

Reviewed for Netgalley.
The Spindlewood is full of witches and strange creatures who could use children in the war against Hangman's Hollow, so children are banned. Jarvis's job is to catch strays, but he enjoys it too much. Hector Stubbs, the mayor, wants to find all the hidden children for his own reasons - to turn them into an army to fight the forest dwellers.

In this second book in a trilogy three children, Frankie (whose parents are in jail for harbouring her), Pip (an orphan) and Toad (Sam's son) are hiding in Sam's inn, The Dead Man's Hand. They've had a short period of peace after escaping from the forest and the evil Jarvis, but now the winter snow has gone and the danger has returned.

The wooden toy soldier, Captain Dooley, is ready to spill all the secrets of hidden children and young Edgar McCreedy inadvertently delivers it (and himself) to the mysterious four-armed forest dweller, Mr. Roach and the dangerous toy is handed over to Jarvis.

Captain Dooley sets Jarvis on the trail of the children, but Pip Toad and Frankie escape and set out to rescue children imprisoned in the Spindlewood.

Creepily good line illustrations by Yorkshire author, Chris Mould, very reminiscent of Ronald Searle's style. Beautiful and economical prose, but there are few explanations, so it doesn't really stand alone without the preceding book, and since it also finishes without resolving (despite a small reveal) it's definitely a middle book in a trilogy. This is aimed at children from 8 - 12 though very much on the younger end of the middle-grade age range.

Book Log 28/2013 - James Hetley: The Summer Country

I read Jim Hetley's debut novel when it first came out and again for review purposes and I have to say that I'm still in awe of his characterisation skills.

OK, briefly: Maureen Pierce works a dull job (the night shift in a convenience store), is paranoid (but not without reason), and talks to trees. She thinks she's mad, and her sister Jo agrees. And she does, indeed, have some serious mental health problems – most of them stemming from the fact that she doesn't fit into the world – or, at least, not in this world.

Her heritage (and nefarious magic) drags her from Maine to a mythical land, once full of warmth and sunlight, but now Dark and Dangerous (capital Ds intended), along with Brian Arthur Pendragon Albion, a Templar of a race of Ancient Ones, her sister, Jo and Jo's boyfriend, David. There are twisty plots afoot  as dark witch Fiona and her brother get to work.

The characters are darkly flawed but Hetley makes you care. The world is richly drawn. Yes it's violent and sometimes brutal, but Hetley draws on the darker side of Celtic myth for his inspiration and it works.

Book Log 29/2013 - Liz Williams: Snake Agent

Any book which opens with the main protagonist swinging by his heels in Hell has got my attention from page one. This grabbed me and never let me go.

Det. Insp. Chen is the cop whose responsibilities include the underworld as it impinges upon his city - the franchise city of Singapore 3. He's a snake agent, one of the people who can travel between earth and Hell, so when a murdered young woman's soul fails to end up in the realm above where it was destined to go, Chen has to follow the clues to Hell and back uncovering corruption in the highest echelons. He's teamed with his Hellish counterpart the Seneschal Zhu Irzh, demon vice cop. Starsky and Hutch they are not, but there's an element of the buddy-cop story as each character gets the measure of the other. Chen also has to avoid his wife's relatives who are understandably miffed as she's a demon he rescued from Hell before the story begins with a guardian who is sometimes a badger and other times a teakettle.

This is the first of Liz William's Detective Inspector Chen books and introduces us to the strange and wonderful world of Singapore 3 where ordinary mortals, if they know what they're doing, can travel between earth, hell and heaven and return again. The background is richly drawn. The interweaving of myth, legend and imagination combines flawlessly.

Highly recommended.