3-2-1 Chapter Review for Murder at Wrotham Hill by Diana Souhami

3-2-1 Chapter Review for Murder at Wrotham Hill by Diana Souhami.

Murder at Wrotham Hill tells the true story of the killing of a woman in 1946.  The whole country has been surrounded by death caused by World War II and now yet another death is on their doorsteps.  With so much upheaval and loss from the war, should this murder have mattered?  Here’s my 3-2-1 Chapter One Review.

The Good – Souhami gives us an interesting insight into the background of the time, where people are coming from and the attitudes of the time.  We see how people are still influenced by law, religion, culture and in particularly World War II

The Good – I like the way the cost of living at the time has been integrated quite smoothly into the descriptions of the murder and surroundings.

The Good – Descriptions of Dr Cedric Keith Simpson, the pathologist, were the most energetic of all the characters.  There was a swing and a swagger to it in line (I hope) with his personality.  It made me want to hear more from him.

The Bad – The subtext on how to pronounce Wrotham (root’em) was useful, but I found it distracting from the magic of the opening sentence.  Would it have been awful for us to mispronounce it in our heads?

The Bad – I found the writing very staccato.  It’s almost like a list of evidence or the sequence of events taken from a Detectives notebook.  It will be interesting to see if the next chapters follow suit.  It was closer to prose when giving background information.

The Beautiful – (about Keith Simpson) ‘His patients, he said, never complained, and if their symptoms proved perplexing he could always put them back in the fridge and return to them later.’

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3-2-1 Chapter Review for Faces

3-2-1 Chapter Review for Faces by Martina Cole.

Follows the life of Danny Cadogan, an extremely violent criminal (Face), and how his actions affect the lives of his family, friends and competitors.

Living on an island where English is not the first language, one tends to grab at any books in English with both hands, especially ones by a favoured author.  Unfortunately, I’m finding Faces by Martina Cole difficult to finish mainly because the rest of the book is extremely repetitive. The first chapter was true Martina Cole. It falls apart a couple of chapters down the road when you realize more effort is being put into making it a nice thick book to sell rather than telling the story. Nevertheless, this is my 3-2-1 Chapter One Review:

The Good – Great tension in the beginning paragraph.

The Good – Really captured the family spirit, with the exception of the father, they are all looking out for each other on their different levels.

The Good – Paints a picture of 1960’s London with a perfect balance of grime and nostalgia.

The Bad – The third party narrative with each character's undertones works well for most of the characters, except the young daughter, who I think is shown to have a little more perception than she might have had at 4 – 5 years old.

The Bad – Repetitive. I must admit the first chapter is not as bad as those to come but you are left with a feeling of loop-de-loop when descriptions are given as to the characters’ thought processes and emotions… OK I get it already!

The Beautiful - ‘His tongue was a furry black point, and it snaked in and out of his mouth as he shouted at them.’

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3-2-1 Chapter Review for The Desolate Garden

3-2-1 Chapter Review for The Desolate Garden by Danny Kemp.

A spy thriller where Harry Paterson is recruited by the British Secret Service to help solve the mystery of his father’s murder.

I was introduced to The Desolate Garden and its taxi driving author via Twitter (I guess it works!) and it was as much Danny Kemp’s varied bio and priors as it was the promise of a good thriller that influenced my choosing to review The Desolate Garden. This is my 3-2-1 Chapter Review:

The Good – Easy and thoughtful methods of introducing the lifestyle and looks of the main character, Harry.

The Good – Loved the confidence of Judith, you really want to get to know her more.

The Good – Great early twist to the tale and chapter one ends with so many mysterious open doors as to where the story will go.

The Bad – Some of the sentences could have been a little smoother in their execution.

The Bad – The information on the lamb-eye-eating crows seemed a little forced and over detailed considering it was an unknown policeman in his home and as a visit from one is usually associated with bad news, I would have expected the immediate focus to be on that.

The Beautiful - ‘The first time I saw her was three days after I was told that my father had died.’

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Honey I'm Home - a short story

Honey I’m Home

by Marva Gregorio De Souza

“Phew! That was close.”

Robbie stood up again once he was sure the patrol car was out of sight. The police seemed to have stepped up their game, that was the fourth one this evening. Or maybe it was totally unconnected with his particular illegal activities.

He bent over and took a good grip on the sack again. If someone had told him dead bodies were this hard to drag he wouldn’t have believed them. After this many you’d think he’d be used to it, but he wasn’t. In fact every one seemed heavier than the last. His efforts to find lighter, smaller, victims were not paying off. It would appear that the gym was the only option to make his work easier.

This one put up a fight too.

“Sally? Yes I’m sure her name tag said Sally.” The sack dropped to the floor with a thud as Robbie dug into his pocket to check.

“Correctomondo! And they said I wasn’t a people man.”

He continued on his journey to the river. The ground got softer as he neared the banks and his dead weight became almost impossible to maneuver when his feet began sinking in the mud.

“Come on Sally, work with me here.” The two companions stopped for another break. Robbie hunkered down as he heard another siren in the distance.

“Just in case Sally. We can’t be too careful.” He took a watchful pause before continuing conversation with his ward. “I hate what they’ve done to us Sally. Hate it. It used to be that you got a job, got paid and went home to the family, satisfied after a hard day’s work. Nobody got fired. Nobody. I didn’t even do anything wrong, really. It was the bastard manager he didn’t have a clue. Didn’t have a clue about anything. He’d only been working there for what, a month? Two at the most. I was doing exactly what everyone else was doing. But I got caught cos I was the only one honest about it. And no one stood up for me. They all just let me hang. The family left me hanging too. No money. No Robbie. Let’s not talk about it any more. It hurts too much even after all this time. Things are much better now anyway. The new family is much better. Let’s go.”

The heavy lugging continued through the dough like soil. Sometimes Robbie thought he’d hit quick sand but he knew that wasn’t possible so he carried on, building up a ‘tug of war’ rhythm to get through each inch. He was not afraid of hard work.

At the small cabin he knocked. Two long, three short. He looked around to make sure there were no fishermen, trackers, animals, spies or police; took out the padlock key and removed the padlock. He whispered to Sally;

“Let me go in first and pave the way. They’re not expecting company. I’m sure everything will be fine but just in case. I won’t be long.”

Robbie pushed past the resistance of the rusty hinges and went inside, closing the door behind him. Outside you could hear his urgent whispers without quite catching what he was saying. The door opened again and he pulled Sally inside after one last check for watching eyes.

He took the sack off with great difficulty. No scissors to hand. Sally lay on the center of the floor with the knife still embedded in between her ribs on the left hand side. Her eyes were open, the look of shock imprinted over pre-Robbie brightness. Under the surveillance of the new family and dozens of flies, Robbie put his arms under Sally’s armpits, careful not to touch her breasts, and from behind positioned her in the last space against the wall. Finished, wall to wall family, as it should be.

Robbie took his place against the opposite side so he could see Sally without turning his head. She was the newest, the freshest, and he wanted to enjoy her for as long as possible. He took a deep breath, and gagged over the stench as he remembered he’d forgotten to pick up air freshener again.

The End