The Memory Chalet – Tony Judt

Tony Judt, scholar, historian, essayist, became increasingly disabled by a motor neuron disorder that left him largely immobile, trapped in his own body. But his mind remained active and sharp as ever. To cope with the hours of uncomfortable and sleepless nights he ‘visited’ his past and composed essays that he could dictate during the daylight hours. This book is the result.

In equal parts memoir, critique, manifesto, and whimsey, he shares his experiences as a child of Jewish heritage in post-World War Two London; his youthful political enthusiasms; his academic career in England and the United States; and a late-blooming involvement in eastern Europe.

The essays are of easily digestible length but consider meaty issues – politics, education, religion, freedom of speech. They often meander enjoyably down asides and go off at interesting tangents of less moment. before returning to the main point and a pithy conclusion.

Insightful and commendably free from any hint of self-pity or resentment at his fate, the collection provides a vivid celebration of all aspects of life: the good and the bad; the beautiful and the ugly.

The Sleeper – Emily Barr

Lara is dissatisfied. The outward idyll of life in Cornwall, married to Sam, is a mask. She resents giving up her London life and career for a support role as wife and mother, especially now no babies have arrived and the IVF has failed again, leaving them unfulfilled and in debt. Her only local friend, acquaintance really, is Iris, in whom Lara recognises a similarly troubled soul.

When an opportunity arises for a job back in the city, she argues the case for taking a six-month contract to clear the debts. She can commute, getting the Sunday night sleeper from Truro to Paddington, sleep at her sister’s flat during the week, returning on the Friday night sleeper. Sam reluctantly agrees.

She falls into the routine, enduring her sister’s company midweek while revelling in the Friday night sleeper scene, enjoying gin and tonics with new friends Ellen and Guy. Then one week she does not arrive back in Truro, and the train is declared a crime scene when it gets to Penzance. Lara is missing, a victim or perpetrator. The police favour the latter, so it is up to Iris to find her and clear her name.

In the first third of the book Lara’s first-person narrative, up to her disappearance, is compulsive as her Jekyll and Hyde character emerges. Then the point of view switches to Iris and becomes less satisfying as she stumbles her way towards locating Lara. In the process the backstories of both women emerge, explaining their respective current issues. The helter-skelter finale ping-pongs between them to provide a tense climax.

It is a decent enough mystery thriller, the first part sufficiently intriguing to carry readers through some mediocre stuff to discover the resolution. The settings of Cornwall, London and somewhere else (no spoiler) seem authentic but of the characters, only Lara and to a lesser extent Iris, engage.

The Muse – Jessie Burton

London 1967, Odelle Bastien, five years since arriving from Trinidad with her degree, leaves her job at Dolcis shoe shop to start work as a typist at the Skelton Institute of Art. It is a glorified gallery and art dealership owned by the urbane Edmund Reede and managed by the formidable Marjorie Quick.

Quick takes Odelle under her wing, and Odelle finds the older woman intriguing, bordering on mysterious. Her curiosity intensifies when a young man brings in a painting inherited from his recently deceased mother. It is a striking work depicting a glorious Andalusian landscape behind, in the foreground, a girl holding in her hand a severed head. When Quick sees the painting, she is visibly shaken.

Cut to 1936, Andalusia, in a Spain on the brink of civil war, where the Schloss family of three arrive at a rundown quinta. Harold is an exiled Austrian Jewish art dealer; his English wife, Sarah, has money and issues; their nineteen-year-old daughter Olive has a decision to make. She has an offer of a place at a prestigious art school in London but is entranced by the local landscape and light. The Schlosses are met by Isaac and Teresa Robles, young half siblings looking for casual employment. Teresa becomes housekeeper and Isaac, an aspiring artist, is commissioned by Harold to paint a portrait of his wife and daughter.

The novel toggles chunkily between the timelines, the connection between them slowly and sinuously emerges. Never obvious, never forced, just perfectly done. Each setting has a fine sense of time and place. Each character has depth and nuance. The writing is easy on the eye, yet full of both wit and grit. In each timeline pace is slowly built up to twin exciting climaxes and a resolution uncertain to the end.

It is simply an exceedingly good read.

In the Blink of an Eye – Jo Callaghan

DCS Kat Frank returns to the Warwickshire Police after a career break covering the terminal illness and death of her husband. She’s ready to return but has promised 18-year-old son Cam that she will take on an executive level post away from the front-line dangers of the job.

The Chief Constable has just the role for her - a pilot scheme to assess the efficacy of using AI to assist officers in the field, initially looking at some cold missing persons cases. More specifically she will have on the team a prototype artificially intelligent detecting entity - AIDE Lock. It resides in a bulky bracelet round her wrist but, unnervingly, can emerge like a genie from a bottle to take the form of a humanoid hologram and join in conversations and interrogations. Kat completes her team with a male DI – Rayan Hassan – and a female DS – Debbie Browne.

Which case to prioritise? The question immediately pitches AIDE Lock’s objective algorithmic analysis against the colleagues’ subjective, experience-based, gut-feeling approach. It is a tension that lasts throughout.

The priority cases (they compromise on two) are subjected to review. Re-examining evidence and re-interviewing witnesses open new lines of investigation. Supercharged by AIDE Lock’s prodigious analytic capacity, progress is made rapidly. So rapidly that the cold cases soon become red hot, and Kat’s promise to stay clear of personal risk soon goes by the board.

As ever, personal lives are dipped into, prejudices are aired, mistakes are made and learned from, making for as good a detective novel as any. It is well written, and the AI twist is modern and timely. But not totally innovative, echoing (probably unconsciously) Isaac Asimov’s 1950s detective novels partnering a human and robot – Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun. Not bad company rub shoulders with.

Bridge of Clay – Markus Zusak

It is, essentially, the story of the Dunbar boys down under. And of their parents, and of their curiously named menagerie living in the Sidney suburbs.

Matthew narrates, in unconventional style, both staccato and fluent, poetic and prosaic, always readable, always enjoyable. He is the eldest, necessarily the responsible one. Then comes Rory (the fighter) and Henry (the grifter). Fourth is Clay(ton), the eponymous one, quiet, deep, gentle, uncommunicative, but universally liked. Little Tommy (bewildered spectator) completes the quintet.

The story evolves a-chronologically, with flashbacks providing their parents’ backstories - Penny Lesciuszko’s Polish roots and iron curtain escape; Michael Dunbar’s broken prior relationship – before settling down into two broad timelines. One leads up to Penny’s demise and Michael’s desertion leaving the teenage boys to fend for themselves. The other, later, covers Michael’s return to face the music, looking for what? Forgiveness? Understanding? Or just help to build a bridge at his place in the outback? Clay is the only one to respond. There’s a reason.

There is more, much more. There is Michael’s art, Penny’s music, Michelangelo’s architecture, running, fighting, horseracing and the stable girl turned jockey. And throughout, echoes of the Iliad - in the Homeric telling and in the names of Hector the cat, Agamemnon the goldfish, Telemachus the pigeon, and Achilles the mule. And Penny, of course, is Penelope. But, in the end, it all comes back to Clay.

It is good, very good, celebrating life’s rich tapestry but not avoiding the reality, the flipsides: no life without death, no love without loss. Its quirky style and jumbled timeline keep the reader on their toes but reward them with spikes of joy, nuggets of pathos, gems of one-liners, and, not to dodge the issue, the odd lump in the throat.

The Last Passenger – Will Dean

Caroline (Caz) Ripley embarks on a transatlantic crossing on the luxurious Atlantica liner accompanied by her relatively new boyfriend, Pete Davenport. After a first-evening meal and drinks they retire to their cabin and bed. In the morning when Caz wakes, slightly hungover, she is alone.

More alone than just missing Pete. The whole ship is deserted. Cabins empty, decks deserted, bridge unattended. No other passengers, no staff, no crew. But the ship is ploughing on regardless. It is a scary scenario; bizarre; inexplicable. Will Dean takes it forward in all its psychological unnerving detail, until …

Well, that would be telling, and we don’t do spoilers here. However, to give some reassurance, it’s not just about one woman and a ship. Other characters are involved, and there are back stories to be shared. Then there is a mind-blowing reveal that hikes the action and tension up a notch.

And that is what drives the story on, along with, for me, a reducing willingness to suspend disbelief in the premise and a growing curiosity as to whether a more sensible explanation might emerge.

What more to say? The main Caroline character is well drawn, the present tense narration (hers throughout) works well enough, and give Dean credit for extrapolating a contemporary trend to an ultimate if somewhat preposterous end point.

Maigret and the Apparition – Georges Simenon

An attempted murder in Paris is a crime close to home for Chief Superintendent Maigret as a fellow officer is gunned down in the street. The victim, Inspector Lognon, is not a member of his Crime Squad but is an old colleague and as he is rushed to hospital, Maigret gets on the case.

But what is the case? Lognon is in a coma, no-one at his station knows what he was working on or why he was in the street at night. When investigations on site reveal he was a regular late-night visitor to the nearby apartment of a young woman, who has since disappeared, some jump to the obvious conclusion. But Maigret thinks not and digs deeper, roots around the neighbours, builds a hypothesis that centres on a substantial property across the road where lives a Dutch art dealer and his attractive wife.

Police procedure proceeds impeccably, though Maigret, as ever, finds time to pop into bistros and cafes for necessary refreshments. Drawing on the work done by his inspectors in the field and intelligence gleaned from his contacts in Nice and London, Maigret probes, interrogates, and deduces.

It is classic Simenon and Maigret with the atmospheric Paris setting, quirky characters, economy of prose, and a complex puzzle to unravel. Done and dusted in under 160 pages. Old school!