Bright – Duanwad Pimwana

The book-packing journey visits Thailand, and a working class tenement community.

Kampol Changsamran, five years old, lives with his mother, father, and baby brother in Mrs Tangjan’s collection of rented tenement houses. It is a close-knit, urban, working class community where folk rub along together and support each other. That is just as well as when Kampol’s parents split up and go their separate ways, vacating their house, Kampol gets left behind.

Someone invites him in for tea, someone else beds him down for the night, all expect that he will be picked up soon. But no, and he soon falls into a peripatetic existence as a community responsibility. Through him, we get to know the local characters: Chong, the grocer; Tia, the fisherman; Bangkerd, the mortician; Dong, the bicycle repairman and drunk; and schoolfriends Jua, Oan, and Samdej.

Episode by episode, the everyday lives of the community are revealed through Kampol’s eyes. Sometimes he is centre stage in events, getting up to mischief or into trouble; other times he is observing the adults, often misinterpreting events hard to comprehend through by young mind.

There is no harm in Kampol, so we cheer his little wins and feel his occasional pain. The portrayal of life in working class Thailand is interesting and has an authentic feel. The reading is easy, but it is not lightweight, as Kampol’s insecurity is always a worry.

The name Kampol means Bright, hence the title, and in a potentially dark situation, he shines as best he can.

Ella Minnow Pea – Mark Dunn

The eponymous Miss Minnow Pea lives with her family on Nollop, a self-governing island off the coast of South Carolina (though do not expect to find it in the atlas). It does not need much governing, as the residents are law-abiding and settled in their somewhat conservative ways. Over the years the leadership has fostered a devotion to the arts, particularly the written word, and an aversion to modern technology. There is not even a telephone system, the islanders communicate by the exchange of letters and an efficient postal system.

In the circumstances it is no wonder the nation reveres their only famous son, Nevin Nollop, creator of the celebrated pangram (a phrase utilising all the letters of the alphabet) ‘the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’. As well as re-naming the island after him, they also raised a statue in his likeness on which his famous phrase is proudly spelt out in individual letter tiles.

All well and good, but when a tile falls, the letter Z, the ruling council meets in emergency session and concludes that it is a message from the high and mighty Nollop, and that message is that Z is no longer part of their alphabet. It should no longer be written, read, or spoken. Draconian penalties are put in place for offenders. It is zero tolerance; or would be if only a Z was available!

The community adapts, some better than others. Then the Q falls, followed by the J and K. When more ubiquitous letters follow, things get serious.

The story is told, appropriately, in epistolary form with letters criss-crossing the island, notes to family pinned on fridge doors, and edicts from on high issued by the council. These, of course get progressively harder to compose as the available alphabet shrinks, testing the inventive linguistic skills of the Nollopians to the limit. There is one way out – if a shorter pangram can be found, the god-like status of Nevin Nollop can be refuted, and life can return to normal. It is a challenge Ella, and a few other rebels, are willing to take up.

The simple but devastating premiss provides ample opportunity for absurd comedy, political allegory, and witty use of language. Mark Dunn takes it to the limit, creating a great little masterpiece.

Killing the Shadows – Val McDermid

This is a serial killer novel to end serial killer novels.

Dr Fiona Cameron is an academic psychologist who is consulted from time to time by the Metropolitan Police to profile serial killers. But her last assignment did not end well when her advice was rejected, meaning the wrong man was put on trial and subsequently acquitted, leaving the real serial killer on the loose. Recriminations all round, but Detective Superintendent Steve Preston, a long time friend of Fiona, unjustly bears the brunt of the blame.

Dr Cameron remains in demand, though. There is a serial killer plying his trade in Spain and Fiona is persuaded to fly in to help the Spanish police. Her live-in boyfriend, Kit Martin, goes along for the trip. He is a writer, of crime novels, including one featuring a serial killer.

That occupation is not good news, as the mutilated body of a crime writer has just been found in Edinburgh. Then another is discovered in Ireland, and it begins to look like there is yet another serial killer (that makes three) on the loose, this one targeting authors who write novels featuring serial killers.

Fiona’s offer to help (fuelled by concern that Kit may be next on the list) falls on deaf ears. When a third death is confirmed, and Kit goes missing, she takes matters into her own hands. She has sussed that the killer mirrors the MO used by the murderer in each author’s book, and that sends her off to the Scottish Highlands on a rescue mission.

The book takes a while to get going (the sojourn to Spain seems an irrelevance) but once the Kit hits the fan, the pace picks up and accelerates to a tense climax. However, for me the characters did not convince, the relationship between Fiona and Kit too lovey-dovey, not to mention strange given that Fiona’s motivation for her career is the murder of her sister at the hands of a killer, the like of whom her boyfriend arguably glamourises in his work. A sub-plot involving Superintendent’s Preston’s love life also stretches credibility.

A bit of a pot-boiler, engaging enough if you don’t think too much about it.