The Perfect Murder – Peter James

This is one of the Quick Read series where well known authors produce short fast-paced novellas to engage readers new to reading or just to them. I fall into the latter category and picked this as a first taste of Peter James.

Victor and Joan Smiley have been married for twenty years, and it is clear that despite keeping up appearances they have both had enough and want rid of their spouse. Just leaving or divorcing doesn’t seem an option, maybe smacking of failure, so instead each secretly plans to kill the other.

Who will strike first and how will it pan out?

Finding out is entertaining enough and Peter James keeps the twists and turns going right to the end.

It is light reading, as intended, but good fun and it has put his full size detective fiction on my radar. 

Stonemouth – Iain Banks

Stewart Gilmour returns to Stonemouth on the North East coast of Scotland five years older, a bit wiser, but only a little less terrified than when he fled the town a week ahead of his scheduled, but aborted, wedding day.

The reason for his hasty departure and exile becomes clear as he edges his way back into town. The gang boss he offended has apparently been persuaded, reluctantly, to allow him back for the weekend to attend a funeral; but that does not mean he will be made welcome, especially by his ex-fiancée’s troop of brothers who revel in their reputation for intimidation and violence.

As Stewart picks up the threads of his former social scene, it prompts remembrances of times past that cumulatively flesh out and reveal his current predicament. The back story and the tension filled funeral weekend move forward seamlessly to a fitting climax.

Here Banks is back where I prefer him, in Crow Road territory, mixing romance, mystery, violence, humour and I suspect a bit of his own personal philosophy, to great effect. We will get no more, as he died last year, but this penultimate novel is one to savour.

Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel

Set in the turbulent reign of Henry VIII this lengthy tome (600+ pages) follows the rise and rise of Thomas Cromwell from humble origins to the right hand of the King.

A talent for everything he puts his mind to – fighting, languages, trade, banking and the law – makes him a useful man to have around. As Cardinal Wolsey’s fixer he comes to the notice of the Court and his political astuteness enables him to survive his patron’s downfall and demise, ruined by an inability to get the King his divorce from Queen Katherine.

That task eventually falls to Cromwell, and a way is found to pave the way for Anne Boleyn to marry Henry, become his queen and give him a (disappointingly female) child. Cromwell’s sure tread between the King, his two queens, his nobles, other European powers, the Pope’s clergy and Lutheran reformers is deft but deadly, as those who oppose his schemes end up, after due legal process, impoverished, broken or just plain dead.

But it’s by no means all high politics, Cromwell’s private life and personal motivations form much of the story; and the ability to separate these from business may be the key to his success.

The style is distinctive, unusual in its relentless delivery of Cromwell’s thoughts, words and actions; but there are gaps, lacunae, for the reader to infer events and motives. Wits also need to be sharp to unpick the often ambiguous use of the personal pronoun; ‘he’ is usually, but not always, Cromwell even in a sentence that starts by featuring someone else. And of course being medieval everyone has at least two names, one personal (generally Thomas or Mary) and one titular (Duke of this or Lady that).

Another poser is the title of the book; Cromwell never gets to Wolf Hall (home of the Seymours) though he is on his way there as the book ends, so the follow-up ‘Bring up the Bodies’ now becomes a must read.

None of the above detracts from, and some may add to, the excellence of the Man Booker prize winning novel. It is compulsive reading throughout and highly recommended.