Cat Out of Hell – Lynne Truss

Alec Charlesworth, recently retired librarian, and even more recently made a widower, takes a holiday cottage in Norfolk with his dog Watson. When he opens an e-mail from a Dr Winterton (vaguely remembered as a library user) he is presented with an attached folder containing files that set out a far-fetched account by an actor named Wiggy of an encounter he had with a talking cat named Roger.

At first Alec is dismissive (and critical of Wiggy’s literary talent) but some preliminary research corroborates some aspects of the tale and, on returning home and meeting Dr Winterton, he realises that not only does Roger exist, but that his powers go beyond talking, and that knowledge such as that is very, very dangerous.

So a tale that begins light and whimsical turns more serious with the humour darkening several shades as Alec is drawn inexorably into Roger’s mysterious and somewhat horrific world.

As befits the author of ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’, the story is well written (once Wiggy’s narration is left behind) and mischievously presented, making for a quick light read that, intriguingly, can be equally appreciated by both cat-lovers and cat-haters.

The Quick – Lauren Owen

Charlotte Norbury and her younger brother James spend their early years in a fading country house in Yorkshire. Isolated and soon orphaned, their close companionship lasts until James goes off to school and Oxford. On graduating he heads to London where, through sharing accommodation with a Christopher Paige, he begins to make his way into society. Meanwhile Charlotte moulders in Yorkshire subsisting on her brother’s infrequent correspondence.

Separately the reader is presented with the notebook of Augustus Mould, running from 1868 to 1893, recording how he was drawn into contact with, and began the study of, members of the mysterious Aegolius Club, whose remarkable longevity is based upon a terrible secret process – the Exchange.

The two strands of narrative come together when Christopher’s brother (an Aegolius member) becomes concerned that the room mates are becoming too chummy. This has dire consequence for James, as Charlotte discovers when she decides, as James’ letters dry up, to travel to London to visit.

It is not much of a spoiler to reveal that the Club members are, literally, a blood-thirsty lot, against whom a small resistance movement exists, and it is from them that Charlotte gets help in her quest to rescue her brother from his predicament. It won’t be easy and it won’t be pretty.

So a book that started with the genteel upbringing of two orphans gradually escalates to a violent and gory climax studded with death, destruction and dismemberment.

The writing is good enough to keep the attention for much of its 500 pages; interesting characters emerge but for me fail to fully engage; and the diluted drawn out ending is, perhaps inevitably, ante-climactic.

An interesting take on a staple of the horror genre but for me a trifle disappointing.

Writing Home – Alan Bennett

This collection of Bennett’s writing covers the 1980’s and 1990’s with the bulk of it being in the form of diary entries. Some are lifted out of the general chronology and presented as concentrated narratives, notably the section on ‘The Lady in the Van’.

These episodes relate his brushes with the eccentric old lady who took up residence in his garden where she parked her decrepit mobile home after Camden Council banned it from the streets.

Similarly entries covering periods of rehearsals for his plays or filming of his screenplays are separated out to give an interesting insight into how each moved forward and how the process affected his relationship with the work.

Even in the other (non-diary) works – prefaces to plays, reviews of books and authors, and eulogies of friends and celebrities – much of the content is as much a reflection on his own life and times as that of the subject.

The content is witty, wise and whimsical, sometimes bitter and bitchy, and never conventional. Bennett always has an unusual take on things, tending to bring the overblown back down to earth and raise the mundane to meaningful.

The 400 pages provide a treasury of prose that is a pleasure to dip into, with every word conjuring up the author’s flat North-country vowels and dead-pan delivery.

On the New, the Tried, and the Trusted

No review this week as I wade through a couple of thickish books that are proving a little viscous (coincidentally also a little vicious). Both are by authors new to me and prompt some observations on the movement from new author, to ‘second book’ status, then ‘tried and trusted’, with some achieving ‘must read’.

I began the year with a need for tried and trusted, so headed for William Boyd (now 8 read), David Nicholls (4), Ian Rankin (14), Kate Atkinson (6), and Ian McEwan (4); as well as four other safe bets – Jo Nesbo, Hilary Mantel, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and Jim Crace – who moved to second book status. All were predictably good.

As for the newbies, they have been the expected mixed bag. The non-fiction choices generally turn out well, but often they are one-off books by authors unlikely to feature again. In fiction, of the five sampled two were a bit disappointing, one was OK, with only JM Coetzee and Andrey Kurkov likely to move up the rankings.

I don’t think that is a bad strike rate, and reading the odd turkey is a price worth playing to discover new favourites.