Mystery

Somewhere in the back of my head, as I've read more and more books set in Australia, there's always been a little question. Which RED DIRT TALKING has answered. Why can't we have more books written from the Aboriginal perspective? And what better way to look at that perspective from the point of view of an incomer to a remote outback community.

Set within community RED DIRT TALKING is having a red hot go at a heap of issues, and because of that, if you're looking for something that's a formulaic, straight-forward mystery, then that's not what's going on here. Although it could be argued that why it's taken so long for something this good, this direct, this clever to emerge... is a whole other sort of mystery.

Up front, I loved this book, so keep that in the back of your mind as you're wading through this review. There was something profoundly real about the way that Annie arrived in town with her agenda, her timeframes, her pressures and her ways. And in the way that her priorities were politely, gently, consistently... ignored. There's something about the way that outback communities work, their timeframes that oh so rang true and clear as a bell. Nothing overt, nothing cruel or vicious, but the message is clear - come to our land, our world then it's our rules, our timeframes, our priorities, and most importantly, our ways of respect and operating which prevail. A subtle reminder, but a reminder nonetheless.

Deliver those reminders and that pitch perfect observation of community and outsiders with some very dry, witty asides, but set it in the gloriously slow languid pace and you've got a perfect view of community life - warts and all. Add to that some excellent characters - from the crashing, frequently annoying Annie to the laconic Mick and the hilarious Maggot the garbo and the community and its inhabitants were so clearly drawn you could see them. There were also laugh out loud moments what with the games played with new arrivals (Toyota anyone), and the been there, done that nature of many encounters. There were also moments of great sadness and the stark reality of life, camp dwelling not being a particularly easy way of life.

The message from the mystery element of a missing little girl is there, buried in the overall story of the book and it's worth looking for. A couple of hundred years past, and still new in town, it strikes me there's a bit of Annie in a lot of us. Perhaps it's time to stop and listen, maybe watch and learn a few things from the old hands.

MR PENUMBRA'S 24-HOUR BOOKSTORE actually wasn't a book I was planning on reading, although there were whispers about it everywhere I looked. Then a friend mentioned that they'd enjoyed it and their observations are always spot on, so I thought I'd take a look. And I must admit I found it absolutely fabulous.

Of course there are a lot of elements that would appeal to somebody like me - a passionate love of books, and secrets, and the secrets that books can contain, a geeky sensibility where the solving of puzzles is regarded as perfectly normal, and the realisation that Google is ubiquitous in life. Combine that with some seriously funny observations (Google working on a form of renewable energy that runs on hubris ... snort), Kat trying to read a newspaper and not being able to work out the UI, and the various other not quite so in jokes scattered throughout and, well, it was fun.

It is also a bit of a mystery, a bit of a thriller, a bit of a story of love and longing, and a very big quest.

What's not to love.
 

Susan Hill is probably best known to Crime Fiction fans for her Chatto and Windus series, but THE SMALL HAND is a ghost story with mysterious overtones which would  appeal to anyone who is looking for something which is just simply beautifully written.

A short (and sumptuously packaged) book, THE SMALL HAND is the story of antiquarian bookseller Adam Snow as he takes a wrong-turning one day and stumbles across the derelict old White House deep in rural England.  Curiosity draws him towards the house, and the unmistakable sensation of a small hand creeping into his own attracts and intrigues, rather than scares or creeps him out.

Drawn strangely to this house, Snow does a little research, discovering that the owner's grandson drowned there many years before, and as he discovers more, he finds that his initial reaction to this small presence becomes more disturbed.  Snow starts to experience haunting dreams and panic attacks as the small hand insinuates itself more and more into his life.

It's hard to come away from THE SMALL HAND without an overwhelming feeling of sadness, a palpable melancholy.  There is a sense of aloneness about Adam Snow that is mirrored by the presence he encounters in that house.  For just the shortest time it almost seems that this is simply two lonely entities that have somehow come together.  But there is a gentle building of a real sense of menace in this book, not fed particularly by any mystery, more by an increasing understanding that the past has moved into the present and bought with it a profound sense of inevitability.  Saying that these two - the real man and the supernatural presence - are drawn together for a reason isn't really a spoiler as it's obvious very early on.  The reason is not that hard to narrow down for a reader looking for a "solution", but what is considerably harder for the reader to come to grips with is the nature of damage and revenge, and the way that the past has been waiting for the present.

The sheer beauty of this compact, beautiful little book is very much the sense of emotion that weaves it's way out of the story and into the reader's conscious.  The themes of revenge, retribution, regret and that overwhelming sadness stayed with this reader for a long time after I closed THE SMALL HAND.

SEPULCHRE certainly appears to be a formidable prospect when you consider the weight of historical content, and of course simply the weight of the edition as it is another house brick sized novel (as was the hugely successful LABYRINTH).  Both novels have utilized the same tact of luring in an audience expecting some riveting tease of a mystery lost in time and then found again by the present day heroine.  SEPULCHRE is pretty vanilla flavoured in that regard, and what could have been a wonderful sub plot with Debussy is sadly never explored.  There seems to be other pieces of writing debris left by the wayside in this novel and it is a shame, for with their inclusion, a lot more readers would have been compelled to drive on through the extra unnecessary few hundred pages. Now, that is a lot.  Mosse loves her adopted home of southern France and her passion for its people through the ages drives a narrative onward that could have otherwise become quite dry and barren in different hands.

Do not let the size of the book turn you off - much gets said about authors waffling on and losing their audience as SEPULCHRE, despite stretching the concentration of the entertainment seeking reader a tad thin, is such a charming read, geared obviously to appeal to the feminine of the reading species, that the time just skips by.  Think of those three hour movies that really only seem like 90 minutes long - SEPULCHRE is like that.    Mosse does a sterling job in informing without lecturing and all possible details of the freshness of a new day to the dust of the road are imparted with such enthusiasm that you can't help but be enchanted.

It is just one opinion that Mosse would have done better to ditch all premise of a mystery and instead concentrate on the human dramas of a girl from long ago; the people who lived in this part of France throughout the ages and the contrast with the dilemmas of the modern working girl.  Similar paths trodden, centuries apart, that sort of thing.  As the last five years of publishing in popular fiction would seem to have proven without a doubt, throw together a chase or two, mysteries hidden in paintings or pieces of music, the odd castle or religious artefact and bang there you have it, a runaway success on your hands.  And lets preferably leave out the woo-woo, unless you are John Connolly.

SEPULCHRE has been crafted by loving and respectful hands, this is evident from the very first chapter.  Whether it is your cup of mead or not may depend on what you were expecting from the novel as SEPULCHRE being hyped as a historical mystery probably didn't do it any favours, yet it is such a sweet and engaging read as it takes you on a gentle ride through the French countryside.  Not an enormous deviation from what we would deem an historical drama, but a well informed and entertaining book that has deservedly been so popular.

A.T.