Skin: Song of the Kendra

I was only half a chapter into Skin when I started looking for signs of a sequel. I checked the media release. I checked the author notes. Unfortunately, there was no mention of more books to follow so I read this book much slower than I usually would. I wanted to savour.

Skin is my favourite kind of historical storytelling - a well-researched ancient history backdrop woven into skillful fantasy story-telling that mirrors the myth and magic beliefs of the period.

The time is 28 AD. The place is Southwest Britain. It’s a pivotal moment in history, when the Britons are to meet the Romans in battle for second time. There’s no spoiler here. History has already told us they didn’t win. This book is about the events in Ailia’s tribelands directly preceding the Roman invasion.

Ailia is a young woman of ‘no skin’ in a tribe where skin is everything. It’s identity, the right to learn and the right to marry. It’s freedom, choice and spiritual inclusion. Only those with skin can participate in the tribal ceremonies that celebrate the Mothers, the guardians of the earth.

Deer. Salmon. Stone. Beetle. The North wind. Skin was our greeting, our mother, our ancestors, our land. Nothing existed outside its reach.

Beyond skin there was only darkness. Only chaos.

Ailia has a good life, given the times and her lack of skin. Abandoned as a baby at Cookwoman’s door, the old woman took her in and treated Ailia as if she was her daughter. Ailia is the favourite of the Tribe Queen who allows Aila to help her bathe and dress. She even draws the attention of an elite young warrior.

But Ailia is destined to be more than a maid in Cookwoman’s kitchen and a warrior’s mistress. Being denied learning can’t smother her desire for knowledge. When she meets the mysterious Taliesen and falls in love, she begins an illicit journey. The Mothers have a plan for Ailia. Britain needs its Kendra and Ailia might be the chosen one.

Every obstacle is placed in her way because without skin, she is unworthy. Even Ailia doubts her calling.

This is a novel about identity and belonging as Ailia struggles to find out who she is. She desperately needs to know her skin so she can be part of the tribe and be found worthy by the Mothers. But skin is more than a name and the Mothers already know this. Skin is something far bigger than humanity.

What I love most about this novel is it is tangible. The world is realistic and the fantasy rings true. I felt like I was walking the grass of Car Cad and the Mothers didn’t mind at all.

PS Dear Ilka, please write a sequel. Or a prequel. Or another book set in Iron Age Britain.

Book Club Notes can be found here. This book would make an excellent Book Club choice.

Reviewed by Sandy Fussell

Title: Skin

Author: Ilka Tampke

Publisher:  Text Publishing

Publication Date: $19.99 RRP

Format: Paperback

Type: Adult fiction 

Lullaby

I read the ending three times. I’m still not 100% sure what happened. I love that I’m still thinking about it and have been for weeks.

Renee and Theo are twin brothers but there’s little the same about them. A freak accident leaves Theo with severely damaged brain functioning. The only hope is a controversial new medical procedure. There are questions about whether it can even be done and a big question about whether it should be.

Only Renee can give the necessary consent. Without him, there is no procedure.

Renee decides he can make the necessary sacrifice to hopefully save his brother, but will the medical experts let him? Will the psychologist deem he is able to make an informed decision?

Maggie begins to question Renee and the more she probes, the more Renee is forced to unravel his relationship with Theo and question what he should do. The relationship Renee reveals is not one of loving brothers but of betrayal and misplaced trust. Sometimes the analysis helps him collect his thoughts and sometimes it hinders. Is trauma changing the reality or was it always this way?

“Stories never come loose cleanly; everything’s always tangled up with something else.”

The deadline for decision time approaches quickly. Dr Huxley has his agenda and Maggie finds her own questions to answer. Now, Renee must decide what he really feels about his brother and whether that even matters.

This is both a complex and readable book. It’s a provoking look the ethics of death and technology through the story of two brothers. It can’t fail to make the reader think long past the last chapter. Or are there two last chapters? Is that even possible?

Reviewed by Sandy Fussell

Title: Lullaby

Author: Bernard Beckett

Publisher:  Text Publishing

Publication Date: $19.99 RRP
Format: Paperback

Type: Young Adult Fiction

The Ottoman Motel

by Christopher Currie

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Mystery. Paperback RRP $32.95

The Ottoman Motel and the town Reception, bring to mind words from the song Hotel California… you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave…

Simon and his parents arrive in the small northern NSW town of Reception on a late afternoon after travelling all day from their new home in Queensland. They are here to see Simon’s maternal grandmother, Iris, who they haven’t spoken to in several years… not since Simon’s accident. All Simon knows is that Iris is not well.

Once Simon and his parents have checked into the Ottoman Motel, his parents decide to go for a drive, leaving Simon to have a rest. When Simon wakes up, it is late and his parents have gone.

And so begins a mystery of a teenage boy being left in a town where everyone is a stranger, everyone has a secret and no-one can be trusted.

Christopher Currie has created a storyline that, although strangely bizarre, is all too possible. Parents going missing, children isolated, people hiding from the world in tiny towns. Add to this, illegal activities, inadequate police and children dealing with loss and you have a disturbing but captivating story.

This is one book that once you pick it up… you will struggle to put down again.

http://furioushorses.com/

Ruby Blues

by Jessica Rudd

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Adult Fiction. Paperback RRP $29.95

Ruby Stanhope is political advisor to the Australian Prime Minister, whom she helped get elected two years before. Ruby fell into the position whilst holidaying from England, knowing nothing about the Australian political system. She was perfect for the job. Efficient, effective and with an eye for detail.

But now Ruby’s life is falling apart. The never-ending fights with her partner, Luke, who got her her job in the first place, have escalated to the point where she never seems to have time for him, only for her job. Her long-distance sister, her gay aunt and pregnant partner are all trying to pin her down for her birthday. Then there is her new assistant who is over enthusiastic, super-capable and way too perky for Ruby’s frame of mind. Ruby is turning 30. A disaster slowly building up from the inside and waiting to explode.

With Ruby’s hectic schedule everything that could go wrong does and with the Prime Minister facing a losing battle with published leaks and bad press, Ruby’s job gets harder and harder.

With the complications of past male friend, present boyfriend and cute, single vet being served up on her platter, it’s a wonder Ruby has time to sleep. But Bettina, her new assistant, helps her in that department … accidentally.

Ruby Blues is a funny but could be a very real story of a woman who has it all except for the hidden obstacles that seem to ensure she doesn’t keep it. Ruby Blues is the sequel to Campaign Ruby, both of which I loved and would recommend to read separately or together.

The Reading Stack reviewed Campaign Ruby in January 2011.

Fall Girl

by Toni Jordan

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Crime. Paperback RRP $32.95


Reviewer – Barbara Brown

Here is a wonderful book that challenges classification. It has a bit of crime, a hint of mystery, a touch of romance and a smidgen of passion – and it is a very clever story.

Dr Ella Canfield is not yet in her 30’s and seeking funding for a very unorthodox research project – in search of the last Tasmanian Tiger, but not in Tasmania, around Wilson’s Promontory in Victoria.

Daniel Metcalf is the young, attractive, distracted wealthy benefactor who Ella is seeking funding from.

But both are not what they seem. One of them is posing as someone else – or is it both? One is wealthy – or is it both? One is a professional scammer – or is it both?

A brilliant story with some fantastic twists. Once you read Fall Girl you won’t believe anyone ever again!

http://www.tonijordan.com/

This is Shyness

by Leanne Hall

Text Publishing Company. Young Adult, Australian. Paperback RRP $19.95

Reviewer – Sandy Fussell

Imagine adventure, romance, a light touch of science fiction – and take one step left. Welcome to Leanne Hall’s wonderful debut novel This is Shyness.

Wildgirl is in the mood for, for forgetting and as soon as she spots him in the bar, for Wolfboy. Wolfboy can’t believe anyone like her would possibly be interested in him. In one night their worlds not only collide but change forever.

In Shyness the sun never rises. In this eternal night Wildgirl and Wolfboy embark on a dangerous mission - finding self esteem and a reason to live.

But Wildgirl and Wolfboy must first come to grips with their pasts. On this night, they do it together.

This book is unusual and unique. It’s different to anything else I’ve read but has all those elements I enjoy – it’s exciting and sensitive. It leaves you feeling that you have experienced something you could never imagine.

This is Shyness was the winner of the 2009 Text Publishing Prize, The Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing.

http://thelongblinks.com/

Campaign Ruby

by Jessica Rudd

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Political, Romance. Paperback rrp $32.95

Reviewed by Barbara Brown

Ruby Stanhope is a British investment banker who gets sacked by email. She replies with an angry email that goes viral throughout the internet and the world of banking. Ruby finds that her life as an investment banker anywhere in the world may now be cut short thanks to her erroneous yet brilliant reply email.

Ruby goes home to drink a very nice bottle or three of Australian peanut noise and in her drunken state finds she has booked a ticket to Australia on a tourist visa in the search of the peanut noise and some quiet time.

Next thing Ruby finds herself in Australia with a job as a political adviser to the Leader of the Opposition (LOO), Max Masters. Everything Ruby does from the moment she clicked SEND, to the night of the Australian Federal Election and losing her boss’s Blackberry, is unbelievably funny. But everything happens for a reason. Whenever Ruby trips over her Louboutin-clad feet and lands smack into another problem, she picks herself up with as much decorum as one can, dusts herself off and gets on with the job in hand.

Max and his group of devoted employees find that Ruby can not only can get them out of some pretty hot problems but that she has a great Toolkit that has everything in it from shaver and shaving cream to double sided tape and shower in a can. She may just save the political career of Max Masters if she doesn’t stuff up her life in the meantime.

Ruby has a To-Do list that grows with each passing day and each day that list seems to make Ruby see what a wonderful life she has fallen into. Having trouble with the language, the fashion, the political stance and entrances/exits out of hotel rooms and bathrooms, Ruby spends an incredible month travelling around Australia, seeing the people but never seeing the places. Life on the campaign trail isn’t easy.

Campaign Ruby is a funny but great read and brings the humorous side to life of a politician and his/her road to becoming/or losing Prime Minister of Australia without making it trivial.

An Exclusive Love

by Johanna Adorján. Translated from German by Anthea Bell

The Text Publishing Company. Biography. Paperback rrp $27.95.

Johanna Adorján’s grandparents, Vera and István, decided that Sunday, 13th October 1991 would be the day they went to sleep forever.

Vera and István were both Hungarian Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. István had spent years in a labour camp whilst Vera gave birth and looked after two children on forged documents. When the war finished the two found each other again and moved to Denmark to start their life afresh.

Both Vera and István lived for each other, raised a family and then settled into a domestic and comfortable life as grandparents and retirees. They rarely spoke of their former life in Hungary.

Now István has heart trouble and the doctors have only given him a few months to live. Vera could never see herself alone without her István. So they decide to leave this world together, holding hands.

An Exclusive Love is a wonderful story of the lives of two ordinary but still very extraordinary people. Johanna Adorján has created a wonderful book. Although the subject is sad and upsetting, Adorján has also brought to it some uplifting and funny stories of how two people can go about their lives with a very dark idea in the back of their minds. Brilliant.

The Vintage and the Gleaning

by Jeremy Chambers

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Adult Fiction. Paperback rrp $32.95


Twenty-first century in central rural Australia. A white boy raised by nuns in the dusty outback with young mission Aborigines. Smithy left the home as soon as possible to live the life of a top gun shearer. Weathered and well travelled throughout the farms, he marries and has a son, Spit.

Smithy’s whole life is spent working and drinking and when his wife dies, Smithy and his son continue living in their small winemaking town near the Murray River, working in the vineyards. Medical problems force Smithy into sobriety and his world is opened up in a new unfamiliar way. He realises Spit, who is married with a child, is starting to go on the same downhill bend Smithy travelled.

When a local woman, Charlotte, asks for a place to stay the night before her violent husband, Brett Clayton, gets out of gaol, Smithy opens his humble home to her. The two begin a strange relationship, not friends, not lovers, but confidant and listener. While Charlotte pours out her soul, Smithy listens and silently reflects on his own life.

 

Without alcohol scattering and confusing his consciousness, his clarity of his past shrouds him with guilt, regret and long lost feelings. Looking back Smithy realises that he wasn’t a good husband and he hopes his loving dead wife will be able to forgive him, wherever she is. Can he help Charlotte and Spit and then be able to redeem himself?

Shadow Sister

by Simone van der Vlugt

Text Publishing Company. Adult Fiction, Crime, Mystery. Paperback rrp $32.95

Two identical sisters. Born to wealthy Dutch parents there was no need for either to pursue a career but they both did.

Lydia teaches the Dutch language to students from other countries, Elisa is a photographer with her own studio. Lydia is married with a young daughter. Elisa doesn’t seem to be able to stay with any one man except her good friend Thomas.

Life is good for the girls until Lydia is confronted by a knife-wielding student, stalked, threatened by letter and murdered at her front door. When the police cannot find any evidence of who the murderer is (the student has an alibi), Elisa decides to take up the search.

Is it as the police suggest - that it could have been a case of mistaking one sister for another? Is Elisa in danger? Why would anyone want either of the sisters dead? The story poses many questions and none of the answers are predictable.

Shadow Sister is a gripping tale narrated by both sisters. I’d have never guessed the killer. I can’t say any more… read it to find out for yourself. I bet you never guess either.

http://www.simonevandervlugt.nl/

Gunshot Road

by Adrian Hyland

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Crime, Mystery. Paperback rrp $32.95


Guest Reviewer – Ian Brown

With Gunshot Road, Adrian Hyland has created a great crime story.

Set in the Australian outback, the hero, Emily Tempest, is a gutsy woman who sets out to solve a murder. The characters she meets along the way are the sort of people you would expect living in an isolated town in the middle of nowhere – tough, real down to earth.

This is a great read, you can almost taste the dirt, dust of the outback. The best Australian crime novel I have read in a long time.

Adrian Hyland’s first novel, Diamond Dove, won the 2007 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction.

Thief

by Maureen Gibbon

Text Publishing Company. Adult Other. Paperback rrp $29.95

Thirty-something Suzanne has escaped for the summer, renting an isolated cabin in Minnesota. She wants to disappear from poor choices in love and life in general.

She places an ad in the personal section of the local paper only to receive a most unexpected reply. Alpha Breville is in a correctional facility and is seven years into a fourteen year sentence for theft and rape and Suzanne is a rape victim.

Alpha is several years younger than Suzanne and their strange friendship develops through a series of letters, each more personal than the last. But what happens is something that Suzanne never expected. Nor did Alpha.

This is a deeply moving story of the two sides to rape. Would Alpha be where he is today if he didn’t have a battered upbringing? Would Suzanne be able to have a normal relationship with a wedding and a white picket fence, if she hadn’t had such a traumatic teenage life?

Thief is a book that may leave you feeling vulnerable but it also provides hope. A very thought-provoking read.
 
http://www.maureengibbon.com/Home_Page.html

Wintergirls

by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Text Publishing Company. Young Adult. Paperback rrp $19.95


‘You’re not dead, but you’re not alive, either. You’re a wintergirl, Lia-Lia, caught in between the worlds. You’re a ghost with a beating heart.’

Lia and Cassie were best friends but the friendship fell apart and then Cassie was dead. The night Cassie dies, Lia receives 33 calls from Cassie. Why didn’t she answer Cassie’s calls? How did Cassie die? Who will rescue Lia from the same fate?

Both girls wanted to be the skinniest girl in high school. Cassie could eat anything but a finger down the throat sacrifices her body to a mindset that says food is bad. Lia can’t use this method so she invents ways to deceive others into thinking that she is eating.

The girls lie. They lie to their families, to each other and to themselves.

When Cassie dies, it appears Lia will be next. Cassie’s ghost haunts Lia, inviting and encouraging her to join Cassie on the other side. Can Lia save herself? No-one else can.

Wintergirls is a book that both teenage girls and their parents should read – for enjoyment and for education. Tales of anorexia always seem so clinical but Laurie Halse Anderson has looked deeper into what drives a healthy, happy girl to such senseless destruction. It isn’t only about Lia but the families and friends who are also affected. It is a heart wrenching book to read but one you cannot put down.

Editor’s Note: The cover’s hauntingly beautiful artwork was done by Melbourne high school student, Belinda Jenkin.

http://www.writerlady.com/

A Stairway to Paradise

by Madeleine St John

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Romance. Paperback rrp $29.95

Alex is in a marriage where he and his wife Claire are only staying together for the sake of the children. Andrew, Alex’s friend, has been dumped by his wife and has come back to England leaving his young daughter with his ex-wife in America.

Then there is Barbara. Men her own age see her as attractive but these two older men see her as a goddess.

Two years previously Alex had a brief dalliance with Barbara but ended the affair when he decided he couldn’t live a lie. Alex still loves Barbara and over the years tries to dull his feelings by concentrating on his work.

At a chance party, Alex reconnects with Barbara, but also introduces her to Andrew. Andrew too, is besotted with her.

Barbara is confused and doesn’t know which choice to make. Surely if Alex loves her, he will leave his wife? And Andrew, sweet and kind, she could be happy with him.

St John’s short chapter style makes this an easy book to enjoy. You are teased and tugged to read “just one more chapter” – then suddenly you realise you have reached the end. Brilliant.

Madeleine St John’s Essence of The Thing was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1997. She died in 2006.

Thirty-Three Teeth

by Colin Cotterill

Text Publishing. Australian, Mystery, Crime. Paperback rrp $32.95

Dr Siri Paiboun is an unusual man. To begin with, he has thirty three teeth. The average person has only thirty two.

In his early seventies, Dr Siri has been recently appointed the Laotian National Coroner. He is a man of contradictions. The grieving widow of a passionate communist activist, he finds much amusement and frustration with the new regime he now works for. A student of science and deduction, he is also the physical host of an ancient spirit and is visited by many others, including a newly dead elephant.

In Dr Siri’s life and occupation, crossing the line between the real and spirit world is a regular occurrence. This is a man as equally comfortable discussing his cases with dead royalty and possessed puppets, as he is with the local law enforcement and government officials.

When a series of mutilated bodies are brought to the Vientiane morgue, Dr Siri and his enigmatic assistant, Nurse Dtui, are puzzled. Is the killer a man or beast? The more they investigate, the stranger the case becomes. How many teeth does the murderer have? Suspects range from an escaped circus bear to a newly released prison inmate who believes he is inhabited by the spirit of a weretiger.

This is a story of gruesome findings, shaman ceremonies and political intrigue. It is quirky and surreal, sinister and macabre. And it’s a great mystery. Can you imagine a Laotian Hercule Pierot? After reading Thirty Three Teeth, I can. Readers of crime and mystery, particularly those looking for something a little different, will thoroughly enjoy this book. I was pleased to find another adventure of Dr Siri already exists. The Coroner’s Lunch was the first in what I hope will be a long running series.

Author Colin Cotterill, is an Australian citizen whose real life experience led him to smuggle children’s books to Laos and later establish the charity, Books for Laos. You can read about this and more at http://www.colincotterill.com/.

The Death of Bunny Munro

by Nick Cave

Text Publishing. Australian, Adult Other. Paperback rrp $32.95

Take one look at the front cover of The Death of Bunny Munro and you will know what this book is about. Sex. And how sexual addiction can consume and ruin many lives.

The Death of Bunny Munro is dark, compelling and a sad story. A lot like the main character himself. Bunny Monro, who prides himself on his impeccable image and attractiveness to women, is also a tired and dirty man.

Bunny Munro knows that he will die. He doesn’t know when but after his wife commits suicide and he is left in charge of their nine-year-old son, Bunny Jnr, he knows with certainty that his time is not long. His dead wife keeps telling him so.

A travelling salesman, his is a fast life of women’s cosmetics and seedy affairs. Forced to now take his son on the road, Bunny finds that the world wants to teach him a lesson. His dead wife haunting him is just the tip of the iceberg.

Between alcohol, drugs, sexual perversity and addiction, and maybe a little insanity, Bunny Munro tries to save himself but can’t. The man was born a predator and will die unchanged. And when it is all over, are the sins of the father visited on the son?

This is a very dark and disturbing tale that explores many themes, sexual addiction, sin and redemption. Somehow Cave manages to convince the reader to care about this vile, evil man. You will either love or hate this book. There is no in-between.

http://www.nick-cave.com/

Truth

by Peter Temple

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Crime, Mystery. Paperback rrp $32.95

A woman is found naked and dead in a glass bath, in a brand new luxury apartment in a complex that boasts the best casino in the world and the latest security. How did she get there and how did she die? When Inspector Stephen Villani, head of the Victorian Police homicide squad, starts to ask the easy questions, he finds that even the simplest of them is impossible to answer. Too many high profiles are attached to this new high-security tower.

Across town, three men are found butchered. They are all members of a drug group. With each of these killings Villani’s job becomes more difficult.

Villani is also battling personal demons. His marriage is falling apart; his teenage daughter has run away to the drug addled streets he is trying to clean up. His father is fighting a raging bushfire against the family property and large forest Villani and his dad lovingly planted many years ago.

Truth is a novel about the consequences of not being truthful. It is about honesty, love, lies, corruption, family and murder. Both fans and newcomers to Peter Temple’s crime writing will not be disappointed.

The Reading Stack reviewed In the Evil Day in Issue 5 and Shooting Star in Issue 7.

Death in Venice, Jeff in Varanasi

by Geoff Dyer


Text Publishing. Adult Other. Paperback RRP $32.95

Guest Reviewer - Anastasia Gonis

This novel is pure escapism. It is in two parts that are held together by a common thread but appear as separate stories. The first centres on a journalist who hates his job and finds his life intolerable. But he initiates change by dyeing his hair for the first time and allowing himself liberties that he’d never considered before.

His assignment is to cover the Biennale in Venice and secure an interview with ageing beauty, Julia Berman, on her daughter’s new CD album. He’s also pressured to get permission to publish an early provocative drawing of Julia by a now famous and popular artist. This meeting leads to more temptation and awakens sleeping desires.

His desires are propelled further forward by a meeting with the enigmatic Laura, to whom chance is everything. He embarks on a sexual, intensely sensual journey with her as they spend most of their time making love, attending parties and snorting coke, leaving the Biennale imprinted on his life as an unforgettable journey through love and renewal.

The second part finds the journalist sent to India to write a travel piece. In Varanasi he initially begins his exploration by following the masses to the Ganges, watching the many funeral pyres that are a display for the tourists, avoiding the countless beggars that swamp the streets, and viewing the abject poverty and filth that constitute the chaos of daily life.

But his visit evolves. By degrees, he embraces the calm lifestyle, the disowning of material possessions, and the questioning. He is greatly influenced by all he sees and experiences. His travel article becomes an intimate portrait of life and death; of survival. Amidst a smorgasbord of language and images, the journalist exposes India in all its shades through the eyes of someone extremely familiar and accepting of the customs, rituals and religions of this complex land.

The writing is extremely visual, superbly entertaining, energetic and clever, humorous and human. The writer is an observer of human habits, weaknesses and pretentions, all of which he intricately dissects.

Hollywood Ending

by Kathy Charles

The Text Publishing Company. Adult Other, Australian. Paperback rrp $32.95

We’ve all read or heard about people that do tours around Hollywood’s seamier side. Visiting places where famous people have died or are buried. When does the fascination stop and the strangeness of its reality begin?

Hilda and Benji are two lost seventeen year olds. They met over the death of a cat near their high school and soon realise they have much in common. After returning the body of the cat back to its owner, the two hook up and start to venture around Hollywood’s “dead” spots.

They love visiting the sites of death, whether it’s an old theatre being pulled down or the movie scene of real life tragedy Sometimes they keep mementoes, Benji’s in his parent’s mansion locked safely away in a glass cabinet, Hilda’s in a box in the small bedroom she has at her aunt’s home. Hilda’s parents died tragically so her fascination with death is not surprising but is Benji fascinated with Hilda or her past?

During the summer holidays, they go to Echo Park. A place that is a tired and faded memory of a once successful movie business. Amongst the rundown buildings they visit an apartment where a silent movie star stabbed himself in the bathroom with a pair of nail scissors. Initially, they only want to take a photo and maybe a tile from the bathroom. But Hilda is intrigued by Hank, the old man who now lives in the apartment and who seems to be holding a bigger secret.

Hilda starts to visit Hank without Benji. Benji has immersed himself into a cult of celebrity death whilst Hilda is trying to climb out of it. Then Hank’s downstairs neighbour, Jake, starts turning up at Hank’s. What does Jake want with Hank and even more suspicious, what does he want with Hilda?

Hollywood Ending is a tale of death, celebrities and cults. It is a sad reflection of the seedy, grimy side of Hollywood. It dragged me in and made me a voyeur in this weird and strange world. I have always loved Hollywood and its movie stars. Once such a shiny image it is now dark and strange.

http://www.kathycharles.com/

The Earth Hums in B Flat

by Mari Strachan

Text Publishing. Adult Other. Paperback, rrp $32.95

Guest Reviewer - Anastasia Gonis

Gwenni is good and kind; a curious but oddly innocent child. She has Out of Body Experiences and flies only at night now. That’s when she hears the song of the Earth. She leaves her everyday world with its complexities and sometimes incomprehensible happenings behind along with her difficult sister Bethan, who always succeeds in making Gwenni’s life miserable.
Gwenni prefers the natural world (which has become a second skin to her) to the adult world she views. For adults say and do things she can’t translate in her child’s mind. Things she constantly questions, but never receives satisfactory answers to. She is absolute about protecting all life; a calling which frequently gets her into trouble.

Her closest friend, Alwenna, is far more mature than Gwenni. When Alwenna suddenly grows out of the friendship, Gwenni is left to decipher the reasons for the sudden and drastic change between them.

Guto Wern is another of Gwenni’s friends with whom she spends a lot of time. He’s was dropped by his mother as a baby and is ‘funny in the head’. A fact totally lost on the child. She also adores Mrs Evans, the teacher whose two daughters she frequently minds. But she fears Mr Evans, who is plagued by the black dog.

So much is learnt about the villagers’ lives: their superstitions, the secret happenings, and the sacrifices made to protect the innocent. All this information seeps out through Gwenni’s observations, and the other children’s dialogue. So do the terrifying, underlying events that are unspoken but remain there between the lines for the reader to recognise, and to catch their breath as each secret is unravelled.

This is a finely crafted book with fantastic characters and a murder mystery set in the Welsh countryside. It addresses many confronting issues such as family abuse, alcoholism, mental illness, and childhood innocence.

http://www.maristrachan.info/