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Threat: Rina Walker Book Two: 4 STARS

Thursday, 29 December 2016

Written by: Hugh Fraser

Narrated by: Annie Aldington

Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins

Unabridged Audiobook/Kindle

Release Date:14/07/2016

Publisher: Audible Studios

Series: Rina Walker Book 2

Genre: Crime, Suspense, Mystery

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Publishers Summary

London, 1961. In the dying days of the Macmillan government, George Preston is in control of crime in West London, and Rina Walker is his favoured contract killer.

When Rina is hired by Soho vice king Tony Farina to investigate the disappearance of girls from his clubs, she discovers that they are being supplied to a member of the English aristocracy for the gratification of his macabre sexual tastes.

Rina's pursuit of the missing girls and her efforts to save the innocent from slaughter become increasingly perilous as she grapples with interwoven layers of corruption and betrayal and makes her way, via the louche nightclubs of Berlin, towards a final confrontation with depravity.

This Book Contains Adult Content and possibly a spoiler

Review

Having read “Harm” the first in this series, I couldn’t wait to get stuck in to this second book.

It is 1961 Rina and her young sister Georgie are living together in their flat. Rina is a successful contract killer but when Tony Farina asks her to take on a more investigative role to help find these girls she reluctantly agrees. His girls are disappearing and he wants to know why.

Nobody could have guessed at their appalling and macabre fate.

Lizzie, Rina’s lover, is given a more prominent role in this book, she runs her own sex business from her home and seems to specialise in providing the more unusual sex acts for her clients. Some of these acts are described, but are not overly detailed.

Lizzie and Rina meet up with some well to do chaps at a nightclub and end up joining them to spend the weekend at a rather stately home. Believe me, what follows is a highly complex series of very dangerous events that eventually lead Rina to the perpetrator of the most heinous of sex crimes.

I continue to be fascinated by the character of Rina who, on the one hand is a killer without conscience, yet on the other is a protector of the vulnerable. She uses self inflicted pain to relieve her feelings during moments of intense stress.

I particularly appreciate how the author writes without bias, he presents Rina just as she is, he justifies nothing any judgement is up to the reader. The most despicable of acts are described in a detached manner, which, I must say, did make them a little easier to tolerate.

Nevertheless, I did not like the inclusion of necrophilia, I found it shocking and disturbing which of course affected my enjoyment - hence 4 stars and not 5.

This is but a matter of personal opinion and, according to reviews, many readers are quite comfortable with the subject matter. However, before buying the next book I shall read the blurb more carefully!

Narrator

Another fabulous narration by Annie Aldington who gets everything so right. She is the perfect match for the writing style of the author as she knows exactly when to allow Rina emotion and when to leave it out. Masterful work from a narrator who knows her craft.

-This audiobook is my own copy

Click HERE for my review of Harm

Harm: Rina Walker Book One: 5 Stars

Saturday, 10 December 2016

Written by: Hugh Fraser

Narrated by: Annie Aldington

Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release Date: 14/07/2016

Publisher: Audible Studios

Source: Own copy

Publishers Summary

Acapulco, 1974: Rina Walker is on assignment. Just another quick, clean kill. She wakes to discover her employer's severed head on her bedside table and a man with an AK-47 coming through the door of her hotel room. She needs all her skills to neutralise her attacker and escape. After a car chase, she is captured by a Mexican drug boss who exploits her radiant beauty and ruthless expertise to eliminate an inconvenient member of the government.

Notting Hill, 1956: Fifteen-year-old Rina is scavenging and stealing to support her siblings and her alcoholic mother. When a local gangster attacks her younger sister, Rina wreaks violent revenge and murders him. Innocence betrayed, Rina faces the brutality of the postwar London underworld - a world that teaches her the skills she needs to kill….

Review

I loved this story!

It isn’t often that I get so deeply immersed in a story so quickly. Half-way through the first chapter I knew I’d find it hard to stop reading, or, in my case, listening ….

Rina, beautiful, strangely compelling Rina, discovered that the reason for her abduction was because the drugs lord needed her to kill an enemy. His logic for choosing Rina was because of her ability to attract men and, of course, her job skills. Her pay off would be generous but would she live to collect?

From then on there follows an amazing adventure made all the more hairy by Rina not knowing who she can trust …

The story moves between 1974, Rina’s adult years and 1956, when Rina was fifteen years old and caring for both her siblings and her incapacitated mother, they were living a desolate and demeaning hand to mouth existence. People did what they had to do in order to make life a little more tolerable, Rina, at fifteen years old, committed her first hit.

The story is utterly compelling from the very beginning to the very end, the characters are vibrant and diverse, and the writing style is clean, uncluttered and flows beautifully.

The vivid descriptions of the living conditions endured by the poor are quite moving: the over crowding; the unsanitary conditions and the ever present fear of eviction.

It’s the use of the parlance of those times and the inclusion of little details which adds both authenticity and flavour to the story. Not many people have to “pull the chain” in the lavatory these days, and certainly nobody has to deal with the old telephone kiosks with their button A and button B.

The story stayed with me long after I finished it, wondering how Rina came to be that person who kills for money, the bigger question though is how on earth did the author get me to be rooting for her!

Narrator

Narrated by Annie Aldington, a renowned British actress and voiceover artist. Her talent is obvious from the very start of this high quality recording. For me, one of the most important qualities of a good narrator is the ability to produce well differentiated and consistent characters, a talent that Annie has in abundance. I also admire her ability to portray emotion - or lack of - in her characters, there no overacting here. Excellent job which added to my enjoyment of this book.

Source: Own copy purchased from Audible Australia

The London Cookbook: Aleksandra Crapanzano 5 Stars

Friday, 7 October 2016

Author: Aleksandra Crapanzano

Hardcover ISBN: 9781607748137

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Pub Date: 11 Oct 2016

Source: Ten Speed Press/NetGalley

Description

From an award-winning food writer comes this intimate portrait of London--the global epicenter of cuisine--with 100 recipes from the city's best restaurants, dessert boutiques, tea and coffee houses, cocktail lounges, and hole-in-the-wall gems--all lovingly adapted for the home kitchen.

Once known for its watery potatoes, stringy mutton, and greyed vegetables, London is now considered to be the most vibrant city on the global food map. The London Cookbook reflects the contemporary energy and culinary rebirth of this lively, hip, sophisticated, and very international city. It is a love letter to the city and an insider's guide to its most delicious haunts, as well as a highly curated and tested collection of the city's best recipes. This timeless book explores London's incredibly diverse cuisine through an eclectic mix of dishes, from The Cinnamon Club's Seared Aubergine Steaks with Sesame and Tamarind to the River Cafe's Tagliatelle with Lemon, and from Tramshed's Indian Rock Chicken Curry to Nopi's Sage and Cardamom Gin. Striking the perfect balance between armchair travel and approachable home cooking, The London Cookbook is both a resource and keepsake, a book as much for the well-travelled cook as for the dreaming novice.

Review

The book is set out in an interesting and easy to read style beginning with Author Aleksandra Crapanzano relating how taking a walk turned in to the inspiration for writing this beautiful and informative book.

This is followed with a little history, of how, following World War One the newly independent ladies of the middle classes took an interest in cooking. I have of course, heard of Elizabeth David (then Elizabeth Gwynne) but had no idea that she had been involved in such a scandalous relationship, and who knew she had been imprisoned under suspicion of being a spy? Discovering these little gems of culinary chattiness in such a book is priceless!

The author then gives us the inspiration for, and the history of, some of the most famous places to eat, of which chefs have worked there and where they are now. These are not those chefs made famous solely through T.V. shows, but those who by talent and hard work have risen to the top of their field. It makes interesting reading, discovering how these great names started out and the route they followed to learn their craft.

This is followed by the recipes which are are sectioned according to type, for example: light fare; meat, fowl etcetera, each section is headed by a menu of selected dishes from various establishments

Each recipe is also annotated with interesting tidbits of information.

Although the author states that each recipe has been chosen so as to be easy to prepare at home, some do look a little complex to an average cook such as myself. I'm sure though that the ambitious home cook will happily find many interesting challenges. Having said that, I love the look of the Indian chicken and pumpkin curry which I may just manage to make. There is also a recipe for Welsh Rarebit which is unlike any other I have seen!

This is so much more than merely a cookbook, it is generously illustrated with high quality photographs of food, people and places, it would make a wonderful Christmas gift for not only cooks but also those who want to find somewhere wonderful to dine when in London.

Review copy provided by Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for unbiased review

Lie With Me. Sabine Durrant

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

Author: Sabine Durrant

ISBN: 9781473608344

Publication date: 26 Jul 2016

Page count: 352

Imprint: Mulholland Books

Source: Hachette Australia

Publishers Summary

5 STARS

A rich widow. A Greek island paradise. A missing teenage girl...the past comes back to haunt a group of carefree holidaymakers in the new, brilliantly tense psychological thriller by Sabine Durrant.

"The truth is, we all tell lies... take a deep breath and get ready for the most twisty, tense and unsettling book of the summer.

It starts with a lie. The kind we've all told - to a former acquaintance we can't quite place but still, for some reason, feel the need to impress. The story of our life, embellished for the benefit of the happily married lawyer with the kids and the lovely home.

And the next thing you know, you're having dinner at their house, and accepting an invitation to join them on holiday - swept up in their perfect life, the kind you always dreamed of...

Which turns out to be less than perfect. But by the time you're trapped and sweating in the relentless Greek sun, burning to escape the tension all around you - by the time you start to realise that, however painful the truth might be, it's the lies that cause the real damage...

... well, by then, it could just be too late."

Review

This is one of the most intriguing, surprising and unusual tales that I have read in a long, long time; there is no hero, no obvious crime and there are no clearly identified goodies or baddies. Yet the prologue makes it clear that something very, very bad has happened.

The narrator, Paul Morris lives his life with the arrogance and vulgarity of a Hoorah Henry who has never grown up. Despite his humble beginnings, winning a bursary to an elite school and then a Cambridge education allowed him to mix with the more privileged, the icing on his social climbing cake was his best selling book published during his final year at Cambridge. He once lived the high life, but, not able to repeat his literary success, he maintains the illusion of being a prospering man about town with the help of smoke and mirrors - he tells lies.

He beguiles people with superficial charm, he lies outrageously to fulfil his huge sense of entitlement. He lives off the handouts of others as much as possible and, such is his conceit, he fails to see that his 42 year old self is no longer attractive to those young girls he continues to pursue.

House sitting for a friend had given him a prestigious address but now even that is coming to an end, the owner was coming home. Paul is faced with the (to him) demeaning prospect of having to go and live with his mother in her very humble home.

He bumps into a fellow Cambridge student, Andrew, who invites him to dinner. Paul accepts, he attends the dinner party and meets Alice. Alice is a middle aged widow with teenaged children and, according to her friends, she is something of a saint. She is a lawyer working on behalf of the underprivileged, she seems to do good everywhere, she even heads the ten year campaign to find out what has happened to Jasmine, a girl who disappeared on the island of Pyros whilst Alice and her friends were staying there in her holiday home.

Alice has reminded Paul that they had met before, on Pyros, the night that Jasmine went missing. Pauls’ memory of that night are hazy and vague because he was so drunk. He becomes interested in pursuing Alice when he discovers that Phoebe, her teenaged daughter, is soon to leave home. Paul decides to manipulate Alice in to allowing him to eventually move in to her house.

He manages to inveigle Alice in to a relationship and has no scruples about taking advantage of her home and her largesse, all the while concealing from her the truth of his impoverished life and failed career.

Paul manages to get himself included on the annual Pyros holiday along with Andrew and his family, but he can't afford the same flight, a fact his pride won’t allow him to admit to Alice and so he pretends to have an important meeting with his publisher to cover for his delayed arrival.

Yes, he is an awful man, selfish and horrible, and yet, now and then the author allows a glimpse of a redeeming factor.

This “pre holiday” part of the book does lag a little, but it is the slow burning fuse before the action. Once they are all together on Pyros the tension builds towards an explosive, shocking and totally unexpected ending, one that you will find yourself thinking about long after putting down the book.

This was a truly satisfying read.

Thanks to Hachette Australia for providing a copy of the book in return for an unbiased review.