Summer Stars runs from Tues 4 June to Sat 31 August. Get Reading! Now that school is over you can still spark your imagination, join in activities and take part in our exciting Summer Stars challenge.
“ Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me”
So begins this dark, suspenseful novel. From the beginning we are drawn through the iron gates of Manderley and down the drive towards this great house. We accompany the young heroine who is never given a name other than the second Mrs De Winter. Through her eyes we see the world of the first Mrs De Winter, the beautiful and accomplished Rebecca.
During the lockdown, I came upon books in all sorts of ways. Once I had exhausted my supply of library books, I started swapping books with my neighbour, who was in turn, supplying half the street with books! Our very own neighbourhood library. And this was how I chanced upon Irish writer, Andrew Hughes’s, second novel – “The Coroner’s Daughter”. The book is set in Dublin in 1816, known as the year without a summer. A dust cloud (a result of a volcanic eruption in the East) has covered Western Europe leading to freezing temperatures, a permanent fog, and visible spots on the sun. Religious fervour is on the rise, and there are those who say the end of the world is nigh.Against this rather eery setting, a nursemaid is arrested for the murder of her newborn child, only to be found dead days later. This is followed by the discovery of a second body in Blessington Basin. Natural causes or a murderer on the loose? Someone is hiding something, and our heroine, Abigail Lawless is determined to find out who.Abigail is a great character. Only daughter of the city coroner, she is curious, clever, and a scientist at heart. Not character traits that were much admired in a woman in the 19th century. But this is a dangerous game she is playing, and there are those who wish to silence her for good.This book is a real page-turner, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical crime fiction. I particularly loved the descriptions of Dublin in the 19th century, and it was fascinating to read about areas of the city which are now utterly changed. Indeed, Phibsboro Library is just minutes away from much of the action of this novel!The Coroner’s Daughter is available to download on Borrowbox, or you can order it from your local library. Submitted by Lara in Phibsboro Library.Access eBooks/eAudiobooks on your phone, tablet or reader. Once you have installed the app, search for Dublin in the ‘Library’ field provided and then sign in using your library membership card number and PIN. Watch our how to video on Borrowbox. Members of other library authorities will need to log in using a different link.
More great recommendations from our colleague Lara in Phibsboro Library. History defines the Deep South as the original seven states of Confederacy, although the term was first used long after the Civil War ended. Before the war, the region was known as the “Lower South" and included Georgia, Florida, northern Alabama, North Louisiana, East Texas, and Mississippi. The term "Deep South" is defined in a variety of ways: most definitions include the states Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana.Oh, but don’t you love that feeling when a good book grabs you and won’t let you go? I’ve just finished Attica Locke’s latest novel Heaven, my Home and can’t wait to read more of her work. Texas Ranger, Darren Matthews, is fighting fires on all fronts. His marriage is just about hanging on, his mother is blackmailing him, and his career is on the line. Against the backdrop of a newly elected Donald Trump and fresh waves of racial violence, Matthews is sent to a sleepy town in East Texas to investigate the case of a 9-year-old boy who goes missing on Caddo Lake.The child is the son of a white supremacist who is currently in jail, and the main suspect is a black man. The story is fast moving and gripping, and the author writes superbly. The murky waters and twisted trees of Lake Caddo serve as a metaphor for all that is hidden beneath the surface of this divided community. Heaven, my home, was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award longlist this year. Locke’s novel, Pleasantville, is also available and I look forward to reading that next!Diane Chamberlain is another American writer, who writes gripping stories set in the Southern states, where respectable facades often hide scandalous truths. Her latest book, Big Lies in a Small Town, weaves two stories together. In 2018, Morgan Christopher, is released from prison on one condition: that she restore an old post office mural in the Southern town of Edenton. The mural hides a darker story however, of jealousy, madness and murder.The story switches back to 1940 when a young woman called Anna Dale, wins a national competition to paint a mural for a post office in a sleepy town in North Carolina. This is a gripping read. If you enjoy this, The Stolen Marriage, by the same author is another page turner where a marriage is not all that it seems, and where everyone is hiding something. There have been many strong female writers who have written about life in the southern American states, often focusing on the continuing legacy of slavery and racial divisions.To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has become a modern American classic, still much loved sixty years after its publication in 1960. Although classed as a children’s book, it is a wonderful read for any age. I can still remember the first time I read this book in my twenties. I walked around the house reading it as I went, unable to put it down. Told through the eyes of six-year-old Scout, the story recounts the trial of a black man who is accused of raping a white woman in a small town in Alabama. Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, is the lawyer who defends the black man, and is the moral compass of the novel. Loosely based on elements of Harper Lee’s own life, this book was her only published work until Go Set a watchman was published in 2015.Beloved by Toni Morrison is another American text which deals with the horrors of slavery and the psychological impact on those who were enslaved. Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1987 for Beloved. It was inspired by the true story of Margaret Garner who escaped slavery by travelling over the border from Kentucky to Ohio. She was pursued by slave hunters and killed her 2-year-old daughter so that the child would not grow up in slavery. In the story, the family is haunted by the ghost of her baby daughter. The book was adapted into a film in 1998, starring Oprah Winfrey in the leading role.Mildred D. Taylor is most famous for her classic children’s book, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, which was published in 1976 and won the Newbery Medal the following year. The story follows the story of the Logan family, a poor black family who struggle to survive at the height of the Depression in rural Mississippi. Racism is a constant theme in this, and the later books in the series. Her latest book All the days past, All the days to come is the final book of the series on the Logan family.Watch our how to video on Borrowbox.Access eBooks/eAudiobooks on your phone, tablet or reader. Once you have installed the app, search for Dublin in the ‘Library’ field provided and then sign in using your library membership card number and PIN.Members of other library authorities will need to access BorrowBox using a different link
A staff member reviews our most borrowed books from the Crimes and Misdemeanours section, one of our most popular sections, and we include links to the catalogue perhaps nudging you towards making an inspired selection. These books can also be found in our Crimes and misdemeanours book displays. If you'd like to borrow any of the books discussed below, simply click on title to be taken to the reservation page. You will need your library card and PIN to request the book.The Alphabet Murders - Lars Schütz No.53☆After a body of a brutally murdered man with an “A” tattooed on him is found in a wildlife park, criminal profilers Jan Grall and Rabea Wyler are thrown into a brutal game of cat and mouse. Later, more people are found with letters tattooed on their skin - it's obvious that this serial killer loves his ABCs and won’t stop till his set is complete.I liked the concept of this story. I thought it was inventive, and I hoped the story reflected that too, but I was sorely disappointed to find out that it wasn’t. Killing is my Business - Adam Christopher No.43 ☆This book is a sequel to “Made to Kill” by Adam Christopher. It's about an alternate universe set in the 1960’s, LA Noir style. Or robot LA Noir style. This is about the last robot left in working order in the world - our protagonist Raymond Electromatic, a former private investigator turned hitman. I liked the mashup of Sci Fi and Noir. If you’re a fan of either one of these genres, this is a good book for you. Murder at Greysbridge - Andrea Carter No.34 ☆Solicitor Benedicta O’ Keefe has been invited to her friend Leah’s wedding, at the newly restored Greysbridge Hotel - the perfect paradise with a private beach and a stunningly beautiful pier. But the festivities are cut short when a young visitor staying at the hotel drowns in full view of the wedding guests. As more and more deaths occur, Ben finds herself and her fellow guests at the center of a murder mystery.I would highly recommend you reserve this if you’re a fan of Agatha Christie’s or love a good old-fashioned murder mystery. A Noise Downstairs - Linwood Barclay No.24☆Eight months ago, Paul Davis discovered two dead bodies in the back of his co-worker Kenneth’s car. After he attends therapy, at night things get much worse, he starts to hear things. Paul thinks he’s losing his mind. Is he? Or does someone want him to believe he is? Gripping and hard to put down. The Death House - Sarah Pinborough No.15☆Taken from his family, our young protagonist Toby now lives in what is now called “The Death House”, an out-of-time existence far away from our own existence, where he and others like him are carefully studied for any sign of sickness by the mysterious and spine-chilling Matron and her team of “nurses”. As soon as they show any sign of sickness, they are taken to the sanatorium. No one returns from the sanatorium. Five stars.
I've fallen so far behind with my book reviews (being amply complimentary to myself in calling them such!) that I had to revisit the archives in order to discover when I last posted and about what. In fact it was back in late May, and in my defence I declare that work and life has been too 'involving' and not afforded me the time to indulge myself in the pleasurable pursuit of putting on paper (metaphorically speaking) my thoughts on the books I read and then sharing those here on the library blog.While I have read quite a few crime novels over the past couple of months, I will restrict my mention here to five of those, in so doing jumping from southern Europe to northern Europe and finally to the southern portion of the African continent.First the get a mention is 'The Crocodile' by Italy's Maurizio De Giovanni, the second such title I have read by this author (the first being 'I Will Have Vengeance' which is set in 1930s Naples). This one involves Detective Inspectore Giuseppe Lojacono in the hunt for a killer of teenagers on the streets of modern-day Naples. Lojacono has been transferred to Naples after a career setback involving the Sicilian Mafia, his desk assignment now meant to sideline him and keep him away from criminal investigations. But he is soon brought on board in the hunt for this methodical killer of teenagers when his insights into the case are overheard by the attractive Assistant District Attorney Laura Piras. He doesn't buy the organised crime angle, but the pressure is on to find whatever link there might be between the victims that will lead to the discovery of the killer before he strikes again. The young victims all appear innocent of any sort of major wrong doing, so Lojacono, working closely with the Assistant District Attorney, investigates the possibility of links other than between the victims themselves. All the while you the reader know who the killer is, but the insights you periodically get by way of letters he writes to someone dear to him are never quite enough to reveal the why of his actions. The killer's full intent and motive eventually becomes clear as the story culminates in a race against time to save his next intended victim. This story is well crafted, well written and suspenseful right to the end, bitter or otherwise I will not say! And I can highly recommend it, as I did the first.Next I head north, to Iceland in fact. 'Strange Shores' by Iceland's Arnaldur Indridason is the latest, and possibly the last, in the series featuring Detective Erlendur of the Reykjavik police. I say possibly, for the ending certainly leaves room for speculation, and I think too that that is the author's intent, so don't be surprised if like Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole you see another in the series. In this Erlendur revisits a haunting event from his past, namely the disappearance of his younger brother during a snowstorm, in an attempt to bring some closure. Erlendur survived that snowstorm and largely blames himself for his brother's disappearance. That event has served to haunt him ever since. Erlendur is absent from the previous two titles in the series (Outrage, Black Skies); it might in fact be that events here happen in parallel with the storyline of the previous title.While his primary concern is his brother's disappearance, he finds himself investigating another disappearance, that of a young woman in somewhat similar circumstances during the war. Her disappearance during a blizzard occurred the same evening that a number of British servicemen were lost while on military manoeuvres, an unusual aspect of this storyline is that the event involving the British servicemen was in fact a real life occurrence. This investigation, while unofficial, takes him back and forth between a number of individuals still living who had associations with the woman in question. Erlendur is like a dog with a bone when it comes to solving a mystery, in particular when some doubt raises its head as to what in fact happened to her given that her body was never recovered. And dragging up the past is not to the liking of all. Meanwhile the activities of a now dead fox catcher is perhaps the only tenuous link and therefore hope for Erlendur in maybe finding his brother's remains.Much of the story too involves Erlendur looking back on events of that fateful night where we meet really for the first time the young Erlendur and his parents, and where we get too a real sense of the tragedy that befell them and shaped the rest of their lives.This is yet another class work from Indridason. A well constructed plot is at its core, but of equal measure is the character of Erlendur and the long time effect of his brother's disappearance on him. Indeed personal loss and its effect on people are central to the story, and you can't help but be engrossed in this well written story from start to finish. I can highly recommend it. Staying north, but heading due east for my next title, this being 'The Double Silence' by Sweden's Mari Jungstedt. Now it's always a pity to say that a book disappointed, particularly when the author's previous titles all proved reasonably satisfying reads. I started reading this confident that it would please, but soon found myself fighting the urge to put it down and not pick up again. I was one hundred or so pages into the book before it marked itself out as a crime novel, but even long before that I was struggling with it. I have rarely not finished a book and it was only the faint hope that things might improve that kept me going, but alas this book ultimately failed to satisfy.'The Double Silence' sees a group of close friends (a rather unreal closeness in fact) take a holiday together on a remote Swedish island, only for friendships to unravel once a series of fatal mishaps befall them. Like I said, I was one-third of the way into the book before a body showed up, by which time I had grown weary of the over concentration on the group members' family and personal lives and relationships. To the point of tedium. Whole passages could be given over to child feeding, nappy changing, domestic chores and trivial conversations, making me want to fast forward, but to where? Inspector Knutas, the principal investigator, is not so prominent in this as in the previous books, more's the pity, but as for his welling up with tears at one point, aaagh! Journalist Johan Berg, who plays a major part in the previous titles in the series (this being the seventh), also has a lesser role here than normal. One other criticism I would level at the book is that the chapters are too short, resulting in you being thrown from one scene to another with far too much frequency.The basis for the crime element is sound enough, jealousy and a shared secret past, but too much of the story is given over to matters of little interest or relevance for me to have really cared at any point. Enough said, not all reads can be rosy!Needing some warmth after recent ventures up north, I headed due south, thousands of miles in fact, to South Africa and a writer who indeed warmed me with the first book of hers that I read (Daddy's Girl). And glad to say, my second experience of Margie Orford, 'Water Music' , was equally warming. This is the fifth book involving Dr. Clare Hart, a civilian profiler working in Section 28, Cape Town’s Child Protection Unit. Section 28 is named after the clause in the South African constitution that lists the rights of children.In 'Water Music' an unconscious, emaciated three-year old girl is found abandoned and close to death on a lonely bridle path in Cape Town. Soon after, a grandfather appeals for help when his grand-daughter Rosa, a gifted nineteen-year old cellist, goes missing. Hart embroils herself in both cases, even though Rosa's is strictly outside her remit as Rosa is not a child in the eyes of the law. While pursuing the dual investigations in her usual stubborn and dogged manner, Clare has to deal with an unwanted and unwelcome pregnancy. As if this was not enough grief, Clare has to deal with those in the police force who do not welcome her involvement and who are in fact set on disbanding her unit. Consequently Clare pursues her investigations very much as a sole operator, this despite her romantic involvement with Captain Riedwaan Faizal, an undercover police officer who has his own difficulties with his superiors. He in fact faces exile of a sort with his unit too being disbanded and he sent far from Cape Town for his sins, thus affecting his ability to assist Clare however he can.This is a well-plotted, atmospheric, fast-paced thriller with twists and a climactic ending. But it is not just a thriller: it is a story of corruption, of a police force less than willing to tackle issues; it is too about darker topics such as enslavement, child abuse and male domination; it is about the challenges women face in a male-dominated environment such as that in which Clare operates; and it is about that other challenge woman are often faced with (but rarely men) - maybe having to decide between parental desires and other life/career ambitions.Following on 'Daddy's Girl' (read review), this book keeps Margie Orford firmly on my list of authors to watch out for. Thankfully there are a number of other titles by her that I have yet to read and which are within easy reach. You can add her to your list now too!Staying on the African continent, 'A Deadly Trade' is the second title from the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip but my first to read. Essentially a police procedural, it is based in Botswana and features, as in the first book, the rather rotund food-loving Detective Kubu. The story centres around two murders committed in a tourist camp in northern Botswana close to the border with Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Local officer Tatwa Mooka calls on the help of the more experienced Kubu from the capital, Gaborone, but as the investigation proceeds the plot thickens. The fact that one of the recently murdered men has been dead for many years does not simplify matters. The book hints at Agatha Christie in fact, as each of the characters has his or her own secret, or so it seems, but it does too have action and, probably its strongest aspect, Botswana and the recent troubled history of the wider region at its centre. There are hints at drug-running, war crimes and political interference. The book in fact mixes the serious with the light, humour and light-heartedness being brought by Kubu, his demeanour, and his love of food and desire to consume biscuits at every opportunity. But he is too a strong and resolute officer, as his response to the threat to his family will testify. 'Kubu' in fact means 'Hippo' in Setswana, the language of Botswana.Despite it being set in the warm, nay hot, climes of Botswana, I however found it hard to warm to this book; it felt overly long, the story didn't flow, there was a certain tedium in terms of detail, events being dragged out and indeed re-visited and re-capped. I was always conscious of it being the work of two authors, and reading it, it read like such. To my mind it needed some editorial intervention. In saying that, I found it hard to find a reviewer on the web who felt as I did about it!Botswana, if you are not already aware, is also the country in which the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, by Alexander McCall Smith, is based. If pressed as to which I preferred, McCall Smith would get my vote by some margin.Beware: this book is sold in the USA under the title 'Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu'.Happy reading!
While Nordic authors and settings seem to dominate my crime reads, the list is not exclusively Northern European I am glad to say. I have even endeavoured to go beyond wider Europe, taking in the US of A, the Middle East, south-east Asia, and even Africa. And it is to Africa that I travel in this post, with two authors to mention, South Africa's Deon Meyer and Zimbabwe's Alexander McCall Smith.
Best selling American crime writer Patricia Cornwell is in Dublin today, here to take part in one of the opening events of the Bram Stoker Festival, happening this weekend. The event, The Anatomy of Fear - From Stoker to Scarpetta with Patricia Cornwell, takes place in Trinity College, and the author will be introduced by the state pathologist, Dr. Marie Cassidy! Very appropriate given the subject matter and the significant role forensic science plays in her Dr. Kay Scarpetta series.Cornwell has sold over 100 million copies of her books worldwide, and wouldn't you know it, you can borrow her books in our branch libraries and read away to your heart's content (check below).Right: Patricia Cornwell in Trinity College, 26th October 2012 (click thumbnail to enlarge)The 20th novel in the Scarpetta series (The Bone Bed) has just been published (25th October in fact), so while not yet on our bookshelves is on order and soon to arrive. In this latest, Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta returns to solve the mysterious disappearance of a palaeontologist.But don't despair, unless you are a Cornwell fanatic and have already read the other nineteen in the series, you have plenty to keep you going in the meantime. So check the links below for availability of the series titles in the library catalogue:Post-mortem (1990)Body of Evidence (1991)All That Remains (1992)Cruel and Unusual (1993)The Body Farm (1994)From Potter's Field (1995)Cause of Death (1996)Unnatural Exposure (1997)Point of Origin (1998)Black Notice (1999)The Last Precinct (2000)Blow Fly (2003)Trace (2004)Predator (2005)Book of the Dead (2007)Scarpetta (2008)The Scarpetta Factor (2009)Port Mortuary (2010)Red Mist (2011)The Bone Bed (2012) (just published, to come)In the following video clip, the bestselling author is talking about her 18th Kay Scarpetta thriller, 'Port Mortuary'.Visit the Patricia Cornwell website.