Daily Mail - 30.08.2019

Daily Mail, Friday, August 30, 2019 Page 57

DARKDAWN

by Jay Kristoff

(HarperVoyager

£14.99, 512 pp)

Jay Kristoff

writes legends into

life and imbues

them with rich, roaring potency.

this conclusion to the Never­

night Chronicle plumbs new

depths of rollicking obscenity

and reaches new heights of

mind­blowing violence.

this time around, there’s a fine

mythic back story and a sexily

searing love triangle involving

Mia Corvere, the maddest, bad­

dest priestess assassin in the

known alternative universe, and

two ex­lovers, one of whom has

sort of killed the other. Hmm.

THE GIRL WHO

SPEAKS BEAR

by Sophie Anderson

(Usborne £6.99, 416 pp)

aNdersoN revisits the far

North land of myths and fairy

tales first explored in the

House With Chicken Legs in

this extraordinary story of yanka, a girl who

was discovered abandoned as a baby in a

bear cave and adopted by her Mamochka.

Now bigger and stronger than her 12­

year­old friends, yanka loves the stories

told by regular visitor anatoly, who recounts

adventures of fire dragons, princesses and

bears who become human.

But, one day, yanka is forced to run away

into the forest to discover the truth about

where she came from and who she is, begin­

ning a remarkable journey with talking

animals, ancient curses and spiritual yagas

who escort the dead back to the stars.

Written with passion and compassion,

anderson’s talent as a weaver of magic

and creator of evocative landscapes is

growing with each book.

circumstances. Her small boys are always

an absolute treat — and never more so than

here. Magical indeed.

BOY GIANT

by Michael Morpurgo

(HarperCollins £12.99, 288 pp)

WHeN the war in afghanistan

escalates, cricket­mad omar

(nickname owzat) is put on a

refugee boat by his terrified

mother and told to head for

his uncle in devon, england.

But he’s shipwrecked and washes up on the

island of Lilliput, where his giant size leads

the islanders to believe he’s the offspring of

Gulliver, who, several generations earlier,

resolved the war with a hostile island (over

the best way to eat an egg).

tensions, however, have risen again, so the

Lilliputians look to omar to bring peace in

the new conflict with their neighbours...

Morpurgo mines Jonathan swift’s classic

Gulliver’s travels for inspiration in this

modern fable about war, hatred and belong­

ing that is funny, touching, relevant — and

beautifully illustrated by Michael foreman.

BOOKSFICTION

QUICHOTTE
by Salman Rushdie
(Cape £20, 416 pp)
WHAT windmills might
Cervantes’ 17th-century
incurable romantic Don
Quixote tilt at were he to
find himself crossing Trump’s America?
Salman Rushdie has a few ideas in
this Booker-longlisted, post-modernist
picaresque caper, in which a slightly
barmy Indian former travelling sales-
man, inspired by the fact he lives in ‘the
age of anything-can-happen’, sets out
through a fearful, bigoted nation in the
midst of an opioid crisis to capture the
heart of a reality TV star.
Anything can happen in fiction, too, it
turns out, as Rushdie splices Cervantes’
classic with Moby Dick and Pinocchio,
and then pulls out another rabbit by
revealing Quichotte and his dreamed-
into-life son Sancho are the creations
of a down-on-his-luck hack novelist.
Rushdie’s fans will find much to
love in this hyperactive, technicolour
satire of a cultural moment in which
the permeation of junk TV, fake news,
social media and Trump himself have so
disrupted the borders between fiction
and real life. Many balls are juggled
here, but, somehow, Rushdie keeps
them all gloriously in the air.

GIRL
by Edna O’Brien
(Faber £16.99, 240 pp)
NOT many writers well into
their 80s would travel to
Nigeria to research the
Chibok girls, abducted by
Islamic militants in 2014 and forced to
convert, bear children and far worse.
But not many writers are Edna O’Brien,
who scandalised her native Ireland
by daring to suggest in her 1960 debut
The Country Girls that young girls have
sexual agency, and who, in her 19th
novel, confirms that her fury with the
violations committed against women
in the name of religion remains as
strong a pulse as ever in her writing.
Girl is narrated by Maryam, a mere
child herself when she delivers a
daughter after ‘marrying’ a militant,
but who eventually escapes the camp,
only to find her former life no longer
offers the sanctuary she dreamed of.
O’Brien strangles at birth any potential
accusations of cultural appropriation
through the sheer violent beauty of her
writing, which often depicts a desperate
Maryam in a sort of fugue state, her
grip on time and events feverish, and
lends her story imaginative authenticity.

THIS IS HAPPINESS
by Niall Williams
(Bloomsbury £16.99, 400 pp)
IN FAHA, a colourful village
in Fifties Ireland, telling
stories is a way of life. So is
getting wet, the rain in this
part of the world falling practically
every day.
But, one day, the rain stops, a harbinger,
perhaps, of imminent change, since it’s
also the day the electricity board arrives
to connect this vibrant little community
to the modern world.
For young Noel, however, the world

changes that day for another reason:
his grandparents have taken a lodger,
Christy, a charismatic itinerant looking
for the woman he abandoned at the
altar 50 years before and whose story
will expose Noel to the stranger work-
ings of the human heart.
Williams has the eye of a poet and the
raconteur’s knack for finding a tale in
the most unpromising nook of everyday
life, as a now-adult Noel, summoning
the Faha of his nostalgic imagination,
narrates an elegiac novel that’s care-
ful always to offset the antic rural
eccentricity with darker notes of loss.

LITERARY FICTION

by CLAIRE ALLFREE
Feminist faces the Flying Squad

Illustration: CHRIS COADY

CRIME

GEOFFREY WANSELL

YOUNG FICTION

SALLY MORRIS

FANTASY

JAMIE BUXTON

THE DIRTY DOZEN

by Lynda La Plante

(Zaffre £18.99, 512 pp)

THIS fifth in the series of

prequels to Jane Tennison’s

iconic days as a fearsome DCI

in search of a Prime Suspect

is by far the most engaging.

Then a lowly detective

sergeant, Jane becomes the

first female detective to be

posted to the Met’s Flying

Squad, commonly known as

‘The Sweeney’ — brought so

vividly to life by DI Jack Regan

and DS George Carter on TV

more than four decades ago.

Tennison is at her prickliest,

determined to prove she’s

there on merit and not as

some kind of ‘experiment’.

Inevitably, she confronts the

misogynist, macho culture of

the squad of 12 based in East

London, who like to call them-

selves ‘The Dirty Dozen’.

Her new boss clearly thinks

she’s not up to the job of

confronting London’s hard

men — can Tennison prove

her worth and earn respect?

This is vintage La Plante.

WHAT YOU PAY FOR

by Claire Askew

(Hodder £16.99, 352 pp)

FOLLOWING her debut in All

The Hidden Truths, this story

once again focuses on DI

Helen Birch, who struggled

to cope with the mass school

shooting in Edinburgh in her

first outing.

Now, she is involved in a

major drug bust that aims

to capture one of Scotland’s

drug lords in the wake of

a shadowy tip-off from

an informant.

The police raid succeeds,

and many men are brought

into custody — but none,

including the ringleader, is

prepared to say a word.

To make matters even more

complicated, the informant —

who would be able to give

evidence against the gang

— has disappeared. Written

with style and compassion,

Askew asks intricate moral

questions, while never

ignoring the rigours of crime.

TIME FOR THE DEAD

by Lin Anderson

(Macmillan £14.99, 448 pp)

FORENSIC scientist Rhona

MacLeod has become one of

the most satisfying characters

in modern crime fiction —

honourable, inquisitive and

yet plagued by doubts and,

sometimes, fears.

In the wake of a horrific

experience in Glasgow,

MacLeod has left the city to

recuperate on the Isle of

Skye and to decide if she

ever wants to return to the

post-mortem table.

Out of the blue, she finds what

looks like a crime scene in the

woods not far from Portree —

but there’s no victim.

Then a group of Army medics

on leave from Afghanistan

arrive, only to go missing,

before two bodies turn up,

apparently after falling.

Is there a connection

with ‘the Snowman’ who

used to supply the islanders

with cocaine?

As ever, the landscape

is stunningly evoked and

MacLeod’s decency and

humanity shine through on

every page.

THE TIME OF GREEN MAGIC

by Hilary McKay

(Macmillan £12.99, 224 pp)

WHeN abi, her dad theo,

stepmum Polly and step­

brothers Max and Louis

stretch themselves financially

to rent a neglected, ivy­covered

house, strange things start to happen.

Polly goes away for work, so sensitive

(adorable) Louis takes comfort in a stray,

cat­like creature that climbs into his room.

Bookish abi finds parallels between what

she’s reading and objects that suddenly

appear. is there magic in the house? and,

when Louis’s animal becomes increasingly

menacing, can the children control it?

Costa prize­winning McKay’s genius lies in

conjuring up the rough and tumble of family

life, where private sadness, grievances and

fears are bathed in the warmth and optimism

of adults trying their very best in difficult

Meanwhile, our tricksy anti­

heroine is off on a world­saving

quest involving fallen gods,

divine blood, unbeatable killers,

an evil father, a stroppy brother

— and pirates!

What’s not to like? Nothing,

that’s what. Utterly brilliant

and the best one so far.

BRIGHTFALL

by Jaime Lee Moyer

(Jo Fletcher Books

£18.99, 320 pp)

roBiN Hood,

a posh prig, has

retreated to a

monastery, abandoning Maid

Marian to bring up their two

children alone.

in this brave retelling of the

familiar story, she’s a hedgerow

witch and sherwood is home to

grindylows, hobs, sprites, fairies,

dragons — and worse.

someone is murdering the

Merry Men and Maid Marian

must find out who.

But mix with the fay folk at

your peril.

as well as the heavy price

they demand for favours, there

are long­buried fairy feuds to

deal with.

even with the help of a hunky

woodsman and a shape­shifting

fairy lord, it takes all Marian’s

craft, patience and strength to

uncover the unsettling truth

behind the murders.

AN ORC ON

THE WILD SIDE

by Tom Holt

(Orbit £8.99,

400 pp)

WHeN the spawn­

ing of a monstrous

she­orc is greeted with the

phrase ‘a terrible cutie is born’,

it’s time to adopt brace position

for some of the most heinous

puns ever dreamed of in the

multi­verse. But bad jokes are

the least of King Mordak’s

worries: his plans to regulate

orcish awfulness are meeting

opposition, and a rift between

the worlds means blow­ins from

fulham are taking advantage

of low property prices in the

Hidden realms.

Meanwhile, traditional dwarf

industries are suffering in the

face of cheap Chinese imports...

Blending particle physics

with base humour, this devilish

satire bites large chunks out of

fantasy fiction, smug bloggers,

lawyers and all things elven.

devour with relish.