The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho

Igor Malev is a self-made Russian millionaire.  He has everything that he could possibly want, except the love of his life, Ewa.  Two years ago she left him for another man and now Igor wants her back, and will do anything to make it happen.

He has promised to “destroy worlds” in order to win her love again and he’s as good as his word.  Igor follows her to the Cannes Film Festival and once there embarks on a killing spree.  He targets the rich, famous and influential, reasoning that once Ewa realises that he’s responsible, she will at last understand the depths of his love and return to his side.

A polemic on the superficiality of modern celebrity life and those who pull the strings, the book is much less significant that I suspect the author intended.  A diverting enough read, but it never really rises above the level of the thriller it claims not to be.

The Ghost Office by Stephen M. Nicholas

Twelve year old Tommy Tranter has always known he was different, however until now he’s been able to ignore his psychic visions. But when an unusually large snowfall causes the inhabitants of Caerleon to behave very strangely, he meets up with the crew of spooks from the Ghost Office, and becomes embroiled in their mission to stop a madman intent on changing the world forever.

An engaging children’s novella from the pen of Caerleon based writer Stephen M Nicholas, The Ghost Office bristles with inventiveness and verve.  In the space of 150 pages Nicholas populates the story with an interesting cast of characters, including a diverse range of ghosts with their individual characteristics and colloquialisms.  So when you step into the Ghost Office, prepare to encounter wallegrams, dunbedafs, mobile elementals and fragflashes.

This entertaining tale should stimulate the imaginations of  its intended readership of children aged 8 to 12.

The Doomsday Key by James Rollins

Three bizarre murders across three continents thrust Commander Gray Pierce and SIGMA Force into a desperate hunt for a powerful group intent on controlling the worlds food supply.

All three victims were marked with a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh.  And as Gray and his team investigate, they discover that the answers lie in ancient history, and the only way to unlock the truth is with the Doomsday Key.

The sixth novel in the SIGMA Force series contains exactly the same mixture of enjoyable hokum as before.  Take a mystery buried in history, mix in a dash of pseudo-science, some treasures guarded by deadly traps and lots of globe-trotting action and you end up with the perfect page turner.

If you’re looking for deep characterisation and subtlety then you’ve come to the wrong place.  But if you require the book equivalent of a Hollywood blockbuster, then The Doomsday Key fits the bill nicely.

No Lovelier Death by Graham Hurley

While her parents are away, Rachel Ault organises a party which ends in tragedy.  After she publishes it on Facebook, more than a hundred kids descend on her house in Craneswater, the most affluent suburb of Portsmouth.  But by the early hours of the next morning the house is trashed and both Rachel and her boyfriend are dead.

And since she was the daughter of a high-profile judge, the police, including DI Faraday, find themselves under intense pressure to find the murderer.

The ninth entry in the Joe Faraday series, this is another exceptional modern crime novel.  The narrative is taut and crisp, the characters are well drawn and complex and the procedural detail is as meticulous as his previous novels.

There are several prominent writers active in the police procedural genre, but none of them do it better than Hurley.  Another gripping read from a writer who should be much better known.

The Wisdom of Dead Men by Oisin McGann

Berto Wildenstern,  head of the rich and ruthless Wildenstern family always has to watch his back.  Someone is usually trying to kill him, and most of the time it’s a member of his own family.  Everybody wants to be head of the family, and to comply with the rules of ascension you have to remove your rivals permanently.

But Berto, and his brother Nate, have other things on their minds.  All across the city the burned remains of women have been discovered, apparently the victims of spontaneous combustion.  And as they begin to investigate, they realise that not all dangers are contained within their own family.

The follow-up to Ancient Appetites, this book returns us to the bloodthirsty machinations of the Wildensterns.  With its well depicted Steampunk Victorania setting, the book rattles along at a great pace, with an intriguing mystery at its heart.  Recommended for older teenagers and above.

Real Heroes

Real Heroes tells the story of the conflict fought during the last decade in Afghanistan via a mixture of comic strips, diagrams, concise text and photographs.

This style of presentation is not without its pitfalls, it would be easy to fall into the trap of over-simplifying a complex situation .  Real Heroes manages to avoid this by showing the human cost of war, with sections dedicated to battlefield hospitals and the rehabilitation that follows.

The rights and wrongs of this war are outside the remit of the book.  Instead, it concerns itself with the soldiers and the job they have to do, under conditions that few of us can really understand or appreciate.

Real Heroes is a fine tribute to the men and women of the British Army, and with a donation of £1.00 made to the Help for Heroes charity for each book sold, it will assist those wounded in the service of their country.

Snares and Nets by Catriona McCuaig

The year is 1533.  Nesta Davies has journeyed from Oxford to the small village of Hollyhill to care for her son’s ailing wife.

Shortly after she arrives, an old woman dies in mysterious circumstances.   Before the villagers have time to recover from this shock, a young mother is lured to the stream and pushed in, only Nesta’s quick intervention prevents another murder.

Nesta, like the murdered old woman, is a midwife.  As she travels to various households, she begins to unravel the truth behind these strange and seemingly unconnected events.

The appeal of Historical crime fiction is easy to understand.  Set in a time before detection had modern aids such as fingerprints, DNA or even the telephone, the historical sleuth must instead rely on his or her own instincts to discover the truth.

Fans of the genre will enjoy Snares and Nets, which has well drawn characters and an intriguing mystery at its heart.

Mots D’Heures: Gousses Rames: The D’Antin Manuscript by Luis D’Antin Van Rooten

Originally published in 1967 and now reissued in an attractive hardback, this is an ideal stocking filler.

The book purports to be a previously undiscovered French medieval manuscript.  And it looks the part, with authentic looking illustrations and scholarly footnotes.

To understand how the book works, you’ll need to read it aloud, in your best or worst French accent.  Then the penny should drop.  For example, one of the rhymes is:

“Reine, reine, gueux eveille.  Gomme a gaine, en horreur, taie”.

When you read the text phonetically, it’s “Rain, rain go away. Come again another day”.

So Un petit d’un petit = Humpty Dumpty, and once you’ve connected to the author’s wavelength, the rest of the book makes total sense.  Then you can begin admire the skills of Van Rooten’s wordplay.  The footnotes on each entry are also well worth reading, since they are peppered with sly humour.

Entertaining and addictive, this is a wonderful little book for word lovers and it’s good to see it back in print.

Rogue’s Rock – The Complete First Series (Simply HE)

Rogue’s Rock is a small island somewhere off the British coast.  It’s run by Commander Rogue (Clive Morton), whose family have been there since Viking times.  As the story opens, the island has fallen on hard times, but a discovery in the quarry brings hope of wealth and prosperity.

Unfortunately, the neighbouring British also know what treasures lie beneath the soil and claim it as their own.  Rogue is having none of this, and declares Rogue’s Rock to be an independent nation.  Can he and his small band of friends defeat the might of the British navy and restore the fortunes of the island?

This six part children’s serial, first broadcast in 1974, is an undemanding and entertaining runaround.  If you recall the original transmission or have a fondness for 70’s childrens drama, then it’s worth picking up.  For Doctor Who fans, it’s notable for starring Clive Morton who played Trenchard in the 1972 Jon Pertwee serial “The Sea Devils”.  And he’s the same bluff character here, but Rogue’s a more likable and less blinkered character than Trenchard.

If you’ve purchased any of the other recent releases from Simply, also culled from the Southern TV archive, like Freewheelers or Flockton Flyer, then this falls into a similar category.  It also highlights how active this small company was in the field of children’s drama back in the 1970’s, an area of television that is sadly greatly diminished in the current tv landscape.

Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth (BBC Audio)

After the success of the first Dalek serial in 1963/1964, it was inevitable that they would be brought back to menace the Doctor again.

So in late 1964 the six part serial “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” was broadcast to an expectant public.  It’s notable in the history of the series due to it being the first story to depict an invaded Earth.  And it’s different from most invasion Earth stories, since when the Doctor and his companions appear, the invasion is long over.

The Daleks are the masters of Earth and the remaining humans are either subservient or are hiding in small groups desperately plotting futile acts of retaliation.

The reason for the Dalek invasion?  They want to remove the Earth’s core so they can insert a motor and pilot the planet around the Galaxy like a huge spaceship.  Yes, well Terry Nation’s great strength was action set pieces, so you’ll have to forgive him if he couldn’t come up with a better reason for the Dalek’s actions than that!

This BBC Audio release across 4 CDs, features an unabridged reading of Terrance Dicks’ 1977 novelisation of Terry Nation’s scripts .  The reader is William Russell, who played Ian Chesterton in the original serial.  Dalek voices are provided by Nicholas Briggs, who performs the same duties for the current series.

Another entertaining release in a growing series of Audio adaptions of the Target Doctor Who novels.  Another essential release for those already collecting these releases, and if you haven’t, a good place to start.