O'DONOVAN DELIVERS PACE BUT NEEDS A PRAYER TO REPEAT THE ORIGINALITY OF PRIEST

I’ve always steered clear of Irish crime fiction. I don’t know why really. Maybe it’s because I have the plots of a number of books inside me that I don’t want to see already written about when I open up some Sunday paper hack’s latest attempt to fill the remaining hours of their days and weekends when they’re not sleeping, eating, drinking or just catching up with the family.

I think it’s because when put up against the likes of Morse, Reacher, Bosch etc; they don’t have the same romanticism. I live in and visit the settings on a regular if not daily basis and find it hard to picture them in the same way as a Midwest American two horse town or the cobbled bicycle congested lanes of Oxford.

Back in February my partner gave me a copy of Gerard O’Donovan’s latest book “Dublin Dead” as a Valentines Day present. I think I gave her a voucher for M&S… Hmm, true romantics both us… Anyway I let the book sit on my bedside locker as a reminder that it was on my TBR (To Be Read) list. Then as I ran out the door last week to my sisters wedding in Italy without anything to read, the love of my life suggested rather subtlety that I hadn’t read “… That book I gave you for Valentines”.  So into the bag it went, displacing Anita Notaro’s latest from a round trip to Lake Garda.

This is O’Donovan’s second book after “Priest”, both feature the Dublin DI Mike Mulcahy and Sunday paper journalist Siobhan Fallon. In “Dublin Dead” both are a year on from their encounter with a deranged priest who via back story we discover impaled Fallon on the papal cross in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. Now that’s what I call original and made me sit up and take note. Anyway in this outing Fallon is working through her Post Traumatic Stress on a dead end suicide story which then leads to a missing persons, while Mulcahy is following up the murder of a Dublin gangster in Spain and the link to the largest haul of drugs off the cork coast and the involvement of an internationally feared Columbian hitman, while trying to prevent the closure of his Drug Liaison Unit by the end of the week. Soon both hero and heroine find themselves pursued and pursuers with a climactic finale in west cork.

O’Donovan’s own back story reads a little fantastically, he’s had a job in the Irish civil service, worked abroad as a barman, gherkin bottler and philosophy teacher…. Umm, if you can figure how you go from pushing paper in Dublin to pushing knobbly green veg into bottles, answers in the comments box below. I suppose teaching philosophy is similar to that of the gherkin bottler, you’re pushing knobbly shaped theories into empty vessels.

 

The book slams you straight into the action from the first page and the pace is relentless to the end. The story line is topical, inspired by a recent botched drug run on a yacht off the south coast and with references to NAMA and the perilous state of the economy. Where it is disappointing is in the final confrontation, here it feels a bit limp and goes down a well worn path. For someone who had one of his lead characters crucified on a 116ft high monument over looking Dublin previously I expected a better ending and some more dramatic set pieces through out the book, but take my word for it this is well worth the read and probably even better if you start with “Priest” .

FIFTY YEARS ON LEE STILL HAS PEOPLE FLOCKING TO READ HER LITERARY CLASSIC

For years people have been saying to me, if you have to read one book before you die, you’ve go to read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Not that I’m ready to die now that I’ve read it, but having done so I can certainly tick it off my “Bucket List”.

Published in 1960, it’s the only book Lee wrote and with it she created one of the greatest literary works of our time and in it gave us one of the great literary characters, in the shape of Atticus Finch. A father figure coveted by every kid in Christendom or at least the child inside everyone whose ever read the book or seen the Oscar winning film, starring Gregory Peck (Atticus) and a very young Robert Duvall (Boo Radley). In my view, if they ever wanted to replace Father Christmas; they wouldn’t be far wrong replacing him with Atticus Finch. I have to admit to looking back while reading this book and seeing aspects of Atticus in my late father or maybe it’s more to do with aspects of Atticus in all our fathers.

The book follows the young lives of Jem Finch and his sister “Scout” or Jean Louise, to give her full name. As they grow up in the small town of Maycomb in America’s Deep South during the 1930’s when the issue of race is at its height. Their father Atticus is a widower and local lawyer who is tasked with defending a young black man accused of raping a local white girl. The town takes sides and the ugly spectacle of mob justice and small town back-biting comes knocking on the quiet suburban door of the Finch family, The court case and the ripples it causes in the small town are seen through the eyes of young Scout, a girl wise beyond her years.

Maycomb has its usual gathering of weird and wonderful characters from the mysterious Boo Radley, who lives a secluded life in his parent’s house across the street from the Finches. To the various women in the neighbourhood who help open the children’s eyes to the harsh realities of life.  But time and again the most outstanding character in the book is the kid’s father Atticus, a man who gives his kids just enough leeway to enjoy themselves but also someone worldly–wise, principled and unafraid  to stand up  for what is right.

The book was selected by my book group and I must say it was a fantastic read, although it does take a while to get to the courtroom drama. The run up to it is a good scene setter and the descriptions of the town are excellently done but once the court room drama is over, the book takes on a sedentary pace till the very end, when Lee hits us with a curve ball out of left field. At ten to one the other morning I was just about throw the book down and not finish it, when I reached the last two chapters and’ bam!’ I was hit square on by the turn of events and my determination to finish the book was rejuvenated.

There was a bit of confusion caused by the book during the past month among the book groupers; one of them thought we were supposed to be reading ‘Catcher in the Rye ‘(Don’t ask me how). On another occasion, a friend my partner and I had met for a drink asked me what the book was about, I quipped it’s like an episode of ‘Matlock,’ in three hundred pages. To which my partner said, ‘no! You’re confusing it with the guy in the wheelchair.’ We both looked at her and said, ‘Err that’s Ironside’.

So, take my advice if you haven’t read To Kill A Mockingbird yet, and your looking for a good read, you’ll not be disappointed by this book and like me and many others around the globe including one Victoria Beckham (she supposedly named her daughter Harper, after reading the book)  you too can take it off your great “To Do” list.

TOWNSEND'S LATEST RAISES A SMILE, BUT FAILS TO GET OUT OF BED IN OTHER WAYS

We all like our beds and relish the chance of a good old lie-on, usually at the weekends but if it occurs on a weekday you sometimes feel like you’ve won the lottery. Well I do anyway, especially as I’m a night owl who can survive on six hours sleep. So the thought of going to bed for an extended period might make some of us wet ourselves with anticipation. This is the premise for Sue Townsend’s latest book, The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year.

It’s thirty years since The Leicester born playwright and novelist’s first book The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾  hit the shelves, I can remember reading her Adrian Mole column in my mother’s  Woman’s Realm magazine before it got published. I empathized with him because we were both christened Adrian, were around the same age and had a passion for writing. Since then there have been a further seven Adrian Mole instalments and a TV adaptation as well as five other novels including The Queen and I and Number Ten.

The Woman Who Went To Bed For a Year, charts the year in the life of Eva Beaver a housewife and mother. She’s married to Dr. Brian Beaver an Astronomer and they have two highly intelligent twins Brian Jnr. and Brianne. The day they both go off to university she decides to take to her bed, to supposedly find herself after years of looking after the kids and Brian. Along the way she enlists the help of her dreadlocked handyman Alexander to help her drastically de-clutter her life, wardrobe and bedroom. While on her journey of self discovery she picks up a menagerie of followers as word of her plight spreads around the globe.

I was disappointed by the book It is a funny read for three quarters of way but at the end it felt flat and came across as having lost its way. This is easy to see as its four hundred and thirty pages long. There are too many characters in the book to keep track of and it appears as if the editor missed cutting out a few of them, especially a Chinese classmate of the twins who has no real purpose in the story and has a whole chapter on his parents receiving a letter from him. This might have brought the page count under four hundred.

Most of Townsend’s previous books seem to feature dysfunctional families and relationships and the main dwellings always feel like a halfway house for society’s lame ducks and make you want to hum a Madness hit. The same applies here, early on in the book Eva discovers her husband has been having an eight year affair with a colleague, in the shed it the back garden. She then forms a relationship with Alexander the handy man, which stumbles through the book.

The main characters are well written and the basic idea of the story is interesting, but I think that because it deals with the subject of mental health and how society views it. This subject and humour do not make the best bed fellows, unless dealt with by a sound comedic writer like Townsend, here she fails. As for the conclusion, we never really discover if Eva found herself and what happened after she got out of bed. The book just seems to come to a dead stop, leaving a load of loose ends.  So if you feel like getting out of bed for a book or staying in bed with one, this isn’t it.

DESPITE A POOR TURNOUT IN BRAY, ROBERTS TAKES US ON A MAGICAL TOUR DOWN THE COUNTRY ROAD OF JOHN DENVER'S LEGACY

The late John Denver is a multi award winner and no.1 selling singer song writer, who graced the shores and stages of the Emerald Isle on numerous occasions during his prolific fifty four years on the planet. Tragically in 1997 he was killed when his plane crashed off the California coast.

 Coincidentally that was the same year that that a little known Irish singer songwriter proudly represented his country in the Eurovision Song contest. The Mayo born Marc Roberts came second with “Mysterious Woman”.  Fifteen years on he’s touring with his one man show   'A Tribute to the Music of John Denver'.  I saw him on the latest leg of the tour at the Mermaid Arts centre in Bray last Saturday.

Everyone will know at least one John Denver song, whether its Leaving On a Jet Plane or Annie’s Song. But when Marc takes you on this multi media trip through the life of Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. you will discover a lot more of his hits that you probably never realized where penned by him. I rediscovered a couple that I’d forgotten about like Shanghai Breezes, as well as the very foot tapping and happy clappy numbers, Thank God I’m a Country Boy and Grandma’s Feather Bed. Other numbers included in the show are Calypso, which was inspired by the boat of the late French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, as well as other favourites such as Rocky Mountain High and Take Me Home Country Roads.

Due to an illness in the promoter’s office, according Marc, midway through the gig. The show was only advertised in the upcoming events booklet distributed by the Mermaid. There was a very small audience,  basically only the first three rows were full, as a result of which I felt sorry for Marc, with a larger crowd the Sing-along’s would have been more enthusiastic.

But don’t let that take away from the show which  was great and made even more enjoyable by the spectacular shots of the Rocky Mountains, Denver’s Spiritual home, which along with the songs and Marc’s amazing voice and easy going description of Johns life, helped transport us  away from the almost Siberian  Easter weekend outside the theatre.

We learned that before hitting the big time Marc sang John Denver songs at weddings and a couple of years before the singers death he met him in Dublin and that he’s actually done this show in Denver, in front of John’s relatives and friends gaining their full support. Marc has to date released three albums the most recent being The Promise. His day job is a presenter on Galway FM and he’s a good friend of a mentor to Daniel O’Donnell.

The Show Continues with Dates at Galway on the 5^th May and the National Concert hall on the 1^st of November. Although according Marc’s website www.marcroberts.ie more dates will be announced.

DEWITT AND THE SISTERS RIDE-IN WITH A CLASSIC BUT HUMOUROUS WESTERN

The western has come along way on the big screen since Gene Autry  and the Lone Ranger  rode out all those years ago.  In recent times it’s had a bit of a resurgence what with Unforgiven, Broke Back Mountain and this years below par big budget release of  Cowboys and Aliens, a feeble attempt at bridging the generational gap.

Books haven’t fared as well, back in the days westerns were your equivalent of pulp fiction, hard and gritty and what every boy read to fuel a dream of owning a horse and  living out in the great outdoors, unfettered by rules or fences. The very first and only western I read was one originally owned by my father, it was “Gene Autry and the Thief River Outlaws”, published in 1944 and still available on Amazon for the more nostalgic of us. My copy is floating round my mum’s house somewhere. Printed westerns have fallen by the wayside and now become a niche read, sought out by the Stetson wearing anorak classes in dusty dark corners at the back of all good bookshops. That is until this month’s read, Patrick Dewitt’s “The Sisters Brothers”.

Set in 1851, the story follows Charlie and Eli Sisters, two feared gunslingers and their faithful horses Nimble and Tubs as they journey from Oregon to San Francisco on the trail on a man called Hermann Kermit Warm, who is in possession of something wanted by their employer The Commodore. On their Journey, told through younger brother Eli’s eyes. We discover he’s a dreamer who yearns to step a way from his life of killing to order, after this last job. To find love, settle down and set up a General Store. While Charlie is the hard drinking, hard boiled type who lives to kill and instill fear into his victims and just wants to prove to the “The Commodore” that he can be the lead man. The brother’s relationship, lives and wealth go through highs and lows as they meet a cross section of society in the shape of weird and wonderful characters all hell bent on finding their fortune in the gold rush or  dealing with the affects it has had on their lives.

The book is awkward in that there are times when you want to laugh out loud at their exploits, and you do. But then other times, especially when reading Eli’s heart wrenching relationship with his horse Tubs and DeWitt’s telling of the story, that I was stuck between crying and laughing.

The Story is excellent overall and keeps you turning the pages and at just over 300 words it’s a book you can easily read in one sitting, as the prose and the chapters flow easily and quickly, a gangly and wordy Dickensian novel this isn’t and after throwing down “Great Expectations” before this and resorting to the BBC’s excellent version, I was delighted to get back into an enchanting and funny read.

This is Dewitt’s second book after “Ablutions” and it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize last year, but was just beaten by Julian Barnes “A Sense of Ending”.  So get in your favourite seat/saddle and join Charlie and Eli for an emotional journey through the Gold Rush, and discover for yourself a real nugget of a novel.

THE HUNGER GAMES FILLS ON THRILLS, BUT LEAVES YOU YEARNING FOR MORE SUBSTANCE

If you were asked in a quiz or by a friend who Katniss Everdeen was, would you know the answer? I'm in my early forties and up to three weeks ago I wouldn't have known. So don't feel bad for not knowing, but if you were between the ages of fifteen and twenty one, you'd probably know who I was talking about. Well no matter what age group you are in, if you haven't heard of Katniss by now, this time next year you will certainly know who she is.

Katnis Everdeen is the teen age heroine of The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins. Originally a teen read it's now taken on a Harry Potter intergenerational following, so much so that when I started reading it I was surprised by the number of adults who were or already had read it. I was presented with The Hunger Games, the first book in the trilogy four weeks ago at my book group, nothing much was said about it by the person recommending it, so off we went to get it. That’s where our first obstacle arose, we couldn’t find it, well not where we thought it might be, only after other members of the book group enquired with staff in various book shops around Dublin, were they shown to the childrens section!!!!.

The Hunger Games Trilogy is Suzanne Collins first novels and comprise of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. The second obstacle for some of the group was that all the covers look alike and have Hunger Games writ large on the front cover with the title written in smaller print elsewhere on the cover. This led to two members reading the second instalment before the first and then stating there needed tobe a prequel to the story, until they later realised they were out of sync.

The books tell the story of Katniss Everdeen a sixteen year old living a hundred years in the future in Panem, America after a civil war, which has been divided into 13 districts ruled by the capitol a large affluent city in the Rockies. Every year to celebrate the defeat of the rebels in the civil war and to keep the districts from rising up again the Capitol holds The Hunger Games, a gladitorial cross between bigbrother, Survivor and Running man. Where two children from each district, between the ages of eight and eighteen are selected by a lottery, called the reaping to partake inThe Hunger Games, where there is only one winner. All this for pleasure of the viewing public.

In book one The Hunger Games, Katniss's eight year old sister Prim is selected in her first Reaping, Katniss volunteers to take her place alongside Peeta the Son of a baker from the same area District twelve. Life in the Capitol is a far cry from the hand to mouth existence herself and her family lead in district twelve. But nothing will ever prepare her for the fight for survival she faces in the arena. Where Katniss and her fellow competitors are at the mercy of the gamemakers, the warped and twisted body which devises and administers the games.

The first book flings you head on into a tensely plotted story, where you really start to feel for Katniss and her story, that kept me so enrapt that I finished it in forty eight hours, the second book, keeps up the pace, while the third and final book really starts to go off the boil and lose steam, albeit for an incident out of left field near the end. Apart from that the first two books are excellent reads, the only thing to give it away as a teenager targeted book is the big writing, although the major flaw with this whole trilogy is the lack of back story. No where does it explain where the different districts are or how America came to be Panem , maybe because it's aimed a younger audience they are not as inquisitive as this forty something.

As for how you'll know Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Haymitch and President Snow next year, is that it's been made into a movie with the first instalment out in March, Jennifer Lawrence will play Katniss while Woody Harrelson her drunken mentor Haymitch and the evil President Snow by Donald Sutherland.

So if you're looking for a Christmas present for a teenager or an adult trying to hark back to their youth, this is definitely on the top Christmas reads this year, it’s an ideal time to get into the books just as the movie promotional marchine starts to krank up for the March release date.

REES GOES HUNTING OUTSIDE HIS ROM-COMFORT ZONE

When I see Sam Bourne's name on the front cover of a thriller, there's usually two reasons it's there. one he's written it and two his names been placed on to boost it's appeal to the majority of male readers who at a glance think it's a Jason Bourne book and envisage Matt Damon jumping through windows and high kicking and shooting is way across the globe.

The book I discovered it on was the new thriller Hunted - Time to Run, by Emlyn Rees. This isn't Rees first book he's written seven comedies with his partner Josie Lloyd before this, most well known is Come Together, Prior to that he'd published his first novel The Book of Dead Authors in 1997 and Undertow two years later.

Hunted introduces us to Danny Shanklin an ex soldier who now earns a living as a mercenary. He wakes up in a hotel room in London with a high-powered rifle in his hands and the body of a faceless dead man at his feet. Outside the open window he hears sirens and on looking out he discovers a street littered with bodies and a burning car.

Realising it's a set up and the police will be here in minutes and with the evidence being a tad weighted against him, he realises he has to get out and clear his name. But that's not very easy in a city with 500,000 CCTV cameras and 33,000 policemen. His only ally is his techie friend "the Kid"; with his help can he clear his name while out-running the arm of the law and its ever widening human and electronic net.

Shanklin is a character straight out of central casting and the only thing that separates him from Jason Bourne is a slight age gap. This story is more like an extended episode of 24 and Kiefer Sutherland would probably look quite good in the lead.

I came across Hunted while passing through Dublin airport recently, It's wasn't Sam Bourne's resounding commendation that drew my attention to it. But the tagline on the books back, which proclaimed that "The biggest manhunt in history is just beginning".

Rees delivers a pacy thriller, which comes as a surprise for a chap whose been writing romcom - chick lit for the past ten years. The locations and back story sound rather over romanticized, at times the book does feel as if it’s following a well worn path in the thriller genre and that Rees is thriller writing by numbers.

Let this not detract from a good read which has an excellent twist near the end, and speaking of endings this isn't a one off, the sequel Wanted will be out in 2012. If Rees keeps up with the snappy single verb titled books, he'll enter Jeff Abbott territory and may even have him looking over his shoulder very soon.