The Last Days of Jack Sparks – Jason Arnopp – 21.06.25

This is a fun comedy horror story for the modern age. The titular character, Jack, sees himself as the next Louis Theroux, taking investigative journalism to new levels with books and social media platforms detailing the extreme lengths he goes to – taking various drugs and infiltrating gang culture for example. His latest project is to debunk supernatural claims of hauntings, possessions and exorcisms.

The resulting book is like ‘found footage’ pieced together by the Jack’s brother. Both Jack and his brother come across as quite unlikeable and not very reliable narrators, but this isn’t a problem, in fact, I think it adds to the fun.

It’s a horror book, so we know how ‘debunking’ claims of supernatural activity is going to turn out, and the fact that the brother has to piece together bits of written text, video and other media to tell the story give us a clue that it’s not going to end well for Jack (and the title of the book I guess lol!).

There are nice nods to classics in the horror genre, and on the whole I really enjoyed reading this book.

Possession: A Romance Audiobook – A. S. Byatt (Author), Samuel West (Narrator) – 20.06.25

I have read a few of these ‘literary detective’ type novels, where contemporary characters discover journals, or letters or other documents from the past and piece together stories of the people involved and for some reason they always leave me pretty cold. I just don’t get why anyone would be that bothered by the loves and lives of long dead people. I get that in this case the lives being uncovered are of famous writers and for the academics finding them it is a career changing coup, but still, I just didn’t care that much.

I did quite like both the poetic bits and the short mythological stories – because I read this as an audiobook, I didn’t have the hard work of reading the poetry but got to enjoy listening to it being read.

I thought the parallels between the relationships of the modern characters and the historical ones was quite interesting, but not enough for me to feel anything one way or the other – more like looking at people through a microscope than making friends with them.

Not one of my favourite books.

April in Spain: A Strafford and Quirke Murder Mystery – John Banville – 16.06.25 The Lock-Up: A Strafford and Quirke Murder Mystery – John Banville – 07.07.25

The Drowned: A Strafford and Quirke Murder Mystery – John Banville – 12.07.25

I read Snow a while ago, and wasn’t sure how much I liked it, but for some reason I bought the other three books in the series and read them. These books remind me of the Morse books, except that they are set (mostly) in Ireland in the 1950s.

If instead of a grumpy, alcohol abusing, intellectual, always gets-his-man, detective, Morse, you have a grumpy, alcohol abusing, intellectual, always gets-his-man, pathologist, Quirke, and instead of his nice, northern, well meaning, sidekick, Lewis, you have a nice, protestant (they keep making a thing out of his being protestant – I guess because of the colonial aspect of Protestantism in Ireland) well meaning, sidekick, Strafford, you have this series.

I actually really liked April in Spain, largely because of the Quirke’s second wife who has quite a large role in this book. She reminded me of Nelly from the 2024 season of The Great British Bake Off – if you’ve seen the show you’ll remember Nelly as the funny, jolly, nicely rotund lady who had been through tough times but still smiled, joked and made cake. Quirke’s wife gave a him much needed softer side and brought some light to the fairly dark and turgid world of murder that is his job.

The other two books plunged back into darkness without the light of the wife and while they are clearly well written and the mystery aspect was engaging, I found them a bit of a slog to get through.

A Promise of Ankles (44 Scotland Street Book 14) – Alexander McCall Smith – 09.06.25

It’s a while since I’ve read any Alexander McCall Smith books, to the point that I wasn’t sure if I’d read this one already or not – it’s hard to keep track as I have some on kindle, some on Audible and some as physical copies (some of which I’ve given away),and he has written about 47 million novels, and in a sense it doesn’t really matter since they’re all pretty much the same.

When I want something sweet and gentle and predictable (like a favourite comfort food or old movie) a 44 Scotland street book will usually hit the spot – I did quite enjoy it. I have to spread them out, as I do get annoyed by the sameness of them, especially since they are often very expensive for a lightweight read.

Typical stuff with Bertie’s mum being awful, Bertie’s dad being pathetic and Bertie being wise beyond his years, and the other cast members pontificating and having misunderstandings. I pick them up when they’re on offer and will keep reading, but I won’t go out of my way to pay full price for the next in series.

Julia (AUDIOBOOK) – Sandra Newman, Narrated by: Louise Brealey – 07.06.25

I remember reading 1984 in the late 1980s when I was eighteen and being completely blown away by it – the scene where Winston realises that there had been a viewscreen behind the painting the whole time made my heart drop. I re-read it recently in preparation for reading this and was somehow less impacted by it (perhaps because I was no longer surprised?!)

So, Julia was Winston’s love interest in 1984 – I strongly recommend reading that book first if you haven’t already, and this new novel is telling the same story but from her point of view.

My feelings about the book went on a bit of a rollercoaster – at first I really didn’t like Julia’s character – she seemed more than happy to use her sexuality for personal gain and there were several quite explicit scenes which I thought were unnecessary. However, like many good books, the character’s journey, both themselves, and in the readers opinion of them changes as they experience new things and learn more about the world, and as we experience and learn more about their backstory which led them to the behaviours and choices that they made.

By the end of the book I felt much more sympathetic towards Julia and her part in things – she was very much as much of a victim of the controlling and terrifying state as Winston had been and we almost feel her betrayal and growing awareness of it all the more.

A clever and unnerving book with an ending which just draws you into a vicious circle of depressing understanding of the worst of humanity.

Never Flinch: Holly Gibney Book 4 – Stephen King (AUDIOBOOK)Narrated by: Jessie Mueller – 29.05.25

I love Stephen King’s Holly Gibney books. She is such a good character – high functioning autistic and very truthful and insightful and brave. In this book at least two threads weave together – one of a serial killer who promises to kill thirteen innocent and one guilty person, and the other, Holly taking on a job as a bodyguard to a radical feminist writer/speaker who has been getting death threats.

Holly as a body guard is a bit of a stretch as she is not a very physical person but on the other hand she is quick witted and intuitive and has got out of many dangerous situations in the past, and the feminist who hired her wanted female intelligence over male brawn.

Some reviewers have complained that this series of Stephen King books have been too political, but I don’t mind that (maybe because I seem to be mostly in agreement with his leanings!).

Once again poor Barbara (younger sister of Jerome, who sometimes helps out at Holly’s detective agency) gets caught up in dangerous situations, although this time there is nothing supernatural in the plot, just a good old fashioned murder mystery thriller.

I found the novel to be very enjoyable and I can’t wait for the next Holly Gibney books (I certainly hope there will be more!).

Strange New World: Dr. Greta Helsing, Book 4 – Vivian Shaw (AUDIOBOOK) – 27.05.25

Strange New World: Dr. Greta Helsing, Book 4

I have loved the Greta Helsing series, one of my favourite urban fantasy series with a strong female lead character and lots of fun mythology, humour and gripping plots.

That said, I can’t help feeling that this book was not quite up to the standard of the previous books. I liked the whole angels and demons trying to get along bit, which although very reminiscent of Good Omens, was different enough to be not just a rip off, but it felt almost just like dragging out things from the previous books rather than coming up with something new and exciting.

Hmmm, I feel bad being negative at all, because as I said already this is a very good series that I am enjoying very much.

I just looked at other people’s reviews on Amazon and a few are saying that this is going to be the final book in the series. I hope they are wrong because I want more!

James – Percival Everett (BOOKGROUP)(AUDIOBOOK) Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman – 20.05.25

This was my book group read for the summer and I read (or listened) to it during my book group holiday from our home in Belfast to the Isle of Wight. I listened on the flight over as well as on my two early morning runs that I did on the trip so that was fun!

This is a retelling of the Huckleberry Finn story but from the perspective of Jim the slave. I kind of remember the plot of Huck Finn (I should really have re-read it before tackling this), I’m sure I read it at school (a LONG time ago!!) and it’s one of those stories that is just out there in our western cultural heritage.

I found the book to be very emotive in many ways, for example reading about the way James schooled the other slaves to hide their intelligence and appear stupid and meek because if the white folks felt threatened by them they would treat them worse, and of course the violence and casual de-humanising that was almost normal.

There are many stories about the terrible atrocities of slavery and racism but it was still shocking and hard to read some of the scenes of brutality and callous treatment of people of colour by white people and even by people of African ancestry but with pale enough skin to pass as white.

I didn’t see the ending coming, although I should have looking back, which is the mark of a story very well told.

I really liked the narrator’s voice!

Whisper in the Wind: Fetch Phillips, Book 4 Audiobook – Luke Arnold (Author, Narrator) – 12.05.25

I really like this series of fantasy noir.

Fetch Phillips was a private eye in Sunder city – once home to all manner of magical creatures but now since the event that Fetch is at least partly responsible for that removed all magical power from the world, these creatures at best must find new ways to live and at worst sicken and die. Currently Fetch has turned his back on sleuthing to run his friend’s abandoned café and spends his days making coffee and bacon rolls. When he shelters some young people from corrupt policemen the café gets drawn into a youth culture of rebellion and blurred lines between good and bad and going too far.

Fetch is irascible but good hearted and filled with guilt and a desire to do the right thing and support the oppressed and can’t resist following clues to get to the heart of things. The book ends on something of a cliff hanger tease which leaves me eager for the next instalment.

Sunrise on the Reaping: A Hunger Games Novel – Suzanne Collins (Audiobook) Narrated by – Jefferson White – 07.05.25

I approached this hunger games prequel with a mixture of irritation and excitement – irritation because it’s basically the same story again – noble but powerless teen sacrificially causes themselves to be picked for the reaping and tries their best to be defiant and stand up to the terrible capital society and government while also staying alive and helping their weaker allies; and excitement because of course I’m going to read it for all the reasons above!

This is Haymitch Abernathy (the drunken mentor from district 12 who looked after Catniss) ‘s backstory and after reading all the way to the end you can very much understand how he ended up so jaded and so dependent on alcohol to numb his pain. Oh my word, without wanting to give spoilers, all I can say is I found the ending of this book to be so moving and I felt outraged and hollowed out by what happened to poor Haymitch.