Books: New fiction

Published on Saturday 12 September 2009 11:26

Fever Of The Bone by Val McDermid is published in hardback by Little Brown, priced £18.99. Available now.

TV viewers will know criminal profiler Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan from the popular series Wire In The Blood, but their creator Val McDermid is the woman to turn to if you prefer your crime drama in the written form.

She's written 22 novels and won a number of awards – and on the evidence of Fever Of The Bone, it's easy to see why.

Changes are afoot at Bradfield, where Carol's new boss is out to cut her budget – and losing the services of Tony is top of the hit-list.

Instead, his skills are required in Worcester, where the discovery of the mutilated body of a teenage girl begins a hair-raising hunt for a serial killer who is choosing his victims via a social networking site.

If you're already a fan of McDermid, then this is a must-read. If you are new to her work, it is a fine introduction.

9/10 Review by Sandra Mangan

A Week In December by Sebastian Faulks is published in hardback by Hutchinson, priced 18.99. Available now.

The ambitious new novel from Sebastian Faulks is a satirical comedy about modern London life, touching on prescient issues concerning the state of the nation.

Set over seven days, Faulks brings together seven characters whose lives give way to explorations on Islamic radicalism, financial collapse, politics, reality TV and technology. The disparate lives of the characters intertwine at a dinner party, to which they were invited by the wife of a recently-elected MP. Central to the story is anti-hero John Veals, an insufferable hedge-fund manager whose main preoccupation is trading billions.

Other characters include a failed novelist, a disillusioned student on the brink of becoming a suicide bomber and a bright but otherwise unsuccessful lawyer.

A compelling page-turner.

7/10 Review by Trisha Andres

Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd is published in hardback by Bloomsbury, priced 18.99. Available now.

A chance encounter with a fellow solitary diner turns Adam Kindred's life upside down. Minutes after sitting in a quiet Italian restaurant, Kindred is on the run from a hired killer and has to leave all trace of his life as a climatologist behind.

He finds himself living rough and angrily vows to discover the reason for his downfall. His quest takes him along the Thames, the pumping artery through the story, from a Chelsea mansion to a run-down estate in east London. Kindred has blood on his hands, but the reason is far bigger than he could ever imagine.

Boyd goes into thriller mode with this, the most formulaic of his novels. But the story is gripping and characters are wonderfully three-dimensional.

8/10 Review by Emily Ashton

NEW NON-FICTION

Journey Of A Lifetime by Alan Whicker is published in hardback by Harper Collins, priced 20. Available now.

Broadcaster and author Alan Whicker's new book is a collection of some of his adventures and global travels over the past 55 years.

The 84-year-old began his career filming the war in Italy in the 1940s before he moved to Fleet Street and became a correspondent reporting on the Korean War.

In the 1950s he joined the BBC, travelling to Ramsgate to interview landladies. Whicker's World then followed, and the rest is television history.

With his charm, unflappable personality and dapper blazers, Whicker roamed the globe, visiting unusual locations, discovering charming and eccentric people such as the rich inhabitants of Palm Springs, a plastic surgeon in Florida, the descendants of Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian and the nuns of the silent Order of Poor Clares in the middle of England.

He also interviewed diverse figures such as President Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier in Haiti, American industrialist J Paul Getty and the Sultan of Brunei.

This book is such a joy to read, witty and reflective. Whicker's World was the father of fly on the wall documentaries – the likes of which we'll never see again.

10/10 Review by Laura Wurzal

James Lees-Milne: The Life by Michael Bloch is published in hardback by John Murray, priced 25. Available now.

This eagerly-awaited biography of the writer James Lees-Milne (1908-1997), whose delectably scandalous diaries have been likened to those of Samuel Pepys, is a joy to read. It is by Lees-Milne's literary executor and long-time friend, Michael Bloch, who has already produced well-edited editions of the diaries.

Lees-Milne was born into a "lower upper-class family" (his own description) and attended Eton. He ended up working for the National Trust in its early years before the Second World War and is credited with having saved for the nation some of England's greatest country homes.

Although homosexual, in middle-age he married an attractive but bossy lesbian, Alvilde Chaplin, who was a year younger than him. Miraculously, their strange and stormy union survived until she died in 1992.

This book presents a frank and sympathetic portrait of a complex, cultured and loveable man, whose literary output and fame grew as he aged. By the time he passed away, he had become a national treasure.

9/10 Review by Anthony Looch