I find it is always a balancing act when writing reviews, trying not to spoil the plot for would-be readers but giving some sense of what lies between the book’s covers.
Cambridge Black is the seventh in Alison Bruce’s DC Gary Goodhew series. I am sure most readers will like myself have read some, possibly all of the preceding books and have a familiarity with the characters.
The story centres around three quest’s, Amy’s for the truth concerning her father’s conviction for murder, Sue Gully’s search for her father and Gary Goodhew’s hunt for those responsible for his grandfather’s murder.
The story is well-plotted and paced.
Cambridge is as all the Goodhew novels the setting for Cambridge Black. Alison Bruce has a great affection for the city which shows in the writing. I enjoy the familiarity of many places in the story, probably something I share with other fans.
I thoroughly enjoyed the twisting turning story as DC Goodhew and the team pursue the perpetrators of a current and simultaneously two other historic unsolved cases. The writing as always is exceptionally fine, the descriptions and scene-setting excellent. I was racing through the pages towards the end as the story reached its nail-biting climax.
This was retiring DI Marx’s last case; I hope it won’t be the last case for DC Gary Goodhew too.
The Authorised Guide to Grunty Fen by Christopher South
I was at Niche Comics Bookshop in Huntingdon a few weeks ago delivering copies of my books, when my gaze fell on The Authorised Guide to Grunty Fen by Christopher South.
Dennis of Grunty Fen was a celebrated resident of this unusual place and appeared weekly in conversation with Christopher South on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. When I managed to listen to them I was usually reduced to uncontrollable laughter, accounts of Hereward the Wake and his racing punt, the undiscovered vaults beneath Ely Cathedral are just two of the incidents discussed by Dennis and Christopher. There is many, many, many, more each one a gem.
This book gives an account of the area its architecture and inhabitants, it is a long time since I laughed so much that the tears rolled down my face. The Grunty Fen in this book has only mild exaggerations of some of the buildings in the fens. Rusting corrugated iron, railway sleepers together with leaning buildings of all shapes and sizes are not uncommon. The book contains many excellent drawings by John Holder enhancing visually the pictures so eloquently painted in words by the author.
Day to day life in this remote area of the fens is described in detail. For example, the importance of rhubarb both as a staple part of the diet and a means of communication is carefully described as are local competitive sports, Drain Rodding as a sport is unique to the area.
Sadly Dennis, Pete Sayers, is no longer with us but his spirit lives on I am grateful for the pleasure he and Mr South gave me. Even now there are pilgrims asking directions to Grunty Fen from the surrounding villages in search if not of Dennis but Potts Garage, Mrs Edwards at the Post Office, The Wolseley Hen Coop Car and of course Dennis’s home the LNER carriage. Visitors are advised to be wary of Feral Nuns on Vespas.
This book is a wonderful reminder of Sunday mornings on Radio Cambridgeshire, the world is a poorer place without Dennis and the community of Grunty Fen.
There is actually a place called Grunty Fen
This was Grunty Fen in 1648 before much of the fens was drained
I am gradually reading all of Mrs Bruce’s Gary Goodhew books, The Promise is number six of seven.
Each succeeding book is better than the one preceding it; a difficult accomplishment when the first one, Cambridge Blue is so good.
The brutal murder of a homeless man, known to DC Gary Goodhew, prompts his early return to work while still recovering from injuries received during his last case. Cambridge is the setting for this and the books before it, is captured perfectly; the plot is intricate and convoluted, the characters are well drawn, the ending unexpected.
It is a really difficult book to put down until you have finished reading it I have ordered Cambridge Black and I am looking forward to reading it. It has The Promise of being an excellent read.
I confess Romantic Fiction is not a genre I would normally read, “Meet me in the tree house” is the first ever book of romantic fiction I have tried.
Kelly’s book is a well written, well crafted novel, exploring Emma’s grief and her accommodation with loss. The grief is for a dead friend. The loss is that of her marriage, itself another form of grieving. Grieving for the hopes, plans and dreams of a future now gone. Emma hesitates to form new relationships or revisit old ones; she is wary; worried that the history of her failed marriage may repeat itself.
We follow Emma as she tries to reconstruct her life and move on from a troubled past, it is an interesting journey and for me an informative one.
Kelly has I understand started on a second book, I can’t wait to read it.
I wrote this piece in 2014 I think but don’t recall posting it:
I came across a post on Linkedin recently promoting a piece of software that would automatically write articles on any chosen subject with material gathered by it from Google and other online sources.
Ultimately its’ main purpose seems to be to make websites more visible to Google, in order to improve search engine optimisation. For example I could start a search to produce an article on rose arches, I could specify its’ length and enrich its’ content to be full of the keywords suitable for my purposes. The sentences would be properly parsed and the result could be altered sufficiently to be largely original, references to sources can be included and identified. Whether at the end of the day anyone would find it as useful as something I had written (however badly) myself is another matter.
This undoubtably is a very clever piece of software and could save a lot of time. Whilst it is clever and possibly a masterpiece in software design it is ultimately to my way of thinking, in many ways totally devoid of real value or to be precise its’ output may well be devoid of value. If our purpose in life is to serve the interests, increase the status and the well being of Google and similar organisations then it is indeed potentially a tool of imense value. If on the other hand the real purpose of writing articles is to disseminate original thinking, communicate new ideas or engage in debate then its’ value is far less certain.
It could, it is fair to say, be used as a research tool, gathering together information easily and quickly but I think it more likely that it will become in the hands of the many, a means to produce items of very questionable value, except that is to the Google machine.
The question for me is whether or not we are losing the plot, this device seems to be the ultimate recycling tool, negating the need for research and scholarship. Taken to its’ furthest extreme it will end up recycling the recycled. Somewhere lurking in my memory is a paragraph or two from the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Assimov which alluded to something like this. Isaac Assimov was prophetic in many ways I hope in this instance he was wrong.
I searched for automated writing software today and there is a lot available. The thought that crosses my mind is that some of the prolific blog writers are perhaps not sharing their own thoughts with us but that of an automaton.
Alison has become one of my favourite authors and I am gradually reading her Gary Goodhew series. I say gradually with good reason. I enjoy her writing and read the books one at a time with an interval in between each one, so I enjoy each one as a fresh read.
“The Backs” is number five in the series and number six “The Promise” is sitting on the shelf ready for my next special occasion.
The Backs, as is all of Alison’s books, the ones I have read so far, set in and around Cambridge. I am familiar with the city and the surrounding area. For me, this familiarity is a bonus.
Following a violent scene-setting prologue the action moves what was for the story the present day, the Gog Magog hills at night, a burning car and the discovery of a gruesome murder.
Jane Osborne’s return to Cambridge sets the story off in another direction and the plot weaves around several different strands. DC Gary Goodhew and the team he belongs to gradually, start to untangle the events leading up to the murder and hitherto undiscovered crimes of the past. In the process darker, secrets emerge from their hiding places.
As with all Alison’s novels (the ones I have read so far), the characters are well-drawn and the plot multilayered, as each layer is lifted more is revealed underneath. Each time the reader thinks they may have an inkling of who the villain may be or the possible outcome the ground shifts underneath.
I have a back pack, my writing bag, that accompanies me on research trips, it was a Christmas present from my wife and it is very practical. The bag contains maps, notebooks, pens and something to eat. Sometimes I take a small tablet computer with me which fits inside nicely, a flask of drink and occasionally an umbrella clipped to the outside.
Often I will find somewhere to write while I am out, a library, a cafe, pub or even on a nice day a bench outside, in a park, a garden or other public space. My favourite writing places are probably libraries, there are additional means of research available using the library’s computers and internet.
My writing bag hasn’t been out at all this last year, unsurprising really with the lock down, I am beginning to assemble two new books in my mind and have written a few opening chapters for both. But I need to get out to visit the places I m writing about to find those extra details that Google cannot provide. At some point in the future I will need to return to Cambridge to help D I Arnold Lane with his enquiries. Hopefully soon it will be safe enough for a few day trips and excursions. My writing bag and me.
This is the second of Tony J Forder’s books featuring D I Bliss and his partner Detective Sergeant Penny Chandler.
Newly returned to Peterborough after twelve years away policing organised crime, DI Bliss joins the Major Crimes Team and immediately is thrown into a brutal murder enquiry. The murder appears to be the latest in a series. Bliss very quickly spots a possible link between a series of rapes and murders.
Penny Chandler now promoted to Detective Sergeant joins the enquiry as the rapes she has been investigating seem linked to the murders.
The search for the serial killer and rapist then becomes a desperate race against time to apprehend the culprit before he can add to his growing list of rape and murder victims.
The enquiry involves a trawl through old cases and incidents. When a pattern emerges a trip to the U.S.A. becomes a necessity to follow old leads. Bliss and Chandler know they are up against a deadline but don’t know what it is. Speed and accuracy are needed, the plot twists and turns as the desperate search accelerates to a cliff-hanging conclusion.
A satisfying, engaging, read, the characters are well-drawn and apart from the U.S.A., the settings are familiar to me.
Excellent, thank you, Mr Forder.
Degrees of Darkness is the next in the series and I shall be obtaining it before very long.
The Scent of Guilt is available on Amazon and from bookshops.
Dust-wrapper design by C W Bacon for The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler (1949).
Members of the Creative Writing Group, Whittlesey Wordsmiths, know of my affection for the author Raymond Chandler. He wrote during the thirties, forties and fifties. Starting to write after losing his job in the thirties a result of the great depression. Chandler was a depressive, alcoholic and womaniser but I believe wrote some of the greatest one-liners and similes.
Chandler’s hero was a Private Eye, Philip Marlowe, (I can’t fault his choice of forename.) Marlowe is a complex character and Chandler’s novels explore this complexity and depth.
I wrote this piece a few months ago but I thought I would share it with you now.
I am reading Playback sporadically at the moment while trying to finish (with considerable help) beating my own first novel Killing Time in Cambridge, into shape. Playback was Chandler’s last novel and the only one so far not to have been made into a film. It was while reading it that I rediscovered the piece that inspired this article:
“On the dance floor, half a dozen couples were throwing themselves around with the reckless abandon of a night watchman with arthritis.”
For me, it paints a picture with an economy of words.
I have dug out a few more of Chandler’s gems to share with you to enjoy.
“She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.” ~ Raymond Chandler Farewell, My Lovely ch. 18 (1940)
“It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.” ~ Raymond Chandler Farewell, My Lovely ch. 13 (1940)
“He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.” ~ Raymond Chandler 1940 Of Moose Malloy. Farewell, My Lovely, ch.1.
“Tall, aren’t you?” she said. “I didn’t mean to be.” Her eyes rounded. She was puzzled. She was thinking. I could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her.” ~ Raymond Chandler The Big Sleep: A Novel”, p.5,
“She had eyes like strange sins.” ~ Raymond ChandlerThe High Window: A Novel”, p.161,
“Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl’s clothes off.” ~ Raymond Chandler The Long Goodbye ch. 4 (1953)
“You’re broke, eh?” I’ve been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate.” ~ Raymond Chandler“The Big Sleep: A Novel”, p.90,
“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.” ~ Raymond Chandler “The High Window”. Book by Raymond Chandler, 1942.
“Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.” ~ Raymond Chandler“The Big Sleep: A Novel”, p.42,
These books are of their time as were Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes stories in a few sentences you are transported back to the time and place. Billy Wilder insisted on Chandler to write the screen play for Double Indemnity, he said, “No one writes dialogue better than Chandler.”
My wife lived in Warboys before we married and her brother still continues to live there in the family home. Fairly early on in our courtship and possibly before that as a resident of Huntingdon I was aware of the phrase the Witches of Warboys, I knew nothing of them other than that.
There was and is a pond in the centre of the village at the fork of the roads High Street and Mill Green it is called the Weir (pronounced ware). Popular legend suggests this is where the witches were tried for witchcraft and then drowned. The early method of determining guilt for witchcraft:
*It was a popular belief that a witch could not sink if submersed in water. Suspected witches were put through a process called “swimming” or “floating.” The victim’s left hand was tied to her right foot, and her right hand was secured to her left foot before she was thrown into a body of water. It was believed that the innocent would sink while the guilty remained afloat. Sometimes a rope was fastened around the suspect’s middle in case she proved her innocence by sinking beneath the water. Both the Church and the courts of law disapproved this method of proving guilt, but it was still practiced throughout England (Holmes 137).
The Weir at Warboys as it is now (photo credit Robert Hogg)
This wasn’t the case with the trial of 76 year old Alice Samuel, her husband John and her daughter Agnes.
Alice’s accuser was initially Jane (possibly Joan by some accounts) Throckmorton the 9 year old daughter of the Squire Robert Throckmorton. In November 1589 Jane accused Alice of causing her to suffer fits, Jane’s four sisters and some of the family’s servants began exhibiting similar symptoms. When Alice Samuel was brought to see the children their illness became worse and they had the urge to scratch her.
Robert Throckmorton was a close friend of Sir Henry Cromwell one of the wealthiest men in the country at that time and grandfather of Oliver Cromwell. Lady Cromwell visited the Throckmorton household in March 1590, whilst there she interviewed Alice Samuel at the family home the Manor House in Warboys. The interview served to confirm as far as Lady Cromwell was concerned the suspicions the Throckmortons had of Alice Samuel. During the interview, Lady Cromwell cut a lock of Alice’s hair and gave it to Mrs Throckmorton to burn, (a folk remedy believed to weaken the power of a witch).
Lady Cromwell was tormented by Alice Samuel in her dreams and later was taken ill and died (she was buried in 1592). This death and the events in Warboys were enough apperent proof to put Alice and her family on trial for Witchcraft
The Manor House at Warboys (Estate Agents photo Fine and Country)
From Wikipedia:
The Throckmorton family
“The first allegations declaring Alice as a practitioner of witchcraft were made in November 1589. Following this, there were a total of twelve maid-servants of the Throckmorton household (in addition to the five daughters) who experienced fits and the torment of Alice Samuell’s witchcraft. Jane’s fits were described as such: “Sometimes she would neese [sneeze] very loud and thick for the space of half an hour together; and evidently as one in a great trance and sound lay quietly as long, soon after would begin to swell and heave up her belly so as none was able to bend her or keep her down, sometime thee would shake one leg and no other part of her, as if the palsie had been in it, sometimes the other, presently she would shake one of her arms and then the other, and soon after her head as if she had with the running palsie”.
Jane’s mother and grandmother were by the child’s side while other neighbors came to see her. When Alice Samuel came in, the child proclaimed: “Grandmother look where the old witch sitteth (pointing to Samuell) did you ever see one more like a witch than she is: Take off her black thrumbed [shaggy or fringed] cap, for I cannot abide to look on her”. Jane’s mother thought nothing of this at first, thinking her child was sleep deprived and sick. However, because Jane continued to get worse, her parents sent her urine to Doctor Barrow of Cambridge, who sent medicine to Jane three separate times thinking it would heal her. It did not. After the third time, the Doctor inquired whether there were any signs of sorcery or witchcraft involved that the parents could see. Jane’s urine was then sent to a family acquaintance, Master Butler, for examination and he sent back the same remedies that Doctor Barrow had sent. Exactly a month later, on the same day almost to the hour, two more of Master Throckmorton’s daughters fell sick to the same illness that was afflicting Jane
These daughters, two to three years older than Jane, cried out: “Take her away, look where she standeth here before us in a black thrumbed cap it is she that hath bewitched us and she will kill us if you do not take her away”.
The parents were then worried, but could not understand why any such harm would come to them, for they had only moved into the town the “Michaelmas before” (September 29, 1588). Their youngest daughter, nine years old, fell sick less than a month later. Soon after this, the oldest daughter, fifteen years old, fell sick. She was sickest out of the five. Both cried out against Alice Samuell. Their eldest sister, had been the strongest, strived with the spirit, and was grievously tortured not being able to overcome it. This caused her to “(neefe), screech and groan very fearfully, sometimes it would heave up her belly and bounce up her body with such violence that she was not kept upon her bed”. When sitting in a chair, her fits often caused her to break that chair.
The daughters could not see, hear or feel while in these fits. They accused Mother Samuel, asking for her to be taken away. These fits would sometimes last for half a day and happened up to six or seven times a day. They believed that God freed them of this sorcery and afterwards, the sisters remembered nothing of what they had been saying. “
Following the death of Lady Cromwell in 1592 Alice Samuel was interviewed by a local clergyman she confessed to being a witch but withdrew her confession the next day, later she was interviewed by the Bishop of Lincoln and she confessed to him. She was imprisoned in Huntingdon together with her daughter and husband. The family were tried in April 1593 for the murder of Lady Cromwell by witchcraft. Alice’swords to Lady Cromwell,
“Madam, why do you use me thus? I never did you any harm as yet”, were used against her at the trial. All three were found guilty and hanged.
Following her execution, the hangman and his wife examined Alice’s body and found a witches mark, the so called third nipple, a teat like growth on the pendula. This was taken as proof of guilt.
There seems to be no apparent motive behind the actions attributed to Alice Samuel’s actions in relationship to the Throckmortons. Lady Cromwells’s assault on Alice could be said to be a motive but without the Throckmorton incidents Lady Cromwell wouldn’t have been involved.
Agnes during the trial ended Jane’s (Joan’s)fits by commanding the devil to leave her. She (Agnes) also adimitted she was a witch and was complicit in the murder of Lady Cromwell.
The fens at that time were a strange place, getting around was either by boat, horse or on foot. The watery landscape was a place of mists will o’ the wisps, strange lights and suddden unexplained disappearances, the threat of disease too was never far away. Herbal remedies were for most people the only medicines available, opium poppies were grown widely, the opium produced was used for treating the symptoms of amongst other things the Ague. There is a fine line between those making and supplying medicines and those thought to be involved in witchraft, particularly in a time of ignorance and superstition.
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