First Thoughts
Review: Roddy Brooks
THE name Kay Scarpetta means one thing. A knife-edge thriller based on the exploits of the toughest female pathologist ever to conduct an autopsy.
But Dr Scarpetta, now in her 19th novel by the prolific Patricia Cornwell, is so much more than an ordinary scientist.
In this latest adventure, she once again puts her own life, and those of the people she holds nearest and dearest, on the line in a battle to outwit a calculating killer, solve a major crime and save thousands of innocent lives from a painful and agonising death.
Cornwell has built a reputation as a leader in the field of forensic science and through Scarpetta has won an army of fans, and also awards for her painfully accurate writing.
If you like your fiction fast-paced with a scientific twist, Cornwell delivers once again, and if you are new to Scarpetta, you are sure to be hooked by the end of the first chapter.
Penguin,
£16.99; Kindle £10.49
Review: Patrick Bodenham
ALTHOUGH not officially connected to the popular television comedy, the diaries of Col Rodney Foster, an ex-cartographer who meticulously documented his role in the Home Guard during the Second World War, will be familiar to fans of fictional Captain Mainwaring and his men.
They recount in startling detail one of the extraordinary lives of ordinary people in a country under siege.
From his home overlooking the sea — over which the Battle of Britain took place — Foster writes about his years as part of a motley crew which would make up the UK’s last line of defence if the Germans invaded.
The diaries are, by any reading, plainly written. But the tense realism of this account of life in Kent, nicknamed Hellfire Corner because of the sheer ferocity of aerial combat its residents witnessed, is a must-read for anybody interested in this period.
Richard Branson
Virgin Books,
£12.99; Kindle £7.03
Review: Caroline Davison
ENTREPRENEUR and adventurer Richard Branson turns his thoughts towards sustainability and looking after the world — and each other — in Screw Business As Usual.
He tells of the work he has already been involved in to try to tackle Aids, poverty and our carbon footprint, through business and equipping people to change their own lives.
His wonderful anecdotes include how he formulated a group called The Elders, a small hub of influential, successful business leaders who work together to shape the development of the world and policy. Those involved have included Nelson Mandela, Al Gore, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu.
But that’s both the draw and drawback of this book. Branson’s first-hand accounts of driving change are inspirational on the one hand, but on the other leave the reader questioning what they can do to help. Too few pages deal with the little guy’s contribution.
Haruki Murakami
Harvill Secker.
Book One And Book Two, £20;
Book Three, £14.99; Kindle £6.79
Review: Shereen Low
THERE’S an alternate universe where ‘Little People’ emerge out of dead bodies and spin web-like creations out of thin air. Welcome to the surreal world of Haruki Murakami.
The Japanese novelist’s 13th work of fiction, 1Q84, is a mind-bending ode to George Orwell’s 1984. Split over three books (books one and two are in one volume, while three is separate), 1Q84 centres on two characters, contract killer Aomame and teacher-turned-writer Tengo.
Set in 1984, Aomame’s world changes when she is given the mission to murder the superhuman founder of a religious cult. Her childhood friend Tengo is drawn into an inexplicably strange world after he rewrites the debut novel of a 17-year-old girl. Part tense thriller and part spell-binding romance, this will captivate devotees of Murakami’s imaginative mind. Its length may daunt new readers.
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