"No land to light on" by Yara Zgheib

An audio book.

Sama (a Harvard PhD student - bird/human migration) is waiting at arrivals at Boston airport, pregnant. Her waters break. She has an emergency birth at 28 weeks. Her husband Hadi (a refugee) already lives there, but he's having trouble when returning at customs. He's been in Jordan dealing with his father's death. He's sent back to Jordan. Later he finds out that Trump has banned flights. It's 2017.

We go back to how they met, and Sama's departure from Damascus. The PoV switches between him and her. She wanted to go to the US. He fled there, missing home. The timelines jump around - not confusingly, but more than strictly necessary.

He's worried about being returned to Syria from Jordan - he's a wanted man there. His Jordan visa only lasts a month. His US visa has been revoked. He visits the US embassy in Jordan, but Trump's ban had started so suddenly that nobody knows what to do. But at least he can sometimes phone her.

He fears (puzzlingly) that his son won't speak Arabic. He suggests that she takes the baby from the incubator and fly to Jordan - or anywhere. The baby is very premature, quite likely to die. She spends nights in the hospital. He survives. She packs her husband's possessions into 2 cardboard boxes. He leaves his Jordan hotel room, throws away his passport.

Her prof tell her that he and his mother had to flee from Hungary, that his unhappy mother never properly learnt English. He never saw his father again. But he has faith in the American Dream.

Symbolic bird migration details are inserted. There aren't so many migrating birds nowadays - they're often hunted in the middle East and elsewhere. They grow anxious when it's time to leave, leaving altogether. Their flight-paths sometimes make little sense. They have an important role in spreading seeds, giving plants a chance to survive climatic changes.

I don't find admin/redtape problems interesting even if they're unfair. And the reasons for their attraction to each other aren't obvious.

Other reviews

• Zachary Houle (No Land to Light On, despite its crucial subject matter, is deeply flawed in places. There’s text interspersed throughout the novel about the migratory pattern of birds (Sama’s area of expertise) that doesn’t add much to the book — and, at times, I wasn’t sure what the point of these interjections was or what they had to do with the events between Hadi and Sama. ... Finally, there isn’t a lot of backstories to these characters aside from when they met and how their romance developed)
• Lorraine Berry

"Little Red Death" by A. K. Benedict

An audio book.

Whose fault is it if a character dies? The author's or the reader's?

Kate, a 40 y.o. writer, wakes in an attic. She's asked by her captor (The Wolf - he wears a latex mask) to write murder stories in the style of fairy tales so he can enact them. His previous captive refused. He killed her.

Kate writes a Cinderella-based piece where a rich girl buys a cheap dress. He goes and kidnaps a rich girl, Grace, brings her back to the house. Kate notices that her own room contains her old books. Maybe if she wrote a chapter about her escape, she'd escape.

Lyla, a hard-working detective (her boss is Rebecca, her colleague is Jimmy), investigates the case. 25 years before, her friend Alison disappeared, a poisoned red/green apple left behind. Alison had helped Lyla when her parents died. She visits Grace and Francis's house in Lymington. She meets a herb/mushroom seller, Millicent, at a market. She thinks that the wood tells her things, that the myceleum passes on messages. Lyla thinks a police person is leaking info to the press.

The writer writes another story, making the Wolf the hero. She writes a story about twins killed in a wood. She drops clues into the stories, hoping the police will discover them. She explores the house. There's a cellar, of course. She gets trapped there.

Teresa, now a journalist, was at school with Lyla, and had made fun of her when Alison disappeared. When a body is found, Teresa's at the press meeting. Then dead twins are found, sprinkled with gingerbread crumbs and myceleum.

Lyla finds a book called "Little Red Death" in a BskyB-style cottage. She's a character in it. Back home, she realises that she's never seen her flatmate Annie. She knows as much about her as there would be in an introductory paragraph. They just leave each other notes. She questions Annie's reality, then her own and Alison's.

Kate learns that (the Wolf's?) ex was killed by someone who copied the method from a book written by Kate's predecessor.

She can hear Kate's voice in her head. Kate explains about the red herrings, and points out that murderers should be introduced early. The next body is found on the Isle of Wight.

The kidnapper leaves Kate with pills and drink. She tries to kill herself. Lyla saves her and calls an ambulance.

The next story is based on Rapunzel. Rebecca uses extensions. She's kidnapped.

Tattooist Ellen recognises the tattoo - the Wolf is Ben Unsworth. Alison had been his sister by adoption. There's been no record of Alison for years. The police see Unsworth in a boat called "The Tower" and follow him. Katy's shot by the Wolf, who falls overboard. She thanks Lyla for giving her meaning. Jimmy is knifed. Lyla finds Alison in the boat. She's one of the Wolf's writers. But is someone writing her? Lyla works out that when a person has tinnitus it's because they're being written about. She says she was molested by her father and ran away from home. Lyla was Alison's imaginary friend. She tells Lyla that she's the lead character and that lead characters always have a choice. Writers leave breadcrumbs of their selves. The murderer gives them 3 guesses about his/her identity. Rebecca's behind it all.

It's an audio book, so I expect I missed many allusions and connections. I like many of the constituent ideas (the tinnitus for example) and the overall meta-plot. Sometimes (e.g. when Lyra hears Katy in her head) a mechanism feels like an easy way out of a technical problem. In a world where anything is possible I like there to be some rules. Maybe the rule is that only the lead character can communicate telepathically with the author?

Other reviews

• Jen Med (A kind of Grimm fairy tales, police investigation, metafiction mash up)

"Everything is not enough" by Lola Akinmade Åkerström

An audio book.

Stockholm. Black women's struggles - do they need need to learn Swedish? Trophy wives? Problems adapting to Swedish society - an average weight US woman might seem plump in Sweden.

• Yasmin arrived from Africa thanks to a sex client connected to the embassy. She's married to Turkish businessman Yagiz. She has a child. She's a beautician.
• Brittany-Rae, early 40s, ex flight stewardess, married rich Jonny. She has a child. She thinks Jonny never loved her - she was a replacement. She wants to start a fashion company and divorce him. She may need to cash in on her looks - she's described as the Nordic Naomi
• Kemi works for Jonny - the company's token black. Her boyfriend, Tobias, is a rather feckless black.

• Yasmin is questioned about Muna. She hasn't seen her for a year. They had the same social worker, Yasmin's her next-of-kin. Her husband Yagiz has seen her more recently. Had they been having an affair? Muna is in Karolinska Hospital having thrown herself under a train, a leg partially amputated. She finds out about Akmed, Muna's friend who killed himself, and his box of souvenirs
• Brittany covertly seeks a divorce lawyer and with the help of his PA Eva researches into his many past lovers. Did Jonny murdered his teenage girlfriend?
• Kemi sleeps with Ragnor, a married white colleague. She can't explain the attraction. When he's sad after his wife's late miscarriage, she sleeps with him again. She's sacked. Tobias leaves her.

Jasmin does Brittany's hair. Jasmin's wife has a cleaning contract with Brittany's husband. Muna's last job was with that company.

• Yasmin learns about the atrocity that Akmed witnessed and contacts a relative. She helps Muna rehabilitate. Yagiz is convicted of running various supply rings.
• Jonny's mother (a racist) killed Jonni's ex and daughter. Jonny gives Brittany a generous divorce.
• Kemi's pregnant. But who's the father? Turns out that it's Tobias. Twins!

Other reviews

• Anne Eliot Feldman (Despite their considerable talents and energy, they are relegated to the margins, their dreams threatened by a white-dominated society set up to prefer homogeneity ... alternation among three close-third-person POVs)
• justreadit (I found it really hard to follow Kemi’s story as it was more than a little frustrating to watch her lean into an affair which she admits did not serve her. ... Brittany’s storyline was another exercise in patience. It felt like for at least half the book, she was just going in circles ... Yasmin’s story, and by extension Muna’s, was really powerful and riveting to read. ... I have very mixed feelings about this novel – I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t love it. As well-written as it was in some parts, it also felt a bit disjointed in places. The ending was rushed and too neatly resolved, which jarred with the drama of first half of the book.)

"Harbor Lights" by James Lee Burke

An audio book. Short stories.

• Harbor lights - It's 1942. The narrator, Aaron, is in a fishing boat with his father in the Gulf of Mexico. There are 4 bodies in the water. His father radios that an oil tanker has gone down. He tells his son that a U-boat did it, but that the government will suppress the news. His father, an ex-soldier, had wanted to be a writer. He came from a principled family, his father sacrificing his court career for principles. He drinks. Agents threaten to blackmail him (he has a cultured mistress, Florence). He tells the papers about the ship going down. Florence is imprisoned as a suspected spy. A week later she hangs herself. Years later he witnesses an electric chair execution.
• Going across Jordan - 2 young drifters go from job to job. One, Buddy, is a union man (a "communist"), the other, Arbee, is an escaped convict. Their current job is breaking in horses for a minor movie star, Clint. Clint lets Buddy borrow his car so he can bring his black girlfriend Bernadette back and Clint can rape her. Agents talk to the drifters. They leave town. Buddy gives Bernadette the money to follow them. She does. Arbee realises that she and Buddy are intellectually better suited together than he and she are. Buddy tries to get Clint in trouble as revenge. They have to leave town again. Buddy sacrifices himself so that Arbee and Bernadette can settle down happily together.
• Big midnight spend - 1943. Aaron's in a prison with Lifers. He treasures his guitar. There's an electric chair. People tell him he shouldn't be such a purist (i.e. he should be pragmatic). Jodie, the prisoner with power, wants him to submit.
• Deportees - His mother is frigid and depressed. She's had ECT. Mr Watts touches him. She challenges Mr Watts. He gets 2 Mexicans deported. Her father tries to take revenge. Perhaps she does.
• The assault - A prof's 17 y.o. daughter is involved with an assault. She was drunk. She may have suffered some brain damage - she starts having fits. The prof asks the police, (Carter) then talks to the assailants - trailer trash who say that the girl behaved badly. The prof wasn't innocent in the past. He hit a cop. He and his wife were both lecturers. One night, after an argument his daughter overheard, he suggested she should leave. She drove off drunk and died in an accident. He befriends Tina, a black colleague who does Minority Studies. He pressurises Carter to follow up his daughter's case (Tina's been threatened by the people who attacked his daughter). At a lake they're intimidated by 3 men. Tina gets out a gun and shoots their tires. The police find out about the gun incident and his past. Carter's partner gives the prof info. One of the assaillants - a woman, apologises to the prof's daughter. The 3 men assault her. He kills the 3 men.
• The Wild Side of Life - He's an oil explorer. When he was abroad, colleagues had gratuitously bombed natives. He's in a bar when Loreen talks to him. Her husband batters her. He warned that she's married and dangerous. He sleeps with her and finds out that her husband was the bomb-dropping colleague. He thinks about taking revenge but a storm starts and he sees more dead bodies than he saw in the war.
• Strange Cargo - He's a widower - a teacher with a half-oriental boy. His car's broken down in a small, remote place. In the war he tried to save a native boy. While his car's being mended by a man he doesn't trust, a woman befriends him and his son. There's racism. The woman claims to be the wife of a confederate leader and goes back in time to save the boy he failed to save in the war. He sees his friend who died in battle. The place is full of ghosts, he realises, some hoping to go elsewhere. They take his son. A ghost of his ancestor arrives.
• A distant war - a old writer, Aaaron, has money and wants to build an animal sanctuary, but the sheriff's against it. The sheriff seems racist and homophobic. He defends himself by pointing out that he's promoted a black female colleague. The writer's daughter, Fanny May, died from drink and drugs, visiting him often as a ghost. He blames himself for her death having taking her to bars. He and his daughter need each other to stay in touch with their other worlds. His gay doctor tells him he might have cancer. He doesn't want further tests. He thinks a fatal car accident may have been caused by a black but should he report this to the racist policeman? He gives jobs to 3 petty criminals. He sees white men torture a black man. Next day he thinks the sheriff might have been one of them. He sees the doctor killing alligators - revenge, the doctor says, for the alligator killing an escaped slave. The doctor is brutally murdered. Fanny says she's having to go and he's in danger. The black policewoman warns him about his workers and the sheriff. He visits her. She kills someone in supposed self-defence.

Police are usually corrupt. Corrupt male police have female colleagues who (off the record) disagree with them. Revenge, both by police and public, may have to be unofficial. White liberal male teachers/lecturers are attacked by poor whites as much for their class as their views.

Other reviews

• Diane Lechleitner (While some stories in the collection share characters from the same families, others are stand-alones and this causes a lack of cohesiveness. However, the themes of prison, violence, memories of war, despair, morality, survival, and the underbelly of society are consistently woven throughout Harbor Lights.)
• Kirkus reviews (The best stories are the most sharply focused: “Harbor Lights” ... “The Assault” ... “A Distant War” ... Burke’s not a polisher bent on perfecting every word but a bard who can’t help returning to each story over and over again. )

"Nude modelling for the afterlife" by Henry Normal (Bloodaxe, 1993)

Poems from Channel 4, BBC radio 4, BBC radio 5, etc

Not enough here for a book, let alone a Bloodaxe book of 56 pages. I liked "Mime doesn't pay" and "The breath within the balloon". Here are the other worthwhile bits -

• I leaflet therefore I am (about the Edinburgh festival, p.13)
• May your road maps never refold (p.22)
• Like most kids I suppose I was a natural surrealist.// I used to think nothing of playing football for hours in my cowboy outfit ... the British Eighth Army desert patrol Airfix soldiers would fight off the alien spaceship which was always made out of Lego and manned by Fuzzy-Felt farm animals (p.33)
• The reflection in the back of God's spoon (p.44)
• Last night I was burgled by a mime artist ... he tried to steal a piano I haven't got.// He pushed and he pulled, but it wouldn't move ("Mime doesn't pay", p.49)
• "The mutually assured destruction of Mr and Mrs Jones" (just the title, p.52)
• Buy World War One, get World War Two free (p.53)
• I have spent my whole life trying to enter the gates of Heaven using my heart as a battering ram (p.62)

"Dead girl walking" by Chris Brookmyre

3rd person: Jack Parlabane is interviewed by detectives Mitchell and Pine about his time as an investigative journalist. He’d come by a laptop with info showing that the government had rigged evidence to make it look like terrorists had committed the government’s crimes. He's spent time in prison (perhaps wrongly) and is going through a divorce with Sarah.

1st person: Monica (earlier in time than the other time-line) narrates her first tour with the group.

The time-lines alternate.

Mari, the agent of Savage Earth Heart (an indie group that had gone more commercial and just signed a big contract), asks him to look for their lead singer Haike (mother died young - overdose - and father was a significant artist). He interviews most of the rest of the group. The fiddle player Monica isn't there. She's new – a classically trained girl from the Hebrides. She’s almost a virgin with a boyfriend Keith. Scott, Rory and Damian (37) don't say much new. Haike was a control freak, disliking the group using drugs and sleeping with under-age groupies. She was bi or gay. She'd had a long argument with the merch girls on the tour bus.

Monica had replaced Max, Haike's ex. Max is suing her for song co-credits. Haike wants to bring out the real Monica - she thinks Monica's shy persona is just an image. Haike makes a pass which Monica rejects. Haike knows a female fan is stalking her and invites her to the after-concert events. In Haike's room, Haike found that she and Hanna had so much in common and understood her lyrics. Haike made a pass and Hanna hared out. Haike discovers that that Merch girls on the tour bus are hookers. She suspects that they're being held against their will. Jan, the tour manager, is involved. She tries to alert the police about it. Monica and Haike receive threats. Photos of them kissing go online. Keith is enraged - he's just got promotion and is thinking of their future together. Monica sleeps with the male drummer, which upsets Haike.

Parlabane discovers that the roadies were involved with supplying drugs. He goes to Berlin with Mari to find clues. He knows he's being followed. Someone tries to push him under a U-bahn. On the CCTV of the hotel where Haike was last seen, Keith appears, angry. Maybe the people chasing Parlabane (Boris, etc) are after Haike. He realises that there are secrets on Boris's iPad that he keeps with him. Parlabane infiltrates his workplace and gets into his iPad. On it he finds a copy of Monica's private blog (the 1st person timeline text)

A friend of Hanna's tells Monica and Haike that Hanna was Haike's half-sister - Haike's Berlin-druggie mother hadn't died. Hanna was a mid-european whore, like the merch girls. So was Hanna's friend. She needed $12k to buy herself out. When Haike offers the money to the thugs, they raise the price (they want to be paid in watches). At the exchange, Hanna is killed. Haike shoots her murderer dead. The murderer had a cop's ID card! They escape.

Hanna's found dead. Parlabane turns down the chance of a night with Mari - he's known/fancied her since school days but hopes to return to his wife. They learn that Haike got a train ticket to Denmark on the day she disappeared, and bought 2 expensive watches. He guesses that she's on Isla with Flora, a woman who she treated like a mother (he'd interviewed the woman before. She owned a boat). Parlabane and Mari catch up with Monica on the ferry. They all meet Haike.

Boris wants a million euros to hush Haike's killing of the man. The meeting place is a boat. They set out on Flora's boat. They have police below-deck. Boris is arrested.

It was all a scam - the "Spanish Prisoner" trick. The man wasn't dead. The Hanna story was fake. The roadie who grew up with Haike provided info for the perpetrators.

A clever plot, so I'll forgive the odd creaky detail. The dialogue is interesting. Sometimes we learn of a fact first in one timeline, sometimes in the other. There's a sub-theme of people and their generated images - Monica, Parlabane, as well as "Hanna". The over-arching plot (the book's part of the series) doesn't interfere too much.

Other reviews

• bookreporter (If there is a downside to this latest offering by Christopher Brookmyre, it’s that it takes a while to ultimately get to it. ... The problem with the narrative is that Brookmyre tends to go off on rants that have little or nothing to do with the actual story. )
• John Cleal (The relationship between the naive Monica and the driven Heike Gunn, told in the first person, is surprisingly convincing and well written. Brookmyre, as well as having a lively imagination, writes the female roles well, although his characters all tend to speak with a masculine voice. ... This is hardly the greatest book I’ll read this year, largely because of my problems with reconciling the character of Jack with either a man of principle or any reporter I’ve known. But it really is a very good story)
• Kirkus reviews (A complex back story and some awkward attempts to convey the magic of the lost singer’s music make for a slow start. But Brookmyre [] builds momentum and combines the two distinct narrative voices in a clever duet.)

"A straightforward guide to writing romantic fiction" by Kate Walker (Straightforward publishing, 2002)

• Unlike other genres whose popularity fluctuates up and down, the popularity of romances stays consistently high (p.9)
• As the majority of readers of romantic fiction are women, the character of the heroine is central to their enjoyment of the novel (p.17)
• Readers can't identify with your heroine unless they have a very clear idea of what she looks like (p.19)
• If the heroine is the reader's guide into the story, the 'eyes' through which the action is seen, the hero is the character most likely to be remembered (p.25)
• In some senses, a hero is always a mystery to the heroine (p.28)
• In fiction there can be a very narrow line between being a gentle man and being a wimp (p.29)
• at times, the hero must play the role of both the hero and the villian (p.30)
• The run-up to the final pages are often described as the 'But you said ...' section (p.65)
• the present story always affects the reader much more than the past (p.120)
• A book should try to be at least 60% dialogue no more than 40% narrative (p.123)

Many typos - see the final quote above, for example. And there are many extra spaces near apostrophes.