"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.

"Blood oath" by Linda Fairstein

An audio book.

The narrator, Alexandra Cooper, a lawyer, is back to work after a case where her boss was shot dead. Her colleague, Helen Wyler, needs her help in a multiple rape case against S. Helen received txts from a witness which she should have forwarded to the defence. Instead she deleted them, and the judge knows. The judge, Corless, has been unfaithful to his wife. He tells Alexandra that his wife claims that he hit her.

Lucy, 24, no fixed abode, is brought to her office. She won't speak to the police. She's mixed race but looks white. When she was 14 and with 2 black friends her friends were shot dead. She was a witness. She's been done for a lot of shoplifting. She tells Alex about a rape case. Nobody took her seriously. A photo in the police station might have triggered a reaction.

She tries to cancel Lucy's previous convictions. She contacts Lucy's aunt. Lucy used to live with her, then Lucy suddenly left, taking money and a cousin's ring. The aunt tells Alexandra that the cousin used to like Lucy, but Lucy can't be trusted. Alex has trouble getting a coherent story from Lucy.

She reveals that she agreed a Blood Oath with an important man who threatened her not to expose him. She gives sufficient hints for Alexandra to deduce that the man is Zak Palmer, head of anti-terrorism.

Francie (a friend/colleague of Alexandra) is in hospital on life-support after collapsing earlier in the day. Alexandra's shocked to learn that she's pregnant. She was poisoned with a nerve agent.

Mike (a detective) is Alexandra's partner. Corless's wife is accusing her husband of trying to strangle her. Zak, divorced, wants to see Alexandra. He's applying to be her boss (the old boss died in the previous case) and wants to talk her out of applying too. His pretty PA, Josie, met Lucy a decade before.

Lucy falls onto subway rails and is saved. Alex thinks it wasn't an accident. She gets Lucy a place in the secure hospital where Francie is. She discovers that Francie has the same blood-oath scar as Lucy has. It's discovered that Zak as a student used to help on a scheme for troubled kids, one of them being Francie. Francie dies in the night. Alex meets Zak and tells him that he'll soon be arrested. She visits Corless and secretly gets a DNA sample from him, suspecting that he's the father of Francie's foetus.

In the hospital Alex is chased through dark tunnels by Josie. Zak's already arrested but Josie doesn't know it. Alex escapes. We learn that Josie is Zak's half-sister.

Good dialogue. Plot twists sometimes depend on detailed technicalities.

Other reviews

• mysteryinminutes
• goodreads

"Levitation for beginners" by Suzannah Dunn

An audio book.

50+ years later, the first-person PoV Deborah thinks back to her junior village school with its class of 8 (2 boys). She recalls the first day of Sarah Jayne in 1972 when she was about 10. She's searched online for classmates, but presumably they've changed surname. She hasn't. She was the only one of the class to go to grammar school.

Her mother, Sandy Darke, became a widow at 24 and never remarried. She died last week saying "Odd business, up at the vicarage". The vicarage was the grandest house of the village.

Sarah Jayne is more sophisticated than the village girls, and upsets old alliances. Caroline starts ineptly trying to attract the boys' attention. Sarah Jayne comes from "abroad". She knows about vodka.

Deborah tries to piece together from song lyrics, gossip and her mother's guarded comments what marriage is about. Sarah Jayne wants to marry popstar David Cassidy but starts "going out" with one of the 2 boys in the class, Neil.

When her mother can't cope with a spider she gets Deborah to ask for help from a passing boy on a bike. Sunny - common and cheeky - plans to run discos. He drops in again for a drink, giving them a cassette player and promising them tapes. Deborah thinks that Sunny and her mother act strangely together, her mother lenient about his language and smoking.

At lunchtime the girl practice trying to levitate - they've seen hippies try it on TV.

50% through the book we learn that Deborah's a mother. It's barely mentioned again.

Sarah points out that Miss Drake, the infant teacher, has hairy legs. Rumour somehow spreads that she's a lesbian. The girls aren't all sure what a lesbian is - they like watching Miss World. Deborah finds out that Miss Drake is about to be married. The other girls are impressed.

The others see Sunny working on scaffolding and fancy him. They're impressed that he's been in Deborah's bathroom.

Deborah's mum tells her that Sunny's coming to the school fete. Deborah worries about it. She's invited to Sarah's house. It has a grand piano, and does indeed have a derelict pool. Sarah's brother-in-law to-be isn't very impressive. Sarah's 16 years older sister used to go out with a bomber.

Deborah's mum finds out that Sarah is the daughter of the girl she thinks is her older sister. Sarah doesn't seem to know. While Deborah's at Sarah's, they play with a gun, pointing it at a man. It goes off with Deborah's hand on the trigger. Sarah takes the blame. Sarah's family soon move away.

Other reviews

• Catherine Taylor (Brilliantly articulated and often piercingly sad, Dunn’s characters find themselves caught up in what may today be termed quarter-life crises – they are unsettled, dissatisfied; prone to despair, to jealousy, to falling unsuitably in love, to deep, unnavigable loss. ... cultural references, which, while they firmly place the book in context, are a little overdone.)

"The Fall" by Rachael Blok

Prologue - someone's on a cathedral roof. If only they hadn't answered the phone. It all began 50 years before.

Willow Eliot (she works in a museum) delivers an exhibition (her first) to a cathedral. It's late - 1 am. She discovers that a body has fallen from the roof. Suicide? Policeman Martin (aged 45-50, from Rotterdam) is phoned. A 35 y.o. mother had fallen from the tower decades earlier.

Willow goes to her B&B which she has for the weekend. Her parents and ill grandmother (Noni) are expected. She has a dominant, married twin sister Flis who's going to be married this week in the cathedral to Sunny, a local policeman. Willow has recently split from Otis, who she'd been with for 2 years. She meets Theo again, an ex of Flis who she had a fling with.

The dead man, Joel, was about 80 - an ex-verger. His son Michael, a clergyman, lives locally with wife Heather. Michael seems to have a secret.

Willow's shown up the tower (St Alban's) by Noah, who tries to kiss her. She escapes after a tussle. Later he falls off the tower.

Flis disappears. Her smashed phone is found.

The exhibit material came from a collection by someone who received treatment in a mental hospital. Willow had collection material from other mental patients.

Joel was a wifebeater.

Jass (Joel's grandson) is seen at night dropping letters into a lake. He was also known to have argued with the 3 dead/missing people in their final hours.

Years before, a 7 y.o. twin girl, Alice, was put in a mental home for pushing her mother off the tower, though actually she'd been trying to stop Joel accost her mother.

Jass, 24, got £200k from Joel. Joel has been asking money from cured mental hospital patients in return for his silence. Jass had discovered this. Joel was trying to keep him silent. Michael has been spending money, knowing that he'll get $2 million went his father dies.

When Alice comes out of the hospital she changes her name and eventually runs a B&B. When she meets Flis she realises she's the twin sister of Flis's mother. Flis is found, Noah recovers, and the wedding goes ahead.

Other reviews

• goodreads

"Caught" by Harlan Coben

Prologue - Dan, separated from Genna for years (she has a 6 y.o. Carrie with her new husband. Dan babysits) was a foster child. He went to Princeton. He teaches sport in a foster home. Chinna calls him. He goes to her house. A TV crew is there, with reporter Wendy. She'd pretended to be a young girl and had asked him to come.

Marcia and Ted's oldest daughter Hayley has disappeared.

3 months later - At a pre-trial, Wendy is questioned. She'd been married to John (PhD in psychology). He had died because of Ariana Nasbro, an alcoholic who's soon to be released and is sending her letters. Their son is Charlie. She's sacked. When Dan is released, innocent, he tries to get in touch with her, saying he was set up. She visits Dan, who's in hiding. While she's with him he's shot. She recognises the murderer - Ed Greeson. She runs away, contacts the police. There's no body or weapon by the time she returns.

Pops, Wendy's right-wing motorbiking father-in-law, stays with them.

Hayley's phone is found in Dan's room.

Rumours are spread about Wendy online. She discovers that Dan regularly visited the Dean's house at Princeton. 4 out of the group of 5 he belonged to (Phil Turnbull, etc) at Princeton have been disgraced by scandal within a year. Only Kelvin, a wierdo maths genius, hasn't suffered. He's gone mad, mentioning scarface and the hunt. Wendy finds Crista living in the Dean's house. While students were on a "scavenger hunt" looking for the Dean's underpants in the house there'd been an accident and she was badly scarred. Phil took the blame because he was rich. His family paid for Crista's silence. Dan had taken pity on her and used to visit. She'd forgiven them.

When Phil recently wanted support from his friends he didn't get it. So he framed them. But he didn't framed Dan. Maybe he was really guiltly, which would stop Wendy feeling guilty about framing him. Phil kills himself.

Wendy works out that Genna planted Hayley's mobile at Dan's. Hayley had died of alcohol poisoning at a party in Genna's house. Putting the blame for her death on an already dead person seemed a tidy solution.

Pops forgives Nasbro. Ed had faked Dan's death. He's volunteering in Angola. Ed puts Wendy through to him, begging forgiveness. Which he gives.

Other reviews

• Brett Milam (Wendy’s arc from a Nancy Grace-like character to someone who does become invested in figuring out the truth ... Joblessness, directionless, hopelessness, manhood, all of these together are central themes creating the overarching theme: Fathers and husbands without direction.)

"Potting shed murder" by Paula Sutton

An audio book. Cozy.

Prologue: James and Daphne are in a car in London, battling over parking spaces when they see a balaclava'd man with a shotgun.

James are Daphne moved 10 months ago from London to Pudding Corner, a village near Kings Lynn. Their kids Archie, Finn and Immie, went to fee-paying schools. They're struggling financially. They live in Cranberry Farmhouse. Dr Oakes is their closest neighbour - he gives them home-grown veg and knows the local lore. Centuries ago, Matthew Hopkins, witch-finder general, roamed the area. Daphne's about the only black in the area, but that's not a problem. The locals don't like second-home owners and travellers. They're suspicious of Minerva who lives in the woods with a few others. Her son Silvanus is avoided by the other kids. Daphne has sympathy for them.

Sisters Nancy and Patsy Warburton run the local shop.

Maryanne is a friend of Daphne. She's also from London and is strapped for cash. She wants her child to get a scholarship, but Charles, the head of the local junior school, dislikes her, so won't give a good reference. He has an allotment. His younger wife Augusta misses intimacy.

Silvanus looks rather like the headmaster. The headmaster's found dead in the allotment having told his wife something. Someone wearing a yellow-lined coat was seen with him in the allotment. A will is found, giving money to Minerva. Minerva and Silvanus disappear.

Minerva returns, revealing that she's Charles' daughter. She's known since Silvanus started school. Charles learnt more recently. Minerva's mother and Charles were together before he married. He died of a drug-induced heart attack - perhaps a natural drug that Minerva and her friends know about?

We learn that Patsy and Charles were childhood friends who played with commune friends. Nancy seemed to like Charles too, but actually she loved Serafina, a commune girl. Charles got Clover, another commune girl, pregnant. She didn't want to tie brilliant Charles down.

Daphne goes to Dr Oates house. She knows that he's an expert in poisonous plants. She sees a photo and realises that he went to Medical School with Augusta. He doesn't let her leave. He says that Augusta was top of the class - a catch. When he brought her to the village she saw Charles' lack of interest as a challenge, seduced him, said she was pregnant and married him, Dr Oates as best man. She gave up her career, carrying on with Dr Oates.

Witnesses' assumptions confused their notions about what happened on the night of the murder (for instance, people thought Charles and Minerva were having an affair). We learn that Dr Oates killed Charles, thinking that was what Augusta wanted. He tries to kill Daphne, but her London self-defence lessons prove useful.

Augusta's the least believable person, but the book chugs along well enough. Eyes can show "sadness, shame, and regret". A woman can cry "miserably to herself" and think to herself.

"Magma (No.84, 2022)"

Theme: Physics. Some of the poets are way more qualified in science/medicine than I am, others (I suspect) know a lot less. I most like "One by One" by Peter Daniels (not a physicist) and "Never leave the ship" by Rebecca Watts. There are many poems that I don't understand. When forms are used, I find them obscure. I think I've missed something

• "It might just" has 17 long-lined couplets, all ending in "bless" or "blessing". It's not a strict contraint, nor a difficult one to satisfy if padding and lack of variety of the words' usage is allowed. Why bother?
• "Aerodynamics of a Domestic" is 18 lines long. The number of times the word "geese" is used in each line is 1,0,2,1,2,0,1,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,0,0,1. The pattern for the use of "argument[s]" is 1,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,1,2,1,1,0,1,0. There are other repetitions too. I don't think labelling the text "poetry" makes the repetition any less tedious.
• "How to be 2-D" might be shaped. A table-leg cut in half? The content gives me too few clues. Linebreaks include "de-/pth", "ba-/lloon", and "f-ormless" so some device is being used. An acrostic? Syllabics? No.

In a prose piece, the redundancy in "a redshift toward/ the red end of the spectrum" (p.60) would be criticised.

Some of the reviews include phrases I don't understand, or don't see the point of, or are needlessly fancy -

• "Words, like the mind, are allowed to roam where the mind is perhaps not"
• "The language is descriptive and located, astutely coppiced at times to disrupt socially constructed narratives of viewing plant life"
• The poems "mime the undoing of human centrality"
• "This is a quiet and unassuming collection that at times can seem obscure and cryptic"

Reviewers, even if they think that readers might find poems "puzzling and inaccessible" or if they "want a narrative that isn't there" don't blame the poet.