"Unreliable Narrator" by Araminta Hall

An audio book.

Hope's watching Rosie (male). She's not told anyone about that summer. Somebody's murdered someone they loved.

2016. Hope's 23, a Londoner. She wants to write. Her mother thinks it a good idea that she takes a job away from distractions, in Somerset - a live-in secretary for novelist Ambrose Glencourt (Rosie). His wife Delia (about 40) is pretty. Her hobby is pottery. They live in Shadowlands, a big house with a pool. Tom, 25, lives there too. Delia had met him when he was 15 in the drug rehab clinic where she had worked.

She hasn't read his books. She wants to be a writer. He says she should be "a burglar of life". She starts reading "Unforgiven" and is impressed. He's writing "The Ruined Girl". Rosie has lovers. Delia puts up with this. She's unhappy about his children though (the youngest is 3). The previous secretary, Sarah, had to leave suddenly - had he been having an affair with her too? He French-kisses Hope, who likes him. She starts sleeping with Tom until he confesses his love for Delia. He fights Rosie. Delia and Hope think he'll kill him. So Hope threatens him with a gun and accidentally kills him. Rosie and Hope agree to keep it all secret. Hope goes home, retreating from society.

In 2026 she sees Rosie on TV talking about his sequel to his 2018 book (which became a film). She belatedly reads "The Ruined Girl". It's her story. The character's called Teresa. She's impressed by how accurate his description of her, post-incident, is. She goes to the police. Nate (female, her PoV) interviews her, reads her journal, then phones the Glencourts. They dismiss Hope as a fantasist. Nate's home life is strained - her wife finds childcare hard work. Hope has been a secretary at one of their children's school for 8 years. Charlie is coming to her office - perhaps because his father is hitting him. She goes to a book-signing session of Rosie. He later calls Nate, hinting at injunctions and admitting that the novel is more based on truth than he first said. Nate reads "The Ruined Girl" and visits the Glencourts. She decides that there's not enough evidence. The Glencourts had reported Tom's disappearance and somebody who could have been him was on the railway station's CCTV - evidence that the Glencourts owned, but the police didn't. The Glencourts know high-ranking police.

Hope is sacked (or suspended?) - she's been drinking and self-harming. Nate's marriage is in trouble. Her parents have rejected her and she's friendless. She's trying to reduce her workload and has closed the Glencourt case. Then Tom's mother phones. Again Nate has trouble reconsiling Hope's journal, the novel, and the original police investigation. Hope sneaks into Shadowlands. She finds in a folder of research for Unforgiven's follow-up some photos of her, some quite recent. She realises that for Rosie, art matters more than people. For her, the morality of his authorship matters more than real-world crimes. She tells Nate of this new evidence. Nate contacts Sarah and the secretary before her, finding out the Rosie was subtly predatory. Hope asks Nate about Charlie's father then goes to Shadowlands where she sees that Tom's alive. He tells her that the bullets and blood were fake - Rosie had staged it (and her relationship with Tom) to get material for his novel. Tom had fallen for Hope though he was only playing a role. Hope tells Nate all this. Hope threatens Charlie's dad using a gun she stole from Shadowlands, ordering him to leave his family. He reports the incident to the police. Nate interviews Hope.

4 years later, Delia attends the booksigning for Hope's successful debut novel, whose central theme seems to be Rosie's mistreatment of Delia. Delia gives Hope a tape. On it is a recording of Rosie asking Tom how young love felt. Tom described Hope's effect on him. She plans to buy Shadowlands, become friends with Tom again, and help underpriviledged children.

I don't think the prologue's needed. The second part's more interesting than the first. We're told too many times that each narrator has their own versions, and that society suppresses some narratives. Whose narrative wins out and why? I don't think this book explores the issues very well. Could Tom really have disappeared that long? Hope's final success (as a person and an author) sounds unlikely though I can see why it's thematically appropriate - she has taken over the narrative of the characters because the justice system didn't. Nate's story is all but abandoned. "A sticky silence ballooned around them" doesn't sound right.

Other reviews

• Shannon Carriger (Araminta Hall has likely written very good books in the past, but Unreliable Narrator isn’t strong. ... part one then moves through four months of diary entries, which I found implausible as they showed the protagonist to be simultaneously naive and world-weary, innocent and sexually charged. ... Part two, in the present, sees the protagonist admit to a crime while several unnecessary subplots unfold. They didn’t add to the central narrative and made me question why the author included them.)
• booksbyyourbedside (I thought this would drag, but it did flow quite well, at least to begin with, and it did start to dwindle as it went on. It is the epitome of a psychological thriller and whilst it wasn’t perfect, there were some good bits. But it is too long, too detail heavy, with questionable characters, but parts of it were engaging and intriguing and it did pass quicker than I thought.)
• goodreads (3.6/5 rating)

"Selected poems" by Roger Howard (Exile Press, 1997)

Poems (1966-1996) from Argo, Stand, TLS, etc. Mostly short-lined - e.g. "Ache/ and age/ prosper/ by the grey stone", or "I say to my dog,/ "Clear, acre, bare coppice/ three years' growth/ brings ten nightingales."". "Blood" has a plot spread over 23 lines - 1 has 1 word, 4 have 2 words, none has more than 6. Why? "1381/1981" has end-rhyme and structure. Here are other extracts -

• We sat together, songs wobbled./ They were putting up pictures,/ I didn't feature,/ bad smell on a west wind./ Everything smiled, death too (p.57)
• Along the riverbanks/ men/ are going to work/ in the invaders' mills (p.66) Why the linebreaks?
• I am the weeper, I am the tear. Never too much,/ never enough (p.84)
• The broken breaks,/ what's crooked goes awry./ Decline runs down/ and the sliding slip./ My poem becomes a poem,/ Mary my Mary. (p.99)

I don't understand the aesthetic of these poems. There's too little cohesion for my tastes. If in compensation the images were more striking, I'd be happier.

"Summer at the lake" by Erica James

An audio book.

Floriana, 31, is an Oxford tour guide. She used to be student friends with Seb. Seb and Floriana went to the same school, went to Oxford, had partners. When she realised she was in love with him and told him, he said they shouldn't see each other. He met rich, beautiful Imogen. Floriana's just received an invitation to Seb's wedding with Imogen by Lake Como. When she's knocked over in a hit-and-run (she wasn't paying attention) Adam Strong (a property developer just dumped by Jessie after 2 years) and Esme (82) help her. By chance, Adam's just bought a house next to Esme. They keep in touch. Xmas is appproaching. Floriana doesn't want to stay at her bossy sister Anne's place (she's trying to set Floriana up with her brother-in-law) but she does. Adam accepts that he won't get back together with Jessie. He sells the place they had and moves beside Esme. Seb comes to Oxford to convince Floriana to come to the wedding (the first time in 2 years they've met).

When Esme was 18, her mother died, She and her father went for weeks to Italy. On Lake Como, Angelo (who's a Milan lawyer but was involved with smuggling) tried to seduce her, but she prefered his cousin Marco, who's a sickly trainee priest. They had sex together before parting She got pregnant, decided against an abortion, had a stillborn baby and couldn't be pregnant again.

Floriana wonders if she'll become an old spinster like Esme, having met the love of her life. Near his finals, Seb had a breakdown. She got him through.

Esme offers to pay for all 3 of them to go to Lake Como. When there, Seb confesses to Floriana his love for her. She says she has Adam. Adam and Floriana are unsure if the other loves them. Seb jilts Floriana at the altar. Anne's sister splits with her cheating husband. Esme meets Marco (he'd been a priest for 25 years, then a teacher). Seb disappears, leaving Floriana a letter saying she should go with Adam. Back in Oxford Adam and Floriana eventually get together. She's knocked over on the bike again - her fault this time, not too serious. Esme and Marco visit each other. When she tells him about the baby she fears he'll be angry she didn't say earlier. He's apologetic.

I didn't find the Oxford or Lake Como scenes especially authentic though nothing was wrong. The friendship triad seemed unlikely. It seemed more plausible by the end. Both women want closure or love from the Como trip. Floriana might be lacking a mother figure in her life (she latches onto Elizabeth with surprising ease). I suppose there are enough reasons why Adam might get roped into friendship with Esme. Esme could have been shown to have more of a yearning for children/grandchildren substitutes. The Adam/Floriana relationship develops surprisingly slowly. Is Anne needed? Her story's unfinished.

"The dodo stories" by Mary Mulholland (Nine arches press, 2026)

Poems from Stand, Manchester Review, Magma, etc. Much of her success has been in competitions (longlisted/commended in the Bridport and NPC) and anthologies. There are 3 pages of useful notes. The persona goes to Guyana (independent since 1966) to explore her roots. How true were the stories that her mother had been telling her? There's Portuguese blood in her - in the 1800s Madiera (Portugal) experienced drought and social unrest. 40,000 Madeirans went to Guyana. Sometimes 70% of immigrants died to the voyage or soon after. The book's in 7 parts, roughly themed -

• I (about Mother) - "Dodo" was her mother's nickname. She said "love is only for the simple minded" and "only held my hand when you thought I was dying" (p.16). Her father was a British barrister. Dodo says her great-grandmother was a princess. The visiting persona feels she isn't being accepted by the locals.
• II (about other relations) - her grandfather was a rebel who died at 38. Murdered? His widow ran off, leaving 7 kids. The persona's resisted by some relations (even if they're dead) - "I've journeyed to find you, to understand - Silêncio. Seja grato por termos removido o passado" (Silence! Be grateful we removed the past) (p.31)
• III (about plants and animals, integrating with nature) - "Over the sandstone shelf the Potaro/ drops two hundred and twenty-six metres/ to grand applause as it forms a bridal gown.// Last week a girl of twenty wore that dress./ She flew like a bird without wings,/ and no one could stop that marriage" (p.48). "at last I understand why/ her sad face was the same/ as her daydreaming face" (p.51)
• IV (about the Mother and child relationship) - "My mother is a sea-fish./ She goes deep without knowing how deep,/ to her it is natural, it's home" (p.55). "when she ran out of talk, I'd say/ tell me again about the mermaids, Dodo,/ rising from the sea on their tails,// the ones you saw with your own eyes" (p.57). "she made her dress/ from a curtain. The Daily Chronicle said/ she was dainty in white with an emerald/ sash, but the window stayed bare" (p.59)
• V (about Grandmother) - "When you were ninety-five,/ I gave you my baby girl to hold" (p.67), "I tried to like you because my mother/ and aunts said it was a sin not to" (p.74)
• VI (about the Family tree as a whole: how far is it worth going back? Summing up) - "how to make sense/ of a past that's plasticine/ I pack my mother's family/ into my bag and fly home" (p.84)

"House of meetings" by Martin Amis (Vintage, 2007)

Venus (in the West, black?) is given a copy of her father's memoirs, which are addressed to her. This book is the memoir.

2004. The narrator was born in 1919 in Russia. Thanks to a patent he was rich. He'd been "a tolerably big cheese in Russia" by the time he defected in 1983. Now he's on a cruise back towards Moscow - nicknamed "The Gulag Tour".

After WW2 he raped many woman on his way home, where Zoya lived. She's beautiful, Jewish, outspoken, with several boyfriends. His younger brother Lev, a stutterer, succeeded with her by being her friend first. They "married". The narrator was put into in Norlag, an Arctic labour camp. Lev arrived in 1948 - they were political prisoners. The camp has a social structure. Maybe 1 in 10 of the inmates are informers. The narrator kills a few. Lev struggles, thinking of escaping or becoming an informer so he might be pardoned. There's a revolution in the camp. In 1953 Lev's twin brother is killed in East Berlin while suppressing riots. In 1956 his brother and "wife" Zoya were allowed a night together at a hut - the "House of meetings". Lev wasn't confident before and was depressed after - Zoya wanted to marry him properly.

The narrator's cruise continues - "I am the oldest man in Predposylov by a margin of thirty-five years." He visits the Social History Museum. "the port where I'm heading already shows its outlines through the mist. What I'm doing now, is dead reckoning. I am making a reckoning with the dead." He's carrying an unread letter.

After they're released in 1956, Lev returns to Zoya, and the narrator spends time with his sister Kitty. He becomes a TV repairman, then gets into Robotics. Zoya leaves Lev in 1962. Lev goes to work in a mine, meets 23 year-old Lidiya who he marries and has a child with. The narrator meets Jocelyn (English, with 5 grown daughters) in 1969. He reads English poetry. Lev's lost interest though at 15 his son Artem avidly reads poetry. In 1982 Artem dies on duty. Lev dies on the day Lenin dies. The narrator and Jocelyn split. She returns to England. He goes to Moscow to see Zoya, telling her about Lev's death. She, 53, plans to marry an 81 year-old ex-dramatist. He asks her to come with her to the States. She declines. But later she turns up at his hotel room. He has sex with her against her will. She killed herself when 66.

Lev's effects reach the narrator in 1983 in Chicago. 21 years later he opens them. Poems and a letter. He visits the site of the House of meetings and reads the letter. It says that Lev had a good time in the House but left with a sense of inferiority. He loved only Zoya and his son. He thinks that the narrator will try (and fail) to win over Zoya.

The story jumps around in time. Though events are usually time-stamped, it's a little confusing, and I don't see why the memoirs would have been written like that. There are some noteworthy phrases - e.g. "When a man conclusively exalts one woman, and one woman only, 'above all others', you can be pretty sure you are dealing with a misogynist. It frees him up for thinking the rest are shit" (p.26)

Other reviews

• M. John Harrison (He will go the long way round to avoid a cliché, sometimes he will coagulate from trying too hard and sometimes he will be a pedant - all this is to be expected. But the result is often a prose packed, dense, full of felicities. ... It is a book about ageing, rusting, rotting away. What seemed to be a novel about the decline of Russia is seen to be a novel about decline.)
• Sam Leith (This novella is the best thing Martin Amis has done in fiction for years ... House of Meetings succeeds – triumphantly so – as a literary performance. The problem is that it wants to do more. ... : it wants to tell us something important about the world. Here, it is less successful. ... His Dickensian comic mode is his strongest suit – gravitas or moral clairvoyancy his shortest. But Amis still fails more interestingly than most of his peers succeed.)
• Magdalena Ball (Martin Amis’ prose is a distinctive combination of droll black humour mingled with near purple theatrics.)
• V.N. Alexander (When I read the “revelation” of the letter at the end of the novel I was disappointed—or thought I had just missed something—because it didn’t seem to be much of a revelation. It told me nothing new. On reflection, however, I can appreciate it as yet another restatement of the theme that develops throughout the texture of the narrative itself. Every line and word of this impressive novel reflects the image of the “Russian cross.” While this may not do much for the dramatic force of the novel, it is an absolutely beautiful, musical way to for Amis to resolve, with a satisfying final chord, the variations on his theme.)

"They say a girl died here" by Sarah Pinborough

An audio book

Anna (22), with her sister Caroline (12), mother Clare and demented grandma Evelyn (whose symptoms are very variable) live in the American countryside. She grew up in Boston. Her dad left when Caroline was born. She works in the local Diner. 6 years ago, Lyla was murdered. 3 years ago Bonny was murdered. Another murder is due. The murderer was supposedly killed while burgling. But maybe the killer's still on the loose and is about to strike again.

The farmers are poor - there's a drought. Paster Keene is sexy. Todd is a young policeman. Sheriff Adams was the main policeman at the time of the murders. She meets Melissa, who could become a friend. She'd found Bonny's body. Her dad's a drunk farmer.

Anna repeatedly alludes to a past incident - "The Thing" - dropping clues. One night involving drugged drinks? A gang of men? Clare seems to flirt with the handyman. The old local doctor, never married, was once Evelyn's boyfriend and starts helping with Evelyn. Clare gives him a key to the house. Before they'd moved into the house it was empty and used for parties by youths, including Lila. Anna had been doing a journalism degree and starts to research for a competition entry about the murders. She talks to Jamie, Lila's boyfriend and once a suspect. She visits Bonny's parents. She'd been moody when she died - why? Returning to Jamie's room he finds him dead - an overdose? Murder?

She wonders whether her grandma (who thinks "a girl died here") is in touch with spirits. She angrily accuses her mother of being desperate for sex (she brings home the handyman for the night on their first date). She's suspicious of all men. She interviews Victoria, a dental clinic colleague of Bonnie - did Bonnie have a secret lover? Caroline will be going to a party. Anna's nervous about it - the police and the doctor know about "The Thing", and maybe there's a video online of it. Will others find out? Will Caroline be thought a slut because her sister is?

Evelyn thinks she's seen Anna die more than once - a premonition? Is she confusing Anna with the dead girls? Anna thinks she's going to be killed on the anniversary of the murders in a day's time unless she solves the case. She works things out. Returning home she finds Caroline unconscious with the doctor. He has a gun. Melissa and the sheriff arrive. They were all involved with the murders or cover-up. Melissa wants to ritually kill Caroline to end the drought. Anna offers to take her place. Then Todd and back-up arrive. Afterwards, Anna recalls more about "The Thing" so that inquiries re-open. Todd and Anna go out together. Anna starts a local paper.

Both Anna and her grandma have memory issues. For me, detail about The Thing is leaked too slowly. Anna's trying to start a new life in a small town. Small, isolated towns can represent society as a whole. She wants eventually to re-integrate, and this case helps her do so. Her suspicion of all men encourages the reader to build a long list of murder suspects. Initially fearing communication/disclosure, she ends up starting a newspaper.

Other reviews

• Langan (As the narrative unfolds, Anna and Evelyn begin to build a new relationship with each other, one based in their mutual amnesias. Pinborough deftly portrays their attempts at communication, shot through with anxiety and resentment over their current conditions and past injuries to one another. ... The novel’s climax surprises in a number of ways, casting everything that has come before in a new light, and causing the narrative to expand in unanticipated ways. It’s a fine conclusion to this fine narrative, one whose blend of the familial and the strange recalls the best work of Graham Joyce)
• megsbookrack (There are some great aspects to this book. I enjoyed the overriding mystery and the small town setting quite a bit. Sadly, there were also things I didn’t like as much however, including Anna’s attitude. I did think she showed growth over the course of the story, but the 1st-half with her was pretty brutal. I don’t need to like characters, but I just found her personality so grating. It was almost unpleasant. She was super negative and bit disrespectful to everyone around her, including her family, which tends to rub me the wrong way.)
• bibliosanctum (a story that reads like a big commercial thriller, complete with all the familiar clichés and twists you’d expect. Honestly, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though eventually, it did make the plot a little too predictable. Towards the end, I had the urge to yell at Anna, How on earth are you not seeing any of this!? and wondering how a protagonist could be so blindsided by something that seemed so glaringly obvious. Some of the plot developments also felt very much like checking items off a list ... Anna herself was a bit frustrating, and not just because she’s clueless. We’re reminded frequently that something terrible happened to her back when she was in the city, and it’s clearly a huge part of why she behaves the way she does, but the details are kept so tightly hidden for so long that I had trouble connecting with her emotionally.)

"Hero" by Susan Hill

An audio book - a short story.

Policeman Simon Serrailler, receiving an honour at Buckingham Palace, lacking a hand, recalls the start of his career when, off duty, he chased a suspect who fell and died. He'd thought he'd be disciplined (he wasn't sure he'd been following the right person) but he'd been praised for getting rid of a bad person.

No