I've Moved

 Hi guys,

So after another unexpected gap I have decided to again start reviewing books. However I am no longer using the Blogger platform and have now migrated my site across to WordPress with it's own domain.

To see my latest book reviews then please visit: http://www.anovelchapter.co.uk/category/reviews

Thank you,

Mike

Double Cross

Double Cross

Title: Double Cross

Author: Ben Macintyre

Year: 2012

Genre: Non-Fiction, History





Hi guys, so for this months review I have read Double Cross by Ben Macintyre which is one of the strangest and fascinating spy stories I have ever read, mainly because all of it is true. I found the book in my local library around the time of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings back in June and after a few weeks I decided to borrow it to find out more.

The book focuses on the 'Double Cross System' used by MI5 during the war and in particular how the system was used to mislead Nazi Germany that the Allies were going to launch an invasion in two places, at the Pas De Calais and Norway, not the Normandy beaches where the invasion took place. 

The book tells the stories of Dusan "Dusko" Popov - a Serbian playboy, Roman Czerniawski, a tiny Polish fighter pilot, Lily Sergeyev, a hysterical Frenchwoman with a massive love for her dog Babs, Juan Pujol Garcia, an imaginative Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming and Elvira de la Fuente Chaudoir, a Peruvian bisexual playgirl or as they were known by the agent codenames, Tricycle, Brutus, Treasure, Garbo and Bronx respectively. The deception involved every branch of allied wartime intelligence from the Bletchley Park codebreakers - known as "Most Secret Sources" in the book, MI5 and MI6 to the FBI and the French Resistance.

I am a massive fan of spy stories and thrillers, having read and reviewed quite a few of them for this blog but the most amazing thing about this particular story is, other than Bronx and Tricycle, none of the double agents fit the Hollywood James Bond or Jason Bourne stereotype at all, most of them are ordinary people who you would pass on the street. However how they managed to deceive the German military intelligence, known as the Abwehr is nothing short of extraordinary.

There are quite a few moments in the book that were completely incredulous and probably too many to mention. For instance, Garbo's story started out with him trying to make contact with MI5 who didn't want him, he then turned to the Germans thinking he could become a double agent and initially he was refused before finally being accepted by them, his role was then to travel to neutral Lisbon in Portugal and try to smuggle himself to Britain. However instead for two years he stayed in Lisbon and used the local library archives to make up his reports to the Abwehr and used his own imagination to fill in the blanks. Being British myself the report he wrote to the Germans that Glaswegian men "would do anything for a litre of wine" made me chuckle. Furthermore when the British eventually did notice him and he became a double agent, with the help of his handler Tomas Harris, they built up an entirely fake network of agents, such as a group of Welsh anti-Semites who were keen for the Nazis to win the war so they could support the new regime.

Further on in the story, Tricycle is asked by his German handlers to set up a spy network in America so he goes over to work with the FBI but because at the time they were mistrustful of double agents they largely stopped him from doing anything, so Tricycle ran up huge debts on their payroll which MI5 were still sorting out 3 years after the war. However, Tricycle did come up with an ingenious scheme where a middleman in London could pretend to pay the German spy network money and be reimbursed by the Germans paying money into one of his bank accounts in another country which MI5 could simply pocket, the result being that the Germans would in effect be paying the Double Cross system, this resulted in it not only being self-financing but also profitable with the Germans paying Britain "£85,000" - the equivalent of £4.5 million today. Furthermore Tricycle's German handlers were slicing off money owed to him to line their own pockets which meant later on in the war they were more susceptible to the deception as they didn't want to admit what they had been doing.

The most shocking and bizarre part of the story for me though was Lily Sergeyev and her dog. Basically Lily enlisted herself as a German spy with the intention of working for the British but for a long time she was living in Paris as her German handler was more interested in his mistresses then helping the Nazis win the war. Eventually he did send her to Britain and she immediately contacted the British to work as a double agent but one of he requests was to allow her do, Babs, to come with her but British quarantine laws said any dog must be kept in quarantine for six months before being allowed to come to Britain (in fact this law still existed in Britain until 2011 where it was shortened to three weeks). 

The British said they would do their best to bring the dog over which Lily took as a promise they would but unfortunately the dog died in Gibraltar, Lily was furious and seeked revenge and when she was asked by the Germans to collect her wireless transmitter she was given a "control signal" - an imperceptible signal that a German agent could give when transmitting to tell the Germans they were under British control. However she did not divulge this information to her British handlers, instead sitting on the secret for the months leading up to D Day. She did eventually tell ehr handlers she had a control signal but did not tell them what it was, meaning the British had to take a leap of faith that she hadn't told the Germans she was a double agent. If she had then all of her traffic would be read "in reverse" i.e. if she said the British would attack the Pas de Calais, then the Germans would realise they weren't and it was a diversion.

Yet another incredible part of the story was the fact MI5 had a Soviet mole in its midst, Anthony Blunt who was feeding back to the Soviet Union what the British were doing (a fact that was only discovered much later in 1979). This could in turn mean that if a German agent was in the Soviet Union the truth could've ended up back in Berlin anyway (it isn't known if there was an agent in Russia working for the Germans). However the Soviet's themselves believed their agents reports were too good to be true so they believed their agent had been turned by the British so they read his reports "in reverse" like the example above, which in fact would've strengthened any deception in Germany as the Nazi moles would be passing on this information instead of what was originally sent.

Overall this book is extremely enjoyable and fascinating and shows how heroes can turn up in the most unlikely places and also how sheer good fortune and nerve played a key role in one of the pivotal moments of the Second World War, and indeed world history. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of spy stories or has an interest in the war.

Liar Liar

Liar Liar

Title: Liar Liar

Author: Lisa Jackson

Year: 2018

Genre: Thriller




Hi guys, so by the time of writing this post in my notepad it has been a week since I returned from my travels to Great Yarmouth. Though I had a great time unfortunately the Great British Weather couldn't be relied upon to stay dry as we only had sunny days on the Sunday and the Friday unfortunately.

Anyway, I was back a week when I finished a book I was reading alongside Dangerous Lady - Liar Liar by Lisa Jackson. Though what initially attracted me to the book in my local library was the fact it shared a title with a 1990's Jim Carrey film (#veryfunny and a Wilson household favourite) this book is nothing like that particular film.

The story starts on a rainy San Francisco day with a woman committing suicide, dressed as Marilyn Monroe. However a woman in the crowd believes it is her mother Didi Storm, who has been missing for 20 years. After this brief initial snapshot the book goes back 20 years to events surrounding Didi Storm's disappearance. At this time she is performing in Las Vegas as an impersonator for Marilyn Monroe but has been involved with a rich businessman who is heir to a large company and has just given birth to two twins by him, Ariel and Adam. She is about to pull off the con of her life by conning him into buying their son off her, as he needs an heir to the business, but dresses her daughter up as the son meaning he would need to buy both children off her. They have arranged to meet in the desert outside Las Vegas but unbeknownst to Didi, her teenage daughter Remmi is in the back of her car as she hid in there whilst trying to sneak out to visit her boyfriend Noah Scott and sees events as they transpire.

Didi hands over the baby to the father but things immediately turn awry when an assassin fires at the father's car and blows it up. In another twist of fate, Remmi's boyfriend Noah, feeling rejected by Remmi rides his motorbike out into the desert where he sees events as well and is shot by the Marksman but survives. The following day, Didi realises some of the money given to her was fake so decides to go to her son's grandfather to ask for the money, believing the father to be dead when she disappears without trace.

The book then returns to the present day, where it turns out the woman who committed suicide was dressed not as Marilyn Monroe but as Didi Storm. Also we learn a new book called It's Not Me has been published about the disappearance of Didi. Remmi is now working in San Francisco but was investigating the book and was about to meet the publisher when she happened to pass the hotel where the woman committed suicide. However if it wasn't Didi then who was it? Why have all these events happened surrounding the books release? What ghosts in Didi's past would have resulted in her murder?

Overall I really enjoyed the novel. The opening chapters can be quite difficult to follow as there are several plot points going on at once and it has actually been hard to write it into this synopsis. It is a very pacy, taut novel but all of the plot points are handled well and resolved by the books conclusion and a measure for me with any thriller is how good the twist is at the end and I admit I did not see this twist until the very end.

Jackson wisely makes the key focus of the novel the relationship between Remmi and Didi and it is this relationship and Remmi's unwillingness to give up on her mother despite her flaws, is what makes the book endearing and makes you root for her and is the real heart of the book. Furthermore, Didi's fame obsession can be seen as a comment on today's celebrity culture that people can become famous whilst doing very little or being famous just for being famous.

Jackson uses social media comments from trolls to great effect in the novel to highlight the dark side of celebrity and social media, with the jumper branded a "loser in life as well as a loser in death" and "ugly".

All in all this is my first Lisa Jackson novel and I was impressed with her work so it is another author I will be looking out for.

Dangerous Lady, Great Yarmouth & books with bad language!

Dangerous Lady

Title: Dangerous Lady

Author: Martina Cole

Year: 1992

Genre: Crime





So I am writing this review in a notepad on the eve of my family trip to Great Yarmouth which I'm really excited about and I can hopefully share some pictures of it on my Instagram and Twitter pages over the next few days as the by the time I post this I will be back from my holiday - boo!

Anyway I have been reading the first novel by Martina Cole, 1992's Dangerous Lady though I have previously read The Business and Betrayal but I do want to share a little story about this book. I remember when I was a young Harry Potter obsessed whippersnapper when my sister first purchased and read this book which would've been around 2004, which was unusual for my sister at that time. Anyway one day when she was at work I snuck into her room to read about it and came across my first F-Bomb in print which makes me laugh when I think about it today and the amount of bad language we see these days in print and on TV. Also sorry to my big sister if you happen to be reading this which you will as you'll see the post on Facebook #awkward.

Since then, the book has gained a huge reputation for being a classic & Martina Cole is known in the UK as the Queen of crime writing so I was excited  to read this novel properly.

The story begins in 1950 with Sarah Ryan about to give birth to her ninth child. Her family is living in abject poverty in post World War Two London. She gives birth to her first and only daughter, Maura Ryan, who becomes the titular Dangerous Lady. At the same time her eldest son, Michael Ryan has already begun to turn to a life of crime as the police come looking for him as he is a runner for an illegal bookmakers. The first half of the book focuses mostly on Michael Ryan's rise as he becomes king of the London Underworld and slowly his younger siblings get drawn into working in a life of crime as Michael's heavies and during this half Maura is only a child.

The pivotal moments of the story take place in 1966. Maura is a beautiful 17-year old girl who becomes involved and infatuated with a policeman, Terry Petherick which is complicated further when she falls pregnant by him. Eventually both the police and Michael find out about the relationship and Terry dumps Maura to save himself. She confides in her mother about her pregnancy and afraid of her being a single parent, Sarah arranges for a backstreet abortion (as abortion was still illegal in the UK at the time) who scrapes the baby out of Maura but the botched operation results in Maura's ovaries becoming infected and removed so she can never have children again. Following this, Maura decides to follow Michael into a life of crime and become both the Dangerous Lady and his Queen of the underworld but eventually events catch up with them as they pay the ultimate price for a life of crime.4

As I mentioned above, this is the third Martina Cole novel I have read and it really is an epic crime saga as we catch glimpses of the family through to the mid 1980's as Maura and Michael both rise and spectacularly fall from grace in the London underworld. I did find many similarities in this novel to Betrayal with the character of Aiden being cut from the same cloth as Michael but in this novel I found it easier to sympathise with both Maura and Michael, though both characters are at times incredibly violent and terrifying their softer sides make them far more rounded and complex characters. 

In both characters, Cole asks how much of a life of crime is down to personal choice and how much of it is down to circumstances? This idea is further highlighted by the character of William Templeton ad the various corrupt police on the Ryan's payroll - all of which came from better backgrounds than Maura and Michael who it could be argued only entered into a life of crime due to circumstances.

The books themes of corruption, consumerism and excess I found fascinating as though I grew up in the 1990s and 2000s after the books events, I had heard about the culture of greed and excess in the 1980s during the Thatcher era and in this book it is shown just how dark it really is, with the Ryans being directly involved with government officials right the way up to the top echelons of power.

Cole also provides so much social commentary on 1950s and 1960s culture, in particular choice on abortion and the consequences of arranging a marriage on the foundation of pregnancy in the characters of Roy and Janine. As well as the fact women were expected to support their husbands no matter what they did and the attitudes to homosexuality in Michael's relationships with men.

The only real negative is I found Cole's use of foreboding a bit too obvious and forefront in the earlier chapters as there is quite a few chapters which end saying a character will live to regret what they have done. Nevertheless it did keep my reading to the end but nevertheless I enjoyed the novel and I will hopefully be reading some more of Cole's works for my blog in the future.

Solving Cadence Moore

Solving Cadence Moore

Title: Solving Cadence Moore

Author: Gregory Sterner

Year: 2017

Genre: Thriller

Amazon Link: £3.89 (Kindle Edition)



Hi guys, so it has been a couple of weeks since I have written a blog post as instead I have read a batch of books in one go so that I can hopefully post on here a bit more regularly. Among them I was sent Solving Cadence Moore to review, the debut novel by Gregory Sterner.

The mystery surrounding Cadence Moore hasn't been resolved in over a decade. The beautiful college singer was on the cusp of success with a blossoming music career when she disappeared without trace on a highway in Pennsylvania, following a college party. Was she murdered or did she run away to start a new life?

The case has reentered the public psyche following the release of a documentary film, which makes it a perfect candidate for the local radio station who wants to launch a podcast series, following its successful conspiracy theory radio show "Underground Broadcast".

In a heated argument with his boss, the host and producer of the show, Charlie Marx tells his boss that he has solved the case and promises to reveal her fate at the end of a two hour live radio special following the podcast series. So beings a race against time as Charlie pieces together the evidence surrounding her disappearance to solve the case. If he succeeds, it will mean closure for Cadence but if he fails then his world could crash down on him live on air, and the case may never be resolved.

The book is written largely in an epistolary style with most of the story taking the form of transcripts for the podcast series, and radio special, with smaller sections of narrative used mainly to set the scene at the beginning of the novel. I found this structure to be very effective and Sterner overall uses it really well to peel back the layers of the story surrounding Cadence Moore - in fact it is really only two thirds of the way through that you learn all of the theories that have surrounded her disappearance as Sterner uses the format to build up one theory about the case before immediately countering it with another theory so your loyalties to each character get tested at different points.

In the foreword, it mentions Sterner is a listener of National Public Radio series such as This American Life and I myself have actually been listening to the Serial Podcast produced with the same company ( I am currently still on Season 1 of this series but it is worth a download if you haven't listened to it before as it is fascinating - https://serialpodcast.org/). The transcripts in this novel were actually so realistic that I began to question if I was reading a fictional story or if this actually happened - they are that good.

Another point I ought to make which readers of my blog will know I do every time I review a thriller is whether I could guess the ending and again I didn't as the book has many different possibilities that the end result is surprising. It also asks questions of the reader who has so far been forced to accept a glamorised, embellished version of events when the truth could be something far more ordinary which is something which happens in everyday life with sensationalism in the media.

However I do feel in the last chapter the momentum does slow down a little as the tension becomes less about what happened to Cadence and more to do with whether Charlie's version of events actually works out to be the truth. I did like the fact Sterner actually uses another character in the final chapter who holds the key to the mystery, rather than the protagonist, meaning some degree of tension is carried through to the very last page. However by the time Charlie reveals his theory on what happened earlier it is hard to deny it being any other possibility which is where I feel some of the tension is lost.

However, sitting here as I write this review the ending is actually more thought-provoking than I first thought (if you pardon the pun) as Sterner could also be making a comment on Charlie's own obsession with celebrity culture and how in society people trample on others to get to where they need to. He himself has used Cadence to further his own career so the book highlights that fact by focussing at the end back on Charlie's career, not on the singer's disappearance.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and it is a great debut novel for Sterner which is worth checking out.