For fans of World War II fiction, military fiction, historical fiction or just good old fashioned action adventure, “Sinner’s Cross” by Miles Watson is a must read book. And, as the research for it is so good, it may appeal to amateur military historians too. I have to issue a “trigger warning” however. The scenes of combat and bloodshed depicted in the book are not for people with a weak stomach. The descriptions are quite graphic in parts. I’m sure the author would make no apology for that because, let’s face it, war is not pretty and not for the faint hearted. However, in terms of its storytelling, this book earns the five stars I have awarded. To be honest, I almost feel like breaking with tradition and awarding six stars. The story is set against the backdrop of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, which took place between 19th September 1944 and 16th December 1944. It should be a battle that is far better remembered but was somewhat overshadowed by the Battle of the Bulge which started on the day the Battle of Hürtgen Forest officially ended. The Battle of Hürtgen Forest cost the lives of around 33,000 American soldiers, with another 55,000 wounded and it also took the lives of 20,000 German soldiers. There are also political implications to the battle which may be why it isn’t so well remembered. The battlefield was of very limited strategic value, certainly not enough to warrant the death toll, but it somehow became an obsession for the American generals to capture this obscure bit of forest, which lies to the east of the Belgian/German border and the German city of Aachen. Aachen was the first German city to fall to the Allies, which may have exaggerated the importance of the nearby forest. The story is told in three parts, with each part being seen through the eyes of a different protagonist. First we have Sergeant Edward T Halleck, a hard bitten former cowboy from Texas who has been in almost constant combat since the Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria in November 1942. His war weariness is such that he hardly bothers to memorise the names of the men sent to replace the casualties from his platoon, because he knows their chances of survival make it barely worth his while. The second point of view (POV) is from one of those replacements, “butter bar” 2nd Lieutenant Robert Breese. Breese believes he shouldn’t be in the Army and, if he must be, then his talents would be best used making Army recruitment films back in New York. He has no idea what he is doing in the Hürtgen Forest and even less idea of what he is supposed to do now that he is there. The final POV is from the German side of the battle. Major Martin “Zengy” Zengen is a veteran paratrooper who has fought in every engagement in which the fallschirmjäger have taken part since 1940. He has lost count of how many friends he has lost to the war but, until now, his dedication to duty has been unquestioning. His epiphany, when it comes, takes an unusual form (which I won’t reveal) but it is so deeply moving for him that it completely reshapes his thinking. Each part of the book stands alone, so there is no switching back and forth between POVs, but characters from one part do pop up in the others, so that some of the consequences of some of their actions can be observed. What makes this book so enthralling isn’t the characters, though they are well drawn, it is the story telling as a whole. I found myself living and breathing the combat almost as though I was there. The reader feels every explosion, hears every bullet cracking past their ear and smells the smoke and blood of battle. It is quite unnerving at times just how deeply it is possible to get drawn into this story – hence the trigger warning issued above. The historical detail is exemplary and Miles Watson is obviously a keen scholar of World War II history. He pays attention to the minutest detail, but at no point does he ever cross the line into geekiness. There is a sequel to Sinner’s Cross (the title comes from the scene of much of the action) called The Very Dead of Winter. I have to confess that I read that before Sinner’s Cross (see review in the blog archive) which is why I came back to read the first book. Knowing which characters survive to reappear in the later book, however, made this book no less enjoyable. I can only hope that Miles Watson finds time to write a third book for the series. I cannot recommend “Sinner’s Cross” by Miles Watson, highly enough. To find out more, click here. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.
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Disclaimer: No financial incentives were sought or offered for this book review. The reviewer purchased their copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are those of the reviewer and not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing. It occurred to me over the Christmas period that I had rather neglected my reading of Nick Spalding’s books. Nick Spalding is the sort of author you read when you just want to relax and forget about the cares of the world. Instead, you become immersed in someone else’s problems for a while. These aren’t the great problems of the world. There are no epic quests, no fights against dragons, whether real or metaphorical. There may be some fights against metaphorical demons, but they threaten the individual, not the world as a whole. In other words, you don’t need to keep looking out of the window to assess how close the world’s problems are getting. The problems Spalding’s characters face are the sorts of things we may all face in our lives at some point. Sometimes they are 21st century issues, created by our modern world and modern lifestyles, but often they are timeless. So it is with “Old Boys” which is the book I review here. As with all Nick Spalding books, it is written in a light-hearted style. Because this book deals with quite deep emotions, there are darker moments, but generally speaking it is what you might call a gentle comedy. It isn’t meant to keep you either laughing out loud or wide awake at night for fear of what might lurk beneath the bed. But it may make you stop and think a little bit about your own life and the choices you have made. And there is nothing wrong with that. The story is a familiar one. Will Fairweather is feeling depressed after the loss of his mother. It may have been 4 years earlier, but it is still hurting him deeply and affecting the way he lives his life. Frustrated by this his younger wife, Audrey, asks that they separate for a while to give Will a chance to sort himself out. It felt a little heartless to me, which is why I have only given this book 4 stars. I’m not sure that extreme action like that would be the first thing a loving spouse would suggest when their marriage is in trouble, but I guess it was necessary for the rest of the plot to work. There is another reason for only giving the book 4 stars and it is that at several points I felt like giving Will a good slap, because his wallowing in his grief is self-indulgent in the extreme. Perhaps that was why Audrey asked him to move out, as a way of giving him a metaphorical slap. Anyway, needing somewhere to go, Will ends up moving in with his estranged father, who has had no contact with Will for more than 3 decades. Will’s father, Red Fairweather, is the drummer with a prog rock band by the name of Holy Moly who were big in the 70s and 80s, though they are pretty much retired at the time of this story. Those readers who remember the likes of Keith Moon and John Bonham will be familiar with the stereotype drummer that Nick Spalding creates for Red. Spalding even points out the similarities. Several well known rock bands of that era and later are given name checks in the book, though they play only a peripheral part in the actual plot. I suspect that Nick Spalding may be a fan. I think it is safe to say that Red Fairweather doesn’t so much need a family as a combined nanny and psychiatric nurse. He takes it upon himself to try to help Will mend his marriage by “bringing him out of himself” through a series of bizarre adventures. As Red is now in his 70s the scale and danger of these activities is limited, but they are still enough to scare the highly risk averse Will before he has even tried them out. The book progresses along this amiable path, but things take a much more emotional turn in the second half. Here the home truths start to emerge, the family history, the cause of Red’s break up with Will’s mother and a whole lot more. Keep a box of tissues handy because you will need them. There is an underlying message in the book if you care to listen to it. I won’t reveal what it said to me, but it is a strong one and one which, perhaps, we should all remind ourselves of from time to time. If you have planned your summer holidays for this year this is exactly the sort of book you might like to take along to read by the swimming pool. It may not be high drama, but it will leave you with things to think about. You can find out more about “Old Boys” by Nick Spalding by clicking this link or the book’s cover image. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so. Disclaimer: No financial inducement was offered or requested for this review and no payment was received. The reviewer was provided with a free review copy of the book. The views expressed in this review are those of the reviewer and are not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing. Exiles, by Miles Watson, is a novella, but it could almost stand as a full length novel. The book serves as an introduction to “The Magnus Chronicles”, a series of dystopian novels set in a world that could be Earth in either the past or future. That is not clear from the story. Is it an alternative history or a possible future? I think the reader must decide. There is some modern technology, but it is limited by “The Order”, the body that rules over most of Europe. However, there is also a lot of 19th century technology still in use, though that might be because so much modern technology is banned. This little book actually tells two stories in one. The first is told by Marguerite Bain, the Captain of a smuggling ship. Smuggling is an organised, if dangerous, profession with its own ruling Guild. Marguerite gained her command under the tutelage of a senior Captain who now serves as one of the Guild’s governors. While smuggling is illegal, a blind eye is turned for the most part. Bribery and corruption play a large part in that unofficial tolerance, as it does in most of life under The Order. Marguerite has had a hard life, not one to be envied by any woman. Now, as skipper of her own ship, she has to show that she is ready to kill anyone who challenges her position and the only way she has been able to prove that is to do it. Now an uneasy truce lies between her and her crew, though she knows that if she shows any sign of weakness they would kill her, after taking their pleasure first, of course. The Sea Dragon, her ship, is contracted to deliver supplies to the eponymous exile on his remote and barren island. It is a task she is unable to refuse because it has been brokered by the Guild and such a contract can’t be broken. Her orders are strict. Deliver the supplies and leave the island. Do not make any attempt to communicate with the exile. The previous contractor forgot those rules and now he is no longer alive. But Marguerite is curious and can’t resist finding out about the exile, so she secretes a notebook and pencil in the supplies, asking him to tell his story. Which is the second story in the book. Enitan Champoleon is a name that is notorious as an opponent of The Order, an organiser of the resistance. He is almost mythical, a sort of Scarlet Pimpernel figure. But if the Order captured him they would just kill him, not exile him on a barren rock. So, who has placed Champoleon in this living hell? All becomes clear by the end of the story. But through this dialogue Marguerite starts to feel a bizarre kinship with the exile. The story's point of view switches back and forth between Marguerite and Enitan but at all times it is clear who is narrating. The style of language is fitting for the ambivalent chronological setting of the book. In many ways it is Victorian, but interspersed with more modern phrases and idiom. Either of the two stories are capable of engaging the reader fully, but the two of them together become compelling and the book is a real page turner. For lovers of fantasy or sci-fi it is a very good read. This reviewer is now a convert and will soon be embarking on reading The Magnus Chronicles in full. The ebook can be purchased from Amazon for £3.95 or can be downloaded on KindleUnlimited for free. The paperback version is £4.74 (all prices correct at time of posting). I recommend “Exiles” by Miles Watson and to find out more, click here If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this book review are those of the review's author and are not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing. “The Trial” is Rob Rinder’s first foray into fiction and it’s one that will keep you guessing all the way to the big reveal. For those outside the UK who are unfamiliar with Rob Rinder, he is our equivalent to “Judge Judy”. As a successful barrister (trial lawyer for our overseas readers) he was well known in legal circles before venturing onto our TV screens. Now he appears in a variety of shows in different formats, including documentaries. With this foray into fiction, he becomes not only Britain’s Judge Judy, but also Britain’s John Grisham. The story is basically a courtroom drama, but one with a strong human element. Unusually, it doesn’t follow the exploits of an experienced lawyer plying his trade against all odds, but instead the protagonist is a novice, stumbling through the foothills of the legal mountain range as he learns his trade while flirting with the ruination of his career before it even gets started. Adam Green is a law graduate from Oxford University who is the second 6 month of his yearlong pupillage – the basic training for a barrister where he is supposed to be mentored by a King’s Counsel in a prestigious “chambers”, as legal businesses are called in the UK. If Adam performs well he will be offered a “tenancy”, which is basically a full time job in the firm. But there is only one position available at the end of the year and he has a rival with whom he must compete, the attractive and outgoing Georgina. Adam is very much an introvert to Georgina’s extrovert, and she isn’t afraid to use her gender to charm her male colleagues. Adam, while being a very likeable person, usually comes across as socially inept, which is very much a disadvantage in the British legal profession. I frequently found myself wondering how much of Rob Rinder there was in the character of Adam. For the uninitiated (like me) there is a lot of arcane terminology to get your head around that has nothing to do with the law itself, but everything to do with the ancient traditions of the legal profession as practised in the UK. Several hundred years of custom and practice have created a world that is closed to the outsider, but for which Rob Rinder raises a corner of a curtain to allow us to peek inside. "a national hero who once saved the life of the Queen." For example, did you know that barristers never shake hands with other barristers? No, nor did I. It has something to do with barristers trusting each other and not needing to shake hands in order to prove their hands are empty of weapons. Who knew? Stag Chambers, the place where Adam is a pupil, is asked to defend a man accused of murdering a police officer. Not just any police officer, however, a national hero who once saved the life of the Queen. "a deeply unlikeable person who has little time for young whippersnappers like Adam" It is an open and shut case, to all intents and purposes and Jonathon Taylor-Cameron, Adam’s pupil-master (mentor) considered it beneath him to attempt to mount a defence. But legal traditions dictate that he can’t turn the case down and Adam is assigned as his “junior”, or assistant. Which means Adam does the hard work of preparing the case while Jonathon does the grandstanding on the courtroom floor. Needless to say, Taylor-Cameron is painted as a deeply unlikeable person who has little time for young whippersnappers like Adam, creating a major source of conflict within the plot. "A reasonable doubt is all that is required to obtain an acquittal." Adam soon starts to believe that their client, Jimmy Knight, is innocent but the evidence is stacked against him. The big question throughout the book is whether Adam can find the evidence that will get their client acquitted, or at least cast doubt on the evidence provided by the prosecution, so that a reasonable doubt is created in the minds of the jury. A reasonable doubt is all that is required to obtain an acquittal. Obviously, I can’t say much more than that, because it would spoil the book. But I can say that there are so many secrets to be exposed that Adam has his work cut out to make sense of it all. And just to add a bit of extra drama, if he doesn’t make a good job of the defence, it is unlikely that he will be offered the permanent position at Stag Chambers. Rinder’s writing style is easy to read, and he makes some complex subjects easy to understand. His knowledge of the British legal system is obvious, and he does his best to make sure that readers can understand it as well. I found myself turning the pages in anticipation of the next twist the plot might take and what new secrets would be exposed. There are red herrings aplenty, but the truth is there to be discovered if you can pick up on the subtle clues that Rinder drops into the narrative. But there are also a few lessons to be learned about the morality of the legal system and it becomes quite clear that justice is often not what is done, but what is seen to be done. You would think the legal system is there to establish guilt or innocence, but those concepts seem to slip between the cracks when it comes to what can be proved and what can’t. If you like legal dramas, then I highly recommend you give this one a go. “The Trial” by Rob Rinder is an absorbing read which left me wanting to read Rinder’s next book (assuming there is one) straight away. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.
The views expressed in this review are those of the review's author and not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing.
Neither Selfishgenie Publishing nor the author of this review have been provided with a free copy of the book being reviewed, nor has any payment or other inducement been offered for the review.
One thing I like about some authors is their reliability; picking up their book and knowing that I’m going to be in safe hands when it comes to the story telling. It doesn’t matter what the genre, the author’s name is their guarantee that I’m going to enjoy the book, no matter what.
And so it is with Graham Norton and this, his third novel, “Forever Home”. I won’t spend a lot of time discussing writing style and story telling competence, because that has already been covered in my reviews of Norton’s previous books. Please take it as read that he is a competent writer and an excellent story teller. What I will talk about, however, is his affinity for location and characters. Graham Norton’s books are set in County Cork in the south of the Republic of Ireland, which is where he grew up and still lives for part of the year. His understanding of the ruggedness of the countryside and the sort of people it breeds is critical to the story in so many ways. When Graham Norton describes a character, you get the feeling that he is intimately acquainted with them. No detail about them is too small to escape his notice. But mainly he writes about these people with great affection. Even the characters you aren’t supposed to like come across mainly as being flawed, rather than being bad. The start of this book makes you think that the story is a cosy domestic drama. A relationship is coming to an end, not because anyone wants it to, but because it has to. What follows, you are led to believe, is the characters dealing with the fall-out from that ending. But then the story takes an unexpected dark twist and you realise that the story you thought you were reading isn’t the story at all. So, what did I think I was reading to begin with? Teacher Carol Crottie, previously married and with a grown up son she hardly ever sees, falls in love with the parent of one of her pupils. After a while she moves in with him and everything seems to be going well. But it isn’t. Carol’s new love, Declan Barry, is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Carol gives up work to look after him him, but an accident leaves her with a broken leg and unable to care for Declan. He is moved into a care home while Carol’s leg mends. And then Declan’s children intervene. Declan has two children of his own. Abandoned by their mother, Joan, Sally and Killian were in their teens when Carol met Declan. The relationship between Carol and the siblings was never good and now they use an enduring power of attorney, set up by Declan without Carol’s knowledge, to put Declan into permanent care. Not only that, they put Declan's house on the market, selling the roof from over her head. While that is bad news for Carol in terms of losing her home, she also knows that Declan never wanted the house to be sold. He had made that wish quite clear to everyone, including his children. But Carol hasn’t got a leg to stand on legally so, in middle age, she is forced to move back into her parents’ home; a move that is far from welcome by anyone. But Carol’s father, Dave, is a successful businessman and hatches a plan to purchase Declan's house so that she can move back into it. Knowing the siblings would never sell to carol, he plans to do it through one of his companies. Carol doesn’t like the idea, but by the time she can object the deposit has been paid and her parents are unwilling to throw that money down the drain. So, the house purchase goes ahead. And that is the point at which things start to get very dark, and I realised that the story I was reading wasn’t the real story. I won’t spoil the book for you by telling you any more of the plot. But even after Norton introduced that twist I still wasn’t reading the story I thought I was, because no sooner had I thought I’d worked out what was going on, than there was another twist and I found I didn’t really have a clue. So, this is a story that keeps you guessing throughout. Despite its darkness and the misery of Carol's situation there is some humour in this book, most of which comes from Carol’s mother Moira. I strongly suspect Moira is based on a real person. Ok, if the book is that good, why only 4 Stars? This is a personal thing, but I don’t like it when characters who have a big impact on a story are sprung on you late in the book. To prevent a spoiler, I can’t tell you who they are or what they have to do with the story, but I would have liked to have been able to take them into consideration while I was trying to work out what was going on. Just a casual mention of them, with a couple of vague clues that they may have more than a walk-on part to play, was all that was needed. But, as I said, that’s a personal thing and other readers may not be bothered by it. But I do wholeheartedly recommend this book if you like cosy family dramas with a dark edge to them, because that is exactly what you will get here. To find out more about “Forever Home” by Graham Norton, click the link below.
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Once again we turn our blog page over to a guest book review. Please note that the reviewer received a free review copy of the book, but was not paid for the review or offered any other inducements.
The views expressed are those of the reviewer and not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing.
Having recently read Peter Caddick-Adams’ excellent account of the Battle of the Bulge (as it was called by the Allies), in Snow and Steel: Battle of The Bulge 1944-45 I was keen to see what Miles Watson, the author of “The Very Dead Of Winter” would make of telling a fictionalised account.
For a start, had he done his research? It turns out that he had, and I am happy to accept as poetic licence any differences between the known facts and the story as told in this book. In his historical notes at the end of the book, Miles Watson does mention that he has strayed from the known facts in one or two places. But there is a lot more to this book than just the historical accuracy. It is a really great read. So, the setting. It is December 1944 in the Ardennes forest on the borders between Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. After fighting their way from Normandy, the American Army is pausing for breath and the bad weather doesn’t encourage campaigning. But the Germans have other ideas. Hitler’s latest master plan is to launch a surprise attack through the Ardennes, just as his armies did so successfully in 1940, aiming to reach the port of Antwerp and cut the British in northern Belgium off from their American allies in the south. Without an ability re-supply, the British would have to surrender and without their ally on their northern flank, the Americans would have to stop to re-group and re-position their already stretched forces. That hiatus, so Hitler thinks, will allow him to concentrate on defeating Russia in the east before suing for peace in the west.. Hitler called it Operation Wacht am Rhein (watch on the Rhein), but it had been quietly renamed Operation Herbst Nebel (Autumn mist). It is one of the coldest winters for years and the weather is so bad the Allied air forces are grounded, giving the German Army a much needed advantage. The story is told from three different points of view. The first is Top Sergeant Edward T Halleck, a former cowboy and rodeo rider who has been in combat since the American landings in Morocco in 1942. Wounded in the vicious fighting in the Hȕrtgen Forest, Halleck deserts from his hospital bed but, unlike other deserters, he isn’t running away from the fight, he is trying to get back into it. At which point he is arrested by MPs and taken before a General, who decides a hero like Halleck is just what his inexperienced men need to see in order to bolster their fighting spirit. Halleck is sent to tour the front line and arrives just in time to get caught up in the opening attacks of the battle. The second point of view is from Second Lieutenant Robert O Breese, Halleck’s former green-as-grass platoon commander. He, too, was sent to hospital after being in the Hȕrtgen, but he is what the American Army calls a Section 8. In other words he is mentally ill. Breese disputes this with his psychiatrist and persuades him to let him return to battle. Thanks to an exhausted truck driver, Breese is involved in a crash that leaves him the only survivor, at which point he decides to launch a one man revenge campaign on the Germans who had destroyed his platoon in the Hȕrtgen. The final point of view is that of OberstLeutnant (Lieutenant Colonel) August Cramm. He is a career soldier from a family of career soldiers that goes back almost a thousand years. He has lost an eye and an arm to the war already and knows his chances of survival are slim. As the Intelligence Officer of a Volksgrenadier division, he makes it his job to try to prevent unnecessary loss of life amongst the soldiers of his division, despite the profligacy of the Divisional commander. Once a believer in the German cause, now he is cynical, but is as determined to do his duty as ever he was. Each chapter takes turns to show us how the battle was fought from the three different points of view. However, this book isn’t about grand strategy, it’s about the soldiers who fought the battle and the loss of life and cruel conditions that the combatants had to endure. It’s also about the chaos and mistakes in decision making that nearly led to a disaster for the Americans and eventually did result in disaster for the Germans. A map of the battlefield would have helped, in order to picture where the three different characters are, but that is a minor quibble. History tells us the outcome of this battle, but the questions that readers like me will be asking is “which of these three men, if any, will survive the battle?” and “What lasting effect will the battle have on them if they do survive?” But I’m not going to spoil the book by telling you. The three main characters are well rounded and believable. From the half-crazy Breese to hard bitten Halleck and the cynical Cramm, we get a good feel for what the battle did to the soldiers. At times I felt myself shivering from the cold even as the sun shone outside my window. I could smell the explosives and the powder, the blood and the guts. Time flew by as I immersed myself in the story and it is rare that a book has that ability to absorb me so deeply. The pace of the story is almost exhausting, and I felt almost as tired as Watson’s characters at times. I was torn between giving this book 4 or 5 stars. There are quite a few typos, eg the word ‘all’ loses its second l on many occasions and there are many others. But the sheer skill of the story telling far outweighs these minor flaws, so 5 stars it is. If you are a lover of historical fiction, a lover of military themed fiction or you just love a bit of action and adventure, then this book is definitely the one for you. I have no reservations about recommending it to readers of this blog. To find out more about “The Very Dead of Winter”, by Miles Watson, just click the link below.
This week we turn our blog over to one of our authors, who is reviewing one of his recent reads.
All views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing.
I am pleased to have stumbled across the Northern Wolf series of books, by Daniel Greene, the first one of which gives the series its title.
The title suggests something that might be in the fantasy genre (there is a fantasy series with a similar name), but it isn’t. It is a historical series set during the American Civil War (1861-1865). It had me hooked from the first page, so it is good that the series is available as a box set, so I can keep the cost down because I’m definitely riding along with this one. Johannes Wolf.is a young man who is drifting aimlessly through life. Due to a leg injury sustained as a child he is unable to work and, feeling unmanned by his disability, he settles into a life of drinking and brawling. Unwisely, he decides to take on three brothers, Polish migrants with little understanding of the English language, and he ends up in jail, in the next cell to his three former opponents. At this point a recruiting Sergeant for the Union Army turns up and tries to sign up the three brothers; big, strapping lads who would make good soldiers. The sergeant plays on their lack of language skills to get them to sign the enlistment forms. Wolf signals to the brothers that this isn’t a good idea. He then persuades the Sergeant that he can get the brothers to sign, but only on condition that he too is allowed to enlist (he had previously been turned down by the Army because of his disability). While Johannes may not be able to march very well, he has no problem riding a horse and the Sergeant is recruiting for the cavalry. Unable to resist the temptation of signing three good recruits, the Sergeant agrees reluctantly, and Wolf and the three Poles set off to start a new life in the 13th Michigan Cavalry. They are then shipped off to a training camp outside Washington DC, a city under threat from the advancing Confederate Army. It comes as no surprise to anyone who knows a little bit of history that it isn’t long before Wolf and his comrades are called upon to fight in the Battle of Gettysburg (1st – 3rd July 1863). The 13th Michigan are assigned to the Michigan Cavalry Brigade under the command of the newly promoted Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer, who would later find fame for less glorious reasons, but who has already established a reputation for being something of a maverick and a firebrand. That is a fact, by the way, Custer did command this brigade at Gettysburg, though the inclusion of the 13th Michigan Cavalry in the brigade is a fiction. I won’t go into any more detail here, preferring to let author Daniel Greene tell the story, which he does very well. The plot isn’t a complicated one, but the story is well told and the characters Greene creates are interesting and believable. Johannes Wolf finds he enjoys army life and his new sense of purpose motivates him to become a good soldier. Greene surrounds Wolf with a cast of similarly well rounded characters. So why only 4 stars? It is down to the battle scenes. I found them confusing, unable to picture the whereabouts of the characters within the action; who is doing what, where and to whom. There are no helpful maps of the battlefield and I found I lost track of events very quickly No doubt this reflects the fog of war, but it doesn’t help the reader to keep track of events to see how the battle develops and moves through its critical phases. In particular it doesn’t place the book’s characters at the centre of the action where they can influence the outcome. They become irrelevant to the events around them, less than pawns in a game of chess. As Wolf is the main character, he should be right at the centre of the action, saving the day for the Union Army (even if only fictitiously). There is one scene where Wolf’s character is really influential (I won’t give it away here), but that is one incident in a book that is 245 pages long. However, don’t let me put you off this book because, for lovers of historical novels with a military flavour, it is an enjoyable read. This may not be Richard Sharpe at his finest (my benchmark for 5 stars in this genre), but Wolf is a likeable character and I found I really came to care about what would become of him. For my British readers, you don’t have to know a lot about the American Civil War to enjoy this book. My American readers probably know all they need to anyway. I look forward to reading more about Wolf’s adventures in Book 2 of the series, Northern Hunt. If you would like to know more about “Northern Wolf” by Daniel Greene, just click the link below. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so.
This week we hand over our blog page to one of our authors, who is reviewing a book.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the blog's author and not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing.
Most Brits and Irish will know Graham Norton as an Irish comedian, actor, TV chat show, Eurovision presenter and radio broadcaster.
I probably missed something there, so I hope he’ll forgive me. But he’s also an author, and a rather good one at that. I started reading his books on the recommendation of a relative (Irish, naturally) and started with his first book, “Holding”. I didn’t review it because it had already been turned into a TV series, so many people will already know about it. In my opinion the book was superior to the TV version, but I’m one of those people who always thinks the book is better than the film (or TV) version so I may be biased. However, I couldn’t wait to review “A Keeper” which is Graham Norton’s second book. It’s a cracker, as the late Frank Carson (another Irish comedian) used to say. While “Holding” was a crime drama, with an out-of-his-depth village Garda (police) officer investigating a murder, “A Keeper” is very different. It hasn’t got any murders in it, but there is a lot of death. An awful lot of death. So, to the plot. Basically it is a detective story, but without any police or detectives. If that sounds odd, don’t worry. Just go with it. Elizabeth Keane came from a small town in Ireland and, like many Irish people before her, went to America, married and raised a family before getting divorced (not everyone who goes to America gets divorced, I know, but she did). She returns to her birthplace (so she thinks) to take care of family business which she has been too busy to attend to in the years since her mother died. She finds a box with letters addressed to her mother, Patricia, from around the time of her birth, which start to reveal secrets about her family. Most importantly, the letters are from her father, who she never knew, as he died not long after she was born. Around the same time, Elizabeth discovers that her son, Zach, who is supposed to be staying with his father in California, isn’t actually with him, having gone off on some adventure of his own. Worried about her son, she realises that there is nothing she can do to track him down from where she is. Her ex-husband persuades her not to cut her visit short and promises to look into the boy’s whereabouts and get back to her. Needing a distraction and intrigued by the letters, Elizabeth decides to look deeper into her past. From there on the secrets start to be exposed, leading the reader down a pathway to the past. But every time this reader thought he knew what was going on, Norton hit me between the eyes with something else which made me completely re-think my theories. I can tell you no more about the plot without spoiling it for you and I wouldn’t want to do that. But, believe me, every time you think “Ah, I know what’s happening here,” Graham Norton smacks you around the head with another surprise, as much to say “Oh no, you don’t know what’s going on”. Graham Norton has a very easy style of writing which makes the book enjoyable to read. He handles the descriptions of both people and places very well. The characters are beautifully drawn and highly believable. Being familiar with the part of Ireland where the book is set means I had no trouble hearing the characters voices in my head, complete with Cork accents (the Irish county, not the thing you take out of a wine bottle). If you are less familiar, just imagine the voice of Father Noel in the episodes of “Father Ted” in which he appeared, and you’ll get the idea. I realise that might not mean much to non-British and Irish readers, so you may need to google it. To save you time I found this on Youtube. Father Noel is the manic one and is played by the author.. Overall, this book is a really good read. While it will make you feel sad some of the time, and really worried about Patricia all of the time, the overall message is uplifting. I highly recommend "The Keeper" by Graham Norton. You can find out more about the book by clicking the link below. If you have enjoyed this blog, or found it informative, then make sure you don’t miss future editions. Just click on the button below to sign up for our newsletter. We’ll even send you a free ebook for doing so. Disclaimer: We are not connected with Bryan Cohen in any way and have no financial interest in his book. This review has not been paid for by Bryan Cohen or anyone else. This is a review of one of two books by Bryan Cohen that we think should be read in the right order. This first one, “Fiction Blurbs: The Best Page Forward Way” is about improving your blurb writing technique so that readers feel more compelled to buy your book. The second book, “Self-Publishing With Amazon Ads” teaches you about increasing the profitability of your advertising campaigns. What links the two? One of the “tweaks” that the second book suggests to increase sales is to improve your book’s blurb. So, if that is a tip for increasing sales it seems sensible to us to try to improve our blurbs before we started spending money on advertising, so that we don’t spend money on advertising only to find out that our blurbs might need improving. It is putting the metaphorical horse in front of the cart rather than behind it. But don’t worry, we’ll be reviewing “Self-Publishing With Amazon Ads” next week, so that you can get the whole picture. Having said this book is by Bryan Cohen I must now correct myself and tell you that it is actually written by Phoebe J Ravencraft, an associate of Bryan Cohen, who works for his company, Best Page Forward. But they get joint author credits. First of all, what about the authors’ credentials for writing a book such as this? Best Page Forward has written over 5,000 book blurbs for self-published authors. Phoebe herself has written or overseen the writing of around 3,000 of those. She comes from an advertising copywriting background. They have gathered plaudits from satisfied customers and the blurbs they have created have stood the test of time to sell books. I think we can safely say that they know what they are talking about. In one of our marketing blogs, repeated last autumn, we advised selling the sizzle, not the sausage. In other words, we recommended not trying to describe your book to the reader but trying to excite their imagination about how dramatic/entertaining/insightful/hilarious (insert other adjectives of your choice) your book is going to be. That is exactly what this book strives to do. That was good enough to convince me to buy the book. If it does that for us, the money spent on it will be repaid just by selling two extra copies of one of our books. As both an author and a publisher I have written dozens of book blurbs, so I thought I knew what I was doing. We had done plenty of research to try to find out what made a good blurb and we followed the lessons we had learnt, but there was still a nagging doubt in our minds that we might not be getting it right. Our sales suggested that there was something amiss. We were getting lots of clicks on our adverts, but they weren’t converting into as many sales as they should. So, when I started to read this book, pennies started to drop to tell me that doing what other people were doing was the problem. What we needed to do was to be different, to make our blurbs stand out from the crowd. Readers are too easily distracted by metaphorical shiny things, so the solution to that is for our book blurbs to be the shiny thing that distracts them from other books. Chapter by chapter, Phoebe (if she’ll permit me the liberty of addressing her by her first name) lays out the elements that go into writing the “killer” book blurb that we wanted, and then how to structure the different elements to get the most out of them. It wasn’t that the blurbs we wrote were actually bad. After all, we're conforming to what we understood to be “best practice”. It was more that they could have been so much better. For the most part, they were selling the sausage, not the sizzle. They described the book, but they didn’t describe the emotional ride that was contained within the book. Emotions, it turns out, are the sizzle that sells the sausage. I sort of knew that already, because I have always believed that books should be character led, not plot led. Readers engage with the characters at an emotional level and come to care about them and that is what keeps them turning the page, not the plot itself. And that emotional engagement, it turns out, is what has to be at the heart of the book’s blurb. There is a lot more to it than that of course. Conflict, jeopardy, structure and vocabulary all play a massive part, but without the emotion the book still won’t sell. I’m not going to ruin the book’s sales by telling you what tools and techniques are taught within its covers. You’re going to have to pay to find out, just as we did. Suffice to say that every page provides something new to learn. Even if your blurbs are already good I feel quite confident saying that you will learn something new from this book. Readers will note that I have given the book only 4 stars where, from what I have said, you might expect that it should be worth five stars. That isn’t because of the lessons that the book teaches. It is only because of the style in which those lessons are taught. "As an author and as a publisher I have limited time available" The author uses well known books and films to illustrate the lessons and there is nothing wrong with that. Many of those books and films are her personal favourites. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that. However, at times I found that the point being made was laboured and that the author was getting rather carried away with her own passions. While such enthusiasm is to be admired, it can be a little too much when the reader has already grasped the key message and only wants to move on to the next lesson. As an author and as a publisher I have limited time available, and this book took a little more time to read than was essential. Perhaps it was designed to pad the word count, so the reader thinks they’re getting value for money, but the real value isn’t in the number of words, it’s in the messages. But that is a minor criticism and I feel secure in saying that anyone buying this book will have their money repaid quite swiftly if they learn the lessons and apply them to their blurb writing. So, what are my main takeaways from this book? The first one I sort of already knew but being reminded of it didn’t hurt. The purpose of the blurb is not to describe the book; it is to sell the book, which is an entirely different technique. According to Phoebe, you don’t even have to read the book to be able to write its blurb. Secondly, creating a good blurb isn’t easy and it requires practice and hard work. I soon discovered that when I tried to re-write the blurbs for the books we publish. What I thought would be about ten minutes work per book turned out to take considerably longer and they still aren’t perfect (though they are better). Finally, a good blurb taps into your emotions and raises the “risk” level for the protagonist so high that the reader has no choice but to buy the book to find out what happens. Get that right and the book will sell. But I’m sure you want to know if re-writing the blurbs for our books made any difference to our sales. First of all, judge for yourself. If you go to our “Books” page we have re-written most of our blurbs. I’m not suggesting they are perfect. In fact, I’m sure that Phoebe J Ravencraft would suggest some improvements if she were to read them. But they are different to our previous style. Just ask yourself one simple question – having read any of those, do you feel tempted to buy the book? More importantly, has our conversion rate for sales improved? We actually got an instant return for one book. The day we changed the blurb it got its first sale in months. Coincidence? Possibly, but we think it may have been the new blurb. Then a second book got its first sale in months, followed by a third. Too many for coincidence; this was a trend. I’m not going to pretend any of those books went from non-seller to best-seller overnight as a result of the tweaks we made - but “Fiction Blurbs: The Best Book Forward Way” paid for itself within a week and is still paying for itself in terms of sales. I highly recommend “Fiction Blurbs The Best Book Forward Way” by Bryan Cohen and Phoebe J Ravencraft. To find out more about the book, click here. Next week we’ll be reviewing another book which could help you to sell a lot more of your own books, so be sure not to miss our blog. In fact, why not sign up to our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss it. We’ll even send you a free ebook if you do. Just click the button below. This week we hand our blog to one of our authors, who is reviewing a book. I’m a lover of historical fiction, so when I heard about this book it was an easy decision to buy it. What made it even more attractive was the fact that many of the people who are used as characters in the book were real. They lived and breathed and did many of the things that the author attributes to them. While some of the story may be fiction, a lot of it is historical fact. Act of Oblivion, by Robert Harris, is set during what was known in England as “The Restoration”. That period after the end of the rule of Oliver Cromwell, when the monarchy was restored to England (Useless trivia- it was still known as England even though it included Scotland, Wales and Ireland. It wouldn’t become “Britain” until 1707). When Oliver Cromwell died, it was his wish that his son, Richard, succeed him as “Lord Protector” (King in everything but name). However, the English establishment didn’t fancy that. If they were going to have a King, they wanted it to be a proper King and the rightful heir to the throne. So, Charles Stewart, son of the executed King Charles I, was invited to come back from his exile in Flanders. There was the thorny issue of what to do about the people who had fought against his father, so The Act of Oblivion was passed by Parliament. This guaranteed that a free pardon was granted to all who had fought on the side of Parliament during the English Civil War, with the exception of a small group of people. That small group of people included the men who had sat in judgement on Charles I at his trial and those who had signed the warrant for his execution, about 50 or so men. A couple gave themselves up in the hope of receiving Royal mercy, some had already died of other causes, some were living in exile in Europe, and some had gone into hiding in England. At least two fled to the American colonies, where there were many allies of the Parliamentary cause and its Puritan religious supporters. The book starts in 1660, just after Charles II returned to the throne, with the arrival in New England of Colonel Edward Whalley and Colonel William Goffe. They are two former soldiers in the Parliamentary Army (Roundheads, as they were known because of their dome shaped helmets) who are on the run under threat of execution, having been two of the signatories of the execution warrant of the late King Charles. Whalley also happens to be Goffe’s father-in-law. They were real people. As well as being a soldier, Goffe is also a zealous Puritan, with a knack for giving rousing sermons. Whalley, while being Christian, is less committed to the Puritan ideal. Much of the story follows their travels around the fledgling colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut as they try to evade capture and are protected by likeminded colonists. In London we have Richard Naylor. He is fictitious, but as Harris says in his introduction to the book, if you have a hunt, you must have a hunter and Naylor represents all the real life hunters of the wanted men. Naylor is a bitter man and is relentless in his pursuit of Whalley and Goffe, against whom he has a personal grudge, as well as the others under sentence of death. He is Clerk to the Privy Council, which allows him to wield enormous power. However, he finds that his power is limited by geography and what he can do in England to intimidate people he isn’t able to do in America, despite it being under English rule. London is a long way away and it would take a lot of English troops to enforce the warrants that Naylor is carrying. "You don’t have to know much about the English history of this period to enjoy this book" I think we are supposed to feel some sympathy for the characters of Whalley and Goffe. They were coerced into signing the execution warrant by Cromwell (which really happened) and see themselves more as victims. However, I had little sympathy for them. There is a considerable difference between doing one’s duty as a soldier and signing a death warrant because you have been ordered to. do so. But that is just my opinion. You don’t have to know much about the English history of this period to enjoy this book. Pretty much all the historical information is skilfully fed into the narrative along the way. It is very well researched. If you are an American and would like to understand a little more about what life was like in your country in the second half of the 17th century, then you may find this book of interest. You may also discover why your country has some of the political and religious views that are held by some people today, because history does sometimes repeat itself. You will also find out how New Amsterdam became New York. The pace of the book is what I would describe as “steady”. There are points of high action, but there are also long passages when not a lot happens, which is why I have only given the book 4 stars rather than 5. Whalley and Goffe are in hiding for lengthy periods and it’s difficult to inject much pace into those sections. However, they are important when it comes to understanding the historical and religious context of the English Civil War, as Edward Whalley starts to write a memoir of Cromwell, which tells us a lot about the man.. Harris is a very successful author, so it is not for me, a mere reader, to comment on his writing skills, but I can tell you that I never lost interest in the book, and I also learnt a lot, sometimes without even realising that I was learning things. I would recommend this book to readers of historical fiction on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. If you want to know more about “Act of Oblivion” by Robert Harris, just click the cover image or use this link. |
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