My Year in Books 2023: September

I read a few books this month, mostly from the library. I have to admit, it was a bit of disappointing month when it came to reading, as most of the books I read didn't quite live up to expectations. There was one stand-out though, so that was nice.

If you're curious, here are my reviews from the rest of the year: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August

What She Saw Last Night by M.J. Cross (2019)

The first book I read this month was a library book. I checked this one out because I’m a sucker for a train mystery, though I was acutely aware from the design that this was likely to be more of a psychological thriller than a whodunnit (I know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but that font and layout is very genre-specific). According to the blurb, the premise is that a woman called Jenny boards a sleeper train to Scotland. During the night, another passenger is killed and Jenny discovers the body. She alerts the guards, and also lets them know that there’s no sign of the woman’s young daughter. But it turns out… there’s no record of the little girl being on the train. The woman didn’t book for a child to travel with her, and there’s CCTV evidence to show that she boarded alone. Did Jenny imagine the child? or is there something more sinister going on? The set-up is great, but sadly this book really doesn’t deliver what you might expect. It’s actually neither a psychological thriller nor a whodunnit. It’s an action thriller, with much of the second half devoted to chases, violent confrontations and increasingly convoluted and far-fetched organized crime plots. The puzzle of the unidentified dead woman and the mysterious missing child is resolved early on, and the rest of the story focuses on Jenny’s plan to reveal and take down the bad guys. This one was a bit of a disappointment.

Worst Idea Ever by Jane Fallon (2021)

Another library book… and another book I judged by its cover, which I thought looked pretty jaunty. It’s not my genre of choice, but I thought I’d give it a go. The book is about Georgia, a relatively content woman in her 40s who lives with her husband Nick and teenaged twins, and who writes and illustrates children’s books. Georgia’s best friend is Lydia, who is single and very pretty, but lives an unfulfilled life and posts too many aspirational pictures on Instagram. Lydia is a talented artist and writer – indeed, Georgia believes Lydia is far more talented than her – but she’s had no professional success with her work. When Lydia decides to sell some of her art online, Georgia decides to set up a fake Twitter account to praise her and give her some confidence to keep going. Unfortunately, Lydia quickly becomes ‘friends’ with ‘Patricia’ (the fake account) and starts to talk about Georgia. When Lydia reveals a secret about Georgia’s marriage, everything becomes a lot less fun. This one was a lot less fluffy than I thought it would be. Georgia and Lydia’s friendship is a longstanding one, but it’s more complex than you might imagine. Lydia’s parents died when she was young, and Georgia’s family became a surrogate family for her as she was grieving. Although we’re focused on the who-said-what-on-Twitter antics of the present day, there’s a much sadder story underneath about a friendship forged in trauma that was never quite as solid as it seemed.

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister (2022)

I bought this one in the supermarket on impulse, which isn’t something I’ve done much recently. It looked intriguing, though I’m not sure that instinct has been steering me right this month. The book begins with the protagonist Jen waiting up for her teenaged son Todd to come home after a night out. But something very bad happens. She sees a man approach Todd and then, without warning, her son pulls a knife out and stabs the stranger to death. In the immediate aftermath, Jen is bewildered and her husband Kelly is angry. Todd won’t explain why he did what he did, but no one can deny that he did do it. You’d be forgiven for thinking this book is going to be a mother’s journey into understanding her son’s secret life of crime, or a We-Need-to-Talk-About-Todd exploration of nature/nurture and the creation of a criminal. It’s neither of those things. Because, when Jen wakes up the morning after the arrest, it’s actually the morning before the arrest. Todd is still at home and apparently happy, with no indication of what’s to come. Yes! This is a time-loop mystery novel! And a really good one! Each time Jen wakes up, she’s moved further back in time, allowing her to work out exactly where the root cause of Todd’s crime lies. McAllister does an admirable job of planting backward clues, and the whole thing has a really satisfying resolution. And then it has a tiny epilogue that is awesome. Loved it!

The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer (2022)

And back to my library books… this one is the debut novel by Bob Mortimer, and so I just had to read it. The blurb promised a ‘noirish’ story with the absurd and surrealist humour we might expect from the author. The protagonist is Gary, a rather mundane man who works for a solicitor’s. Gary meets a girl in a pub one day, but she leaves before he can get her name. Gary is quite taken with the girl, but the only thing he knows about her is the title of the book she was reading: The Satsuma Complex. When he discovers that his friend Brendan has disappeared, and that the police believe he’s the last person to see Brendan alive, Gary gets drawn into a rather convoluted mystery, which sees him attempt to track down ‘Satsuma’ and work out what has happened to his friend. There are mystery USB sticks, dodgy policemen and some odd conversations with squirrels as he does so. I really did want to love this one, as I’m a long-time fan of Bob Mortimer’s comedy, but it all fell a bit flat for me. It was absolutely fine, but I guess I was expecting something more than ‘fine’ with this one. The novel form doesn’t really fit with Mortimer’s usual style of comedic storytelling, so it all felt kind of watered down, and the plot was a bit lacklustre. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it. And I guess I wanted to love it.

The Heights by Louise Candlish (2021)

And another library book! I’ve read a couple of Candlish’s other books, so I had a good idea what I was going to get with this one. The book is initially narrated by Ellen, a woman who has signed up for a memoir-writing class for victims of violent crime (and so her narration contains stylistic elements of memoir). Ellen’s world has been upturned at the start of the book because, while working at a client’s property, she spots someone in the window of a neighbouring building and recognizes him. But it doesn’t make any sense, because not only has the young man in question been dead for a couple of years, Ellen was the one who killed him. Obviously, this isn’t possible, so part of the book’s storyline is about explaining how Kieran, the young man in question, can be walking around when he’s meant to be dead. More importantly, it’s also about explaining what happened in the past that took Ellen to the point of wanting to kill a teenager. The second part of the book switches perspectives, so that we now see things from Ellen’s husband’s POV. I think that might have been my favourite bit of the story, as I enjoyed the way we revisited incidents from the first part, but with a very different take. Overall, the story is quite compelling and there are a few surprises, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the author’s other books as it’s just not quite as gripping.