Roll on 2013...

Next year I can't wait to read...

1) The new Curtis Sittenfeld, Sisterland.
She is just my favourite current writer. Prep and American Wife are fantastic, shrewd, sharp-eyed women's fiction. The new one looks like it's cut from a different cloth - about twins with a form of ESP, which seems to mark a step into a form of fantasy writing. For me she can do no wrong and so I can't wait for this book. Out June.

2) Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer
I devoured Bauer's previous three thrillers. Blacklands is particularly gripping but all are excellent (perhaps excepting the twist at the end of Darkside, which I wasn't entirely convinced by). Rubbernecker is about an anatomy student uncovering dark secrets from the past. Sounds good to me. Out January.

3) The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
This has got summer hit written all over it. A smart thriller about a serial killer ranging over decades in America - looks delicious. Out May

4) The Quickening by Julie Myerson
I find Julie Myerson a quirky and challenging author. This is a novella which sees her writing a horror story set in Antigua under the Hammer imprint. I think horror is the next genre fiction to make the crossover into the literary mainstream (cf fantasy and historical fiction), and I'd love it if this were a part of it. I'm looking forward to seeing how Myerson tackles the genre...Out March

Sophie Hannah is also bringing out one of these Hammer novellas called The Orphan Choir in May. Needless to say I can't wait for this one either! I like Hannah's psychological thrillers about the horrible intruding into everyday life, which makes me think I will love this story of a woman who moves to the country and is tormented by the sound of a neighbour's music...

5) The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
I've had this on my wish list for a long time. The Emperor's Children, Messud' s fabulous novel about young Manhattanites and 9/11, is one of my favourite reads of the decade. Her new novel follows a young teacher in Massachusetts who gets drawn into the life of the family of one of her pupils. Out May

6) The Chessmen by Peter May
What crime fan isn't practically frothing at the mouth to read the final of the Lewis trilogy? I love the wild atmosphere of these books and the sense of the isolated community that May develops. Along with the fantastic mystery, of course. Out January!

7) Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
I can't imagine there are many readers who don't love Kate Atkinson. Her funny, gripping novels are touching and unique. Her latest isn't one of the Jackson Brodie novels she's been writing over the past few years, instead it's a novel about a woman born into the blitz. Possibly with a fantasy element, this looks customarily unique from Atkinson.

If by the end of 2013 these novels turn out to have been half as good as I'm anticipating I will be a very happy reader indeed!

As an addendum, books published this year that I'm looking forward to reading in paperback include...

Gold by Chris Cleave
Reservation Road by John Burnham Shwartz
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
The Small Hours by Susie Boyt
The Innocents by Francesca Segal
Cold Hands by John Niven
A Question of Identity by Susan Hill

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On the pleasures of ghost stories

As a lifelong fan of the ghost story I was particularly pleased to see Andrew Taylor's new story Broken Voices on the first list of Kindle Singles. I really enjoyed The American Boy years ago on a holiday to Rome - it still evokes memories of a blissful day on a park bench in spring - so the combination of Taylor and ghost story was exciting to say the least.

Broken Voices was just the latest in a long line of ghost stories I've read and enjoyed over the latest 31 years. I vividly remember a short story I read over and over again as a child which featured a haunted newell post. While this sounds a ridiculous premise for a story, like all the best ghost stories, it was unforgettably terrifying. The young protagonist innocently dressed the newell post each day by hanging his coat on it and placing shoes beneath it. One dark night he walks up the stairs to the sound of dragging footsteps close behind him...Unfortunately I can't remember the author of this chilling delight, which was published as part of an anthology of children's ghost stories. If anyone can remember I'd love to hear from you!

Broken Voices contains many of the classic tropes of the genre: a Christmas setting, a story within a story, a child protagonist in an isolated setting. It's set in a cathedral and it's environs - a wonderful choice for a creepy tale. There's a deliciously gothic flavour to a scene where the protagonist and his companion enter the huge cathedral late at night and feel overwhelmed by the cavernous stone structure. The boys are investigating a mysterious loss in the cathedral itself. That's about as much as I'll reveal about the plot itself; it would be invidious to spoil either the unraveling of the tale or its denouement.

Taylor is a master of the drip feed of unease necessary for a good ghost story. Lovely details are used to add a macabre touch: a malevolent cat, a grotesque episode in a barn, a lost cap all add to the atmosphere. And the haunting itself is appealing unusual. A lovely cocktail of fear very suitable for Christmas.

The modern mistress of the form is, of course, Susan Hill. With many ghost stories to her name, the most famous is The Woman In Black. Here Hill's mastery of setting is clear; the creation of Eel Marsh house is a masterpiece. Her recent The Small Hand is a more intimate ghost story, less about horror and more about terror - the terror of what is simultaneously known and unknown. Her protagonist is haunted by a child ghost - much like the narrator of AS Byatt's superb short story "The Summer Ghost", published in the excellent Virago Book of Ghost Stories. Both The Small Hand and Byatt's story are sad as well as scary.

And of course there are the classic ghost stories of the nineteenth century: The Signalman by Dickens,  O Whistle and I'll Come to You by MR James (and of course all the other Jamesian treats - Lost Hearts is gloriously macabre)...I could go on. I read an interesting piece by Mark Gatiss (whose set of modern ghost stories for BBC4, Crooked House, was an excellent modern addition to the ghost story for Christmas genre) in the Christmas New Statesman which revealed the apparent fear of the female form latent in James's stories. Although I'm not entirely convinced by such a psychological reading of James's oeuvre, I did find it added a new layer to my thinking on the stories themselves. My own preferred (psychological!) reading of the Victorian era's predilection for and mastery of the ghost story is that it reflects the anxiety felt about a changing world. The ghosts are the spectres of a simpler time pressing back into industrialised England.

I can't conclude this without mentioning my absolute favourite ghost story by one of my all time favourite authors: Afterwards by Edith Wharton. Although we now know Wharton mainly as an incisive commentator on turn of the century New York, she was also a superb writer on the supernatural. Afterwards is a truly wonderful story, set in a crumbling country house in the English countryside. There's a ghost bringing retribution for a past sin - but, as the title tells us, both the reader and the characters won't know it till long afterwards.

I could go on - and possibly will in another post! No room for The Little Stranger, for example, and what about The Shining? I'd like to think a bit more about the line between a ghost story and a horror story. And that means a trip into Stephen King territory - which definitely means another post is needed. Meanwhile, read and enjoy Taylor's Broken Voices - and if there are other classic ghost stories you love or I've missed please let me know in the comments!

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The English Monster by Lloyd Shepherd: unusual historical fiction

Over Christmas I read Lloyd Shepherd's recent historical novel which Simon and Schuster PR kindly sent me a review copy of. Initially I wasn't sure it would be for me - I thought at first it was a true crime book. Which it sort of is, but it's a lot more interesting and gripping than true crime usually is. Plus, it's not all true!

Shepherd's starting point is the apparently notorious Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811, a particularly brutal and unsavoury crime which, despite the arrest and subsequent suicide of the supposed perpetrator, many feel was never satisfactorily solved. The English Monster weaves together a mostly fictional explanation for these murders which takes in slavery, skulduggery and even a little bit of sorcery.

I felt the best aspect of the novel was the ease with which Shepherd mixes his historical fact with a fantastical element. The novel blends crime, history and fantasy with ease - a bit like my absolute favourite novel of the last ten years, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.  The evocation of eighteenth and nineteenth century Wapping,  where the.murders take place, is grimly realistic, whilst the pictures of tropical Jamaica scarred by its association with slavery are lushly evocative. The dual storyline follows events in both these locations before coming together in the final.chapters as the murders are "solved" by the proto-detective Horton. The reader, of course, has got there before him.

I can recommend this to any crime fans as well as historical fiction and fantasy readers. Even better, it's currently in the Kindle 12 days of Xmas promotion - and it's definitely worth a read.

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Richard and Judy books

So today the Spring 2013 Richard and Judy Thorntons Book Club books were announced (and here they are on the WH Smith website)

I do like the R and J list; usually the selections are very readable, occasionally they're adventurous and there's always at least one I want to read.

This time out I've read, loved (and reviewed on this blog) Gone Girl. I have been desperate to read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry for about 8 months! And I was just showing the husband Chris Cleave's Gold in Waterstones last week. I hadn't heard of this author before we read The Other Hand in my book club. I thought it was very readable and original so I do want to read his latest one. I've also been wanting to read John Green's YA novel The Fault in our Stars for a while. It looks like a nice change from the dystopian landscape of current YA trends!

I hadn't heard of David Mark's The Dark Winter but after a look at the description it seems right up my street. The R and J choices usually include a good crime novel - I think they "broke" The Blackhouse - so I trust I'm in good hands. And I love a bit of Americana, particularly if it's anything to do with politics, so I quite fancy Noah Hawley' s The Good Father.

Of course, the best thing is that all these books should be out in paperback soon! (of course, I'm always open to review copies here at Rich Tapestry Reads, should any kind publishers be reading). And hopefully lots of new readers will find and enjoy something a bit different.

I hadn't heard of

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If you got a Kindle for Xmas and are browsing the sale...

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey: beautiful descriptions of Alaska and a haunting story. Evocative and magical, this is a really compelling novel.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn: if like me you've read and loved Gone Girl, go back to the start with Sharp Objects. A creepy and quirky slice of Southern Gothic with a shocking twist. Unsettling and shivery.

My Sister Lives on the Masterpiece by Annabel Pitcher. This could so easily be very corny. A family relocate to Yorkshire after one of their twin daughters is killed in a terrorist attack on London. In this very modern story Pitcher tackles racism, alcoholism, depression and growing up with a very light touch. It was my pick to win the Carnegie.

The English Monster by Lloyd Shepherd: ok, so I'm only two thirds of the way through this, but an early heads up for my good review. A touch of Mr Whicher plus a smidgen of Jonathan Strange makes an original and gripping historical/fantasy fiction read. Recommended.

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have we had enough of...

- dystopian YA novels?
- cashin 50 shades erotica?
- scandi crime?

*disclaimer*

I'm certainly partial to bit of scandi crime - I do like Jo Nesbo and have a soft spot for Jussi Adler-Olson - and the same for YAY dystopian fiction (take a bow, Lauren Oliver and Patrick Ness). But I think I'm ready for something different...roll on 2013!

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Because I am off home to Belfast for the holidays the husband and I did our Christmas present opening today. And here are my lovely books (all requested of course!) 2 problems: don't know which to read first and can't take any on the plane as they are too heavy. Kindle Christmas it is - for me and many others i suspect.

Happy Christmas blog readers if you are readong - onwards and upwards next year!