Murther and Walking Spirits by Robertson Davies

AZ: "A novel involving the narrator, who has been murdered by his wife's lover, observing the follies of mankind and wreaking his revenge."

I bought this a long time ago (about '93) and finally got round to reading it. I didn't get very far the first time, found it uninteresting, but this time I was captivated and charmed. The quality of the writing is brilliant and the exploration of the family history which has been only names ot the main character Connor Gilmartin is brilliant, bringing Wales, the fledgling US and Canada together through one family tree. Reminds me of Poliakoff's Perfect Strangers in its evocation of the lives of people we know only as elderly grandparents or only in the roles of father and mother. Makes us ask uncomfortable questions about our own voyeurism.

Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron

A fascinating book about the history of the fabled Silk Road, not a single path but a network of routes stretching from China through Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Iran to Turkey. Thubron travelled 7000 miles in 8 months through the Taklamakan desert and conflict ridden mountains. Beautifully written and absorbing. A window on an alien world

The Afghan Amulet: Travels from the Hindu Kush to Razgrad by Shelia Paine

An extraordinary travelogue as Paine travels through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey in search of the origins of a triangular amulet. She somehow communicates with people with whom she has no language in common and writes of people so without possessions that a local British calendar is a real gift. Makes me more determined to make my tread lighter on the earth. And unlike Thubron Paine is female and there is one episode where she has to jump over muddy streams from the roadside in a burkha, she is regularly asked where her husband is and has to be constantly on her guard against assualt. So many situations where she appears fine and I would have been scared witless!

Under Orders by Dick Francis

Francis is, like Koontz, the author I turn to time and time again for a good read, a relief from the world in intrigue and love and violence that all turns out okay in the end. Under Orders sees the return of ex jockey and person who can't help getting in trouble Sid Halley, it's not Francis' best, but it's good enough for me.

The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos

AZ: "Spanning the two decades from the 1930s to the 1950s, this is the story of a groups of friends struggling to find work after the war. The friends' lives interact to form a complex pattern that rocks the Italian and Greek communities of Washington DC with violent repercussions."

The magazine Psychologies advised me to step outside my comfort zone and do something spontaneous or differently from the way I usually would, so instead of browsing in the library I reached out and picked a book at random. It was a book I wold never have picked, the blurb about 1950s gangsters in Washington and the Greek community disinterested me even when I read it after reading the book, but I would have missed something amazing. Well plotted and beautifully written, I just could have drowned in his descriptive passages about the shocking reality of immigrant life in 50s DC. The deep joy of being touched by an unknown writer as happened with Shreve. And it's the first of a quadrology!

Day by AL Kennedy

AZ: "Alfred Day wanted his war. In its turmoil he found his proper purpose as the tail-gunner in a Lancaster bomber; he found the wild, dark fellowship of his crew, and – most extraordinary of all – he found Joyce, a woman to love. But that’s all gone now – the war took it away. Maybe it took him, too.
Now in 1949, employed as an extra in a war film that echoes his real experience, Day begins to recall what he would rather forget..."

As usual Kennedy finds an extraordinary angle and writes with devastatingly painful accuracy

Being by Kevin Brooks

"Sixteen-year-old Robert lies anaesthetized. A routine operation has just gone wrong. 'What the hell is that?' 'That, Mr Ryan, is the inside of this boy.' 'Christ . . . It looks like some kind of plastic.' As Robert slowly wakes, he can hear, he can feel, but he can't scream. The operation isn't over. But life, as Robert knows it, is. Robert goes on the run, terrified and desperate for answers. But what if the answers are too terrifying to face?"