The Monday Book: THE ANGEL MAKERS by Jessica Gregson

So you’re in a rural village during World War I and the guys are off fighting and you realize you’re better off without them. A few of you are, anyway. And then this prison camp of Italians gets put in nearby, and they need people to wash and cook…..

Yeah, you can kinda write the script from there. When the husbands come home, they leave again. Feet first. Through the door.

But let’s say some mothers-in-law and maybe an elderly parent or two need help across to the other side as well. How long will it take before the authorities come to investigate? And how quickly will they figure out what’s happening?

This book is all about the plot. Normally I like character-driven books, but this one had me rooting for the bad girls to the end. That plot just keeps rolling forward. It doesn’t even twist and turn. And the whole thing is the fictional retelling of a true story.

Heh heh heh.

There aren’t any particularly wonderful quotes. The writing is solid. The characters are pretty straight-forward. This is all about whodunit, and why, and whether they get caught or not.

Two syringes of poison up for this very interesting novel based on real events.

The Monday Book: ANYTHING CONSIDERED by Peter Mayle

As Wendy immerses herself in a writing project, Jack takes on  the Monday book this week.

 

Mayle is best known for his amusing semi-autobiographical books featuring an Englishman living in France (A Year in Provence etc) and in some ways this is another of the same – but not quite!

 

This does have an Englishman and it is set in France, but it’s also very different from Mayle’s previous books. This is a classic and gripping heist story and even has a femme fatale.

 

The basic premise concerns the fact that truffles (not the chocolate kind – the ones that grow underground) are worth a fortune and there are no ways to farm them to order. The Englishman gets caught up in the auction of a case containing the formula for growing truffles plus vials of spores in the formula ready to go. The auction involves some very shady and dangerous folk, a great deal of money and a beautiful American girl. There’s humor as well, including a group of drunken monks who aren’t really monks at all – they just dress like they are!

 

The odd thing is that this time some of Mayle’s characters are just a bit shallow and two dimensional but it doesn’t actually matter too much for two reasons. First of all the story is really great and rattles along at a terrific pace and secondly the descriptions of countryside and villages of the south of France which are spot on. I toured that part of the world quite a few times with my old group Heritage – so I know of whence I speak.

 

In case that sounds like less than a euphoric endorsement, I should say that if you like a gripping story with engaging characters, a cliff-hanger ending and some tongue in cheek laughs then you will surely enjoy this.

 

I know I did!