Book Reviews

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Anthology #57

Ink Ribbon Red, by Alex Pavesi

Perhaps it’s a failing in me; it could be a concomitant of my age [but I don’t want to believe that]; but I generally prefer murder mysteries or thrillers to be written more or less sequentially: I found this story to be difficult to sustain interest in, because of the way it jumps around on the timeline. The focus is the old Whitsun weekend in 1999, and the occasion is a 30th birthday; from the synopsis on the back cover: “May, 1999: six friends gather at a country house for a birthday. The host insists they play a game. Each will write a story about one friend murdering another. Points are given for plausibility. No secret, grudge or affair is off limits. Six stories. Six murders. And now six unexpected motives. Because this game is about to get murderously real…” There is no explanation for the origin of the names of some of the characters, who are all in their late twenties/early thirties: Maya, Anatol, Janika, Marcin — Phoebe seems comparatively traditional [although the author does admit to the television programme Friends being one of his major influences] but they all seem to me like rather self-centred individuals. Perhaps we all are at that age? They have played this game [which I would not agree to play, personally] on a previous occasion, but this time, Anatol, the host, is still ostensibly grieving the death of his father a few weeks ago. What unsettles me about the chronology is that some of the ‘stories’ are seeded into the narrative with no forewarning of their status, so the reader is left to decide if it is actually part of the narrative or a device to wrong-foot him or her. There is a resolution at the end, which is some compensation for me, but I still feel like I had to wade through a chronological jumble to arrive at the dénouement, so it’s only qualified approval from me. The paperback I read was published in 2025 by Penguin Books, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies, London [2024, Penguin Michael Joseph], ISBN 978-1-4059-4499-1.

Haywire, by Andrew Hindmoor

This is a truly monumental work; the subtitle should prepare the reader for that: A Political History of Britain since 2000. It runs to 540 pages, plus Timeline of Key Events, Notes to 38 chapters plus Conclusion, and Index [bibliographical references are in the notes]: 663 in total. The font is quite small: possibly 10pt, so heaven knows how many words that runs to. However, it is compendious in its scope, so lovers of factual analysis appertaining to politics, especially our own [i.e.: British], will definitely enjoy this. That comes with a caveat from me, inevitably. Notwithstanding that the author’s analysis is astute, I have to assess it against my own partiality. He is right that, whilst Democracy, in its current iteration, is the least worst option available to us, our own version is riddled with disadvantages; the primary of which is the party system, which he calls Partyocracy. It is glaringly obvious why this a problem, but it is one which democratic countries seem doomed to suffer eternally. The book is not set out chronologically, but divided into eight parts, so there is plenty of overlap & backtracking [but that makes its reach comprehensive]: Millennium, Boom, War, Crash, Union, Splintering, Quartered, and Moving On. Those of us British who were born in or before 1990 will be well familiar with the events & issues covered, too many to detail here, but enveloped in the centre of events since the first few years of the century, like a corrosive ingredient running through the sticky outer layer, is Brexit, whose repercussions are still being experienced today. It is interesting that, in the last few chapters, he references a book by Rory Stewart I reviewed recently. My caveat is the proverbial elephant in the room: everything about democratic [and, in truth, most undemocratic] politics is driven by money, and this is an unquestioned given here. My objection isn’t Marxist, per se: it is entirely utilitarian. Not even the most idealistic of political reformers could hope to resolve the conundrum of why democratic politics always fails, without considering how our existential affairs would be so much more equable without the scourge of money; but I’ve fulminated about that before, so enough for now. The paperback I read was published in 2025 by Penguin Books, London [2024, Allen Lane], ISBN 978-1-8020-6359-2.

We Solve Murders, by Richard Osman

This is the first in a promised new series by the legitimately phenomenally successful author/producer/presenter; the first book in his existing series The Thursday Murder Club is currently in production for a limited cinema release on 22 August 2025, and then on Netflix from 28 August 2025 [I have previously reviewed here the third in the series, The Bullet That Missed]. It stars British acting legends Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, and Celia Imrie.  This one is nicely paced, and the characters are plausible; the two ‘leads’ are father-in-law Steve Wheeler & daughter-in-law Amy Wheeler. Steve is a widower ex-policeman, who is enjoying a quiet, ordered retirement in his small New Forest village [an area I know reasonably well from my youth]; Amy is an adrenaline-junkie, and works in private security: she is currently on a private island protecting a best-selling, but infamous author, Rosie D’Antonio, who believes she is in life-threatening danger from a Russian chemicals Oligarch, Vasily Karpin, because a character in her most recent novel was too clearly based on him. Amy’s boss, Jeff Nolan, is concerned about the deaths of three of his Influencer clients in very quick succession: could this have an impact on Amy and her current client? Soon, this question is answered, and Amy & Rosie need to go on the run; also, Amy must persuade Steve to think bigger than his current, very parochial business, Steve Investigates, and join her away from his comfortably safe home location in, first & foremost, keeping herself and Rosie alive, but also to find out who is killing these Influencers. The key to it all would seem to be the identities of François Loubet, who only communicates via ChatGPT-rewritten emails, and his colleague Joe Blow, who are integrally connected with the murders. The dénouement is not too hard to guess, but that’s fine: I enjoyed this nevertheless, and I will be very happy to read future entries in the series. The hardback I read was published in 2024, by Viking, Penguin Random House UK, ISBN 978-0-2416-0836-4 [paperback ISBN 978-0-2416-0837-1].

Imminent, by Luis Elizondo

The title of this fascinating book refers to the author’s judgment that “Regardless of whether one believes UAP [unidentified anomalous phenomena: previously UFO] represent a threat to our [sic] national security or, on the contrary, perhaps UAP represent a new opportunity for our species, we are at the point where the reality of UAP is now upon us.” Before jumping to the conclusion that the author was an inherent believer, it should be made clear that he comes from a fairly traditional [for the US] “patriotic” military background, but specialising in Intelligence & Security so, for him, adherence to the rules and protection of secrets was second nature: until it became very clear to him that the reality of contact with non-human beings and the vehicles in which they travelled was being kept from “the American people”, first & foremost; and, by extension, the world. The secrecy is wrapped up in a convoluted network of different layers of the military and government, each having its own initialism or acronym [not always the latter, as the author thinks], which can very easily [quite possibly intentionally] cause confusion. So this book isn’t just about revealing this epiphany to the world: it is also about stripping away these layers of deliberate obfuscation which, inevitably, emphasises the paranoia, born of fear, at the heart of the US “Military-Industrial Complex”. Elizondo reaches a point beyond which he can no longer persist in protecting a system he considers to be rotten, so at great risk to himself & his family, he goes freelance [albeit with some usefully influential contacts] to publicise as much as possible, while building trust with the Federal Government, and those in the military who are of a like mind. The latest UAP Disclosure Act was signed into law by President Biden in December 2023, but there is still work to be done. Although Elizondo states that “I started to see us heading into an era of renewed creativity and optimism.”, it is worth also mentioning that “The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense [sic] or the US government. The public release clearance of this publication by the Department of Defense does not imply Department of Defense endorsement or factual accuracy of the material.” So: believe what you will. The paperback I read was first published in the UK in 2024 by John Blake Publishing, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK, London, ISBN 978-1-7894-6607-2.