Blood Men | Paul Cleave

I live in Christchurch, New Zealand, where this story is set. Cleave is a good crime writer but I think for me, the portrayal of the city as dark, sinister and Gothic seemed a little strained, as I live here and it doesn't seem that bad! I 've been thinking a lot about the book as I am trying to figure out why I didn't love it outright, as with Paddy Richardson's crime books set in Christchurch.
I think that with Cleave's type of serial-rapist story if it had been set in New York or Los Angeles it would have been a lot more believable for me. maybe other readers who live there would be ok with reading of a far off city which seems steeped in darkness where horrid things happen. Our city is called "The Garden City" and its genteel calmness (others would call it boringness) just doesn't seem to match the story.
In this crime novel a serial rapist's son is caught up in a bad bank robbery where his wife is shot. He spirals out of control and in a matter of days has come to acknowledge that some of the violence he knows is in his father, is coming out in him. He makes contact with his father in hope that he'll know who was involved and then the body count starts to mount. It is mostly resolved but as i turned to the last page I was left with the feeling this was going to lead into a sequel. I hope it's a good one, as I will read it, in support of a local author. But I hope I like it a bit more than this one. It's not a bad read, it's well written, but not as satisfying as Richardson, whom I've read concurrently.

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A Year To Learn A Woman | Paddy Richardson

What a writer! I am so pleased to have discovered this wonderful author from New Zealand. Richardson lives in Dunedin, in the South Island and this landscape features strongly in her work.
This is the second novel I've read of hers and I am out hunting down her other two novels. She is very talented and I highly recommended her work to anyone who wants a great story, very well crafted characters and stories which are absorbing and keep you turning the pages even when you should be out there doing something else.
In this story, Claire Wright is a freelance writer who became widowed at a young age. She lives with her teenage daughter and together they have a pleasant suburban life in Christchurch. Out of the blue is is asked to write the authorized biography of a serial rapist who is in prison and has specifically asked for her to ghost write the book. Although full of apprehension Claire takes on the contact due it the huge amount of money she will be paid for it, money which will alloy her and Annie to be able to travel and pay for university fees.
Doing the research leads to contact with Travis Crill, the rapist, and his six victims. There is a lot of discussion among Claire and friends about rape and the impacts on their lives as they become involved in the details of the crime.
At school Annie meets a new arrival, Savannah, from USA who is forceful and possessive and they become best friends. Savannah isn't a great influence and over the year Annie's life turns upside down.
As I read I knew we were heading for disaster, I just couldn't see from which direction it was coming or what form it was going to take...i just braced myself for it and read on! It was like bracing for a car crash and when it happened, it was dramatic, but well handled and resolved. Stunning book. Read everything she's written.
Hunting Blind is her latest.

The Long Song | Andrea Levy

Levy is English, born of Jamaican parents who emigrated in 1948 to England. This novel is about the lives of white planters and black slaves in the time of the Baptist Rebellion and beyond. The narrator is July, a slave on Amity, a plantation in Jamaica. The slaves are many, the overseer cruel, the masters feeble and incompetent, the mistresses, an embarrassment.
I found it a good read, but I became impatient with some of the white characters who were drawn in a less favorable light than the blacks. The story is primarily about the abolition of slavery and Jamaica's history since then so our sympathies are very much with the slave population but the tedium of engaging with the whites made me impatient to finish the book. I also found it very similar to "James Miranda Barry" by Patricia Dunker. I'm not sure if it is because of this that I didn't find it an altogether satisfying read, but on the strength of the writing I will chase down some of Levy's other novels and read them as she is very talented.

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