Once More From The Top by Emily Layden:

In mid-noughties America, class misfit Dylan is befriended by fellow misfit Kelsey and they began making music together.  Shortly afterwards, Kelsey goes missing.  Fast forward twenty years and Dylan is the biggest star in the world, with fans obsessed with both herwork and relationships.  And then, Kelsey’s body is discovered at the bottom of a lake…

Of course, by now you’ll have sussed who Dylan Read is supposed to be.  If you need to look a little deeper at our ‘anti-hero’, she starts making country, then pop, then confessional.  Her partners include a label boss, a football player and a writer.  I know, I can’t ’shake it off’ either.  There’s also a queer relationship to satisfy the tinfoilers.  

Once you step aside that, this is a cracking murder-mystery, with an undertow of how geeky our teenage years are and how now, we’re all geeks.  Factor in that the idea of women artists having to subvert their character to succeed and hint of Me Too and this is a heady cocktail of nostalgia, obsession, sex and fame.  That’s enough for a satisfying read, but there is also the grit and twang of middle America.  Plus, Dylan’s continuing monologue with Kelsey.

In conclusion, the novel lands at a sweet spot: a mystery, with music and a masterful control of plot and character.  It’s published by 4th Estate on 1st August and I thank them for a preview copy.  

 Stef Penney - The Long Water:

Penney is known for her novels which have a hint of ice.  This one is of that genre, it’s a spacious, dark  piece of writing which looks and walks like a crime novel, but is something much bleak and thoughtful than that. 

In a small Norwegian town, a high school student goes missing, during the end of term ‘Russ’ (a mixture of teenage rampage/hazing).  Our omnipotent, omniscient narrator is Svea Hustoft  who finds the disappearance brings back painful memories from her past.  

The book is full of brilliant characterisations and Hustoft is one of them. She’s the daughter of a woman who had a relationship with a German officer, suffered an abusive relationship with her mother, which she then continued with her own children.  There’s also that sense of regret, in her unspoken, slow-burning relationship with a neighbour; plus keeping up with an ever-changing world.  

There’s also that sense of connectedness here, a small town where everyone knows everyone/everyone’s business.  If the novel has one major fault, the disappearance is a red herring, plus that is compounded by the discovery of another body.  Plus, if I can nitpick a little more, this novel is perfect for cold nights, rather than late-Summer heat.  

However, it’s a book with a glacial, unsettling pace.  It’s published by Quercus on July 4th and I thank them for a preview copy.  #thelongwater

 The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier:

Chevalier is known for historical novels, most notably Girl With A Pearl Earring.  This is of that calibre.  In fact, the plot construction; in some senses very similar to that book.  In 15th century Venice, Orsola is the daughter of a glass worker.  When her Father dies in an accident, she becomes one herself to feed the family and it follows her lives and loves throughout the years.  

It’s fair to say that this is an efficient, well-written historical novel.  Chevalier’s plain, open, storytelling suits a narrative better than most historical novels, which try to copy the style of the period.  However, this can often be frustrating as the dialogue shifts into Italian slang (the glossary at the back is useful). On the upside, I can now swear like a Venetian gondolier. 

The problem with the novel is its big idea: when Orsola works with glass, time slows down (cheekily compared with reading a book).  As a result, she lives through war, revolution, two plagues and a Venice at the sharp end of global warming.  That is a hugely original idea, but the fact that it is inferred, rather than explained is a structural problem.  One historical character turns up and the use of more could have made the narrative more expansive.  Also, our sense of who the characters are changes with the passage of time and that is another issue with it.  

In conclusion, this is a better than historical novel than most, but with a bigger, richer narrative suggested.  It’s published in the UK by Harper Collins on September 12th and I thank them for a preview copy.  #theglassmaker.

 Ten Men by Kitty Ruskin: 

This book is the summary of the author’s lost year of 2019; when after a sexual assault during childhood, she decides to get in touch with her sexuality.  A chapter is devoted to each man and what happened, from first date to break up.  The writing is sharp and there is a refreshing frankness about sex.  There’s also a real discussion about consent - during the course of the year, she is raped twice and as a result, her mental health suffers and she considers suicide.  For that reason, the book quite rightly carries a trigger warning.  

Where the book falls down is the writing seems loose, disconnected.  It works best, like any book in a confessional genre where the writing and, by extension the writer is being true to themselves. The structure itself, seems too limiting (a man, anonymised per chapter). Plus, there is little attempt to contextualise it until the afterword and the writing in that chapter, seems to have a weight and an insight that the loose, choppy style of the majority of the book has.  It’s out now from Icon and I thank them for a preview copy.  #tenmen

 Murder On Stage by FL Everett: 

I have been a big fan of Flic Everett’s journalism for a long time.  She’s honest, sparky and witty.  This book falls into an ever-growing cosy crime drama.  Set in 1940’s Manchester, it is the third in the Edie York series, set in wartime Manchester.  In this adventure, our intrepid Mancunian journalist heroine investigates the murder of an  actor during an ENSA tour at a theatre.  

It’s a well-researched book, which slightly takes it out of what is becoming a slightly cliched genre.  Where it falls down is the clanking gears of the plot, which aren’t really more than peaks of infodumping. Plus, it’s cheeky enough to reference Agatha Christie (there’s even a dog named after one of her characters).  

But the murder itself references a very famous murder from one of the books; plus the over ends on a deus ex machina as the villain is taken in.  Which is a shame, as the characters are well-written, there’s witty dialogue, a touch of romance… but it all seems a little too referential.  It’s published by Bookoutre on 18th June and I thank them for a preview copy.  #murderonstage

The Echoes by Evie Wyld:

Hannah and Max’s relationship was never great, but now Max is dead, still present in the flat, watching his partner, waiting for the purgatory to end.  It’s a tricksy book stylistically, it works best in the chapters where Max is present, watching insects and feeling the presence of everyone who has/ever will live in the flat and seeing Hannah move on in life. 

Stylistically, it moves between this and Hannah’s life in late 90’s Australia.  And there’s enough bogans, op shops and Anzac biscuits to satisfy nostalgia freaks.  Literary readers will enjoy the overarching concept that the eponymous Echoes is the housing estate teenage Hannah lives on, but is also the afterlife that Max lives in and also partially what indigenous Australians call The Dreamtime.  

Tonally though, the book seems to suffer from an uneven, emotionally shifting and often jarring tone.  It’s meta enough to reference Ghost, Ghostbusters, Truly, Madly, Deeply and Ted Hughes’ poem Anniversary.  However, the sly wink of the short story Hannah works on in Uni - resembling Wyld’s best-known novel All The Birds, Singing - seems a little too cute for its own good. See also, Hannah’s mental health crisis portrayed with great dignity, Max’s death played for laughs.  

It’s a novel that Sunday supplements will love, but personally, I found it too erratic to be truly beautiful.  It’s published by Penguin on August 1st and I thank them for a preview copy.