River Clyde

By Simone Buchholz

The fifth book featuring Chastity Riley.

There is a crime lurking in the background but this is a story about grief and coming to terms with loss of a friend. It is sad and funny, hopeful and despairing all at once. The wierdest in the series,  I loved it for it's sketches of Glasgow and it's quirkiness. 7/10

Annihilation

 by Michel Houellebecq

Well that was a cheery little number. The clue is in the title I guess.

We follow Paul, a high flying civil servant who is preparing with his boss-the finance minister-for the 2027 presidential election. We follow the story from the end of 2026 through 2027.

Apart from his career, his marriage and family are not in a good place and there is a wierd string of cyber/activist/terrorist attacks going on which nobody can fully explain.

It's a while since I read a Houellebecq novel but I really found this one interesting and as ever I was left with many unanswered questions-but you know that when you take one of his novels on 8/10

Balzac's Paris

 by Eric Hazan

A book about a man who loved Paris by a man who loved Paris. This book is full of interesting detail but you do want a map to hand to locate streets and areas that he mentions. Really enjoyable if you like Paris or Balzac or both 8/10

Wild Houses

 by Colin Barrett

A story of rival families caught up in small town drug dealing in Ireland. The characters were generally well drawn but it did engage me greatly. 5/10

Playground

 by Richard Powers

I so enjoy this author. His imagination and cast of characters are Dickensian in scope.

This story is about a couple of friends who meet at school and play a lot of games together but get absorbed by the game of go. One of them goes on to become a tech billionaire, the other does not. There stories intersect and fly apart and along the ways we meet a host of characters, learn about the oceans and AI and climate change and French Polynesia. It is capped off with a fantastic twist in the tale. 

The biggest surprise though is how this book did not reach the Booker shortlist. 9/10

Death at the sign of the Rook

 by Kate Atkinson

Jackson Brodie is back and he is on good form.

This is a very funny and entertaining book with multiple deaths and multiple reasons in true Agatha Christie style. Brodie stumbles into the mystery almost by accident and meets up with some old friends! It is great larks and written in a way that keeps it the right side of daft. Loved it 9/10

A Simple Intervention

By Yael Inokai 

A nurse involved in a pioneering surgical procedure falls in love with her room mate and has her world shaken up. I really enjoyed this book. 8.5/10

Maigret is Afraid

By Georges Simenon

Maigret calls in on an old friend on his way back from a conference in Bordeaux. He gets involved in a murder enquiry involving three dead bodies, a suicide and a rather dysfunctional family. 7/10

Orbital

 by Samantha Harvey

This is a very short book at just over 100 pages and deals with one day -or I should say 24 hours on board the International space station and the interactions and lives of the astronauts aboard. I did not expect to enjoy it and yet it was strangely absorbing as well as being informative about life in space. 8/10

Creation Lake

 by Rachel Kushner

A spy story with a difference. Sadie Smith is sent to infiltrate a commune in South West France as well as keep an eye on a low ranking government official. She used to be employed by the FBI but her current employer remains unknown. 
The book never really got going for me and although I enjoyed some of her fun one liners to end various sections I was yearning for something to happen. By the time it did happen it all felt too late. 6/10