I seem to be going through a booky period, reading great books, including one from my distant childhood – ‘Chowry’ & ‘Idle’s Island’ by Jean Forbes-Robertson, and also a slightly gruesome but fascinating book ‘Written in Bone‘ which was indeed all about gruesome parts and written by Sue Black the forensic anthropologist, and in complete contrast, the hilarious but not for the squeamish or faint-hearted , the latest DCI Logan mystery, ‘One For the Ages’.
However these have been eclipsed by the publication of the latest book by Chris Speck, ‘Avenue Cars‘. I am very excited! I have written before about Chris’s books, each is very different from the other apart from the two volume story of a highwayman, ‘The Great Frost’ and ‘Richie Lad’. The first book I read by him is ‘Beast’ about a young lad struggling to manage on his own, orphaned after the death of his father. I wish I’d still been teaching when I read it, because I know the young people I was working with would have absolutely loved it. Many of them faced the sort of problems Tony has and lived the difficult lives that he does. It’s the type of book which can be appreciated whatever age you are. The story of the young highway man is of course told through a pair of historical novels, but I found them absolutely gripping and equally fascinating. The other novel written by Chris, ‘A North Sea Tale’, is about a Yorkshire trawler heading out into the dangerous North Sea – what a hard, hard life is that of fishermen – however the main concern of the captain and his crew is, who killed the bosun?!!!
I’ve rather strayed away from Chris’s only just published book, ‘Avenue Cars’ which is what I’m recommending you to read:
Our Dave has been running Avenue Cars on Chanterlands Ave, Hull, for as long as anyone remembers. You can depend on Our Dave… but it wasn’t always like that. Back in the seventies he did things he isn’t proud of, and buried under the shed on his allotment behind Newland Ave, is a shotgun. There are dark forces in this city. Leatherhead controls the heavy drugs that come through Hessle Road. The Mancs are trying to muscle their way in, and then you’ve got the bent coppers. If Our Dave is to keep his drivers safe, he’ll have to go back to his old ways.
It’ll be murder.
It’s absolutely brilliant – you’ll stay up way too late reading it, and towards the end your heart will be in your mouth! Thid is where you can find it:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BWWZDYFZ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
Lois Elsden 