14 Gulf Daily News Sunday, 19th September 2010
A satirical love
S
imon Darcourt was a terrorist
for hire, until he met his match
in policewoman Angelique de
Xavia.
His carefully laid out plans went up in
smoke and he officially died in the after-
A Snowball in Hell by Christopher Brookmyre … Abacus
math, but now he’s back and after blood
of a different kind.
Darcourt is working for himself and
his new targets are celebrities, the taw-
drier the better. He is determined to give
those who are dying to be famous the
ultimate opportunity to do so for real.
Angelique is a high-flying policewom-
an with a very dangerous secret – the
love of her life is a bank robber on the
run.
When these offbeat adversaries are
pitched against each other once, again
the result can only be fireworks.
If you’re jaded by the usual offerings
1,227 chores to finish
by my next birthday...
M
ike Gayle is a
30-something
author who, in
a moment of madness,
decides that it is about
time that he grows up.
He has one child and
another on the way, but he
still can’t seem to take life
seriously or get to grips
with its minutiae.
On the other hand, his
neighbours seem like
‘proper’ grown-ups, people
who live in an orderly way
with none of the silly crises he seems to face on a
daily basis.
Grasping the nettle, he
draws up a 1,227-item
To-Do List with his daughter’s crayon and vows to
complete it by his next
The To-Do List by Mike Gayle …
Hodder
birthday.
On it are tasks as
diverse as knuckling down
to read War and Peace to
archiving family pictures
and writing a will.
This is the story of his
epic struggle to fulfil his
promise to himself.
Gayle is well-known for
his light-hearted ‘bloke-lit’
novels, but he claims that
he was persuaded to write
this book by his agent,
after he mentioned his
plan in an e-mail.
Unfortunately for me
I picked it up while distracted and didn’t initially
realise that this was nonfiction.
It caught my eye
because I am the queen of
the mental to-do list and
although I am fantastic
at making plans, getting
things actually done is not
my strong point.
I was curious to see how
it might form an interesting starting point for an
amusing tale, but I was all
set for disappointment.
While this does have
moments of high-humour
and is an amiable enough
read written by a decent
author, the truth is that
other people’s real life
chores are of very limited
interest, no matter how
comic a spin is put on
them.
In fact, to be brutally
honest, if you have a to-do
list of your own, make
sure reading this isn’t on
it. Life is simply too short.
The To-Do List is available in Bahrain book shops,
priced about BD5.
A dark tale
of death,
anguish
and turmoil
The Vows of Silence by
Susan Hill … Vintage
Books
M
elanie Drew is a happy
newly-wed, looking forward
to a bright future, when she
is gunned down in her home.
Claire Pescod is looking forward
to her own wedding, but she and
her friend are shot as they celebrate her hen night.
Bethan Doyle is equally innocent, but she sews wedding dresses and so she is killed in front of
her baby son.
A series of apparently senseless
killings are creating an atmosphere of terror in the small town
of Lafferton and Detective Chief
Superintendent Simon Serrailler
is the man everyone is relying on
to bring it to an end.
However, Serrailler has problems of his own.
His brother-in-law is terminally ill and
his sister desperately needs his support,
while his former lover has appeared on
his doorstep and his emotions have been
thrown into turmoil.
How can he overcome these distractions and protect the women of Lafferton,
without betraying his family?
For those who like their crime fiction
with a bit of added interest this book has
much to recommend it.
In many ways the shootings are merely
incidental and Serrailler and his extended family’s dramas are very much the
focus of the story.
However, the bleak nature of the sub-
plots means that it is also one of the most
depressing books I have picked up in
years, capable of throwing a dark pall
over the sunniest day. I personally found
the constant diet of slow death, anguish
and turmoil very hard to take.
Setting that aside, Hill’s depiction of
the shooter, his motives and thoughtprocesses proved very insightful and was
the highlight of the novel.
It was a great shame. I’m all for elevating mysteries from the basic whodunit
format, but this was far too dark for me.
The Vows of Silence is available in
Bahrain book shops, priced about
BD4.500.