Tower and Town, April 2025 (view the full edition)A Good ReadI've had quite a tiring reading month, juggling a high-octane thriller, a slightly lower-octane black comedy and a lengthy trek across Europe with a wolf. Never a dull moment I tell you. Abir Mukherjee's Hunted is a twisty tale full of red herrings, wrong garden paths and are-they-or-aren't-they heroes and villains. It's a chase, a rescue mission and a redemption story, with multiple storylines. Binary politics, family divisions, bomb-makers and the exploitation of idealism all feature. I'm writing short sharp sentences because it's that kind of novel, fast moving, bang bang bang! It probably wouldn't do to think about it too closely or your credulity might be stretched slightly too far, but it's gripping and entertaining and I enjoyed it a lot. I say 'enjoy'. It's slightly alarming. Oh, the Big House in literature. It's the topic that never grows old. The Kellerby Code by Jonny Sweet is the familiar story of social climbing, social insecurity and the (to some) irresistible glamour of The Posh with their impenetrable codes, their ancestral piles, their terrifying, rackety, entitled carelessness. Middle-class Edward has been in love with Stanza and her country house since their University days. Stanza is in love with Robert, both of them exploit Edward's sweatily eager and humiliating subservience. As the book progresses Edward becomes more aware of his own seething resentment, and is trapped in his own thoughts and embroiled in secrets - his own, and those of his 'friends'. It's a comedy of manners, funny in a 'read-it-through-your-fingers' way, poignant but also black and tensely murderous. (One reviewer described it as 'Brideshead Gothic'. Wish I'd thought of that.) Talking of Gothic - Adam Weymouth's Lone Wolf describes some chillingly imaginative mediaeval methods for killing the animal most feared and mythologised down the centuries. Weymouth (previously short-listed for the Richard Jefferies prize for Kings of the Yukon) explores the complex relationship between humans and wolves in a corner of Europe struggling with cultural and political as well as environmental change. Following the path of a wolf (Slavc) tracked by GPS on a thousand-mile trek from the Slovenian Alps to northern Italy, the book examines conservation and ecological issues along with cultural perspectives on the protection or reintroduction of apex predators. (Much as I love a wolf, in all fairness I'm not a sheep farmer.) It's a beautifully descriptive, thoughtful book, and an engaging and immersive read. Debby Guest |