Crème de la Crime: PI Romy & The Have-Haves by Ellina Abdul Majid

About the book: Romy smiled disarmingly at the Datin. But with her Versace shades still firmly on and her Cassey Gan mask drawn equally firmly across her face, it was akin to trying to make eye contact with a ninja...

PI Romy is a small-time detective, working the angles to cari makan (eke out a living) in a KL on the brink of dystopia because of Covid.

Plagued by the demons of his own past, he stolidly bumbles along through life in his socially awkward way, beguiled yet bemused by the antics of his atas (high class) clients, whom he describes to himself as 'double confirm weird laidat.'

Distinctively Malaysian in essence and locale, Crème de la Crime: PI Romy & The Have-Haves (2021) are a nostalgic and irreverent glimpse into the cultural melting pot of 20th century Malaysia in a 21st century setting.

About the author: Ellina Abdul Majid is the author of two novels, Perhaps in Paradise (longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 1999) and Khairunnisa: A Good Woman, and a children's book, Iguanas In Our Garden.

Ellina was educated in Malaysia and the UK. After receiving her primary and early secondary school education at Convent Bukit Nanas Kuala Lumpur, she was packed off to a boarding school in England, where to her astonishment, Art, Literature and Music were subjects held in the same high regard as Maths and Physics. She holds a BA Hons in Law & Anthropology from SOAS, University of London and a Diploma in Speech & Drama from LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art), UK.

She divides her time between her home in KL, her dusun (orchard) in Gombak and her tiny flat in London's Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. But she is happiest when trekking deep in the Malaysian jungle with her little bear, Buncit, for company.

Rating: 4/5

Merry Christmas 2024

Mafiopoli by Sanne de Boer

About the book: In 1992, two years after the release of the final instalment of the Godfather trilogy, the head of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Totò Riina, found himself in hot water. The result? Two prosecuting magistrates killed by car bombs, and newspapers around the world carrying front-page photographs of the two crime scenes, one a motorway and the other a residential street, both in ruins, as if they had been hit by an earthquake.

However, in another part of Italy, a different criminal organization was busy avoiding the headlines and quietly building an empire that would take over the world. 

They were called the 'Ndrangheta. The 'Ndrangheta mafia is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world. Bound together by blood ties, sworn to a code of silence and steeped in religious ritual, they are the force behind a litany of violence and corruption. 

In Mafiopoli: Living Among the ’Ndrangheta - Italy's Most Powerful Crime Organisation (2024), journalist Sanne De Boer takes us deep inside this extraordinary and ascendant criminal group.

In 2006, de Boer moved from Amsterdam to coastal Calabria, won over by the region's beauty and the warm village community. But when a car was set alight in the dead of night and, soon after, two men were shot dead, she began to see a darker side to her quiet, idyllic neighbourhood, kindling a strong desire to know more about what - or who - was behind these frequent crimes.

As Sanne de Boer pieces together the mysterious events and violence marring her new home, she dives headfirst into figuring out who the 'Ndrangheta are, and how they became such a dominant force. 

She speaks to people intimately connected to the 'Ndrangheta, explores the mafia's links throughout Europe and beyond, and gets to grips with exactly why all our lives are, in shocking ways, affected by their reign.

Mafiopoli is an engrossing insight into a brutal criminal organization. This edition includes a new afterword written by de Boer in 2024.

About the author: Sanne de Boer is a Dutch journalist who has lived in Calabria since 2006. She is the first foreign journalist based in Calabria to write about the 'Ndrangheta, and regularly appears on TV and radio as a mafia expert. Mafiopoli was originally published originally in Dutch in 2020 and nominated for the 'Brusseprijs', a prestigious award for the best book of journalism. 

The Santa Killer (A DI Barton Investigation Series) by Ross Greenwood

About the book: The Santa Killer is coming to town…

One night less than two weeks before Christmas, a single mother is violently assaulted. It’s a brutal crime at the time of year when there should be goodwill to all. When DI Barton begins his investigation, he is surprised to find the victim is a woman with nothing to hide and no reason for anyone to hurt her.

A few days later, the mother of the woman attacked rings the police station. Her granddaughter has drawn a shocking picture. It seems she was looking out of the window when her mother was attacked. And when her grandmother asks the young girl who the person with the weapon is, she whispers two words.

Bad Santa.

The rumours start spreading, and none of the city’s women feel safe - which one of them will be next?

He’s got a list. It’s quite precise. It won’t matter even if you’re nice.

The Santa Killer (2022) is the sixth instalment in the excellent DI Barton Investigation series set in Peterborough, UK. Currently, there are seven books in the series, the latest being The Village Killer (2024) which is out now.

About the author: Ross Greenwood is the award-winning mystery and crime thriller author from Peterborough, UK, where he spent his childhood and most of his early adulthood years. After he left his hometown, he lived and worked all over the United States and across the world. Nonetheless, he found himself going back to Peterborough many times over the years. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was, for four years, a prison officer and so worked everyday with murderers, rapists and thieves. His other works include the DS Ashley Knight series, the Dark Lives series and several stand-alone books.

Rating: 5/5

Christmas On The Farm by Adam Henson

About the book: Wrap up warm and retreat to the wintry countryside with farmer and Countryfile presenter Adam Henson, as he recounts his Christmas memories tending to an assorted cast of animals, and celebrates the farmers who make our celebrations possible.

Adam Henson has spent his whole life on Bemborough farm - over 50 winters and Christmases. During that time, the troughs have frozen over, snow has fallen so thickly riding shire horses out to the fields has been the only option, puppies have been found under the Christmas tree - and crises out in the world have almost brought the farm to a close.

For a farmer, Christmas takes a different shape to everyone else's, because the animals always have to come first. 

So settle down - ideally by a fireside and with a cup of something hot - to hear the tales that have defined festivity for the Henson family, and the turbulent times that have ensured Christmas is now more important than ever for Adam and his loved ones.

Heart-warming and full of Christmas spirit, Christmas on the Farm (2023) will give you a new respect for the people who work on them.

About the author: Adam Henson is the author of five books, including the Sunday Times bestseller Like Farmer, Like Son and the children's book A Year on Adam's Farm. Adam is perhaps the best-known farmer in the UK, presenting his own section on BBC's Countryfile to millions of viewers each Sunday evening. His other television credits include presenting Lambing Live alongside Kate Humble, Secret Britain, Countryfile Summer Diaries, Big Wildlife Revival, Coast and Inside Out. He has a monthly column in Countryfile magazine, as their resident farmer, as well as the Cotswold Life magazine. As well as his writing and television work, Adam runs Cotswold Farm Park in Gloucestershire, which pioneers rare breed conservation. His first book for Sphere, Two for Joy, was published in 2022.

Fletchers On The Farm: Mud, Mayhem and Marriage by Kelvin & Liz Fletcher

About the book: So, how did we end up on a 120-acre working farm in the Peak District?

It's a question we often ask ourselves. Neither of us are from farming families. We're both proper townies through and through.

Yet in the middle of the pandemic, with the whole world turned upside down, we decided to upturn ours even more. We moved from our comfortable modern house on a smart estate in Oldham, Manchester, to a centuries-old farmhouse surrounded by nothing but fields as far as the eye can see. We weren't just moving house; we were changing our whole lives! And if our first day on the farm was anything to go by, we might just have made a terrible mistake...

This is the story of our life, from setting eyes on each other in primary school, to being best friends who always made each other laugh, to falling in love and raising our four kids and three giant pigs, to the greener-than-green fields and farm life we live and breathe now.

This is our incredible journey, and it's only just begun!

Love

Liz and Kelvin, and Marnie, and Milo, and Maximus and Mateusz - and Ginger the dog and all of our other friendly animals 

About the authors: Kelvin Fletcher is a much-loved British actor who has appeared in leading roles on screen for over twenty years. In 2019, he won the Strictly Come Dancing final, taking home the coveted glitterball trophy. Kelvin made his National Theatre debut in 2022 in Jack Absolute Flies Again.

Liz Fletcher is an actor and voiceover artist who has appeared in numerous roles on both stage and screen. 

They star together, along with their eldest children Marnie and Milo, in BBC One's Kelvin's Big Farming Adventure and ITV1's Fletchers’ Family Farm (Seasons 1 and 2).

Too Much And Never Enough by Mary L Trump

About the book: Too Much and Never Enough (2020) is the international and Sunday Times Number One Bestseller. The book is a revelatory portrait of Donald J Trump and the toxic family that made him written by his niece, Mary L Trump.

Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in New York with Donald and his four siblings. 

She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. 

As a first-hand witness and a trained clinical psychologist, Mary explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who occupied the Oval Office.

Written by the only Trump willing to speak out, Too Much and Never Enough is a fascinating and unnerving analysis on one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families. 

Mary Trump’s insight and intimate familiarity means she alone can tell the truth on what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick.

About the author: Mary L Trump is the author of the international #1 bestseller, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. Trump holds a PhD from the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies and taught graduate courses in trauma, psychopathology, and developmental psychology. She lives with her daughter in New York.

Love Until Death (True Crime) by Chris Hutchins

About the book: ‘Who is Alex? Is he the gifted businessman whose interests have netted him billions of dollars, whose generosity and charm has beguiled the world’s elite? Or is he the cold-blooded killer accused by the French police of poisoning his lover? A ruthless but brilliant conman who made millions by creating a fictitious persona?’

Alexandre Despallières bewitched everyone he met with his disarming good looks and killer charm. But this had tragic consequences for many he got close to, as he left a trail of suspicious deaths in his wake.

Posing as a billionaire businessman dying of an inoperable brain tumour, Despallières seduced and married music industry legend Peter Ikin in 2008. Just one month later, Ikin died of a paracetamol overdose and Despallières was set to inherit his estate, worth millions, through a forged will.

As investigations unfolded, other suspected victims emerged, including Despallières’s own parents. Others narrowly managed to escape a similar fate, such as a Hollywood heiress, who Despallières convinced to adopt him, and conned her out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Despallières died in 2022, just before he was due to stand trial, leaving unanswered questions behind. In Love Until Death (2024), Chris Hutchins untangles Despallières’s web of deceit, and gains the trust of Despallières himself, who reveals his version of events for the first time.

About the author: Chris Hutchins (1941-2024) was an established author and journalist of highly acclaimed investigative biographies of the rich, the famous and the royals and public relations practitioner. His first, Fergie Confidential, was an intimate biography of the Duchess of York and chronicled her troubled marriage to the Queen’s favourite son. This was followed by a revelatory biography of the late Princess of Wales, Diana's Nightmare, and an acclaimed psychological profile of her, Diana On The Edge. Athina, The Last Onassis penetrated deeply into the world of the Onassis dynasty. Elvis Meets The Beatles was about the night he took the group to meet Presley and the serious repercussions which followed. More recently Hutchins has turned his attention to matters Russian with fearless biographies of that country’s leader, Putin, and best-known oligarch Abramovich: The Billionaire From Nowhere. The author returns to the royal stage with Harry: The People’s Prince. Hutchins died on 27 June 2024, aged 83.

William Styron (1925-2006), American Novelist and Essayist

A Death In Cornwall (Gabriel Allon Series) by Daniel Silva

About the book: A brutal murder, a missing masterpiece, a mystery only Gabriel Allon can solve...

Art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon has slipped quietly into London to attend a reception at the Courtauld Gallery celebrating the return of a stolen self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. But when an old friend from the Devon and Cornwall Police seeks his help with a baffling murder investigation, he finds himself pursuing a powerful and dangerous new adversary.

The victim is Charlotte Blake, a celebrated professor of art history from Oxford who spends her weekends in the same seaside village where Gabriel once lived under an assumed identity. Her murder appears to be the work of a diabolical serial killer who has been terrorizing the Cornish countryside. But there are a number of telltale inconsistencies, including a missing mobile phone. And then there is the mysterious three-letter cypher she left behind on a notepad in her study.

Gabriel soon discovers that Professor Blake was searching for a looted Picasso worth more than a $100 million, and he takes up the chase for the painting as only he can—with six Impressionist canvases forged by his own hand and an unlikely team of operatives that includes a world-famous violinist, a beautiful master thief, and a lethal contract killer turned British spy. The result is a stylish and wildly entertaining mystery that moves at lightning speed from the cliffs of Cornwall to the enchanted island of Corsica and, finally, to a breathtaking climax on the very doorstep of 10 Downing Street.

Supremely elegant and suspenseful, A Death in Cornwall (2024) is Daniel Silva at his best - a dazzling tale of murder, power, and insatiable greed that will hold readers spellbound until they turn the final page.

About the author: Daniel Silva was born in Michigan in 1960 and raised in California where he received his BA from Fresno State. Silva began his writing career as a journalist for United Press International (UPI), traveling in the Middle East and covering the Iran-Iraq war, terrorism and political conflicts. From UPI he moved to CNN, where he eventually became executive producer of its Washington-based public policy programming. In 1994, he began work on his first novel, The Unlikely Spy, a surprise best seller that won critical acclaim. He turned to writing full time in 1997 and all of his twenty-seven books have been award winning, No 1 New York Times/national best sellers, translated into more than thirty languages and published across Europe and the world. He lives in Florida with his wife, television journalist Jamie Gangel, and their twins, Lily and Nicholas.

Rating: 4/5

Dorothy L Sayers (1893-1957), English Crime Novelist, Playwright, Translator and Critic

Occupied With Blessings

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910), Russian Writer

 

Entitlement by Rumann Alam

About the book: But money lights your world up. You're trapped, what can you do? - David Berman

Money talks. But what if it lies?

Brooke wants many things. A sense of purpose, independence, security. To make a difference in the world, and maybe to impress her mother along the way.

Her job assisting an eighty-something billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could be just the ticket to the life she knows she is entitled to.

Intoxicated by this new-found proximity to wealth and power, Brooke soon finds herself rubbing shoulders with the one per cent, as her boss' attention offers a glimpse into a world just beyond her grasp. 

But before long, being under his wing is not enough, and Brooke starts to dangerously blur the lines between what belongs to him, and what should belong to her.

Taut, unsettling and alive to the seductive distortions of money and race, Entitlement (2024) is a biting tale for our new gilded age.

About the author: Rumaan Alam is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Leave the World Behind, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and adapted into a major motion picture, as well as two other novels. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.

Rating: 3/5