The Galician Parallax

The Galician Parallax is a new thriller by James G. Skinner.

Set in 2004, it touches on the three coordinated attacks on three commuter trains in rush hour Madrid that murdered almost 200 people, leaving a further 2,000 with physical and psychological scars.

A Jihadist group working in Madrid had taken two years to plan and then execute the attacks. The next planned attack would be in London.

At the beginning of the novel, a British yachtsman who lives in the Spanish city of Vigo kills himself.

Or did he? Because Segio Garcia, a youthful and inquisitive lieutenant in the Spanish Civil Guards does not believe in the suicide theory. For he suspects that the Briton's death may well have been down to a homicide.

In his own time he runs what is, virtually, an investigation that is running parallel to the official investigation that is being mounted by his colleagues.

As his own investigation proceeds he digs deeper into the case and is staggered to discover that there is a link between his private case and Al Qaeda.

The problem is, he realises that he cannot prove conclusively that the link actually exists.

He forms the conclusion that he cannot take the next step forward to prove his thesis on the link without the help and assistance of the British authorities. So he drafts in the assistance of Stan Bullock, who is the honorary British Consul.

Bullock is amenable to help and begins to bend the rules of the consular and Foreign Office rules in order to obtain the information that is required.

Their combined efforts do uncover a link to one of the top cocaine cartels operating within the United Kingdom, but ut is terrorists operatives that form a real and present danger to the lives of our two heroes.

Could they prevail against apparently insurmountable odds? Would they survive?

This is a pacy and exciting thriller and will make an ideal Christmas gift for the lover fo thriller novels.

It is published by Matador at £10.99 and is available via the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, which is to be found at the righthand side of this book review.

"Oh! It's yerself!"

"Oh! It's yerself! ya bu**er!

This was the greeting that the Reverend Jack Kellet received from one of his 90-year-old parishioners, a life-long attendee of South Leith Parish Church.

It was a greeting that was met with a heartfelt kiss by way of a response.

The book is subtitled "A Scottish Minister looks back on a life of surprises."

The Reverend Jack Kellett describes himself as a lucky man. (Though some say that by-and-large, we create out own luck.)

However, his luck includes being fortunate enough to fall under the very positive influence of the famed Iona Community as a young man and lucky enough to have a surprise weekend at Balmoral Castle in the presence of the Queen.

He had experienced life within the working class community of Edinburgh, born to parents who had known what hard times were like for the desperately poor of Edinburgh.

He knew the love of his parents that was demonstrated in the taciturn fashion that was their way.

He also considered himself lucky to have fallen for a girl who also fell for him, despite, as he saw it, all his faults.

And lucky to have raised a family of three children.

He was surprised to find the Queen was much more ordinary than he had suspected might be the case, and didn't get into any trouble at all when he accidentally stepped on the paw of a Corgi who had been dashing toward its breakfast!

He also had the pleasure of saying grace, a short one, much appreciated by the Royal family and the staff, at a meal at Balmoral, where he had stayed as a result of being asked to preach a sermon at nearby Craathie.

Hobnobbing with the Queen and the Royal family. But that wasn't how it had begun for Jack Kellett.

His father was a grate builder who was proud of the fact that he was able to earn a halfpenny an hour more that the other tradesmen and he was the only employee never to have been paid off during the great depression.

He wrote with great eloquence about the childhood games of the 1930s, games like What's the Time, Mr Wolf? and the like.

He touches on childhood ailments, his school days, his National Service, his involvement with football and cricket and marriage to the great love of his life, Ena.

It was when he and Ena were enjoying a holiday on the Isle of Iona that Jack realised he had a calling to be a church minister.

And, after six years of theological study at Edinburgh University, that is what he became.

He proved himself to be a more than capable church minister, always busy being a husband and father and working for the members of his congregation and known for working with other churches in his area, including building strong links with local Catholic churches.

This book is compelling, amusing and truthful, written by a man who is, truly, a man of his God.

It is published by Matador at £10.99 and is a compelling autobiography.

Sisters of Fury

Sisters of Fury is a thriller by Keith Jackobsen.

It is set in the heady and exciting times of the late 1960s.

Jack Roberts is a northerner who comes from a family that is neither working class nor really middle class. sort of lower middle class, really, for want of a better description,

He is a bit of a drifter, intellectually speaking.  He has neither dreams for his future or ambitions.

But then he meets Hasan, a fellow student.

He and Hasan become good, close friends, and Jack idolises his new friend and he seems to become a new person, a person with hopes, dreams and ambitions.

But is Hasan all he seems? Is there a darker, edgier side to him?

But when their time at university comes to an end, it seems that Hasan just vanished from Jack's life.

So Jack returns to his aimless, intellectual drifter existence. But he never forgets about his exotic, somewhat mysterious friend.

Years later Jack learns that Hasan has written a book and is embarking on a tour to promote his book.

Intrigued, Jack decides to follow in the footsteps of his friend on the tour, yet decides, for some reason, to keep a distance between himself and his friend.

But then Jack notices that he is not the only person who is keeping Hasan under observation, for he is being tailed by a woman who seems to be fragile.

Jack meets the woman and realises that she might not be quite what she seems. For example, is she as fragile as she appears to be? And if she is, what caused her fragility?

Eventually Jack begins to understand that not only Hasaan is in danger, that he, too, could be at risk.

But from what? Or whom? And was Hasan all he had seemed to be?

This novel is described as Hitchcockian and as it exists in a maelstrom of angst, anger, mistrust and duplicity, that is as good a description as any.

It is published by The Book Guild and is available from the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, to be found on the righthand side of this review.

The Seas of Ramion

The Seas of Ramion by Frank Hinks is another of the Ramion collection of books.

The wicked witch Griselda is exhausted. Witching really takes out out of a person!

Her faithful servant Boris the skull realises that Griselda needs a holiday to enable her to recharge her
Boris wants her to take a trip to the beaches of Southern France, but Griselda doubts that this is a good idea. Because she suspects that all Boris would do would be to eye up the girls.

Instead it is decided that they will holiday at a castle owned by her cousin Veronica, Morgan Castle in Pembrokeshire, in Wales.

But first she must cast a spell to cause the holiday plans of some children to be changed.

She wants the boys to also holiday at Morgan Castle so that she can eat them.

But who will protect the boys if Snuggle, their cat protector, is at home being looked after by Mrs Dean?

But when Griselda arrives at the castle, she finds it very disappointing. Her cousin is wearing a lovely dress and all of the instruments of torture have disappeared from the castle! What has happened to Veronica? Could Griselda's magical spell have had some totally unexpected, nice, outcomes?

 Are her plans to eat brothers Julius, Alexander and Benjamin about to come to fruition? Or will the plans be thwarted? But as the feline Snuggle is the one person who can deal with Griselda, how can the brothers be saved?

The boys accidentally enter the undersea realm of the King of the Merpeople and find that it has been taken over by a wicked stepmother.

They learn what happens to shipwrecked sailors and what fate befell the legitimate Queen. But can the three boys really save the undersea kingdom from the usurper and escape from the clutches of Griselda?

Or will Snuggle the cat be able to save the day?

And does Boris the good skull finally become evil?

This book is an ideal Christmas present for children of all ages and the quirky humour will be enjoyed by adults, too. It is very well illustrated and is published by Perronet books in hardback.

You can buy it via the That's Books and Entertainment online bookshop, available to the righthand side of this review.

Jungle Jim and the Shadow of Kinalabu

It's a good life for James Regent. He is an ice hockey star. Yet he decides that he will set off for the jungles of Borneo in search of adventure and lost love.

It all began when Jim receives a tattered map through the post and with it a plea for help from someone her cares deeply about. Ruthie.

So, Jim sets off for Borneo and is struck by a curse from some very terrifying Iban Headhunters.

The result of the curse is that whenever the moon is orange, Jim transmogrifies into an 8 foot tall orangutan with super powers!

Jim is, in fact, a weangutan, rather than a werewolf.

But Jim is no monster. Instead Jim has become an ancient protector of not only the land of Borneo but of the world beyond.

The reader is taken immediately into a very exciting and nerve tingling adventure as Jim, assisted by his best friend, Rufus, battle to save Ruthie. And perhaps even the whole Universe, let alone the world!

There are the Iban Headhunters, the evil forces of the Shadow Emperor. Actually, he shouldn't even be in our universe, he had been dragged here by the reckless Dark Matter experiments of a rather bonkers scientist called Dr Gila.

They have taken over an abandoned top secret US government laboratory hidden way beneath Mount Kinabalu.

Jungle Jim, Rufus and a ragtag band of colleagues and friends must battle against the Dark Matter Shadow Army, if they are to save the world.

But all is not what it seems. Fighting against trans-dimensional baddies whilst you are trying to survive the depredations of the flora and fauna of the jungle is perhaps a little bit more adventurous than you might need!

Described as "Indiana Jones meets the Incredible Hulk" this book is suitable for child from nine to 109 and it really must be in the Christmas stocking of anyone who loves a good adventure yarn. So if you have a lot of children to buy presents for, make sure each of them gets a copy of this fantastically adventurous and wonderfully quirky book.

It's published by Matador at a very reasonable £8.99 and is available from all good bookshops, including the Thats Books and Entertainment book shop, which you'll find to the right of this review.

The Lanes Also Remember

The Lanes Also Remember is part of a series of poems by Tristram Cooke.

As well as being a poet, Tristram Cooke was educated at Westminster School and also at Trinity College, Oxford.

He worked as a language teacher (majoring in Spanish) for nearly 40 years.

He lives with his girlfriend Mariacruz and her family in Mexico.

The poems are stripped back and bare. Yet the humour of the poet usually shines through.

Their style is refreshingly simplistic and is strikingly reminiscent of the art works of Grandma Moses, one of America's best-known folk artists.

Tristram Cooke's poems cover a wide range of topics from love and lust to conflicts, from friendships to the legacies that our parents leave us.

Incidentally, your reviwer's favourite is to be found on page 23.

All 20 of the poems are all stunningly illustrated with exquisite paintings by Valentina Cherneva-Cherry.

It is published by BARS-AGENCY and is available in the UK through Troubadour Books.

It is available via The Thats Books and Entertainment bookshop at £4.99.

Caravan

Caravan is a new novel by Cassandra Keen.

It is a gripping read as it takes the reader through a journey of blame, retribution, revenge, love and hatred.

Lucien was many different things to many different people.

To some he was a difficult young man.

To others he was a victim. To others he was merely disaffected.

But Ruth, his stepmother, knew the real Lucien. And she despised what he truly was.

She decided to confront him at his caravan.

His death when the caravan burst into flames was witnessed by Ruth.

She remained silent about what she witnessed, perhaps scared that she might be blamed for the tragedy.

Ruth decides to holiday by herself on the island of Malta.

But is she truly alone? Or is Lucien with her? A ghostly, ghastly presence, haunting her, being a rather more destructive ghost than most?

After his death it seems that Lucien presents a larger version of himself than he ever did in his life.

But there are forces at work that are pulling Ruth's life apart. What exactly is Lucien's birth mother, Morgana up to? And where does Paul, Ruth's husband and Morgana's ex, fit in with all this?

What of the two children that she has with Paul?

And what of the ghosts from Ruth's own past?

Could she, would she be alright?

This is a very compelling book and a real bargain at £8.99 from Matador.

It will make a good stocking filler and is available via the Thats Books and Entertainment bookshop, which is to the right of this review.