The Oath

The Oath is set in 1955. Beneath the well-polished veneer of a Northern England boarding school is something wicked and very, very unpleasant.

Senior pupils viciously bully and torment junior pupils who they consider to be inferior.

Jonathan Simon is a new boy at the school. He's warned about three monsters who share his dorm with him. They are Flicker, Sleeth and Tunk. But there's a "no snitching" code that is ruthlessly observed.

Simon befriends two other junior pupils, Ian Gracey, a pixie-faced boy and Arthur Crown. He is grossly overweight, but with a ready wit.

Whilst on a cross country run the three juniors decide to take a short cut and find themselves accidentally in the cadet rifle range. Sleeth is the Corpse Sergeant and puts them through some utterly degrading punishments.

The three junior pupils take a blood oath to ever allow themselves to be bullied again.

Loyalties will be tested to their limits and exactly how far will the pupils go to exact their revenges?

It's an interesting novel that takes a look under the hood of school life in the 1950s.

The book is published by The Book Guild at £8.99.

Labyrinth Junction

Labyrinth Junction Hayley Davenport-Smith has written Labyrinth Junction as a way to inspire the imaginations of young people with her debut children's fantasy novel.

It's aimed at children aged 8 to 12 and it's a story about the bravery and determination of a young boy who is ready to risk his own life in his efforts to find his way home.

Ben is fleeing from a pair of dangerous bullies and he has to climb into a dark cave in order to escape from them.

Within the cave he finds the Junction, an amazing portal to other worlds! After he has entered the Junction he realises that he has managed to become trapped in a magical and mysterious land called Nunblebrook.

Ben befriends a young orphan girl and her pet dragon just to stay alive. All three of them and the weird Moonbeamer people set off on a series of dangerous missions and tasks in order to solve a riddle, free the land of a wicked king and to ultimately get Ben safely returned home.

It's an amazingly well written book and is a co-production between Hayley and her daughter (who is 12) who deigned the cover and provided the illustrations.

It's published by Matador at £7.99. 

Deception

In this debut mystery thriller, Deception, from Maggie Belvoir, the reader is asked a very interesting, yet very serious question. Exactly how well do you know your friends? And exactly how well do you know the members of your own family?

Life is great for the O'Brien family! No, it's really good, thank you! They have all the trappings of a successful life. A massive house, lovely holidays abroad, and they have two lovely daughters, Scarlett and Siobhan.

Scarlett has a friend called Margot .Poor Margot has had a bit of a troubled past and when she is adopted into the O'Brien family, everything's good! No, really good, thank you! Margot seems like the piece of the family that was missing.

However, jealousy and sibling rivalry suddenly start to raise their very unpleasant heads and the family begins to become fragmented.

Things become worse when tragedy strikes and the family begins to unravel with even greater speed.

Frank Du Pont, a police detective with an insufferably huge ego decides to take over the murder investigation and makes a vow that he will bring the killer to justice.

But will he? And what is the secret agenda that he is hiding from his colleagues and everyone else? And does he have a secret that he is very keen to keep hidden?

The truth, when it does come to light, could prove even more shocking to the family and the community than anyone could have anticipated.

It's an exceptionally well-written detective thriller and it's to be hoped that Maggie Belvoir will be writing for many more years to come.

It's published by Matador at £9.99.

Acts & Monuments

Barry Todd, the protagonist of Acts & Monuments written by Alan Kane Fraser, is a good guy. How does he know this? Because everyone tells him so!

He is a hardworking member of the team at Monument Housing Association as he strives to ensure the the poor and vulnerable are provided with a safe and decent place to live.

Everyone expected Barry to be promoted to the position of Director at Monument Housing Association, including Barry. But, instead, the promotion is given to the insufferable Langley who had been drafted in from the world of commerce to bring in 'private sector disciplines' to the charity.

There were already issues between Langley and Barry, and the fact that Langley had been promoted to Director made the entire situation worse. And part of what Langley had done (firing Barry's wife) had meant that finances at the Todd household were tighter than they needed to be.

Barry had always been good, had been a good person and a good, loyal employee of the Housing Association, but he was now beginning to doubt that "being good" was good enough. At least for Barry.

And then, by apparent serendipity, an opportunity falls into Barry's lap. He finds himself in the situation where he would be able to steal £50,000 of the Monument Housing Association's money in such a way that it would be impossible to trace the theft back to him.

A tenant, Iulia Niolescu, comes to Barry. She is desperate for assistance and he realises that he has been presented with an ideal opportunity to use some of this money to do somebody some good.

But he finds that the situation begins to spiral dangerously out of control nd he is forced to take desperate measures to stop his deceptions and the theft of the money from being revealed.

But then things really began to fall to pieces. And at the end of the novel there's a very disturbing twist.

This is an amazingly well-written novel and although a work of fiction the author has used to very good advantage their intimate knowledge of the world of Housing Associations.

The book is published by Matador and costs £8.99.

(Incidentally it was with interest that I realised that I have previously seen an example of the work of Alan Kane Fraser as I saw his award-winning play, Random Acts of Malice being performed at the Belfrey (sic) Theatre in Wellington, Shropshire, as it was the winning play in the inaugural Derek Lomas Award for Best News Play at the Wellington Drama Festival.)

(Note: The image used is the cover illustration of the book and is E R Hughes' Night with her train of stars and her great gift of sleep (c) Birmingham Museums Trust.)

Designs of a Gentleman

Designs of a Gentleman is a prequel to Judith Thomson's Phillip Devalle series.

It's 1662, Charles II as been King for two years. Restoration England was an exciting place to be. But it was also a pl;ace of opportunity for ambitious young men such as Philip Devale.

Philip Devale was the young son of an earl who had decided to travel to London in a determined effort to make something of himself.

There had been the plague, the great fire of London, a war against the Dutch and there were politicians who were plotting and scheming top make sure they would come out on top. There was also the spectre of religious hatred and intolerance.

Throughout the years filled with adventure that were before him liker an open, yet unwritten book, Philip learns that not all people in Court are honest, that there's a dark side to it and that he must keep his wits about him as he fights in the army of the Sun King and is a courtier in England.

It's a novel that is well researched and well written and will be a welcome novel on the bookshelves of lovers of historical fiction.

It's published by Matador at £9.99.

Sorak's Legacy

In Sorak's Legacy Sorak has become elected to the Chair of the city Senate. He had remained in the city after returning with Nasa and her son from their home which was in the hidden valley.

A new society, based on equality between the genders is slowly and painstakingly being established.

The harsh and rigid control mechanisms of the old ways are gone and everything is more free, although free, the new society that is emerging is not perfect.

However, there are people who are still not happy that the old ways have gone. In fact, there is a body of females who are resentful of the efforts that Sorak is putting into to creating a new, more equitable and fairer society.

It become clear that there are people who are living in the forest on the far side of the plain that surrounds the city.

Some believe that the original founders of the city had arrived in a space going vessel and had made landfall in that area of the forest.

Nasa decides to seek out the forest dwellers. And it seems that evidence confirms that the ancient stories about the beginnings of the people of the city are, in fact, true.

Contact is, eventually, made with the forest dwelling people. But what, exactly, is the truth of the situation?

Would the city be able to survive the turmoil and the violence that would ensue?

It's published by The Book Guild at £8.99.

Two Become One

Two Become One is a book by Richard Lodge and Brian Swinyard as they explore the meaning of life as they come face to face with their own diagnoses in an interesting and unique book of poetry and photography.

The book raises some very interesting and emotive questions about life, death, living, love and a whole host of other topics.

The book is a masterful blend of poetry and photographs, designed to help explore the meaning of life.

Both of the authors have been diagnosed with illnesses and they have teamed up with The Motor Neurone Association and Sarcoma UK to share half the proceed and to also bring comfort and ease for those people who are looking for answers to some of the puzzles and conundrums of everyday and not-so-everyday, life.

The poetry is beautiful as are all the images. The poems and the photographs all contain wisdom that has been crystallised and refined until they are like boats of burnished gold floating on the Sea of Infinity. 

You really must buy multiple copies of this book as there will be several people in your life, perhaps including yourself, who will without a shadow of a doubt, richly benefit from this book.

It is published in hardback by Matador and costs £10.99.