Exile (Marc Dane #2) by James Swallow.

Exile is the second novel in the Marc Dane series but this book can be read as a standalone. Marc has left his job as a forward mission specialist for MI6, the British Security Service. Our behind the scenes hero is now working with the United Nations Division of Nuclear Security investigation team in Croatia. Marc is on high alert and is on the chase to find and disarm a dirty bomb.

I enjoyed reading Exile and found it to be a great piece of escapism. Like the first novel there are plenty of military and technology skills used to both educate and entertain the reader. This time we have the threats posed by fake bombs, real dirty bombs, leftover kit from the cold war and lots of bad guys telling lies. More terrorists than you can shake a stick at, this time Al Shabaab with their Somali pirates. The new thrill for Marc and readers is HAHO - High Altitude High Opening - jumping from an aeroplane at over 30,000 feet!

There is enough backstory threaded into Exile for new readers who have not read Nomad. But the trouble for readers who have read the first book is that Exile is more of the same. Nothing too bad with that as Exile is an entertaining and exciting Spooks style thriller. Once again Marc has his trusty Aladdin’s Cave of a backpack and he chases the bad guys around the world with the help of Lucy Keyes and Rubicon. Lots more guns are discharged with a whole range of ordnance used. Sniper tradecraft is discussed again making the reader into a gun spotter thinking which gun would be best for the kill. Oh yes, Exile has a very high death toll with the relentless slaughter. Even the previous bad guys from The Combine have a role to play in this long story that runs to 496 pages.

Although Exile is clearly more of the same, it is still a GOOD read and gets 4 stars from me. Had it not been for the relentless action, maybe Marc and Lucy could have had a bit of romance but that did not happen.

Exile was written in 2017 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook. 

Nomad (Marc Dane #1) by James Swallow.

 Marc Dane is a forward mission specialist for MI6, the British Security Service. Marc is the ‘bloke in the van’ supporting Operations Team Seven, call sign ‘Nomad’, when things go fatally wrong. Follow Marc in this Spooks style thriller as he helps stop some bad guys and terrorists.

I liked how Marc was a behind the scenes tech guy rather than a gun wielding super-hero. I loved all the technology that was brought into play. I loved all the detail of the equipment and methods used by all the characters, the good guys, the bad guys and even those guys who were just doing their job. There was a surprising range of ordnance used throughout this thriller. Heckler & Koch submachine guns, Mossberg tactical shotguns, Colt M4 assault rifle, Glock 17 semi-automatics to name just a few. Oh and some HMX explosive plus many other types of bombs, large and small.

Nomad is an action packed thriller and with all the bombs and guns going off, there was a very high death toll by the time the battle worn reader got to the last page. I did dislike the slaughter and playstation attitude to gun fights. These gun battles were the least interesting parts of Nomad but with 496 pages there were plenty of pages left for top rate content.

I found the military technology very interesting including all the hi-tech things like drones. I liked how data was analysed and the many hacks that were used, especially the hack used on a vending machine. Men joke about all the junk women carry around in their handbags but Marc had an Aladdin’s Cave in his ‘go-bag’ - a rucksack he carried all around the world in his quest to bring down the bad guys.

The plot was scary although it would not work with girls wearing crop tops in the summer! I found Nomad to be a wonderful piece of escapism that was very entertaining. It covered a lot of ground with lots going on and no dull sections to wade through. The plot was deep enough to maintain my interest throughout. Writing this review and looking back over this story, it was a big long adventure. Some people compare Nomad to I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes but in my opinion this is a far, far better novel. I think Nomad is an OUTSTANDING 5 star read, so good that I am not starting to read the next in the Marc Dane series called Exile.

Nomad was written in 2016 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

 Charlie Gordon is 32 years old and has low intelligence. He is offered an operation to make him smart. Follow Charlie through his progress reports to learn how he got on.

I was put onto this novel when I read Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. She referred to this book time and time again throughout her novel.

Flowers for Algernon is considered by many readers to be a classic and it won the Nebula award in 1967.

This novel was written in 1966 and the language used reflects the time. Books today would never dream of using these words about disability but older readers will have used them daily in all innocence.

I love first person narratives but I thought this novel got off to a poor start because of the phonetic spelling. This was due to Charlie’s low intelligence and he even poked fun at his own ignorance and lack of punctuation. Then I decided to read it “in character” like the nutter on the bus and went with the flow. Following Charlie’s operation he became smart and his writing quality increased to that which you would expect from an award winning book.

I did not think the plot was brilliant, perhaps enough for a 60 minute television drama. This science fiction was sad in places and it is an emotional read. However, I do not feel that it deserves ALL the acclaim many readers have given this book OR to win a book award. I thought this novel was an OKAY 3 star read but certainly NOT a classic that many readers consider it to be. Normally I have plenty to say about a book but this was like reading the FREE Metro newspaper. For my impressions to be limited to “sad in places and it is an emotional read” shows that Flowers for Algernon did NOT rock my boat.

I made highlights on my Kindle as usual and here is the very best and most impressive quote I can give you from the whole book…

How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibility, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes - how such people think nothing of abusing a man born with low intelligence. It infuriated me to remember that not too long ago I - like this boy - had foolishly played the clown.

Flowers for Algernon was written in 1966 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Murder At The Rocks by Jill Paterson.

 Laurence Harford is found murdered outside his business in Sydney, Australia. Detective Chief Inspector Alistair Fitzjohn is on the case to solve the crime.

This novel is the second in the series but can be read as a stand-alone. Sadly it is very similar to the first novel in the series. Again the novel is split between the police investigating the crime and a family member, this time the victim’s nephew, getting to the bottom of this cosy mystery.

In this pedestrian tale we once again have Alistair Fitzjohn pottering about in his gardening gear and lots of coats being taken off. Oh yes, we have lots of cars pulling away from the curb - funny that, never thought they would be parked in the middle of the road, yet Jill must remind her readers that cars can park along a “kerb”. Thankfully later on Jill reveals that car wheels are fitted with “tyres” rather than those misspelled American rubber things they call tires.

Also like in the first book, The Celtic Dagger, we have the inclusion of dodgy accountants, blackmail and paintings. Again there is plenty of repetition, this time I noticed far too many people asking “Can I help you?” and whenever the police knocked on a door the conversation went “Mr Surname?” and the other person replies “Yes, I’m First Name - Surname” every time it became a bore. Then every single hot drink any character had was “steaming” - good grief Jill, watch out my girl, contents may be hot! Not forgetting there were an awful lot of people who “hovered” in a doorway, thank goodness it was not a typo making the locations clean by being hoovered!

I found Murder At The Rocks to be a disappointing and predictable piece of easy reading that was a POOR dull read. There were no special police skills OR any WOW! Factor. I think the plot was mundane and typical of an afternoon television drama. This was a second rate novel that gets just 2 stars from me.

Murder At The Rocks was written in 2013 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Celtic Dagger by Jill Paterson.

 University Professor Alex Wearing is found murdered in his study. Can the police find out who and why somebody killed him?

This cosy mystery is set in Australia. The whole story is quite soft. It is not a regular police procedural but more the quest for the victim’s brother James to find out all that had been going on.

The blurb for this novel on Amazon and Goodreads is very well written and marks this book out to be a gripping read. However, the actual book failed on it’s promise and became a second rate read.

The Celtic Dagger is light reading with nothing cutting edge or unusual happening. This story just rolls along as the mystery unravels, more laid back on the sofa, than edge of your seat.

Two little things niggle and become repetitive, coats are taken off and cars pull away from the curb. Two common everyday actions, no mystery or significance there. Yet again I read about another coat being taken off and another car pulling away from a curb. Strange because Jill was born in Yorkshire, UK and I had to pinch myself with her non-British spelling of kerb.

I found The Celtic Dagger to be a tame, gentle, luke warm, run of the mill mystery that became an OKAY, 3 star read.

The Celtic Dagger was written in 2010 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Beautiful Cure by Daniel M. Davis

 The Beautiful Cure explains all the research that has been done so that the reader can understand how the human immune system works. Daniel M. Davis is Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester, so it is great to get accurate information rather than old wives tales.

I found this to be a very informative and interesting book. It covered in tremendous detail how the immune system works and also how scientists work with all their conflicts, so bad that many can’t stand to be in the same room together.

Daniel leads the reader steadily through the research undertaken through the years in a delicate way so that you learn in a similar way to the scientists of the day. This was a great way for Daniel to write his book because it is accessible to everyone. You do not need to be a medical or scientific person to enjoy and understand this book. I left school at 16 and have nothing to do with health or science. My usual reading genre is crime/mystery/thriller. So why did I buy this book? Okay, it was featured on the Kindle Daily Deal, reduced from £4.99p down to just 99p. With the current coronavirus pandemic I wondered how the human immune system actually worked, having heard so much about herd immunity.

This book blew me away, really firing my imagination. I eat, drink and walk around totally unaware of the internal universe inside my body. Daniel explained all about the many different cells, triggers and balances and how they deal with disease, germs and viruses. The human immune system is complex and even leading edge science does NOT understand it all. But just knowing a little blows your mind away. How can such a powerful immune system happen when we were conceived from 2 microscopic organisms? An immune system that runs like a very powerful computer network. An immune system that works in the background with the person unaware of the changes taking place within their cells.

I liked how Daniel explained the differences between innate and adaptive immunity. I also liked learning about different cells, the genes within them and how immune responses were turned on and off. The Beautiful Cure is a very thought provoking book that I wish some of my germophobic workmates would read. There was lovely discussion of things that readers can do which will increase or reduce their immune system.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Beautiful Cure and took a lot away from this book. Daniel does not shy away from the realities of laboratory research. He was very frank and open about the HUGE number of mice bred and killed so that we can understand how biology works. I found this an OUTSTANDING book, so it gets 5 stars from me.

The Beautiful Cure was written in 2018 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Desert Water: Farewell London by Alexander Ezike.

 Desert Water is the memoir of a young Nigerian man who came to Britain in 2011 on a student visa. Read this interesting story of his experience of life in Nigeria and his move to the UK.

Desert Water is a very personal tale in which Alexander lays bare all the mistakes he made in Nigeria and Britain. He starts his memoir off by detailing his life in Nigeria, with all it’s poverty and violence. Alexander explains the differences between tribes, cultures and religions in an easy, light and understandable way.

I loved reading his impressions of Britain as I often wonder what passengers arriving from Africa boarding my coach think of life in Britain. It made me smile when Alexander wrote…

Finally the bus arrived and one after the other we entered through the first door in a civilized and cultured manner.

...Alexander uses American English spelling for his memoir but reading the dialogue it is so easy to imagine his accent as like watching Gina Yashere, the stand up comedian, on television when she mimics her Nigerian parents.

I found it very interesting how Alexander viewed London during his stay in 2011 and 2012. He has that funny young person thing of navigating by postcodes and mentions them as a figure of speech, for example…

247 Gipsy Road, London SE27 9QY

...And like most foreign passengers boarding my coach, complains about feeling cold! Although British people are obsessed with talking about the weather, Africans always seem to complain about feeling cold. Then Alexander reveals the unseen parts of London, the homeless, the poverty and illegal immigrants being exploited by a whole range of people taking advantage of their lack of legal status. This is a whole new world to Alexander, best summed up by his shopping visit…

The next day, I went shopping at “PRIMARK” which is the most famous clothing company in the UK, Primark is best known for selling quality accessories and clothing wears at cheap and affordable prices. I knew I had to look good on stage, so I released 15 pounds from my account and bought a shirt and jean trouser.

...Yes, that will make your average British reader chuckle. Alexander is young and makes many mistakes and has a poor choice in friends. He meets many different girls along the way but Alexander fails to find true love. He does however impress many people with his singing under the stage names of Johnny Blac and Kool Daddy. I was surprised however when Alexander wrote…

After one week, I had performed in four different clubs in Manchester and made a total of 800 pounds. Though it was a paltry sum of money but I was grateful to God for the grace to be paid as an underground musician.

...These were not long sets but just a few songs as part of a show by many other musicians. That seems to be big money for a part-time underground musician, what I would call a hobby artist.

I found Desert Water to be a refreshing memoir to read because Alexander is not a celebrity or a success story but an average man in the street who has to live with the mistakes of his past. I am pleased he has put his story into the public domain and even if it does not sell, I am sure any children he later fathers, will love the story behind their dad. Desert Water is a GOOD read, so gets 4 stars from me.

Desert Water was written in 2014 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.