Angel - by L.A.Weatherly

Published 1st October 2010
Usborne Books
£7.99

I am so glad this book exists – it does everything that the recent lacklustre movie angelic offering ‘Legion’ should have done.

Clearly pitched at the YA market, and I’m guessing specifically at those needing a new supernatural fix since the closing of the Twilight series, I think Angel could easily have a second life if issued as a mainstream genre fiction title.

It reads like a great movie. Good central characters, fast pacing and with some terrific action-filled set pieces.
Oh yes, and there’s romance - but I was surprised to find that, with possibly one scene as exception, the romantic element does not interfere with a good angelic war and a road story.

Maybe angels turned bad isn’t a new idea, but Weatherly puts a further twist to this by adding ‘Angel-Burn’ to the mix. These angels act vampiric – stealing life forces and, in return, leave diseases, viruses, cancers.

The two central characters of Alex , the AK (Angel Killer) and Willow (a half angel) are very well detailed and clearly pave the way for the rest of the trilogy.

Also handled well is the writing itself, carefully switching between first person (as Willow) and third person – working in a way I’ve not read in some time.

A great packaged, entertaining and enjoyable first chapter to what is certain to be a hit book trilogy and, I’m sure, a successful future movie series.

Keith B Walters

Criminal Masterminds - Bromley Library Event

Criminal Masterminds

Mark Billingham, Simon Brett & Martyn Waites at Bromley Central Library.

I guess in many ways this was like a small shot in the arm for someone like me who is still on the downhill from the fantastic Harrogate Crime Writing Festival back in July.

A gathering of three of the names from that festival arrived in my home borough of Bromley on a Friday night to chat about and read from their latest novels, take questions from the audience and sign copies of their books.

I was pleased to see a reasonable turnout – around 40-50 people at a guess, and many of whom I believe are regulars to Bromley Library’s reading groups. It was the usual mix of people, the majority being women of a certain age. With tea, coffee and biscuits included in the £2.50 ticket price there was no hanging around in the boozy vapours of the Harrogate festival bar here! No, this was quite a different venue – when walking through the hall doors and being told the kettle was on I immediately knew I wasn’t in Yorkshire anymore and Theakstons’ Old Peculier was certainly not on tap.

And so, to a great evening’s entertainment as ever from all three authors – all of whom have acting/comedy backgrounds and so are great at public speaking before their readings.
Martyn Waites confessed to being a woman – which I think came as quite a shock to some in the audience until he placed the copy of his latest Tania Carver penned novel on the lectern. Mark Billingham was as entertaining as ever and Simon Brett gave a very funny reading from his latest novel too.
It’s always interesting to see how many stories these writers have when they appear – particularly as I’ve now seen Mark three times this year relating to his latest novel, From the Dead, but although inevitably some of the same anecdotes come out, there are always new ones to enjoy from all three authors.
And, as they all said, the meeting of the readers and talking to people at such events is the only time they really get to leave the house…

Thanks to Bromley Library for organising the evening - great stuff.

Came home with more lovely signed copies to pt on my shelves (even if Martyn Waites did sign my Tania Carver book to me ‘With lots of love, Tania’ ☺) and a refreshed determination to get on with my own book.

Keith B Walters

Elliot Allagash - by Simon Rich

A Paperback Original
Published by Serpents Tail £9.99

Those that know me know that I rarely step away from Crime or Horror as my preferred fiction genres – and, more recently as a result of blogging, those that know me only a little also feel the same.

Such was the view of Serpents Tail publicity department when sending me this title with more than a little concern that it might not really be my ‘thing’.

In advance of receiving the book, I did a bit of googling about its author, 25 year old Simon Rich, and was pleasantly surprised to find that he is in fact the youngest writer ever on a show which has brought the world some of the greatest comic talent, Saturday Night Live. That, and the fact that this first UK published release is a Manhattan high school set fun book with great reviews already, had me convinced that this would be a book worth stepping outside of my comfort zone for.
And, I’m pleased to report that it was.

Elliot Allagash is trouble, he has been trouble at every school he’s been kicked out of in the past, but when he arrives at Glendale it’s with the backing of so much money from his father that the school can’t be seen to want him to move on.
He is in need of a project, a subject on which to test his skills and to transform a regular or downbeaten student into the most popular pupil on campus.
He sets his sights on our narrator, Seymour Herson.
And then, for the next 200 plus pages he proceeds to do whatever it takes to make Seymour more popular, to get him on the better lunch table, to get him into the sports teams, to run for school president, to become a music sensation and tv star and, to get the girl of his dreams.
Initially I felt sorry for Seymour in the tale, but more and more it’s Elliot that I felt sorrow for, due to the fact that he seems to only be able to make himself happy by living his dreams vicariously through the lives of his muse, Seymour.
The school setting and situations are great, with particular use of video games and chess clubs to highlight some classic teen scenarios.
The stand-off involving flasks of coffee taken into a chess tournament final is one scene that I’ll remember for a long time to come.
So, whilst this was a bit of a departure to my usual reading, I still thoroughly enjoyed it – much in the same way as I love the movie ‘Brick’ – again for many of the same reasons that it tackles many grown up things within the frustrated years of school and college life.

I look forward to reading more of Simon Rich, and soon.

Keith B Walters