Anatomy of a scandal (by Sarah Vaughan)

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I hadn’t previously read anything by Sarah Vaughan. And I very much doubt if I would have picked up her novel ‘Anatomy of a scandal’ if I had seen it on a stall; the cover is mainly black and it looks like a thriller. Really not my favourite genre. However, it was allocated for this month’s local reading group, and I was able to find it from ‘World of Books’ last year. I didn’t start reading it until a few days ago, but it wasn’t difficult to finish it in just three days despite it being nearly 400 pages.

The chapters are mostly short, each one head by the name of the viewpoint character and the date in which the chapter is set. This is helpful, as the timeline switches to the past fairly often, as the story unfolds. It opens in the ‘present’ of the novel, 2nd December 2016. Kate is the viewpoint character here; she’s a barrister who has just lost a case. 

We see her surroundings, feel her frustration. And she makes it clear that her wig and gown help her into the role that she plays in court. She tries only to prosecute when she’s pretty sure the defendant is guilty, but she knows that the system isn’t perfect: that what matters more than truth is the way it’s painted by the lawyers.

The Chalet School triplets (by Elinor M Brent-Dyer)

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It’s only nine years since I last read ‘The Chalet School triplets’, one of the later volumes in the lengthy series by Elinor M Brent-Dyer. It's book 49 in the original list. But it’s not one I reread regularly when I was younger, and I found that I hadn’t recalled any of the story-lines.  

The last time I read this, I only had the Armada paperback edition. It was supposedly only shortened in minor ways, but ‘frequently’.  So I was very pleased when I was able to acquire a Girls Gone By edition in the intervening years, containing the full original text, with the bonus of a relevant short story at the end.

This book focuses on Joey Maynard’s oldest offspring, her triplets, who are now approaching sixteen. They are some of my favourite characters in the book, and I find them all three-dimensional and believable. They look quite different: Len is tall, slim and auburn, Con is shorter, with very dark hair, and even more slim. Margot has curly red hair, and is slightly more stocky, though there’s a discrepancy in the book making it uncertain whether she’s a little shorter than Len, or a little taller. It doesn’t matter: minor mistakes like these are common in these books. Somehow, they add to the charm. 

The Barnabas factor (by Derek Wood)

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It’s over twenty years since I read ‘The Barnabas factor’ by Derek Wood. It’s not a long book - not much more than 150 pages in my paperback edition - and I recalled finding it interesting and somewhat inspiring. The subtitle is ‘the power of encouragement’. 

I hadn’t remembered anything about the style or focus of the book, and was pleased to find that it’s quite a light-weight read, although the relaxed style doesn’t mean that the content itself is trivial. Far from it. The main principle is that people need to be encouraged. The focus is on the church, with specific mention of clergy and other leaders, but the suggestions would apply to anyone.

Each chapter is fairly short, looking at different aspects of encouragement. The word itself basically means to give someone courage - not necessarily to do something dangerous or scary, but to motivate them, or help them feel more positive about themselves. And, as the author suggests in several places, many people are more inclined to offer criticism or discouragement than to be positive about others. This may be out of a mistaken understanding of pride and humility, or just general embarrassment or awkwardness.

On the edge (by Sarah Turner)

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I liked ‘Stepping up’ by Sarah Turner so much when we read it for the local book group a couple of years ago that I put another of her novels on my wishlist. I was given ‘On the edge’ for Christmas and have just read it in the past couple of days.

It took me a few chapters to get into it, but once I was about a quarter of the way through it became difficult to put down. The narrator is called Joni. She’s nearly forty, and has been living with Lewis for the past ten years. Joni hates surprises, and likes to be prepared for any eventuality. She’s really eager to have a baby, and has planned every detail, including the most likely times for conception. 

But before we meet her, there’s an online group discussion, presumably something like Whatsapp although it’s not specified. Someone called Sue, who is not entirely au fait with groups or emojis, sets it up and invites Joni along with four other people. And she tells them that she’s been given the task of organising a week in Joni’s late grandmother’s house, where they have to follow some instructions before hearing her will.  

All my lies are true (by Dorothy Koomson)

(Amazon UK link)

The first time I read Dorothy Koomson’s gripping novel ‘The ice cream girls’, I felt that there were some unfinished threads; I knew the author only wrote stand-alone novels, but wished she would write a sequel. So I was very pleased when I learned that she had done so, some years later. I was given ‘All my lies are true’ for my birthday a few months ago. I didn’t read it immediately, however; I waited until a few weeks after I had reread ‘The ice cream girls’, to remind myself of the characters and details of the story.

It probably isn’t necessary to have read it first, but I would definitely recommend it, even though this novel is complete in itself, and starts ten years after the end of ‘The ice cream girls’. This one mainly features Verity, daughter of Serena and Evan, who is now in her mid-twenties. She’s moved out of the family home but, until a year or so previously, was very close to her parents. But she’s grown more and more distant. Serena is sure she has secrets, but is pushed away any time she tries to approach the topic - or any other conversation.

As with other books by this author, the timeline moves back and forwards regularly, with each section headed by the date. So it’s not long before we learn that Verity has been dating a man in his thirties called Logan. He spends a lot of time in her flat, and they have declared their love for each other. But they haven’t told either of their families anything about their relationship, and neither of the has met the other’s family.