Carol Naylor's REVIEW it...

                     Tess and Tattoos by H.A.Leuschel. Getting up in the morning " meant facing the same inevitable truth-that all she was really waiting for was death to make its appearance and that, when it did eventually happen, she'd not even know. Dead was dead." This short story is taken from "Manipulated Lives" a collection of five stories but it can be purchased as an ebook on its own. It's the story of Tess, an 82 year old, living in a serviced apartment for the elderly for three years, sadly waiting to die like many others. The setting provides a degree of tranquility and beauty for the elderly, frail occupants. It is Autumn, symbolic of the end of summer and everything it represents moving towards winter, reflecting the sad tone of a life coming to an end. Home is an attractive 3 storey, red-brick house built to outlast its occupants with "weathered faces and aching bones." We experience the wind howling as s...

    The Witness For The Prosecution by Agatha Christie. "I'm like a man caught in a net-the meshes of it all round me, entangling me whichever way I turn." The story was first published in the USA as "Traitor Hands" in 1925 and contains the original ending which was subsequently rewritten by the author herself for the play version and much more dramatic. Billy Wilder's 1957 film version starred Laughton, Power and Dietrich which was a huge success followed by the more recent Sarah Phelps' t.v. drama (December 2016) following on from her success the previous year of "And Then There Were None." Sexed-up and given a modern outlook which didn't go down well with some Christie die-hards because of a number of liberties taken with the original and which contains a  very different and unsatisfactory ending to Christie's. Mayherne was a small man, neatly dressed, shrewd with a reputation which stood very high as a solicitor. Hi...

                      A Tale of Two Villages by Christine Smith. "Trees and foliage were being swept along, down in the raging torrent, and then suddenly, we saw a car being swept down the road, over where a wall had been demolished, and come to rest on its side, in the mud." For all you expats and lovers of Spain I pose an interesting question: Is Spain a haven of "sun, sea and sangria" or is it overrun by "concrete, fish and chips and all day breakfasts?" To continue this line of thought, do you find the esplanades full of cheap shops selling tourist junk and blaring music "disgorging lager louts" from your local bars?  I'm not just referring to Benidorm. And finally, are Spanish destinations a "carbon copy of UK seafronts, but with more guaranteed sunshine?" Christine Smith chose to live in the real Spain, uninhabited by tourists and like many of us, spent some time exploring possibilities and travelling ar...

                  The C uckoo's Calling by Robert Galraith. "Her head had bled a little into the snow. The face was crushed and swollen, one eye reduced to a pucker, the other showing as a sliver of dull white distended lids." A dramatic opening, the death of a beautiful supermodel in suspicious circumstances, having fallen from her Mayfair penthouse caused a big stir with the paparazzi. Detective Inspector Roy Carver and Detective Sergeant Eric Wardle were on the case. Lula Landy, like the late Princess Diana was one of the most photographed women in the world. It seems that both women were hounded to death by the pressure of celebrity and attention. Her death dominated the news showing her "flawless face, her lithe and sculpted body" but within three months "The frenzy wore itself into staleness." Lula was an interesting character, having been adopted by a wealthy white family. She had been investigating her biological r...

        Where There's Smoke: A Novella by Jodi Picoult. "I might as well be a ghost. Last week, I was famous. This week, if I speak, no one will listen." If you're into psychics and the supernatural you'll like this. It's available as an ereader, a prequel to promote "Leaving Time" which will be available this autumn and is expected to be another best-seller from the popular American writer. Serendipity Jones experienced visions from a young age. When she indicated to her mother that a little boy dressed in knee-length black velvet trousers with a lacy collar around his neck was stealing things from their home, she thought her daughter was telling tales. "That boy's not real." This was back in the seventies. "If this had been today I would probably have been shuttled off to a child psychiatrist and given some kick-ass medication." Serendipity's great-great grandma had been an Iroquois healer. The story mov...

      From Sequins to Sunshine by Lorna Penfold. "We were like two expectant parents waiting for all our babies to arrive." Lorna qualified as a dance teacher when she was 17 and she soon became the owner and principal of an extremely successful dance school in Brighton with classes as diverse as Latin American, freestyle disco, country and western as well as the more traditional ballroom dancing. " I ate, slept and dreamt dancing." Once she was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in 2007 she was forced into giving up dancing so Lorna and partner, Alan had to consider other options. Alan was happy to emigrate to Florida. " I think Alan would have been perfectly happy to sell Coco-Cola in Sea World." And the second choice? Spain of course. Andalucia to be exact, a popular home for budding expat writers and farmers. Breeding alpacas was seen as a lucrative business. You might remember Alan Parks' book which also documented their move to The Olive ...

                    Light Shining in the Forest by Paul Torday. Book Review. "Why did you give him to me, if you were going to take him away again?" The debate continues here on stigmata and divine intervention versus atheism and agnosticism. Torday stated that the atheists and agnostics might be wrong and that there might be a God. If this makes your blood run cold then perhaps you'll relish the opportunity to be immersed in a story that fuses the genres of thriller, satire, horror and the supernatural as well as love and sex. Forget the religion. Recently in Madrid a number of young children have been abducted from Ciudad Lineal, one from the Dominican Republic, another Japanese and a Chinese girl as well as some Spanish girls. Torday responded to the Baby  P case in the UK by writing this novel in an attempt to highlight the inadequacies of the Social Services and the breakdown of the family unit. Who's to blame?...

A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller. "You won't have a friend in the world. Even those who understand will turn against you, even the ones who feel the same will despise you." Miller's parents were immigrants. His father had a clothing manufacturing business and the family lived in prosperity in America until the Wall Street Crash. Miller became a journalist and he wrote scripts for the radio. During the second world war he worked as a shipfitter in the Brooklyn Navy Shipyard where he sets this drama. Many of the workers were Italian migrant workers and this is probably where Miller made connections for A View from the Bridge , 1955. Miller's hallmark as a writer seems to display an ability to dramatize the attempts made by characters to find a necessary balance between the conflicting demands of private and public life. New York's Brooklyn harbour was depicted as  a dangerous and mysterious world at the water's edge during the 40s. T...

                                    A Matter of Honour by Jeffrey Archer. "The simple beauty of the golds, reds and blues left them both speechless. Neither of them had expected the icon to be so breathtaking." I loved this Archer classic and felt that I was following the trials and tribulations of 007 instead of Captain Adam Scott. The story begins interestingly with the discovery that the painting of St. George and the Dragon, displayed in the Winter Palace, Leningrad for more than 50 years under heavy guard, is a fake. The treasures inside the palace have been carbon-dated and it is now known that this painting in question was done 500 years after Rublev's original. Nicholas IInd, The Tsar's traditional silver crown was not attached to the back of the frame. It was believed that the Tsar had secreted something valuable inside the icon, something so valuable that it would have...

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. "Sometimes when I want to be on my own I get into the airing cupboard in the bathroom and slide in beside the boiler and pull the door closed behind me and sit there and think for hours and it makes me feel very calm." This is an extraordinary book about being special and cherishing differences in spite of the isolation felt. The title is taken from Arthur Conan Doyle's "Silver Blazes" and quoted by the maestro himself, Sherlock Holmes. In Haddon's novel the main character, Christopher, a 15 year old boy wants to be a mystery detective solving the murder of Wellington just like his idol Holmes. As soon as you start reading it is obvious that Christopher is different and special. He has a photographic memory and thinks logically and literally. He demonstrates his thought patterns by adding illustrations, maps, diagrams and stories. This appealed to Haddon's younger audience...