Friday, February 15, 2013

"He was nonviolent to the next to the last degree"

I've just finished what I am absolutely sure will turn out to have been my Most Fun Read this year - and possibly the decade. It's called "Three Graves Full' by (I think debut) novelist Jamie Mason and it truly is the kind of delicious creation that deserves every recommendation it's going to get. There's room for unbridled fandom here - Mason's characters are deliciously well-drawn, human, warm (even the bad guys - so many bad guys!) and - well - uplifting in a body-stewn kind of way. Everyone's real and flawed and uncertain, and carried away on the tumult that's building around them. Everyone contributes: and everyone tries to make sense of the story - and stay alive at the very same time.

The plot is totally grab-you-and-don't-let-go  - but it stands up to scrutiny too, which is good because when you finish the book at 3:30 am, you're not wanting to go sleep for, well, for quite a while: and the writing itself is lovely: the word-working bright and ingenious, extremely clever and sharpened with tricks and quirks and little treats that you didn't see coming.

Stonkingly good. Really, really one to recommend with full-throated delight. One of those "I know a book you're going to love" things.

This isn't a book-review blog, and I know I'm supposed to be writing about Paris - but remember how much I loved Carrie Tiffany's "Mateship With Birds" (and Helen Elliot's gorgeous review of it)? This is that kind of love, only there are dead bodies in it.

Buy it. Read it. You'll thank me.

Note to self: Must blog about Paris.

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