Matt McAvoy Book Review

This is the third I have read from the consistently brilliant Glyn Haynie, and it is a remarkable change in direction from him, as he moves away from his trademark Vietnam memoir format, into fiction.  Glyn has proven to be every bit as superb a fiction author as he is when sharing his non-fiction autobiography series.  Still on the familiar ground of the Vietnam war, this time Glyn has crafted a riveting, poignant, detailed and hugely authentic story of a young man’s tour of duty in 1969: ...

This philosophical and dialogue-driven medieval fantasy immediately opens on a puzzling situation, which is always a great way to start a book, as our initially unnamed hero awakens in a strange place, with no memory of who he is or how he got there.  One thing which is very soon clear is that he is from a time and culture vastly different to the dark ages he now finds himself in, though he has no recollection of how he acquired the hugely impressive combat skills which he is very soon requir...

This untaxing, easy read is a pretty entertaining way to fill a few hours.  The story is a simple one, yet intriguing and engaging right from the outset, the cosy mystery of the scarlet chair keeping me attentive enough to read the book in one sitting.  This is a warm and affectionate paranormal romance for young adults, and whilst the supernatural qualities of the chair are indeed somewhat malevolent, they are generally more mystical and superstitious than particularly dark.  Almost metaphor...

Great fun and hugely entertaining, this light-hearted, humorous LGBTQ family drama is a very easy read.  As four siblings gather following the death of their mother, each gradually reveals a little more about the trials and tribulations of their own personal lives.  Not otherwise given much of an opportunity previously to bond, they are brought together more profoundly when two of them are kidnapped whilst on holiday in Mexico, whilst the other two work together to raise the ransom money.

Wh...

This book is not just entertaining, interesting, well-written and professionally crafted, it is also educational and enlightening, with regards to a period of European history which is perhaps often overlooked.  Set in 1928, in the aftermath of the first world war, Istria has fallen under the ownership of a now Fascist-run Italy, the land wielded and occupied with ruthless complicity by Mussolini.  The formerly Croatian citizens now find themselves being naturalized by Italy’s ethnic cleans...

Engrossing, entertaining and utterly easy to read, I had no problem at all getting lost in these exciting, fun tales.  Chronicling the adventures of a young American soldier, discharged following the end of the Vietnam war, who decides to return to South East Asia, to live and travel, these short stories are based loosely on the real life exploits of the author, as well as stories he has heard and people he met.  This collection of anecdotes forms the whole, overall story of his months in, pr...

Ancient and modern cultures collide in this brilliant, engrossing book, as a millennia-old nomadic island tribe protect the sacred Garden of Eden and the apple of eternal life, from ruthless big pharma, who want to harvest its life-preserving qualities for profit.

This ultimately quite sad indictment of modern society is a book of two halves, the first an intrepid, fantastically mythical quest for the ancient artefact, with shades of Indiana Jones meeting the creatures of Sinbad.  The second...

It is refreshing to read a Dystopian tale in which the freedom fighters are as evil as the regime they are trying to overthrow, and Logsdon’s book certainly leaves no blurred lines about the decency of either its “antagonists” or its “protagonists”.  This liberally action-packed thriller, set just a few years from now, portrays the origins and ideologies of both a draconian dictatorship and a shockingly violent and destructive terrorist group, whilst one decent federal agent tries t...

This superbly written fiction tells the interwoven tales of two people who travel to Ghana from different parts of North and South America, for very different reasons – one a Ghanaian emigrant, the other with a very intriguing reason to return to a country he once lived in.  As the tale develops, both start to reveal gripping and promising backstories, and as the possibilities begin to take shape, a degree of tension grows beneath the surface; I found myself utterly gripped.  That said, the...

I love reading about turn of the 20^th century British military camaraderie – the stiff upper lip and “golden age of cricket”, and Pyram King’s language in this respect is a delight.  It feels authentic and quintessentially English.  This short book – the first in a series – is adapted fiction from the real diaries of Francis Marion Jäger, an American journalist sent to Syria in World War One, to join the British forces fighting against the Turks and Arab mercenaries of the Ottoma...

A wonderful collection of understated, yet profoundly compelling slice-of-life stories, by an author I am very fond of.  Lorna’s writing is lovely to read, creatively crafted in alluring prose.  Be warned though, it can be a little bleak – reminiscent of a grey, rainy day, and there is little respite from a permeating feeling of sadness and melancholy.  But, this is not necessarily a bad thing; it is ultimately warm comfort – reading her work brings to mind a feeling of home; hot tomato...

Unlike its more journalistic predecessor in the series Father Divine’s Bikes, there is a more discernible air of ‘forties noir pulp fiction about this book.  Whilst its prequel focused heavily on cultural differences and animosities, this is more story led, with a greater role on crime fiction, and more prominence given to two of its resuming lead characters, detectives Nick Cisco and Kevin McClosky.  Other than this, the intertwined stories, subplots and backstories have only the most su...

Right from the very first moment I started reading The Seven Gifts Within Us, I felt a huge smile growing on my face, and it didn’t go away for the duration; this book is an utter delight.  I was expecting a sermon about faith, but this isn’t that; it is so much more.  It is a sermon of sorts, but far more universally applicable than to be simply applied to people of faith; all readers, if they are human, can take guidance from the overall message in this book.  The seven gifts are reveal...

In this incredibly hard-worked account by a passionate political commentator, the “center” to which Walter refers is the moderate, rational ground between the left and right political wings.  The question of its continued existence is one which has become more prominent in recent years, in many countries, but perhaps none more so than the United States, following the election campaign and subsequent election of one of the most divisive presidents in living memory: Donald Trump. 

I admit,...

I found this to be a somewhat surprising book, in that it taught me a lot about New Zealand and, in particular, its devastating drug-culture.  This eye-opening indictment was perhaps a little saddening, in the respect that it hits home reading that nowhere is safe from the scourge of class-A drugs – specifically in the case of this book, meth-addiction.  Incredibly well-sourced and researched, the fiction is perhaps by the bye, as Almost Persuaded focuses primarily on the country’s cultur...

This short, profound memoir is an honest and candid account of a young woman’s recollection of coming of age, against a culture backdrop of lacking direction and recreational drug use.  To the despair of her parents, as a troublesome teen, Kathy Varner has no plans other than to hang out, get high and see her favourite live bands.  The book is very matter-of-fact, with a punchy narrative, as Kathy describes how she simply allowed life to happen to her, whilst not knowing how and when to say...

This bleakly unsettling, yet triumphantly entertaining L.A.-dream-turned-sour tale, laced with sharp, very black – and sometimes side-splitting – comedy, is a real welcome interjection to the noir genre.  Addressing a subject which is vastly overlooked in our society: the scrapheap of middle-age – an age which takes everything from you, one piece at a time, it is very coarse and sour, and very, very good.

Set in the early-current decade – the post-recession Obama years – East of Li...

This short study explores and examines the multi-layered facets of human behaviour and cognitive decision-making, as if they are a very element of the physical make-up of our universe, which is a somewhat confusing, if interesting subject to get our heads around.

Using explanations of ancient philosophy, right through quantum physics and the construction of the cosmos itself, Emmanuel attempts to explain how our own differing perceptions of reality are really what directly contribute to the ...

Anthony Ranieri is a lovely author, incredibly eloquent, eager and inoffensive.  Furthermore, it is so refreshing to read a book set in the future, which focuses more on the sci-fi than on burdening its reader with doom and dystopia, its characters happy and ambitious.  The final product is a short novella about the use of technology in the business of football, set in the year 2050.

Ranieri is undoubtedly a passionate and well-experienced football fan and professional, and this shows in the...

If I am being truthful, it took me a very long time to find my feet when reading this book.  Once I did, however, I sailed through it, reading it in two easy sittings.  It is superbly written, and Lotfy is an extremely professional author – evidently well-educated and academic, yet philosophical. 

I already knew what the book was about, and it did indeed go on to confirm the blurb.  But, the confusion for me, I felt, was in the structure.  For the sum of its parts, Beyond the Prison of Bel...

Absolutely superb.

I loved this collection of poems entirely, without exception.  Ross is a fantastic, melodic linguist, who writes what I consider to be the perfect poems for kids – some with subtle moral messages, some educational, but mostly just plain fun.  They are all quite lovely, rhyming simply yet eloquently, with a vocabulary enviable to most “grown up” writing.  Ross creates poems about marriage; about animals; about fruit; about bank robbers; about bubble gum… in fact, an...

There are so many words to describe “The Wooden Man”: dark, disturbing and wonderfully engrossing are but a few.  James Truax is a fine author, and he doesn’t just present one interesting story in this self-contained tale, but several.  This extremely creative and completely absorbing novella presents as a fable for kids – yet, at the same time it grows darker, and at times genuinely more frightening, with each turn of the page.

When eight-year-old Gabe finds himself lost in the wood...

Such a wonderful book – thought-provoking, poignant and utterly compelling, Mitchell’s opus re-enters the life of asocial, intelligent Luke, in five-year instalments.  Whilst initially showing signs of a presence on the disorder spectrum, as the book proceeds through his life, you find yourself starting to wonder if Luke is really all that unusual, or is it modern life, in all its mundane absurdity, which is the problem?  Without a specific storyline, we join Luke at the age of six, and w...

Not sure quite what to make of this book by John Paul Catton.  Whilst on the one hand it is an extremely knowledgeable and well-researched work into ancient Japanese history and mythology, on the other, the huge YA aspect of this book overpowers it in many ways.  Targeted very firmly at a teenage audience, I feel that the characters are too adolescent to appeal to anybody much older.  Yet, at the same time, Catton is clearly a mature author with an in-depth understanding of Japan, presumably ...

“Myth Agent” is a lot of fun, and MacFadden’s quality is apparent right from very early on; an incredibly engaging and intriguing book, which is perfectly written by an author with a wonderful narrative voice.  This inoffensive and universal tale of time-travel is gripping, with a small streak of unidentifiable menace running beneath it, which grows very subtly in tension, eloquently setting up the reader’s anticipation by its midway point.  With its increasingly dark undertone, MacFa...

Martin’s collection of tales is both gripping and entertaining, and he does his readers a huge justice by encouraging them to use their imagination.  These thirteen stories are not really horror, as such, but they are certainly dark, with more of an air of mystery and suspense about them than anything else.  Happily, there is more than a small slice of the olde English gothic or occult influence in some of the tales, which I personally am a big fan of.  Overall, I found the collection enter...

Beautifully written and utterly engaging, right from the off, Cody’s intense attention to detail is visible throughout this book.  Whilst I have read a lot of memoirs, many of which project an increasingly bitter adulthood onto childhood trauma and don’t particularly have the desired effect of instilling empathy on the reader, Cody’s is the exact opposite of this – a tale of someone who suffered as a child, and overcame it to take control of his life.  In this boy’s case, I feel utt...

A fantastic book, by an author who is both understated yet imposing in literary stature, “Flow Like A River” is a work of unexpected quality.  Absolutely a book of two halves, the first is a bit of a slow burner, which serves well to develop its endearing and interestingly layered characters; neither overly dramatic or offensive in any way, this easy-going read was engaging from the off.  There is little need for histrionics in this book, nor for gripping violence – the menace of the an...