To The Last Page

Two caravans are travelling on their way to Lin’an, the city of the Emperor. One is bringing a young woman Ming Yueh from Zaiton to be married to one of the Emperor’s young generals, Song Rui. The other is a group of foreigners, seen as barbarians and not usually welcome in the Cathar lands. However the Emperor is amused at their mission to find the fabled creatures, mermaids and unicorns, that their master Manfred, the King of Sicily hopes will buy him favour from the Papal armies that menace his lands. Many years later an old man whose son was part of Manfred’s unusual expedition team tries to find out where and why they disappeared and discovers that both groups had a secret mission of their own, one that eventually brings them together in an unexpected way. Keeping a distance from the events, many of them being reported in outline by the characters to one another rather than being related in detail by the author as they happen, the tone of Unicorn Road is often cool and remote. Non...

A passionate, troubling and at times personally conflicted exposé of the Neapolitan mafia the Camorra, Roberto Saviano examines the origins, the history and the bloody rise to power of the various clans to become a powerful and influential force not just in Campania or Italy but throughout the world. In Gomorrah, in a manner that would force him to go into hiding following publication, he names names, examines the environment that gave rise to the Camorra, and tries to understand the thought processes behind their actions, behaviour and their business practices. What is revealed is staggering and on a scale almost beyond the ability of the reader to grasp. Saviano shows a more widespread and powerful organisation than the more well-known Sicilian mafia, a confederation of clans and cartels that has its fingers in almost every aspect of world commerce - not just gun-running and drug-dealing, but in everything from the fashion industry (passing off high quality copies with the tacit agre...

A Dog's Ransom is a fine little thriller that is deceptive in more ways than one. Starting out initially indeed as a ransom case perpetrated on a well-off middle-aged couple by a discontented and unbalanced Polish immigrant who has been writing them anonymous hate letters, the novel soon develops into something else entirely when a young enthusiastic and impressionable police officer volunteers to look into the case.  More than just the unexpected turns that the case follows, the novel is a superb and realistic character study of everyday characters from several levels of Manhattan society and how they interact, throwing up interesting conflicts between them and revealing underlying bitterness in their attitudes towards migrants, crime and the police. Rather than there being the hard edge of hatred and bitterness that might have been expected from the outset, Highsmith takes an unexpected angle and rather reveals a core of kindness and trust in people that is gradually eroded and ...

As the Russian army moves into Finland in December 1939, the people of the village of Suomussalmi flee, leaving their homes and possessions behind them to be burnt by the retreating Finnish forces. Only one person remains, Timo Vatanen, a simple logger regarded by most as lacking intelligence. It’s certainly an act of madness to remain in the village as it is taken over by 50,000 Russian troops who use it as a base camp to fight the war in the surrounding districts. Disregarding questions of collaboration as the village is alternately occupied by Russian and Finnish troops, Timo attempts to remain in favour with both, doing whatever is necessary, working with other prisoners and deserters as a logger, cutting wood to keep the fires going in a brutally cold winter, and trying to maintain a semblance of home in one home that hasn’t been burnt-out. Despite issues with language and personality, Timo forms deep bonds with several of the men has come to know in extreme adverse conditions. Vi...