This week's bookcase includes reviews of BBC reporter John Sweeney's debut thriller Cold, Wilde Lake by Laura Lippman and DJ Simon Mayo's first young adult fiction, Blame
Cold
John Sweeney
Rarely is a book so engrossing and pacey it makes me miss my train stop. But such is the case with BBC Newsnight reporter John Sweeney's first thriller, Cold. Irishman Joe Tiplady has a murky past involving training in North Korea, but now enjoys a quiet life as a special needs teacher in London – and walking his dog Reilly. When Reilly is dognapped, Joe finds himself drawn into the world of Russian beauty Katya Koremedova, who is on the run from her psychopathic boyfriend Reikhman. The action shifts effortlessly across the globe and between Sweeney's cast of eerily convincing characters – many based on real experiences he had as an investigative reporter for Panorama. Sweeney has written several explosive non-fiction books and his debut novel Elephant Moon was well received. Cold is the first in a trilogy featuring Joe Tiplady. Definitely one to watch.
The Tidal Zone
Sarah Moss
Adam Goldschmidt is a stay-at-home dad whose world view changes dramatically when his 15-year-old daughter's heart stops beating on the school playing field for no apparent reason. Thrown into uncertainty, the family struggle through the frustration of waiting for answers and a return to "normality", trying to adjust to the realisation Miriam will never be truly safe again. University professor Sarah Moss has a growing reputation for tackling difficult truths, such as the difficulties of motherhood in Night Waking, and continues in this vein. She is an astute storyteller, and in The Tidal Zone shares societal observations around her slow-burning plot. The heartbeat of the book is trust – losing trust and rebuilding it – in authority, your body and relationships. Moss taps into a range of experiences that you do not need to be a parent to feel and tackles this extremely uncomfortable subject with tact, plausibility and flowing prose.
Wilde Lake
Laura Lippman
The best-selling author of more than 20 novels including After I'm Gone and 2015's Hush Hush returns with Wilde Lake, a evocative tale about the Brant family in Columbia, Maryland. Louisa 'Lu' Brant is the first woman to be elected the State's Attorney of Howard County Maryland, a position previously held by her father Andrew Brant. She is prosecuting her first murder, a homeless man who killed a woman in her own apartment. He seems to have no connection to his victim, but as Lu digs deeper, she uncovers connections to a violent murder in the past that involved her own brother and finds family and friends are not quite what she thought. Wilde Lake is a psychologically complex story with plenty of secrets that are deftly woven into the plot. Lipman is a master story teller who creates strong characters and a narrative that keeps you racing to the last page.
Blame
Simon Mayo
This is radio presenter Simon Mayo's first attempt at young adult fiction, and although it's a solid attempt, it lacks the punch, nuance and – let's be honest – the angsty romance that truly absorbing YA offers. In a world post-EU world (yes, it's a particularly apt read right now), justice is metered out not just to those who break the law, but their families too. Bolshy Ant and her more level-headed little brother Mattie, whose gangster parents abandoned them, are locked up alongside their foster parents for their so-called "heritage crimes", but Ant isn't one for keeping schtum and as her anger at the unfairness of life as a "strutter" escalates, so too does the peace inside the walls of HMP London. Visceral and brutal at times Blame doesn't hold back on the violence, but the relationships between characters struggle to maintain depth and emotion, while our heroine's recklessness gets increasingly irritating and implausible.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here