This week's bookcase includes reviews of The Daughter Of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and One Last Secret by Adele Parks. Plus, filmmaker Werner Herzog makes his fiction debut...
Fiction
The Daughter Of Doctor Moreau
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Jo Fletcher Books, £16.99 (ebook £7.99)
The name Dr Moreau may well conjure memories of Marlon Brando's bizarre performance in a schlocky Nineties movie - but the story of a mad genius and his disconcerting experiments with humans and animals belongs to the futurist science fiction master H.G. Wells. Silvia Moreno-Garcia reimagines the tale from the perspective of Moreau's daughter, the beautiful and enigmatic Carlota, and his scarred assistant Montgomery, an alcoholic Englishman in exile on the Yucatan peninsula. Romance, intrigue and body horror swirl together fantastically, as Moreau's isolation is breached by outsiders with unclear intentions, leading to a dramatic conclusion to an eerie book, in which strange creatures lurk and simmering passions ignite.
9/10
One Last Secret
Adele Parks
HQ, £14.99 (ebook £7.99)
Dora has resolved to leave the exclusive escort world behind. Ready to settle down with her new fiance Evan, she is talked into taking one last job - a week pretending to be a former client's girlfriend at a chateau in the south of France. Leaving her engagement ring behind, she steps into a role where she must convince everyone around her that she is a whole different person. But things start to go awry and as her memory begins to blur, events start to scare the usually unflappable Dora. Is she losing her mind, or is there something more sinister at play? Can Dora escape from the mounting horror and confusion that is building up around her? Parks has crafted a fabulous fast-paced and brutal tale of love, revenge and vengeance, that is also filled with heart, understanding and compassion.
9/10
The Twilight World
Werner Herzog
Bodley Head, £14.99 (ebook £9.99)
Filmmaker Werner Herzog's first novel is based on the true story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who carried out his orders to defend the island of Lubang in the Philippines for almost 30 years after World War II ended. Herzog balances the non-fiction memoirs of Onoda's campaign with his own mesmerising descriptions of coping with unremitting solitude and enmity in the hostile wilds of Lubang's jungle. Just as time sticks and jumps for Onoda, the pace of The Twilight World is erratic; one moment describing rich intricate detail and the next leaping forward by several years. The true story is extraordinary in its own right, but Herzog's concise yet meandering account of unending loyalty, resilience and desolation transmutes Onoda's personal history into a poetic tragedy.
8/10
Non-fiction
The Missing Cryptoqueen
Jamie Bartlett
Ebury Press, £16.99 (ebook £9.99)
This book is truly a page-turner. Brilliantly researched and well-written, it's made even more compelling because it's based on a true story. The book version of the podcast of the same name, Bartlett gives a much more in-depth look at the Oxford graduate Dr Ruja Ignatova, who launched the new cryptocurrency OneCoin in 2014 - making huge amounts of money, only to have Ignatova disappear in mysterious circumstances. From start to end, the pacy book is full of intrigue and crafted to tell a far richer story beyond the podcast, featuring never-before-told additions. An excellent example of first-class investigative journalism, it is a truly unbelievable tale of events - you won't be able to put it down.
9/10
Children's book of the week
Know It Owl
Emma Perry, illustrated by Andrea Stegmaier
Storyhouse, £7.99 (no ebook).
We all know someone who is a bit of a know-it-all. They might be loveable and knowledgeable, but you can't help but roll your eyes every time they claim to know everything about everything. This is a book about a know-it-owl (get it?) who wants to help their friend build a den - but the owl actually ends up bulldozing everything and not contributing all that much. This is very much a teachable book - the owl soon realises the error of its ways, and why you don't want to be a know-it-all when you could just help your friends. A tale of friendship and humility, while it might not be fresh content, the illustrations and storyline are still whimsical and enjoyable for bedtime reading.
7/10
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