The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

‘In the next town over, a man had killed his family. He’d nailed the doors shut so they couldn’t get out; the neighbours heard them running through the rooms, screaming for mercy. When he had finished he turned the gun on himself.

Everyone was talking about it – about what kind of man could do such a thing, about the secrets he must have had. Rumours swirled about affairs, addiction, hidden files on his computer.

Elaine just said she was surprised it didn’t happen more often.’

Meet the Barnes family. Over the next 600+ pages, you’ll learn a lot about Dickie and his wife Imelda, and their children Cassie and PJ. Their lives change as Dickie’s car business struggles. Financial stress has Imelda selling off family possessions, Cassie giving up hope (at least temporarily), and twelve-year-old is PJ planning on running away from home.

We start with Cassie. She was top of her class, preparing for university when financial concerns hit the family. And her wealthy friend Elaine is not particularly helpful. Losing both money and status: Cassie’s world is imploding. Alcohol provides oblivion for a time.

And what about PJ? He’s full of information about nature and fears for the future, but his parents barely notice his existence. Surely, if he runs away, they will miss him.

Imelda is angry. As it becomes clear that the Barnes car business can no longer keep her in the style to which she’s become accustomed, she’s reminded of her disadvantaged past.

So, why is the Barnes family business failing? Why does Dickie spend so much of his time preparing for doomsday? And why are there no photos of Dickie and Imelda’s wedding on display?

I made up my mind early on that I didn’t care much for Cassie, Imelda, or Dickie. And then, as Mr Murray drew me into their lives, I found myself seeing shades of grey instead of black and white. Imelda, Cassie, and PJ feel abandoned, while Dickie hopes to keep his secrets.

The various stories unfold gradually. The past sneaks into the present and looks likely to derail the future. And the ending? Well, that was a little unexpected.

Did I enjoy the novel? I am still thinking about it. A challenging read.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Time’s Long Ruin by Stephen Orr

‘What happens when children disappear?’

In this novel, based loosely on the disappearance of the three Beaumont children from Glenelg beach on Australia Day, 1966, Mr Orr takes the reader on a meditative journey imagining lives and consequences.

As the novel opens, Henry Page, still living in his childhood home on Thomas Street in Croydon, some fifty years later, is remembering the past. Henry was nine years old in 1960 when his best friend and next-door neighbour Janice Riley and her younger siblings Anna and Gavin disappeared.  The children are enjoying their summer holidays: playing, exploring, teasing and (at times) trying to make sense of their parents. Henry has a club foot, which impacts on his ability to run or play sport. Janice stands up for him when he is bullied. Henry’s father, Bob, is a police officer, who has worked on the case of the Somerton Man. Henry’s mother, Ellen, is enigmatic and at times difficult.  Bill Riley, the children’s father, is a travelling salesman, and can be violent towards his wife Liz when drinking. There are few secrets between the Pages and the Rileys. The wives support each other as do the husbands. From the first pages of Part One of this novel, Mr Orr recreates the suburban working-class life many of us, children of the 1950s, will remember. In this novel, this carefree world ends on Australia Day in 1960.

‘The trouble with time is that it goes, and is gone, and you’re left standing somewhere unexpected, next to someone you met in a bookshop or bus stop and married and had children with and soon won’t see again for the rest of eternity.’

On Australia Day 1960, during a heatwave, the Riley children want to go to the beach. Their father has travelled away for work and while their mother wants to take them, she is caught up, at the last minute, by her sister’s illness. Janice asks Henry to go with them, but he declines. This is a decision that still haunts him.

At the beginning of Part Two, the Riley children go to Semaphore Beach by train. They never return home, and no trace is ever found of them. The families, the community, and the reader travel individually and collectively through the agony of the search. Bill blames Liz for letting the children go unaccompanied. Henry blames himself for not going: would it have made a difference? Would four children have been safer than three? Con and Rosa Pedavoli, whose son Alex drowned years earlier, understand the pervasive nature of grief. Their memorial to their son has met with mixed reactions from their neighbours. One of the strengths of this novel is how Mr Orr creates a community which is both supportive (of some) and suspicious (of others). Marital conflicts are accepted, ‘New Australians’ less so. When the children first go missing, the hope is that they’ve lost track of time and missed the train. As more time passes, hope is displaced by desperation and recrimination.

Imagine the pain of the parents as the absence of their children stretches from hours to days, weeks and then years. The pain of not knowing, and then of never knowing.

‘The newsreader had already moved onto Menzies. Time wasn’t passing anymore. It had passed.’

In real life, this carefree world ended for many of us on Australia Day 1966 when the Beaumont children disappeared. Both parents and children became more wary, less trusting. As a parent in the 1980s and 1990s, I was far less relaxed than my parents had been in the 1950s and 1960s.

A powerful story. A devastating journey.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Birds by Daphne du Maurier

‘It’s the weather …’

Nat Hocken, a disabled war veteran, works part time for Mr Trigg at his farm on the Cornish coast. One day in early December, he notices unusually large flocks of birds behaving restlessly. He wonders if they have received a message that winter is coming.

That night, the weather turns very cold. Nat is awakened by a bird tapping on his bedroom window, and when he opens the window several birds fly at his face, trying to peck his eyes. Then, reacting to his children’s screams, he finds his son and daughter under attack as well. Using a blanket, Nat kills as many birds as he can. In the morning, he clears the bodies of fifty small birds.

This is just the beginning. Nat’s neighbours don’t believe him. When he walks to the beach to dispose of the dead birds, he realises that what seem to be whitecaps on the sea are actually tens of thousands of gulls riding the waves. They seem to be waiting. On the radio, the BBC reports that birds have been gathering all over Britain and people are being attacked. Nat anticipates another attack and boards up the windows and some of the chimneys on his family’s cottage.

And I’ll stop there. You know that this is not going to end well.

Why did I read this short story? In one of the reading challenges I am participating in for 2024, we are invited to read a book which includes a personal phobia. Yes, I have a degree of ornithophobia. Watching the Alfred Hitchcock movie of this story back in the 1960s strengthened this, as did an injury sustained during an attack by a magpie in Canberra in 1974. I am wary but less phobic these days.

Still, I think that ‘The Birds’ is a far more realistic horror story than some because birds are real. We do not have to imagine their existence. And while most aggressive bird behaviour is territorial and related to caring for their young, I am not totally convinced.

Feel free to laugh if you want to …

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Glass House by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion

‘Acute psychiatry is the emergency medicine of mental health: for the stuff nobody saw coming.’

Twenty-seven-year-old Hannah Wright is a registrar at the Acute Psychiatric Ward at the fictional Menzies Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Hannah is hoping to be accepted into the psychiatric training program despite having been rejected once. It’s a difficult task Hannah has set herself: impossible hours, in a medical system strained to breaking point complicated by politics and differing views about effective treatments. Hannah and her colleagues are all working under pressure.

In this novel, the authors take us into the worlds of both therapists and patients. We are with Hannah as she negotiates challenges of her own. We meet several patients fighting their own battles. Three who have remained with me are Chloe, with life-threatening anorexia nervosa; Sian suffering postpartum psychosis; and Xavier, an MP, who has attempted suicide. No patient can be treated in isolation. History is key, as is family composition and dynamics. The deeper I read into the novel, the more important these factors become.

I read this novel as someone who has experienced two sides of mental health care. My brief experience as a student nurse introduced me to the complexities of care, while periods as an inpatient over a period of forty years have been both helpful and overwhelming.

This novel reminds me that caregivers are human (and fallible), that mental health issues are rarely straightforward. Diagnosis and treatment can resemble untying a Gordian knot. Not all endings can be happy.  The novel finishes with various author acknowledgments, including:

‘The Glass House was inspired by the courage of patients and the dedication of mental health workers who deal with issues which are often poorly understood, inadequately resourced, and for which there are few complete solutions. We hope this book will contribute to a better recognition of the challenges they face.’

As do I. I read, I learned, I remembered.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan

‘My name is Nina Fraser. There’s a good chance that you know who I am.’

Nina and Simon are a young couple in love. They’ve been together since high school, and just about everyone sees them as a perfect couple.  They head off together to spend a weekend at Simon’s family cabin in Vermont, but Simon returns alone.

According to him, Nina broke up with him and was going to be picked up by some one else. This explanation makes no sense to Nina’s family. Nina is reported as missing, and the police become involved.

Nina’s family want to find their daughter. Simon’s family want to protect their son. Simon’s family have money and are quick to engage expensive lawyers and a PR firm. For them, the best defence is offence, and Nina’s family are under siege. For Nina’s family, the investigation moves too slowly. Following the rules, waiting for the police, seems pointless especially when conspiracy theories abound, and Nina’s family are under attack.

The story unfolds through multiple points of view, including family members and the detective working the case. The tension between the two families increases and the reader, with more knowledge than Nina’s family, sees how the wealthy are advantaged by having money and access to power.

Ms McTiernan covers several different themes in this novel, including toxic relationships, power imbalances because of socio-economic difference, the power of the media, and victim blaming. As the story moves between the views of different characters the reader sees (if not always appreciates) a diversity of views.

There’s a twist in this story that some of us will find satisfying.

Another terrific novel from Ms McTiernan!

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Arrow of God (The African Trilogy #3) by Chinua Achebe

‘We British are a curious bunch, doing everything half-heartedly. Look at the French. They are not ashamed to teach their culture to backward races under their charge. Their attitude to the native ruler is clear. They say to him: ‘This land has belonged to you because you have been strong enough to hold it. By the same token it now belongs to us. If you are not satisfied come out and fight us.’ What do we British do? We flounder from one expedient to its opposite. We do not only promise to secure old savage tyrants on their thrones – or more likely filthy animal skins – we not only do that, but now we go out of our way to invent chiefs where there were none before.’

Chronologically, the final book in The African Trilogy fits between the first and second novels. And, while it might seem logical to read it there, I think the trilogy works better if you read the books in the order they were written. Why? Well, having given us an understanding of traditional Igbo life (in ‘Things Fall Apart’) and the story of Obi, caught between two worlds (in ‘No Longer at Ease’), Chinua Achebe takes us into the disintegration of traditional Igbo life as British colonial administration undermines Igbo customary practices.

The novel is set in the 1920s and begins with a bitter feud between the villages of Umuaro and Okperi. A piece of land is disputed, and the villagers are on the brink of war. Ezeulu, the Chief Priest of Ulu (the ruling deity of Umuaro) advises against warfare. His is a lone voice.

Peace is enforced when Captain T. K. Winterbottom, the British colonial official in charge, causes the destruction of all of the firearms within Umuaro. Bloodshed is avoided, but not all residents of Umuaro are happy. They believe that Ezeulu has betrayed his people after he testifies that Umuaro has no legitimate claim to the land.

Some years pass, relatively peacefully. Christianity has made its way to Umuaro, converting some villagers and convincing others that worship of their old gods is both sinful and futile. Several issues cause tensions to rise between different Igbo factions while at the same time T.K. Winterbottom prepares to carry out the British policy of indirect rule, which aims to appoint Africans as puppet leaders. He sends emissaries to invite Ezeulu, whom he remembers favourably, to Government Hill in order to name him ‘Paramount Chief’. Ezeulu refuses to comply and is eventually imprisoned for two months.

‘As soon as he comes,’ he [Winterbottom] told Clarke, ‘you are to lock him up in the guardroom. I do not wish to see him until after my return from Enugu. By that time he should have learnt good manners. I won’t have my natives thinking they can treat the administration with contempt.’

Ezeulu has a different view:

‘Tell the white man that Ezeulu will not be anybody’s chief, except Ulu.’

‘What! Shouted Clarke. ‘Is the fellow mad?’

‘I tink so sah,’ said the interpreter.

‘In that case he goes back to prison.’ Clarke was now really angry. What a cheek! A witch-doctor making a fool of the British Administration in public!’

After Ezeulu is released, he returns to Umuaro. His detention over two new moons disrupts the new yam harvest because Ezeulu will not call a new yam festival.

‘But with you,’ continued Ezeulu, ‘I need not speak in riddles. You all know what our custom is. I only call a new festival when there is only one yam left from the last. Today I have three yams and so I know that the time has not come.’

Ezeulu’s refusal to open the harvest causes unrest in the village. This unrest provides an opportunity for a Christian missionary to win more converts. He tells the villagers that anyone who wants to harvest their yams free of divine retribution can do so — by making an offering to the Christian God instead of Ulu.

There’s more to it than this of course. Ezeulu, who sees himself as an arrow in the bow of his God, believes himself to be untouchable. But his authority has been weakened: by officials of the colonial administration, by members of his own family and by rivals within his tribe.

Colonial rule, cultural differences and misunderstandings result in the disintegration of Igbo tradition.

A fitting conclusion to a brilliant trilogy. Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Remarkable Mrs Reibey by Grantlee Kieza

‘From the time Mary Reibey was born as Molly Haydock in the old Norman town of Bury, Lancashire, she had to fight a grim battle for survival.’

Mary Reibey (1777-1855), née Haydock, businesswoman and trader, was born on 12 May 1777 in Bury, Lancashire, England. She was convicted of horse stealing at Stafford on 21 July 1790 and sentenced to be transported for seven years.

I am familiar with aspects of Mary Reibey’s story: I spent much of my childhood in Launceston and often admired Entally House at Hadspen. Yes, I knew she was convicted of horse stealing and was transported New South Wales. I had no idea, though, of the extent of her business interests and property holdings.

Mary arrived in Sydney on the Royal Admiral in October 1792 and was assigned to the household of Major Francis Grose as a nursemaid. On 7 September 1794 she married Thomas Reibey, a young Irishman in the service of the East India Company.

On the death of her husband in April 1811, Mary Reibey was left with seven children and the control of numerous business concerns. She already had had experience in assisting her husband and managing his interests when he was absent on trading voyages.

In this book, Mr Kieza provides the context necessary to understand Mary Reibey’s life. I was particularly interested in her rise to prominence in the new emancipist society championed by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Sadly, Mary Reibey outlived five of her children as well as several of her grandchildren.

‘The remarkable Mrs Reibey lived a huge and fascinating life and left behind a legacy of hard work and determination, encouraging all who came after her to rise above the most humbling of circumstances.’

A remarkable woman.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith Book 3 in my 2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge. I’ve entered as a ‘Nonfiction Grazer’ and this book should be included under the heading of ‘Memoir/Biography’

Harlem Shuffle (Ray Carney #1) by Colson Whitehead

‘Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked, in practice and ambition.’

We first meet Ray Carney in 1959. He is the owner of Carney’s Furniture on Harlem’s 125^th street, married to Elizabeth. They have one daughter, May, and are expecting their second child.  Business is good, but not good enough to enable Ray to move his family from their cramped apartment to his dream home on the Upper West Side. Ray’s parents-in-law don’t much care for him (he’s darker than Elizabeth, and they had greater expectations for their daughter).

Ray’s father Mike had a shady history, and Ray knows many of the same people. Ray and his cousin Freddie grew up together, which sometimes means that Ray recognises the danger in some of Freddie’s schemes but cannot always resist. And anyway, Ray needs more money to realise his dreams. Ray has a small side business as a fence, but that side business takes a really big, bad turn when Freddie gets him involved in a heist at the Hotel Theresa.

‘Pepper got the low-down from the wino swaying next to him. You want to know what’s going on, you ask the block wino. They see everything and then the booze pickles it, keeps it fresh for later.’

Yes, I am a Colson Whitehead fan. I picked up this novel and became engrossed in Ray’s world, in the dialogue, caught in the tension between bent Ray and straight Ray. And Colson Whitehead seems to capture the times perfectly: the riots in 1964 are background to part of the story:

‘I get off the subway to look for a sandwich and the streets are full of people. Raising their fists, waving signs. Chanting, “We want Malcolm X! We Want Malcolm X!” and “Killer cops must go!” I’m hungry. I don’t want to deal with all that. I’m trying to get a sandwich.’

Why did I laugh? How inappropriate.

There are three parts to this novel which could be read as three novellas each connected but separated by a couple of years. As soon as I finished, I picked up ‘Crook Manifesto’, the next novel in what I believe will be a trilogy.

‘One thing I’ve learned in my job is that life is cheap, and when things start getting expensive, it gets cheaper still.’

Serious social commentary with a touch of crime and twist of humour.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Red Dirt Road (Detective Dana Russo #3) by S.R. White

‘Annie Ogden always rose at five. In summer it gave her a couple of hours respite before the real heat arrived: a slice of cool serenity when she could move without feeling scorched.’

In the dying outback town of Unumurra, Tim Muir and Larry Ogden are murdered one month apart. Their bodies are arranged on frames as though they were angels. In an isolated town with around fifty inhabitants and no clear timeline for when the murders took place, everyone is a suspect. Two officers have already investigated the case and found nothing.

Detective Dana Russo is despatched to investigate the case. She’s given a tight timeframe to report, and it seems that no-one expects her to succeed. The locals view her with suspicion, and other members of the police hierarchy are either cryptic, defensive or dismissive.

The only businesses remaining in Unumurra are the local pub and an attached shop, owned and run by Annie Ogden. The state government’s plan for the regeneration of Unumurra involved an art project. Artist Axel duBois has installed 28 angels on mobile frames: the same mobile frames as are used in the murders. DuBois himself is out of town: could he be the murderer?

Annie Ogden, as Dana discovers, runs the town. In addition to running the pub and the store, Annie also delivers cooked meals to the elderly inhabitants.

Local policeman Able Barillo was not involved in the initial investigation. He is puzzled by Dana Russo’s investigatory technique while she wonders why he was excluded initially. It takes a while for the two of them to establish trust and to work together. Meanwhile, time is passing.  Dana is conscious that her current boss would like to get rid of her, and failure to solve this case will give him the excuse he needs. Dana’s investigation is also hampered by limited telecommunication availability. Fortunately, she has a friend who can help.

The investigation is the heart of this novel. Part way through Dana starts to make sense of what she uncovers (with the help of both Able and of her friend Lucy). This leads to a confrontation and a conclusion.

‘…: in Unumurra, who decides what’s for someone’s own good?’

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It took me a while to assemble the pieces to work out who was responsible. Cleverly done.

I read the first novel in this series (‘Hermit’) recently and hope to read the second novel (‘Prisoner’) shortly.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7) by Robert Galbraith

‘Private Detective Cormoran Strike was standing in the corner of a small, stuffy, crowded marquee with a wailing baby in his arms.’

It has been ten years since the first book in this series (‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’) was published. Ten years of (as yet unresolved) romantic tension between Cormoran and his agency partner Robin Ellacott. Yes, their personal lives are still very much a part of the story. Robin seems less than happy with her current boyfriend, while Cormoran may find there are consequences from his dalliance with the dreadful ‘Bijou’. So, what happens in this instalment?

Sir Colin Edensor, a retired civil servant, approaches the agency with a request to help extricate his vulnerable neurodivergent son from the clutches of a cult. Several years earlier, Will dropped out of university to join the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC). All attempts to dislodge him from its headquarters, a farm in Norfolk, have proved fruitless and Will has now cut off communication with his family. The partners accept the case and decide that the best way to proceed would be for Robin to infiltrate the cult.

What follows is over 900 pages of tension as Robin, living with the cult on their farm in Norfolk, faces several different forms of danger. On the outside, Cormoran has his own problems. Some are related to other cases the agency is managing, some are personal, but overwhelmingly it is his concern for Robin that occupies his thoughts.

The UHC, under the leadership of the charismatic Papa J, presents as a compassionate organisation. Few people have left it, and even fewer will speak of their experiences. Those who will speak about the UHC, talk about supernatural events. There’s an apparition, the ‘Drowned Prophet’ who is believed to be a reincarnation of Papa J’s seven-year-old daughter Daiyu, who drowned in the North Sea in 1995. There are other prophets as well. And, in an environment cut off from the outside world, with minimal food and a fear of punishment for any number of transgressions, the inmates are vulnerable.

I think this is the best novel so far in the series. It kept me turning pages, desperate to find out if (and how) Robin might rescue Will. There’s plenty of tension (and several twists in both cases under investigation and in personal circumstances for both Robin and Cormoran).

Yes, it is a long novel and there were a few times when I thought some judicious editing could have tightened the story. A minor quibble, though, and I finished the novel desperate to know what will happen next.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith