Reading for pleasure

The sun is out and what better time to pick up something new to read. Whether you are looking for a crime novel or a political satire we have you covered.

The Estate by Denzil Meyrick (Bantam Press, £16.99; ebook £5.99)

Denzil Meyrick offers another standalone novel and it is a cracker. Sebastian Pallander heads the eponymous fund which he manages. He collapses while speaking on live television from Davos. The narrative then moves to the Highlands where his wife sits in her baronial country house, saved for her family by her now deceased husband. There are five children of the union and, as with most families, they are quite distinct, one from the other. We learn more of each of them, as they face increasing, undisclosed threats that they assume are somehow linked to their father’s unexpected death. DI Cara Salt heads a small niche police unit in the centre of Glasgow above a shop. The Assistant Chief Constable appoints her to investigate Pallander’s death and is assigned DS Abernethy Blackstock. There follows a chase across the country and abroad, resulting in a Bondesque denouement at the Highland estate. 

A good crime novel requires crumbs of doubt to be scattered liberally throughout the story. Meyrick delivers those and the ending is unexpected. The sign of an accomplished author.

Family Politics by John O’Farrell (Doubleday, £20; ebook £10.99)

Emma and Eddie Hughes are steeped in left-wing politics. The local Conservative MP is knocking at the pearly gates and Eddie seeks to develop his profile with a view to a pitch at being the next constituency MP. Against this background, Emma and Eddie’s son Dylan returns from university. He has devolved into a feisty would-be politico but, to Emma and Eddie’s eternal dismay, a Conservative. There follows a hilarious narrative where mother and son, son and father, husband and wife, each and together face a series of embarrassing and unexpected travails.  

O’Farrell deploys the characters to devastating effect in this parody of the current state of the nation, the issues that concern people and how parts of society react. In doing so, there is a serious aspect.  It does cause one to consider these issues and see some of them from a different perspective, none more so than the manipulation of Dylan’s spoken words. Terrific fun.

Written by David J Dickson, Solicitor Advocate