All I wish for is a good story well-told and The Punishing Journey of Arthur Delaney by Bob Kroll delivered that magnificently.

Arthur Delaney didn’t think he was able to raise his three children after his wife died so he allowed himself to succumb to religious/righteous pleas to fight for the Union Army – and to place his three children into the care of an orphanage owner. The war and three years in a prisoner-of-war prison changed his outlook on life and his opinion about raising his children. When released, Delaney set out to find his children, restore his family, and make things right again. The orphanage owner, though, had indentured the children as farm workers and house servants. And as they had been sold on to other farms and households around Canada, his children’s locations are unknown. Arthur Delaney begins a 20 year journey/adventure throughout Canada’s eastern and maritime provinces, chasing down rumours and information to find his children,

The book could easily have been called The Adventures and Psychological Torment of Arthur Delaney and while a lot of the book focuses on the interesting characters and settings of the journey, the author manages to keep Delaney’s torment/self-punishment and the goal of finding his children at the core of the story.

The writing is easy to read and flows well. The reader is given a clear sense of the simplicity of living conditions and the harsh climate in eastern Canada in the late 1800s as well as the economic struggle experienced by most. It was a relatively short/quick read and the author could well have enriched the story by telling us more about each of the three children’s struggles, initially in the orphanage and then in their respective placements. And maybe more of the orphanage owner’s story and the motivations behind her decisions. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was fully absorbed by both the story and the writing. I certainly came to care enough about the characters to want a happy ending.

Lingering notes A few days after finishing the book I’m still left with a clear feeling of the hard life experienced post Civil War, the lack of gratitude for the sacrifices made by Delaney, and his tenacity to continue the search to apologise and make things right for his family.

The Secret of Karabakh by Fidan Bagirova is a cleverly-crafted blend of action thriller and historical fiction with credible characters in an authentic setting. As much as the several settings are vital to the story, the characters are the real stars.

Alana Fulton, the daughter of wealthy Americans is a devoted student of archaeology completing her PhD at Cambridge University when she becomes the subject of both a police investigation and sinister stalkers. After her university rooms become the centre of a terrorist incident and then investigation, she receives an anonymous note warning her that she is in danger. 

Her movie-star boyfriend becomes the subject of the police investigation and while on the run the pair are attacked by strangers who seem to be foreign. Alana begins to distrust her boyfriend when he confesses to receiving diamonds in return for protecting her. They escape the police investigation by private jet to Switzerland but their attackers follow. After a Bond-esque chase scene, Alana travels to Azerbaijan. Threaded through the action thriller is a gradually-evolving story of Alana’s real identity and real personal history. 

Also slowly revealed are the personal perspectives from the Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia – a real and relatively recent and still unresolved conflict over territory, natural resources and cultural histories.

Rescued from near-death in Gstaad, Switzerland, Alana is given an ever-so-brief explanation of her real family origins before being whisked from Geneva to Baku, Azerbaijan. She is reunited with her grandfather, once the landlord/tribal leader of Karabakh now living in exile in Baku. Alana yearns to return to her homeland to untangle and clarify jumbled and vague memories of her terrifying childhood experiences of the war and fleeing from invading troops. From here, the story accelerated, the danger and courage, in equal measures, increased, as did the urgency of my reading. I quickly read through the last hundred or so pages to the satisfying conclusion.

Lingering notes A few days after finishing The Secret of Karabakh I am remembering the high quality of writing, judicious combinations of dialogue and description of action to create a sense of pace, and the inclusion of so much accurate history that gave the book its meaning, as well as a vivid sense of place. I’m also left with clear feelings about the characters – the evil of some, the depth and devotion of others, and the courage and determination repeatedly shown by Alana. 

The Journey by Conrad Jones is the story of Kalu, a UK-trained doctor living in Monguno, Northern Nigeria and his family. Kalu, Esse, his wife, and 4 children, become refugees when Boko Haram overruns Monguno. These early scenes are not for the faint-hearted – guns, machetes, rape, burning…

Kalu has been making secret preparations for such an event and he quickly gathers his family in his surgery, distributes necessary supplies and money among them. They escape, initially at night and on foot, through the forest surrounding the town. They find the Land Cruiser that Kalu had hidden earlier and so the long, dangerous journey begins. The danger comes at the family in many forms: Boko extremists who race ahead of the invasion, corrupt border guards, other desperate refugees also trying to escape, and simple opportunists. But they’re also helped by sympathetic well-wishers. Ultimately, Kalu and his family make it to the Libyan coast where they board a trawler to cross the Mediterranean to Italy. The boat capsizes, the family is separated and… I’ll stop there rather than spoil the story’s ending.

The plot races along giving the reader a tiny sense of the desperation the family must feel as it remains just ahead of danger. The story mostly focuses on Kalu and Esse with their children’s characters not being developed in as much detail as I’d have liked. It was an engaging and ultimately satisfying read with several twists and threads to keep track of and wonder about.

Lingering notes Recently I was reading about the taste of coffee and encountered the term ‘lingering notes’ which describes the tastes that remain long after the coffee has been drunk. I wondered whether ‘lingering notes’ are a combination of the taste and memories associated with it. I wondered if the same applies to a book because I finished The Journey several days ago and am well into my next book, but I have ‘lingering notes’ about it. Kalu’s family was incredibly fortunate to have survived the initial attack on their town by Boko Haram, incredibly fortunate to have made the necessary and substantial preparations to be able to escape, and incredibly fortunate to have escaped from Boko Haram. I know it’s ficton, but I like fiction to be ‘at least possible or plausible’. That has been one lingering note for me. Another is that The Journey had several incomplete threads: the attack on the Christian community, the attack on the town’s village and the people’s lives afterwards, and perhaps even some back story of some of the Boko Haram fighters – who are/were they and why are they as they are now? All of which is to say that while The Journey was a fast-paced story, it felt incomplete because the story of any refugee fleeing their home and risking everything is a complex story with many perspectives and deserves to be told fully. These are my ‘lingering notes’.

The Spectral Island by Stephen de Burges is an excellent read and I thoroughly recommend it to those who enjoy intrigue and suspense in a contemporary setting.

Dr Jamieson is an independent investigator/agent called in by the UK government to investigate unusual activtiy on Ivundé, in the Indian Ocean as detected by satellite images, The primary cover story is that a school/madrassa is being built on the island. The real story is that there is gold. But Dr Jamieson quickly deduces that the gold story is also a ruse. On the suspiciously dark side, there is North Korean, Chinese, and Iranian involvement including a Chinese naval fleet in the Indian Ocean and a North Korean submarine just off the the island’s coast. There is intriguing interplay between the governments of UK and USA, the military on Diego Garcia, the embassy staff on the island, Ivundé’s corrupt president, and the locals who assist Dr Jamieson.

The writer gives the reader plenty of expert detail to support the well-written and well-paced plot. The primary characters are described and used well to advance the story which felt very credible throughout and kept me interested and keen to read more throughout. The language and writing style make the book both easy to read and also carry an air of authenticity and credibility. I would certainly like to read more by this author.

Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor is the story of twelve-year-old Esther who goes missing on her way home from school in the small, rural, Australian town, Durton (a.k.a. Dirt Town). It’s also the story of Durton’s other children and their economically- and socially-challenged relationships.

The two city-detectives, Sarah and Smithy, who are assigned to the case uncover a drug operation. Initial investigations and interviews reveal little relating to Esther’s disappearance with no clear suspects, motive, or even evidence of a kidnapping, murder or otherwise. 

 The story is well-written and is presented from multiple perspectives: Ronnie (Esther’s best friend), Lewis (Esther’s next-best friend), Esther’s parents, and also Sarah (the lead detective) all reveal complex stories of their own. Each of these supporting characters have real and troubled relationships and lives that enrich the central story.

The author conveys the smallness and intensity of a rural community: inter-relatedness, long histories and unforgotten grievances, unhappy marriages and parenting struggles. But the author also conveys the innocence of children’s perceptions of real life – of Esther’s disappearance, single parenting, friendships, and fragile rural-Australian economics. The story of finding Esther is paced perfectly, with just the right amount of character and plot development to tempt the reader into reaching premature conclusions.  

Dirt Town is a compelling and enjoyable story that kept me interested from start to finish.