Entertainment

Book reviews: Glenn Patterson goes back to the future

Glenn Patterson's novel Gull, a fictionalised account of how the DeLorean car brought hope to west Belfast in the 80s, was launched in Belfast. Picture by Ann McManus
Glenn Patterson's novel Gull, a fictionalised account of how the DeLorean car brought hope to west Belfast in the 80s, was launched in Belfast. Picture by Ann McManus Glenn Patterson's novel Gull, a fictionalised account of how the DeLorean car brought hope to west Belfast in the 80s, was launched in Belfast. Picture by Ann McManus

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Gull by Glenn Patterson, published in hardback by Head of Zeus

GULL is Glen Patterson's compelling, fictionalised (apart from "the bits you couldn't make up", he notes) account of how Detroit legend John Z DeLorean's Dunmurry dream car, the DMC-12, brought hope to west Belfast in the early 1980s.

Randall, DeLorean's American right-hand man in Belfast, muddles through a heady mix of production-line problems, hunger-strike protests and heightened security activity that even Vietnam hasn't prepared him for. He takes a shine to Dunmurry factory worker Liz, who relishes her unexpected escape from domestic drudgery and the occasionally strained cross-community camaraderie that comes with it.

Meanwhile, inspirational motor city maverick John Z is unwittingly wheeler-dealering his way into an FBI sting as he courts politicians and potential investors.

A great read with tangible TV potential, Gull reminds us how DeLorean's iconic car had Belfast looking to the future well before Michael J Fox got behind its wheel.

David Roy

I'm Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork, published in hardback by Doubleday

AS another Nordic novel translated into English, this debut offering from Samuel Bjork has a lot to live up to. Inevitably it's going to be compared to the likes of Jo Nesbo and Stieg Larsson.

The novel is already a bestseller across Europe, and UK TV rights have been sold, so does it live up to the hype? The story centres around ex-detective Mia Kruger and veteran police investigator Holger Munch as they come together to solve one of the most terrifying cases of their careers. A young child is found hanging from a tree, with an airline tag around her neck which reads 'I'm travelling alone'. She won't be the only one...

While the story is well written, and the plot twists along nicely to keep the reader guessing, it is all rather formulaic, with a couple of crime thriller cliches thrown in for good measure. This doesn't mean it's a bad book, though – it is very enjoyable and will keep the reader hooked to the end.

Rachael Dunn

The Long Room by Francesca Kay, published in hardback by Faber & Faber

THE Long Room is where government "listener" Stephen Donaldson spends his working day taking notes from bugged phone calls. He was recruited for the secret service hoping to be a spy but is stuck – an eavesdropper desperate for fieldwork.

He's a naive loner who often drifts off into a fantasy world and imagines seducing the woman of his dreams, Helen Greenwood. One snag is she is the wife of his co-worker Jamie, whose calls Stephen is monitoring as he is a suspected double agent. As Stephen's lustful daydreams of Helen spiral, he takes risks to bring about Jamie's downfall. Can he cover his tracks and snare the woman he loves?

Francesca Kay's third novel is an exciting thriller that twists and turns to the last page. Her obsessive anti-hero is likeable but infuriating in equal measure, as he's intelligent but has no common sense.

Caroline Firth

The Expatriates by Janice YK Lee, published in hardback by Little, Brown

BY the author of the bestselling The Piano Teacher, this is another story of love and loss set in Hong Kong, this time in the present day. It revolves around three American women who dramatise the politics and protocols of this highly stratified expat community.

Hilary is a wealthy lady who lunches, and despairs of ever conceiving a child with the corporate-lawyer husband she never sees. Happily married Margaret is another wealthy expat, while Mercy is a recent graduate who's short of funds.

Margaret's youngest child is abducted in Korea when in the care of Mercy, whom she had hired as a nanny. Then Hilary's husband David has an affair with Mercy, who becomes pregnant.

Although the abduction element did not entirely convince me and the ending seemed a tad pat, the delineation of this painfully hierarchical and oddly artificial society – a world of westerners whose every need is served by Asians they don't even notice they are patronising, is fleshed out in subtly damning detail.

Dan Brotzel

NON-FICTION

And Yet... Essays by Christopher Hitchens, published in hardback by Atlantic Books

HITCHENS'S death in 2011 robbed the world of one of its foremost critics of cant, tyranny and puritanism. The essays, articles and reviews here are previously uncollected (though not 'unpublished' as the jacket claims – an omission a living Hitchens would surely not have countenanced), perhaps because, alas, they're not always among his best work.

A piece on GK Chesterton seems too fixated on Chesterton's ideological sins to sufficiently admit his skills as a writer; an aside elsewhere on the phrase 'more heat than light', whether disingenuous or genuinely missing the point, seems uncharacteristically wrong-headed.

Still, elsewhere the penetrating eye, powerful mind and excoriating wit are on typically fine form. Nobody agrees with everything Hitchens wrote, not even Hitchens (one of the anti-Christmas essays here is admitted in its successor to be "straining for effect"), but even off-par, he reminds us how diminished our cultural sphere is by his passing.

Alex Sarll

CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK

Never Evers by Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison, published by Chicken House

IF you ever went on a school ski trip, you'll have an awkward moment of your own for every awkward moment faced by teenagers Mouse and Jack in this two-hander of a novel (it's written from both perspectives).

Mouse finds herself trying to rekindle old friendships after being kicked out of ballet school, while Jack tussles with his mates over their band name and who's going to be the first to kiss a real life girl. Their supporting cast of well-wrought friends – Keira, Connie, Max and Toddy – provide laughs, warped wisdom and silliness, while gently pointing out how tough and confusing (if hilarious) being 14 is.

Throw in a bitchy ex-best friend, a French popstar who just wants to be "normal" and a blizzard or two, and you have a just-about-plausible plot. Oh, and there's a hamster that gets top marks for stealing all the limelight too.

Ella Walker