E- and audiobook reviews: Fiction
Two Brothers is a "what if" historical novel about a pair of babies born in Nazi Germany. The premise, which clangs into life like a Jeffrey Archer set-up, is that identity confusion in a maternity ward leads to an Aryan child being inserted into the distinctly Jewish Stengel clan.
by Ben Elton (read by Jot Davies)
Random House (audiobook)
Two Brothers is a "what if" historical novel about a pair of babies born in Nazi Germany. The premise, which clangs into life like a Jeffrey Archer set-up, is that identity confusion in a maternity ward leads to an Aryan child being inserted into the distinctly Jewish Stengel clan. Can you see the twist in the tale yet? Kinda, and we are only a few minutes into Jot Davies' pleasant, but less-than-vivid rendering. To be honest, most of us would find it trying to read Elton's prose with much relish: "It felt to Stone … like he was being questioned by Peter Lorre while Humphrey Bogart looked on inscrutably, keeping his own counsel." This fascistic Prince and the Pauper may or may not be in desperately good taste, but it does begin to get under your skin. Having been born on the same day that Hitler began the National Socialists in 1920, the boys fight, compete and dodge Elton's heavy-handed history lessons. Eventually, the truth comes out and the boys face each other down. Two Brothers doesn't grip so much as throttle.
by Ian Rankin
Orion (e-book)
The title is ironic, as anyone who read John Rebus' supposed adieu in 2007 knows. But fictional detectives have always proved hard to kill and the return of Ian Rankin's wonderful policeman isn't so much a surprise as an act of literary déjà vu. In Standing in Another Man's Grave, he fits into Rankin new and old - reunited with former sidekick Siobhan Clarke, before rubbing shoulders with Rankin's "other" detective, Malcolm Fox. Think the boozy, rebellious, brilliant Rebus but in photographic negative. Suffice to say, they hate each other. As readers of Fox's two solo adventures will know, he works for Internal Affairs. So it is no surprise that the plot is partly driven by him investigating Rebus, whom he considers a police dinosaur. Rebus is still in civvies, looking into cold cases. Thirteen years after a young girl disappeared, her mother contacts Rebus to give the investigation a final look. This leads him bang into a very hot case, being run by none other than Siobhan. Chaos ensues, in the most delightful and violent of fashions.