Fierce People - Dirk Wittenborn

"Both savage and funny" Sunday Telegraph.

Fifteen -year-old Finn Earl's mother, Liz, is a thirty-two-year-old masseuse with a taste for cocaine. When Liz's habit forces them to flee the city, they find protection under the wing of one of her clients, aging billionaire Mr Osbourne. In Vlyvalle, a golden playground for the super rich, Finn discovers a people who are stranger and more savage than any tribe in the National Geographic. Offered a new life and new friends he falls in love and grows up fast. But, on what should be the happiest night of his life, on an island in the middle of a private lake, naked and high with Osbourne's granddaughter, someone is watching him from the depths of the forest...and laughing.

I read this book in one day, I literally could not put it down! I bought it from a charity shop thinking the back cover looked interesting, but the synopsis (above) does in no way do it justice.
The firece people are a tribe, the Yanomamo studied by Finn's famous anthropologist father, whom he has never met. Wittenborn cleverly draws parallels between the rich in Vlyvalle and this savage tribe. "In the wilds of New Jersey I had found a tribe as strange, cruel and unlovable as the Yanomamo,"comments Finn.
However many of the characters are strangely likable, the village cop, Gates I liked from the start, as does Finn, when on the journey to their new home his mother, withdrawing from drugs, is ill in the car, "It wasn't the words, it was the way he folded up his cop jacket to make a pillow for her head".
I also liked Jilly, Maya, Osbourne and even Bryce, though it becomes increasingly difficult to know who to trust, who is lying and who is telling the truth. Despite the fact that these rich people buy everyone and everything they need, there are some really likable characters, especially Osbourne who I found an absolute delight.
The book gathers pace and is almost heartstoppingly suspenseful as the reader wonders what will become of Finn's love-life, and who has perpetrated the violent acts described.
The characters are so real that the novel reads like a film and I have since discovered that a film has been made starring Diane Lane as Liz.
The bond between Liz and Finn is incredibly moving and despite their differences they are each others most treasured person. I kept having to remind myself of Finn's age, 15 having his 16th birthday half way through the story, having a son of a similar age myself. It is difficult to remember that the trials and tribulations suffered by this age group can be every bit as devastating and difficult as those suffered by the "grown ups". "It's weird when you're sixteen years old and want to feel young again."
Do yourself a favour and read this book. It's superb.

"Powerful...blows away the hypocrisies of the American dream" Daily Mirror.

The Testament of Gideon Mack- James Robertson

"Superb" The Times.

"If the devil didn't exist, would man have to invent him?"
For Gideon Mack, faithless minister, unfaithful husband and troubled soul, the existence of God, let alone the Devil, is no more credible than that of ghosts or fairies. Until the day he falls into a gorge and is rescued by someone who might just be Satan himself. Mack's testament - a compelling blend of memoir, legend, history and, quite probably, madness - recounts one man's emotional crisis, disappearance, resurrection and death. It also transports you into an utterly mesmerising exploration of the very nature of belief.
Initially, I was disappointed in this book. I found the descriptions of the Scottish Highlands and the church, a little tedious and was impatient to get to Gideon's alleged meeting with the devil. This does not occur until about the last quarter of the book. However, the narrative of Gideon's childhood and the history of how he formed his ideas began to enthrall me. The characters all seemed very real and often I felt as though I was living these events with them. There were very many beautifully written, moving and exciting scenes. By the time I reached the end I was savouring every word.
This novel is another Richard and Judy's Book Club page turner and was also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006.
Exquisite!

"Fascinating, extraordinary, strange, rich" Sunday Telegraph.

The Interpretation of Murder- Jed Rubenfeld

"Spectacular...fiendishly clever" Guardian.

On the same morning that Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung arrive in Manhattan to deliver a series of lectures, a debutante is found bound and strangled in her Broadway penthouse appartment. The following day, beautiful heiress Nora Acton is discovered tied to a chandelier at her parents home. Nora is unable to speak, and has no memory of her trauma. Freud and his American protege Stratham Younger are called upon to psychoanalyse Nora in order to help her regain her memory and to uncover the murderer's identity. The ensuing mystery is a real page turner, exploring Freud's ideas and the heated resistance to them combined with a beautiful evocation of New York in the early 1900's. Although Freud's visit to America was successful, it is widely believed that he suffered some form of trauma there, blaming the country for some of his pre-existing ailments. Rubenfeld has skillfully combined fact and fiction, producing an exciting crime novel with attention to historic detail. The whodunnit element of the story is fastly paced and keeps you guessing.
Another Richard and Judy's Book Club classic.
I loved the analysis of Hamlet and Freud's Oedipus complex, as well as the based on fact squabbles between the two psychologists. The author's note at the end of the novel clarifies which parts of the book are historical fact, and which are complete fiction as well as explaining any adjustments he made.

"Rubenfeld writes beautifully...an intriguing mystery" Sunday Telegraph