OUR round-up of the latest book releases

The aim is acclaim

A Ladder To The Sky by John Boyne (Doubleday, £16.99; ebook £9.99) *****

AND you've heard the old proverb about ambition, haven't you?" He shook his head. "That it's like setting a ladder to the sky." Maurice Swift has ambition aplenty. It's the ideas he's lacking. But there are other people for that, and he finds that his charismatic good-looks can give him exactly what he needs to succeed. John Boyne's psychological drama is told over Swift's career lifetime, his sole aim to achieve the literacy acclaim he craves. Through three narrators, we see the way Swift expertly manipulates and betrays the people who love him; elderly novelist Erich Ackermann, American writer Dash Hardy, Swift's talented wife Edith, even his son Daniel. Boyne's narrative arc delivers a perfect balance of pace and detail to keep you gripped from beginning to end.

Rebecca Wilcock

Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale (Tinder Press, £18.99; ebook £13.29) *****

THE sound of the cello resonates through Patrick Gale's coming-of-age tale, as teenager Eustace surrenders to music and feels the shape of his nascent homosexuality. The storytelling is quietly mesmerising as Gale moves between those teenage years and Eustace in the present, where he is being treated for cancer. He has also hooked up again with his old cellist friend Naomi, whom he met during a summer school many years earlier. While Eustace's troubled parents, the mother devious and temporarily Jesus obsessed, the father meek but loving, run an old people's home in Weston-super-Mare, where Eustace grows up. The deft weaving of past and present give this story - a tale about music and the cello as much as everything else - power and intrigue. Beautifully told with understated glee and humanity, this novel raises smiles and shocked tears.

Julian Cole

Keeping My Sisters' Secrets by Beezy Marsh (Pan £7.99) ****

THOSE “good old days” were never as good as they were cracked up to be, but through the eyes of Beezy Marsh, former health and women's editor at The Northern Echo, they do make for much more than just a good read. Her story of three sisters born into poverty and their fight for survival in a London slum is a testament to a sisterhood who never gave up whatever the circumstances, to a love that never died, and which allowed them to present a united front to a world which didn't care what happened to “working class” girls. Beezy’s writing makes your blood boil, but it also makes your heart overflow.

Steve Craggs

The Blood Road by Stuart MacBride (Harper Collins, £16.99) ****

ABERDEEN detective Logan McRae is now working for Professional Standards, policing his fellow officers, but he can’t keep the smell of murder out of his nostrils. When a ‘dead’ inspector appears to have been killed for a second time, Logan can’t wait to pitch, but soon finds himself up to his armpits in murkier matters combating a paedophile outfit who operate a high-end meat market and who abuse children on the block for sale to the highest bidder.

This is a gripping exploration of the dark side of criminality in which torture, death and starvation are par for the course. It's grim stuff from MacBride, perhaps too grim for some, but it also bears the stamp of an awful truth that cries out to be revealed.

Steve Craggs

Meditations on self-destruction

NON-FICTION

A Very Human Ending: How Suicide Haunts Our Species by Jesse Bering (Doubleday, £16.99; ebook £9.99) ****

RESEARCH psychologist Jesse Bering takes a scientific look at "how suicide haunts our species", as the book's subtitle puts it. The American writer - currently associate professor of science communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand - admits to his own suicidal thoughts from the start of his fourth book. By looking at scientific research, he tries to examine why some people are more susceptible than others to thoughts of self-destruction and what external factors might affect their decisions to act on them. Bering considers the potential role of media reports, especially the influence of reports of the deaths of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Kurt Cobain.

He also discusses the way shows like Netflix series 13 Reasons Why have addressed suicide and the potential difficulties of encouraging people to talk about their suicidal feelings without prompting them to act on them. It is a fascinating read, although may not be for those in a precarious state of mind.

Beverley Rouse

World War II at Sea: A Global History by Craig L Symonds (OUP, £25) ***

THIS truly monumental work really does what it says on the label. In some 700 pages, it covers every theatre of war from the Artic and the Atlantic to the Mediterranean to the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, rates the performances of the countries involved and demonstrates how naval operations were fundamental to an Allied victory.

Symonds takes fresh looks at such events as the Battle of the Atlantic, the “miracle” of Dunkirk, and how the battleship came to be superseded by the aircraft carrier. He is not slow to blame or to praise, but is less than even-handed when it comes to Britain. He doesn't hold back with the blame while succeeding in damning us with his small amounts of praise. Such “friendly fire” does detract from what otherwise is a military work of the first order.

Steve Craggs

CHILDREN'S

The Secret Deep by Lindsay Galvin (Chicken House, £6.99; ebook £4.27) ****

It can be hard to find engaging fantasy novels for 'tweenage' girls - too old for rainbow unicorns, too young for moody vampires. This underwater sci-fi adventure manages to bridge the gap, with its empathetic heroine and compelling mystery. Teenage Aster and her younger sister Poppy are sent to New Zealand to live with an aunt they hardly know after the death of their mother. Taken to live in a coastal 'ecovillage', they find themselves part of a bizarre science experiment. Duped into taking a boat ride with her aunt, former champion swimmer Aster is rendered unconscious and wakes up under the sea, with no sign of Poppy. The bond between the pair is strong and shines through the drama. And while the science may not convince more sophisticated readers, the mystery of the experiment will keep most youngsters guessing until the action-packed ending.

Emily Shelley

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