celticman's blog

Blood Roses is the first in a quartet of books which feature Jan Kalisz. He’s a detective investigating a serial killer. So far so mundane. You know the type. Psychopathic killers. They have their own reason for killing, which relies on a tautology. Their reason for killing is because they’re psychopathic killers. What makes it different isn’t Douglas Jackson’s undoubted talent, but the timeline. It’s 1939 and the Germans have just invaded...

Start with the bad news. Flipper is dead. He drowned himself (or herself) in a small pool of water. He couldn’t take the isolation. Humans aren’t good at isolating either. We call it loneliness. You remember Flipper ? Saturday morning telly. It was a bit like Poirot but without the moustache or French accent. Flipper whistled to say ‘there’s the body over there.’ Or he’d rescue somebody. That seems improbable. But Kevin was relatively lucky. He...

Denver Riggleman and Hunter Walker take is as a given that their reading public know what Breach they’re referring to and what January 6th they refer. Like 9/11 it will be imprinted on our minds. But it isn’t. We’ve already moved on. ‘Stop the Steal’ didn’t work. Nobody much refers to it now. It’s no longer a shibboleth. Not even among Trump supporters. Enough Americans voted for a dim-witted, rapist, thieving, draft-dodging, neo-Nazi,...

Football is a simple game. If you have the best players, you win. Would Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe get into the PSG team that won their first European Cup at a canter? But football is also a team game. Any and all of the above are no loss. This is a young Luis Enrique team that plays beautiful football. Each player works hard to close down their opponents so they don’t have time on the ball. None of the recognised stars of yesteryear...

I’m a fan of Jenni Fagin’s writing. And the Sunlight Pilgrims is terrific. Sunlight Pilgrims are those supernatural beings we sometimes hear about that can live on light alone. There’s a joke there. It only works if you’re anorexic. Fagin’s characters are always gallus. Dylan McRae is six-foot-seven but rarely seen. He works as a projectionist in a Soho cinema. Or did. He lived with his mum and granny. Or did. They died. He lost the cinema to...

I only read the beginning of this book. You know the saying, you shouldn’t judge the book by the cover? Aye. Really? Well, it’s got ‘Global bestseller’ on the cover. That means lots of folk have bought it. Being translated from Japanese to English is also a mark of quality. I liked the idea of it. ‘Before your memory fades’. My memory is like a rubber that has already rubbed most of itself out. So there’s congruence there. There’s a relationship...

Cover the Bones was brought out as The Seven in Chris Hammer’s native Australia. The Seven refers to the founding fathers and elite of Yuwonderie. By founding fathers I don’t mean black folk. I mean the elite that committed genocide or paid a pittance for land belonging to the natives. I learned a new word. Squattocracy. When the seven founding fathers had been there long enough, the land they stole was legalised. Much like wealth or water...

Reading is what I do. So what are you looking for in the library sounds like my kind of book. If, like former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, you argue there is no such thing as society then this is not for you. Existential nihilism it is not. In Michiko Aoyam’s novel everything is connected and everyone has a purpose but they might just need that little nudge to find their destiny. The beating heart of the book is Sayuri Komachi. She is...

Kosawa is a mythical village in Africa, a kind of utopia were people lived free and easy before oil was discovered. It brings immense wealth. None of it trickles down to the villagers Instead their rivers are polluted and they can no longer fish. Their land is similarly poisoned. Young children, in particular, die. But the villagers were told by the oil company representatives, Pexton, that everything was being done that could be done. Any...

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-empty-man This is David Prior’s film. I was going to write a post about Celtic playing Aberdeen. Couldn’t be arsed. Or A Brief History of Seven Killings , but that would need too much thought. I know, thought isn’t rationed like sweeties, but I’m sure you know what I mean. The Empty Man seemed ideal because I knew it would be shite. And I wasn’t disappointed. I quite like horror which seems an oxymoron. I...