Book Reviews – Prophet – Normal Rules Don’t Apply

Prophet
by MacDonald + Sin Blache

Modern day warfare novel at its quirkiest … An American diner appears overnight in a British field. It’s not quite fully functioning, but enough to ensure the investigators know what it is. But why and how is it there? The appearance of the diner triggers the death of a local and then more random objects appear and two very different characters are brought in to investigate. Sunil Rao has been pulled out of prison and he has a truly unique ability to distinguish lies from truth, and Colonel Adam Rubenstein is an army stalwart who has worked with Rao previously in Uzbekistan on an undercover operation. And so the story unfolds around the yin and yang of Rao and Adam: the weaponisation of dreams, the coupling of big Pharma with governments, and the unlikely love story of Rao and Adam. Helen MacDonald is the author of the stunning H Is For Hawk and Sin Blache is a musician and sci-fi author.

Normal Rules Don’t Apply
by Kate Atkinson

An excellent collection of short stories by Kate Atkinson, Normal Rules Don’t Apply manages to intertwine various threads throughout. One story is told by Mandy, a dead woman who watches her life unfold, in another Franklin is wooing his future bride’s family, and then there is the fairy story about a queen who couldn’t have a baby, being told by the vicar’s wife to her daughter Florence. As the stories progress, characters from each story cameo in another. It is clever and immensely readable. I particularly liked the story of the toys who were being ruled and abused by their tyrannical young owner. Loved this book.