"Julian Wells' writing explored the darkest crimes of the twentieth century. Was it this investigation of man's inhumanity to man that drove him to his death?

When his body is found drifting in a pond in Montauk, New York, his best friend the literary critic Philip Anders, begins to reread his work and prepare a eulogy. This study, along with other clues, convinces the critic that his friend has committed a terrible crime - a crime that haunted Wells all his life.

Anders' investigation sparks an obsession. His journey will span four decades and three continents as he unravels the mystery of the man he thought he knew. A man whose lonely demise points to terrors still unknown..."

This slow-burning but captivating novel draws you in from the first chapter, in what initially appears to be a story of a soul searching journey for a man to discover the past of his friend. The rather tepid and innocuous book cover adds to this illusion (perhaps intentionally). It soon transpires that Anders does not know his dead friend as well as he thinks. The reader is a complicit witness to that journey, from the US to France and to the Argentina of his youth. Glimpses of the past lives of the narrator and subject of the story entice as they brush shoulders with the dark shadows of espionage and murder. Dialogue of their encounters with Eastern European psychopaths, South American dictatorship henchmen and homegrown familial secrets hint at the darkness that waits for us at the conclusion but the ending is far from predictable or expected - which adds to the mystery (and excitement) that one experiences as the story is explored.

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Two Brothers is now my fiction Book of the Year 2012!

This story is very loosely based on Ben Elton’s own family; it is fiction but his own family’s history is remarkably similar. His grandfather was a refugee from the Nazis and his uncle fought for the British while a cousin of his father fought with the Wehrmacht. Ben Elton has written a fantastic story of two boys growing up in Berlin, in Nazi Germany in the 1920/30s.

I don’t normally like books which have been written as flash-backs but in this one it works perfectly, each part segueing into the other neatly so there is little danger of losing the plot. The plot or rather plots, are very complicated and woven into each other. It starts off in 1956 with an interview with British Intelligence and a former soldier by the name of Stone, formerly Stengel about a letter received from a Stasi officer in East Berlin. Why did Stone get this letter, is he a Russian spy, is he thinking of going over to the other side? This letter is the plot that runs throughout the book. The second plot is about two bothers born on 24 February 1920. There were complications with the birth and the twins that were expected did not materialise as one died in childbirth. However, in the next ward is a baby boy born at the same time whose mother did not survive. The family expecting twins were asked and agreed to take the orphan boy in place of their stillborn. This they did. The family were Jewish, the other woman was pure German. A fact that had absolutely no place in the decisions made at the time. But which would come back to haunt them in later years!

On the same day as the boys were born another birth took place – that of the Nationalsocialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) which came to be known as the Nazi Party.

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A BBC Publication to support the recent TV series, this is a paperback book in a nice clear font, with several useful diagrams and some lovely photos to support the text. The author presents a large amount of history in a clear, easy-to-read style.

The book tells the story of the Royal Navy from the time of the Armada to the Battle of Jutland, with nodding references to King Alfred’s fleet which fought the Vikings in 900AD and King John’s navy of fifty ships based at Portsmouth in the 1200s.

It covers a lot of history, politics, wars and battles as well as the rise and fall of the Royal Navy throughout the years, stories about various Naval characters famous and infamous, and the evolving design of warships as their roles changed. There are small sections about particular individuals from Admirals to Ship Designers, and others about techniques such as Sheathing and Coppering of wooden ships and the development of steam engines.

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