Lost Souls by Michael Collins Reviewed by Steve Rudd

We only live once. I don't think we ever really confront that until it's too late. Understandably shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Lost Souls is not your average mystery-thriller novel, with this engrossing 'whodunnit' focusing on a small-town cop trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious death of a three-year-old girl. The prime suspect is the local football star, a young man who is alleged to have run the girl over. But nothing in the case is clear-cut, as numerous skeletons begin to metaphorically fall out of the most unexpected of closets, climaxing with a stunningly unpredictable plot twist that is genuinely impossible to see coming in any respect. Our greatest gift for survival is our own self-deception.

The award-winning author Michael Collins (who was born in Limerick in 1964) certainly has a way with creating some interesting characters, especially since Lawrence - the cop, who magnificently steers the story through the motions - is quite a complex man who is separated from his wife and child, a situation that makes the fact that he's investigating the death of a young child all the more personally traumatising for him.

Through the course of Lost Souls, Lawrence comes to question more than the suspects in the case, as his philosophical tendencies dredge up some deep and meaningful thoughts and feelings, openly confessing that For the first time in my life I wondered what was on the other side of life. Did we look down from above? Were we granted that solace? I watched people come and go and understood what freedom was, those throwaway days when we thought of neither illness nor death, where we lived outside the reality that we would one day cease to exist. Indeed... If you just knew the rules, life was negotiable.

Thankfully... this is far more than a routine read. Lost Souls is, in truth, a tender human drama that operates on many life-enhancing levels. ISBN 0-75381-785-3 (Phoenix, first published in 2003) www.orionbooks.co.uk

Reviews, Theatre - Sep 20 - 25th - The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Northern Broadsides Company at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough by Patrick Henry
	The scandal school of the title locates itself in tea-parties gathering mostly at the home of Lady Sneerwell, who has a voracious addiction to gossip amid the Darjeeling and cream cakes passed around her close acquaintances equally hooked on rumour-peddling. Suspectedly, no-one has any friends in this circle or in upper-class society at Read more...

Reviews, Books - Harry Potter Series by Mark Petherbridge
	In my opinion, the Harry Potter books are fantastic, whether it's read to escape into the intriguing, yet marvellously complex world or to read in third person about a boy whose life is a series of amazing adventures, in a secret yet in-your-face wizarding world. According to recent studies (the source being Newsround) these books have Read more...

Reviews, Books - Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	People don't take trips - trips take people. It's almost impossible, in this day and age, to not have heard of John Steinbeck. First and foremost, his Of Mice And Men short story is the staple part of almost every school curriculum, while his Grapes of Wrath novel is equally as well-known. Steinbeck was born and raised in the Salinas area of California, Read more...

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	No, I wasn't naïve enough to be fooled into thinking that this exquisite novel from the legendary Hemingway was an in-depth car manual designed to accompany the latest Ford creation. Far from it, in fact, for this story follows a bunch of friends who travel from Paris to Spain, and to the town of Pamplona in particular to witness the bull-running and -fighting events of the infamous Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - June 6-11th - The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare and Sweet William by Alan Plater. Northern Broadsides Company at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough by Patrick Henry
	These two works played in a week of repertory constitute essentially company productions, without star actors nor prominent leading characters, giving all-round strength to the enterprise, but also some weaknesses. It is absorbing to watch how the actors from the classic comedy are deployed in the cast of the new Plater piece. Read more...

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	Swan Song is the third and final part of Robert Edric's cycle trilogy. Although Edric does not describe himself as crime-fiction writer per-se, he skilfully demonstrates the strength of the genre. Although crime-fiction is generally criticised for not being literary enough, Edric uses it as a vehicle with which to explore contemporary society. Read more...

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	He doesn't need any money... all he needs is his rucksack. There really was no end to Jack's writing talents after all! This is the fifth book of his that I've had the pleasure of reading, and it is by far and away my favourite. When you get to the top of a mountain, keep climbing. Packed with all the excitement of his classic masterpiece On The Road Read more...

Reviews, Books - I'm a Teacher Get Me Out of Here by Francis Gilbert (Short Books) Reviewed By Cathy Walker
	As I am about to change career to become a primary school teacher, I picked up I'm A Teacher Get Me Out Of Here with a little trepidation. I'd heard that it presents the reality of working in a 'tough school', of what a hard and challenging job being a teacher truly is. I can't wait to become a teacher and I didn't want Read more...

Reviews, Events - Nights Out - Tuesday 24th May 05 - Benny Hill Preservation Society By Adam Atkinson
	My utter fascination with all things Benny started as early as the age of three, when I by chance happened upon some irrelevant sketch involving the Benster dressed as a cardiac surgeon examining some saucy minx. 12 years later I would see my own Uncle Frank arrested for the very same thing. Read more...

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	A menacing short story from the ever-interesting Australian writer Tim Winton, this is a thrilling venture into dark and macabre territory that focuses on a few people who live in a secluded valley that seems to also be inhabited by a mysterious creature that preys both on their animals and their worst fears. Read more...

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	First published way, way back in 1915, this is the story that inspired the infamous movie of the same name that was directed by the king of noir, old Alfred Hitchcock. I have it on good authority that the film version does in fact differ to quite a large extent to this novel, but what the hell. I can't imagine the book being any less suspenseful or tense Read more...

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	After I had walked around the winery, I climbed back in my truck and continued driving farther up into the foothills, and some nights I did make it as far as the mountain road. I wanted to cross the Diablo range. I wanted to keep driving clear across the state and into the desert, deep into the American vastness, where I knew no one and no one knew me. Read more...

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Reviews, Books - Jack Ruby's Kitchen Sink by Tom Miller Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	I have long longed to visit the South-Western states of the USA, and the beautifully majestic Arizona in particular. In this fascinating and factual book, Tom - who himself lives in Tucson, Arizona - recounts all sorts of weird and wonderful tales from the region, and also presents tall tales from California Read more...

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