Shelf life: Looking at secular books

CROSSWORD ENDS IN VIOLENCE (5)

By James Cary

£9.99 — buy online at http://www.lulu.com/content/4988505 or you can get tastes of the book through James’s blog, http://hut33.blogspot.com

Does it seem naughty to promote a book written by a friend? Maybe so, but it is good, it does deserve a wider readership, and you’ll not stumble upon this in Waterstones or on Amazon, so here goes.

Imagine a crossword setter, a dissatisfied accountant, an obsessive-compulsive bridge genius and a childhood chess champion and you have the unlikely heroes of a comedy thriller. This book has a satisfyingly complex plot as our team unravel together a mysterious family history. James Cary writes comedy for the Radio 4 6.30 pm slot, and you can hear fairly loud echoes of this in tightly written dialogue and comic situations (I particularly liked the scenes in the National Archives). At times that comedy prevents the development of character, but the writing is good, genuinely funny and the subject matter interesting.

In reading this book I learned more about the Second World War, chess and crosswords (though I am still nowhere near being able to answer cryptic clues). I laughed and was surprised. I was even touched at a few points. James is an intelligent writer: he doesn’t throw in ‘Issues’ but instead creates a world like our own, full of very sad ironies, strange misunderstandings and real happy endings. If, as James says, real comedy sits most comfortably within a Christian worldview (and I’m pretty convinced by his arguments — for his talk on this subject try http://www.gunnersburybaptistchurch.org/highlights/open_to_question.html), then his novel is a great example of a gospel-influenced story, even though Jesus doesn’t get a mention. Events are not caused by a blind and cruel fate, but ordered by a compassionate Lord, who will judge the bullies and dictators; life has moral meaning and ultimate purpose, so we can laugh.

Sarah Allen