'The Girl in the Road' by Monica Byrne

As with 'The Road to Reckoning' by Robert Lautner that was basically a road trip novel with western bits sprinkled over the top, 'The Girl in the Road' is also a road trip novel but with a sprinkle of science fiction.
Set about a hundred years in the future, a new energy source is being used. The sea. Thousands of upside down pyramid shaped scales (known as 'The Trail) line the sea between India and Africa. Our leading lady, Meena wakes up one morning with a snake bite on her chest she decides to try and walk along the trail to get to Ethiopia to escape whomever is trying to kill her and to find the killer of her parents (who were murdered while she was still in the womb). We also follow a literal road trip of a young girl called Mariama who runs away from home after finding her mother dead, bitten in the chest by a snake. She stumbles upon a couple of friendly travellers and joins them on a cargo convoy to Ethiopia. What the relation between these two women, to me seemed quite obvious, though a few moments made me question myself. I wont mention what it actually is, to keep you guessing too.
Apart from a fancy ipad type device, new sources of energy on a grand scale and the political landscape of India and the African nations (all of which play a very minor role in the story) this could be set at any time period really. So if you're expecting Iain M. Banks, you couldn't be more wrong, I found it was closer to the equally excellent 'The Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi. Road trip books tend to be about growing up or finding yourself and this is no different. It explores the meaning of love, but in a subtle way -this isn't 'chick lit'! It is a very great début that you should definitely give a try no matter what genre of book you normally read, this beautifully written gem will stay with you for a long time.

'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' by Neil Gaiman

This story is short. I read it in a few hours, but yet it doesn't feel small. The story is as full as it needs to be. You aren't left feeling like there could have been more. It's a perfectly formed novel.
The narrator of the book (I'm sure he has a name, but I can't remember. Maybe it's never mentioned. Either way it doesn't really matter) starts the tale leaving a funeral and killing time before the wake, decides to take a drive and finds himself driving to the house in which he grew up in. But as he drives on past he realises that it isn't where he was driving at all. He was heading to the Hempstock farm at the end of the lane. Once there he sets out for the pond or 'ocean' as the little girl (Lettie) who used to live there called it, and remembers the first time he came to the farm. A lodger at his families house stole his Dad's car and committed suicide in it, setting in motion the strange events that would follow. We follow his narrative as he uncovers these repressed memories, seemingly for the first time. The Hempstocks are the classic three Wyrd witches, the old hag, the beautiful woman and the child used in old British folklore (and a million other people since including Shakespeare and Gaiman himself in previous novels) and they lead him by the hand (quite literally) as the suicide cracks the edge of reality letting in some otherworldly nasties.
I don't want to talk too much about it, as you should just read it for yourself as this is a beautiful book, sad and poignant. One that you will dive into like the ocean, finding the waters refreshing, deep, and dark.

'The Axeman's Jazz' by Ray Celestin

 

New Orleans,1919 (the year before prohibition hit). Jazz and alcohol fuelled parties run continuously throughout the segregated and Mob-ruled city. Then something else turns up to ruin everyone's day: the Axeman.
Based on a true story, this tale provincially follows three characters who are all searching for the serial killer that's killing people with an axe (hence 'axeman' -clever right?!). We have the cop, Detective Lieutenant Michael Talbot who is hated by everybody on the force after he exposed the rampant corruption in the police department, who feels he's been given this unsolvable case so that he can finally be buried. We have Luca D'Andrea, the corrupt cop that Michael put in prison. He's just been released from prison and the only job he can get is back with the mob. So the mob can continue extorting protection money from businesses they need to be seen protecting the community. So Luca is given the job of finding the axeman before the cops do, despite wanting nothing more than to leave this life and move to Italy. Finally we have Ida, a secretary at the Pinkerton's detective agency. A girl who loves Sherlock Holmes and wants to be a detective, but knows she never can because of her gender and ethnicity. Helped along the way from her childhood friend Louis Armstrong she decides to prove her worth by capturing this killer.
When I first started this book I was constantly wondering how much of it is true. Was Michael Talbot really the lead detective? Was he married to a black woman? Was Louis Armstrong involved in tracking down a killer? I started to do a little research, printed out a map with the locations of the Axeman's murders but then I told myself it didn't matter which bits were true or not, the book is classified in fiction, just read it.
So read it I did. It is amazing. The story is dark, foreboding and very tense. As the three main characters collect evidence and clues you're shouting at them to somehow get together and compare notes, as they'd work it out if they pooled their resources. Obviously the Axeman is a famous unsolved murder case, so no convictions will be taking place, but that doesn't mean that under the guise of fiction the story can't have a more fulfilling end. Whether it does or not I wont say, but what I will tell you is the characters that Ray writes about whether inspired by real people or not are made real with his storytelling. Every character, no matter how minor is a fully fleshed out human being which along with the fact the story is a true one makes everything seem so real and threatening. I loved this book, and you should too. Without giving away what happens to some of the characters, I really hope that at least one of them is back in another book when prohibition hits.