To kick things off this week we thought it would be a good idea to catch up with some of the more scattered press The Invisible Ones, Stef Penney’s follow up to the Costa Award winning The Tenderness of Wolves, has been getting all over the media.
It really is a remarkable read and further proof that Stef has a real talent for a brooding and exceptionally written mystery.
To read the reviews in full, please click on the links below:
The gypsy community in Britain is a very difficult subject to write about well. There has been a huge amount in the press recently and most of the commentary I read is either explicitly or implicitly racist or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, worthy. This book is neither. It presents a classic missing persons investigation and takes you through the various stages until a resolution of sorts is reached.
In doing so, there are enough twists and turns to satisfy the most demanding of crime readers but in fact the true value of this book is its writing. It beautifully describes modern Britain – the schools, the busy hospitals, the travelling sites abutting wealthy housing, the pubs. Once I had got hold of my replacement copy I couldn’t put the book down. And you can’t really ask for more than that.
One of The Invisible Ones’ main strengths is that the insular Romany world is a fascinating setting for a novel. There is even a glossary of Romany terms at the end, but I found that I didn’t actually need it, so well does Penney sprinkle the Romany culture into the narrative. She manages to weave the culture’s rich history throughout the fabric of the book and is adept at contrasting the worlds of tradition with the modern. She explores the bonds and secrets that bind family particularly well, especially in a community which is suspicious of the outside world.
Reactions to Reading not only wrote a great review but championed the audiobook too:
a great read which I would recommend…and a novel that is driven more by compelling characters and atmosphere than a thrilling plot. If you are an audiobook fan I would highly recommend Daniel Stevens’ narration which is one of the very best I’ve heard since I started listening seriously (20+ books a year) several years ago.
The Invisible Ones is the product of a great intellect. It is a noir family saga with compassion and a social conscience, and stands up not just as a crime yarn but as a complex work of fiction. It also confirms for us that Stef Penney is no one-hit wonder. Make no mistake, there is plenty more where this came from.
All in all we’re delighted the book is being so well received in such a variety of well-known and more unusual media.
And finally, here is a fabulous video of Stef Penney discussing the book:
I’m in my sitting room in east London, and outside I can see my filthy car – which is slightly embarrassing. I have a neighbour with a Chevrolet Camaro, which never goes anywhere but is always shiny.
What are you currently reading?
I always have about ten books scattered around the place, but now I’m in the middle of the Sea Trilogy by William Golding, which I absolutely love. It’s so much funnier than I expected.
Choose a favourite author, and say why you admire her/him
JG Farrell. It’s some of the richest writing I’ve come across. He makes history relevant, and creates wonderful characters. And he writes extraordinary set-pieces, which are absolutely hilarious. The Siege of Krishnapur is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read.
Describe the room where you usually write
In a tiny office, a bit like a garden shed. I tend to follow the sun around, like a cat.
Small-time private investigator Ray Lovell veers between paralysis and delirium in a hospital bed. But before the accident that landed him there, he had promised to find Rose Janko.
Rose was married to the charismatic son of a travelling gypsy family, Ivo Janko. When Ray starts to investigate her disappearance he’s surprised that her family are so hostile towards him.
The Jankos have not had an easy past. They are a clan touched by tragedy – either they are cursed, or they are hiding a terrible secret.
Could it be that Rose’s discovery of that secret led to her disappearance all those years ago? Soon Ray wishes that he’d never asked the question.
In a novel that is totally different from Stef’s extraordinary debut The Tenderness of Wolves, she shows herself once more to be a matchless storyteller.
We’re all really excited that Stef Penney’s new novel, The Invisible Ones, will be publised in September.
But September is an awfully long time to wait for one of our very favourite Quercus authors to do their thing!
In the meantime, we’ll be heading right back to Stef’s 2006 Costa ‘Book of the Year’ prize-winning The Tenderness of Wolves:
1867, Canada: as winter tightens its grip on the isolated settlement of Dove River, a man is brutally murdered and a 17-year old boy disappears. Tracks leaving the dead man’s cabin head north towards the forest and the tundra beyond.
In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the township – journalists, Hudson’s Bay Company men, trappers, traders – but do they want to solve the crime or exploit it?
One-by-one the assembled searchers set out from Dove River, pursuing the tracks across a desolate landscape home only to wild animals, madmen and fugitives, variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for 17 years, a Native American culture, and a fortune in stolen furs before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.
Stef Penney deftly weaves adventure, suspense, revelation and humour into a panoramic historical romance, an exhilarating thriller, and a keen murder mystery.
To kick things off this week we thought it would be a good idea to catch up with some of the more scattered press The Invisible Ones, Stef Penney’s follow up to the Costa Award winning The Tenderness of Wolves, has been getting all over the media. 
