Whitcoulls Recommends: Not Quite Dead Yet and Red Star Down

Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson. This has a hugely implausible premise. Jet Mason is attacked in her kitchen one evening, after which her doctors tell her she’ll be dead by an aneurysm in seven days, so she decides to spend the week hunting down her murderer. It took me a little while to get into the rhythm - the black humour, sarcasm, farce, twisted family relationships, and roving suspicion of everyone she knows who might be the killer. But once I did, I adored it.

Red Star Down by D.B.John. From the author of Star of the North, this is a thriller at the nexus between North Korea, Russia and Washington which takes in actual events in real life - such as the poisoning of one of North Korea’s Kim family at Kuala Lumpur airport, or a real estate mogul becoming President of the United States - all woven into a brilliantly compelling story about three disparate individuals who find themselves right at the heart of all these goings on. I simply couldn’t put it down. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks AB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Joe McKenzie, good morning, Good morning, Holly Jackson. Not quite
dead yet? This sounds interesting.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
It is interesting. I'll just start by saying that Holly
Jackson is at this point in time best known for
the series she wrote called A Good Girl's Guide to Murder,
which is a young adult series and has been read
by thousands and thousands of people, hugely popular. This book
is ostensibly published for an adult audience, Willough, there's no
reason why a younger reader couldn't enjoy it as well,

(00:42):
and it is an entirely implausible premise. It's the story
of a woman called Jet Mason who one night is
attacked in the kitchen of her home, and the doctors
tell her afterwards that there is something in her brain
which they're unable to fix, and they give her seven
days before she has an aneurysm which will kill her.
So I read this and I thought, oh, yeah, you know,

(01:03):
that kind of doesn't really work for me. But as
I kept reading and got into it, it's terrific because
what she does is she says, well, I've got seven
days to live and I'm going to find out who
my murderer is. And it's full of black humor and
face and wit and this implausible premise which as you

(01:24):
read it becomes more and more possible. I thought it
was really enjoyable.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
It's interesting. Are young adult writers the same as child actors?
We struggle to allow them to grow up and take
on different material.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Ah yeah, potentially, that's right, And it comes with all
sorts of logistical issues because, of course, in our business
we shelve our young adult books in one part of
the store, but we put our adult books in another
part of the store, and so grouping and author's body
of work together can be quite challenging.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Ah, very good point. Now tell me about Red Star
down by D. B. John.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
What I will tell you is that this is fabulous.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Okay land here.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
He wrote a book several years ago called Star of
the North, which I think I came on this program
and raved about at the time, which was basically set
between North Korea and America. And this is a sequel,
but like all good sequels, you don't have to have
read the first one, though I would absolutely recommend it.
So in this sequel, it's set at the nexus of

(02:28):
North Korea and Russia and Washington, America. And it's the
story of a actually several stories. There is three individuals
who carry this book. And what you have is a
real estate mogul who's just been made President of America.
You've got real life events which are woven into the stories,

(02:51):
such as you might remember the time when a member
of the North Korean Kim family was attacked in the
Kuala Lumpur airport and poisoned. Do you remember that? It
was all over the news at the time. So world
events like that are woven through this story, which is
the most fabulous thriller. So anybody who likes a good
book just goes straight out and get this one.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Okay, love it. So the first book we spoke about
is Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson. The second
book the excellent thriller Red Star Down by dB John.
Thank you so much, Joan.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
See you next week.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.