Whitcoulls Recommends: The Detective and The Breath of the Gods

The Detective by Matthew Reilly: Matt Reilly is well known for the thrillers he’s been writing for many years now, but this one is quite a departure. It’s based in the American South and is the story of many women going missing over a period of 150 years, starting back in 1877….and the investigators looking for them all also disappeared. It’s set in the nexus of Louisiana and Texas, where a quirky private detective gets the bit between his teeth and is determined to get to the bottom of it, and it has all the hallmarks of the area – wealthy family dynasties, racism, bayous and alligators and high stakes adventure.

The Breath of the Gods by Simon Winchester. A remarkable exploration of our atmosphere, and the role played in our lives by wind – which can be both benign and malevolent.  It’s a fascinating story told through history, literature, science, poetry and engineering – and includes a piece on our own Wahine disaster. Simon Winchester has an ability to make the everyday and apparently mundane, extraordinary. It’s a wonderful book. 

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Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well, Joe McKenzie, good morning to you. Hello, So tell
me about The Detective. It's a book by Matthew Riley.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Right.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well, you may know that Matt Riley is really well
known for his thrillers. He's had a really long career
which he started when he self published his first book
and he literally sold him out of the boot of
his car, and he's gone on to become globally famous.
And this one is his twentieth book. I loved it.
I loved his last one too, mister Einstein Secretary. So
he's well known for thrillers, and these two are a

(00:42):
departure from that kind of run of the mill thriller thing.
And this is concerned with the disappearance of women, which
of course is such a hardy perennial in so many thrillers.
But these are really weird goings on. There's a pattern
to the disappearances which shows that four women have gone
missing around every twenty eight years, and weirdly so have

(01:03):
the investigators have been sent out to find them. So
there's a pattern to this thing and enter a guy
called Sam Speedman, who's a highly unusual private detective who's
autistic and he sees the world in ways that most
of us don't. And the story is told by him
in the first person. And he's quirky and he's funny,
and he's surprisingly insightful, with an unvarying personal routine, it

(01:26):
has to be said, for example, he eats the same
lunch every single day at Hooters. But he can also
see clues and patterns that other people miss. And so
this is set in the nexus of Louisiana and Texas,
which I've always found a fascinating part of the states,
that whole southern thing going on, and it's got all
the hallmarks of that area. There's the wealthy family dynasties,

(01:49):
there's racism, there's the buyer us, there's alligators and really
high stakes adventure.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Now, Simon Winchester has a new book out.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yes, and I've been a fan of his for years.
A while ago he wrote a brilliant book on precision
engineering which was called Exact And who would ever have
thought that I'd be a candidate for a book on
precision engineering, But it was absolutely fascinating. I kept talking
about it all these years later. So this new one's
all about the wind and how it thrives in our atmosphere.

(02:19):
And it can be a force for good, so you
can enjoy a gentle breeze, for instance, or it gives
us renewable energy, but it can also be much more malevolent,
with things like cyclones and tornadoes. And I'm sadly not
making this sound nearly as interesting as he does. Simon
Winchester is incredibly well informed, and he uses science and

(02:40):
poetry and engineering and history and literature to explain the
dynamics of this fundamental piece of our ecosystem. And there's
a lot in it that's quite brilliant. For instance, there's
a terrific section on tumbleweeds and how in some places
they've been blown along by the wind and almost buried
entire suburbs. It's really amazing. There's a fascinating piece on

(03:02):
our own Wahine disaster in nineteen sixty eight, when many
listeners remember the Wahina and Jarreland Fairies sank and Wellington
Harbor and fifty three people died, and he essentially gives
a blow by blow description of what happened on the
ship during that terrible storm, and so all up he
roves around the world and he gives the most fascinating

(03:22):
insights into the history of the wind on the world
and what its future might look like. And I just
can't recommend this highly enough for anybody who likes high
quality nonfiction. And I'll be buying lots for people for Christmas.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Well, that sounds like the perfect Christmas present. And Joe,
thank you so much. That last book that Joan was
talking about was The Breath of the Gods by Simon Winchester,
and the first book was The Detective by Matthew Riley.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks It'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.