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Enora Andresson #6
Lights Down
Lights Down . . . when debts owed must be paid in blood.
Actress Enora Andressen is facing the perfect storm. Her favourite French director, Remy Despret, has lost his touch and is keeping dangerous company. Her agent, Rosa, has been seduced by a kiss-and-tell novel of doubtful provenance. While H, sicker by the day at home at Flixcombe Manor, is battling both Long Covid and something far darker.
Devoting herself to H, Enora needs good news, and it arrives in the shape of a fascinating Remy idea based on Flixcombe's role during the Second World War. But the tonic soon turns sour when Enora is drawn into the project, with chilling consequences.
Actress Enora Andressen is facing the perfect storm. Her favourite French director, Remy Despret, has lost his touch and is keeping dangerous company. Her agent, Rosa, has been seduced by a kiss-and-tell novel of doubtful provenance. While H, sicker by the day at home at Flixcombe Manor, is battling both Long Covid and something far darker.
Devoting herself to H, Enora needs good news, and it arrives in the shape of a fascinating Remy idea based on Flixcombe's role during the Second World War. But the tonic soon turns sour when Enora is drawn into the project, with chilling consequences.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 5, 2022
7 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Graham Hurley
71 books152 followersGraham Hurley was born November, 1946 in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. His seaside childhood was punctuated by football, swimming, afternoons on the dodgems, run-ins with the police, multiple raids on the local library - plus near-total immersion in English post-war movies.
Directed and produced documentaries for ITV through two decades, winning a number of national and international awards. Launched a writing career on the back of a six-part drama commission for ITV: "Rules of Engagement". Left TV and became full time writer in 1991.
Authored nine stand-alone thrillers plus "Airshow", a fly-on-the-wall novel-length piece of reportage, before accepting Orion invitation to become a crime writer. Drew gleefully on home-town Portsmouth (“Pompey”) as the basis for an on-going series featuring D/I Joe Faraday and D/C Paul Winter.
Contributed five years of personal columns to the Portsmouth News, penned a number of plays and dramatic monologues for local production (including the city’s millenium celebration, "Willoughby and Son"), then decamped to Devon for a more considered take on Pompey low-life.
The Faraday series came to an end after 12 books. Healthy sales at home and abroad, plus mega-successful French TV adaptations, tempted Orion to commission a spin-off series, set in the West Country, featuring D/S Jimmy Suttle.
Launch title - "Western Approaches" - published 2012. "Touching Distance" to hit the bookstores next month (21st November).
Has recently self-published a number of titles on Kindle including "Strictly No Flowers" (a dark take on crime fiction), "Estuary" (a deeply personal memoir) and "Backstory" (how and why he came to write the Faraday series).
Married to the delectable Lin. Three grown-up sons (Tom, Jack and Woody). Plus corking grandson Dylan.
You're very welcome to contact Graham through his website: www.grahamhurley.co.uk
Or direct on seasidepictures@btinternet.com.
Series:
* D.I. Joe Faraday
Directed and produced documentaries for ITV through two decades, winning a number of national and international awards. Launched a writing career on the back of a six-part drama commission for ITV: "Rules of Engagement". Left TV and became full time writer in 1991.
Authored nine stand-alone thrillers plus "Airshow", a fly-on-the-wall novel-length piece of reportage, before accepting Orion invitation to become a crime writer. Drew gleefully on home-town Portsmouth (“Pompey”) as the basis for an on-going series featuring D/I Joe Faraday and D/C Paul Winter.
Contributed five years of personal columns to the Portsmouth News, penned a number of plays and dramatic monologues for local production (including the city’s millenium celebration, "Willoughby and Son"), then decamped to Devon for a more considered take on Pompey low-life.
The Faraday series came to an end after 12 books. Healthy sales at home and abroad, plus mega-successful French TV adaptations, tempted Orion to commission a spin-off series, set in the West Country, featuring D/S Jimmy Suttle.
Launch title - "Western Approaches" - published 2012. "Touching Distance" to hit the bookstores next month (21st November).
Has recently self-published a number of titles on Kindle including "Strictly No Flowers" (a dark take on crime fiction), "Estuary" (a deeply personal memoir) and "Backstory" (how and why he came to write the Faraday series).
Married to the delectable Lin. Three grown-up sons (Tom, Jack and Woody). Plus corking grandson Dylan.
You're very welcome to contact Graham through his website: www.grahamhurley.co.uk
Or direct on seasidepictures@btinternet.com.
Series:
* D.I. Joe Faraday
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 9, 2023
To say the least a lot happens in this book...
Death(s)....Russians ...Euro Football Championships....Tell All book....etc.
Despite the fact that this is the first of the series I've read...it's certainly understandable,very well crafted and enjoyable.
Set to the background of COVID and the unnerving rattle if Brexit...
Death(s)....Russians ...Euro Football Championships....Tell All book....etc.
Despite the fact that this is the first of the series I've read...it's certainly understandable,very well crafted and enjoyable.
Set to the background of COVID and the unnerving rattle if Brexit...
July 12, 2022
For those new to this wonderful series, here's the back story. Enora Andressen is an actress in her early forties. She has won fame, if not fortune, by starring in what used to be known as 'art films' - often European produced and of a literary nature. She has a twenty-something son, Malo, the product of a one-night-fling with a former drug boss, Harold 'H' Prentice. 'H' and Enora have become reunited, after a fashion, but it is not a sexual relationship. In the previous novel, 'H' is stricken with Covid, and barely survives. That story is told in Intermission.
Taking an extended break from her nursing of 'H' down at Flixcombe, his manor house in the south of England, Enora returns to her London flat. She is contacted by Rémy Despret, a film director with whom she has worked many times. He is a charming as ever, but seems to have lost his touch regarding viable screenplays. He pitches his latest - Exocet - to Enora, but she thinks it is rubbish, and turns him down. She also suspects he is using his yacht to smuggle drugs, and may be in serious trouble with some very dangerous people. She also meets her agent, Rosa, who tells her she is representing a woman who has written a potentially explosive - because real identities are thinly concealed - novel about the extra marital affairs of a senior politician.
Enora receives a chilling 'phone call from the woman who is in charge of things at Flixcombe. Not only is 'H' suffering physically from Long Covid, it seems he has developed dementia. When Enora drives down to see for herself, she is staggered to find that 'H' has no idea who she is. In the previous books, 'H' has been a force of nature. Physically imposing and nobody's fool, the former football hooligan, has to borrow from Shakespeare, been a criminal Caesar:
"Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men.
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves."
Now, sadly, he is much reduced physically and mentally and is given to such bizarre behaviour as appearing naked at windows. Also, his money is running out. Huge sums of it went on private nursing care during his battle with Covid, as he absolutely refused to go into an NHS hospital. Incidentally, readers will always conjure up their own mental images of the characters in books they read, but I occasionally play the game of casting books ready for imaginary film or TV adaptations. My four penn'orth has a young Anne Bancroft as Enora, and Bob Hoskins as 'H'.
With the help of long time friend and former copper Dessie Wren Enora discovers that the 'bonking politician' novel has more sinister undertones than being simply a kiss-and-tell story. Graham Hurley makes it convincingly up to date with the inclusion of the Russian state-backed mafia and PM Boris Johnson, although with the latter, the story has been overtaken by events.
Undaunted by Enora's rejection of Exocet, Rémy Despret has come up with an idea which she finds much more interesting. Evidently Flixcombe was used during WW2 as base for Free French intelligence agents and propagandists and the 'Vlixcombe' movie has already attracted backers with the big money. If the project comes off, there will be a starring role for Enora, and enough money to keep at bay the predators circling the ailing 'H' Prentice. But then there is a murder, things begin to unravel, and Graham Hurley writes the most astonishing ending I have read in many a day.
I make no apology for my enthusiasm for Graham Hurley's writing. Not only was his Joe Faraday series one of the most intelligent and emotionally literate run of police procedurals I have ever read, but the sequels featuring Faraday's former sergeant Jimmy Suttle were just as good. Hurley is also a brilliant military historian, and has written several novels centred around particular conflicts in WW2. His book Kyiv seems particularly relevant just now, and if you read it, it will give you a huge insight into the subtext of the Ukraine-Russia relationship which is barely mentioned in current news coverage.
Lights Down is published by Severn House and is available now.
Taking an extended break from her nursing of 'H' down at Flixcombe, his manor house in the south of England, Enora returns to her London flat. She is contacted by Rémy Despret, a film director with whom she has worked many times. He is a charming as ever, but seems to have lost his touch regarding viable screenplays. He pitches his latest - Exocet - to Enora, but she thinks it is rubbish, and turns him down. She also suspects he is using his yacht to smuggle drugs, and may be in serious trouble with some very dangerous people. She also meets her agent, Rosa, who tells her she is representing a woman who has written a potentially explosive - because real identities are thinly concealed - novel about the extra marital affairs of a senior politician.
Enora receives a chilling 'phone call from the woman who is in charge of things at Flixcombe. Not only is 'H' suffering physically from Long Covid, it seems he has developed dementia. When Enora drives down to see for herself, she is staggered to find that 'H' has no idea who she is. In the previous books, 'H' has been a force of nature. Physically imposing and nobody's fool, the former football hooligan, has to borrow from Shakespeare, been a criminal Caesar:
"Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men.
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves."
Now, sadly, he is much reduced physically and mentally and is given to such bizarre behaviour as appearing naked at windows. Also, his money is running out. Huge sums of it went on private nursing care during his battle with Covid, as he absolutely refused to go into an NHS hospital. Incidentally, readers will always conjure up their own mental images of the characters in books they read, but I occasionally play the game of casting books ready for imaginary film or TV adaptations. My four penn'orth has a young Anne Bancroft as Enora, and Bob Hoskins as 'H'.
With the help of long time friend and former copper Dessie Wren Enora discovers that the 'bonking politician' novel has more sinister undertones than being simply a kiss-and-tell story. Graham Hurley makes it convincingly up to date with the inclusion of the Russian state-backed mafia and PM Boris Johnson, although with the latter, the story has been overtaken by events.
Undaunted by Enora's rejection of Exocet, Rémy Despret has come up with an idea which she finds much more interesting. Evidently Flixcombe was used during WW2 as base for Free French intelligence agents and propagandists and the 'Vlixcombe' movie has already attracted backers with the big money. If the project comes off, there will be a starring role for Enora, and enough money to keep at bay the predators circling the ailing 'H' Prentice. But then there is a murder, things begin to unravel, and Graham Hurley writes the most astonishing ending I have read in many a day.
I make no apology for my enthusiasm for Graham Hurley's writing. Not only was his Joe Faraday series one of the most intelligent and emotionally literate run of police procedurals I have ever read, but the sequels featuring Faraday's former sergeant Jimmy Suttle were just as good. Hurley is also a brilliant military historian, and has written several novels centred around particular conflicts in WW2. His book Kyiv seems particularly relevant just now, and if you read it, it will give you a huge insight into the subtext of the Ukraine-Russia relationship which is barely mentioned in current news coverage.
Lights Down is published by Severn House and is available now.
July 3, 2022
This is the 6th in this series and is best enjoyed from book one and in order. At the very least you really should read book 5 as there are consequences to that book found within this.
So... if the last book didn't put Enora through enough, this one certainly did! She starts with a strange meeting with old friend and director Remy which intrigues her with a story centred around Flixcombe, home to H, the father of her son. Meanwhile, another meeting springs up another mystery, that of a kiss and tell novel detailing the liaisons between a young actress and a politician... (I know, a bit on topic...) And if that wasn't enough H is still suffering the aftermath of the Covid he suffered when they were down in Portsmouth...
Living in Portsmouth, I am no stranger to this author and was devastated when his own personal move meant that he completed the wonderful Faraday and Winter series in favour of Jimmy Suttle. Especially as I always looked forward to spotting places I knew... And then came this series which although not set in Portsmouth, has its roots firmly set there. My fix was restored.
Enora is a wonderful character. So rich and full of a past that just keeps on giving. Of friends who keep popping up and delivering the most interesting and intriguing storylines. Especially here where they are more than topical - political scandal and sleaze anyone!
Other characters, both series and episode, complement Enora very well and all play their parts perfectly. Unlike many authors, he has also not shied away from all things Covid but instead has made it work perfectly with everything else going on.
All in all, another winner and a cracking addition to an already impressive series. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
So... if the last book didn't put Enora through enough, this one certainly did! She starts with a strange meeting with old friend and director Remy which intrigues her with a story centred around Flixcombe, home to H, the father of her son. Meanwhile, another meeting springs up another mystery, that of a kiss and tell novel detailing the liaisons between a young actress and a politician... (I know, a bit on topic...) And if that wasn't enough H is still suffering the aftermath of the Covid he suffered when they were down in Portsmouth...
Living in Portsmouth, I am no stranger to this author and was devastated when his own personal move meant that he completed the wonderful Faraday and Winter series in favour of Jimmy Suttle. Especially as I always looked forward to spotting places I knew... And then came this series which although not set in Portsmouth, has its roots firmly set there. My fix was restored.
Enora is a wonderful character. So rich and full of a past that just keeps on giving. Of friends who keep popping up and delivering the most interesting and intriguing storylines. Especially here where they are more than topical - political scandal and sleaze anyone!
Other characters, both series and episode, complement Enora very well and all play their parts perfectly. Unlike many authors, he has also not shied away from all things Covid but instead has made it work perfectly with everything else going on.
All in all, another winner and a cracking addition to an already impressive series. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
July 11, 2022
I have read all the Enorra Anderssen series, this is number 6, and without doubt have enjoyed the storylines that have emerged.This book was both moving and incredibly sad, yet had a perfect symmetry for the series.
Graham Hurley created a cast of characters that are both believable and enjoyable, from the first book Curtain Call where we are introduced to them, the loveable rogue 'H' , their son Milo and a cast of characters throughout the series, this book neatly and wonderfully concluded the storyline in a fine piece of writing, the finale in Lights Down is both moving and understandable and the core story of dementia and those who care for the sufferers is wonderful.
This series of books by Graham Hurley are both thrilling , exiting and in this novel incredibly moving.
I have to say that my kindle download was incredibly expensive (£19.90) as was the last one , but the pleasure this book gave me was I feel worth the money.
Graham Hurley created a cast of characters that are both believable and enjoyable, from the first book Curtain Call where we are introduced to them, the loveable rogue 'H' , their son Milo and a cast of characters throughout the series, this book neatly and wonderfully concluded the storyline in a fine piece of writing, the finale in Lights Down is both moving and understandable and the core story of dementia and those who care for the sufferers is wonderful.
This series of books by Graham Hurley are both thrilling , exiting and in this novel incredibly moving.
I have to say that my kindle download was incredibly expensive (£19.90) as was the last one , but the pleasure this book gave me was I feel worth the money.
July 7, 2022
Well, well, well this definitely wasn’t what I was expecting! Having read and loved the Faraday and Suttie series’ I was expecting something similar with this one. How wrong could I be! It was very different in a very good and entertaining way.
This is the 6th book in the Enora Andressen series and the first one I had read. It can be read as a standalone novel but I would think the series is probably best read in order to get the full impact of what has gone before.
Enora is an actress and her favourite director Remy wants to direct her in a WW2 drama set at Flixcombe, the manor house she shares with her ex partner H. H is suffering with long Covid and potentially dementia too.
Part thriller, part domestic drama, part madcap comedy and maybe a partly autobiographical glimpse of how the author perceived life in the Covid era! Well worth a read and I will definitely go back and read the previous 5 Enora novels.
Thank you to Netgalley for access to the arc ebook
This is the 6th book in the Enora Andressen series and the first one I had read. It can be read as a standalone novel but I would think the series is probably best read in order to get the full impact of what has gone before.
Enora is an actress and her favourite director Remy wants to direct her in a WW2 drama set at Flixcombe, the manor house she shares with her ex partner H. H is suffering with long Covid and potentially dementia too.
Part thriller, part domestic drama, part madcap comedy and maybe a partly autobiographical glimpse of how the author perceived life in the Covid era! Well worth a read and I will definitely go back and read the previous 5 Enora novels.
Thank you to Netgalley for access to the arc ebook
July 4, 2022
It's been quite a long time since last I read an Enora's mystery and was glad to catch up with this interesting and likeable characters.
I had a lot of fun in reading this story, the solid mystery kept me guesssing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
I had a lot of fun in reading this story, the solid mystery kept me guesssing, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
April 23, 2022
I have loved the Enora Andressen series of which this is the sixth and am amazed at how quickly Graham Hurley is able to produce so many works of such high quality.
The plotting is original, the writing sharp, and the characters, as always, intriguing and empathetic.
I love the ways he harks back to previous books and even series and there i still so much about Portsmouth which has featured in so many of his books.
He writes the character of Enora so well from the female perspective and I love the way she has developed throughout the series.
I will not give away any spoilers but given the incepted ending, I hope that there will still be more books to come in this exceptional series that so well marries the worlds of theatre and crime.
The plotting is original, the writing sharp, and the characters, as always, intriguing and empathetic.
I love the ways he harks back to previous books and even series and there i still so much about Portsmouth which has featured in so many of his books.
He writes the character of Enora so well from the female perspective and I love the way she has developed throughout the series.
I will not give away any spoilers but given the incepted ending, I hope that there will still be more books to come in this exceptional series that so well marries the worlds of theatre and crime.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews