The Aftermath (2019), directed by James Kent

Hamburg 1945 - Rachel Morgan arrives to join her husband, a senior officer in the army of occupation, five months after the end of the war. Firebombing has devastated the city and the hungry local people are still searching the rubble for their dead and missing. The British army has requisitioned a grand house, with staff, for the Morgans, owned by architect Stefan Luber. Morgan has compassion and empathy for the German people that he seemingly cannot extend to his stricken wife. He allows Luber and his daughter Freda to remain in their house, confined to the attic, rather than evicting them to a labour camp. Rachel had hoped to reconnect with her husband in a more private setting, not surrounded by resentful Germans. What follows is a complex story of grief, loss and new beginnings, set in the snowy Bavarian landscape. Keira Knightly and Alexander Skarsgard make credible lovers, while Australian Jason Clarke is very good as the repressed British army officer. This is a thoughtful and interesting film that is marred by several groanworthily convenient plot improbabilities and logistical glitches towards the end.

Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver

The Vineland district of New Jersey was founded in the nineteenth century as a supposedly utopian community by a benevolent dictator. Unsheltered parallels the stories of present day journalist Willa Knox and 1870s teacher Thatcher Greenwood, who share far more than a crumbling, poorly built house they cannot afford to fix. Insecure employment and burdensome dependent in-laws are the hallmarks of both their lives. Willa also has troublesome adult children, while Thatcher battles for scientific truth in guiding the hearts and minds of his students. In 1870 the politics are local and personal, whereas in the modern day they are national and general, but the results are the same. Again there are strong parallels with the wilful ignorance of science leading to destruction and blind faith in a demagogue who is only interested in his own gain. Thatcher finds solace in his scholarly neighbour Mary Treat – a satisfying friendship based on mutual respect and shared interests, in contrast to his marriage, which started with physical attraction but had no substance. Echoes of Dr Lydgate in Middlemarch are confirmed by mention of George Eliot in the acknowledgements. Willa has a good and loving marriage, also based on physical attraction but built into a strong partnership over the years. These relationships sustain them in their troubles. The last few words of each chapter become the title of the next, a neat trick that forges a link between the two eras stronger than the address they share. Both stories have people trying to do the right thing by their families and working around a system stacked against them and they come together at the end with some signs of hope.

The Fragments by Toni Jordan

Ostensibly a literary mystery, the real mystery for the first half of the book is what the two strands of the story have to do with each other. The action switches between 1986 Brisbane, with loner bookseller Caddy, and 1930s US, with farm girl turned factory girl Rachel. Caddy attends an exhibition on much-lauded first time author Inga Karlson, who died in a fire in 1939, along with her publisher and all of the newly printed copies of her second book. Only a few fragments survived and they have been used to build the legend of the mysterious Inga. At the exhibition Caddy meets an old lady who sets her on an investigation of what really happened to her favourite author. The novel eventually becomes a tale of two love stories - between Caddy and disillusioned academic Jamie; and between Rachel and eccentric writer Inga. But it takes so long to get to these relationships that too little time is invested in them and they get somewhat lost in the rush to solution of the mystery. The essential characters and their interactions are nicely done, engaging the reader and enlisting our interest and sympathy. But there is an awful lot that doesn’t add up, making it difficult to suspend disbelief about many aspects. Would Inga really have been that famous around the world for so long, based on one book? Would Rachel really have cut all contact with her family? The shocking twist at the end is actually quite predictable, which makes it a bit of a letdown.

The Avengers Endgame (2019), directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

Grief and regret are not the usual hallmarks of a superhero action adventure movie, so Endgame is something of a surprise. There is only one extended battle scene; instead lots of quiet reflection, so it’s not really one for the kids. Starting immediately where Infinity War finishes, the world is in chaos and the surviving Avengers unite to try to reclaim the Infinity stones from Thanos. Five years later, each of them is handling their failure in their own way. Tony Stark has retreated to family life; Black Widow has taken charge; Thor has immersed himself in alcohol; and Hawkeye has turned vigilante. The return of Antman from the quantum realm sparks new hope and the Avengers get busy trying to turn back time. With many callbacks to previous movies, Endgame is clever and funny, packing a lot in to its bladder-challenging three-hour running time. It is probably best not to think too hard about the time travel implications, or it will do your head in. The ending is satisfying, if bittersweet as all comes full circle.

She Be Damned, by MJ Tjia

An earlier and grittier version of Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher, set in 1860s London, Heloise Chancey has raised herself up from street prostitute to courtesan. She does a bit of acting and a bit of detecting on the side, but her primary function is to be beautiful and fashion forward. Heloise is hired to find a young woman who has run away from her disapproving family, but her search becomes an investigation of a serial killer of prostitutes in Waterloo. The novel is written in the first person present tense, which takes away much of the required tension when our intrepid heroine blunders into trouble – you already know she will get out of it. The insertion of asides by Heloise’s Eurasian maid are interesting in themselves but not germaine to the main story. They end up contributing to the background information on Heloise, but a huge chunk is left out, presumably to be continued in future tales of this not terribly competent Victorian lady detective.

Time’s Convert, by Deborah Harkness

The runaway success of the author’s All Souls trilogy has made her unable to resist returning to that elaborately constructed world. This is great news for fans if she has another story to tell; unfortunately this novel appears to be a case of great characters in search of a story. It is fun to see how Diana and Matthew are coping as their Bright Born twins develop their magical powers as toddlers. It is interesting to discover Marcus’s first life in revolutionary America and his difficult vampire childhood and adolescence in the French Revolution. And it is fascinating to be taken through the stages of vampire rebirth with Phoebe’s transition in preparation for her marriage to Marcus. But the novel lacks an overall narrative drive equal to the search for the Book of Life in the first three books. Most attention is paid to Marcus and while his story is interesting it lacks a certain tension because we know he comes out ok in the end. Some anomalous details are irritating – Phoebe’s fuzzy memory is said to be common and will prevent her returning to her profession, but this vampire characteristic has apparently been no impediment to Matthew, Marcus and Miriam becoming doctors and researchers. The peripheral role of witches and daemons in this vampire story may indicate there are more novels to come that will focus on these aspects of the world. If so it is to be hoped that they constitute more than filling in the back stories left over from the trilogy.

The Chaperone (2019), directed by Michael Engler

Aged 16 in 1922, future silent movie star Louise Brooks travelled from her home in the mid-west to New York to join a prestigious dance school. This movie is the story of the middle-aged woman who chaperoned this journey, Norma Carlisle. Norma undertakes the task as a break from her marriage and to research her origins as an orphan in New York. Small flashbacks gradually reveal the trouble in her marriage and her time in the big city resolves some issues for her and allows her to make some changes. Young Louise Brooks is almost peripheral to the main story, but Norma both helps and learns from her charge in a way that enables her to assist again when Louise hits trouble 20 years later. Elizabeth McGovern is charming as Norma and Hayley Lu Richardson is radiant as the young Louise, although slightly less convincing as the older version. The fingerprints of Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes are all over this film, which has marvellous costume and production design.

A Shot in the Dark, by Lynne Truss

In 1950s Brighton self-important and not very bright Inspector Steine keeps crime rates low by ignoring it. His exasperated offsider Sergeant Brunswick would like to do some proper police work, but is continually stymied by his boss and consoles himself with their charlady’s cakes. This cosy world is turned upside down by the arrival Constable Twitten, who is too clever for his own good and immediately starts to not only detect crime, but also solve it. A criminal mastermind operating under their very noses and getting away with murder, robbery and extortion constantly thwarts all three degrees of bumbling police officers. This is a deeply stupid book, seemingly intended to be wryly funny with many nods and winks to the reader. It’s about as subtle as a music hall variety act, skewering the theatre, journalism and the police force in a totally unoriginal manner and demonstrating an obsession with Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock that gets beyond tedious. The ludicrous storyline and conclusion elicits eye rolls rather than laughter. The novel’s strapline bills it as a Constable Twitten Mystery, seeming to indicate there will be more. This would be pity as there are already more than enough mediocre books in print.