The Strange Case of Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker
Reviewed by Harriet If like many people you saw this title and thought of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde you’d probably be thinking this will be a psychological thriller, and…
Murder at Gull’s Nest: Nora Breen Investigates by Jess Kidd
Review by Annabel Although Irish author Jess Kidd has written four previous well-received novels, and I even own copies of two of them, I’ve not managed to read her until…
Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Reviewed by Harriet Back in 2016 I reviewed Anthony Horowitz’s hugely entertaining Magpie Murders [here], in which book-editor Susan Ryeland takes up detection when she discovers that Alan Conway, the…
Fair Play by Louise Hegarty
Review by Max Dunbar Mystery Night I never worked out the appeal of murder mystery nights. Sure, you get to raid the dressing-up box but the practicalities must be a…
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Review by Annabel Virginia Feito’s debut novel, Mrs March, was an absolute blast. An exercise in paranoia on the part of an Upper East Side housewife, who thinks people are…
The Brittle Age, by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Rob Spence In the mountainous rural region of Abruzzo, a local community is blighted by an event of brutal savagery. Thirty years later, its…
When William Came, by Saki
Review by Helen Parry Suppose Germany and Britain went to war and Britain lost and was absorbed into the German empire? What would British people do? What would you do?…
This Is The Border by Eoin McNamee
Review by Max Dunbar There’s lots of historical fiction around but generally it doesn’t work for me. I feel like the author is bludgeoning you with their research, having worked…
City of Fiction by Yu Hua
Translated from the Chinese by Todd Foley Review by Frances Spurrier Lin Xiangfu was on edge that evening. Moonlight streamed down through the hole in the roof like a sparkling column…
Nothing Grows by Moonlight by Torborg Nedreaas
Translated by Bibbi Lee Review by Karen Langley Recent years have seen a spate of newly translated fictions being made available by Penguin Classics in their ‘Demy’ series; these works…
The Dancer from the Dance by Janet Burroway
Reviewed by Harriet I had never heard of Janet Burroway until Mike Walmer recently republished her 1965 novel, The Dancer from the Dance. It was the second of her eight…
Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida
Translated by Hayden Trowell Review by Rob Spence Quirky Japanese literature seems to be all the rage these days. Every British bookshop seems well-stocked with Tokyo-based stories about cats or…
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Reviewed by Harriet ‘You know I’m not a huge cat fan. I’ve always thought they were cold-hearted’. ‘Cats are not cold-hearted’, I said. ‘They’re only protecting their dignity in case…
Black Woods Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
Review by Annabel Alaskan author Eowyn Ivey isn’t the most prolific; in thirteen years, she’s just published her third novel, but for me it was worth the wait. Being a…
Confessions by Catherine Airey
Review by Max Dunbar The Whole Wild World The problem with talking about books you enjoy is that you don’t want to go too far into a story for fear…
The Last of the Aldinis by George Sand
Translated by George Burnham Ives Review by Rob Spence Opposite the title page of this new edition of George Sand’s novel is a list of her works of fiction. It…
Shiny Prize Season 2025: Dylan Thomas Award longlist – Pity by Andrew McMillan & The Coin by Yasmin Zaher
The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Award has now been running since 2006. It honours young writers, so entering writers must be 39 or under (the age Dylan Thomas died). This…
Shiny Prize Season 2025: Nero debut fiction winner – Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
Review by Annabel When originally published early last year, this debut novel, from another up-and-coming Irish author, garnered rave reviews. It was longlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, although I…
The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe
Review by David Harris, 29 January 2025 Reading a review this weekend of a new TV series set in the 80s, I found myself agreeing with the writer’s point that…
Abandonment by Erminia Dell’Oro
Translated by Oonagh Stransky Review by Annabel Such is my woeful lack of knowledge of African history, I had no idea that Eritrea had been colonized by Italy in the…
The Drowned by John Banville
Reviewed by Harriet, 14 Jan 2025 When John Banville announced that he was going to give up writing the multi-award-winning literary fiction for which he had been celebrated for decades,…
Pictures on the Wall by Hugo Charteris
Review by Rob Spence, 9 Jan 2025 This book, by the strangely neglected author of a number of novels in the fifties and sixties, is another welcome publication from the…
The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Reviewed by Harriet Sequels can be very enticing when the initial book has done well. Readers want to know what happens to a character they’ve connected with. So says a…
Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts
Reviewed by Harriet In the year 1932, Miss Penelope Shadow published a book which instantly became a best seller. It was her fourth book and not, in her opinion, markedly…