Brick Dust by Craig Jordan-Baker
Review by Rob Spence When I started reading this quirkily entertaining novel, I was reminded of a remarkable Turkish film I saw some years ago. The film, 10 to 11,…
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Review by David Harris When I was a young woman, there were still witches . . . In The Bewitching, Silvia Moreno-Garcia deftly blends three timelines to produce a clever and suspenseful…
Giaime Alonge, The Feeling of Iron
Translated by Clarissa Botsford Review by Rob Spence The publisher’s blurb for Giaime Alonge’s first novel describes it as “a masterful blend of fact and fiction”, and that’s certainly accurate…
Everything Will Swallow You by Tom Cox
Review by Annabel If you follow the news from the publishing world, even a little, over the past three months, you’ll probably have encountered Tom Cox and his woes as…
The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
Reviewed by Harriet If you should care to do so, you could do a search on Shiny for reviews of novels by Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling). You’ll find four,…
Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen
Review by Annabel I’ll admit it – I picked up the book because of the cover’s gorgeousness and the pink sprayed edges, then I discovered it was signed by the…
Lowest Common Denominator by Pirkko Saisio
Translated by Mia Spangenberg Review by Karen Langley Until recently, if asked to name a Scandinavian woman author, most readers might have plumped for Finland’s Tove Jansson. However, a spate…
Long Island by Colm Tóibín
Reviewed by Harriet Many people will be familiar with Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel Brooklyn, or at least with the awarding-winning 2015 film adaptation. Set in 1950s Enniscorthy, County Wexford, it…
Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson
Review by Max Dunbar A Wrong in Time At a literary festival in 1993 Thom Graves watches an author being interviewed. It’s slow going: Toward the end of the hourlong…
Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman
Reviewed by Harriet Here on Shiny we love Laura Lippman and have posted reviews of five of her novels. All but one were standalone psychological thrillers, but Hush Hush (2015) features…
The Penguin Maigret Capsule Collection – Maigret’s Holiday and Maigret’s Pickpocket – by Georges Simenon
Review by Annabel Starting back in 2013, Penguin began reissuing the novels of Georges Simenon in new or recent translations with distinctive photographic details on the covers. All 75 Maigrets…
Barbara isn’t Dying by Alina Bronsky
Translated by Tim Mohr Review by Annabel The main theme of this novel is not new, but Bronsky has such a refreshing take on it that I couldn’t help but…
Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru
Reviewed by Harriet Even with the mask on, I recognized her at once. She was standing on the porch of the house at the end of the drive, her weight…
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Kaliane Bradley has had a big year. The British-Cambodian author’s debut novel, The Ministry of Time, was longlisted for a British Book Award, the Jhalak Prize,…
Universality by Natasha Brown
Review by Annabel It’s been a four-year wait for this, Natasha Brown’s second novel. Her first, Assembly, was stunning, winning many plaudits. It’s a moving and beautifully written novella told…
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…