Sirens by Joseph Knox
Review by Annabel Literary noir, in its general sense of typifying dark, cynical and unpleasant crime novels, (as opposed to the classic interpretation of hardboiled style novels where the protagonist…
Review by Annabel Literary noir, in its general sense of typifying dark, cynical and unpleasant crime novels, (as opposed to the classic interpretation of hardboiled style novels where the protagonist…
Translated by Adriana Hunter Reviewed by Terence Jagger “To the east, bare earth as far as the eye can see. To the west, hills … then on the horizon, mountains. …
Reviewed by Harriet Who is JP Delaney? All that is known at the time of writing this review is that the pseudonym conceals the identity of ‘a writer who has…
Reviewed by Harriet All along, from the beginning of his conscious life, the persistent feeling that the forks and parallels of the roads taken and not taken were all being…
Review by Annabel This year is becoming a vintage one for historical novels set in Arctic or icy northern climes: To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey,…
Translated by Deborah Smith Paperback review by David Hebblethwaite When you shake off the hundred-plus books of a year’s reading and find that the one that clings the longest is…
Review by Annabel Herron is one of my favourite author discoveries of recent years. Real Tigers is the third of Mick Herron’s ‘Jackson Lamb’ series of spy novels, following Slow Horses and Dead…
Reviewed by Karen Langley I suppose I’m not alone amongst readers and book bloggers in having a rather romantic view of the author, picturing them sitting in a beautiful study,…
Translated by Howard Curtis Reviewed by Annabel Canek Sánchez Guevara was Che Guevara’s grandson. Was, because he died in early 2015 from complications after a heart operation – he was…
Reviewed by Harriet It’s one thing to read about detectives, but quite another trying to be one. I’ve always loved whodunits – I’ve not just edited them, I’ve read them…
Reviewed by Julie Barham An historical entertainment? When I was first asked to read E.F.Benson’s Ghost Stories, I was a little concerned as I have got a very vivid imagination, and…
Translated by Charlotte Collins Reviewed by Susan Osborne It’s a both a joy and a worry when a second novel appears on the horizon following one quite so spectacularly good…
Reviewed by Annabel In 1941 Meridian ‘Meri’ Wallace wins a place at university in Chicago to study ornithology. There she dates Jerry – and they have fun – but Meri…
Reviewed by Harriet Time was not something then we thought of as an item that possessed an ending, but something that would go on forever, all rested and stopped in…
Reviewed by Annabel. Although this is the second book in a series, given that its two main characters were subsidiary supporting ones in its predecessor, you could read it as…
Reviewed by Gill Davies I was very pleased to find a crime novel with no paedophiles or serial killers, or – for that matter – without a feisty female detective…
Reviewed by Adèle Geras Anna Quindlen is an American writer who ought to be much better known in this country. Her last novel, Still Life With Breadcrumbs (reviewed here), is very good indeed…
Reviewed by David Harris This was the first of Christopher Priest’s books that I’d read. While I gather from other reviews that it’s particularly accessible for him and so probably…
Reviewed by Gill Davies In the past, I have hesitated to read a novel that uses dreadful contemporary events as its plot and thematic focus, in case it feels exploitative…
Paperback review by Naomi Eileen might ‘look like a girl you’d expect to see on a city bus, reading some clothbound book from the library about plants or geography’ but if…
Reviewed by Harriet Nevertheless a certain class of dishonesty, dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places, has become at the same time so rampant and so splendid…
Written by Ann Kennedy Smith A Quiet Life by Natasha Walter (Borough Press, 2016), Mrs Engels by Gavin McCrea (Scribe, 2016) I spend a lot of my time reading other people’s private letters…
Translated by Ros Schwartz & Lulu Norman Reviewed by Alice Farrant About My Mother is the story of a Lalla Fatma, written down by her son Tahar as she lays…
Translated by Don Bartlett Reviewed by Gill Davies Where Roses Never Die is my first Gunnar Staalesen novel. Staalesen is Norwegian and he has been successfully writing crime fiction since 1977,…