A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
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…
Deep Water by Christine Poulson
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…
Millers Valley by Anna Quindlen
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…
The Gradual by Christopher Priest
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…
The Girl in Green by Derek D. Miller
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…
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
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…
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
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…
Secret Lives: Real Women in Fiction
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…
About My Mother by Tahar Ben Jelloun
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…
Where Roses Never Die by Gunnar Staalesen
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,…
Revenger by Alastair Reynolds
Reviewed by David Harris Alastair Reynolds has a reputation as a prolific writer of SF and made waves a few years ago when he signed a ten book deal with…
The Methods of Sergeant Cluff by Gil North
Reviewed by Harriet The rain wept on him from the eyes of the trees. The winter afternoon waned to its close. He withdrew into himself, stifling thought, powerless to guide…
Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser
Reviewed by Susan Osborne Female friendship is a frequent theme in fiction, or at least what’s often dubbed as ‘women’s fiction’. It can be more than a little idealised but…
French Rhapsody by Antoine Laurain
Translated by Jane Aitken and Emily Boyce Reviewed by Annabel I experienced the sheer joy of reading French author Antoine Laurain earlier this summer when I finally read his first…
Paris Street Tales edited by Helen Constantine
Reviewed by Harriet I live in rural France, and visit Paris from time to time, generally rather briefly. I’m beginning to get the hang of the city and to appreciate…
Nothing Short of Dying by Erik Storey
Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies Erik Storey’s début novel, which bids to inaugurate a series, comes garlanded with approving quotes from established authors Lee Child and Jeffrey Deaver and has been…
The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor by Cameron McCabe
Reviewed by Harriet I saw the ships in the water and the lights of the stars in the water and the reflections under the bridges. The pubs were about to…
Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Paperback review by Annabel If you’ve not yet encountered Mick Herron, you are in for a treat with Slow Horses. Recently reprinted, it’s the first in a series of British…
Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Translated by David Carter Reviewed by Simon If the name Antoine de Saint-Exupéry means anything to you, it probably only means one thing: The Little Prince. It was this contrast…
The Empathy Problem by Gavin Extence
Review by Annabel In three novels now, Gavin Extence has proven that he can maintain a light-hearted narrative that can ultimately uplift, no matter how bad life gets. That’s not…
The Theoretical Foot by M. F. K. Fisher
Reviewed by Victoria Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher is far better known in the States than in the UK, and better known as a food writer than a novelist. She is…
Do Not Say we Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Reviewed by Karen Heenan-Davies June 1989. After months of student-led demonstrations in Beijing the Government sends in the troops. Tanks roll down the streets of the capital. Several hundred demonstrators…
Library Cat by Alex Howard
Review by Peter Hobson This book recounts the puzzling behaviour and absurdities of the human world as narrated by the famous, and sadly now missing, Library Cat of Edinburgh University….
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Reviewed by Victoria You might think that writing a chronicle of a modern family might be a step down in terms of drama for Ann Patchett from opera singers held…