Numero Zero by Umberto Eco
Translated by Richard Dixon Reviewed by Paul Fishman For a short novel, Numero Zero is amazingly leisurely and discursive. It’s like an Arabian Nights for conspiracy theorists, historians of the late 20th century and…
Translated by Richard Dixon Reviewed by Paul Fishman For a short novel, Numero Zero is amazingly leisurely and discursive. It’s like an Arabian Nights for conspiracy theorists, historians of the late 20th century and…
Reviewed by Harriet A gripping story of obsession and spies set in eighties London. So says the blurb on the back of this truly excellent novel. But this is no…
Paperback review by Susan Osborne Christine Dwyer Hickey is the kind of author for whom there’s no fanfare of Twitter trumpets heralding her next novel, no drip feed of showy…
Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel French author Lemaitre is best known for his gory yet gripping trilogy of serial killer novels featuring the detective Camille Verhoeven. They aren’t…
Reviewed by Simon I’ve got all the John Bude reprints that have appeared in the British Library Crime Classics series, and have given several to other people, but Death on the…
By Memory and Jenny From music to murder, from a hospital ward to Haworth Parsonage, Jenny and Memory highlight the most exciting young adult novels of the season in the…
Paperback review by Annabel Most trilogies are strictly sequential, one volume carrying on from another. Louise Welsh’s ‘Plague Times’ trilogy is slightly different (so far) in that the first two…
Reviewed by Annabel O’Neill’s first novel, Only Ever Yours, published in 2014, won a host of prizes in her native Ireland. Aimed at older teenagers upwards, it was a futuristic…
Reviewed by Annabel Tess’s mother died giving birth to her brother Axel. They live with their father in a cabin at the edge of a town in the middle of…
Reviewed by Stefanie Hollmichel Aside from The Death of Socrates and a few other pieces forced on me in school, I can’t say I have ever been interested in reading Plato. That Jo…
Reviewed by Harriet Golden Age crime has always been popular, and each of the so-called queens – Sayers, Christie, Allingham, March, Tey – has her loyal followers. But in the…
Translated by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson Reviewed by Alice Farrant The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende is a tender love story, traversing from the 1930s through to the present day,…
Reviewed by Victoria Pushkin Vertigo, the new crime imprint from Pushkin Press has got off to a flying start with its first batch of releases. Not surprisingly, perhaps, when you…
Reviewed by Julie B “Barbara Pym…Elizabeth Taylor…” exalted company for any author’s novel, and when I noticed these names on the front of this book I must admit I was…
Reviewed by David Harris Made to Kill is the first volume of a projected trilogy featuring a PI (ostensibly) who is also the last robot on Earth. While being another book…
Reviewed by Karen Langley You can’t rush the building of a new house. You’ve got to get the whole thing clear in the mind’s eye. We all know the fable…
Translated by Alexander O Smith with Joseph Reeder. Reviewed by Gill Davies This is the first novel I’ve read by Keigo Higashino – indeed, my first Japanese crime novel –…
Reviewed by Noreen Masud What a city was Glasgow! It was really more into vaudeville than it was into violence, a fact seldom appreciated. There’s a wealth of Scottish fiction…
Reviewed by Lyn Baines It struck me while I was reading this book that one of the differences between the Golden Age murder mystery and a lot of modern detective novels…
Reviewed by Linda Boa This isn’t a Bernie Gunther book, nor is it a standalone. It’s a new thriller series by Philip Kerr about a man called Scott Manson, who…
Reviewed by Harriet I suppose most people who know about Edith Wharton think of her as a writer whose subject was the social elite – think of The House of Mirth,…
Reviewed by Linda Boa Dust And Desire is the first in a trilogy (the other two are out next year) featuring London-based Private Investigator Joel Sorrell. Joel is an ex-policeman whose…
By Elaine Simpson-Long As a long time fan of the adult novels of Richmal Crompton, I was delighted to hear that Bello, the digital print arm of Pan Macmillan, is…
Reviewed by Laura Marriott “Don’t think of me too often … Just live well. Just live. Love, Will” After You is the sequel to the much loved international best seller Me Before You by…