Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck
Reviewed by Harriet Cecilia Ekbäck’s impressive debut novel has been described as Nordic noir, but I think that’s a bit too neat a pigeonhole. Nordic it certainly is, being set…
The Hog’s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts
Reviewed by Simon It is probably no longer news to you that the British Library are reprinting a series of Crime Classics; some of their choices have hit the bestseller…
Mercy Seat by Wayne Price
Reviewed by Alice Farrant Mercy Seat is a beautifully stirring novel, set in a remote seaside town in west Wales. Luke, our protagonist and narrator, is an aimless young man on…
Fire Flowers by Ben Byrne
Reviewed by Annabel. The publisher Europa Editions is primarily known in the UK for bringing translated fiction, mainly from Europe, to English-speaking readers. However, eight months ago they signed their…
Don’t Let Him Know by Sandip Roy
Reviewed by Denise Kong Don’t Let Him Know is a multi-stranded tale, whose protagonists struggle to find their social, sexual and familial identities against the cultural backdrops of India and USA….
The Youngest Lady in Waiting by Mara Kay
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long In Mara Kay’s first book, Masha, we followed the adventures of Masha Fredericks as she travelled to St Petersburg from her home in the country to attend…
A War of Flowers by Jane Thynne
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long This is the third in a series of books featuring Clara Vine, a film actress in pre-war Berlin. If you have not read the earlier titles Black…
The Well by Catherine Chanter
Reviewed by Eleanor Franzén Speculative fiction often works best when it takes one element of our everyday lives and tweaks it, showing us how much we rely on a certain…
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler
Review by Susan Osborne I hope you’ll excuse me if this review reads more like a pean of praise – or even a gush – than a hard-nosed critque: Nickolas…
A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale
Review by Susan Osborne It’s nearly thirty years since the publication of Patrick Gale’s first novel, The Aerodynamics of Pork, and for much of that time he was relatively unknown. Richard…
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Reviewed by Annabel Unless you live in a hole in the ground (more of that later), it can’t have escaped your attention that Kazuo Ishiguro has…
Billie by Anna Gavalda
Translated by Jennifer Rappaport Reviewed by Harriet Anna Gavalda is a greatly admired novelist in her native France. All her books have been bestsellers and one, Ensemble, c’est tout (rather curiously retitled Hunting…
Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson
Reviewed by Harriet I must admit that I’d never heard of Lionel Davidson before this novel came my way. I now know him to have been a celebrated writer of…
The Pink Suit by Nicole Mary Kelby
Paperback review by Susan Osborne Please don’t be put off by the Barbie-pink jacket adorning the paperback edition of Nicole Mary Kelby’s novel. It isn’t a sickly sweet, girly read…
Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead
Reviewed by Victoria If, like me, you can dimly remember the furore that arose when Mikhail Baryshnikov defected to the United States, and if, like me, you thought he was…
The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson (YA)
Reviewed by Bookgazing. David is a social outcast; dubbed ‘Freakshow’ by the bullies at his posh school, Eden Park, and hopelessly in love with the most popular boy in school….
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (YA)
Review by Bookgazing. ‘This is a story about love,’ Jandy Nelson says in her preface to I’ll Give You the Sun ‘crazy complicated love of all kinds: between guys and girls, guys…
The Field of the Cloth of Gold by Magnus Mills
Reviewed by Annabel Mills is one of my favourite authors; a new novel from him is a must-read for me. He has found a unique furrow in the world of…
The Vagrant by Peter Newman
Reviewed by David Harris ‘The Vagrant is his name’ runs the strapline for this book. ‘He has no other.’ In fact, the titular character is never called ‘The Vagrant’ by…
Alice and the Fly by James Rice
Reviewed by Meghan Alice and the Fly opens with Greg, a very shy, awkward teen boy who is deathly afraid of Them – spiders. This fear permeates many of his thoughts, and amongst…
Glass by Alex Christofi
Reviewed by Paul Fishman Why Glass? And, for that matter, why glass? Well, first there’s the protagonist, or hero of sorts, Günther Glass. (Yes, it’s a play on words and a…
Onward Toward What We’re Going Toward by Ryan Bartelmay
Reviewed by Victoria This is a debut novel from a short story writer, and there’s a way in which you can sense the palimpsest of shorter fiction underneath the sweep…
Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders
Reviewed by Harriet I hope some children today still read E. Nesbit as avidly as I did, and my own children did. I loved everything of hers, but a particular…
The Bees by Laline Paull
Reviewed by Bookgazing Click HERE for more shininess about The Bees… Flora 717 begins life as a voiceless sanitation worker, set to clean bodies and waste from her hive. She occupies the…