Spy Out the Land by Jeremy Duns
Reviewed by Rob Spence Don’t read this book. Don’t, that is, unless you have read Jeremy Duns’s previous three Paul Dark spy thrillers, because this continues the story from where…
In the Twilight by Anton Chekhov
Translated by Hugh Aplin Reviewed by Karen Langley Russian author Anton Chekhov, although possibly best known for his plays like The Cherry Orchard, is also the acknowledged master of the short…
Wake by Anna Hope
Paperback review by Ali Hope Anna Hope’s remarkable novel Wake is newly out in paperback, and I urge anyone who has not read it to get themselves a copy. I read this…
Bilbao–NewYork–Bilbao by Kirmen Uribe
Translated from the Basque by Elizabeth Macklin Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite Bilbao – New York – Bilbao is Kirmen Uribe’s first novel; it won the Spanish National Literature Prize in 2009,…
Heir to a Prophecy by Mercedes Rochelle
Written by Helen Skinner “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.” In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, these are the words spoken by the three witches to Macbeth’s friend, Banquo. Soon after this,…
The Small Widow by Janet McNeill
Reviewed by Simon Janet McNeill is a name probably known only to aficionados of Virago Modern Classics, where Tea at Four O’Clock once made an appearance. I have to confess to not having…
Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
Reviewed by Harriet I almost missed the boat where Ben Aaronovitch was concerned. I might never have discovered him at all if my fellow editor Annabel hadn’t given me Rivers of…
Some Here Among Us by Peter Walker
Reviewed by Susan Osborne New Zealand writer Peter Walker’s third novel is surprisingly slim given the amount of ground it covers, taking its central characters from their heady student days…
Gray Mountain by John Grisham
Reviewed by Harriet I first discovered the novels of John Grisham over a decade ago, and had a terrific splurge, which I remember enjoying tremendously. Then things moved on and…
Getting Colder by Amanda Coe
Review by Judith Wilson I had read and been intrigued by Amanda Coe’s strong debut novel, What They Do in the Dark (Virago, 2011), so I couldn’t wait to lay my hands…
The Fires of Autumn by Irène Némirovsky
Translated by Sandra Smith Reviewed by Harriet The Fires of Autumn, first published in France in 1957, is the most recent of Irène Némirovsky’s novels to be translated into English….
Fog Island Mountains by Michelle Bailat-Jones
Reviewed by Rebecca Hussey Full disclosure: I’ve been reading Michelle Bailat-Jones’s blog for many years now, we have been “internet friends” for most of that time, and I wrote book…
The Two Hotel Francforts by David Leavitt
Written by Victoria It’s the summer of 1940 and Lisbon in Portugal is bursting at the seams with people desperate to leave mainland Europe and the march of the Nazis….
Jigsaw Man by Elena Forbes
Reviewed by Kathleen Holly Marsh Jigsaw Man is a typical crime novel following two murder investigations set in and around London in the present day. Detective Inspector Mark Tartaglia is the…
A Price to Pay by Alex Capus
Translated by John Brownjohn Reviewed by Annabel Alex Capus is a French-Swiss novelist who writes in German. He was born in France and now lives in Switzerland. He has written…
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Jane Smiley’s thirteenth novel returns to the winning formula of her 1991 Pulitzer Prize winner, A Thousand Acres, which transplanted King Lear to an Iowan farm. Some Luck is the first…
Lamentation by C.J. Sansom
Reviewed by Adèle Geras Lamentation is the sixth novel in a series which began in 2003 with Dissolution and which has continued through Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, and Heartstone. As a series, it…
Amnesia by Peter Carey
Review by Victoria I first read Peter Carey in 1988, when Oscar and Lucinda won the Booker Prize. I wasn’t sure I could say I liked him exactly, but I knew I…
Chinaski by Frances Vick
Reviewed by Annabel. A novel about a British Rock Band in the 1990s with a grainy image of a Marshall amplifier on its front cover is bound to grab the…
I Was Here by Gayle Forman (YA)
Reviewed by Annabel When I read Gayle Forman’s debut novel If I Stay back in 2009, the juggernaut that is today’s YA book industry was in its relative infancy. Being in my…
Good Girls Don’t Die by Isabelle Grey
Reviewed by Beth Townsend Good Girls Don’t Die is the first in a new crime series written by Isabelle Grey, known for her previous psychological thrillers Out of Sight and Bad Mother. Good Girls Don’t…
Notes on a Cuff by Mikhail Bulgakov
Translated by Roger Cockrell Reviewed by Karen Langley When Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov’s magnum opus The Master and Margarita was finally published, decades after his death, it took the literary world by…
Dear Reader by Paul Fournel
Translated by David Bellos Reviewed by Karen Langley One of the continual debates nowadays amongst readers is the notion of paper versus e-reader. So it’s a delight to come across…
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
Review by Claire Hayes There’s an enchanted sense of shared humanity about Edwidge Danticat’s third adult novel Claire of the Sea Light. As a freak wave off the coast of the Haitian…