Winter Siege by Ariana Franklin and Samantha Norman
Reviewed by Harriet I had not heard of Ariana Franklin until a few months ago, when I was given her Mistress of the Art of Death as an early birthday present. Seeing…
Flying Shoes by Lisa Howorth
Reviewed by Victoria Best What do they do to writers down in Mississippi? Is there a school, I wonder, where prospective writers go in order to be marinaded in a bath of…
First Time Solo by Iain Maloney
Reviewed by Andrew Blackman Pick up a book set in World War Two, and you have certain expectations. These expectations are largely frustrated by First Time Solo, and that’s a good…
Problems with People by David Guterson
Reviewed by Victoria Best. Ever since Snow Falling on Cedars came out, I’ve had David Guterson marked as an author I was curious to try. Great to know, then, that it’s only…
Desperate Games by Pierre Boulle
Translated by David Carter Review by Annabel Gaskell While Desperate Games is not a great work of literature, it is a book that is BIG on ideas. This philosophical satire on science,…
He Wants by Alison Moore
Reviewed by Ali Hope. Alison Moore’s debut novel The Lighthouse was a wonderful success for independent publishers Salt, being short-listed for the Man Booker prize; it was a deserved big hit with…
Upstairs at the Party by Linda Grant
Reviewed by Eric Karl Anderson Towards the end of Linda Grant’s new novel, the narrator Adele asks her friend “How do we get people so wrong… when we are so…
The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett
Reviewed by Annabel Neil Bartlett came to my attention a few years ago when I read his decidedly tense 2008 novel Skin Lane set in London’s fur trade during the…
Autumn: All the Cats Return by Philippe Georget
Translated by Steven Rendall and Lisa Neal Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is a complex murder mystery set in Perpignan, but its essential Frenchness is augmented and challenged by the…
All Day and a Night by Alafair Burke
Reviewed by Ann NYPD detective, Ellie Hatcher and her partner, JJ Rogan, are not best pleased when Ellie’s boyfriend, Assistant District Attorney Max Donovan, arranges that they should be ‘lent…
A Killing of Angels by Kate Rhodes
Reviewed by Jane Carter Kate Rhodes’ first novel, Crossbones Yard, showed her to be a crime writer to watch; and this, her second novel, certainly lives up to the high expectations…
The Visitors by Rebecca Mascull
Reviewed by Jane Carter When I first read about this book, Rebecca Mascull’s debut novel, I was intrigued. It seemed that the story would bring together so many elements I love…
A Scream in Soho by John G. Brandon
Reviewed by Harriet Devine “A lace handkerchief without even a monogram on it and a bloodstained knife without fingerprints or marks of any kind”, McCarthy said. “There’s nothing whatever in…
Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
(aka Big Little Lies) Reviewed by Victoria Best There’s a ruckus going down at Pirriwee Public Kindergarten where there ought to be an ordinary fund-raising trivia night. Elderly Mrs Ponder…
The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop
Reviewed by Margaret Freeman Forty years ago Famagusta, on the east coast of Cyprus, was one of the island’s most visited and most glamorous tourist resorts with its beautiful coastline…
The Portrait by Willem Jan Otten
Reviewed by Helen Parry Not having looked, not really, not with eyes that can see. That was what his fate came down to. Having accepted the job, solemnly – Yes,…
The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Lizzie Siddal Every recent piece about Elena Ferrante seems to begin with the question, who is she? I’m not about to do that. The…
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Reviewed by Sakura Gooneratne I get up and go out through the back door. The cold air shocks my skin as I go, ‘Shoo, shoo!’ to the cat. The feline…
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A New Translation by Rosamund Bartlett Written by Helen Rappaport Taking on one of the great novels of the nineteenth century is a huge challenge for any Russian translator. Even…
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Reviewed by Kathleen Holly Marsh The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender is an incredibly written book by American author Leslye Walton. The novel follows the story of Ava’s life…
A Moment for the Short Story
By David Hebblethwaite Short stories are in our bones. They are often the first fiction we read or hear: fairy tales, bedtime stories – and at school (for example), they…
The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
Reviewed by Harriet Devine The Book of Life is indeed a mighty tome, as Dan Brown would say. I read it with great delight, but was seriously wondering all the time…
The Martian by Andy Weir
Paperback Review by Dan L. The Martian by Andy Weir took the Sci-Fi reading populace by storm with the release of the hardback. So much so, that Ridley Scott decided he…
Age of Iron by Angus Watson
Reviewed by Kathleen Holly Marsh Age of Iron by Angus Watson is the first book in a trilogy giving an entertaining but gripping account of what happened when Julius Caesar tried…