House of Ashes by Monique Roffey
Reviewed by Jean Morris Had I not so much enjoyed Monique Roffey’s previous novels, each one more than the last, I’m not sure I’d have wanted to read House of Ashes,…
In Love and War by Alex Preston
By Victoria Best It is 1937 and disgraced Cambridge student, Esmond Lowndes – caught in bed with another boy by the Master of Emmanuel College, no less – is being…
The Scatter Here is Too Great by Bilal Tanweer
Reviewed by Denise Kong If, as I do, you use Yahoo Mail, it’s impossible to log in without being enticed into clicking on some lurid headline about an outrageous wrong…
The Grand Duchess of Nowhere by Laurie Graham
Reviewed by Victoria Best Laurie Graham is one of those authors who never seem to get the attention and acknowledgement they deserve. Her novels are engrossing and clever and so,…
The Confabulist by Steven Galloway
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell. Interest in the great magician and escapologist Harry Houdini seems to be undergoing a revival lately. Christopher Sandford wrote a book about the feud between Houdini…
Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood
Reviewed by Victoria Best Oh Margaret Atwood, you are so funny and so clever and so full of novelistic wiles! She may be 74 but no author could be less…
Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks
Reviewed by Ali Hope Recently out in paperback is the latest offering from Sebastian Faulks, a novel which resurrects P. G. Wodehouse’s characters of Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves….
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce
Reviewed by Ali Hope The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy is the much anticipated companion novel to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. This novel has a parallel narrative, rather than…
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell This book may have shocking pink endpapers, but between them is the most elegant novel of speculative fiction that I’ve read in a long time –…
Angelica’s Smile by Andrea Camilleri
Translated by Stephen Sartarelli Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long I discovered the Inspector Montalbano books by Camilleri some six or seven years ago and at first wasn’t sure I liked them…
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed by Bradley Greenburg
Reviewed by Victoria Best One of the best experiences in reviewing books is when a book for which you have no particular expectations turns out to be both engrossing and…
Tigerman by Nick Harkaway
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell At the time of writing, I have the pleasure of telling you that Tigerman, with its stunning cover artwork, is the best novel I’ve read this year. My…
The Day of the Dead by Maurizio de Giovanni
Translated by Antony Shugaar Reviewed by Falaise On a miserable morning in 1930, a small, undernourished child is found dead at the foot of the Tondo di Capodimonte steps in Naples,…
Glow by Ned Beauman
Reviewed by Simon Thomas When you’ve established yourself as a (Booker longlisted) quirky historical novelist – if such a title can be given to an author whose first two novels…
Eyrie by Tim Winton
Reviewed by Kim Forrester If you’ve ever spoken your mind, or stood up for something you believe in when it might have been easier — and safer — to keep…
The Death of the Poet by N. Quentin Woolf
Reviewed by Harriet Devine How can I best describe to you this wonderful, powerful book? If I tell you that it’s about a man who falls desperately in love with…
The Way Inn by Will Wiles
Reviewed by Annabel Gaskell “You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.” Never has a quotation been as appropriate to a book as that above…
Return to Mandalay by Rosanna Ley
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Round about this time of year publishers, publicists and bookshops turn their attention to Holiday Reading or Beach Reads. Both these terms are somewhat pejorative and…
The True & Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters by Michelle Lovric
Reviewed by Helen Parry We Swineys were the hairiest girls in Harristown, Kildare, and the hairiest you’d find anywhere in Ireland from Priesthaggard to Sluggery. That is, our limbs were…
Sidney Chambers and the Problem of Evil by James Runcie
Reviewed by Victoria Best Readers of this delightful series are probably aware that the ITV adaptation will soon be on our screens, with James Norton playing the priest-turned-detective, Sidney Chambers…
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
Reviewed by Harriet Devine Strike hated paddling on the periphery of a case, forced to watch as others dived for clues, leads and information. He sat up late with the…
The Night Watchman by Richard Zimler
Reviewed by T.V. LoCicero The Mysterious Worlds of Henrique Monroe This is the ninth novel by Richard Zimler, an American-born writer who spent his first thirty-four years in the U.S.,…
Decompression by Juli Zeh
Translated by John Cullen Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite In diving, decompression is the gradual reduction of ambient pressure as a diver returns to the surface, which allows the inert gases…
Death in Pont-Aven by Jean-Luc Bannalec
Translated by Sorcha McDonagh Reviewed by Harriet Devine Hooray for Hesperus, who sent me this book for review back in the early spring. I picked it up straight away and…