I Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart
Review by Max Dunbar The Cathedral ‘I am not Ukrainian and I questioned whether it was my place to tell this story,’ Kalani Pickhart writes in the foreword to I Will…
Stories for Christmas and the Festive Season, ed. Simon Thomas
Reviewed by Harriet ‘These stories are to fortify you over the Christmas period’, says the blurb on the back of this new collection from the British Library Women Writers Series….
Something in the Air by Peter Gill
Reviewed by Harriet Peter Gill’s most recent play finished a relatively short run at the Jermyn Street Theatre on 12 November. I would have loved to go and see it,…
The Coming Darkness by Greg Mosse
Review by Annabel The publicist’s pitch of ‘Bladerunner meets John Le Carré’ was totally irresistible. While I’m not sure that the former is particularly applicable to this novel, Le Carré…
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
Reviewed by Lory Widmer Hess In our upside-down world of reversed values, where what is most lasting and important is given the least amount of attention, while superficial, transitory things…
War Among Ladies by Eleanor Scott
Reviewed by Harriet First published in 1928, War Among Ladies is the latest offering from the British Library Women Writers series. I’ve read all of them, and reviewed almost all,…
Lucy By the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Reviewed by Harriet It’s less than a year since I wrote my review of Elizabeth Strout’s Booker shortlisted Oh William! here on Shiny. It was the third of her books…
Psalms for the End of the World by Cole Haddon
Review by Annabel It took mere seconds to say yes please to a review copy of this book – I read the words ‘1962’ and ‘physics’ on the publicity blurb…
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
Reviewed by Harriet I was initially quite surprised to discover, early on in the latest and biggest novel about the exploits of private investigators Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott, that…
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Reviewed by Harriet I came to The Marriage Portrait primed, in a sense, as I was already familiar with the story of the marriage between Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara and…
Seven for a Secret by Mary Webb
Review by Rob Spence If you know Mary Webb’s work at all, it’s likely that you do so through her most successful novel, Precious Bane, published in 1926, and later…
The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper
Review by Lory Widmer-Hess The House with the Golden Door returns to the world of Elodie Harper’s acclaimed novel, The Wolf Den, set in first century CE Pompeii. If you…
Tell Me About it by Sacha Naspini
Translated by Clarissa Botsford Review by Annabel This novella, first published in Italian in 2020, has a mere 120 pages, yet there is a full life between its covers. On…
Reviewer’s Choice: Liar by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Translated by Sondra Silverston Reviewed by Harriet ‘One lie can have a thousand consequences in this page-turning psychological suspense’, says the blurb. This is a fair description of what happens,…
Midsummer Murder by Clifford Witting
Review by Julie Barham This novel is in some senses an extraordinary achievement. It is a sort of locked area murder mystery when that area is in full public view….
Shiny Archive Reading List #1: Birds in Fiction
Compiled by Annabel In its ninth year, Shiny New Books has passed the 2000 mark in published posts. We thought it would be good to go back through our archives…
Small Angels by Lauren Owen
Review by Julie Barham A modern Gothic novel is often a treat, especially if its narrative plays on the edge of reality and the supernatural. This novel finds space between…
Clothes Pegs by Susan Scarlett
Reviewed by Harriet This has been my first book by Susan Scarlett, but not my first book by its author. Because, if you didn’t already know, Susan Scarlett was a…
The Glass Pearls by Emeric Pressburger
Review by Karen Langley The name of Emeric Pressburger is remembered for his sterling contribution to the world of film during the 20th century. Together with Michael Powell, he was…
The Marble Staircase by Elizabeth Fair
Reviewed by Harriet Born in 1908, Elizabeth Fair published six successful novels between 1953 and 1960. But when she submitted her seventh, The Marble Staircase, to her agent, she was…
Homesick by Jennifer Croft
Review by Annabel Jennifer Croft’s name may ring a bell with you somewhere, but with a different hat on. As the translator of Olga Togaczuk’s Flights, she was co-winner of…
Amy & Lan by Sadie Jones
Reviewed by Harriet Set in the early 2000s, this is the story of three middle-class couples who have decided to abandon city life in Bristol and make an attempt to…
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Reviewed by Harriet Geraldine Brooks specialises in historical fiction. I read and hugely enjoyed her first two novels: the international bestseller Year of Wonders (2002), based on the true story…
Water Over Stones by Bernardo Atxaga
Translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Thomas Bunstead Reviewed by Gill Davies In his witty alphabetical epilogue to this novel, Bernardo Atxaga states that there are “two kinds of literature,…