The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell
Reviewed by Harriet Charlotte Vassell’s brilliant debut thriller begins with a dying girl on Hampstead Heath. This, as we discover later, is Clemmie, and she is, or was, an influencer….
Devils and Saints by Jean-Baptiste Andrea
Translated by Sam Taylor Reviewed by Harriet You know me. Just think, and you’ll remember. The old man who plays those public pianos that you see in various transport hubs….
The Elvis Mysteries: Kill Me Tender & Blue Suede Clues by Daniel Klein
Review by Annabel Daniel Klein has featured at Shiny New Books once before, back in our early days when Victoria reviewed his 2014 non-fiction book Travels With Epicurus, a gentle…
Jungle Nama: A story of the Sundarban & The Living Mountain: A fable for our times, by Amitav Ghosh
Reviews by Peter Reason On Christmas day my elder son gave me a copy of The Living Mountain, while my younger son a copy of Jungle Nama. They both know…
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Review by Lory Widmer Hess I wouldn’t normally expect much of a book created as the novelization of a TV series, but in this case, you know—Neil Gaiman. His first…
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…