Elektra by Jennifer Saint
Review by Annabel The current vogue for feminist retellings of stories from Greek and Roman myths and legends is showing no signs of slowing down and long may it continue….
Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin
Reviewed by Harriet ‘What if you didn’t have to live with your worst memories?’, asks the cover of this debut novel. Anyone who’s seen the film Eternal Sunshine of the…
Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson
Reviewed by Harriet It’s the first of September 1939. Hitler has invaded Poland, and though Britain is not yet at war with Germany, there is widespread fear of potential bombing…
Traitor in the Ice by K.J. Maitland
Review by Julie Barham This book is a powerful, sometimes brutal historical novel set in the winter of 1607, when life seemed frozen by a cold that exploded trees and…
Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor
Review by David Hebblethwaite If Jon McGregor’s name is on the front of a book, I want to read it – it’s as simple as that. There are certain things…
Even the Darkest Night, by Javier Cercas
Translated by Anne Mclean Review by Michael Eaude Javier Cercas rose to literary fame two decades ago with Soldiers of Salamis (2001), a novel structured as an investigation into an…
These Days by Lucy Caldwell
Reviewed by Harriet ‘two sisters, four nights, one city’ is the subtitle of this riveting new novel by Lucy Caldwell. I don’t think I’ve ever used the term riveting in…
Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert
Review by Annabel At this early stage of the year, it may be a bit forward of me to suggest that I may have found my book of the year,…
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Review by Annabel Sometimes the hype is true, and a publisher’s lead-title for the season really is worth the advance praise heaped on it. This is the case with Lessons…
Strange Journey by Maud Cairnes
Reviewed by Harriet This is a body-swap novel – one of the first ever to be published. It’s very entertaining but also quite thought provoking. The swappers here are Polly…
The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen
Translated from the Finnish by David Hackston Review by Annabel I’m always interested in adding new Nordic authors to my reading list, which is increasingly expanding beyond the traditional home…
The Trouble with Happiness and Other Stories by Tove Ditlevsen
Translated by Michael Favala Goldman Review by Karen Langley The last few years have seen Danish author Tove Ditlevsen’s star in the ascendant following the translation of her autofictional Copenhagen…
French Braid by Anne Tyler
Reviewed by Harriet ‘That’s how families work. You think you’re free of them, but you’re never really free; the ripples are crimped in forever’. Here, not many pages before the…
Whatever Gets You Through the Night by Charlie Higson
Review by Annabel Back in the 1990s, Higson wrote four thrillers for adults, they were dark, nasty and funny. But after them he got sidetracked onto writing for Harry Enfield…
Latchkey Ladies by Marjorie Grant
Reviewed by Harriet These girls, buffeting with the world as they did war-work, or any work that would support them, were apt to have moments when independence seemed the most…
Mother Mother by Annie Macmanus
Review by Annabel You may know Annie Macmanus as ‘Annie Mac’, the fomer Radio 1 DJ. She left the station last year to pursue other avenues, which have included publishing…
Nine Lives by Peter Swanson
Reviewed by Harriet Peter Swanson is a prolific author, averaging one book a year since his debut, The Girl with a Clock for a Heart in 2014. I’ve reviewed two…
The Former Boy Wonder by Robert Graham
Review by Rob Spence Pete Duffy is having a mid-life crisis. His fiftieth birthday is on the horizon, and his career as a freelance rock music journalist is in freefall….
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
Review by Terence Hallett This is an intriguing but also frustrating book. I did wonder if the Shiny editors would allow me to write two alternative reviews. The first would…
Two short, watery novels: Tides by Sara Freeman & The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
By Rebecca Foster Short novels can convey much truth in a low page count, ramping up the psychological intensity through pared-back scenes and a focus on one character or a…
Into Egypt by Rosalind Brackenbury
Review by Rob Spence This novel, first published nearly half a century ago, deals with matters which still, sadly, resonate today. Our protagonist is an idealistic young English woman, Jo…
Two debut novels: Brown Girls, & Black Cake
Review by Liz Dexter I’d like to introduce you to two astoundingly accomplished debut novels, so well done that you would not think they were first novels; two voices we’d…
little scratch by Rebecca Watson
Review by Anna Hollingsworth When a novel comes with praise like ”daringly experimental” and “dazzlingly original”, my eyebrow tends to go up. Really? “Original” sounds better on the blurb than…
Out of the Dark by David Gaffney
Review by Basil Ransome-Davies The title echoes that of Out of the Past, a canonical film noir that ends uncompromisingly in a double catastrophe and leaves the future of a…