Murder in the Museum & Calamity in Kent by John Rowland
Reviewed by Harriet Here at Shiny we love our reprints, and are always delighted to include reviews of one or more of the British Library’s Crime Classics series. So when…
My Son, My Son by Howard Spring
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster This is the second gem I’ve read from Head of Zeus’s new imprint, Apollo. Like Josephine Johnson’s Now in November, which won the 1935 Pulitzer Prize, this…
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Robert Vilain Reviewed by Karen Langley Back in 2013, I read a really lovely book called Rilke in Paris, which focused on the life of the great German poet…
Armadillos by P.K. Lynch
Reviewed by Annabel Debut novelist P.K. Lynch trained as an actor before having a family and turning to writing plays. Her first professional acting job was playing Lizzy in Trainspotting, (in…
Life After Publication, by Lisa Williamson
I recently met up with a bunch of friends from university for the afternoon. ‘You’re very successful now, aren’t you?’ one guy boomed at me before even saying ‘hello’. I…
Shiny New Author: Stephanie Danler
Questions by Rebecca Foster 1. Readers learn so few facts about Tess – even her name and where she’s from are not revealed until a long way into the book,…
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Twenty-two-year-old Tess arrives in New York City by car in June 2006. Feeling like a Midwestern bumpkin, she has no money for tolls and has to…
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
Translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies Reviewed by Gill Davies What an odd novel! It is Yokoyama’s sixth, his first to be translated into English, and was an immediate best-seller in Japan….
The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery
Translated by Alison Anderson Reviewed by Annabel If like me, you read and loved Muriel Barbery’s bestselling novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which blended romance, philosophy and a teenaged genius…
The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham
Reviewed by Simon Bloomsbury Reader has done an excellent job in bringing back many neglected authors (including some of my favourites, such as E.M. Delafield and Ivy Compton-Burnett), but these…
Born on a Tuesday by Elnathan John
Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is a tough book, about Nigerian politics, Islam, and a young boy growing up without guidance – and his journey from nothing to nothing by…
Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun by Sarah Ladipo Manyika
Reviewed by Chelsea McGill Dr. Morayo Da Silva is a retired English professor living in San Francisco. As she goes about her daily life, she comes into contact with other…
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Reviewed by Victoria To add to a long list of lines I wish I’d written, I read somewhere that Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann was ‘Harlequin romance meets…
The Narrow Bed by Sophie Hannah
Reviewed by Harriet Nobody who’s a fan of Sophie Hannah’s crime fiction will be surprised to learn that The Narrow Bed features an inexplicable set of crimes, enough twists to make you…
The High Mountains of Portugal by Jann Martel
Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth There was going to be a novel about Portugal much earlier. In Life of Pi, the author within the story tells the reader how he had gone…
The Prose Factory by D.J. Taylor
Reviewed by Liz Dexter This ambitious book aims to provide a history of what it calls ‘literary life’ in the 20th century, encompassing an examination of writers, reviewers, the editors and…
Treats by Lara Williams
Reviewed by Karen Langley Despite there being fewer outlets for the format nowadays, the short story just keeps on going as a valid art form; and luckily we’re blessed with…
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
Reviewed by Marina Sofia Julian Barnes is an avowed Francophile, as we have learnt from previous works such as Flaubert’s Parrot, Cross Channel and his book of essays Something to Declare. In fact, his…
Questions for Sharon Guskin
1. The Forgetting Time is your first novel, and we understand that previously your career has been in the film world. Have you always wanted to write? Pretty much. I first started…
The Ex by Alafair Burke
Reviewed by Ann How well does one human being ever really know another? This is the question that criminal defence lawyer Olivia Randall is forced to ask as she attempts…
The Light of Day by Eric Ambler
Reviewed by Annabel Ambler was one of the great British thriller writers and his works are ripe for reappraisal. They had gradually become out of print until Penguin brought out…
Reading for Student Experiences
Written by Anna Hollingsworth Finite, enclosed spaces, power relationships, the discovery of independence, and the pursuit of knowledge: university as a backdrop offers perhaps more grand themes for novels than…
The Story of Alice by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Reviewed by Simon There are few children’s literary characters who are as well known as Alice et al. From Alice bands to Mad Hatters, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Cheshire Cat,…
When We Were Alive by C.J. Fisher
Reviewed by Simon Anybody who keeps an eye on book news, or the stands in WH Smith at Christmastime, will probably have observed the sensation of the YouTube Book. The…