October 8, 2020 Final Cut by S. J.Watson ‘They tried to hide the truth. But the camera never lies…’ Review by Basil Ransome-Davies So runs the publisher’s tagline on the front cover…
September 22, 2020 Playing Nice by JP Delaney Reviewed by Harriet Back in 2017 I reviewed JP Delaney’s brilliant psychological thriller The Girl Before on Shiny (here). All I know about the…
September 15, 2020 The Lies you Told by Harriet Tyce Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Last year I read Blood Orange, which was Harriet Tyce’s debut novel. One of the reasons I read it was…
August 13, 2020 Tell Me How it Ends by V.B. Grey Reviewed by Gill Davies London in 1963, despite some remaining scars of wartime, is busy re-inventing itself with skyscrapers rising over bomb sites, American…
February 25, 2020 Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton Review by Annabel Anyone who works in a school these days will be familiar with ‘lockdown’ procedures, with code reds being the ones you…
August 8, 2019 The Perfect Wife by J P Delaney Review by Annabel I recently read J P Delaney’s first psychological thriller, The Girl Before, (which Harriet reviewed here) in advance of a crime panel event…
July 11, 2019 A Stranger in my Grave by Margaret Millar Reviewed by Harriet Margaret Millar, born in Canada in 1915, lived for most of her life in California with her husband Ken, who wrote…
November 22, 2018 The Long Shadow by Celia Fremlin Reviewed by Harriet How Ivor would have loved being dead! It was a shame he was missing it all. First published in 1975, this…
November 6, 2018 Vanish in an Instant by Margaret Millar Reviewed by Harriet Why had I never heard of Margaret Millar until I spotted this reprint by Pushkin Vertigo? Because, I suppose, she was…
January 25, 2018 The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn Reviewed by Basil Ransome Davies This novel borrows its title from Fritz Lang’s canonical film noir (which is also a teasing, ironic comedy of the repressed…
October 19, 2017 The Other Woman by Laura Wilson Reviewed by Harriet A couple of years ago on Shiny I reviewed Laura Wilson’s The Wrong Girl. That was a tense psychological thriller centring…
July 25, 2017 The Hours Before Dawn by Celia Fremlin Review by Harriet Soon after midnight she would wake; and again at half past two; and again at four. As the months went by,…
July 4, 2017 Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy Reviewed by Harriet It’s every parent’s nightmare – one minute your child is there, next minute they’re gone. My own three-year-old daughter once wandered…
May 25, 2017 The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins Reviewed by Judith Wilson The Night Visitor is Lucy Atkins’ third novel, and as I’d devoured the first two, I was keen to…
February 9, 2017 Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty Reviewed by Victoria Apple Tree Yard, (now a series from the BBC), may be billed as a thriller, but like all of Louise Doughty’s…
February 7, 2017 The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney Reviewed by Harriet Who is JP Delaney? All that is known at the time of writing this review is that the pseudonym conceals the…
December 2, 2015 Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell Reviewed by Harriet I can empathise with people who are driven by dreadful impulses. I think to be driven to want to kill must…
October 21, 2015 Friday on my Mind by Nicci French Reviewed by Harriet The crime-writing couple known as Nicci French have had an amazingly productive and successful career. Having published no less than 11…
October 8, 2015 A Game for all the Family by Sophie Hannah Reviewed by Harriet My name is Justine Merrison and I do Nothing. With a capital N. Not a single thing. When I tell people…
April 23, 2015 The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson Reviewed by Harriet “Okay,” she said, and thought a moment. “Truthfully, I don’t think murder is necessarily as bad as people make it out…
April 2, 2015 The Exit by Helen Fitzgerald Reviewed by Harriet He offered to show me around, but I said I was in a hurry. I didn’t want to see old people…
January 29, 2015 Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith Reviewed by Harriet. ‘The No.1 greatest crime writer’, proclaims The Times on the covers of Virago’s new reprints of some of Patricia Highsmith’s lesser…
October 16, 2014 Help for the Haunted by John Searles Reviewed by Victoria Best. Lying in bed, 14-year-old Sylvie Mason hears a telephone call summoning her parents out into the middle of a snowy…
July 22, 2014 The Headmaster’s Wife by Thomas Christopher Greene Reviewed by Victoria Best I do love a book with a really good jaw-dropping twist, and goodness me does The Headmaster’s Wife have one of those….
April 25, 2014 The Telling Error by Sophie Hannah Reviewed by Harriet Devine Well, Sophie Hannah has done it again. Did anyone ever have such a fiendishly fertile and convoluted imagination? This is…
