January 23, 2020 Why Women Read Fiction by Helen Taylor Review by Gill Davies Women read a lot more fiction than men; they also buy more books, attend writers’ events, blog, exchange ideas, and…
October 10, 2019 Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke Review by Gill Davies This powerful and engrossing novel continues a series of crime novels in which Attica Locke uses plot and suspense to…
June 4, 2019 Cold For the Bastards of Pizzofalcone by Maurizio de Giovanni Translated by Antony Shugaar Reviewed by Gill Davies This is the third book in a series of police procedural novels by the successful Italian…
May 7, 2019 The Other Americans by Laila Lalami Review by Gill Davies The cover illustration for the book is an aerial view of a suburban street. A pattern of identical houses with…
March 19, 2019 The Sect Of Angels by Andrea Camilleri Translated by Stephen Sartarelli Reviewed by Gill Davies In addition to the Inspector Montalbano novels, best known to English readers from the TV adaptations…
November 1, 2018 Murder By The Book by Claire Harman Reviewed by Gill Davies Here is a real treat for readers interested in the sometimes hidden side of Victorian society and its relationship with…
October 18, 2018 The Second Rider by Alex Beer Translated by Tim Mohr Review by Gill Davies The Second Rider is the first novel in a projected new series by the Austrian writer,…
July 12, 2018 Retribution Road by Antonin Varenne Translated by Sam Taylor Review by Gill Davies Having become rather jaded with the predictability of the crime fiction genre and wearied by the…
June 7, 2018 The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers Translated by Margaret Bettauer Dembo Reviewed by Gill Davies The novel is set in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and was first published in…
April 10, 2018 The Ropewalker and A People Without a Past by Jaan Kross Translated by Merike Lepasaar Beecher Reviewed by Gill Davies Thanks to the wonderful Maclehose Press I have discovered another writer in translation who deserves…
March 1, 2018 Elisabeth’s Lists: A Family Story by Lulah Ellender Reviewed by Gill Davies Lulah Ellender’s book – subtitled “A Family Story” – is part biography, part family history, and it includes reflections on her own…
February 6, 2018 Force of Nature by Jane Harper Reviewed by Gill Davies Following on from her highly-acclaimed first novel, The Dry, Jane Harper has written a second gripping story featuring the harsh…
October 12, 2017 Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke Reviewed by Gill Davies This is Attica Locke’s fourth novel and a stunning follow-up. Black Water Rising was set in 1981; Pleasantville in 1996 and both used the…
August 29, 2017 Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee Review by Gill Davies I am going to review two novels by Min Jin Lee (the other one is Patchinko – see here). This…
August 29, 2017 Patchinko by Min Jin Lee Review by Gill Davies Patchinko is a very different novel from Min Jin Lee’s earlier Free Food for Millionaires, which I reviewed here. It…
July 6, 2017 A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor Reviewed by Gill Davies When you were a child did you ever hunt for a lost ball among ferns and leaves and parting them…
March 28, 2017 The Longest Night by Otto de Kat Translated by Laura Watkinson Reviewed by Gill Davies Otto de Kat is the pseudonym of a Dutch writer (journalist, poet, translator and editor) whose…
March 21, 2017 She Died Young by Elizabeth Wilson Paperback review by Gill Davies She Died Young was published in hardback last year and is now available in paperback. It is the fourth novel…
February 2, 2017 Death Going Down by María Angélica Bosco Translated by Lucy Greaves Reviewed by Gill Davies Thanks to Shiny – and the publishers – I am discovering and enjoying new crime writers….
November 29, 2016 Deep Water by Christine Poulson Reviewed by Gill Davies I was very pleased to find a crime novel with no paedophiles or serial killers, or – for that matter…
August 16, 2016 Before the Fall by Noah Hawley Reviewed by Gill Davies This is a gripping read – one of those suspense novels that you don’t want to put aside to do…
August 11, 2016 The Crime Writer by Jill Dawson Reviewed by Gill Davies Jill Dawson is a poet and novelist who has made her reputation with carefully researched and vividly recreated historical…
June 6, 2016 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…
April 19, 2016 Behind Closed Doors by Elizabeth Haynes Reviewed by Gill Davies Behind Closed Doors is the second novel in Elizabeth Haynes’s new series featuring the Major Crime team in Briarstone. The first…
April 7, 2016 After You Die by Eva Dolan Reviewed by Gill Davies After You Die is when the police arrive, and crime fiction begins. An explosion in a house in a village outside…
