September 14, 2021 Bewilderment by Richard Powers Reviewed by Gill Davies Although he has published twelve novels since 1985, I only discovered Richard Powers through his stunning 2018 novel The Overstory…
August 10, 2021 A Tomb With a View by Peter Ross Reviewed by Gill Davies Just a few days ago my partner and fellow Shiny reviewer Basil Ransome Davies found a new walk to do…
May 20, 2021 Valentine Ackland: A Transgressive Life by Frances Bingham Reviewed by Gill Davies This is a remarkable book about a remarkable woman. Valentine Ackland (1906-1969) was “transgressive” in so many ways. She was…
March 30, 2021 The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz Translated by Philip Boehm Reviewed by Gill Davies This is an important republication of a novel which first appeared eighty years ago under a…
March 2, 2021 The Ice by John Kåre Raake Translated by Adam King Reviewed by Gill Davies John Kåre Rake is a successful Norwegian screen writer and this is his first novel. It’s…
December 1, 2020 The Lost and the Damned by Olivier Norek Translated by Nick Caistor Reviewed by Gill Davies This is the first novel by Olivier Norek to be translated into English. It was first…
August 25, 2020 A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville Reviewed by Gill Davies Kate Grenville’s latest novel is a wonderful continuation of her investigation of Australian history and the people who made it….
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…
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…
