I have been meaning to read Jane Harper’s books for years. Specifically, I’ve been intending to read her first novel, ‘The Dry’, which is still loitering on my bookshelf, waiting for me to give it the attention I’m sure it deserves. Meanwhile, I’ve enjoyed reading ‘The Survivors’, her fourth standalone book set in Australia. What’s […]
Having read and loved all Young’s ‘Stasi’ books, I was keen to read his new standalone novel, ‘Death in Blitz City’. Though this tale is set in Hull in 1942, when the most heavily bombed city outside London was suffering badly under German bombs, for Detective Chief Inspector Ambrose Swift, one particular death demands his […]
‘We adjusted to the absence. Forgot it altogether.’ This isn’t true, although it sometimes is, in this brooding mystery that flirts with the supernatural but ultimately refuses to commit to any definitive line. What’s it about? After twenty years of friendship, Jim is looking forward to spending the summer with his wife, children and oldest […]
Sally likes James but James likes Emma. Sally doesn’t trust Emma, but can she protect James from his own naivety? I was excited to get my hands on an uncorrected proof of Louise Mangos’ latest psychological thriller, ‘The Girl in the Doorway’, having been lucky enough to nab one at this year’s Crimefest. What’s it about? […]
‘Joshua Kane was not like other people. There was no one like him.’ Luckily, there’s no one quite like Eddie Flynn, either. Ex-conman, now a defence attorney, Flynn has a moral code and a knack for tricks that makes him enemies but, crucially, wins cases. Welcome to another thrilling courtroom drama from Steve Cavanagh, heir […]
This story is just as much fun as I thought it would be. And thinking is key here: Turton’s plot ultimately depends on the interactions of multiple characters and subtle manipulations that will transform the island and islanders in ways they cannot anticipate; only in the final pages will the full drama be understood. What’s […]
How do you solve your own murder? Regular blog readers will know how much I love a high concept crime thriller, especially when it works as brilliantly as ‘Not Quite Dead’ does. What’s it about? When Jet Mason is brutally attacked on Halloween, she’s left with a brain injury that will kill her within seven […]
Billed as a ‘middle-aged gap year’ I was intrigued by this account of cycling across Europe and Africa. When travelling to and from France on family holidays, my husband and I have often found ourselves curious about the cyclists queueing to dismount the ferry. Where are they going? How can they travel so lightly? How […]
‘Sending more people to prison for longer does not reduce crime’. This conviction, and his further belief that, ‘Rehabilitation is possible’, is at the absolute heart of Umberto Schramm’s argument in this short book, which is partly a prison diary and partly an argument for significant change, not just in the judicial system, but in […]
“Kya laid her hand upon the breathing, wet earth, and the marsh became her mother.” When Kya is just six, her family abandon her, one by one. The hardest loss is her mother, but it is the disappearance of her alcoholic and abusive father that leaves her reliant on the natural world of the swamp […]