Sometimes there is no safe place. So begins the blurb for Tana French’s fourth novel, ‘Broken Harbour’, in which it gradually becomes clear that a family’s house and their relationship with it has played a significant role in their murders. What’s it about? A family of four have been found slain in their own home. […]
Sometimes you see a book and just know you’re going to love it. That’s how I felt when I spotted ‘Gooseberry’ by Michael Gallagher on Librarything. The fact that I had yet to read either Wilkie Collins’ ‘The Moonstone’, which is the inspiration and touchstone for Gallagher’s novel, or anything previously written by Gallagher himself, […]
“The Rolling Stones? They won’t last.” I’m pretty sure that the knowing smirk invited by comments like the one above is the only reason I occasionally read historical fiction. ‘Kiss Me Quick’ is set in 1960s Brighton and features mods, rockers, gangsters and a massively corrupt police force, so there’ll be drugs, violence, fighting and […]
Recently, I read ‘The Family’, a story which the blurb claims will ‘hook you in from the very first page, and keep you there til the very last’. Unfortunately, I found the opposite to be true: during the month I had this book, I found myself reading almost anything else, and it was a real […]
It seems it may no longer be possible to be “well-read”, although much depends on how you define the term. Once, a reader who had read Shakespeare, Milton and works by a few of their contemporaries could claim to be well-read. Now, there are so many new books published each month that it sometimes feels […]
I like narratives with a distinctive voice. That said, I find narrators with a truly distinctive voice can take a bit of getting used to. My first perusal of the opening pages of Ken Bruen’s ‘Purgatory’ didn’t inspire me to read further and I let most of the month slip by, reading other things, until […]
I’m always interested in the reasons writers choose to adopt pseudonyms. Crime novelist Agatha Christie published six “romance” novels as Mary Westmacott; adult sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov wrote a series of YA novels as Paul French; and, of course, Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling was recently unmasked as Robert Galbraith, author of ‘The Cuckoo’s […]
Why are libraries constantly having book sales these days? Once upon a time I’m sure they had sales bi-annually or every quarter, but these days – much like the high street – the sales seem to be on constantly. This means bad things for my overcrowded bookshelves which this week became reluctant hosts to another […]
Recently my reading group tried some books by Reginald Hill. I didn’t think the book I read was especially gripping or well-written but I knew that in 1995 Hill had won the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement and thought I should give the author another try. I decided to read one […]
When I first heard about this on the TV Book Club I was intrigued and immediately added it to my Amazon wish list. Fast-forward a few months and I was delighted to receive it as a birthday gift. This is S. J. Watson’s first novel and can best by described as a psychological thriller. What’s […]