What would you do to protect your sister? Would you be prepared to lie? If so, who to? The rest of your family? The police? How about the family of the boyfriend they killed? And is there anything that might make you reconsider those lies? Korede is about to find out… What’s it about? ‘Perhaps […]
 How did it come to this? We’ve all said things we later wish we hadn’t, but Kia Abdullah takes this concept all the way to trial in her sad and powerful court room drama, ‘Take It Back’. What’s it about? ‘Take it Back’ is a classic he said / she said narrative that presents the […]
‘Like a good detective story myself,’ remarked Miss Howard. ‘Lots of nonsense written, though. Criminal discovered in last chapter. Every one dumfounded. Real crime – you’d know at once.’ In renowned Belgian detective Hercule Poirot’s debut outing (in novel form, at least), everyone involved thinks they know at once who the killer is, but do […]
I’m going to start with an unusual disclaimer here… If you already know you want to read this book, don’t read my review – don’t read any reviews – and definitely don’t read the praise inside the front cover! What’s it about? Sal and Charlie are married. They love each other – supposedly – but […]
‘Two years of internet dating. It’s fair to say they haven’t flown by.’ Meet DS Manon Bradshaw: single, lonely, funny and clever. Steiner introduces us to Manon while she’s on her first, and last, date with Brian – or was it Keith? Either way, the sex was as dull as the conversation, leaving our lonely […]
Trust. Doubt. Ultimately even a court’s conviction is based on a handful of opinions. What damage might it do to a family if those opinions were wrong? If that conviction were unmerited? Would you know? Would you doubt? And would you risk everything to find out? Gillian McAllister’s fourth psychological thriller explores this question through […]
I have been lucky enough to meet Louise Beech in person, and she is lovely. Really lovely. But my word, her characters can be thoroughly horrible to each other! Expect child neglect and abandonment, dark, (consenting adult!) sex games and the brutal murder of a pregnant woman – and those are just the secrets and […]
One hotel. Twenty survivors. Who will be…the last? It’s not surprising that Hanna Jameson’s post-apocalyptic novel is so popular: America’s incumbent President is one who surely has us all wondering when, rather than whether, nuclear war will erupt. But what will happen when it does? Hanna Jameson has some ideas, and they aren’t pretty… What’s […]
He plays the oldest children’s game in the world: hide and seek. Only the Eye Collector plays it to death… I love stories which play with narrative, so when I realised that the story of the Eye Collector began with an epilogue and concluded with a prologue, I knew I was going to enjoy it. […]
‘I know who you are’ by Alice Feeney. Having read and LOVED Alice Feeney’s debut novel, ‘Sometimes I Lie’, I was delighted to spot her second book, ‘I know who you are’, at Crimefest this year. Would it live up to the twisty masterpiece of her first book? The short answer is, not quite, but […]