“There were no fines, but the negative feedback in SleepAdvisor could impact upon the following year’s popularity – and rates.” The wonderfully inventive sci-fi / fantasy / literary / comic genius Jasper Fforde is back with a standalone novel introducing the Winter Consul Service and Charlie Worthing: novice Consul, ethical thinker and reluctant dreamer… What’s […]
Very hyped books. You know those books. The ones EVERYONE is talking about? The one even your non-book-reading friends have read? Yeah, that one. And you find yourself wondering, how is it possible that I’ve not read this? Why don’t I possess a copy yet? If you’re a book blogger there might even be a […]
‘Right, I thought, just because you’ve gone mad doesn’t mean you should stop acting like a policeman.’ And that’s the beauty of this book in a nutshell: even when he’s faced with feuding River Gods and Goddesses, and vicious revenant ghosts apparently obsessed with puppet shows, freshly minted constable Peter Grant is ready to employ […]
If you kiss your spouse’s double, is it cheating? If you met your quantum double, would you like them? And most pressingly of all, how on earth would you find your way back to your own home in your own universe? In Vitali Vitaliev’s new novel, his confused characters, Viktor and Katherine Petroff, and Victor […]
Five of us had run away that fateful night just over a month before. Only three of us would be going home. And nothing, nothing would ever be the same again. ‘Runaway’ is described in the blurb as a crime thriller but is really a road trip adventure that happens to encompass a crime. Nonetheless, […]
This is, without doubt, my favourite book of 2018 so far. Think Agatha Christie…with body hopping complications. Think locked room mystery…within which a murderer is seeking to kill all the incarnations of you. Think bloody good read, and you’ll be right. What’s it about? It’s not often that I steal the blurb wholesale, but this […]
Imagine. A small, unfamiliar boy is standing, parentless, companionless, by the swimming pool reception. The pool is closing. The receptionist wants to go home. You want to go home. The receptionist asks you to take the boy home and you agree, reluctantly. But when you get there, the house is clearly not a home. What […]
I LOVED THIS BOOK. ‘The October List’ is a crime novel with a fabulous twist: the story unfolds in reverse. Think ‘Memento’ but with fewer tattoos and less treachery. Nah, I’m kidding. There’s plenty of treachery. The idea Gabriela’s daughter has been kidnapped. She is waiting desperately for news. The door opens, but it isn’t […]
I may be something of an unusual crime reader. As a rule, I’m really not bothered about the detectives; I mostly just want to know about the crimes, the clues and the solutions. Oh and the motivations, obviously! I think this is probably why I don’t typically get attached to crime series featuring recurring characters: […]
I’ll admit it: the title hooked me. Then, the premise: I love books that explore alternative possibilities, Sliding Doors style, especially ones with significant consequences, not just romantic ones. What’s it about? Joanna meets a man in a bar. He bothers her. She leaves, walking home alone. Then, she hears footsteps behind her. She’s sure […]