I think Denis Shaughnessy just invented a new genre. This is crime fiction, but it’s also a wickedly funny send-up of crime novels. It’s a wonderfully self-aware text, in which a completely not self-aware author creates chaos by writing literally whatever comes into his head and hoping the reader will let him get away with […]
‘It’s a book about the lies we tell ourselves and others,’ says Sarah Govett. She adds: ‘and the evil that can be perpetrated if we, for whatever reason, convince ourselves that another group of people is somehow lesser or ‘other’. This theme at the very core of ‘We go on Forever’ is what I loved […]
Be careful: you might get what you wished for… I’m not usually a fan of supernatural tales, but this is a novel by Louise Beech, and it’s so beautifully done that I’m entranced. What’s it about? A haunted theatre. A murdered actress. Three cursed teenagers. A secret that devastates them all… The Dean Wilson Theatre […]
Would you play a game to save your life? I’m a big fan of psychological thrillers and the premise for ‘Play for me’ was definitely intriguing: ‘LJ must give the performance of a lifetime, if she wants to avoid a deadly final curtain call…’ What’s it about? LJ’s life is going downhill – fast. She […]
‘I am Ana. I was the wife of Jesus.’ So begins this fascinating tale of a woman who is born into the deeply patriarchal world of first century Galilee and is sold by her father to her husband, but longs to control her own destiny. Along the way she marries Jesus Ben Joseph, more commonly […]
Nine suicides. One cult. No leader. It was another fantastic strapline that first drew my attention to Will Carver’s fascinating and disturbing tale about The People of Choice, who are enduring their lives without feeling them and ending their lives without wanting to. If you enjoyed Carver’s previous novel, ‘Good Samaritans’, which was brilliant but […]
This is a ‘Thursday Next’ novel and the short version of my review is as follows: it is excellent. If you like books, you should probably read it, but if you’ve not read anything by Fforde before, or if you’ve yet to be introduced to the fiction hopping phenomenon that is Thursday Next’s BookWorld, then […]
‘Pride and Prejudice’ meets ‘Sex and the City’. Here’s the short version: if you love P&P, you’ll be fascinated (and possibly outraged) by some of the modern adaptations Sittenfeld has introduced. If you like chick-lit, you’ll likely enjoy this regardless of your knowledge – or lack of knowledge! – of the inspirational text. What’s it […]
Some events cause ripples. Other events shape lives. When Samuel Darte’s mother disappears one morning, his life doesn’t alter course slightly, it derails and becomes stuck. Stunned by the suddenness of it all, Samuel is disbelieving, determined to uncover the truth at the cost of his own life, which remains immured in a past he […]
People’s Police murder squad leader Karin Muller has been through a lot. When I read Young’s stunning debut novel, ‘Stasi Child’, I delighted in the clever and absorbing story, but wondered what else Young could throw at his rather naïve, highly principled and dedicated detective. The answer has turned out to be, a heck of […]