I love curling up with a good book, whatever the season. You might find me on a sun lounger in summer or on a park bench in Autumn, but you’ll never find me without a book in my hand and another in my bag. (You never know when you’ll get Bonus Reading Time.) In Winter […]
1 husband, 8 children, 1,000 sheep… It’s testament to Amanda Owen’s busy lifestyle that the strap line for her second book – released in hardback at the end of last year and in paperback today – is already out of date; she now has nine children. (How? I mean, seriously. I find three small people […]
Ancient. Unstoppable. Unleashed. This might initially sound like a strap line more suited to a fantasy novel, or perhaps one set in ancient Egypt, but this is a thriller firmly rooted in a very modern and deeply frightening scenario. I’m delighted to be hosting a stop on the blog tour for L.A. Larkin’s ‘Devour’, an […]
In 1989, someone murdered 20 year-old Lucie Martin and put her body in a lake. Fourteen years later, her bones were discovered during a heatwave, but her murderer remained unknown and a source of intense speculation in Western France. Cue forensic expert Enzo MacLeod, who wants to conclusively solve the cold case so Lucie’s parents can […]
When is a mystery not a mystery? Is it when you can work out the killer in the first third of the book and (rarely) doubt that you’re wrong? Or is it when you’re always several steps ahead of the main investigative character, rendering much of their hypothesising redundant? Maybe it’s when you aren’t convinced […]
Parenting: everyone has opinions and most people are full of advice. Katie Kirby knows better. She knows that parents do their best, that the material they have to work with is occasionally (indeed – often) nearly impossible to fathom or direct, and that amusing anecdotes are far more helpful than any well-meaning advice. With that […]
Ah, Brexit. Whether you love it, hate it, want it or are just thoroughly sick of hearing about it, you can’t avoid it. And nor, it seems, can the Famous Five. This is one of five books in Quercus’ ‘Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups’ series, a collection which aims to entertain nostalgic readers by embroiling the (now […]
I LOVED this book. ‘The One Memory of Flora Banks’ features an unreliable narrator, a touching coming of age tale and a bit of a mystery. What’s it about? Flora is 17 and has retrograde amnesia as a result of a brain tumour she had removed when she was ten. This means she is unable […]
Five Go…Parenting? If you’re at all familiar with Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books, then the title above is likely to give you pause. I’ve not spotted these in the shops (which tells me I’ve spent too little time browsing books lately!) but I imagine they occupy a similar POS to the new Ladybird ‘How it […]
‘New name. New family. Shiny. New. Me.’ People talk about the relative influences of nature vs nurture. But what if both influences were disturbingly malign throughout your childhood? Could you still forge a new path? If there are good and bad wolves inside each of us, which will win in the battle for supremacy? Annie […]