It’s difficult to be original. Still, when a quick search throws up a minimum of three books sharing the same title as this one, I feel a more original option must have been available. Unfortunately, my initial and final response to this book can be summed up with one word: meh. What’s it about? Kelly’s […]
Humpy Dumpty’s dead. Whodunit? If you’re thinking, “erm…he fell?” then you need to read this book. Although he was basically a good guy, businessman Humpty Stuyvesant Van Dumpty III had made a few enemies and was last seen, horribly drunk, boasting about his ability to summon up rather a large sum of money… What’s it […]
‘Every contact leaves a trace.’ This is the Locard Exchange Principle and it’s the fundamental building block of what we term ‘forensics’. In this neatly presented book, talented crime writer Val McDermid explores the development of forensic science and its applications in solving real life crime. What’s it about? McDermid explores the interaction of justice […]
‘Shakespeare translated…vandalised, brutalised and outright demolished…Why? Because we can.’ Such is the bold claim made by Aaron Kite and Audrey Evans, who have ‘interpreted’ Shakespeare’s language to transform ‘Macbeth’ into what ‘a few of us think he would have written if he were still around today, and if he sat around watching a lot of […]
Secrets. All families have them. If you could choose, would you want to know your family secrets? Or would you rather seal any hints in a box you never open? This is Ellen’s dilemma. What’s it about? Mother of two, recently divorced Ellen Sutherland is stunned when she’s left a valuable Cotswold cottage in a […]
East Berlin, 1975, a murdered child, a staged crime scene. You know how sometimes you’re not completely sure about something, but you take a punt and you LOVE IT? That’s my relationship with this book. What’s it about? When Oberleutnant Karin Muller is summoned to investigate a young girl’s body, found at the foot of […]
Historical fiction isn’t my first choice of genre, but something about this book’s blurb appealed to me. …and the cover was lovely. (Yes, I’m afraid I do judge books by their covers, but only until I read them!) Pam Jenoff’s carefully researched novel, ‘The Last Embrace’, uses World War Two as a dramatic backdrop for […]
Ghosts are trapped in the past, right? They might communicate by bashing tables, putting out the lights and throwing a few objects around, but they’re typically portrayed as very old school. Well, not in Peter James’ first ghost story, in which it seems that ghosts can text, email and generally use modern technology to bedevil […]
Endings can be incredibly powerful. An unexpected ending can completely change our perspective on what has gone before, and I have persevered with several very dull or irritating books in the hope that their endings would somehow redeem their middles. (This is doubtless because I remember finding Louis de Bernieres’ ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ a real […]
‘Pride and Prejudice’ is my favourite Austen novel. So when I heard some impudent writer had decided to add zombies to the original in an attempt to ‘transform a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read’, I was torn between horror and intrigue. Where would the zombies fit in the already […]