‘I was beginning to regret choosing crime as the subject for my mold-breaking bestseller – the red tape was fierce.’ Today I am delighted to host an extract from The Awful Truth About the Herbert Quarry Affair, a book purportedly written by the main character in real time… How does that work? Denis Shaughnessy is […]
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 […]
Would you visit a human safari park? My guess is that you would be revolted by the terminology, but whether or not you actually visited the ‘park’ would partly depend on how you perceive ancient tribes. Are they human beings – or entertainment for more ‘civilised’ beings? My belief is that you would feel – […]
When I have nightmares, they are often about ants. Ants spilling frantically from an anthill, swarming over my ankles as I try to escape – or worse, suddenly clambering over my recumbent limbs as I sunbathe, jolted out of my peaceful reading by thousands of tiny feet pattering over my vulnerable body. *shudder* I’m certain […]
‘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 […]
The best fiction is almost fact. The persecution in James’ novel is sadly familiar: a girl and a woman who others see as different from them becomes feared, reviled and hunted. Increasingly subjected to hate crimes and condemned without evidence, a mother and daughter struggle to clear their reputations in a town which is no […]
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 […]
Lily Owens yearns for her mother. Unfortunately, not only is her mother dead, but Lily believes she killed her. Trapped on a peach farm in South Carolina with her abusive father, T-Ray, Lily longs to become a writer, but can’t imagine how her life will ever amount to anything. One hot July day, inspired by […]