Loved the premise; loved the outcome; loved the atmosphere. ‘The Silence of the Sea’ is apparently Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s sixth novel featuring lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir, but it worked perfectly well as a standalone. I like a story where the main focus is on the current investigation, rather than on the protagonist’s current life issues, and this […]
Sometimes a book surprises you. Last year that book was David Young’s debut novel, ‘Stasi Child’ – winner of the CWA Historical Dagger award. Despite my vague belief that I don’t really enjoy reading historical fiction, despite my occasional professed boredom with another story focusing on life in post-WW2 Germany, I LOVED ‘Stasi Child’. It’s […]
You know a story’s good when you start again at the beginning as soon as you’ve read the ending. I discovered Diane Setterfield’s ‘The Thirteenth Tale’ at my local Lounge bar book swap one afternoon and was immediately hooked. Why? Look: ‘All children mythologise their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know […]
Sometimes there is no safe place. So begins the blurb for Tana French’s fourth novel, ‘Broken Harbour’, in which it gradually becomes clear that a family’s house and their relationship with it has played a significant role in their murders. What’s it about? A family of four have been found slain in their own home. […]
“The Rolling Stones? They won’t last.” I’m pretty sure that the knowing smirk invited by comments like the one above is the only reason I occasionally read historical fiction. ‘Kiss Me Quick’ is set in 1960s Brighton and features mods, rockers, gangsters and a massively corrupt police force, so there’ll be drugs, violence, fighting and […]
If you enjoy ambiguity and unreliable narrators, you’ll love this. ‘The Girl on the Stairs’ is Louise Welsh’s fifth novel but the first I’ve read (thanks book group!). After this, I’ll definitely be checking out her back catalogue. What’s it about? Heavily pregnant Jane has just moved to Berlin with her Lebenspartner. While Petra works, […]
I’m always interested in the reasons writers choose to adopt pseudonyms. Crime novelist Agatha Christie published six “romance” novels as Mary Westmacott; adult sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov wrote a series of YA novels as Paul French; and, of course, Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling was recently unmasked as Robert Galbraith, author of ‘The Cuckoo’s […]
The image of an animal’s skull on the cover promised mystery and death. Add that to a recommendation by Val McDermid and I was quite happy to read Bauer’s debut crime novel. The idea: writing to a serial killer Bullied at school, ignored by teachers and overlooked at home, Steven Lamb is not enjoying his […]