How would you react if you were arrested for murder? Would you be angry? Frightened? Horrified? Or would you reflect on the prevalence of earthquakes in your adopted city? If the latter sounds like you then you might get along very well with Lucy Fly, English-born, Tokyo-based and newly minted murder suspect. What’s it about? […]
Being sentenced to die is tough. Waiting for the sentence to be carried out is even tougher. Hannah Kent’s intriguing debut novel ‘Burial Rites’ focuses on one woman’s experience of this difficult time. What’s it about? Our perceptions of people and the power of story-telling. Agnes Magnúsdóttir has been condemned to die for her part […]
Why would a teenage girl deliberately step in front of a bus? It’s obvious that a fiction book called ‘The Accident’ and marketed as a suspense thriller is going to be about something more chilling than a simple accident, and so it proved with C. L. Taylor’s crime debut. The premise Sue Jackson is horrified […]
When I first heard about this on the TV Book Club I was intrigued and immediately added it to my Amazon wish list. Fast-forward a few months and I was delighted to receive it as a birthday gift. This is S. J. Watson’s first novel and can best by described as a psychological thriller. What’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 […]
When a publisher chooses to distinguish a book from others by bragging on the front cover about how many awards it has (nearly) won I am always a tad sceptical. I can’t help but feel that a good book should sell itself, although I acknowledge the commercial realities publishers face. Longlisted for this award and […]