Eurovision fans, here’s a treat for you. In ‘No Dream Impossible’, Nigel May treats readers to a comedy murder mystery, set during the “Eurowide” song contest. What’s it about? Willkommen, bienvenue and welcome! It’s time for the newly launched musical celebration that is the Eurowide Song Contest, debuting in the unglamorous city of Ermpit in […]
‘All of them? Even the children?’ The fireplace sputtered and crackled and swallowed his gasp. ‘Slaughtered?’ ‘Worse.’ There was silence then. And in that hush lived all the things that could be worse than slaughter. By now, readers of Louise Penny’s Three Pines series may think they know these characters well, but Penny is determined […]
This is one of those ‘it caught my eye, but’ books. It clearly caught my eye enough for me to buy it, and, in fact, I recently added a second Louise Penny title to my collection, still without having ever read the first. There was obviously something about the plots I found appealing – or […]
Imagine seeing colours when you hear sounds. Jasper does. Some are beautiful, some are ugly, but all of them help him understand a world he often finds confusing. Tuesday is bottle green. Wednesday is toothpaste white. And Bee Larkham’s murder was ice blue crystals with glittery edges and jagged, silver icicles. What’s it about? Jasper […]
‘A glorious mash-up of William Golding and Arthur Conan Doyle’ – Val McDermid. The quote above is all you need to know, but if you’d like to learn more about Stu Turton’s latest genre-defying escapade of a book, then keep reading. What’s it about? A murder on the high seas. A detective duo. A demon […]
It normally makes a brilliant party, the murder game. But that’s only true when no one actually dies… What’s it about? Secrets. Shame. The ancient history that binds friends together long past the expiration of their shared joy. The set up: Polskirrin, a beautiful house on a remote Cornish coastline. Eight guests, two hosts and […]
How do we ever reach the truth? In Riku Onda’s deliciously disturbing tale, multiple narrators seek to bear witness to a terrible event, but it is clear that each brings their own prejudices and preoccupations to their retelling. How then, does one achieve clarity and understand the heart of the matter? Perhaps the emotions and […]
One hotel. Twenty survivors. Who will be…the last? It’s not surprising that Hanna Jameson’s post-apocalyptic novel is so popular: America’s incumbent President is one who surely has us all wondering when, rather than whether, nuclear war will erupt. But what will happen when it does? Hanna Jameson has some ideas, and they aren’t pretty… What’s […]
Dead Opposite the Church The factual title gives you a feel for how this crime novel will develop: facts are followed by facts and little intuition is needed to connect them, which is just as well, as our main protagonist is rather short on intuition… What’s it about? Edward Packman ran his weekly newspaper as […]
This is, without doubt, my favourite book of 2018 so far. Think Agatha Christie…with body hopping complications. Think locked room mystery…within which a murderer is seeking to kill all the incarnations of you. Think bloody good read, and you’ll be right. What’s it about? It’s not often that I steal the blurb wholesale, but this […]