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 […]
Memory. It is vitally important to our sense of selves, and some of my favourite tales explore how it’s loss can affect us. Christopher Nolan’s film, ‘Memento’ and books including ‘The One Memory of Flora Banks’, ‘How I Lost You‘, ‘The Last Thing I Remember‘, ‘The Girl on the Train‘ and many more create powerful […]
If you like murder mysteries, detective stories and mock Victorian fiction, Lynn Shepherd has a treat for you. Meet Charles Maddox, an honourable man fighting for truth and justice in a world where money means power and lack of either can be deadly. What’s it about? London, 1850. Charles Maddox has been forced to leave […]