editor’s choice

  There’s something extremely unsettling about Harriet Tyce’s Blood Orange – unsettling, unnerving, compelling. As I read it, I could feel myself getting more and more tense and then angry – at the characters and the situations they put themselves in, yes, but then at myself. So many of the things that the protagonist experiences … Continue readings →

  The rain creates walls in the night. Falling from the sky, they are like mirrors, reflecting and warping the blue light from the police car. Everything spins. The street emerges from the darkness and loses itself behind the harbour lights, and there – right in the middle, just where it suddenly drops downhill – … Continue readings →

Tags : Bavaria, Chastity Riley, German noir, Hamburg, Ivo Stepanovic, noir, Orenda Books, reading on location, Simone Buccholz

  There was a single homestead somewhere to the north of the fence, and another to the south. Next-door neighbours, three hours apart. The road to the east was invisible from the grave itself. And road was a generous description. The wide dirt track could sit silent for days without being troubled by a vehicle. … Continue readings →

  Matt Wesolowski’s Changeling is like a masterclass in how to construct a good plot. It’s exacting, clever and chilling, while using themes and motifs of which we are all culturally aware, and of which we’re fearful, in ways that constantly challenge our perception, making us question what’s truth and what’s reality – and frankly … Continue readings →

  There was once an inn that sat peacefully on the bank of the Thames at Radcot, a long day’s walk from the source. There were a great many inns along the upper reaches of the Thames at the time of this story … but beyond the usual ale and cider, each one had some … Continue readings →

  ‘For everyone, everywhere, who believes in freedom and equality for all’: the dedication to The Word for Freedom, a short story anthology celebrating one hundred years of women’s suffrage, speaks for itself. At the very heart of the collection, edited by Amanda Saint and Rose McGinty, is the fact that ‘we still need words … Continue readings →

Tags : abuse, domestic violence, Hestia, hope, inequality, injustice, Retreat West, second sex, slavery, suffrage, suffragettes, the word for freedom, UK says no more, voting matters, women's rights

  It’s a huge pleasure to have finally read Louise Voss’s The Old You. Like many, I’d heard about the book, read reviews and even had a copy on my shelves, beckoning to me over the last months – yet I didn’t read it as I didn’t have the time. Then, as luck would have … Continue readings →

  Today, we’re delighted to welcome writer TOM COX to The Literary Lounge. The author of nine non-fiction books – and friend to many felines, including the beautiful The Bear – Tom makes his fictional debut this month with the short story collection Help the Witch, published by Unbound. Tom, thanks so much for joining … Continue readings →

Tags : 21st Century Yokel, Help the Witch, Help the Witch Blog Tour, Ramblings Clare Balding, Random Things Tours, Short stories, short story collections, The Bear, Tom Cox, Tom Cox journalist, Unbound, Witch

  ANTHONY BURGESS ONCE COMMENTED THAT ‘ALL NOVELS ARE EXPERIMENTAL’, and while that appears true of such work as A Clockwork Orange and Napoleon Symphony, I think he would be delighted with Adam Roberts’ The Black Prince, based on a 90-page screenplay that Burgess wrote, which was never filmed. Roberts, an academic, great Burgess fan … Continue readings →

Tags : 14th century England, Adam Roberts, Anthony Burgess, Dos Passos, Edward III, from screen to novel, historical fiction, medieval European historical fiction, pastiche, The Black Prince, Unbound, war

  The Incendiaries, RO Kwon’s debut novel, is a restrained study of obsession, deceit, love and loss. Kwon’s characters, Will, Phoebe and John Leal, meet at an elite American university. Will and Phoebe are students there, John Leal, the arcane leader of a cult linked to North Korea who focuses his attention on recruiting Phoebe. … Continue readings →

  Good crime fiction usually grabs you from the very first page, immersing you instantly in the author’s world. Great books grab you from the very first words: Ausma Zehanat Khan’s excellent The Language of Secrets does just that. Set in twenty-first century Canada, on paper the book is a tale of our times, its … Continue readings →

Tags : 21st-century terrorism in fiction, Ausma Zehanat Khan, Canadian crime fiction, Canadian noir, crime fiction award-winning fiction, Khattak, The Language of Secrets, Toronto

  The ability to make people laugh is a great thing – and writers who can do so seemingly effortlessly are worth their weight in gold. Gina Kirkham is one such author, and Constable 1261 Mavis Upton a wonderful protagonist. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, Mavis’s second outing, hits the ground running. The year is 1999 and … Continue readings →

   ‘Better to be the one who leaves than the one who’s left behind.’   ‘You think?’”   –Polly/Peilan responding to Leon   Following its publication in America, Lisa Ko’s quietly powerful novel, The Leavers, received well-deserved critical acclaim. Now, as the launch title in Dialogue Books’ exciting new list, it will reach far wider … Continue readings →

  Nordic Noir writer Gunnar Staalesen pays more than a nod to Raymond Chandler in his latest book, Big Sister, the twentieth featuring popular PI Varg Veum. The Little Sister (1949) was Chandler’s fifth book featuring Philip Marlowe. ‘I have a sentimental relationship with [The Little Sister],’ he says, ‘because it was the first one … Continue readings →

  In a year of extraordinarily good crime fiction, much of which has been published by small or independent presses, Orenda does it again, hitting the mark with Johana Gustawsson’s excellent novel, Keeper. Canadian profiler Emily Roy and French writer Alexis Castells, introduced to audiences in the critically acclaimed Block 46, get a second outing … Continue readings →