reviews

  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 →

  Rich in culture, history and beauty, India is a popular setting for novels, particularly ones of a historic persuasion – the southern states though, usually don’t get a look in. Claire Scobie’s The Pagoda Tree, set in late 1700s’ Tamil Nadu, thus stands out. It’s a book I read with particular interest as my … Continue readings →

   It’s a bright  moon outside, and from the window of my house I can see the skeletal gray of the factory, the banners draped like sashes and the deep arterial red of Mandarin characters demanding change … “I’m standing by the window thinking about Jews and shoes and this beautiful Chinese woman asleep behind … Continue readings →

  Ken Lussey joins the bastion of writers and artists drawing on the Second World War for inspiration. The extremely enjoyable Eyes Turned Skywards takes a real event from August 1942 and runs with it – the mysterious death of the King’s brother, the Duke of Kent, in northern Scotland. While en route to Iceland, … Continue readings →

  ‘You were right, you know,’ Meg called. ‘Sheilas have to be brave every bloody day. Men just need it in bursts, the bastards.’   Joy Rhoades, author of The Woolgrower’s Companion, joins the growing ranks of very fine Australian authors, Jane Harper among them, currently making their mark. Partially inspired by the recollections of … 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 →

  Holly Seddon’s new book, Love Will Tear Us Apart questions the nature of love, friendship and marriage. Focusing on protagonists Kate and Paul, best friends since childhood, it follows their changing relationship over several decades. As teens, the friends vow that if they are both still single aged thirty, they will marry each other. … Continue readings →

  In 1942, a group of war-weary Polish soldiers, travelling through Iran to Palestine, came across a starving child carrying an equally hungry small bear cub in a sack. After some bartering, the child left with food and money, the soldiers with the orphan cub, even though they weren’t technically allowed to keep pets. Still, … 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 →

  JACQUES, I believe in hope, too. And now I believe in Promises. I never made any because I couldn’t. I make this one. We will see our house, in your paradise…”   The Soldier’s Home, actor–writer George Costigan’s follow-up to the best-selling The Single Soldier, finds Jacques Vermande living in France in the early … Continue readings →

  The second of Peter Murphy’s books featuring charmingly self-depreciative Charlie Walden, Judge Walden Back in Session is an absolute joy to read. Set in south London, where Charlie is Resident Judge of Bermondsey Crown Court, it features five stories which can be read as standalones but are better, in fact, read in sequence. I … Continue readings →