Robert Galbraith is a fantastic crime writer. Maybe it’s because he’s a she and she’s JK Rowling. Yes, the very same and yes, Harry Potter. Now that’s over with, and in case you were in any doubt – which frankly you might have been if, like me, you ever tried to read Rowling’s The Casual […]
I think that the last time I wrote about a Lisa Jewell book I felt exhausted. A little worn out after having read so many of her novels in a relatively short period of time, a few of which had made me feel profoundly sad. When I picked up Watching You I felt that I […]
It’s always a good day when you open a new novel for the first time, but never more so than when it’s author is Jane Harper and the book in question is one you didn’t think you would have the opportunity to read for the next few months. Imagine my delight when my summer vacation […]
Fiction and reality blur fabulously in The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz. Last summer I had read and really enjoyed The Magpie Murders, but hadn’t pulled the trigger (sorry!) on buying another Horowitz until I found myself splurging at Bookshop Santa Cruz. When you end up buying upwards of five books, you start to […]
If you know me at all, you will understand that I am not one of life’s happy campers. I can appreciate the beauty of the great outdoors without experiencing any desire at all to sleep in it. My back is designed to carry a simple day pack, not a tent or a stove. I value […]
There is always a special place in life for the books that surprise you, taking you somewhere utterly different to where you had assumed you were going. The Changeling by Victor Lavalle is one such novel and in my mind, it’s a masterpiece, which is not a term I use lightly. This novel languished on […]
There are times when we have all toyed with being terrible parents, tempted to do the wrong thing. For most of us however, the angel on our shoulder kicks in, reminding us of our parental obligation and ensuring beyond a shadow of a doubt that our child or children are taken good care of. Not […]
If you have pesky commitments like a day job, mortgage, kids, then picking up The Widow by Fiona Barton, is probably not your best idea. Some books, the best kind, demand to be read from the second you pick them up and The Widow is one such novel. Jean Taylor is the kind of woman […]
OK, I admit it. This is yet another crime novel set in Bristol. I believe that now makes three for this blog. If you have little knowledge of the UK, you must be envisaging that Bristol, the city I went to school in, is some kind of latter day Gotham City. A hotbed of crime […]
In the past I have been critical of novels written in reverse chronology. Last summer I devoted a chunk of time to reading The Rocks by Peter Nichols and when I sat down to write a review of the book, I simply couldn’t. The story was great, engaging in fact, but the chronology was all […]
Nutshell Book Reviews 