Another thoroughly enjoyable criminal romp for Anthony Horowitz and the enigmatic Daniel Hawthorne, uncovering the murderer of a vicious theatre critic before Horowitz is re-arrested for the crime.
Book Review: The Twist of a Knife, Anthony Horowitz
Category: Detective
Book Review: The Library of the Dead, T. L. Huchu
A gripping and fast-moving young adult alternative-reality fantasy novel with really effective world building, a (somewhat precocious) thoroughly engaging protagonist and a well-crafted plot. Comparisons with the Rivers of London series are both inevitable and, in general terms, justified.
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Book Review: The Trees, Percival Everett
A truly strange and disturbing novel, simultaneously horrific and hilarious, brutal and humane - a coruscating satire of American racial conflict and politics, embedded in both Trump's America and the lynching of Emmett Till in the 1955.
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Book Review: When We Were Orphans, Kazuo Ishiguro
Occasionally brilliant, but somehow less satisfying than I would expect from an Ishiguro novel, When We Were Orphans explores familiar themes and characters but feels perhaps shackled by the weight of its own detective fiction baggage.
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Book Review: The Ink Black Heart, Robert Galbraith
A rather flabby and mediocre entry in the Cormoran Strike series, it contains all the ingredients you'd expect: Strike and Robin still fancy each other and do nothing about it; Strike shags other women and Robin remains celibate; Strike drinks tea the colour of creosote and hurts his leg; there's a murder.
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Book Review: Big Sky, Kate Atkinson
Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village in North Yorkshire, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son Nathan and ageing Labrador Dido, both at the discretion of his former partner Julia. It’s a picturesque setting, but there’s something darker lurking behind the scenes.Jackson’s current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband… Continue reading Book Review: Big Sky, Kate Atkinson
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Book Review: The Twyford Code, Janice Hallett
Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children's book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. Wanting to know more, he took it to his English teacher Miss Iles, not realising the chain of events that he was setting in motion. Miss Iles became convinced… Continue reading Book Review: The Twyford Code, Janice Hallett
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Book Review: As Good As Dead, Holly Jackson
Pip Fitz-Amobi is haunted by the way her last investigation ended. Soon she’ll be leaving for Cambridge University but then another case finds her . . . and this time it’s all about Pip. Pip is used to online death threats, but there’s one that catches her eye, someone who keeps asking: who will look for you… Continue reading Book Review: As Good As Dead, Holly Jackson
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Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie: Favourite Fictional Detectives
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics August 3: Titles or Covers That Made… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie: Favourite Fictional Detectives
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Book Review: Dead Lions, Mick Herron
“It’s a phrase, black swan,” she said. “Means a totally unexpected event with a big impact. But one that seems predictable afterwards, with the benefit of hindsight.” Synopsis Dickie Bow is not an obvious target for assassination.But once a spook, always a spook. And Dickie was a talented streetwalker back in the day, before he… Continue reading Book Review: Dead Lions, Mick Herron
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Book Review: A Line to Kill, Anthony Horowitz
Many thanks to Anthony Horowitz and Penguin Books for the chance to read this ARC, courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. I've really enjoyed Horowitz' crime capers in the past as he has played with the form: the Susan Ryeland series (Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders) which interpose Atticus Pund's fiction-within-a-fiction detective… Continue reading Book Review: A Line to Kill, Anthony Horowitz
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Book Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood, Holly Jackson
“What do you do when the things that are supposed to protect you, fail you like that” A Good Girl's Guide to Murder seemed to explode over my social media last year - and it warranted the press and publicity once I got round to reading it. Pip Fitz-Amobi's investigation into Andie Bell's disappearance and… Continue reading Book Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood, Holly Jackson
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Book Review: Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith
“They don’t disappear, the dead. It’d be easier if they did. I can see her so clearly. If she walked up those steps now, part of me wouldn’t be surprised. She was such a vivid person.” This fifth installment of Robert Galbraith's - yes, we all know it is J. K. Rowling - offers up… Continue reading Book Review: Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith
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The Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
I’m hoping it will not be the essay I proposed to Mrs Morgan. I’m hoping it will be the truth. What really happened to Andie Bell on the 20th April 2012? And – as my instincts tell me – if Salil ‘Sal’ Singh is not guilty, then who killed her? How would a community react… Continue reading The Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
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The Searcher, Tana French
“The morning has turned lavishly beautiful. The autumn sun gave the greens of the fields an impossible, mythic radiance and transformed the back roads into light-muddled paths where a goblin with a fiddle, or a pretty maiden with a basket, could be waiting around every game and-bramble bend. Cal is in no mood to appreciate… Continue reading The Searcher, Tana French
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Execution, S. J. Parris
All it would take - so I believed - was one ruler willing to allow people of different faiths to live alongside one another without persecution, and surely they would begin to recognise that their common humanity superseded the division they had been taught to fear? The Tudor period does hold such a firm and… Continue reading Execution, S. J. Parris
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Moonflower Murders, Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz... creator of Alex Rider and Christopher Foyle, writer for Midsomer Murders from its inception, trusted with the legacy of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond. If you were ever looking for a safe pair of hands for a light-hearted, entertaining detective novel, Anthony Horowitz is it! His two recent (currently unconnected but very similar)… Continue reading Moonflower Murders, Anthony Horowitz
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And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
Aeons passed… worlds span and whirled… Time was motionless… It stood still - it passed through a thousand ages… No, it was only a minute or so… Two people were standing looking down on a dead man…
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Top Five Saturday: Murder Mystery
The Top 5 series is back! Top Five Saturday is a meme hosted by Devouring Books to discover and share books that all have a common theme. Previously on the blog I have focused on witches, werewolves, thrillers, faeries, fairy tale re-tellings, high fantasy and many more. I am going to try and bring this series back for… Continue reading Top Five Saturday: Murder Mystery
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When Will There Be Good News, Kate Atkinson
Oh Kate Atkinson! The master of literary coincidence! There is something about Atkinson: I adore her writing style and love her books - both the very literary crime fiction of ex-policeman Jackson Brodie, and the more explicitly literary novels like Life After Life - but they need time to digest and ruminate on. And clearly… Continue reading When Will There Be Good News, Kate Atkinson
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The Benefit of Hindsight, Susan Hill
As a series continues, they become increasingly difficult to review, don't you find? All the witty and intelligent comments you can think of you have used before! So, looking at The Benefit of Hindsight, have we got all the hallmarks of a Simon Serrailler novel? Has Lafferton been struck by a series of horrific crimes?… Continue reading The Benefit of Hindsight, Susan Hill
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One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson
Read with caution: Cleaning companies may never be the same again! I've come to Kate Atkinson late in her career: I can recall surprisingly vividly my mother's water damaged, crinkly paper copy of Behind the Scenes at the Museum teetering on the side of the bath - an avocado kitsch bath - from my childhood… Continue reading One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson
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Snap, Belinda Bauer
It's that time of year again, the Man Booker Longlist has been released and I do try to keep.up to date with them - as I do with the Costa and Women's Prize lists. Sometimes they can be a bit hit-and-miss, sometimes a little pretentious, but generally a good addition to my TBR list and… Continue reading Snap, Belinda Bauer
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