There’s a danger in knowing a little bit about a subject portrayed in a book you’re reading. Disbelief becomes hard to suspend and every mistake feels like a personal insult. If the book is one that you’re fairly neutral about in the first place it leads to frustration..
The Olive Tree
8 August 2016 by Leave a Comment
Regular readers will know that I’ve read a couple of Lucinda Riley books recently and absolutely fallen in love with their scope and romantic themes. These are big books that feel light and summery and whisk the reader away into glamourous new worlds…
Watching Edie
3 August 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last week saw the publication of a couple of great psychological thrillers, the first being Clare Mackintosh’s second novel I See You which I reviewed yesterday and the second was Camilla Way’s third novel Watching Edie about a teenage friendship which goes dreadfully wrong…
I See You
2 August 2016 by Leave a Comment
One of my favourite books of last year was I Let You Go, the debut novel by former police officer Clare Mackintosh. It was smart, compelling and had a twist in it that made me re-read several pages over and over again to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake. I was both excited and apprehensive about Mackintosh’s follow-up I See You…
The Deep
1 August 2016 by Leave a Comment
One of the reasons things have been a bit quiet on here recently is because of our new business – a scuba diving school and shop. I’ve not really been reading much – in fact I managed to read only five books across May and June. July has been much better…
Epiphany Jones
21 June 2016 by Leave a Comment
I have a confession before I get into my review of Michael Grothaus’s remarkable debut novel Epiphany Jones You’ll all think less of me and I feel that I should probably lose my right to blog about books. It took me about a week to read Epiphany Jones…
Daisy in Chains
11 June 2016 by Leave a Comment
Last year I had a tie for my favourite book of the year – Clare Mackintosh’s brilliant debut I Let You Go (now nominated for the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year) and Sharon Bolton’s Little Black Lies, a superb psychological thriller set in the Falkland Islands…
The Seven Sisters
2 June 2016 by Leave a Comment
A couple of years ago I read Lucinda Riley’s cracking novel The Midnight Rose. I was swept away by the romance, beauty and scope of the novel but I promised that any future Lucinda Riley books I read would be on the Kindle…
Black Widow
31 May 2016 by Leave a Comment
I’ve been a fan of Christopher Brookmyre for a number of years now. It was the funny titles such as Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks and All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye which first attracted me to the books and the black humour kept me hooked…
Fever at Dawn
26 May 2016 by Leave a Comment
As regular readers know, the Holocaust is one of my special interests. I’ve read a lot of books – memoir, history, and fiction – set in the period of Nazi rule. The stories of survivors will always move me and books such as Elie Wiesel’s testimony Night and Martin Gilbert’s The Boys…