Review catch-up – Sophie Hannah and Jonathan Coe

After my week and a bit immersed in Paul Auster, time to get back to normal, with a pair of reviews for you . The Killings at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah This was our book group choice for Jan into Feb which we discussed last week. We were up to ‘K’ in our ‘flora Read More

Into Thin Air by Ørjan Karlsson – blogtour

Translated by Ian Giles The start of a new series of Scandi-crime novels written by a seasoned hand augurs well. Norwegian, Ørjan Karlsson, has written a host of other crime novels and thrillers and obviously decided it was time for a change for his 16th novel. Karlsson grew up in the town of Bødo, which Read More

An Ethical Guide to Murder by Jenny Morris – blogtour

It’s my turn today on the Random Things blog tour for this intriguing crime novel. But first, I’m sending very best wishes to Anne of Random Things who I know is very unwell at the moment, I hope you get better soon, xx. Now to the book. It begins with a premonition… I have an Read More

Nightingale & Co by Charlotte Printz

Translated by Marina Sofia I am delighted to be leading off Corylus Books‘ latest blog tour for their first German novel in translation, and Marina Sofia’s first published translation from that language too, (full disclosure, Marina and I have never met but have been blog friends for years). It is 1961 and we’re in Berlin. Read More

2 more novellas for #NovNov24: A ‘Maigret’ by Simenon and a ‘Parker’ by Stark

The Madman of Bergerac by Georges Simenon (No 15) Translated by Ros Schwartz Inspector Maigret is embarking on a holiday, going to the Dordogne to see an old friend and colleague, with a small job to do in Bordeaux on the side, while Madame Maigret is visiting her sister in Alsace. In his sleeper compartment, Read More

#NovNov24 – an assortment of Novellas – Morpurgo, Magariel, Schenkel

Book Group Report – War Horse by Michael Morpurgo Just occasionally in our book group, we’ll read a children’s book – usually a classic – and War Horse will surely become a modern one. It begins: My earliest memories are a confusion of hilly fields and dark, damp stables, and rats that scampered along the Read More

Black Storms by Teresa Solana – blog tour

Translated from Catalan by Peter Bush I’m delighted to be today’s stop on the blog tour for another new to me crime author, now published by Corylus books in translation. It’s the third crime novel by Teresa Solana, and the first to feature her detective Norma Forester. Now I know you’re thinking that doesn’t sound Read More

#RIPXIX Reprieve by James Han Mattson

I had no idea that ‘extreme haunts’ were a thing until I read this novel in which a team takes on the most extreme escape room of them all – Quigley House in Nebraska – a full-contact, (fake) blood-soaked, series of 5 cells with ‘actors’ in which contestants must find the hidden envelopes to progress Read More

Simenon & a Maigret for the #1970club

It’s time for another reading week hosted by Simon and Kaggsy – this time books published in 1970. Looking at the Wikipedia page for 1970 in Literature I’ve read loads through the years, including classic SF&F from Larry Niven and Roger Zelazny, schmalz from Erich Segal with Love Story, inexplicably Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, and I Read More

The Burning Stones by Antti Tuomainen – blog tour

Translated by David Hackston I’m delighted to be helping to lead off the blog tour for Antti Tuomainen’s latest novel, a standalone murder mystery set in the world of saunas, all done with his surefire comic touch. Once again, in 53-year-old Anni Korpinen, as with Henri Koskinen in Tuomainen’s wonderful Rabbit Factor Trilogy, he has Read More

Six Degrees of Separation: After Story

First Saturday of the month, time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation #6degrees picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Links to my reviews are in the titles of the books chosen. This month Read More

Shiny Linkiness – Walsh and Towles for 20 Books of Summer

I’ve had two recent reviews published at Shiny New Books recently, both read as part of my #20booksofsummer24 reading. Kala by Colin Walsh A superb slowburn literary dual time-lined thriller, Irish author Walsh’s debut was a huge hit last year in hardback. I was sent a proof, but didn’t get the time to read it Read More

Two Fab Thrillers – Jordan Harper & Steve Cavanagh

Two superb thrillers for you today, one from last year and in my #20booksofsummer and one brand new out. Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper I love the tag line of this novel, ‘In Hollywood, nobody talks, but everybody whispers.’ It immediately drew me in, and simultaneously got me humming Leonard Cohen’s wonderful song that shares Read More

Two contemporary French novels – De Vigan and Mehdi – for #WITMonth #20booksofsummer24

From my pile of unread novels by French women authors from Europa Editions for both WIT Month and 20 Books of Summer – two reviews for you. Both contemporary stories with dark themes (you have been warned) – I found both of this pair to be provocative, thought-provoking, intense and moving. Kids Run the Show Read More

#20booksofsummer24 – Dinerstein Knight, Osman and El-Mohar & Gladstone

A three-fer for you today of my #20booksofsummer24 hosted by Cathy, I’m now up to 17 read, 3 to go. Here are the three reviews: one OK, one great fun and one very very different and wonderful – in that order. Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight Naturally, I was attracted to this book by the Read More

Prey by Vanda Symon #SamShephard6, blogtour

This is the first novel I’ve read by New Zealander Symons. It’s the sixth in a series, and whilst I like, where possible, to start a series from the beginning, this sixth volume is like a new start as Detective Sam Shephard returns to work in the Dunedin police after maternity leave. In the Prologue, Read More

How to be Nowhere by Tim MacGabhann #20booksofsummer24 No 9

I might make my 20 Books of Summer (hosted by Cathy as always) with days to spare this year – I expect to finish reading my 15th book tomorrow, and then will get into my #WITMonth TBR reads which all qualify. I’ve just read two books for it which I’ll be reviewing for Shiny (Kala Read More

Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox, blog tour

The moment I read Knox’s first book, Sirens, the first in his excellent Manc-noir Aidan Waits trilogy, I knew I’d want to keep on reading this author. After the three Aidan Waits books, he did something else with his fourth novel True Crime Story (I have the hardback with shocking pink spredges!), and now three Read More

It’s #20booksofsummer24 reviews 1 & 2, Rinder & Moshfegh

And I’m away, with my first two books in Cathy’s #20booksofsummer24. May into the early days of June I had so many blogtours, but I’ve really cut down on them for the duration of the challenge, so I can give it a good go, and join in some of the other reading themed events too, Read More

The Venus of Salò by Ben Pastor – blog tour

Although The Venus of Salò is the eighth book in Ben Pastor’s Martin Bora series, due to the nature of Wehrmakt officer Colonel Martin von Bora being posted all around the Theatre of War in Italy, it’s more episodic a series in nature than many, so I was happy to jump in to the latest Read More

The Coming Storm by Greg Mosse – blogtour

Last year I read Mosse’s first novel, The Coming Darkness (reviewed for Shiny here). A labyrinthine thriller set in the near future in 2037 in a world ravaged by global warming and a killer virus, it introduced us to Alexandre Lamarque, who works for the French equivalent of MI6. Alex found himself caught up in Read More

Murder Under the Midnight Sun by Stella Blómkvist

Translated by Quentin Bates It’s my turn on the blogtour for the second Blómkvist novel to be translated by Quentin Bates for Corylus Books, who continue their quest to bring us translated crime fiction with a sense of social justice. Murder Under the Midnight Sun was published in 2010, and the series has a huge Read More

Profile K by Helen Fields

I love thrillers that will standalone, and Helen Fields’ latest took me by surprise slightly. I was expecting a sequel to The Institution which introduced us to Connie Woolwine, an American profiler and her British sidekick Brodie Baarda, who went undercover in the world’s most secure prison hospital for the criminally insane. Instead, after a Read More

The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey

I’d started seeing a lot of love for this novel on X. It looked a little cosy with the crow picking at the milk-bottle tops on the cover. But on opening the book, I was convinced I had to read it; Godfrey has based her debut novel on her own childhood in Yorkshire in the Read More

Anna O by Matthew Blake

Anna O has been asleep for four years now. A known somnambulist, the experts think it was her body’s response to having committed a terrible double murder while sleepwalking. Now it’s time to wake her up, and the man to do it is Dr Benedict Prince, a forensic psychologist based at a sleep clinic in Read More

Review catch-up: Van Pelt & Gustawsson

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt – Book Group review We’ve moved onto an animal/plant A-Z theme for picking our books for a while, but our opener was an animal free choice, and Alex’s pick about an ageing and clever octopus kept in a Seattle aquarium came out of the hat. It is now Read More

Point Zero by Seichō Matsumoto

Translated by Louise Heal Kawai Seichō Matsumoto is widely regarded as Japan’s greatest populariser of crime fiction, being a prolific author of it himself. Last year, Penguin published a new translation of his first novel from 1958, Points and Lines as Tokyo Express, I was seeing reviews for it everywhere, including Shiny New Books where Read More

Two reviews: Laura Shepherd-Robinson & T M Thomas

In an attempt to clear the books to review decks before my Review of the Year posts next week, here are some shorter reviews, with more to follow. The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson I was very lucky to win a signed copy of this from Laura in a giveaway. It is a totally Read More

Dean Street December – Viva Las Vengeance: The Elvis Mysteries #3 by Daniel Klein

I love taking part in themed reading weeks and months whenever I can, and Liz is hosting this one (see here). Dean Street Press were reprint specialists, particularly mid 20th century women’s fiction from the decades and Golden Age crime – and those are not my usual fare. However, in 2022 they also reprinted a Read More

Dead Sweet by Katrín Júlíusdóttir

Translated by Quentin Bates I’m delighted to be today’s stop on the blog tour for the debut novel by a former Icelandic politician. Katrín Júlíusdóttir served as Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism and Minister of Finance and Economy, and as such she is well placed to give the inside view to the political and Read More