by Peter May '[Lockdown] was never published. British editors at the time thought my portrayal of London under siege by the invisible enemy of HSN1 was unrealistic and could never happen - in spite of the fact that all my research showed that, really, it could....... Lockdown was consigned to a folder in my Dropbox, …
Category: Book Review
Castles
The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne by Ann Radcliffe A Review 'They pursued their journey over the wilds, and towards the close of day approached the ruins of an abbey, whose broken arches and lonely towers arose in gloomy grandeur through the obscurity of evening.' In Ann Radcliffe's work, it seems to me, there is …
Rebus 2022
A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin 'John Rebus had been in court plenty of times, but this was his first time in the dock.' So begins A Heart Full of Headstones, my second Rankin read of the month. Unlike Mortal Causes, it is set in the present day during the Covid pandemic, and …
Rebus 1993
Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin 'Big Ger Cafferty was looking good. He was fit and lean and had purpose to his gait. A white t-shirt was tight across his chest, flat across ths stomach, and he wore faded work denims and new-looking tennis shoes. He walked into the Visiting Room like he was the visitor, …
Cloud Cuckoo Land
by Anthony Doerr Like All The Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr's 2014/2015 Pulitzer winner, Cloud Cuckoo Land comes as a big surprise. It is a book within a book, as compelling as it is original, and tells the story in three timelines - well, four really (which I will explain shortly). Beginning and ending …
Lose Face or Die?
Never by Ken Follett A Review What is the probability of nuclear war in the next five years - ten years - your lifetime? And what will be the consequences - hundreds of millions dead, cripples or poisoned - half of the habitable earth a wasteland? These are questions posed by Follett’s brilliant, apocalyptic and …
The Judge’s List
by John Grisham A Review 'After twelve years of investigating judges, Lacy considered herself immune from shock. She was also calloused and jaded enough to have serious doubts about Jeri's story.' For my second book to read over the Christmas period, I chose this thriller by John Grisham. Judges - as far as I know …
A World Without Books?
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury A Review ' "There is nothing magical in [books] at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us." ' Guy Montag is a fireman. But he doesn't put out fires; he starts them! That is …
1989
by Val McDermid A Review 'He unscrewed the jar and took out a capsule. They were dark green, he'd read, so they woudn't deteriorate in sunlight. From his pocket he took out a small vial of white powder ...... Then he replaced the vitamins with the white powder and reassembled the capsule ...... He didn't …
Sisters at the Edge of the World
by Ailish Sinclair A Review 'Atunement. Living flesh, pulsing with the beat of life, touching stone that is also living and beating in another way. There is life within. And there is wisdom. And there is a throb of energy, gathered over time. And love. Yes, love.' The Roman historian Tacitus wrote of a great …
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