Broken Ground by Val McDermid A Review Published in 2018, Broken Ground is a police procedural set in Edinburgh and the Highlands of Scotland. Thus I couldn't resist delving into it. ' "I need you over here. This body that's supposed to have been in the ground for seventy-four years? He's wearing a pair of …
Category: Book Review
Tidelands
by Philippa Gregory A Review 'This was the walking night for the dead, this night and their saints' days; but she did not think her drunken violent husband had been under the care of any particular saint.' Alinor Reekie scratches out a living for herself and her children Rob and Alys in the marshlands of …
The Confession
by Jessie Burton A Review 'I was fourteen when I killed my mother.' Elise Morceau is twenty years old in 1980 when she meets thirty-five-year-old novelist Constance Holden in London. They embark on a love affair. One of Constance's novels is being made into a movie and Constance takes Elise with her to Hollywood to …
Undiscovered Territory
The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle A Review 'Challenger smiled with weary and tolerant contempt, as a kindly man would meet the yapping of a litter of puppies.' 'Beyond was an open glade, and in this were five of the most extraordinary creatures that I had ever seen .... Even the babies were as …
An English Tragedy
Witchfinders by Malcolm Gaskill A Review 'Even the illusion of a diabolical saviour might be preferable to the certainty of God's damnation.' 'Most extraordinary were the complaints of parishioners at Brandeston - not that their minister John Lowes had been set up on a charge of witchcraft - and hanged like a dog, but that …
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott A Review ‘Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian?’ What, you …
The Family
by Louise Jensen A Review 'I am still wrestling to be free as I am dragged, my feet scraping the ground, but I'm losing the fight ..... I know they'll never let us leave here now. Not alive anyway.' Not to be confused with Mario Puzo's splendid novel with the same title, Louise Jensen's fifth …
Before It’s Too Late
by Jane Isaac A Review 'A wet sponge touched my nose. I threw my eyes open. It was not a sponge. I shuddered, darted back. A rat.' It is always good to read a novel set in places one knows quite well. Before It's Too Late is one such story, a police procedural thriller based …
The Daemon’s in all of us!
The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman A Review Like many other fans of the original trilogy - and already well into The Secret Commonwealth - I sat down three weeks ago to watch the BBC's production of His Dark Materials. At lunchtime on the following day, I discussed it with a friend. Of course, it …
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood A Review 'Just look at Tirzah! She sits there, With her strands of vagrant hair; See her down the sidewalk stride, Head held high and full of pride. See her catch the guardian's glance, Tempt him to sinful circumstance. Never does she change her way, Never does she kneel to pray! Soon …
