Published by Faber and Faber Publication date – 16 July 2020 Source – review copy I wasn’t in any particular hurry to kill him. What was important was to make sure that the deed was done without suspicion settling on me… Follow P D James, ‘Queen of Crime’, as she takes us into the mind…
Month: October 2020
Fortune Favours the Dead by Stephen Spotswood – review
Published by Headline Publication date – 12 November 2020 Source – review copy New York, 1946. Lillian Pentecost is the most successful private detective in the city, but her health is failing. She hires an assistant to help with the investigative legwork. Willowjean Parker is a circus runaway. Quick-witted and street-smart, she’s a jack-of-all-trades with…
Crossed Skis by Carol Carnac – review
Published by British Library Publication date – 10 April 2020 Source – review copy In London’s Bloomsbury, Inspector Julian Rivers of Scotland Yard looks down at a dismal scene. Here is the victim, burnt to a crisp. Here are the clues – clues which point to a good climber and expert skier, and which lead…
The Reader’s Room by Antoine Laurain – review
Published by Gallic Books Publication date – 22 September 2020 Source – review copy Translated by Jane Aitken, Emily Boyce & Polly Mackintosh When the manuscript of a debut crime novel arrives at a Parisian publishing house, everyone in the readers’ room is convinced it’s something special. And the committee for France’s highest literary honour,…
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow – review
Published by Orbit Publication date – 10 September 2019 Source – review copy EVERY STORY OPENS A DOOR In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored…
The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke by Caroline Smailes – review
Published by Red Door Press Publication date – 15 October 2020 Source – review copy Theodora Quirke has no reason to be merry. It’s bad enough that she has to work on Christmas Eve but now there’s a drunk bloke dressed as Santa and claiming to be St Nick hanging around outside her flat. Given…
The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett – review
Published by Zaffre Publication date – 29 October 2020 Source – review copy The morning after a dinner party at Windsor Castle, eighty-nine-year-old Queen Elizabeth is shocked to discover that one of her guests has been found murdered in his room, with a rope around his neck. When the police begin to suspect her loyal…
Under the Reader’s Radar – celebrating the quiet novel
There are thousands upon thousands of books published each year. Only a small percentage of those make it to the best-seller list. That doesn’t mean that the rest aren’t worthy of reading. It may be that they are written by self-published authors who don’t have the marketing knowledge or a small independent publisher who doesn’t…
The Sleeping Car Murders by Sebastien Japrisot – review
Published by Gallic Press Publication date – 6 August 2020 Source – review copy When the night train pulled into Paris, she was dead. And the riddle began . . . A beautiful young woman lies sprawled on her berth in the sleeping car of the night train from Marseille to Paris. She is not…
Six Degrees of Separation – from The Turn of the Screw to
Six Degrees of Separation is the brainchild of Kate from Books Are My Favourite and My Best. Each month there is a different starter book and through six books, with what can be, on my part, extremely tenuous links, you see which book you end up at. The starter book this month is The Turn of…
From First Page to Last 