CHINA MIÉVILLE Railsea. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
China Miéville continues to give a poetic and intelligent edge to the fantasy genre. This new book is an absolute joy. Miéville’s writing in Railsea is full of clever allusions, sly glances at popular culture and the work of other writers, wit, and warmth. As well,...Crime Scene: IAN RANKIN Standing in Another Man’s Grave
Rebus is back, as individual and interesting as ever. After five years out in the cold of retirement (literally: he’s been working cold cases as a civilian) Rebus has managed to wangle his way back to CID as a semi-official investigator in Standing in Another...Crime Scene: DENNIS LEHANE Live by Night. Reviewed by Peter Corris
This book is among the best of Lehane’s novels. With books like Mystic River and Shutter Island to his credit, Dennis Lehane has a very good track record, and Live by Night is up there with his best work. Talk about grabbing the reader’s attention: this is how...Crime Scene: LEE CHILD A Wanted Man
In 1997 Killing Floor crashed Lee Child onto the thriller scene as a major new talent. A Wanted Man is the 17th Jack Reacher novel. Reacher is a macho super-hero, an ex-army cop, who is now a transient. His appeal for me lies in the fact that, unlike most...Crime Scene: DEREK B MILLER Norwegian by Night. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
Simply one of the best crime novels of the year. Transcending genre, and blending genres, Norwegian by Night is partly a getaway/chase/escape thriller; partly a police-procedural; partly a social novel about family, displacement, guilt, grief and war, and, throughout,...SEBASTIAN FAULKS A Possible Life. Reviewed by Peter Corris
There are clever and subtle echoes in this book, but it is not a novel. A Possible Life is not a novel and it is misleading of Faulks and his publishers to present it as one. It’s a collection of long short stories, two of which are almost novella length. No...ALISON MOORE The Lighthouse. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
This much-talked-about novel was an outsider selection for the 2012 Booker shortlist. Futh (his only name) takes a ferry to Europe for a week’s walking holiday in Germany after the break-up of his marriage, to ease his transition from the marital home to his new flat....EMILY MAGUIRE Fishing for Tigers
Emily Maguire’s vivid novel of expats in Hanoi reveals some uncomfortable truths. Mischa is a thirty-something Australian woman who washes up in Hanoi in the aftermath of an abusive marriage: I wanted to lose myself so thoroughly that I would never find...LIZ JENSEN The Uninvited
Do we need to be afraid? Liz Jensen’s vision of the near future is terrifying. The Uninvited is a near-future dystopian novel that also taps into the category of ‘weird’ fiction some critics have recently noted in the contemporary English novel. Liz Jensen is...Robert G Barrett: a personal farewell
The creator of the immensely popular Les Norton died on Thursday 20 September 2012. He was a more complex figure than his public image suggested. Bob Barrett loved to stir. The first time I saw him was in a newspaper photograph of the opening...Crime Scene: S J BOLTON Dead Scared
A sinister series of student deaths ignites this gripping thriller. In Cambridge, unprecedented numbers of students seem to be killing themselves, or attempting to; more of them than could be expected from peer-emulation cluster suicides. There is clearly something...
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