ROBIN HOBB City of Dragons, Book Three of the Rain Wild Chronicles. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
The dragons and their attendants have found Kelsingra, but can they keep it? Robin Hobb’s The Rain Wild Chronicles series began as a one-off novel, Dragon Keeper (2009), which was cut into two, producing Dragon Haven (2010) as well. City of Dragons was meant to...The Godfather: Peter Corris on books he’s glad to have read
Recently I was asked to name five books that everyone should read. That old chestnut. I declined; people have such different tastes and read in such different ways that the idea makes no sense. I offered instead ‘five books I’m glad to have read’. This was accepted. I...The Godfather: Peter Corris on historical fiction
Historical novels have always been my favourite kind of recreational reading. From Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel to Georgette Heyer’s Regency bucks to sterner stuff like Henry Treece’s bloody tales of Saxon and Roman Britain, I escaped from a dreary...Crime Scene: LIZA MARKLUND Vanished and JO NESBO Phantom. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
Two new novels add to the Nordic crime fiction tsunami. Liza Marklund and Jo Nesbo are both mega-bestselling international authors, as the covers of their books proclaim, and among the most widely read of the present wave of Scandinavian crime writing. Marklund’s...Crime Scene: PETER MAY The Lewis Man. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
Secrets literally buried in the past come to light in this evocative mystery. This is the second novel in the ‘Lewis trilogy’, featuring Fin MacLeod as the detective brought back to his remote home island of Lewis, the northernmost point of the Outer Hebrides. In The...NICOLE WATSON The Boundary. Reviewed by Linda Funnell
Murder, dispossession and revenge fuel this passionate debut. It may have a body on the first page, but The Boundary is no ordinary crime novel. Yes, there is a lawyer-hero (the troubled Miranda Eversley), there is a good cop and a bad cop, bad lawyers, a weak...Crime Scene: Jean Bedford on Georgette Heyer’s crime novels
‘[Heyer is] a superlatively good writer of honourable escape.’ A S Byatt As a teenager, I devoured all of Georgette Heyer’s historical novels. These Old Shades and Powder and Patch have to remain among the best historical romances ever written, and Heyer...MARGO LANAGAN Sea Hearts. Reviewed by Linda Funnell
A vibrant and imaginative fable of magic and tragedy. Sea hearts are a type of shellfish that children gather for their mothers along the blustery shores of Rollrock Island: Some folk ate the best hearts raw, particularly mams; they drank up the liquor inside, and if...Crime Scene: BELINDA BAUER Finders Keepers. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
Crime and mayhem in a small village on the moors. Belinda Bauer’s first crime novel, Blacklands (2010), won the Crime Writers Association (UK) Gold Dagger Award. It was followed in 2011 by Darkside and the third in the series, Finders Keepers, is published this...ROSALIE HAM There Should Be More Dancing. Reviewed by Linda Funnell
This new novel from the author of The Dressmaker features a cross-stitching cross-patch and swings between comedy and pathos. Thousands of fans embraced Rosalie Ham’s first novel, The Dressmaker, when it appeared in 2000. Set in the little country town of...Crime Scene: Jean Bedford on the Nordic Phenomenon
Stieg Larsson has done for the Scandinavian crime novel what Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code did for the conspiracy/adventure novel. Fortunately for crime fiction fans, most of the precursors and followers of Larsson are very good writers, with serious social issues to...
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