Reviews 

I don’t think this is a very good book, although as a quasi-historical novel about a recent bit of Cypriot history that I had pretty well...

Nominated for a Theakstons Crime Book of the Year award, this was certainly different, with a good plot, but for me totally let down by...

Book of the year so far. A real helicopter view of homo sapiens starting pretty well with the science and biology, ending with cyborgs...

I read this probably in reaction to Rick Stein's book (no.292). Hopkinson is a cook rather than a restauranteur (he may be that as well)...

Not quite sure why I bought this, although it did win the Booker prize and is good, if a little ponderous for me. I found it difficult to...

The final book in the quintet; I wouldn’t have read this straightaway but had to spend four hours in the hospital waiting room yesterday...

This is the fourth, and I think she planned final book in the quartet. They do get better as you progress through them; the characters...

Book 2 of the above. This focuses sporadically on three of the daughters, Louisa, Polly and Clary. Louisa, who is a little older, has...

Book 3 which takes us from 1942 to the end of the war. Lots of events as the girls grow up and Louise gets married to a dreadful man,...

Never read this, or any of her books, before. Huge cast of characters, introduced in short ensemble sketches, so very difficult to...

I hadn’t understood this, but The Maltese Falcon is in fact a Red Herring. My reading of the plot, although Wikipedia doesn’t support...

Having seen this guy in the library last week, thought I would try some of his other books. This one doesn’t feature Resnick, but another...

Another John Harvey from the library; there are lots. They are well plotted, and one of the interesting aspects is that the narration is...

I think I have read one of the Resnick novels before, without really enjoying it. Jon Harvey is coming to speak at our local library in a...

Undoubtedly the worst and stupidest book I have read for a long time. The plot, if it has one, is about an incredibly cross Frenchman,...

Started this on our abortive trip to Dorset. A strange book, fell a bit between two stools as a novel of manners about intrigues between...

A journalist’s reminiscences/anecdotes about the people he has met and had dealings with. Hoggart is (or was, I think he may have died...

Read this years ago; Hill got more experimental (not always successfully) as he got older. This is a parody of a classical comedy; no...

Marketed as ‘The Japanese Steig Larsson’, which it isn’t. But it is good - more Conan Doyle than Larsson. Difficult to describe without...

An adaptation of the TV series, a lot of which I had forgotten or missed. Very good, very long (700+ pages) but fast-paced. Although...