"It’s the new Sherlock Holmes book.""Really?""Yes, really! Well, not by Conan Doyle obviously but written by Dr Watson. Or rather, Anthony Horowitz pretending to be Dr Watson.""So is it any good, or some kind of joke thing?""Well …." It’s a … Continue reading →
A story about story-telling and the butterfly effect. Lively’s tale about the effects of a single random act on her half-dozen or so characters lifts them off into a chaotic swirl before subsiding and setting them back down in circumstances … Continue reading →
As my recent experience of prize-winning books has been a bit mixed I’m glad to say that I enjoyed this 2011 Costa Book of the Year. Set in late 18th century Paris it tells the story of a young engineer … Continue reading →
Quite a few people rate this book highly but I am not one of them. It’s tedious, dull, unconvincing and verging on pretentious. Trying to understand the enthusiasm, I even tried to see it as allegory but failed there too. … Continue reading →
The assistant in the charity shop recommended this collection of Oxford-based short stories by Oxford-based writers (collectively Oxpens – geddit?). It was a good suggestion. It reminded me why the short story, done well, is a very pleasing genre. Inevitably … Continue reading →
This novel is set in present-day Moscow and evokes a believable atmosphere of smouldering and pervasive corruption. Some reviewers have found the plot dull and predictable, but I prefer to say that the story develops with slow inevitability as the … Continue reading →
I regret to say that I don’t think this book is worthy of the Man Booker prize it won in 2008. I can only think it superficially ticked enough boxes to persuade the judges – first novel, non-white, non-English author, … Continue reading →
I was given this book in an Italian restaurant and Pizzeria in Oxford on World Book Night. It’s not easy to write a book convincingly in the first person, but Mark Haddon has managed to do it well in this … Continue reading →
The second of two Nesbo books I read this month. Both are airport fiction in the Scandinavian noir genre. The characters are rather uninterseting and the main character (the detective) is unattractive. They are both a quick read but don’t … Continue reading →
The first of two Nesbo books I read this month. Both are airport fiction in the Scandinavian noir genre. The characters are rather uninterseting and the main character (the detective) is unattractive. They are both a quick read but don’t … Continue reading →