This thriller begins in a promising enough fashion, when a wife sees her husband and his supposed mistress blown up in a car bomb in Paris, but is almost entire spoilt by way too much back story and a ridiculous conclusion. Interesting to learn about Hebridean looms and the material they produce, though. […]
Latest Reviews
Lullaby by Leila Slimani
So French and so chilling. Louise, the nanny of a Parisian couple, seems like she’s too good to be true. And it turns out she is, when one day she kills the two children in her charge. The novel is well written and immensely readable but there is a coldness at the heart of it that, in […]
The Golden Age by Joan London
Oh, how I love this book. London’s writing is so gentle, so simple, so evocative, you just want to hug her books to your chest and cherish them like relics. Set in 1954 Australia in a polio ward (of all places), the plot isn’t really important – it’s just a series of ordinary moments transformed […]
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
Quite a brilliant little thriller. Hawley is a beautiful, compassionate writer who takes the time to give each of the passengers and crew on a private jet their own background and personality. When the plane plunges into the sea only two people survive and both their lives become far more complex. The evocation of the […]
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
A very good read about Maud, an old lady with some form of dementia who is convinced Elizabeth is missing. Actually her memories are all mixed up with her sister going missing seventy years before. A compassionate and funny book, well worth a read.
Give Me the Child by Mel McGrath
Apparently Aristotle said “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” Well if that play outs it may be bad news for eleven year old Ruby, who arrives in the middle of the night into Cat Lupo’s family. Apparently Ruby is the genetic offspring of Cat’s husband, though Cat was previously unaware of […]
Mine by Susi Fox
This first novel from Susi Fox, a GP, has much to recommend it, and yet I don’t quite love it. When Sasha Maloney, a pathologist, wakes up in hospital after an emergency C-section, she is told she has a baby boy. She feels nothing for the baby she is presented with and becomes convinced he […]
The Perfect Couple by Lexi Lansman
You know in the first few pages of this novel that the title is ironic, because archeologist Marco Moretti is such a vain, preening prick it’s clear he’s not a part of any perfect couple. The writing is pretty workaday (everyone is so good looking and the children so well adjusted) but the plot twists are […]