In my book blog, I review my favourite fiction genres: comedy, community, crime. I enjoy all three equally, but I’m always delighted when I find new books where they overlap.
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Mairéad is single, child-free and head of a successful influencer talent agency. The young people at work may be mean to her, she hasn’t seen her only sister for nine years and she’s one bad date away from giving up on men completely but other than that, she’s got life sorted. Until Sunshine shows up.
Read MoreThirty years after the Berlin Wall fell, some of us still have chunks of rock in perspex boxes. We keep them with other items we no longer value but feel bad about throwing away. Back in 1990, every gift shop had a supply of ‘stones from the Berlin Wall’. These were presented to children because the destruction of the Wall was seen as having massive historical significance. In 2021, how many people remember the political events leading to the Wall’s demolition, or the reasons why it was built in the first place?
Read MoreAda Lovelace is a figment of her own imagination. She has no biological connection with the man she calls father, and therefore no share in his aristocratic heritage, but she claims it for her own. Everything she dreams of becoming is embodied in the crumbling country pile where she grew up…
Read MoreTwo young Irishwomen who have built stellar careers abroad are the protagonists of this fast-moving thriller. An inventive plot links New York and London with Hare’s Landing, a charming hotel in a tranquil corner of West Cork. Caroline, a New York journalist, is there to lick her wounds after being wrongly accused of phone tapping. Rachel, who works in the film industry, has returned to Ireland from London, in pursuit of the truth about a middle-aged homeless man who has died in suspicious circumstances, shortly after being featured in a documentary.
Read MoreRespect the newly dead, and they will share their stories. That’s the philosophy of twenty-five year old Cassie Raven, whose secret super-power is ‘hearing’ messages from those who have recently passed away. Her job as a mortuary technician gives full rein to her natural affinity with death, which is also expressed through her fascination with dead animals and her enrolment in an online course in taxidermy. As the plot of Body Language unfolds, Cassie is revealed as an empathic listener, equally open to the living and to those transitioning to the next world.
Read MoreLonghand is a hilarious venture into alternate mythology. To be its protagonist, Andy Hamilton has created Malcolm George Galbraith. Half a dozen pages into the book, I felt as if I’d known this large, clumsy Scotsman all my life, and in a way, I have. Malcolm’s explanation of why he writes in longhand is revealing. ‘I smashed up my laptop. I pounded it into wee tiny bits then threw the pieces into the river.’ Our hero has lived a long, tumultuous life, and his adventures are celebrated in popular culture, but when we encounter him, he is facing the loss of everything he holds dear.
Read MoreIn her beautifully written debut novel, Sue Clark tells a story that will make you laugh a lot and cry a little. She has created two convincing, realistic characters, each of whom is on the point of succumbing to an impossible situation. By introducing Eloise and Bradley, and making them bounce hilariously off each other, she not only saves them both, but also gives them hope for the future. I recommend Note to Boy to book clubs, not only because of its high entertainment value, but also because it bridges the generation gap and presents decades of social history, in a style as light and digestible as a macaroon; or, as Eloise would call it, a ‘Cameroon’.
Read MoreHelen Fitzgerald’s third novel, ‘Ash Mountain’, blends powerful action with deep and painful emotion. The book tracks the poisonous effects of hidden corruption, invisible but deadly, over thirty years. To tell Fran’s story, Fitzgerald expertly juggles three time periods; the day of a cataclysmic natural disaster, the days leading up to it and Fran’s fifteenth year.
Read MoreWelcome to my new blog, ‘Self-Publishing and I’, which will record my experiences as I attempt to self-publish a first novel on Amazon. I’m going to skip the traditional opening paragraph about having an idea for a crime story, jotting down my first ideas, three years of drafts and redrafts, the creative writing courses I took, my writing diploma from UEA, my supportive writing community on Twitter and a terrific professional edit. I’m sure this is a familiar journey to many…
Read MoreThe reader can learn a lot from Bonnie Garmus’ brilliant debut novel - and not only about chemistry. The story of Elizabeth Zott, scientist, tells us how ambitious women in America struggled to make their voices heard in the 1950s and 60s.
