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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This family saga with a streak of magical realism and a dash of urban fantasy grabbed my imagination from page one. In 2007 an ambitious Indian-American community tries to insert its young people high up in the meritocracy of their adopted country.
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 MoreWhat I liked most about Malik’s entertaining third novel is the way she asks questions about significant issues, without demonising any of her engaging cast of characters. What is home? Does economic progress change who we are? When we speak or write about religion and culture, are we driven by underlying attitudes? How can we identify our unconscious biases?
Read MoreMurder and despair link Boyle’s characters, but with Brooklyn rhythms embedded in their speech, their interactions are vivid and uplifting. Donnie is a disgraced ex-cop with blood on his hands. Lonely widow Ava, ruined by the debt her husband built up to a vicious crime boss, is trapped in a job she despises.
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 MoreIn his fourth novel, Rod Reynolds has perfectly captured the invigorating mix of aspiration and survival that makes up London’s atmosphere. He plunges the reader deep into the experience of metropolitan life, during a recent past that seems, while I write in Covid lockdown, like a half-remembered dream
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 MoreWritten in his own words, and guided by a man who collects glasses in a local pub, this is the story of Herod ‘Rod’ Pinkney’s search for Daisy Lamprich, a young woman he first sees on a decade-old episode of the Judge Judy Show, and who he now intends to marry.
Read MoreI read both of these novellas within twenty-four hours. Although I enjoy reading fast for recreation, when I set out to review a book, I always take it slowly and make copious notes as I go along. This time, that’s how I began, until I realised that my method didn’t match the stories. Going with the flow is the best way to appreciate Michaud’s brilliant use of first-person narration, including a repetition of key phrases, which create humour in what would otherwise be a dark tale.
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.
