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10) Spook Street by Mick Herron A bit of frothy light relief from the author widely heralded as a sort of more sarcastic, humorous up-to-speed Le Carré, this is the fourth in the Slough House series, featuring the curmudgeonly wonderful Jackson Lamb. It's pretty undemanding but also undeniably entertaining fare, and this one starts with… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 10: Spook Street →

31) Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi This book came weighted with a lot of chat on the front cover: "Ends with one of the most reverberating shocks in modern fiction" says the Sunday Times. "A dazzling, unexpected and haunting masterpiece" says the Daily Mail. It's a bit unfair, really, on both the book and… Continue reading Year 2 / Book 31: Black Water Lilies →

27) Late Fragments by Kate Gross  The subtitle to this book is 'Everything I Want To Tell You (About This Magnificent Life)', which gives you an indication of what it is about. It's a memoir written by a high-flying woman who gets diagnosed with terminal colon cancer when she is 34 and who dies two… Continue reading Year 2 / Book 27: Late Fragments →

23) The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly Another week, another long-running series of crime novels. I've lost count of how many Michael Connelly novels I've read, featuring either Harry Bosch or Mickey Haller...but Wikipedia says it would be around 23. Connelly's a hugely reliable writer, with a great ear for dialogue, believable plots… Continue reading Year 2 / Book 23: The Wrong Side of Goodbye →

20) The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman by Mindy Mejia There are few things that I hate more than the descriptions on Amazon that say 'the most psychologically twisty and suspenseful thriller you'll read this year' as part of the book title. Though they clearly work, as they are becoming more and more commonplace. So… Continue reading Year 2 / Book 20: The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman →

18) The Last Mile by David Baldacci It's fair to say this won't be winning any literary prizes anytime soon. For some reason, I was in the mood for some trashy page-turning nonsense that woudn't tax my brain, and this popped up in the Kindle. Baldacci is one of those machine-like James Patterson creatures who… Continue reading Year 2 / Book 18: The Last Mile →

17) Black Night Falling by Rod Reynolds I like a bit of hard-boiled crime writing as much as the next reader, so I was looking forward to this: I'd read lots of glowing feedback about this and its predecessor by Reynolds. But I left it a bit underwhelmed and wondering quite what the fuss is… Continue reading Year 2 / Book 17: Black Night Falling →