23) The Dead Line by Holly Watt I very much enjoyed Holly Watt's debut, To The Lions and had been looking forward to this follow-up. It features the same dynamic duo of investigative female journalists, Casey & Miranda - and this time they are on the track of human trafficking-meets-international surrogacy, having been tipped off… Continue reading Year 5 / Book 23: The Dead Line
Category: Year 5
Year 5 / Book 22: The A26
22) The A26 by Pascal Garnier With apologies for the enormous break in book reviews (it turns out reading a book a week is incompatible with having a new baby around), I'm catching up a bit on what I have actually managed to read in the last few months. First up is this incredibly dark… Continue reading Year 5 / Book 22: The A26
Year 5 / Book 21: This Is Pleasure
21) This Is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill This is a short novel, indeed it's barely a novella - but it is beautifully written, and has weight beyond the number of its pages. At heart, it is the story of a friendship between two people: Quin, an eccentric Englishman working in publishing, and Margot, an editor. They… Continue reading Year 5 / Book 21: This Is Pleasure
Year 5 / Book 20: City of Sinners
20) City of Sinners by A A Dhand I've only read one of the Harry Virdee series by A A Dhand (Girl Zero) but I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed this one even more. We are back in Bradford, and this starts with a punch: a woman strung up with barbed wire in a bookshop in the… Continue reading Year 5 / Book 20: City of Sinners
Year 5 / Book 19: My Name is Why
19) My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay I was first introduced to Lemn Sissay when I was at university doing a poetry course, and I loved his direct, passionate and poignant poems; and I bought copies of several of his collections. What I had no idea about was the story that lay behind him getting… Continue reading Year 5 / Book 19: My Name is Why
Year 5 / Book 18: The Expectant Father
18) The Expectant Father by Armin Brott The title of this book should give some indication of why I'm a bit behind on book reviews - and has me questioning whether I'll be able to keep up the book-a-week pace. My wife and I had a son towards the end of April (peak-pandemic) and I was… Continue reading Year 5 / Book 18: The Expectant Father
Year 5 / Book 17: Blue Moon
17) Blue Moon by Lee Child It's that time of year when only a Jack Reacher novel will do - when my brain can take little else, and I have a need for pure escapism where the good guys win, the bad guys get punched in the face and everything is put back in its right place.… Continue reading Year 5 / Book 17: Blue Moon
Year 5 / Book 16: Hell’s Gate
16) Hell's Gate by Laurent Gaudé So this is a strange and intriguing novella by Prix Goncourt-winning French novelist Laurent Gaudé - it starts out with a sort of fairly standard-ish character on something of a mission to avenge someone or something. It turns out the death he is seeking to avenge is, well, his own… Continue reading Year 5 / Book 16: Hell’s Gate
Year 5 / Book 15: The Plea
15) The Plea by Steve Cavanagh I think it's understandable when the entire world feels at sea to reach out for things that are familiar and bring order: for some that is a crossword, for others a film they've watched 50 times before, and for others still a crime thriller in which the good guys win… Continue reading Year 5 / Book 15: The Plea
Year 5 / Book 14: Shroud for a Nightingale
14) Shroud for a Nightingale by PD James PD James is a wonderful writer, often underrated and forgotten these days, but the quality of the writing in her Adam Dalgliesh crime novels is wonderful. Which is why I dived into this for some escapism from a coronavirus world - wrong move! Firstly, the hospital where this… Continue reading Year 5 / Book 14: Shroud for a Nightingale
Dog-eared Man: a book a week 