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Mar 17, 20181 min read
578. Jake Arnott - Johnny Come Home
Grabbed another Jake Arnott as I finished 577 late evening and needed an easy start. This I think is a better book than 577, set in...
Mar 15, 20181 min read
577. Jake Arnott - The Fatal Tree
A virtuoso feat of writing, but maybe not much else? Set in 18th century London, written in an (I assume) genuine working class London...
Feb 23, 20181 min read
574. Margery Allingham - The Tiger In The Smoke
Another Susan Hill recommendation. I have never read this author before, detective novels written I think in the 1950’s. This was a...
Oct 4, 20171 min read
535. Mick Herron - Spook Street
This is a brilliant book; he seems to be really maturing into his Slough house characters, whose subtle and often very funny interactions...
Aug 24, 20171 min read
516. Mick Herron - Dead Lions
The 2nd of the Jackson Lamb/Slough House espionage thrillers. This one began much more in spy thriller mode, but that was a deception...
Feb 12, 20171 min read
467. G. F. Newman - The Corrupted Part 2
Not as good as part 1 (464), but he had set the scene then and doesn’t add much to it in Part 2, apart from dropping in various...
Jan 31, 20171 min read
464. G F Newman - The Corrupted Part One
I think this guy is also a TV script-writer, but this was very good. Set in the East End post war, a bunch of working class on the...
Jan 28, 20171 min read
463. Mick Herron - Slow Horses
I have never heard of the author and can’t make my mind up about the book. The ‘Slow Horses’ are rejects from MI5 (or equivalent) who...
Dec 10, 20161 min read
451. Elizabeth Buchan - The New Mrs Clifton
Paul Scott apart, this would I think be my book of the year this year. A library book that Paddy enjoyed, set in post war England. Quite...
Nov 5, 20161 min read
441. Patrick Neate - City Of Tiny Lights
Another book from the ‘Best Crime Thriller’ website. Patrick Neate (or at least his hero) is a Ugandan Asian private eye, living in...
Jul 1, 20161 min read
416. Lisa Jewell - The Girls
Another from P (I can’t decide what to read at the moment so am piggy backing on her choices). This was brilliant, I thought. A...
May 28, 20161 min read
404. Dan Kavanagh - Duffy
I gather Dan Kavanagh is really Julian Barnes, writing private eye thrillers under this pseudonym. Certainly a fairly salacious page...
May 14, 20161 min read
399. Brian Thompson - Bad To The Bone
I can see why I dumped these books in the attic when the bookcases became over-crowded a few years ago; they’re OK but it is doubtful...
Apr 8, 20161 min read
390. Doris Lessing - The Summer Before The Dark
Don’t think I have ever read any Doris Lessing. This struck me as both ponderous and dated. A middle aged woman discovers that motherhood...
Feb 28, 20161 min read
381. Amy Liptrot - The Outrun
Another of P’s library books; I found this a curious mixture of annoying and extremely good. An autobiographical (I assume) story of a...
May 9, 20151 min read
301. Maria McCann - As Meat Loves Salt
This is totally different; a kind of 17th century 'Brokeback Mountain'. It is huge in scope, covering bloody bits of the civil war which...
Feb 27, 20151 min read
285. Ian Rankin - Tooth And Nail
Need something easy to read so picked an early Ian Rankin, which I didn’t remember. Rebus is seconded to London, to help the Met out on a...
Feb 7, 20141 min read
182. Sian Busby - A Commonplace Killing
Bought four books in Waterstones with a token Dan gave me for Xmas. I had never heard of this or the author who turns out to be the wife...
Sep 19, 20131 min read
145. Ian Rankin - Tooth And Nail
Another Rebus. I never used to enjoy these, but no.128 rekindled my interest. Rebus is sent to London to help investigate a serial...
May 8, 20131 min read
102. Mark Billingham - The Burning Girl
Still can't make up my mind about this guy; this was not a great book. Need to find another author! Get this on Amazon