The Bad Sister (1978) is a tale about witches in contemporary life. Drawing from and reinterpreting James Hogg’s classic Gothic tale Confessions of a Justified Sinner, which focused on an evil alter ego, the novel is itself rather schizophrenic. It alternates between a documentary account of the murder of Michael Dalzell and his daughter, tracked […]
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Denise Mina (http://www.denisemina.co.uk/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Mina) treats us to a grisly Glasgow crime novel in Garnethill. Maureen O’Donnell wasn’t born lucky. A psychiatric patient and survivor of sexual abuse, she’s stuck in a dead-end job and a secretive relationship with Douglas, a shady therapist. Her few comforts are making up stories to tell her psychiatrist, the company
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Gavin is creating a unique ‘holiday experience’; every horrid facility hated by tourists who dislaike being abroad will be available on a converted North Sea oil rig. To test the facilities he’s hosting a reunion for his old school (none of his ex-classmates can remember him, but what the heck, it’s free). He is so busy showing
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Nelson DeMille (www.nelsondemille.net) was born in New York City in 1943. He grew up on Long Island and graduated from Hofstra University with a degree of Political Science and History. After serving as an infantry officer in Vietnam, where he was decorated three times, DeMille worked as a journalist and short story writer. He wrote his
Eighty year old Wilbur Smith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_Smith and http://www.wilbursmithbooks.com/) has won fans the world over for his heart-racing novels that span continents and centuries. Incredibly, he has been publishing books for nearly fifty years. His novels have hit bestseller lists in the United States – and everywhere else – and sold 120 million copies. As a writer of action-adventure
Irish novelist Maeve Binchy (http://www.maevebinchy.com/) was consistent throughout her writing career in delivering tales of warmth and humour, often set in small town Ireland. Shortly before she died in July 2012 she had just completed her final book A Week in Winter. The tale is set in Stoneybridge. The seaside location is full of holiday-makers
Dutch writer and actor Herman Koch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Koch) offers us a dark suspense of a novel in The Dinner (first published in Dutch in 2009). The summary is as follows. It’s a summer evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery,
Karen Rose (http://www.karenrosebooks.com/index.php), from Baltimore, was a chemical engineer and a teacher before taking up a full time career in writing. She has produced at least one novel per year since 2003. Her latest thriller is Watch Your Back. Here is the summary. Baltimore homicide detective Stevie Mazzetti has suffered losses no woman should have to
When the cold starts to bite we instinctively turn to comfort food, warm fires and woolly jumpers. Why not indulge yourself in a heart warming story as well? Irish author Melissa Hill’s (http://www.lovereading.co.uk/author/569/Melissa-Hill.html) latest novel is a feel good read. The summary is as follows. Darcy Archer works in a small bookstore on Manhattan’s Upper West
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