Josephine Cox (http://www.josephinecox.com/) has a lot to smile about. Having sold over 15 million copies of her heartwarming fiction, this saga author has made a fortune and brought joy to countless readers.(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/fameandfortune/5131523/Josephine-Cox-fameand-fortune.html)   Many believe the acme of her artistic achievement to have been Jessica’s Girl (1993), a novel of such staggeringly formulaic conformity as […]

Familiar genres of fiction such as historical, adventure, romance, and crime are being supplemented by new categories. This is presumably because there is no escape from the marketing drive towards ‘product development’, nor an end to the ceaseless human desire for novelty. Recent examples have been ‘chick lit’ to satisfy young female interest, and ‘misery

Sometimes a modern fiction title emerges which generates more than the standard publisher hype. Some alchemy is at work in the application of critical appraisal upon popular taste and word-of-mouth recommendation. With the title’s reputation established, literary types suffer unease, if not shame, for having not read these acclaimed works. Examples are: Orlando (1928) by

Jane Harper (http://janeharper.com.au/Books) has followed up the success of her first two novels The Dry (2017), and Force of Nature (2018) with this crime thriller published in February 2019. A summary of The Lost Man is as follows. Two brothers meet at the remote border of their vast cattle properties under the scorching sun of the Australian

Matt Haig (http://www.matthaig.com/) has a broad range of literary output across adult fiction and non fiction, children’s literature, young adult vampire novels, and a candid autobiographical account of fighting depression ‘Reasons to stay alive’. In 2017 Haig offered this uplifting tale ‘How to stop time’. Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like