This is a delightful little book, which is quite obviously aimed at a YA audience but which, because of a number of thought-provoking passages, could actually appeal to anyone. Its fairytale format makes it easy to read, and though there is no depth of character development, it is the type of book that manages to …
A woman in her late forties is invited to spend a few days with her cousin Luise and her cousin’s husband, Hugo, at their hunting lodge in the Austrian alps. The woman (whose name we are never told) is a widow with two grown children, and even though she is not enthusiastic about hunting, she …
In Duneen, south of Cork, bones are discovered at a construction site. The local guard, Sergeant Patrick James Collins (aka PJ), finds himself propelled from the relatively boring, nothing-ever-happens policing of a small, insignificant Irish village into the world of plain-clothes detectives and forensics. Single, overweight PJ is somewhat daunted by the efficient Detective Superintendent …
This is a beautiful book: beautifully conceived and beautifully written. Set in New York in 1937 and 1938, it concentrates on a small group of people spearheaded by Katey Kontent, Tinker Grey and Evelyn Ross. From the moment the two working girls, Katey and Eve, meet the charming, rich Theodore (Tinker) at a jazz club, …
William Stoner is an ordinary person. He begins life on a farm and is destined to follow in his father’s footsteps; however, he goes to school and, at the insistence of his teacher, continues on to university. He eventually falls in love, marries the wrong person, fathers a child, and becomes an important part of …
An infestation of rats in the town of Oran on the Algerian coast quickly develops into bubonic plague. Although the men in charge initially refuse to acknowledge that which is blindingly obvious, as people begin to die they are left with no choice but to call the illness by its right name and close the …
This is a brilliant book about George Orwell (or Eric Blair as he was actually called) and the creation of his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Not only beautifully written, it is meticulously researched, and it exhibits a deep understanding of a man who was both driven and physically tormented. It may be worth noting that the …
An Australian fairytale, beautifully told, Eucalyptus does not follow a set template. Like many of the trees that play a major role in the book, it twists and turns both back on itself and away from itself, leading the reader into places he or she does not even anticipate. On the surface, Eucalyptus is the …
This book was first published in Bengali in 1993; in 2017 it was published (also in India) in English. At only 167 pages The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die is more of a novella than a novel and, depending on the reader, can be seen as a one-sitting read. Delightfully different it is coloured by the …
Well researched, Poison Murder Trials Down Under is a resource for anyone wanting to know more about poison crime in Australia (1844 – 1953). The book may also be helpful for people trying to track down information about their forebears; although, of course, one can only hope that these family-tree researchers do not discover an …