It is catch-up time . . . . . . and therefore time to continue an already long overdue review of recent reads with this triple treat of works from some of the best in the crime fiction business. Go-to authors who you know will always deliver the goods. Endlessly inventive with their plotting and delightfully sardonic in their depiction of the inhabitants of the devious worlds of espionage and crime. Seaside skulduggery FIRST off and pride of place goes to the grand-master of the genre, but sadly one from whom we will hear no more: John Le Carre died… Continue reading
GET out and start walking. This is the advice continually given to sufferers from all manner of ills, mental and physical and everything in between. And by and large, lacing up the trainers and putting one foot in front of the other does seem to be part of the answer. 
WITH Covid and staff shortages becoming the default excuse for poor service and faulty products it is sad to see the malaise spreading to the world of publishing. Errors there are so visible and so irritating to readers. For publishers they are so difficult and costly to correct. In specialist… 
RARELY do I allow my bedtime reading to rob me of much-needed sleep. The temptation is often there but has to be resisted if next day is not to be write-off. Bit like drinking red wine; the extra glass (or two) rarely justifies the inevitable frowziness and inertia that follow. 
IT has been a while – far too long, in fact – since I was last in the moody company of Arkady Renko, the rebellious investigator who is a perennial thorn in the side of Moscow prosecutor, the devious Zurin. Back then, in 1981, Arkady’s creator, Martin Cruz Smith, was… 