IT’S obviously far too late now but at least one of Britain’s top crime solvers needs a name change. Having two of crime fiction’s best with the same surname gives readers one puzzle too many. Is it Helen or Roy who is expected to respond when someone yells “Grace”? Nor is there any easing of the confusion to have them operating within a few miles of each other. Both are on England’s south coast. Roy’s patch is Brighton and its Sussex hinterland. Helen’s manor fans out from Southampton. Less than seventy miles between them. About ninety minutes along the A47… Continue reading
Reviews and Commentary
YOU never know where you’ll end up with author Ann Cleeves. An ongoing anticipatory game for crime fiction fans is guessing where her next book will take us. Or rather, which of her characters will be leading our way. Maybe dour Jimmy Perez will be donning his monkey jacket to… Continue reading
SUDDENLY I am delving into my memory bank, reliving how it was to take that nerve-racking walk from West to East across Berlin’s no-man’s-land of Checkpoint Charlie. An instant recall sparked after inexplicably waiting two decades to open a book fully intended to be read when it made its spectacular… Continue reading
What makes a good page turner? Anyone seeking the answer needs only to devour the final fifty or so pages of Bad Apples. Allow yourself to be drawn in – which is a hands down certainty in itself – and you will be turning pages with increasing rapidity, helpless to… Continue reading
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Apologies for the long silence on the book review front. There’s no real excuse apart from being busy editing other writers’ books. This means scant time or energy remains for more reading at the end of a busy day. And the hillock of books for review is fast becoming a… Continue reading
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 areas, editing shortfalls can bring onerous penalties and litigation. Not all that long ago even the merest typo was a rarity. Now, at least a couple or so such errors can be expected in the average bookshop-bought volume. Regardless of how well-established and accepted is the publisher. And all bets… Continue reading