"Crackling with energy, assured and authoritative." So says Val McDermid about Manda Scott's debut suspense novel, Hen's Teeth, the first novel to feature Dr Kellen Stewart. But she might well have been discussing Kellen herself. Indeed, she is the draw to the series, in this reader's opinion; it's Kellen's sharp
Headline - Review, 2012 The Flying Man opens in 2012, in France; our hero is preparing to die, looking back on his life. He's in Biarritz, but wouldn't it sound better to say that he was in Paris? And wouldn't it sound better to say that he is
House of Anansi, 2011 It's with those proverbial good intentions that Reverend Neil MacKenzie moves to St. Kilda. (Oh, dear: you know the risk here, right?) He is travelling there -- accompanied by his young pregnant wife, Elizabeth -- to bring his faith to the island's residents. (Think
Are you reading the Oranges this year? Or have you developed a sensitivity/intolerance/allergy? I've only read Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues; I have Ann Patchett's State of Wonder set to read next. With a total of 6,692 pages of Orange-ness, I've read 336. Foreign Bodies, Cynthia Ozick Gillespie and I, Jane
Striking cover, no? Alice Sebold's novel was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2003, the year that Valerie Martin's Property won the prize. A friend of mine was so excited about The Lovely Bones, that she bought it as soon as it was available in paperback, and I've
