15 August 2022

Choose your spook: chaotic, methodical or brutal

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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… Continue Reading

15 August 2022

Choose your spook: chaotic, methodical or brutal

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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… Continue Reading

3 August 2022

Fact or fiction, joy for readers in hardcore walks

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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. Or at least an excellent… Continue Reading

30 May 2022

Storm-tossed Cornish romance merits more than spellcheck

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PERSONAL reasons had me well disposed in favour of this book well before turning a page. It was something I was silently rooting for, willing it to success. Thus the disappointment that descended well before reaching the thrilling finale was all the deeper and saddening. It was, in the words of a phrase rarely heard… Continue Reading

11 May 2022

Editing cutbacks unfair to writers and readers

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memoir

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… Continue Reading

5 April 2022

Billingham’s twister sparks sleepless nights

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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. However, this latest creation of… Continue Reading

9 March 2022

Haunted by words as tyrant repeats horrors of the past

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  THE mind refuses to stop. It seems to be in permanent overdrive. Refusing to shut down.  Unresponsive to any attempt at braking, or changing direction. And it is getting worse, more insistent, taking a tighter hold and blocking any alternative thoughts or distractions. Endlessly dwelling on Russia’s brutal and horror-filled assault on Ukraine. And… Continue Reading

16 February 2022

Book of the year has so many answers to the one big dilemma

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IT is probably tempting fate when less than two months of the twelve have passed to declare “This is my book of the year”. But that’s the way things have been since I turned the final page of Should We Stay or Should We Go and fell into several moments of deep reflection. By then, all… Continue Reading

13 January 2022

Workhouse death brings on 1921 census blues

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MUCH joy tempered by bouts of shock and sadness. Such is the lot of family historians everywhere. Something I can well attest to after recent foraging in the foliage of my family tree. Anyone joining this global corps of addicts soon learns that tracking down their ancestors is a long plodding journey. One beset by… Continue Reading

5 January 2022

Bauer’s romp provides giggles amid the gore

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EMERGENCY service workers are well known for their macabre sense of humour; for having a giggle with the gore.  It is, as they will attest, the only way they can cope with the scenes that daily confront them.  The dead and dying, the mortally mangled, bodies broken almost beyond repair. Situations that have to be… Continue Reading

31 December 2021

Deluded in thinking new year changes anything

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THE annual conundrum is upon us. As the calendar flips over from December 31 to January 1, the perennial question remains to puzzle us. We step across the threshold from 2021 into 2022 with still no satisfactory answer. We may be bleary-eyed, hungover and half-awake; or euphoric,  full of good cheer and a friend to… Continue Reading

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