Review - Until We Drown by Ava Morwood

Until We Drown

Ava Morwood (Alison Littlewood)

HarperNorth, 9 April 2026
Available as: HB, 352pp, audio, e   
Source: Author
ISBN(HB): 9780008724665

I'm grateful to the author for sending me a copy of Until We Drown to consider for review.

At time of writing this review, there is a debate going on (or at least there is if you follow these things) about a Guardian article which seems to be saying that too many horror films are being made. I think the article is basically somebody saying, they don't like horror. This is at the same time, absolutely fine because we all have our likes and dislikes and absolutely not fine if it come from a place that horror is somehow lesser, because that approaches sneering at what other people like, and that's always sad.

I was reminded of this context because reading Until We Drown I was aware that it was horror but I was exercising all kinds of readerly muscles besides the "oooh, scary" set. Sadness. Annoyance at a prickly character. Exasperation (won't you all just TALK to each other!). Worry at where this was going. All the best books do this to me, and it didn't, of course, surprise me in the least. Horror is much, much more than "oh there's a monster/ bloodstained slasher in the cave". Even Scooby-Doo was more than that. 

So, in Until We Drown we have, essentially, a family drama, at the centre of which is the relationship between Ellie and Ethan. Ellie is the narrator, telling us both about her life and her marriage. Ethan appears a bit hapless at first, suffering, like the kids, from being uprooted from a cheerful seaside home to the darker atmosphere - in many ways - of the Peak District, about as far as you can get in England from the sea. That is, until we learn that it's his trespasses that have led to the move. He still sulks, however.

But. But. We also learn that Ellie's drive to get away from the sea goes beyond Ethan's failings, it links to an incident when she was 14 and saw a young boy drown. Ellie's been burdened with guilt ever since, convinced that everyone around her is judging her. Whether or not they are is never clear - what is clear is that nobody ever talked to her about this very traumatic experience, a pattern that repeats in this novel as everyone has secrets from each other, including, eventually, teenage son Zack. (I exclude 4-year old Libby, who couldn't keep a secret to save her life).

So there's already tension between Ellie and Ethan, which Morwood conveys very well, even though it's mostly unspoken, or redirected. You just see little ripples on the surface of the pond, signs of something big and nasty moving in the depths. 

Then things begin to go wrong, in disturbing ways. Libby's whole mermaid obsession rubs her mum up the wrong way, reminding her of Ethan's straying (I should say, these past events are told gradually through chapters headed by"A memory" or "A postcard", so initially the picture isn't clear). Ellie's dismayed to discover that landlocked Derbyshire has plenty of mermaid traditions of its own. Ellie tangles these stories with the mermaid classics - Disney and Hans Christian Anderson - and notes the subtext, the female not allowed a voice, the prince who always gets what he wants. 

Oh, and also, Ellie has a kind of foresight or second sight inherited from her gran, which gives her insights, to a degree, but also sends her down rather frightening rabbit holes as she struggles to understand what is going wrong.

There is, then, an element of the supernatural but - to quote MR James - "We do not know the rules". Ellie has been trying to suppress this uncanny aspect of herself and it's not something she is willing to turn to for help. Indeed that's a running theme here - Ellie is very much alone, she has to work things out for herself, making this book a very stressy two-hander between her and Ethan. (In hindsight, others have been trying to help or at least warn her, but that's missed until the last minutes).

I love books with that composition - a real-life, 21st century mystery built on tangled hopes and fears, with just a dash of the uncanny. Because, really, we are superstitious creatures, prone to see connections between unrelated events, fear retribution for sins and omissions and look for taint in places and people and for bad luck. We are also inclined to bargain, to sit in the doctor's waiting room thinking "oh make this not be serious, make this not serious". All these instincts come out when we are afraid or we lack agency, which is just the situation Ellie is in, and which is the very crux of horror. That is, of nuanced, complex horror. Because nuanced, complex horror is the essence of the world we live in, not crude monsters. (Well, until the crude monsters became billionaires and got control of the world, but you see what I mean).

And nuanced, complex horror is just what Morwood serves up with Until We Drown. It is deeply chilling, heart wrenching at times. You fear for everyone here, threatened on so many levels, and yes, you sense a wickedness at work. It's a mark of the writing though that the precise nature of that wickedness isn't at all clear till the very end, nor how it might be overcome. 

A brilliant read, one I'd strongly recommend. 

(Oh and, yes - spoiler - the dog DOES survive, if that's something you would worry about, as I would).

For more information about Until We Drown, see the publisher's website here.

Review - Oaths and Offerings ed by Nathaniel Spain

Oaths and Offerings 

Edited by Nathaniel Spain
Carnyx Press, 4 June 2026
Available as: PB, 127pp 

Source: Advance cop
ISBN(PB): 9781919453200

I'm grateful to Carnyx for sending me a an advance e-copy of Oaths and Offerings to consider for review.

Oaths and Offerings is the launch anthology from new press Carnyx who are devoted to the writers and stories of Northern England - a noble venture. It’s an impressive and handsome volume printed on good quality paper and with stories to match! Described as “an anthology of folklore”, this collection showcases eight new stories, all with their roots in folklore but reflecting the various forms in which it occurs. So there are stories with a contemporary setting (Away with the Fairies, Charcoal Nils), those which are more straight folktale-inflected (Awd Goggle, The  Monster of no Seeming) and there is even the Jamesian (Cups and Rings). 

We see the difficulty faced by a newcomer from abroad settling in a rural community, the problems of redeveloping an old mining site, the troubles of a shepherd girl and the dangers of obliterating tradition - as well as the mutability of tradition! They're all extremely good examples of their forms, reflecting the diversity and breadth of Northern England and taken together, this is a very strong collection which should I think set Carnyx off to a cracking start.

The first story, Awd Goggle by Steven French, tells a tale handed down from the narrator's grandma about how, as  a girl, she saw industrialisation meet its match when an ancient, revered tree is torn down. The indirect narration introduces a sense of timelessness in the events (while hanging on to the essentials) a sense heightened by its being in Yorkshire dialect.

Of Mineral, of Bone by Emma J Lannie draws on the rich mining heritage of the North. Whether in the copper mines of Alderley Edge, the salt mines of Cheshire or the coalfields, mining has always been a superstitious trade. A dangerous business, it sought to know and placate whatever spirits or beings dwelt in the depths, able to cause catastrophe and take lives. We see such rituals in this story. But what happens when the miners leave and the mines are abandoned? There is a legacy - mineral-laden waters that can pose a hazard. A solution seems to have been found here, but Lannie leaves the reader uneasy that there may be aspects that engineers and builders haven't considered. A truly creepy, menacing story.

Modern Britain has a truly diverse range of food traditions, much of it derived from abroad and unfortunately subject to the same tedious culture wars as other aspects of life (periodic social media arguments erupt over the proper statues of chicken tikka masala, for example). In Away With the Fairies by Mae Tang, we see an incomer, Zhenyi, pushing back against her ignorant neighbour and seeking to respect local lore and tradition in new and bold ways. This one really made me smile and I think while short, is a microcosm of a larger truth, showing how tradition is not fixed but is the brilliant result of human effort and bargaining with real, active powers. 

Mother of God by Sophie Parkes makes a similar point, contrasting the busloads of tourists coming to see the quaint folk customs in a village with the hard lives of the residents. A couple of girls, left on their own by parents out at work, add their own spin to the packaged tradition on display for the visitors. This is the only story (I think) without a dash of  overt supernatural (though possibly I'm wrong about that).

Charcoal Nils by Emma Sprakarn is very much a folk tale, though a modern one. Set in Scandinavia this is the one of only two stories that doesn't take place in Northern England, though the atmosphere - the cold, the mountains - is one with the rest of the book, as is the sense of being a little at the margins. And also the theme of the ancient in the modern, in a story of revenge and the failure of the modern world with its invented rules to take account of what is real.

Cups and Rings by Victoria Stewart, set in Scotland, looks at those enigmatic Pictish markings mainly found on upland stones (presumably because these are less likely to have been disturbed). Nobody knows what they mean, what they were for or the particulars of who made them but here we see two different attempts at interpretation set, perhaps, a hundred years apart. And we see what becomes of the investigators. I called this one "Jamesian" above, and it has that sense of obliqueness, of time folding away - and also, perhaps, a message that sometimes it's better to leave well alone.

The Monster of No Seeming by Sophie Reck Pointon is perhaps, of the stories here, the most obviously a folk tale, taking a young girl, Isla, set to guard the sheep, on a quest to rescue her sister Netta. In the best spirit of folklore, impossible tasks have to be carried out and the quest results in learning and growth. Punctuated by occasional remarks and exchanges from the narrator, The Monster sets up both a distance from its subject (this all seems to have happened long, long ago) and a closeness (the two settings are perhaps very intertwined).

good-dark-night (Suzannah Evans Furnass) is set in a community of the future, finding its own rituals to control a harsh environment. In a world of global heating and environmental catastrophe, that means yearning for and seeking to bring back the good, dark nights.

So, this set of stories interrogate the nature of tradition - how it can be changed, and when it’s best respected; its relationship to landscape and the use of the landscape; the place of people - individuals families, the long-settled and the newcomer, in that landscaper; and much more besides.

An impressive start to the Carnyx list, and I’ll be eager to see what comes next. 

For more information about Oaths and Offerings, see the publisher's website here.

Blogtour Review - Wonderful by Louise Beech

Wonderful

Louise Beech
Pick Lock Publishing, 1 June 2026
Available as: PB, 364pp, e
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(PB): 9781068337987

I'm grateful to Anne for sending me a copy of Wonderful to consider for review, and for inviting me to join the book's blogtour.

Wonderful is published on what would have been Marilyn Monroe's hundredth birthday.

As the book opens, two women are finding new homes. In 1960s Hollywood, Marilyn is looking to buy a place that can be a retreat for her. In 2016, in Hull, Flora is moving to a flat that’s even more depressing than her last.

The book will continue to tell the stories of Marilyn and Flora, showing up similarities in their lives and also, eventually, some unlikely connections. Across the years these two women form an unlikely bond as Marilyn struggles for freedom and Flora tries to build a life, protect her sister, and overcome dark events from her early years.

Monroe, born Norma Jean and also with a troubled earlier life, has created a persona which has delivered her success as an actress, but living it is taking an increasing toll and she feels trapped. This can’t end well, as we know from tragic history, but Beech sensitively avoids cliches in giving us Marilyn’s own reflections on her life and her plans for the future. 

In Hull, Flora has also led a difficult life, quite how difficult we don’t learn till the end of the book. In her present, though, she’s focussed on the welfare of her sister, about to be released from a psychiatric ward. The relationship between the sisters, while not cosy, is very moving. Essentially they’re all each other has, their mother being around but little help. The emotional heart of the book is this relationship, one which leaves Flora little space or time for a possible romance growing with Neil, an aspiring magician who sometimes appears in the club where Flora works.

All this, and the Blessed Virgin Mary too! This perhaps unlikely figure appears to a number of women in the book, bringing a nosy journalist in her wake but also pointing to futures for some of them. Something is being built, something to support women’s autonomy and safety. Both Flora and Marilyn will play their parts.

As ever in Beech’s books, this is a story told from below, from the perspective of the underdog. Characteristically the action comes together in Hull, described as “the end of the line”, a contrast to the glitzy background of Monroe’s Hollywood (even if this has become a place she can’t set foot unless disguised) yet - across all Beech's books, a place of possibilities, growth and authenticity. Characteristically, too, this works, both on a story and an emotional level as the sheer grind of everyday life is transmuted into a struggle to understand one’s past, however dark, and realise one’s potential.

I love Beech’s books and this one fully lived up to my expectations. The book is hard reading, at times. Not everyone here is always perfect, or even always likeable. But there is a willingness to work, to build that future, that makes every page a treat.

An article I was reading the other day focussed on how resourceful Monroe was, setting up her own production company and using the law to obtain a measure of control from her studio. Beech’s nuanced portrayal captures this, as she surveys her future. 

For more information about Wonderful, see the author's website here - and of course the other stops on the blogtour which you can see listed on the poster below. 

You can buy Wonderful from your local high street bookshop or online from Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, Waterstones, WH Smiths (always Smith's, there is no Jones) or Amazon.

Review - Hurricane Room by Kim Sherwood

Hurricane Room

Kim Sherwood
HarperCollins, 21 May 2026 
Available as: HB, 368pp, audio, e   
Source: Advance e-copy
ISBN(HB): 9780008495480

I'm grateful to the publisher for sending giving me access to an advance e-copy of Hurricane Room, the third part of Sherwood's 007 trilogy, following Double or Nothing and A Spy Like Me, to consider for review.

I first met Sherwood’s writing with her Testament, a superb book about Holocaust survival, memory and recovering history. So, you might think, quite different from a thriller? Maybe actually not...

Like the earlier earlier books, in Hurricane Room, besides the overarching espionage plot there's a preoccupation with loyalty, trust, survival and identity - and with betrayal. (In one brilliant passage, a character whose forbears survived persecution in Europe, coming to Britain, muses on her possible alternate identity if they'd gone to New York). While that may seem a departure from the classic Bond novels, one might argue that Bond's romantic light-footedness was always hinting at these, but here Sherwood makes the point overt with tension between Bond and Johanna Harwood, 003, Bond’s ex (and in his mind, his betrayer) who has been trying to find him.

Because, yes, Bond is back! Hurricane Room, Book Three, is where Bond comes in. He has been missing, possibly dead, throughout the trilogy so far. That is a think a good move in technical terms, if perhaps a risky one. Reading the first book, a Bond-less 007 world took a bit of getting used to but Sherwood's depiction of Harwood soon made up for that whereas I think that if Bond had been here form the start he’d have overpowered everything. Instead Books one and two gave us other 00s, 000 up to 013, M, Moneypenny and a transformed Q, creating an excellently realised and updated version of the classic Bond setup.

It's also an unsettlingly timely version. This evening I've been watching on the BBC News the new head of GCHQ, speaking at Bletchley Park (where Sherwood Avenue is cheekily mentioned), warning of the dangers to the UK of Russian covert action, including sabotage of infrastructure and, especially, Internet cables. In Hurricane Room we find one of Sherwood's characters, head of Q Branch, standing up at Bletchley Park to warn of the "everywhere war" already being fought. The finale of this book may be the long awaited and traditional shoot-out, but what's being fought for is considerably closer to reality than in the classic Bond books.

In keeping with that, Sherwood has made her own Bond, with recognisable DNA from the original books and films, but she has yeeted him and his backstory into the last quarter of the 20th century and the first quarter of this (the timeline is a bit vague, or he’d be too old). As I said, he’s recognisable, but different. More self aware. Torn between Fleming’s playboy, and… something else. Perhaps Bond needs to grow beyond being 007? Sherwood can hint at that because she’s not writing THE Bond, but A Bond. (The endless debate over  who should play Bond in the films, always in the air, came into my mind here as my mental image flitted around between Connery and Moore - the classics I grew up with. It is though a silly argument overall as there is no one Bond. Who should play Sherlock Holmes? Depends which Holmes). Perhaps the film makers don’t have that freedom because to many fans now the film ones are the the only Bond they’ll be aware of, and the producers have to deliver an ongoing franchise, not a single trilogy.)

Anyway, it is good. A high stakes threat, which as I've said is more plausible than you might expect, chilling villain, final fight in a remote secret base, touches of continuity. As well as translating the Fleming continuity into her world, Sherwood also rounds out Bond’s history in her own, which helps offset the sense you sometimes get in Fleming’s books and the films of an unanchored character. She also keeps the story abreast of recent geopolitics (difficult, given how preposterous real world plotting has got in recent seasons).

The author also has some fun here. Look out for her dropping the titles of earlier Bond stories, sometimes a bit rearranged. ("She'd been loved by this spy before", "eyes Bond once called golden"). But there are also references to other espionage novels: 00 Branch is headquartered at Regents Park, like Mick Herron's spies, and there also references to an "agent runner in the field" - a nod I think to one of John Le Carré's last books (A very good one, if you haven't read it). There are other homages as well,  from near familiar language - One dove was a coincidence. Two were dinner - to names and characters (Vesper, Felix) and of course classic Bondisms (Shaken not stirred). There are the deadpan quips ("Hello Conrad. You seem to have lost face" to an opponent badly scarred in a battle with Bond and Harwood, "I've always been attracted to women walking into water with heavy pockets" - which itself inverts a famous beach scene).

Most of all though, and more seriously, Sherwood plays, in a gently meta way, with the idea of Bond himself. Harwood reflects that "He struck her as a man out of time, awake for the first day in centuries" which is a sense is every Bond revival, I think. Similarly, as events resolve and danger falls away "There was something staged about him now" which is just... so right. Bond as a character, any Bond, in any book, which any actor, has to be stagey, camp, oiled, poised. This, you feel, is Harwood's problem with him, this is why they couldn't be together. Behind the facade of the spy novel there is a deeply felt and resoundingly true relationship here, and we don't know how that will end. It doesn't feel as though it can come to any good...

I'd highly recommend this book, and the trilogy as a whole. This is Bond - this is writing - of the most compelling, truthful and engaging class.

For more information about Hurricane Room, see the publisher's website here.

Review - Mortedant's Peril by RJ Barker

Mortedant's Peril (The Trials of Irody Hasp, 1)

RJ Barker
Tor/ Pan Macmillan, 
Available as: HB, 432pp, audio, e   
Source: Advance e-copy
ISBN(HB): 9781035064274

I'm grateful to the publisher for giving me access to an advance e-copy of Mortedant's Peril to consider for review.

Meet Irody Hasp, Mortedant for hire.

In the city of Elbay, Mortedants aren't the power they used to be.

These celebrants - part confessor, part psychopomp - were once greatly respected for their ability to probe the last thoughts of the dead, reconciling lifelong quarrels, bringing peace to the dying... and locating hidden money and valuables. That last, however, has brought them down somewhat, as they're now suspected of profiting from a fraudulent trade. 

Hasp is a marginal figure even among this disdained group, shunned by his peers for his poor birth and questionable past. He scrapes a living. It's sufficient, however, for him to indulge his alchemical hobbies, probing the work of the spurriers, a more favoured trade, who create marvellous living devices. It's illegal for a Mortedant to engage in such work, so Hasp benefits from his obscurity.

Hasp's quiet life changes, though, when he's called out to attend to a city employee who has died suddenly.

Somebody doesn't want a Mortedant at this death, and pretty soon Hasp finds himself accused of murder and scheduled to hang (and worse - believe me, it is worse) - unless he can prove himself innocent in three days. With the city building up to its annual festival, nobody is interested in the troubles of a penniless Mortedant - except for his guard, Whisper, a woman of the sea-people, who he's been forced to accept (to prevent him fleeing injustice) and a young urchin, Mirial, who has her own reasons for sticking close to him.

Across those three days, Hasp must ransack the secrets of Elbay or suffer the consequences. 

Of course, nobody wants those secrets to come to light...

I loved this book. It has great - what's the right word? - verve. Elbay is a teeming, complex society, a city built on rigid social hierarchy but that also seems to be sitting on something older - older magic, older technology, a VERY old but curiously absent governor, the Roundhorn - and to conceal powers, barely held in check, that regularly scorch the ring of ground outside the walls. Hasp's explorations provide an excellent gazetteer. He really knows his way around, and Mirial knows hers even better. Clearly the first of a series, Mortedant's Peril shows us all sorts of locations and possibilities from the very highest point of the Dome to the depths of the citycore which I'm sure we'll learn more about in due course. It also details the convoluted social hierarchy, based both on wealth and on inherited distinctions, that keeps the poor in the lower tiers - and hints at strange, other-worldly powers. No, Elbay isn't your standard fantasy city. Nor is the society that flourishes inside. 

Hasp himself is an intriguing character. I started this book thoroughly disliking him. He is self-obsessed, arrogant, prone to dismiss everyone and everything around him as worthless, especially those outside Elbay (Hasp has never left the city) as barbarians - so Whisper is referred to in the earlier part of the book (by Hasp) as "it" until she gradually, grudgingly earns his trust until, when she's threatened and in danger he's beside himself. Hasp has, as becomes clear, though suffered loss and is perhaps still smarting from that (he'd never admit it) but he can and does change and shows himself brave, resourceful and determined.

It seems, after all, that there is more at stake than the life of one Mortedant, and Hasp's beloved Elbay (see the fuss he makes when he has to go beyond the walls, briefly) may itself be at risk.

More than just a series opener, Mortedant's Peril is a tense, gripping story of a race against time, as the chapters count down to Hasp's flaying and hanging. In his desperate search up and down Elbay's steep slopes there seems very little, really, that he can do to save his neck. Yet he carries on, refusing to give in.

This is, I'd say, a characteristically RJ Barker book, exploring a strange world through the eye of a flawed and marginalised character, taking the limitations of that (Hasp's poverty, his outcastness, his previous bad choices) and making them into real plusses.

Great fun, but more than that, Mortedant's Peril is fantasy with real heart.

For more information about Mortedant's Peril, see the publisher's website here.

#Blogtour review - Under the Blazing Sun by Jenny Lund Madsen

Under the Blazing Sun
Jenney Lund Madsen (trans by Paul Russell Garrett)
Orenda Books, 21 may 2026
Available as: HB, 275pp, audio, e   
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(HB): 9781917764155

I'm grateful to Orenda for sending me a copy of Under the Blazing Sun to consider for review, and to Anne for inviting me to join the book's blogtour.

Jenny Lund Madsen's Under the Blazing Sun follows her reluctant hero, crime author Hannah, on a new writing assignment - and into a new murder mystery.

Lund Madsen's previous book, Thirty Days of Darkness, introduced Hannah, a somewhat self-important literary writer who talked herself into writing crime (how hard can it be?) Packed off to Iceland by her editor, Hannah blunders into a real life crime, from which she however is able to draw inspiration, ending up with a whole new career and a book that's more popular that her earlier, more earnest, writing.

I was eager to see what Jenny Lund Madsen would do for this follow-up. Can the same idea really work again? It turns out that it can, and in Under the Blazing Sun that's triumphantly proven. Hannah, who's rather self-pitying at the start not only because she can't get that second book written but because she's missing her girlfriend Margrét, is an unlikeable character at first sight. She hates her crime novel, Murder Island - the book of hers that people want to read - and would prefer to be known for her litfic. When her long suffering editor Bastian gets Hannah on a popular TV show, she has a tantrum and walks off set. I, like, I suspect, many other readers, would have not blamed Bastian at this point for dropping her, yet instead he sends her off to Sicily to stay in a villa where she can write, far away from mundane distractions.

Instead she sets about swigging wine and enjoying the local food. And of course, Hannah being Hannah, catastrophe strikes - and soon she's trying to clear name of murder. It's here that Hannah's more attractive side shows. While you might expect her to collapse in a heap of self-pity and demand rescue, she doesn't. She sets about investigating the crime. Hannah is dogged and determined, almost to an embarrassing degree, milking the police for information, shoving her nose in wherever it's not wanted (up to and including running around Sicily asking question and the Mafia, does this woman have a death wish?). There's something admirable in Hannah's sheer persistence, even if you cringe at times at the situations she's getting herself into.

Of course, Hannah being Hannah, she manages this while still downing prodigious quantities of wine, and is also painfully, exasperatingly demanding of Margrét who's yet to disentangle herself of her husband in Iceland. One might almost feel that the distraction of the murder is taking Hannah's mind off her personal difficulties (though, she does also let herself get distracted by a cute young policewoman). And you fundamentally feel that Hannah's right about a couple of things - that the murder is linked to local corruption, that the police don't care and are simply trying to pin the crime on an obvious suspect - and that she's being targeted by somebody, as threatening notes begin to arrive. As matters become tense, it seems a race between Hannah blundering on the truth through sheer audacity, and a clever and motivated criminal catching her first. The tension builds in the final quarter of the book as Hannah, finally, acquires an ally, and as the villain makes their move.

All in all, Under the Blazing Sun is an enjoyable and distracting romp of a crime story with a unique protagonist and a rather bewitching setting. Yes, Hannah's put through the wringer, but (I hope) she gets another book out of that and she even seems to take some steps to self-understanding and to being just a little less selfish. Perhaps. This is also a very funny book, Hannah's habit of putting her foot in it carrying her not only into danger but into some humorous situations (often at the same time).

The translation, by Paul Russell Garrett, is excellent and lucid.

For more information about Under the Blazing Sun, see the publisher's website here - and of course the other stops on the blogtour which you can see listed on the poster below. 

You can buy Under the Blazing Sun from your local high street bookshop or online from Bookshop UK, Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, WH Smith or Waterstones.

Review - Quite Ugly One Evening

Quite Ugly one Evening

Chris Brookmyre
Abacus, 7 May 2026
Available as: HB, 400pp, audio, e   
Source: Advance e-copy
ISBN(HB): 9780349145822

I'm grateful to the publisher for giving me access to an advance e-copy of Quite Ugly one Evening to consider for review.

In a sense I feel that reviewing Quite Ugly One Evening, Chris Brookmyre's new Jack Parlabane novel, is rather superfluous, on at least two levels. First, Brookmyre is already a phenomenon, an industry to himself almost and trying to comment on it feels as though I am the ant sitting on the axletree of the wagon and shouting "see how much dust I raise!"

Then there's the point that this is not just a Brookmyre book, but a Brookmyre Parlabane book, and that is something his fans always want to see more of. What can I say that could change this (in either direction)? Perhaps this level of fannish investment is a bit of a double edged sword for an author (see Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes) but we are where we are. For many readers the reappearance of Mr Parlabane alone will make this a must-read.

All that said - I think there is more to QUOE (can I coin that?) than fan-pleasing. A lot more

For a start, as we know well, Parlabane isn't a cardboard cutout character. That is the point of him, of course, he matures, he learns (or not) from his mistakes. But still I feel that the man we see here is, while recognisable and clearly the Parlabane of old, also a beautiful study in (middle) aging, regret, and loneliness.

In QUOE, Parlabane is approaching 60 and is suddenly orphaned after his mum dies (something that happened to me a couple of years back, so I can confirm Brookmyre's handling of this sensitive subject and Parlabane's stunned, regretful and confused response). The mystery of the father who abandoned mother and son years before remains. At a loose end after a(another) story goes wrong and with his job on the line (again), Parlabane goes rogue and - perhaps - repeats an earlier mistake, accepting work from MI5.

(Will he never learn...?)

For reasons that don't make a lot of sense to begin with (they will make more by the end of the story) Five send Parlabane off on a luxury transatlantic cruise, tasking him to get close to an eccentric British family, the Maskyns. The Maskyns own a beloved 1960s puppet series that is NOT, I repeat NOT, Thunderbirds. (But clearly it also is).

The Imaginators is, unlike its real-life model, embroiled in culture-war shenanigans. Vastly popular through a spin-off role-playing game, it has become beloved of keyboard warriors who resent the idea of an updating, let along one that might pay deference to modern sensitivities regarding race, gender, colonialism and so on. At the same time, the IP is drowning in debt and a hostile takeover bid looms. All of which comes to a head on that luxury liner, currently hosting a themed cruise with most of the Maskyn family aboard. Business feuds, personal disputes, family politics and general skullduggery will all come to a head - with Parlabane the potential and handy fall guy.

But why, exactly, are the spooks interested...?

I was impressed by the sheer verve of this book. That's quite a feat for Brookmyre to pull off, when his lead character is already jaded and disenchanted and has just suffered a bereavement. Yet there's something about the combination of the writing, the very real peril, and the acerbic commentary on the modern cultural landscape, that makes QUOE a gripping page-turner. 

Almost incidentally it's also a brilliant example of the locked-room mystery - indeed a double locked-room mystery as we have a locked room on a mid-Atlantic liner. Parlabane (whose fear of being isolated on the ship adds a sense of peril) has to deploy all his skills and keep his wits about him to reach the finishing line here. And he may not like everything he discovers.

Something of an old-fashioned mystery (but aren't hose the best?) but imbued with very modern dilemmas, Quite Ugly One Evening really invigorates this series. This book isn't just one more in its franchise, it shows that Parlabane's countercultural instincts and bloody-mindedness remain vital and relevant. I would strongly recommend. 

For more information about Quite Ugly one Evening, see the publisher's website here.

Review - A Forest, Darkly by A G Slatter

A Forest, Darkly

AG Slatter
Titan Books, 10 February 2026
Available as: PB, 368pp audio, e   
Source: Advance e-copy
ISBN(B): 9781835412565

I'm grateful to Titan for  giving me access to an advance e-copy of A Forest, Darkly to consider for review.

I think we all have authors whose books are a must read - you just need to know they’re coming to have them on pre-order. Angela (AG) Slatter is one of mine, and her “Sourdough” universe books, especially so.

A Forest, Darkly is described as a “standalone” in that universe. I think that means that the book isn’t directly connected to the recent sequence All the Murmuring Bones/ The Path of Thorns/ The Briar Book of the Dead/ The Crimson Road rather than that it is necessarily ensure unto itself - because having finished Forest, I can see so many ways that Slatter might expand on it; by giving us Mehrab, the forest witch’s, earlier life; or her later history; or the story of Rhea, the young girl who seeks her help. So much to explore and I hope to read some of those in future? It was fitting, though, to begin things with the middle-aged Mehrab, a splendid character.

Mehrab herself came to the forest seeking sanctuary. As a woman practicing magic, she’s hunted in this world, women like her persecuted by the Church and its “godhounds”. While some witches, like the Briars of The Briar Book of the Dead, are able to negotiate a precarious truce, most can only expect torture and death if they are captured, so they hide in obscure places like Berhta’s Forge, a town too insignificant to have either a church or a Lord. Mehrab's made a life there, a life disturbed when Rhea arrives, trailing a whiff of danger.

As if that’s not enough, Mehrab has begun to sense a change in the forest, an upset among the ancient spirits and demigods that live there. Something tries to trap her.

Then children begin to disappear in the village - and the villagers to turn against Mehrab…

While I may be biased (see my comments above!) I really did find A Forest, Darkly a meaty and entrancing read. Mehrab is such a rounded character, down to earth and competent at everything she she does: rather different from the stereotype fantasy lead which tends to be a young person out of their depth and trying to understand life as it changes around them. Indeed, as an older person (by no means old!) Mehrab has a perspective, faces challenges, and has to deal with issues, that are all very distinct. And also baggage from her past, both the distant past she fled from to the Forest, and her more recent life in the woods. Baggage such as lovers, natural and supernatural. Baggage such as her place in the village community. Baggage such as guilt for the things she did.

It all makes for an absorbing and well-realised story with plenty of surprises and new takes on older themes, and for Mehrab, something of a reckoning with her past.

A strong addition to the Sourdough books.

For more information about A Forest, Darkly, see the publisher's website here.

Review - The People's Republic of Love by Heather Child

The People's Republic of Love 

Heather Child
SRL Publishing, 31 March 2026, 
Available as: PB, 420pp, e   
Source: Advance e-copy
ISBN(PB): 9781915073563

I'm grateful to the publisher for giving me access to an advance e-copy of The People's Republic of Love to consider for review.

I'm writing this review with a degree of irony, ion time when the Gulf states, abode of influencers, tax exiles - and of course a number of hardworking, unfortunate people too - are being consumed by the sort of world catastrophe to which they were supposed to be immune.

In a near future, Tamsin is an engineer, working for a contractor patching up the London Tube. Inspired by her great hero, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and sharing his short stature, she posts on her socials as TunnelFairy.

Tamsin’s friend Charlotte is a struggling actor, who had success with a reality show, Six on the Beach, but whose career hasn’t really taken off. She’s now signed up for Get Outta My Room, an escape room themed show being filmed in The People’s Republic of Love, a collection of artificial islands in the Caribbean. The Republic is a libertarian paradise with little government, only an AI administration presided over by a Governor chosen on the basis of follower count.

It’s a Republic of clicks and likes, a world of performance and image, vastly different from Tamsin’s world of forces, tunnels and calculations. 

Yet when Charlotte finds herself in real danger on her show, it’s Tamsin who has to enter that world to find out what is going on - drawing on her own disastrous early attempts at stardom. Can she do better this time?

This was an intriguing and very different story from Heather Child. The juxtaposition between the two worlds is clever. The book might appear to contrast the evanescent one of crypto, image-making and trends with a solid, "real" universe of facts and numbers, but as Tamsin's battered copy of Brunel's biography makes clear, the great engineer wasn't above leaps of faith and fantasy and he was much concerned with his image. Tamsin discovers that her employer, too, is far from solid and reliable and is also preoccupied with publicity and spin.

There is in contrast a real sense of solidity to the relationship between the two women - grounded in their childhood friendship and their later experience acting in a calamitous version of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. We see a lot about what this means to both, and why it’s Tamsin that Charlotte reaches out too. It's a relationship that is tested severely through the book, with Charlotte unable to be sure that Tamsin will rescue her and as Charlotte seems to lose herself in the world she's had to enter, yet the bonds are strong.

We also see how the evil genius behind the escape room show plays on Charlotte’s insecurities, and especially the death of her mother, to disorientate and terrify her. This is a glimpse of a world where your entire history - every message, every post, every moment caught by ubiquitous cameras and mikes - can be reassembled and weaponised against you. The Republic eagerly buys into this radical openness, with residents deported if they won’t update their socials. Tamsin reflects on how it affects one’s private behaviours, every move and gesture apart geared towards those watching.

This turns out to be a game that Tamsin is very good at, however. Forced to play it for the safety and freedom of her friend, she is transformed from the dowdy engineer in her PPE to an uber-influencer in designer couture and heels. The question is, how much of what makes Tamsin, Tamsin, will be left by the time she’s done?

An absorbing story that really makes you care about its main characters - and which shows how things are never really over, even after the hero’s pulled off an impossible rescue. Recommended.

For more information about The People's Republic of Love, see the publisher's website here.

Review - The Misheard World by Aliya Whiteley

The Misheard World

Aliya Whiteley
Solaris, 24 February 2026 
Available as: HB, 272pp, audio, e   
Source: Advance copy 
ISBN(HB): 9781837866915

I'm grateful to Solaris for giving me access to an advance e-copy of The Misheard World to consider for review.

Oh this is a tricksy book. How much to say in a review? That's also tricky.

To start as the book starts, then, Elize Janview is a soldier, in an army, fighting an existential war against a deadly enemy. She's fighting for the South, against the North, in a struggle that follows a long period of coexistence. (If you're asking, South of what? North of where? those are good questions - but I won't enlighten you, you'll need to read the book). 

The war started after the North used a dreadful weapon against a city where people from North and South lived together, worked together, made art together. Now the South is desperate to copy that weapon, before the North can use it again. And there's an urgency since the North is winning and war comes closer and closer. 

We see Elize and her comrades defending Crag, a fortress used as a prison for captured soldiers from the North. Whiteley's portrayal of Elize and her little circle is great, showing the moments of boredom made bearable by endless gambling, bets on anything and everything. The food. Elize's helping out in the bakery. It all helps build up a picture.

Then, suddenly, the South has a stroke of luck. The notorious Northern spy, Marius Mondegreen, has been captured! His great enemy, the Allynx Syld, will interrogate him at Crag - and Janview is invited to witness the process. Surely Mondegreen (a magician who goes by the stage name 'The Misheard Word') will reveal the secret of the Weapon?

So the first part of this story proceeds. The land where North and South fight has, perhaps, something of the Ruritantian about it, these two minutely realised antagonists lying in mountainous country apparently isolated from anywhere else and in a seemingly pre-Modern world. Distrust abounds between the two (and did before the War) so things in Crag are complex - though perhaps Crag forms a third little world, with North and South again living and working together. 

And at the heart of that is Mondegreen's interrogation. It's clear that something lies between him and the Allynx (a Northern title) but we don't learn what until the final catastrophe, after Crag's fall when he and  Janview are on the run. Then there's a whole different story that she finds incomprehensible and unlikely, though for us, reading this book, it will be more familiar and will put the nature of Janview's world in a rather different perspective.

For her, though, she's now forced to choose between impossible absurdities. A survivor of that terrible weapon - one of few - she had joined the army to get revenge. Now she's faced with the possibility that her time has been wasted, that her enemies are elsewhere (but where?) and that her world may be doomed.

In The Misheard World, Whiteley deploys a brilliant concept, a wonderfully realised nesting of realities that operates on multiple levels. There's the question of what's really going on, the answers to which emerge, but only in part, as a result of the interplays between those realities. There's a question behind that - a why and how question - that isn't answered, but which preys on the mind of the reader: you will perhaps create your own answers to that. Finally, there's the wonderfully realised story of Mondegreen and the Allynx who, as I have said, have History - they almost step off the page (the kind of thing that could easily happen in this book) as real, living people with their own history and setting.

And of course, there's Janview who is also vivid and rather touching in her impossible situation.

How does it all end? Whiteley very definitely leaves that open. The book is in the end, I think, about how reality is written, and rewritten, and part of that concerns just what we mean by "end". This author refuses to be definite, and I loved the way she achieved that.

A mind-bending, worlds-spanning SFF treat that you really mustn't miss. Strongly recommended.

For more information about The Misheard World, see the publisher's website here.

Review - First Date by Gemma Amor

First Date
Gemma Amor
Datura, 10 February 2026
Available as: PB, 400pp audio, e   
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(PB): 9781915523808

I'm grateful to the publisher for  giving me access to an advance e-copy of First Date to consider for review. Apologies that I'm a little tardy publishing my review.

Amandine and Connor’s first date doesn’t go quite as they expected.

At one level, it’s not a surprise to Amandine. She never had high expectations, and she nearly bailed on the whole thing. Amor paints Amandine sympathetically, showing her psychology, her expectations that things will go badly - based on bitter experience, including the man who wanted to throw her down the stairs because he would “get off” on that. Behind all that is her sense of loss, after the accident that killed her parents and a growing certainty that she doesn't see the world quite as others do: she has trouble with life and resorts to coping mechanisms such "miracle words" to focus and channel the world where she needs it to be.

Amor also shows us Amandine’s determination, courage and ability to cope with a world that views her as, in Connor’s words, “neurospicy”. Naturally she’s wary of Connor. She tries to read the runes of his messaging. Is he texting her too much, a potential stalker? What does he mean by his emojis? Amandine anxiously watches for “red flags”, signs that, “the Internet” warns her, will perhaps disclose a bad man. 

But there are so many signs, and so many bad men. 

For his part, Connor also lacks confidence. He's still in his 30s and living with his dad. How can he take a woman home, even if things do go well? Will he put his foot in it? How much interest in Amandine is too much? How will she see him?

There is a tender story to be written of the two, their tentative first date - which actually goes well, until it doesn't - their growing attraction to one another, and the happily ever after to which it leads.

This isn’t, though, that book. 

Instead, Amor introduces us to a third person, never named, referred to as the “Lone Diner”. We see him from both Amandine’s and Connor’s perspectives. (Lots of red flags, she thinks. An unpleasant slob, he thinks). That’s bad enough.

We also though see his first person persona. This is just gross. I have to stress that was one of the most unpleasant reading experiences I’ve had for a long time, perhaps ever. Gemma Amor is a brilliant writer with a wonderful ability to write personality, psychology and, well, character. She is - as she proves here - as brilliant at that where the character is sleazy, vile and evil as where they are good, or even, just middling.

The result is an almost active experience of taint, as though even by following the Diner’s thought processes, his obsessive Internet creeping, his scorn for his wife, for women in general - as though even reading these things will corrupt, infect, debase. It’s simply visceral, a brilliant emotional achievement, an experience that will shake you, as you follow the story of those ill-fated would-be lovers. 

That atmosphere of darkness and horror is the true heart of this story, intensified by the ordeal that the Diner inflicts on Amandine and Connor. We hope they'll avoid it, somehow, that they will turn the tables. Even though we saw the endpoint of the Lone Diner's hate in the opening of the story, how much worse is it to follow the process, the working out of the horror?

A grim book, for sure, and I’d certainly want to point at potential triggers here for abuse, stalking, kidnapping, torture even. This won’t be for everyone. But if it is something you can bear to read, I’d strongly recommend it both as a story of courage and resilience and as a simply enthralling, stunning read from an author who’s just a real star. This is the book that kept me up past my bedtime, the book I just had to finish. The book that lurked in dark corners of my mind afterwards.

It's safe to say, you won't find any happily-ever-afters here, or redemption, or triumph. But what there is, makes it a spellbinding read.

For more information about First Date, see the publisher's website here.

Cover Reveal - Under the Blazing Sun by Jenny Lund Madsen

Today I'm sharing the cover for Jenny Lund Madsen's new book, Under the Blazing Sun.

I so much loved Thirty Days of Darkness, and here's Jenny Lund Madsen with a followup - Hannah, the reluctant crime writer (who thought it would be SO EASY changing genre) is back. Here's what we've been told so far.

Hannah is miserable. Her love life is in ruins, her contract demands a sequel to her bestselling crime debut – and she's out of ideas. After a mortifying TV interview, her agent ships her off to a sun-drenched Sicilian villa with a simple order: finish the book. No distractions. No excuses.

But inspiration doesn't strike – murder does.

When a night out ends in murder, Hannah finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation … again. The police want her out of the way, and the only person who seems to believe her is a young but charming Italian police officer. That is, until she doesn't.

Soon Hannah is chasing suspects, fleeing crime scenes, and doing whatever it takes to avoid becoming the next victim. She came to write a crime novel. Now she's trapped inside one.

Dark, sly and deliciously atmospheric, Under the Blazing Sun is the second novel in the award-winning series featuring accidental sleuth and disgruntled literary author Hannah, whose pursuit of plot twists keeps turning dangerously real.

Translated by Paul Russell Garrett, Under the Blazing Sun is out from Orenda Books on 21 May in hardback and e-book. Get your preorders in now. You can buy from your local highstreet bookshops, via the Orenda site  (with more info about the books) or from Bookshop UK, Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, WH Smith, Waterstones or Amazon.

Now, that cover...

I like that! It also echoes the cover of Thirty Days of Darkness.

I'm going to enjoy reading this one, I can tell already.

Blogtour Review - The Murder Pool by Stella Blómkvist

The Murder Pool
Stella Blómkvist (trans Quentin Bates)
Corylus Books, 5 March 2026 
Available as: PB, 296pp, e   
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(PB): 9781917586252

I'm grateful to Ewa for sending me a copy of The Murder Pool to consider for review, and for inviting me to join the book's blogtour.

In this latest instalment of the adventures of Stella Blómkvist - Icelandic lawyer and detective - written by Stella Blómkvist - mysterious Icelandic author - the cases come think and fast for Stella.

She’s asked to defend a young man accused of the murder of renowned painter “The Splasher” Kristinn Ófeigsson. Gunnar had been sitting for Ófeigsson who was known for his risqué works depicting scantily dressed young Viking hunks. Now Gunnar is accused of setting about The Splasher with an axe.

In addition to that, Stella is helping out her partner Rannveig, a documentary producer. One of Rannveig's colleagues is putting together an exposé of an abuser with high political connections - and some one seems to be leaning on the broadcaster to squash the story

Then there’s a senior policeman accused of corruption by a colleague with whom Stella’s crossed swords in the past. 

And more besides.

These books are always rapidfire with multiple threads, twists and plenty of plot, but this time, Blómkvist - the author - has, I think, surpassed herself. The result is a busy, even hectic story where nothing stands still for long. All through, it's regularly punctuated by Stella herself with an "Ooof!" when she encounters a setback, discovers something surprising or has an insight. The effect is rather like a series of punches, drumming home an insistent, dramatic rhythm in this enthralling and fast-paced book.

That’s a reflection I think of Stella (the character) herself who has always had many plates juggling. But in this book she not only has crime to address but some chewy personal issues besides, and I began to wonder if it would all be too much. I’ve always felt that the tough talking, wisecracking Stella of the novels might be something of a front for a woman who has things at the back of her mind she’d rather not examine too closely. Overloading herself with work might just be another way to avoid that. Are we seeing Stella on the edge of crisis? 

Maybe. If so, it doesn’t hinder her from tackling her multiple cases. She draws on all the resources she has - her forensic skills, dismantling opponents in the courtroom, her press contacts and her sheer nerve. (Stella even, in one scene, marches into the Prime Minister's office to threaten consequences - a reminder that Iceland is a smaller country where everyone knows everyone, or at least their cousin).

It’s an engaging, dense story that leads back to the prisons of Bangkok and to the Reykjavik underworld, building on events and characters of previous books - nothing in Stella’s world is ever totally done with - to build a picture of rackets and dodgy dealing. Stella B is a brilliant person to have in her corner, and she comes through for her clients. By the end of the book though I thought I saw  change coming for her. As I said, in these books nothing is ever done done.

As with the previous books in the series, Quentin Bates' translation is sharp and pacy, creating excellent readable English while preserving some lumps and bumps in the language (those nicknames?) that show the story's origin in a different language. Great fun to read.

Recommended. I’m eager to see what the next book brings... 

For more information about The Murder Pool, see the publisher's website here - and of course the other stops on the blogtour which you can see listed on the poster below. 

You can buy The Murder Pool from your local high street bookshop or online from Bookshop UK, Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, WH Smith or Waterstones.

Blogtour review - Reaper by Vanda Symon

Reaper (The City of Shadows, 2)
Vanda Simon
Orenda Books, 12 March 2026
Available as: PB, 300pp, audio, e   
Source: Free advance copy
ISBN(PB): 9781917764100

I'm grateful to Karen at Orenda for sending me a free copy of Reaper to consider for review, and to Anne for inviting me to join the book's blogtour.

Reaper sees a welcome return for Max Grimes, Symon’s homeless ex-detective who lives on the streets of Auckland. 

This book and its predecessor, Faceless, take a different and distinctly less comic (I'd even say, more gritty) approach than Symon's beloved Sam Shepherd series. In part (but only in part) that reflects the situation of the main protagonist. I’m sure that - as with other art - the best writing can come from working within constraints, and a detective story where the detective lacks not only any formal formal status but is at the margins of society, with few everyday resources, certainly qualifies on that score. It’s literally the opposite of the aristocratic, money Golden Age detective to whom everybody, police included, defers. And I was interested to see how Symon solves the problems that creates I'm not though going to spill the beans, you need to read the book!)

Reaper is not though merely a technical exercise in writing an outsider detective, it’s a book with heart and soul as we see Grimes caring for and suffering with his community. Indeed, he may be the only one who is caring for them, as the police miss the murders until he shouts about it and the Mayor then uses the deaths as a pretext to clear away the embarrassing street people.

Above and beyond that, though, Reaper is also a tautly written, complex and fast-paced mystery with plenty of tension and a distinct sense of menace. Has Max’s desire to learn the truth about his daughter’s death led him into a trap? Will it distract him to risks he may be running? Grimes is a strangely relatable central character, Symon makes him sympathetic though perhaps not likeable (which is a brilliant combination if you can make it work, as here). His relationship with police detective Meredith is well drawn, with her often frustrated and, rightfully, mistrustful - both feel like people who’ve been hurt and built barriers - but wanting to be of help.

Which brings me to a final point where I think this book, and the series so far (this is only the second so it’s early days) succeeds (and where it could have gone very wrong). You have to ask of a book like this, which sets out to portray a marginalised community, whether it isn’t indulging in a kind of misery tourism. That must always I think be a particular risk for crime fiction, shown for example in its proclivity for female victims, especially for attractive young female victims. (Not in this book). 

It’s a danger, however, that Symon avoids. She’s clear eyed about the people she portrays, sympathetic without romanticising, demonstrating how prejudice and exploitation affect them, but without trying to construct a “rescue” narrative or minimising the problems that have brought them to their current state. Here, of course, Max is the exemplar, suffering after the tragic death of his daughter. Meredith wants to help him, but recognises - and articulates to us - that it’s not her place to reshape his life.

As to Max, what does he want? He's not, I think, sure. Perhaps we'll find out in future books (may there PLEASE be future books!)

So all in all an intelligent and engaging bit of crime fiction which I greatly enjoyed. 

And - MINOR SPOILER - the dog is OK at the end, so you can rest easy if, like me, you worry about that. 

For more information about Reaper, see the publisher's website here - and of course the other stops on the blogtour which you can see listed on the poster below. 

You can buy Reaper from your local high street bookshop or online from Bookshop UK, Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, WH Smith (TG Jones if you must), or Waterstones.

Blogtour review - Sharks by Simone Buchholz

Sharks (Chastity Riley)

Simone Buchholz (trans Rachel Ward)
Orenda Books, 26 February 2026 
Available as: PB, 210pp audio, e   
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(PB): 9781917764087

I'm grateful to the publisher for sending me a copy of Sharks  to consider for review and to Anne for inviting me to join the blogtour.

Simone Buchholz's sequence of books about Chastity Riley, public prosecutor in Hamburg, is one of my favourite crime series. Starting with Blue Night and running through five stories up to River Clyde, we delve into Riley's troubled, deeply noir-tinged world. In the final book, we see her get some relief, perhaps.

But there is backstory! When Blue Night opens, Riley has already been through a lot, and Buchholz is now telling these stories which I think we previously published in German but are now being reworked, and then translated (again by the brilliant Rachel Ward). 

Sharks is I think the third part of Buchholz's reworking of the earlier Chastity Riley books, described as "Chastity reloaded" (a phrase which I feel could constitute an... interesting... proposition in ontological terms, but let's not go down that rabbit hole). We can therefore see the setting, and the circle of friends and lovers, forming that constitute the background for the later books, beginning at Blue Night. So inSharks, we see the origin of the Blue Night café itself, which features as a central location in the stories. We also see a fracture in Riley's relationship with her lover Klatsche.

We also, of course, see Riley, public prosecutor in Hamburg, grappling with a crime, the brutal double murder of two Americans in a squalid, run-down apartment building, leading into a world of double dealing and corruption in a district subject to gentrification. It's a well thought out plot strand that demonstrates Buchholtz's familiarity with the pulse (as it were) of Hamburg. It also shows the start of her involvement with Inceman - perhaps the beginning of a Chastity spiralling out of control as we see in the later books.

A feature of these stories is that Chastity's world, and that of her colleagues in the police and the prosecutors' office, is a distinctly menacing, unfriendly place. Often the best friends, the warmest comradeship, is with the petty crooks of Sankt Pauli, the people with whom Riley will gladly drink a night away. The higher up the ranks of officialdom we go, the further into wealth and power, the worse people get and the more dangerous the journey. That's doubly true in Sharks, and Riley faces additional danger as our girl is suffering from a chest infection. She may even have to give up smoking, that's how bad it is!

As ever though this feeds into a tangible sense that Chastity's not taking care of herself and she certainly won't allow anyone else to take care of her, so she makes a point of only quitting for a day or two. After that there's the business of self-punishment to resume. The only respite she allows herself is when she's supporting her friends, as she does when Carla is in crisis - which paints more background to the development of the group, as do manoeuvres to establish the Blue Night café which we see in operation in the later books.

Told in taut chapters, Sharks is classic noir, a book with an atmosphere so strong that one almost inhales, rather than reads, this story of late nights, insomnia, coffee, and cigarettes - a world that seems nocturnal even when the watery sun is in the sky. Buchholz layers on the mean streets, the meaner people, the need to release through drink and sex. But the book also provides some relief in the small joys of friendship - Riley supporting Carla for example, or making time to watch her favourite (failing) football team. 

It's less about the crime (though that is a satisfying mystery, taking us to some grim places physically and morally) than the little group of friends weathering the storm, trying to make something worthwhile and to endure.

Another lovely novel, one that contributes to the achievement this evolving series is. Chastity's always great to be around, and I really enjoyed this.

As ever Rachel Ward's translation is atmospheric, fun and nimble. The partnership of Buchholz and  Ward as delivers a sharp, bracing story with language that seems laconic and plain at first sight but where deep and treacherous subcurrents run. 

Strongly recommended.

For more information about Sharks, see the publisher's website here - and of course the other stops on the blogtour which you can see listed on the poster below. 

You can buy Sharks from your local high street bookshop or online from Bookshop UK, Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, WH Smith, Waterstones or Amazon.

Review - The Essence by Dave Hutchinson

The Essence

Dave Hutchinson
Newcon Press, 9 December 2025
Available as: HB, 274pp, PB, 274pp, e   
Source: Bought
ISBN(PB): 9781917735148

It's always exciting to see a new book from Dave Hutchinson and The Essence is one of his best. 

This was part of my Christmas present to myself for 2025 and I enjoyed it loads.

Michael is an economist, working for a covert branch of the UK Treasury. After he suffers a breakdown in the office, he's placed in a private hospital to recover. A spooks' hospital, you might call it.

Hutchinson's good on institutional shabbiness - the atmosphere of the hospital, a place with decent treatment, if uninspiring food, but a definite atmosphere of have been left behind in the late 20th century, is nicely evoked. So, on his discharge, is that of his office, on a shabby cut-through behind Oxford Street. 

He's also good when portraying Michael's struggle to retain normality and his measured steps back to independence, with the help of a social worker, Jo. The book leads the reader to understanding something of Michael's past, of what's missing in the cold little house to which he returns from hospital, without over-labouring its point. It's a nice, low key exploration of (part of) a life, taking drama and interest from everyday events and routines. 

Even without major incident, this part of the story was a joy to read. Major incident is coming, however, when Michael is unexpectedly sent to Amsterdam to investigate an issue with his office's Dutch counterparts. This is where the story slips, seamlessly, into what one might call "spook mode" although it's important to understand that Michael sees himself as an economist, not a spy. Nevertheless, he's forced to think differently once it emerges that he's sought after by various factions of an international conspiracy. They all believe that he has knowledge of something called "The Essence", a mysterious and contradictory supernatural phenomenon of which he's never heard. 

The story then takes Michael across Europe, both feeling and negotiating with the different flavours of "Essencehead" while trying to understand just what he's involved in - and why. For man who's recently been hospitalised with mental health issues, the sheer preposterousness of what's stumbled on seems a real danger to his grip on reality. But evidence mounts that the Essence is a real thing, and then Michael has to question why everyone things he knows something about it.

The Essence is a combination of thriller, horror and espionage that will transition in a heartbeat from the bizarre (such as the scenes with a certain dog) to the violent to the intense, all overlaid on a kind of fantastical road trip using the breath of Europe and engagement with its history to give solidity and heft to the incredible storyline.

And behind it all, there's something else going on...

This is a glorious book, great fun, gripping and satisfying. Recommended.

For more information about The Essence, see the publisher's website here.

Blogtour review - Catherine by Essie Fox

Catherine
Essie Fox
Orenda Books, 12 February 2016
Available as: HB, 287, audio, e   
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(HB/ PB): 9781917764421

I'm grateful to Orenda for sending me a copy of Catherine to consider for review, and to Anne for inviting me to join the book's blogtour.

It is, I think, 40 odd years since I read Wuthering Heights, in the early 80s when I was doing O level English lit. This wasn't one of our set books, but our teacher was keen to make sure we read much more widely. I remember that the introduction to the edition we read made much of the Brontës' father's "Celtic" ancestry as a factor in their romantic temperament - you don't get criticism like that today.

I tend not to re-read, so my memory of the events in the novel was hazy - ideal, really, for this retelling since it meant I wasn't looking forward for what I knew would come next.  It also meant my sympathies and appreciation of the characters could shift, uninfluenced by the later story, the perfect frame of mind to enjoy this version.

I think it's important to recognise that in the Wuthering Heights universe there are no absolute heroes and villains, and no "likeable" characters. Everyone behaves badly, everyone is worthy of sympathy. In that respect, and others, Catherine isn't a new story, it is proper Wuthering Heights but - and here's the difference - told by Cathy, rather than narrated, in hindsight, by Nelly Dean. Essie Fox uses a rather clever device to make this possible, one consonant I think with the subtext of the original novel and which handily telescopes the 20 or so years period that the story takes to unroll, and gives a real sense of immediacy and, well, jeopardy to the events - in contrast with the hindsight-tinted perspective of the original. (And we're spared Mr Lockwood, who isn't event mentioned by name, just - in one or two places - as "the tenant").

Fox also takes the opportunity of this being Cathy's own story to enlarge on parts that Dean is only passing on from Catherine herself - who Fox makes unreliable, or at least incomplete, in what she tells her maid. This gives some space to develop aspects about which the original book is silent. For example, Heathcliff learns the truth of his background and relates this to Cathy - something that is then a significant motivation for Cathy - but Cathy never tells Nell the details. In that respect, Catherine is therefore a retelling, not the retelling - other authors could make other choices. I do think though that Fox's choices are deeply true to the novel, and in taking over the book's characters, she captures something genuine in their relationships and history that makes this more than simply a glossing of the original. The people you'll meet here are vital, human, and true to Brontë's original.

All this makes Catherine more than simply a retelling, it's a rich story in its own right. There is tragedy here, and room for pity and empathy even with the apparent villains: like Wuthering Heights itself, Catherine is something of a gale of emotion and feeling - longing, lust, hatred, regret, jealousy - and if you're going to enjoy this book you need to be on board for that. It won't suit everyone! In my view, the power of Emily Brontë's original is here in Catherine, undiminished, but this retelling addresses matters which the climate of the mid-19th century could not allow, as well as revisiting aspects where modern sensibilities raise issues, or ask questions, which the original didn't.

Catherine is a grand, sweeping read which takes nothing away from the original novel - it is, as I said, only a retelling, not the retelling, I can imagine alternatives that take different paths, but what a retelling! 

I would recommend.

For more information about Catherine, see the publisher's website here - and of course the other stops on the blogtour which you can see listed on the poster below. 

You can buy Catherine from your local high street bookshop or online from Bookshop UK, Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, WH Smith, or Waterstones.