Recent Reads
Apologies for the lack of posts over the last month. I’ve been reading lots of books but haven’t had time to catch up with my reviews. Every Saturday we have a discussion over on my Facebook author page on what we are reading at the moment. Do come over and take a look. My TBR pile gets bigger and bigger.
However, I’m on the train to London in unexpected sunshine as it’s the CWA Dagger Award dinner this evening and I’m looking forward to catching up with some fellow crime writers and reviewers. It’s also given me a chance to sum up a few of my favourite reads over the last couple of months.
[image error]The Conviction of Cora Burns is the debut novel by Carolyn Kirby featuring an interesting protagonist, Cora Burns who was raised in a workhouse and enters the house of scientist Thomas Sherwood as a servant. Sherwood appears to be taking part in a living experiment and Cora becomes sucked into his work. It’s an absorbing read, packed full of period detail and it’s great to read such an assured debut. The book isn’t published until Spring next year but I’m sure Kirby will garner lots of fans.
[image error]The House on Half Moon Street by Alex Reeve also has an interesting central character. Leo Stanhope works as an assistant to a London coroner but was born Charlotte, the daughter of a respectable middle class family. Leo suffers physical pain from the bandages he uses to hide his breasts to live as a man and from the anguish of being estranged from his family. One of the people he has trusted with his secret is Maria, a prostitute whom he loves. When she’s found dead, he comes under suspicion of her murder and must find the killer without revealing his secret. It’s an absorbing and well written debut which manages to bypass any cliches.
[image error]I picked up my copy of The Martian Girl at Goldsboro books, a great bookshop which always has something to tempt. It’s the first book I’ve read by Andrew Martin and I found it fascinating. Jean, a journalist, is writing a one-woman play about Kate, a Victorian mind-reader which she hopes to stage at a London venue. She is having an affair with a seedy ex-barrister who is known by his surname Coates who’s both impulsive and paranoid. As Jean researches further into Kate’s past, she sees echoes of her own situation. The Martian Girl is an unusual and interesting read and in Coates, Martin has created a compelling figure.
[image error]I’ve been reading Australian crime fiction for years, mainly on the recommendation of the late blogger Bernadette at Reactions to Readings. The Dry by Jane Harper has done much to increase interest in crime fiction from Oz and it’s great to see more Antipodean writers appearing in the UK. Scrublands by Chris Hammer is set in a small town which journalist Martin Scarsden visits to do a follow up story on the murder by a priest of five of the town’s inhabitants. It’s a substantial book and absolutely riveting. Hammer excels at characterisation and his depiction of small town relationships is something close to my own heart. I can’t wait to read what comes next. Scrublands is published in January.
