cornucopia

[minus the goat's horn]

Nothing at all to do with tulips apart from the fact they I've been reading while they've been growing, and the fact that tulips also reveal their complexity over time, I must recommend In a Lonely Place as one of the best hard-boiled novels I've ever read. I'm not linking to any reviews as it's a slow-reveal book, with a brilliantly modulated and controlled narrative and some wonderfully atmospheric and disorientating Californian fogs. I love the way the story unfolds slowly, with plenty of ambiguity and some classic thriller/noir writing. (The film starring Humphrey Bogart is nothing like the book.)

For more cleverly constructed and gripping novels which keep you wondering about the truth, see The Expendable Man (also by Dorothy B. Hughes), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and, on a very different subject but absolutely fantastic, The Wife by Meg Wolitzer.