Book Reviews

  • February The Fifth by Derek Haines

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” http://www.URL.com] I don’t like Terry Pratchett. There, I’ve said it. I find his books unfunny, smart-arsed and contrived. Reading one of his books is like being poked in the ribs by a five year old wanting to point out to you how clever he is. I know I am in the minority: the…

  • One Day by David Nicholls

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” ] One Day tells the story of two young people, Dexter and Emma, who briefly get together on their last day of Uni in 1988. David Nicholls uses the device of providing `snapshots’ of each of their lives on the same day in

  • One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” http://www.URL.com] I left writing a review of this book for a week or so to decide what I really thought about it. I enjoyed it well enough when I was reading it,

  • Gangs of Glasgow

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” http://www.URL.com]   Robert Jeffries writes, “research conducted by Glasgow University’s Professor Neil McKeganey shows that one in three boys and one in twelve girls across Scotland has carried a knife at some time.” A chilling figure. I am Glaswegian and come from Easterhouse, one of the areas badly troubled by gangs in the seventies…

  • Review of If I Never See You Again

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” http://www.URL.com] We’ve all heard the old adage that we ‘shouldn’t judge a book by its cover’ and in the case of If I Never See You Again by Irish writer Niamh O’Connor, this couldn’t be more true. The cover doesn’t do justice to the intelligence and

  • Book Review: Dark Blood by Stuart MacBride

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” http://www.URL.com] I am a big Stuart MacBride fan. His Logan McRae crime series never fails to delight me and the man himself is far lovelier than his gory prose might lead you to believe – he has been a judge in a children’s writing competition my writing group ran. Dark Blood didn’t disappoint.…

  • Review of The Business Of Dying by Simon Kernick

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” http://www.URL.com] The Business of Dying is the debut novel by successful crime writer Simon Kernick. It tells the story of Dennis Milne, a copper who also kills people

  • Book Review: The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” http://www.URL.com] “A human body starts to decompose four minutes after death.” So starts The Chemistry Of Death by Simon Beckett and this macabre beginning sets the tone for the horror that will unfold in the village of Manham as the bodies of two apparently unrelated woman are found.