Originally released in the early seventies and recently resurrected by Penguin, Don’t Point That Thing At Me is the first in a trilogy starring Charlie Mortdecai, an aristocratic, narcissistic and ruthless antique dealer, accomplished fencer (of stolen property) and occasional hitman. Accompanied by his trusty manservant/vicious thug Jock, Mortdecai attempts to make a profit from stolen artwork and stay alive in the face of constant peril. Frequently witty and sporadically unpleasant, it’s a raucous ride across England and the US as Mortdecai struggles to stay one step […]
Like the heartfelt and quirky baby of Everything Is Illuminated and Garden State.
The Rise & Fall of Great Powers is an absorbing and intriguing novel filled with witty lines, an array of likeable characters and thoughtful meanderings on literature, life and roots. Tooly runs a small bookshop in Wales containing a beautiful little warren of shelves, an odd collection of old volumes, a pontificating (but somewhat clueless) bookseller and a bargain bucket that needs bringing in every time it rains (which does appear to be most of the time.) The only thing it’s missing is regular, money-laden customers. […]
Another creepy and imaginative trip down the rabbit hole that is The Southern Reach Trilogy.
Annihilation had a pretty cover. It was gold and covered in fine spores that drifted across the page invitingly, so I picked it up not knowing what to expect. (Although people say not to trust a book by its cover, I’ve not been burned yet, touch wood.) It started off with a simple premise: a small team of specialists are sent to a strange contaminated area in order to figure out what was going on. It soon descended into weirder and weirder territory, as the team […]
An unusual and gripping sequel featuring regrets, ghosts and a psychic showdown.
Writing a sequel to a novel is hard. The expectations are high, particularly if the original book was written about thirty-six years ago. You have obsessive fans, critics who would love you to fail and worst of all, nostalgia to deal with. Now imagine that novel is one of the finest examples of horror fiction from the last hundred years, and you start to understand the risks Stephen King has taken with Doctor Sleep. Before we head into this review, I must point out that I have devoured […]
A romp through the bayou in pursuit of a mad axeman with a rogues’ gallery of investigators.
Based on the real life murders in New Orleans during 1918-1919, The Axeman’s Jazz is a pulpy slice of true crime that rattles along at a brisk pace, neatly filling in the gaps between facts with entertaining and believable scenes. Celestin populates the city with a motley crew of people that wouldn’t feel out of place in 1950’s noir. There’s the weary cop with the hidden secret, the mobster with dreams of getting out, the journalist with an addiction, the plucky young agent in search of meaning […]
A delicate and timeless novella about love, fidelity and truth.
The Hunting Gun is a quiet little story about the tangled lives of four people in Japan, presented through letters sent to the unassuming author. It’s unsentimental with how it deals with infidelity and love, and although at times a little bleak, it’s a finely crafted first novella from a future master. Originally released in 1949, it won Inoue the most prestigious literary award in Japan, the Akutagawa Prize, and this beautiful new edition from Pushkin Press is a brilliant celebration of his work. After publishing […]
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