Published in the Sunday Times
Year of the Turnip
John Dobson (Mercury)
*****
If you feel you’re sliding into a dull murk of political correctness, this book is an inflatable life raft. Jason Brydon, the True Religions-wearing, privileged white prat, is back. In this diary-format sequel to Year of the Gherkin, rugby coach and writer John Dobson goes where no other Woolworths customer would dare go on social media, let alone in print. The Jasonator, his Adrian Molesque protagonist, is trying to dodge child-maintenance payments and racking up a “portfolio” of chicks. Dobson’s a sharp social commentator, his hashtaggery is higher grade. The book is crass, clever, rude and wrong, and if you’re not laughing hysterically by the second line, move to Canada. – Catriona Ross @CatrionaWriter
Smoke and Mirrors
Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
Book Thrill
****
Elly Griffiths is the author of the popular Ruth Galloway series featuring a forensic archaeologist and set in Norfolk. Her new series is based in ’50s Brighton and its protagonists are Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens and his wartime friend Max Mephisto, a stage magician. Post-war Britain is a bleak place and most people are living pinched lives. Two local children disappear and are found dead in the snow, with sweets scattered around them in a Hansel and Gretel-like tableau. Within days another child disappears and it transpires that all three are part of a sinister amateur drama group. It all sounds overly contrived, but it isn’t. Under Griffiths’s guidance it works swimmingly, as they would have said in the argot of the period. – William Saunderson-Meyer @TheJaundicedEye
The Hunter of the Dark
Donato Carrisi (Little, Brown)
Book Thrill
****
A man wakes up in a hospital with no memory and no identity. He learns that he is Marcus, a priest tasked with finding and eliminating evil. His mission begins with a dismembered body in the Vatican and traverses Rome, leaving horror in its homicidal wake. Marcus must find and stop the Monster of Rome. Carrisi pens a captivating novel through a delicate merging of fact and fiction. It’s an intricate plot with an unpredictable ending in which the nature of good and evil is questioned. A melancholic book, which is nonetheless mesmerising. – Samantha Gibb @samantha_gibb
Try Not to Breathe
Holly Seddon (Atlantic Books)
Book Fling
***
Alex is struggling to keep it all together – writing freelance stories while balancing the amount of wine she drinks with water. While on a story at the hospital she discovers Amy, attacked 15 years ago and now in a coma. Alex feels connected to Amy; they are the same age and lived in the same Kent neighbourhood. There were many suspects: Amy’s stepdad, her boyfriend, and a known child molester, but no one was caught. Now Alex is in danger as she is determined to find out who hurt Amy. Best gobbled up in one sitting. – Jennifer Platt @Jenniferdplatt
Book details
- Year of the Turnip by John Dobson
Book homepage
EAN: 9780992194994
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- Smoke and Mirrors by Elly Griffiths
EAN: 9781784290269
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- The Hunter of the Dark by Donato Carrisi
EAN: 9780349141183
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- Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon
EAN: 9781782396680
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