The Pink Suit
Nicole Mary Kelby (Little Brown)
*****
Book buff
The images from 22 November 1963 are burned into history: especially Jackie Kennedy scrambling as if to get out of the car, wearing a pink suit. A suit she refused to take off, although it was drenched with her husband’s blood, when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as President on Air Force One. Kelby weaves a fabulous tale of a young woman who works for an upmarket dressmaking firm from this history. This is a story about the 1960s in New York, its fashion houses, and the politics of love and the weft of relationships worn like fine bouclé.
– Jennifer Crocker @malleson30
Suspect
Robert Crais (Orion)
****
Book thrill
LA cop Scott James and his partner Stephanie were caught in a gang ambush. She died – he barely survived. Eight months later, he’s overcome the physical wounds but remains emotionally battered. To make matters worse, he’s relegated to retraining as a dog handler in the K-9 unit. His new partner, a German shepherd called Maggie, is also physically and emotionally battered. While it is Scott and Maggie’s investigation of the gang that shot Stephanie that ostensibly drives the plot, it is the growing bond between cop and his best friend that lifts Suspect a cut above most police procedurals.
– William Saunderson-Meyer @TheJaundicedEye
How to Look After Bert Reynolds
Laurence Cramer (Penguin)
****
Book buff
Laurence Cramer’s first novel, Psychocandy, was published in 2005. This is his second, which is sadly also his last: Cramer died in a car accident in 2013. Set in Kentucky, USA, it portrays life in rural America with astonishing vividness. There’s Anja, who works at a crisis hotline, a couple of nervous policemen and several individuals who (apparently) kill themselves, one by one. Then there’s Bert (not “Burt”), an ageing Australian and witness to one of the “suicides”. The book has a smattering of Tom Sharpe and a lot of, well, Laurence Cramer: it’s unique almost to the point of being absurd.
– JB (Jaybee) Roux @JJoernalis
Book details
- The Pink Suit by Nicole Mary Kelby
EAN: 9781844089734
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- Suspect by Robert Crais
EAN: 9781409129646
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- How to Look After Bert Reynolds by Laurence Kramer
EAN: 9780143539025
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