The Invisible Guardian
Dolores Redondo (HarperCollins)
***
Book thrill
Redondo does a good job of feeding the reader just enough snippets to keep things interesting. Inspector Amaia Salazar returns to her childhood home in the Baztan valley in Spain to investigate a string of ritualistic murders. She is put under considerable pressure: because coming home means facing up to what she fled. Redondo blindsides beautifully. But while the murder narrative keeps the pages turning, the Basque mythology (witchcraft, voodoo and the basajaun – a sort of friendly Yeti) feels like an unwanted history lesson.
- Dane Bowman
Looking for Lakshmi
Rajan Soni (Unisa Flame Series)
****
Book buff
A few pages in, I was hooked – both by the lyrical prose and my empathy with the protagonist’s search for his grandmother, Lakshmi, a quest to reconcile his African and Indian selves. From Mombasa to the Punjab via Mumbai, and back to the Kenyan savannah, Soni’s narrative encompasses the traumas of migration and nationalism, rootedness and uprooting, and the eternal outsider’s pursuit of a community within which he can thrive. Lakshmi’s legacy endures in his acumen and sardonic wit.
- Ayesha Kajee @ayeshakajee
Moriarty
Anthony Horowitz (Orion)
****
Book monster
It’s May, 1891, and the world is ringing with the news that Sherlock Holmes and his arch-enemy Professor James Moriarty plunged to their death at the Reichenbach Falls. Frederick Chase, a Pinkerton agent, has followed master criminal Clarence Devereux from America, having learned he and Moriarty planned to combine resources. Chase combines forces with Holmes-wannabe Inspector Athelney Jones to hunt the elusive evil genius. Immersed in enough period atmosphere to satisfy even Conan Doyle.
- Aubrey Paton
Killing Monica
Candace Bushnell (Little, Brown)
***
Book fling
Just when the world has stopped caring about Sex and the City (um, mostly), Bushnell decides to write herself as Pandy, who has to kill off her Carrie creation in order to live the life of a care-free author. Carrie is Monica, “the beloved heroine of four Monica books and four Monica movies”. The actress who plays Monica is SondraBeth Schnowzer. Bushnell has of course denied that SondraBeth is Sarah (Jessica Parker) who is Carrie who is Monica who is Pandy who is herself. Sounds confusing but it’s all made very clear in this mean, sometimes funnyish novel. So meta.
- Jennifer Platt @Jenniferdplatt
Book details
- The Invisible Guardian by Dolores Redondo
EAN: 9780007525331
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- Looking for Lakshmi by Rajan Soni
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EAN: 9781868887941
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- Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz
EAN: 9781409109488
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- Killing Monica by Candace Bushnell
EAN: 9781408703175
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