The Editor
Simon Kernick
Reviewed on January 23, 2012
Simon Kernick is one of Britain’s most exciting new thriller writers. He arrived on the crime writing scene with his highly acclaimed debut novel The Business of Dying, the story of a corrupt cop moonlighting as a hitman. However, Simon’s big breakthrough came with his novel Relentless which was selected by Richard and Judy for [...]
Five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won
Reviewed on January 23, 2012
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was one of the big film releases of 2011, and to celebrate its release on DVD we have five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won – consisting of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People.
Dennis O’Donnell
Reviewed on January 2, 2012
Dennis O’Donnell was born in West Lothian in 1951, read English and American Literature at Edinburgh University and then went on to do research on the poetry of Ezra Pound with a view to a Ph.D. The thesis remains half written, the doctorate unbestowed, and he has not read a line of Pound since. Nor [...]
![Win a signed copy of A Means of Escape [closed]](http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/51eKh7wi2VL-120x185.jpg)
Win a signed copy of A Means of Escape [closed]
Reviewed on November 14, 2011
We have five signed hardback copies of Joanna Price’s debut crime novel A Means of Escape to be won. If you would like to win a copy of this psychologically driven police procedural, read our review and then answer a simple question.
Oliver Stark
Reviewed on November 14, 2011
Oliver Stark has been writing for as long as he can remember. As a teenager, he was an avid fan of American detective stories and made his first attempt at crime fiction at the age of sixteen. Needless to say, this never reached publication.
Book Heaven / Book Hell: David Wingrove
Reviewed on November 7, 2011
Born and raised in London, David Wingrove gave up a career in banking to return to studying, graduating with First Class Honours in English and American literature. It was whilst working on his subsequent doctorate that he set about the daunting task of researching and creating the epic twenty volume Chung Kuo series. Wingrove is also author of the Myst trilogy and produced several works of criticism and, with Brian Aldiss, is co-author of the highly-acclaimed Trillion-Year Spree: The History Of Science Fiction – winner of the prestigious Hugo and Locus awards. He lives with his family in north London.
Stef Penney
Reviewed on October 31, 2011
Stef Penney was born and grew up in Edinburgh. After a degree in Philosophy and Theology from Bristol University she turned to film-making, studying Film and TV at Bournemouth College of Art. On graduation she was selected for the Carlton Television New Writers Scheme and has since written and directed two short films. The Tenderness of Wolves was her first novel, and was recently followed up by The Invisible Ones.
Take a sneak peek at Simon Scarrow’s Praetorian
Reviewed on October 28, 2011
We’re delighted to be able to offer Bookgeeks readers a sneak preview of Simon Scarrow’s latest Macro and Cato adventure, Praetorian: The city of Rome in AD 50 is a dangerous place. Treachery lurks on every corner, and a shadowy Republican movement, ‘the Liberators’, has spread its tentacles wide. It is feared that the heart [...]
Amanda Kyle Williams
Reviewed on October 3, 2011
Amanda Kyle Williams has contributed to short story collections and worked as a freelance writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She worked as a house painter, a property manager, a sales rep, a commercial embroiderer, a courier, a VP of manufacturing at a North Georgia textile mill, and owned Latch Key Pets, a pet sitting and dog walking business. She also worked with a PI firm in Atlanta on surveillance operations, and became a court-appointed process server. Her first novel, The Stranger You Seek, was recently published by Headline in the UK.
Colin Falconer talks about Silk Road
Reviewed on September 28, 2011
The Taklimakan is one of the world’s most feared deserts. The name, translated from the local Uighur, means ‘go in and you won’t come out.’ In the morning the rising sun turns the raked cliffs of the Flaming Mountains to violet; later in the day, under the furnace heat of the sun, they will burn oven-red. Author Colin Falconer shares his experiences of this remarkable places as part of his experience researching his new novel, The Silk Road.
Alan Glynn
Reviewed on September 26, 2011
Alan Glynn is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, where he studied English Literature, and has worked in magazine publishing in New York and as an EFL teacher in Italy. His second novel, Winterland, was published to huge acclaim in 2009, while his first novel The Dark Fields was released as the film Limitless – starring Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro – in Spring 2011. New novel Bloodland is out now.
Sam Eastland
Reviewed on September 19, 2011
Sam Eastland lives in the US and the UK. He is the grandson of a London police detective. His first novel was Eye of the Red Tsar, and his second, The Red Coffin was recently published.
Neil Cross
Reviewed on September 12, 2011
Neil Cross is the author of several novels including Always the Sun and Burial, as well as the bestselling memoir Heartland. He has been lead scriptwriter for the two most recent seasons of the acclaimed BBC spy drama series Spooks and continues to write widely for the screen, most recently Luther. His most recent book [...]
![Win a complete set of the Gollancz 50th Top Ten Titles [closed]](http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/gollancz50_logo-120x97.gif){kind=logo}
Win a complete set of the Gollancz 50th Top Ten Titles [closed]
Reviewed on September 6, 2011
It’s not often that you get a chance to win a prize as lovely as this. As any true bookgeek knows, Gollancz science fiction and fantasy imprint, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011, is the longest-established such publishing line in the UK. To celebrate fifty years of bringing us so much seminal science fiction and fantasy, Gollancz readers have selected their top ten Gollancz titles, which have been beautifully re-packaged in a style that pays tribute to the original look of Gollancz SF publishing, with new introductions from such luminaries as Joe Abercrombie and Adam Roberts – and we have a complete set to give away to one lucky winner!
Doug Johnstone
Reviewed on September 5, 2011
Doug Johnstone is a writer, musician and journalist based in Edinburgh. His latest novel, Smokeheads, was published by Faber and Faber in March 2011. He has previously published two novels with Penguin, Tombstoning (2006) and The Ossians (2008), which received praise from the likes of Irvine Welsh, Ian Rankin and Christopher Brookmyre. He’s working on a fourth novel and a screenplay. Doug is currently writer in residence at the University of Strathclyde. He’s had short stories appear in various publications, and since 1999 he has worked as a freelance arts journalist, primarily covering music and literature.
Elizabeth Miles
Reviewed on September 3, 2011
Elizabeth Miles grew up in Chappaqua, New York, not far from New York City. She graduated cum laude from Boston University in 2004, worked for several years at the Boston Phoenix, and now writes for the Portland Phoenix, an alternative weekly newspaper. She has won several awards from the New England Press Association and was nominated for [...]
![Win a signed set of William Hussey’s Witchfinder Trilogy [closed]](http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/PICS1-120x79.jpg)
Win a signed set of William Hussey’s Witchfinder Trilogy [closed]
Reviewed on September 2, 2011
To celebrate the conclusion of William Hussey’s young adult Witchfinder trilogy, with the publication of The Last Nightfall, we have a signed set of all three books to give away. This is only the second signed set in existence after William himself recently gave away a set on his own website, and we’re sure you’ll agree they’re lovely looking books…
Adam Levin
Reviewed on August 29, 2011
Adam Levin’s stories have appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s, and Esquire. Winner of the 2003 Tin House/Summer Literary Seminars Fiction Contest and the 2004 Joyce Carol Oates Fiction Prize, Levin holds an MA in Clinical Social Work from the University of Chicago and an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. His collection of short [...]
Simon Spurrier
Reviewed on August 23, 2011
Simon Spurrier was born in 1981. After completing a degree in Film & Television Production at S.I.A.D. he worked as an Art Director for the BBC, and was awarded screenplay bursaries at the National Academy Of Writing and the Met Film School. Since 2001 he’s become a major writer for the UK’s foremost adult comic 2000AD, and in recent years has published multiple projects through U.S. giants such as Marvel (X-Men, Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider), D.C. (Poison Ivy, Power Trip), Avatar Press (Crossed: Wish You Were Here, Disenchanted), Dark Horse (In Fetu) and Image (Gutsville). His second prose novel, A Serpent Uncoiled, was recently published by Headline.
Book Heaven / Book Hell: Nick Lake
Reviewed on August 17, 2011
My book heaven is a single book, though it’s one that’s big and all-encompassing enough to get lost in – to live in, it almost feels like. I’m talking about Little, Big, by John Crowley: my favourite book that no one has ever heard of; actually my favourite book of all time. It got a [...]
Malcolm Pryce
Reviewed on August 15, 2011
Malcolm Pryce is the author of a series of comic private detective novels set in Aberystwyth. Titles include Aberystwyth Mon Amour, Last Tango in Aberystwyth, The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Aberystwyth and many more. He has been described by the Sunday Telegraph as the ‘King of Welsh Noir’ and by the Cambrian News as “a twerp who needs a boot up his backside”.
![Proof copies of Chris Wooding’s The Iron Jackal to be won [closed]](http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/the-iron-jackal-120x181.jpg)
Proof copies of Chris Wooding’s The Iron Jackal to be won [closed]
Reviewed on August 12, 2011
If you want to read the third of Chris Wooding’s Ketty Jay adventures before it’s published on 20th October, you’ve come to the right place!
Bookgeeks goes to the movies – with STUDIO Magazine
Reviewed on August 12, 2011
Bookgeeks is pleased to announce that more people than ever will soon be reading our reviews – courtesy of the new digital magazine STUDIO. Set to launch this summer is STUDIO, Britain’s first film magazine aimed at a female audience. Packed with witty editorial and Hollywood news, this monthly digital title is aimed at women [...]
Prison Writing, by Margie Orford
Reviewed on August 9, 2011
In 1990 Nelson Mandela emerged, like a genie from a bottle, from Victor Verster prison. He went on to work his political magic, fashioning a rainbow nation that arcs, at times, above the murk of South Africa’s history. Seventeen years after Mandela’s release, years that I had spent trying to fathom the criminal violence that blights [...]
Thomas Enger
Reviewed on August 8, 2011
Thomas Enger previously worked as a journalist. Burned is his first novel. As well as writing, he also composes music. He lives in Oslo and is currently at work on Pierced, the next novel in the Henning Juul Series.
Harry Sidebottom
Reviewed on July 18, 2011
Harry Sidebottom is the author of the Warrior of Rome series of novels featuring the Anglo-Saxon nobleman turned Roman army officer Ballista and his Familia which are set in the Roman Empire during the so-called ‘Great Crisis of the Third Century AD’. He is Fellow and Director of Studies in Ancient History at St Benets Hall, Oxford, and Lecturer in Ancient History at Lincoln College.
![Win a copy of Transformers Vault [closed]](http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/TransformersVault-120x94.jpg)
Win a copy of Transformers Vault [closed]
Reviewed on July 11, 2011
Geek alert! We have a copy of Transformers Vault: The Complete Transformers Universe to be won… The epic battle between the Autobots and Deceptions has captivated fans of all ages for more than two decades, and the robots in disguise were recently rediscovered by a new generation via the hugely successful live-action film series directed [...]
N.J. Cooper
Reviewed on July 11, 2011
An ex-publisher, past Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, and lifelong Londoner, N J Cooper writes for a variety of newspapers and journals and contributes to many radio programmes such as Woman’s Hour and Saturday Review. As Natasha Cooper, she is the author of, among many others, No Escape, A Greater Evil and A Poisoned Mind. In 2002 she was shortlisted for the Dagger in the Library, an award that ‘goes to the author whose work has given most pleasure to readers’.
Geraint Anderson AKA Cityboy
Reviewed on July 4, 2011
Before sacrificing his soul to dark forces in the Square Mile, Cityboy was a genuine left-wing hippy and political activist, complete with ponytail and hoop earrings. His dream of becoming a global traveller was cruelly dashed when his brother got him an interview at a French bank in the City, which would set him on the rocky road to destruction and despair. He recently published his second book, Just Business.
Bernard O’Donoghue
Reviewed on June 27, 2011
Bernard O’Donoghue was born in Cullen, Co. Cork in 1945. He is a Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, where he teaches Medieval English. He has published five collections of poetry including The Weakness (1991), Gunpowder (winner of the 1995 Whitbread Award for Poetry), Here Nor There (1999) and Outliving (2003). His latest collection is Farmer’s Cross.
Quintin Jardine
Reviewed on June 20, 2011
Quintin Jardine is the author of two much-acclaimed and best-selling series of detective novels, as Eddie Bell and Pat Lomax, his agents, can be heard proclaiming to anyone who is listening, at book festivals around the world.
Matt Rees on ‘Writing the Music’ for his Mozart Crime Novel
Reviewed on June 15, 2011
I’ve played music all my life, but I’m no musician. After my initial childhood music lessons I parted ways with the playing of classical music. I’ve been a guitarist and bassist in various rock bands in New York and elsewhere. Less sexily, I played glockenspiel in my high school band. Still, I knew that if [...]
Marco Vichi
Reviewed on June 13, 2011
Marco Vichi was born in Florence in 1957. The author of eleven novels and two collections of short stories, he has also edited crime anthologies, written screenplays, music lyrics and for radio, and collaborated on and directed various projects for humanitarian causes. His novel Death in Florence won the Scerbanenco, Rieti and Camaiore prizes in Italy.
The Bookswarm Treasure Hunt
Reviewed on June 11, 2011
Sixty great prizes on offer, including an Amazon Kindle worth £111 and masses of great books, in the new Bookswarm Treasure Hunt!
Kim Newman
Reviewed on June 6, 2011
Kim Newman is an author, journalist, broadcaster, critic and bon viveur. His famous novel Anno Dracula, recently re-issued by Titan Books, is set in 1888, during Jack the Ripper’s killing spree—but a different 1888 to the one we know, in which Dracula became the ruler of England. In the novel, fictional characters—not only from Dracula, but also from other works of Victorian era fiction—appear alongside historical persons.
Eoin Colfer
Reviewed on May 30, 2011
Eoin Colfer grew up in Wexford, Ireland. He first developed a passion for writing in primary school, reading Viking books inspired by his history lessons at the time. In 2001 the first Artemis Fowl book was published and he was able to resign from teaching and concentrate fully on writing. He now lives in Ireland with his wife and 2 children. His first crime novel for adults, Plugged, has just been published.
Kim Newman on the world of Anno Dracula
Reviewed on May 24, 2011
The premise of my novel Anno Dracula is that Count Dracula defeated Van Helsing and his circle of followers and conquered Britain in 1885, marrying Queen Victoria and becoming Prince Consort. This encourages the world’s vampire population to live openly among regular humans (‘the warm’) and fosters the spread of Dracula’s own bloodline of vampirism [...]
Wendy Cope
Reviewed on May 23, 2011
Wendy Cope was born in Erith, Kent. After university she worked for fifteen years as a primary school teacher in London. Her first collection of poems, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, was published in 1986. In 1987 she received a Cholmondeley Award for Poetry and in 1995 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Michael Braude Award for light verse.
Where was Nelson? Robert Wilton on the relationship between fact and fiction in an historical thriller
Reviewed on May 18, 2011
August 1805: Tom Roscarrock, apparently working for British Government’s Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey but with his loyalties increasingly suspect, was operating in northern France. Napoleon’s Army of the Ocean Coasts was poised at the Channel, ready to invade and destroy Britain as soon as the conditions were right. The fate of the British Empire [...]
Brian McGilloway
Reviewed on May 16, 2011
Brian McGilloway is author of the critically acclaimed Inspector Benedict Devlin series. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1974. After studying English at Queen’s University, Belfast, he took up a teaching position in St Columb’s College in Derry, where he is currently Head of English. His latest novel, Little Girl Lost, has recently been published.
![Win a bundle of historical novels from Corvus [closed]](http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/9781848878389-120x178.jpg)
Win a bundle of historical novels from Corvus [closed]
Reviewed on May 14, 2011
Has there ever been a better time to be a fan of historical fiction? With so many great writers, both new and established, fans can take their pick from all kinds of periods, settings and storylines. Doing their bit to contribute to this wonderful situation are new kids on the block Corvus. Now Corvus are offering three of you lucky people the chance to win four of their newest historical novels…
Leigh Russell
Reviewed on May 9, 2011
Leigh Russell’s debut thriller Cut Short was published in 2009. It was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Award and quickly became a bestseller, followed by a second bestseller Road Closed in 2010. The third in the series, Dead End, was recently published. All of these novels feature Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel pursuing murder investigations.
Alan Bradley
Reviewed on May 2, 2011
Alan Bradley was born in Toronto and grew up in Cobourg, Ontario. With an education in electronic engineering, Alan worked at numerous radio and television stations in Ontario, and at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University) in Toronto, before becoming Director of Television Engineering in the media centre at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, SK, where he remained for 25 years before taking early retirement to write in 1994. In July of 2007 he won the Debut Dagger Award of the Crimewriter’s Association for his novel The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first of a series featuring eleven year old Flavia de Luce.
Giles Kristian on his love of historical fiction
Reviewed on April 22, 2011
As part of his current blog tour, Giles Kristian, author of the Raven Trilogy, shares his influences and inspirations in an exclusive article for Bookgeeks. I have always been drawn to the past. Everywhere I go and in everything I do I am confronted with the past and with an almost overwhelming sense of history. [...]
Howard Linskey
Reviewed on April 18, 2011
Howard Linskey is a former newspaper and magazine journalist and was once the marketing manager for a celebrity chef. Originally from Ferryhill in County Durham, he now lives in Hertfordshire with his family. The Drop is Howard’s first novel and he is currently working on his second book, The Damage, to be published by No Exit in 2012.
![Five copies of The Inspector and Silence to be won [closed]](http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/51MIkYUxYWL._SL500_AA300_-120x182.jpg)
Five copies of The Inspector and Silence to be won [closed]
Reviewed on April 14, 2011
Courtesy of those fine folk at Pan, we have five copies of Hakan Nesser’s latest paperback to give away, and all you’ve got to do to win one is answer a simple question.
M. K. Hume
Reviewed on April 6, 2011
M. K. Hume is a retired academic, who is married with two grown-up sons and lives in Queensland, Australia. Having completed an MA and Phd in Arthurian Literature many years ago, M. K. Hume has fulfilled a lifelong dream to walk in the footprints of the past by retelling the epic tale of Merlin in a magnificent trilogy, which starts with Prophecy: Clash of Kings.
Karen Maitland
Reviewed on March 21, 2011
Karen Maitland travelled and worked in many parts of the United Kingdom before finally settling in the beautiful medieval city of Lincoln. She is the author of The White Room, which won an Author’s Club Best First Novel Award, Company of Liars and The Owl Killers, which were both published to outstanding critical acclaim.
![Vampires, angels, witches and demons – win a fantastic bundle of paranormal romance titles [closed]](http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/41+UNTWTovL._SS500_-120x185.jpg)
Vampires, angels, witches and demons – win a fantastic bundle of paranormal romance titles [closed]
Reviewed on March 19, 2011
If you like all things supernatural, we’ve got the perfect prize for you. One lucky winner will receive seven great paranormal romance titles!
Deborah Harkness
Reviewed on March 7, 2011
Deborah Harkness grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and has lived in western Massachusetts, the Chicago area, Northern California, upstate New York, and Southern California. She’s also lived in Oxford and London. Her first novel, A Discovery of Witches, was recently published by Headline in the UK.
NewsNow
Literature News 24/7-
The Bookgeeks Interview
Simon Kernick
Simon Kernick is one of Britain’s most exciting new thriller writers. He arrived on the crime writing scene with his highly acclaimed debut novel The Business of Dying, the story of a corrupt cop moonlighting as a hitman. However, Simon’s big breakthrough came with his novel Relentless which was selected by Richard and Judy for [...]
-
Latest Competition
Five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was one of the big film releases of 2011, and to celebrate its release on DVD we have five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won – consisting of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People.
Latest Bookbitz reviews
