Elise Hattersley
Elise Hattersley is a married mother of two, and works as a freelance writer, editor, proofreader and author coach. With a busy professional life, there isn't always much room for hobbies, but she always makes time for a book or two.
Eric, by Terry Pratchett
Reviewed on February 22, 2012
Eric is a demonologist. He may be young, and he may be more than a little nerdy, but he knows what he wants… And what he wants is a demon to fulfil his three wishes. When he calls one up, he’s ready to shout Avaunt! A lot and do whatever else it takes to get [...]
Cuckoo, by Richard Wright
Reviewed on February 18, 2012
Greg Summers has it pretty well sorted out. Sure, he’s cheating on his wife Jennifer, headed for a sumptuous dinner with his mistress – to be capped by a night of lurid sex in a hotel room. But he’s rationalised it all away, so there’s no harm done. The only minor wrinkle is that the [...]
The Unseen, by Katherine Webb
Reviewed on January 20, 2012
Leah’s ex invites her to Belgium, where the corpse of a British soldier has been found, and into a riddle set a century in the past… Willingly, she dives into the previous century to find out who the soldier might be, and starts to unravel a web spun such a very long time ago. Cat [...]
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
Reviewed on January 9, 2012
Hailsham is not like other boarding schools. The students and their guardians have a bit of a different relationship, and mystery shrouds not only their purpose but also the need for them to produce art which is then sent to a so-called gallery. The students are aware of their purpose – they are clones, intended [...]
Little Bones, by Janette Jenkins
Reviewed on January 5, 2012
The year 1900 dawns on Jane Stretch, born with a disorder that causes her bones to grow oddly, or not enough and alone in the world after being abandoned by her sister and both of her parents. The debt they leave her with, needing to pay the landlady for the room, soon puts her in [...]
Before I Go to Sleep, by S J Watson
Reviewed on December 7, 2011
Christine wakes up in an unfamiliar bed, next to an unfamiliar man, in an unfamiliar home and an unfamiliar life. The bathroom mirror is festooned with photos of her through a life she can’t remember, and soon she finds out that her memory has been severely affected by an incident causing extensive brain damage. She [...]
A second look at Day by Day Armageddon, by J L Bourne
Reviewed on December 4, 2011
The apocalypse has come, not with a bang or a whimper but with an eery moan and a taste for delicious braaaaiiiiins. But a few humans survive, including the nameless protagonist whose diary I finally held in my hands. After recommendation after recommendation from friends and acquaintances aware of the keen delight I take in [...]
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs
Reviewed on October 10, 2011
I’ve just put this book down, the dust-jacket – which I’m in the habit of using as a makeshift bookmark – back in its place between the story and the covers which contain it. I’ve come back to modern-day life from the fantastical world spun by Riggs and his collection of vintage photographs. And part [...]
The Truth Will Out, by Anna McPartlin
Reviewed on October 9, 2011
Harri Ryan has commitment issues. Not the usual kind – in fact, she’s been engaged to James, the love of her life, twice. But each time, the morning of the much longed-for wedding has brought extensive panic attacks. So extensive, in fact, that she’s ended up in hospital both times. James can’t do it again, [...]
Nerd Do Well, by Simon Pegg
Reviewed on October 4, 2011
Ever since 2004, when an errant now-ex-boyfriend introduced me to the glory of Spaced, I’ve been a huge fan of Pegg’s work on screens both big and small. Perhaps because of that, I had enormous expectations of Nerd Do Well, his autobiographical chronicle of how a small and comparatively innocent boy turned into the Grandmaster [...]
Afterwards, by Rosamund Lupton
Reviewed on October 4, 2011
After my enjoyment of Lupton’s Sister, I had to download Afterwards to my Kindle and see if lightning could strike twice. I’m happy to announce that it definitely did. Grace and her daughter Jenny are trapped in a strange purgatory. Walking around the hospital in which their bodies are dying, they have to try to [...]
I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
Reviewed on October 3, 2011
Robert Neville is, as far as he’s aware, the last living human in a world overrun by vampires. By day, he finds their hiding places and dispatches them, working towards a more effective method of killing them and looking desperately for a cure. By night, he sits locked in the house he once shared with [...]
Riding the Bus with My Sister, by Rachel Simon
Reviewed on September 30, 2011
The first thought that came into my head when I put Riding the Bus with My Sister down was, “I couldn’t be this honest in a million years.” Because the thread running through Rachel Simon’s autobiographical account of her relationship with her sister Beth, who has a developmental disability, is honesty. For Christmas, Rachel gifts [...]
Sister, by Rosamund Lupton
Reviewed on September 25, 2011
Beatrice has always lived the safest life, the one far away from exhilarating ledges and heart-pounding tightropes, so when her sister turns up missing she is uncomfortably reminded of Tess’s ability to throw caution to the wind and live a life with no safety nets and no restraint. Of course Beatrice, her mother, and her [...]
The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane
Reviewed on September 15, 2011
You know it by now; I love Dennis Lehane. But The Given Day is different from his usual works, in that it is a historical novel which deviates significantly from his usual whodunnit premise. While he retains the same talent with prose, The Given Day‘s story and tone have little in common with his normal output. [...]
Then, by Julie Myerson
Reviewed on August 13, 2011
I’m not easily damaged; I had a difficult childhood and it brought me up to be hard as nails and twice as sharp. But Then hammered me soundly and completely, and I cried for a solid twenty minutes after finishing it. Sobbed, completely and utterly, like a child, while my husband sternly resolved never to [...]
The Story of Beautiful Girl, by Rachel Simon
Reviewed on August 11, 2011
The twentieth century was not a kind one for Americans with any sort of disability that could be perceived as affecting their mental capacity. Rachel Simon’s Story of Beautiful Girl explores this damning past and manages to expose its darkest sides without robbing its victims of dignity and honour. Lynnie isn’t quite all there, and [...]
Moonlight Mile, by Dennis Lehane
Reviewed on August 3, 2011
Amanda McCready has been kidnapped once before; in Gone Baby Gone Patrick Kenzie and his partner, Angela Gennaro, tracked her down when she was kidnapped at the age of four. Now sixteen, she has disappeared once again and the only person who appears to care is her aunt, Beatrix McCready, who approaches Kenzie and asks [...]
WWW: Wonder, by Robert J. Sawyer
Reviewed on July 28, 2011
The previous two books in this trilogy have chronicled Caitlin Decter’s pioneering treatment, allowing her – blind since birth – to see through the use of a tiny webcam. She comes into contact with an emerging consciousness called Webmind as it arises from the chaos of the World Wide Web. In WWW: Wonder, the President [...]
A Drink Before the War, by Dennis Lehane
Reviewed on June 26, 2011
Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro have been friends since they were kids, and as adults they work together as private investigators. When three local politicians hire them to retrieve some stolen documents from a cleaning lady, they think little of it and track her down. But what awaits them is not a coward ready to [...]
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
Reviewed on June 25, 2011
Aibileen and Minnie are black maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 60′s, and segregation is a fact of life, for them. White people are an unknown quantity, people with so much power that even the nice ones are not to be trusted – but when Miss Skeeter starts poking around to try and find [...]
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
Reviewed on June 23, 2011
Toru Okada’s life is a calm, quiet procession of predictable events. Stay-at-home husband to the lovely Kumiko, he cooks, cleans, and takes trips to the dry-cleaner. The only niggle in his life is the disappearance of the cat they’ve had since kittenhood, and the anonymous sexual phonecalls he keeps getting. But his carefully ordered life [...]
Deadline, by Mira Grant
Reviewed on June 22, 2011
It’s a little under a year since Feed, the first book in the Newsflesh series, ended, and the After the End Times staff are spinning their wheels. Outwardly performing all their duties, they surreptitiously share the feeling that they’re simply waiting for life to start again. And it does, with the arrival of a scientist [...]
Feed, by Mira Grant
Reviewed on June 11, 2011
Twenty years after the zombie-apocalypse put an end to life as humanity knew it, blogging has changed its face. Now purveyors of quality news, bloggers are qualified journalists who have to be in possession of extensive licensing to practice their craft in a meaningful way. Shaun and Georgia Mason are adoptive siblings who have grown [...]
The Legacy, by Katherine Webb
Reviewed on June 4, 2011
Erica and Beth Calcott spent every summer at Storton Manor, growing up under the watchful eye of their spiteful grandmother Meredith and playing with Dinny, the boy from the traveller’s camp. Now, in the wake of Meredith’s demise, they’ve come back to set the family’s affairs in order, and to face the hideous secret that’s [...]
The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi
Reviewed on May 27, 2011
Jean le Flambeur made one mistake. One mistake, that took him from fabled thief at the top of his game to foolish prisoner in the virtual Dilemma Prison, continuously working towards a practically unattainable goal. Until Mieli appears with Perhonen, her spider-ship, and breaks him out to complete the one heist he never managed to [...]
This Perfect World, by Suzanne Bugler
Reviewed on May 3, 2011
With her handsome husband and two beautiful children, Laura Hamley has her life pretty well sorted out. At the centre of the yummy mummy in-crowd, she runs back and forth between social commitments, school activities and preschool classes she can’t always see a point to. She couldn’t be further from her childhood in Forbury if [...]
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block has been writing award-winning mystery and suspense fiction for half a century. His most recent novels are A Drop of the Hard Stuff, featuring Matthew Scudder, and Getting Off, starring a very naughty young woman. Several of his books have been filmed, although not terribly well. He’s well known for his books for writers, including the classic Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, and The Liar’s Bible.
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Latest Competition
Five copies of The Woman in Black to be won
It’s competition time again – and to celebrate the release of Daniel Radcliffe’s new film, The Woman in Black, based on the novel of the same name by Susan Hill, we have five copies to give away. Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of [...]
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