Elise Hattersley
Elise Hattersley is a married mother of two, and works as a commercial credit and collections specialist by day. At night, she roams the bookshelves, ruthlessly slaying villains and saving kittens from burning buildings. That's the theory, at least... She is a writer of short stories and an avid reader, and reassuringly well-prepared for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.
The Playdate, by Louise Millar
Reviewed on August 22, 2012
Callie’s been a single mother for quite some time. With a child whose past health problems could cause trouble later on down the line, an ex who spends most of his time filming wildlife the world over, and nothing to take her out of the North London flat she inhabits with her daughter, she often [...]
Blackout, by Mira Grant
Reviewed on August 14, 2012
George is not a happy journalist. Stuck in the CDC facilities where she was cloned, with virtually all of the original Georgia Mason’s memories and more than her fair share of the girl’s spunk, she feels helpless to do a great deal. Until she’s approached by a double agent who can get her out. That’s [...]
Burying the Typewriter: Childhood Under the Eye of the Secret Police, by Carmen Bugan
Reviewed on August 11, 2012
Carmen Bugan grew up in Romania during Ceauşescu’s reign. Child to political dissidents, her childhood was steeped in fear and worry, as her father in particular found it impossible to keep from fighting the oppressive regime from the inside out. Through Bugan’s childhood, she tells the story of a family labouring under a communist government. [...]
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford
Reviewed on June 20, 2012
Henry Lee has always lived in Seattle’s Chinatown. His parents, eager to set him apart from the other Chinese-American children, send him to a white prep school with an I AM CHINESE button to ensure he isn’t mistaken for a Japanese boy during the early ’40s when Japanese is the one thing you don’t want [...]
What Dreams May Come, by Richard Matheson
Reviewed on June 13, 2012
After reading and loving I Am Legend, I couldn’t wait to get stuck into more of Richard Matheson’s oeuvre. When I found What Dreams May Come in my workplace’s library (a bookcase in the kitchen where people drop books they no longer want to own and from which anyone is allowed to borrow freely), I [...]
Home Boy, by H. M. Naqvi
Reviewed on June 3, 2012
Chuck, A.C. and Jimbo are the Metrostanis; a trio of Pakistani lads about town in the Big Apple. The world is their oyster, the ladies are plentiful and life is great… Until a pair of planes brings down the World Trade Centre and New York City changes… For the worse. Told from Chuck’s point of [...]
The Wind Through the Keyhole, by Stephen King
Reviewed on May 14, 2012
The Wind Through the Keyhole picks up the gunslinger’s tale after Wizard and Glass but before Wolves of the Calla. Roland and his ka-mates are travelling through Mid-World when Oy, the billy-bumbler who has befriended the boy Jake, starts exhibiting some peculiar behaviours. It takes Roland a while, but when he remembers the childhood story [...]
Quiet Houses, by Simon Kurt Unsworth
Reviewed on April 26, 2012
Nakata is working towards an unusual goal; hired on to prove the existence of paranormal phenomena, his day consists mostly of listening to vague voicemail messages and deciding which to follow-up on. Most are worthless, but some… Some lead to places no one wants to go. A chambermaid’s simple request leads to a life of [...]
Staring Up at the Sun, by Suzanne Bugler
Reviewed on April 14, 2012
Kate and Juliet, that’s how it’s always been. Kate, Juliet, and a herd of other popular girls. But lately, Kate’s been wondering whether that’s the case because they’re such good friends, or just because it’s always been the way it is. Then Sara joins the class and suddenly, everything changes. Kate doesn’t think about herself [...]
Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea, by Barbara Demick
Reviewed on April 11, 2012
Korea’s history is a chequered one; after the Korean War the country was split into two, with the Soviet Union installing a communist leader in the form of Kim Il-sung in the North and the United States administering the South. From there on, North Korea embarked on a downward spiral reminiscent of nothing so much [...]
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson
Reviewed on April 8, 2012
I picked this book up on a whim, as I do with so many things. I’d heard only good things about Bill Bryson, and while the books I already had in my overflowing bookcases were as-of-yet unread, I was only waiting for a time when I didn’t have a massive backlog to clear before cracking [...]
A second look at Snuff, by Terry Pratchett
Reviewed on February 26, 2012
Sam Vimes isn’t just the Commander of the Watch – he is the city, he is the street. Unfortunately, he’s also a loyal husband and as such, he’s been stuffed unceremoniously into a carriage and taken into the countryside to visit his wife’s family estate. Nightmare! But amid the smells of good home cooking and, [...]
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
Mark Oldfield
Mark Oldfield has worked in criminological research for over 20 years. He has a PhD in Criminology from the University of Kent and has carried out research in the areas of risk assessment and prediction and as well as evaluative research on policing, prisons and probation. He has also taught in various Universities on research, crime and criminal justice.
