Matt Hawkridge
The Battle of Midway, by Craig L. Symonds
Reviewed on January 14, 2012
There’s a chapter in Craig L. Symonds non-fiction The Battle of Midway which recounts, in gripping detail, perhaps one of the most infamous incidents in the Pacific leg of the Second World War, but which stands out as a particular tense and churning highlight in a book full of them. The incident involves the ill-fated [...]
The Company Man, by Robert Jackson Bennett
Reviewed on November 20, 2011
The Company Man, by Robert Jackson Bennett, begins with a staple of the crime novel; the dredging up of a mutilated John Doe. As narrative hooks go, it’s a deservedly well practised choice, but The Company Man has a more impressive lead-in. Bennett plays you with the inevitable curiosity surrounding the discovery of any murder, [...]
In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
Reviewed on September 20, 2011
By now the turbulent, violent events of the thirties and forties must count as one of the most broadly recorded and studied periods in history. We’ve all watched the war films, remembered the history lessons, visited the museums. Mention that period and everyone can throw out a dozen, at least, of the defining events; Pearl [...]
Busy Monsters, by William Giraldi
Reviewed on September 12, 2011
Through his serialised memoirs Charles (Charlie) Homar steps into that other great Homer’s shoes, or sandals, or equally applicable footwear as the case may be, to embrace his own desperate odyssey to find the woman he loves, and was due to marry before the inevitable interruption by giant squid. The odyssey is no less dangerous [...]
Remainder, by Tom McCarthy
Reviewed on May 13, 2011
In all the complexity of human nature there are probably few traits as valuable, as relevant and powerful for the author as an obsession. Give your hero/heroine that burning, frequently manic drive to reach their goal, and you elevate a simple motivation into an exciting source of drama. Or, in the case of Tom McCarthy’s [...]
The Passages of Herman Melville, by Jay Parini
Reviewed on February 21, 2011
The line which best sums up Jay Parini’s excellent book, surprisingly, can be found in the little read acknowledgements. His own words, ‘this is a novel, not a literary biography.’ Readers eager to see Herman Melville’s creative mind prised open will be largely disappointed with The Passages of Herman Melville. At best, the author’s work [...]
Sing, Sorrow, Sorrow: Dark and Chilling Tales, edited by Gwen Davies
Reviewed on January 12, 2011
In a genre currently crowded by vampires and zombies, Sing, Sorrow, Sorrow, is a strange and schizophrenic title. A collection of the traditional and the contemporary, beginning and closing with the supernatural themed stories, Puck’s Tale and The White Mountain, while finding room for the science fiction tinged The City, the book is a refreshing [...]
The Reapers Are The Angels, by Alden Bell
Reviewed on October 19, 2010
The Reapers Are The Angels opens with a character marvelling a shoal of fish in moonlight. Pages later the same character discovers a grotesquely disfigured corpse half buried on a beach. The corpse is a zombie, and the character is Temple, the capable teenage protagonist in a post-apocalyptic world. Its an arresting start, and a [...]
Blood and Iron, by Tony Ballantyne
Reviewed on August 18, 2010
Compared to the first and third books, the set up and the conclusion respectively, the middle segment of any trilogy seems to get off lucky. Readers know the main characters, the world, the narrative. They’re already invested in your story if they’ve followed you this far. So, the middle book is where the fun happens. [...]
A Preparation for Death, by Greg Baxter
Reviewed on July 27, 2010
Autobiographies are about the big moments in a subject’s life. The joyous, the heart-wrenching, the painful. Autobiographies are lives told from one significant moment to the next. Marriages begun, and collapsed, jobs gained and achievements reckoned, and recognition for it all as a life worth living. Written with a lifetime’s worth of ‘big’ moments to [...]
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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 [...]
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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.
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