Thriller writer, archaeologist and traveller
I was pleased by Windy Tree’s five-star review of Blackshirt Masquerade, which catches the essence of what I intended to write. “I liked this a lot...it was a pleasure to read...I have seen it listed as a 'historical mystery' elsewhere, and it certainly is historical, with espionage (MI5) and a good dash of detectiveness thrown... Continue Reading →
What? You ask. It’s horrible, I hate it, why on Earth should anyone be nostalgic for lockdown? We might ask the same about ‘the Dunkirk Spirit’, where we cover up the memory of one of Britain’s worst military defeats with the veneer of a victory. Or the ‘Blitz Spirit’ where we imagine plucky Londoners defying... Continue Reading →
I’m one of those people who gnashes their teeth at historical travesties in movies, or novels for that matter, so I’ve held off seeing The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society until the initial excitement died down. The book raised some heckles in the island as the setting portrayed wasn’t 'Guernsey' enough. One handicap... Continue Reading →
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is far and away the most successful novel set in Guernsey. Although there are easily two dozen works of fiction using the German Occupation of the islands as their background, this is the stand-out commercial hit. Curiously it was written by an American who had only made... Continue Reading →
Luke McCallin's third novel featuring war-weary German detective Gregor Reinhardt is a corker. Whilst the first two novels in the series saw Reinhardt finding justice amongst the horrors of the Nazi-occupied Balkans, the third find him in postwar Berlin. The city itself is a major character of the book, as indicated by the title. Shattered... Continue Reading →
I See You is the second novel by Clare Mackintosh, having stormed into the bestseller charts with her debut I Let You Go. This week I See You is at #5 in the Sunday Times bestseller lists. Zoe is a London commuter, taking the same route to work each day, following the patterns that we... Continue Reading →