To The Last Page

First published in 2023 at around 650 pages long Alex Sol's À la vue de tous ('In Plain Sight') is the first book in the author's Les enquêtes d'Elise Duromain et Lucas Lievens series, which she has somehow managed to follow up in quick succession with three further investigations. You get the impression that Sol must be able to write as quickly as you can read her books, and they are certainly designed to be read at a pace. Thankfully, at least on this first opening book in the series, it's clear that there has been no compromise in the quality of the writing. À la vue de tous certainly has you gripped from the intriguing opening incident. Laura has gone to the police with a report that her pregnant sister Marie has simply vanished between two stations on the Paris metro. It might not sound worrying, but it's surprising how many people wander off everyday and sometimes turn up again soon later, so the police understandably don't take the matter too se...

Ludovic Deblois, to judge by his previous novel Inversion - a frighteningly realistic portrayal of technological innovation and advances when placed in the hands of corrupt powers - doesn't have a particularly rosy outlook on the future. His latest novel Il suffit parfois d’un cri… (which you could maybe translate not literally as 'A Cry in the Wilderness' or 'A Voice in the Wild'?) is again set in the immediate future and, inspired by animal life and our relationship with nature, you would have to say it does not appear to be any more optimistic about our future. And you would have to conclude that it might be for a good reason. Concerned about the climate and mankind's lack of willingness to confront serious ecological and environmental issues, the author's lates novel again forces us to think seriously about some important matters that, having seen how quickly things have changed in the last few years, might not be that far away from becoming  reality. ...

Neil Jordan's novels often (always?) feature figures dealing with trauma, loss, the past, each struggling with a disconnect in their lives. He has explored this through a number of variations including metaphorical or literal ghosts. In his latest novel, Jordan writing in the realm of futuristic science fiction for the first time, he deals with a speculative scientific approach where memories and trauma can be genetically altered, but the past and the future are linked in other ways that aren't so easily erased. Written in Jordan's familiar, evocative literary style, his latest novel is enriched by his extension into new realms. The novel is divided into two parts. In part one, the story takes in two timelines, one in the past in 1886, the other 200 years in the future in 2086, both periods lined by two figures from the Cartwright family. They are linked, Jordan style, by innumerable connections, by family evidently, but also by landscape, buildings and memory that is imbue...

Jack Parlabane, as anyone who has previously come across Chris Brookmyre’s most loved character (and something of an alter-ego, I suspect), has always been something of a cynic. Which is why we love him. First introduced in 1996 in Quite Ugly One Morning , Parlabane has aged along with the sporadic publication of the series and now, 30 years after being introduced to him, you'll find that happily he hasn't mellowed with age. Well, not that much anyway. He's just become an old embittered cynical journalist unable to fathom the latest trends of the modern age of social media influencers, to say nothing of his thoughts about how a certain US president has shown just how much further into the depths politics has sunk than he could ever have imagined even back in those heady post-Thatcherite years. That said, while the world is in a sad state now, Parlabane is not one to look back fondly on (relatively) more innocent times, but a combination of occurrences, including going it al...

Originally published in 1939, Red Threads is a solo adventure (the only one, as far as I know) for Inspector Cramer, a police detective who features more in a supporting role in Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series. It's an unusual crime thriller that very much has a distinctive character and some originality - somewhat like Nero Wolfe's Montenegro-born outsider perspective on the country - in its exploration of various aspects of American history, character and society. The mystery Cramer investigates - like Wolfe not quite from the front seat - takes in American history, high society, business interests and indeed native American culture and customs, all held together with a red thread. First of all of course there is a murder. Val Carew, a wealthy socialite who made his money gambling and then took the same risks on the stock market, has been killed at the tomb of his late native American Indian wife. It's no ordinary tomb, but one specially constructed to bathe her preser...

What? is a curious novelisation of by Roman Polanski's 1972 film What? , but then What? is a curious film. Preceding Chinatown , it was poorly received on its release and for years remained largely forgotten. Its reputation hasn't been enhanced over the years, not least because of the accusations and charges laid against the filmmaker arising from this period that is not helped by the dubious taste of some of this film's content and subject matter. That said, What? is not as bad as its reputation suggests, but I suppose that's a matter of taste and opinion. Some might think it hasn't aged well, but I think it falls in well enough with the free-form self-analytical style of European filmmaking exemplified in Fellini's films from this period ( Juliet of the Spirits , Roma ). If it's a self-reflection of the filmmaker's own personal obsessions - although there is no reason we are led to believe it is - it's hard not to see more than a whiff of misogy...