To The Last Page

A novel about a pandemic that rips through the population of the world with devastating consequences is probably the last thing you want to pick up for a light read at the minute. On the other hand, the question of how we deal with the reality of such an event, one even worse that Covid-19, is something that you probably need to consider. You might think you cope a little better than the last person standing narrator of Last One at the Party , but how does anyone know how they would react to the realisation that they may be the only person in the world left alive? Although harsh lessons have been learned from the 2020-21 Covid-19 pandemic, there is nothing that can prepare the scientists for 6DM when it hits in 2024 and rapidly wipes out the entire population of the United States. It’s commonly known as 6DM because scientists don’t really have time to analyse it, since 6 Days Maximum is as long as anyone infected is expected to last before their body organs disintegrate, resulting in a...

Considering the year we’ve just had, the title of Eleanor Ray’s debut novel definitely has some attraction. And thankfully no, the title Everything is Beautiful doesn’t turn out to be ironic, but evidently you have to go through some tough times and maybe even reach the bottom before there is some consolation to be found in its belief that there is always the hope of a fresh start. As far as Amy Ashton is concerned, the bottom is a point that she is rapidly heading towards. In her thirties, she has been working for financial advice firm for the last ten years. It was never meant to be this way. She started out as a day job while she waited to get recognised for her painting, but has given up on her dreams of being an artist. Amy seems to have given up on a lot of things around this time, as it was eleven years ago that her boyfriend Tim disappeared with her best friend Chantel. It was such a shock to Amy that she hasn’t been able to let go, still collecting mementos that most other pe...

Lawrence Block's 1969 thriller After the First Death is a taut little murder mystery that revolves around a case of memory blackout. To all intents and purposes though, and certainly to any outside observer, it looks like Alex Penn has done it again; he's murdered another woman. The problem is he can't remember doing it. Alex suffers from blackouts when he has been drinking and all the evidence that he has committed a murder the night before is right there in front of him; a prostitute with her throat cut lying on the floor of a hotel room. He has murdered before or at least that's what he did time for, four years until he got released on a technical appeal against an unsound conviction. Trouble is the woman he killed that time was also during a blackout, so he doesn't know what he is capable of. As he goes on the run, with nowhere to go and no one to turn to, Alex reluctantly tries to recall how this happened again and as fragments of memory come back he realises ...

Danielle McLaughlin’s debut novel works on two levels – maybe more but let’s stick with two for now for the sake of keeping a review of The Art of Falling simple. On one level, sadly, it’s about the banalities of domestic life; sadly, I suppose because we all have to live with and deal with them. On another level however there’s something else going on beneath the surface of all these domestic tensions, but even that could be said to be similarly banal, since anger, resentment, bitterness and disappointment all come as part of the package. Lest that make it seem like The Art of Falling is a rather dull and tedious, there’s always another way of viewing such matters and we all have different ways of getting through the little and big trials that life throws our way. Often it drives us to find solace, a sense of understanding and kinship with others or seek to find a way to express and elevate those difficult circumstances into something more tangible and manageable, and often that’s t...