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What more can you say about Steve Cavanagh that I haven't already said about all his books , notably the Eddie Flynn thrillers , and which should anyway be abundantly evident to any reader? He writes unputdownable thrillers with strong characters, racing plots with clever twists, his writing clear and direct, the plotting never (ok, rarely) resorting to improbable coincidences. Subtlety sometimes takes a back seat, but it's hardly a necessity when you can push the dramatic buttons to maximum effect. Evidently, all of that implies thrilling entertainment. All the above holds true for all Cavanagh's work and essentially it holds true of Kill For Me Kill For You .  Kill for Me Kill for You starts of by laying out two separate (for now) cases. In one, Amanda White is planning revenge on taking revenge on Wallace Crone, the man she believes is responsible for the abduction and murder of her daughter and by extension causing the suicide of her husband. There is however no eviden...

Japanese artist Gou Tanabe continues his graphic manga adaptations of the dark horror of H.P Lovecraft with At The Mountains of Madness , an extended tale that delves into the origins of his some of his most famous creations spoken of in the Necronomicon; the Old Ones, the Cthulu and the fearsome Shoggoth. The story of their arrival on our planet, their enforced 'hibernation' in the Antarctic and their terrifying re-awakening. It's a story to inspire the most imaginative of visual presentations and Gou Tanabe does that impressively across two volumes. In1930, the Miskatonic University expedition led by Professor Dyer delves deeper into this frozen and inhospitable continent than anyone has been before. They soon discover some fossils of great interest, of a kind never seen before, and excitedly one of the scientists, Lake has commandeered some planes and a team to explore further inland. Despite an incoming storm, they discover a hitherto unknown range of dark jagged mounta...

The dark imaginative worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, his created mythology and monsters, are among the most influential works in the horror genre, and yet the visualisation of those worlds are as difficult to pin down as it is to measure the increments of rising fear they inspire. Lovecraft had a way to tapping into those deep primal fears, leaving much to the imagination, making them feel like part of a mythology based on another reality that is within reach - which, if you consider it as fear, is exactly what it is. When it comes to visual depictions of his work, it must similarly be a case of capturing that sense of inner fear rather than seek to make it concrete in images. And yet, there is always something fascinating about seeing how others visualise those tales. The Japanese artist and writer Gou Tanabe works not in the typical manga style, although it is certainly comparable to the more refined artwork of latter day Junji Ito, but closer to the style of Bernie Wrightson's elabora...

The problem with time travel in science fiction novels - or the fun with SF time travel adventures if you like - is that it has unforeseen consequences. Some writers choose to ignore the paradox it creates and just explore the opportunities it offers, others have their own strictly defined rules. Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time takes the consequences part of it all relatively seriously, but has fun with the concept at the same time. But then, if/when we have time travel, you would expect that the matter be taken very seriously, so seriously in fact that, as the title suggests, that the British government has set up a whole department to deal with the ramifications, approaching the matter cautiously, but at the same time not in a particularly ethical manner. That's the fun part. Unfortunately the rest of the novel has mixed ideas about how seriously the author wants to write about science-fiction or indulge in romantic fantasy. Initially however there is much amusement i...

If you're going to pick up Spanish language thrillers based on Amazon recommendations and bestsellers - and I expect I'll have to eventually get around to reading Juan Gómez-Jurado - you're going to come across Cristian Perfumo's Patagonia thrillers, not least because they appear to be self-published through Amazon. Personally I found the unusual setting of Patagonia - a region hardly comparable with the crime centres of the world by any means -  incentive enough to download a sample of Dónde enterré a Fabiana Orquera (Where I Buried Fabiana Orquera), and good enough to go on and buy the full download. Living in small town of Puerto Deseado in the Santa Cruz region of Argentina in Patagonia, Nahuel, a teacher by profession who also writes for the local newspaper, is spending Christmas and the new year at the the remote Las Maras farm, the home of friends of his family, Dolores and Carlucho Nievas. Also staying there is their daughter Valeria and her boyfriend Pablo. Th...