To The Last Page

The idea behind Christopher Ramson’s novel is a daring and original one for a haunted house story – it’s not the death that one need fear here as much as birth. It’s a sound enough concept. What other event is more significant than death? What other event involves pain, blood and violent upheaval to one’s life? What other event lies on the boundary between existence and non-existence? One is an ending, the other a beginning and The Birthing House fully draws on all the implications of the unknown that lies in both, twisting them into a troubling and darkly erotic horror story. Whether by suggestion or through his own personal fears, weaknesses and relationships problems, Conrad’s flaws and failings become tied up with or transferred onto an old house he has bought in Wisconsin. Its history as a birthing house, where midwives fulfilled the function of bringing new life into the world in the absence of a nearby local hospital, is uncovered in a book of old photographs, where one of the ...

It probably helps if you've read Declan Hughes's earlier Ed Loy novels, which I haven't. It's not that you'll miss anything - the backstory is fairly well covered in outline here - but the problem seems to be that the background adds an unnecessary level of bleakness and disillusionment to the deep sewer of corruption that Loy uncovers in the rich Southside Dublin families of the country's horseracing industry. That whole affair adds up to a stinking mess of race fixing, corruption and cover-ups, "close breeding", murder, prostitution, rape, institutional abuse of orphans, drug-dealing... there's even a serial killer on the loose. You name it, Ed Loy uncovers it in the best PI fashion, the whole mess implausibly just waiting for someone to be invited to come along and pick at the festering wound of the whole rotten business. Along the way, Loy has to associate with a lot of disagreeable people both in high society and in the lower classes with the ...

Breakneck is a fast-moving and gripping police thriller that manages to keep up an incredible momentum up with a new revelation or murder every couple of pages and keep you off-balance by the fact that almost any one involved in the investigation is potentially expendable. That makes the novel a great read – it’s very well paced and written with equal attention given to the case and the personal lives of the characters – but the case does unravel in a quite conventional manner, placing quite a strain on credibility and particularly on the effectiveness of the policing methods of RPD Detectives Mary Catherine Ruggio and her partner Kitt Lundgren. As the number of bodies pile up you would expect a bit more care and diligence on the part of the police officers, particularly as the series of mysterious executions killings being carried out by a professional hitman on a group of young adults brings the matter very close to MC’s family and their business. Yet, whether it is through the case...

The book’s title sums it up well. There’s no great dramatic drive to Farahad Zama’s novel, it’s simply about the fortunes and misfortunes of the staff and clients of Mr Ali’s Marriage Bureau, set up by the old man in his retirement to do his best to find the ideal matches for his clients. Within that however there is a wealth of riches in the colourful characterisation and descriptions of tradition and customs, all delivered in lovely, clear prose. The conflict in the novel comes then from its characters attempt to preserve the spirit and meaning of tradition, particularly in the area of marriage, relationships and families, while at the same time finding a way to adapt to the necessary realities and sometimes the injustice of the modern world, the characters often “torn between two powerful forces neither of which would give way”. Although he may not be the most diplomatic of people and often speak out of turn, Mr Ali’s faith in his agency shows that he believes there is a way that bo...

Two caravans are travelling on their way to Lin’an, the city of the Emperor. One is bringing a young woman Ming Yueh from Zaiton to be married to one of the Emperor’s young generals, Song Rui. The other is a group of foreigners, seen as barbarians and not usually welcome in the Cathar lands. However the Emperor is amused at their mission to find the fabled creatures, mermaids and unicorns, that their master Manfred, the King of Sicily hopes will buy him favour from the Papal armies that menace his lands. Many years later an old man whose son was part of Manfred’s unusual expedition team tries to find out where and why they disappeared and discovers that both groups had a secret mission of their own, one that eventually brings them together in an unexpected way. Keeping a distance from the events, many of them being reported in outline by the characters to one another rather than being related in detail by the author as they happen, the tone of Unicorn Road is often cool and remote. Non...

A passionate, troubling and at times personally conflicted exposé of the Neapolitan mafia the Camorra, Roberto Saviano examines the origins, the history and the bloody rise to power of the various clans to become a powerful and influential force not just in Campania or Italy but throughout the world. In Gomorrah, in a manner that would force him to go into hiding following publication, he names names, examines the environment that gave rise to the Camorra, and tries to understand the thought processes behind their actions, behaviour and their business practices. What is revealed is staggering and on a scale almost beyond the ability of the reader to grasp. Saviano shows a more widespread and powerful organisation than the more well-known Sicilian mafia, a confederation of clans and cartels that has its fingers in almost every aspect of world commerce - not just gun-running and drug-dealing, but in everything from the fashion industry (passing off high quality copies with the tacit agre...

A Dog's Ransom is a fine little thriller that is deceptive in more ways than one. Starting out initially indeed as a ransom case perpetrated on a well-off middle-aged couple by a discontented and unbalanced Polish immigrant who has been writing them anonymous hate letters, the novel soon develops into something else entirely when a young enthusiastic and impressionable police officer volunteers to look into the case.  More than just the unexpected turns that the case follows, the novel is a superb and realistic character study of everyday characters from several levels of Manhattan society and how they interact, throwing up interesting conflicts between them and revealing underlying bitterness in their attitudes towards migrants, crime and the police. Rather than there being the hard edge of hatred and bitterness that might have been expected from the outset, Highsmith takes an unexpected angle and rather reveals a core of kindness and trust in people that is gradually eroded and ...