Barely a week goes by without a new crime novel being tipped for bestsellerdom. Now, following in the footsteps of The Girl on the Train, The Widow and I Let You Go comes another one – and trust me, Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner is a surefire winner. There’s no doubt that Steiner’s second novel is pacy, compelling and very well written but what makes it stand out from the ...keep reading
Two small children wander hand in hand through the snow-covered garden of a vast country mansion. The Winter Children, Lulu Taylor’s seventh novel, has the prettiest cover I’ve seen in ages. More importantly, it’s a compelling story about unrequited love, jealousy and a woman’s all-consuming longing for children of her own. When Olivia Felbeck gives birth to twins it seems that she has everything she could ever wish for. She ...keep reading
The brilliant Sophie Hannah appeared on BBC One’s Breakfast earlier this month to promote her new novel, A Game for all the Family. As always she was witty, engaging and pretty self-deprecating for a writer who’s sold stack-loads of books. One particular anecdote stood out for me though and that was a story about her favourite crime writer, the late Ruth Rendell, who insisted that a novelist’s job is to grip ...keep reading