A clever and witty book filled with examples of things NOT to do if you’re writing your first novel. And while the authors insist that unlike other writing books, they are telling you about sure-fire…
This, the second book in Mark Billingham’s new Blackpool-based crime series, continues an unbroken trend of superb story-telling, mixed with humour and characters you actually care about. DS Declan Miller sounds at first like a…
Last week Donald Trump made an extraordinary announcement on his Truth Social platform. Trump was announced that Sean O’Brien, president of the 1.3 million member Teamsters union, had agreed to address the Republic National Convention…
The third book in the long-running Alex Cross series seems a good place to take a break. While the story has a good beginning, by the end it becomes an excuse for the author to…
It is exactly ninety years since the French Socialist and Communist parties began to create the Popular Front, which dominated French politics in the mid-1930s. The danger then was the threat of the far Right…
The second Alex Cross novel was actually made into a Hollywood film before the first one was. And maybe that’s a good thing, because it’s a better, tighter book. Cross is becoming an increasingly interesting…
The results of the European elections were, in some sense, more of the same. The dominant blocs in the incoming Parliament will remain the European People’s Party (moderate Right) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists…
A handful of observations about this book — the first in the long-running Alex Cross crime novels. First, it is a very long book, much longer than, for example, Roses are Red, the sixth book…
Years ago, when James Patterson was an author and not a brand, he wrote some terrific stories. This is one of them and I’ve read it at least twice. It’s a textbook example of how…
This is a good, short introduction to the subject for anyone thinking about writing a thriller. While much of the text is formulaic (it’s part of the “Teach Yourself” series, so there are a lot…