This is a brilliant book. Owen Matthews, a veteran journalist covering Russia, tells the story of the run-up to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and the months that followed. The book was…
Ben Macintyre is a great story-teller. But to see him at his best, he needs a great story to start with. Having watched the recent BBC series based on this book, I was keen to…
Three weeks ago I read the first of the Travis Chase novels (The Breach) and in my review, I said that I would not be continuing with the series. But I lied. I’ve now completed…
This book, shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, is very hard to categorise. It begins as a kind of police procedural, though one that is at times laugh-out-loud funny. It has elements of horror. And…
This is the first of a series of sci-fi thrillers starring Travis Chase, ex-con and ex-cop. It is unimaginably silly, with a death count to rival actual wars, and yet … I was somewhat intrigued….
I grew up with bialys in New York City. Places that sold bagels sold bialys. When you got bored of bagels, you had a bialy. But fast forward several decades, and I can barely remember…
Peter Hollins has written a good, short, clear book explaining how all us can learn to be more self-disciplined (and get things done). He’s not the first to have done so, but I liked his…
The murder of the former Georgian Interior Minister Noe Ramishvili on a Paris street in 1930 would make a great thriller. It’s an incredible story and it involves a true villain, Lavrenty Beria, who publicly…
Every new book from British author Mick Herron is a cause for celebration. Even when the book isn’t actually a book. This “interlude” is more of a short story — a story in which appear…
I first came across Tim Spector because of COVID. His company, ZOE, launched an app which I and millions of others used to report daily on symptoms, vaccines, etc. Since then I’ve read one of…