Feb 23, 2024 | What Am I Reading?
Novels that feature ‘more mature women’ (read those in their 60’s and 70’s and above) are rare (often because that demographic is ‘invisible’ in real life), so it’s lovely to read a story with the key protagonists at this stage in their lives, all experiencing...
Feb 20, 2024 | What Am I Reading?
As psychological crime thrillers go, Jar of Hearts (Allen and Unwin Books 2018) by Jennifer Hillier is the epitome of high stakes, page-turning, suspenseful, taut, complex and satisfying writing. A knotted and twisty plot that goes backwards and forwards in time is...
Feb 13, 2024 | What Am I Reading?
I’m not sure what I expected from Emily Spurr’s second novel, Beatrix and Fred (Text Publishing 2023), but what I got was completely outside even the imagination of my expectations. This beautifully written novel is strangely compelling and weirdly fascinating. It is...
Feb 9, 2024 | What Am I Reading?
Compelling, dark, twisty, weird, funny, heartbreaking, tender and suspenseful, Strange Sally Diamond (Penguin Random House 2023) by Liz Nugent is an absolute must read for anyone who enjoys an intense psychological thriller with an unforgettable protagonist. With the...
Feb 5, 2024 | What Am I Reading?
Great psychological thrillers have the reader second-guessing themselves at every turn, wondering whether or not the novel has a reliable narrator, choosing which characters to align with, deciding who is villain and who is victim. Ruth Ware executes this extremely...
Jan 31, 2024 | What Am I Reading?
Irish author Paul Murray has given us an astonishing and compelling story in The Bee Sting (Penguin Random House 2023), shortlisted for last year’s Booker Prize. This is a master storyteller at his finest: an enormous saga that entices you in bit by bit with the...
