Cover: The Wrong Child
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Baby-snatch thriller adds riddle of which author wrote which part

Two puzzles for the price of one As if one superbly twisted plot was not enough, two top crime writers have united to leave readers puzzling over who wrote what. Author credits for The Wrong Child are highlighted on the cover as MJ Arlidge and Julia Crouch. Both have long been famed as being among…

Tabloid scandals book cover
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Tabloid scandals ready-made for a modern Becky Sharp

The tabloid scandals of the UK’s recent history are prime fodder for the eponymous heroine of  Becky.   The chronicles of this razor-sharp young woman provide a lively modern version of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.  They offer a sparkling antidote to the millions of words spilled by these seedy events. Their framework is clearly based on those…

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Chemistry provides formula for joy

A recent trip into the chemistry lab surprised and delighted with the discovery that it held a formula for joy. It produced the recipe (pictured left) for sheer undiluted pleasure, as well as moments of laugh-out-loud comic interludes. Thankfully there was no need this time for the white coat and protective goggles demanded by Health…

Crime so cosy that it makes an excellent nightcap
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Crime so cosy that it makes an excellent nightcap

There has always been a leisurely air about Guido Brunetti’s approach to crime. In Give Unto Others his creator dips him even deeper into the realm of the soporfic. Better than a warming cup of camomile tea. More digestible than a tab or two of valerian. It’s dreamtime in Venice. Give Unto Others documents the…

Deep in the forest a page turner lures its readers in
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Deep in the forest a page turner lures its readers in

What makes a good page turner? Anyone seeking the answer needs only to devour the final fifty or so pages of Bad Apples. Allow yourself to be drawn in – which is a hands down certainty in itself – and you will be turning pages with increasing rapidity, helpless to resist. Desperate to know the…

Fading air fryer fervour sends gadget to the cooling rack
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Fading air fryer fervour sends gadget to the cooling rack

CAN’T help wondering how many of the doubtless thousands of air fryers bought in the Christmas shopping madness will end up discarded, re-gifted  or otherwise dumped. This must surely be the most useless bit of kitchen gadgetry ever. Over-publicised, over-promoted and  oversold it is destined for the dump once reality bites. As commented on here…

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Crime tale thrills along worldwide tourist trails

Crime is universal; not a corner of the globe is immune from the dastardly deeds of  its perpetrators. It may not always be as “brutal” as reporters and headline writers around the world seemingly wish us to believe. In many cases (white collar and cyber crime come quickly to mind), not a drop of blood…