News

Abductions, exorcisms and power chords

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On the Radar — Let’s see – what’s the biggest news this week? The return of Jame Sallis with an interesting premise for his latest novel? Herefordshire exorcist Merrily Watkins on the case in her 12th outing? Back to gangland with Martina Cole? We’ve got…
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Book Club

Police

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There is nothing new about bringing treasured characters back from the dead. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle responded to unprecedented public dismay by resurrecting Sherlock Holmes after his apparent demise at The Reichenbach Falls. After Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole appeared to meet a similarly violent end…
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Book Club

The Funeral Owl

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A dark, menacing and resentful land, where the people are as hard and edgy as the relentless landscape? No, this isn’t set in the hard-scrabble Midwest, or among the endless cotton fields of Mississippi. It is set in England. In Cambridgeshire. In Fenland, to be…
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Book Club

The Chessmen

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Those strange little figures – squat and grumpy, kings and bishops, still evocative after 800 years. They provide a haunting backdrop to this, the final book in Peter May’s Lewis Trilogy. Please don’t feel that you are coming late to the party, because this book…
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Book Club

The Blood Whisperer

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Good authors are confident enough to leave an established character behind, and introduce a new one. Zoë Sharp fits that bill. After establishing bodyguard and investigator Charlie Fox as a readers’ favourite, she now brings us forensics expert Kelly Jacks. Jacks has a past, which…
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Book Club

Norwegian by Night

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Another gloomy Scandinavian angst-fest? Well, hold on now… For starters, the author’s name – Derek B Miller – doesn’t seem very Nordic at all. Yes, the book is set in Oslo, but there is a major difference. For starters, the central character is an 82…
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Features

Interview: Bernard Besson

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When you read a thriller by Bernard Besson, you can be pretty sure he knows what he is talking about. The author is a former chief of staff for the French intelligence services, and now runs a successful consultancy specialising in economic intelligence and business…
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