Book Club

The Pale House

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Luke McCallin does the next-to-impossible, and  makes a sympathetic and credible character out of a German military policeman in 1945 Sarajevo. Gregor Reinhardt is adrift in a sea of treachery, brutality and panic, as vengeful partisans tighten the noose on the German army. Amidst the…
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Book Club

Bull Mountain

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Brian Panowich’s debut Bull Mountain begins in 1949, and we are in pure redneck territory – rural Georgia. A murderous feud between two brothers has lasting repercussions and by 2015 matters are hardly any better in the Burroughs family. This is a family drama set inside…
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Book Club

Naked Shall I Return

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Christopher Bartley introduced his craggy anti-hero Ross Duncan in Every Secret Thing, and now the chain smoking tough guy returns. He leads us on a mesmerising journey through San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1930s, where he encounters every vice he has ever heard of –…
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Book Club

Oblivion

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As titles go, Arnaldur Indridason’s Oblivion is pretty downbeat, but this is an enthralling look at the younger days of the glum Icelandic Detective Erlendur. Fans of the mature Elendur will know that one of his chief fixations is about missing persons, and this is…
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News

Under starter's orders

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On the Radar — A horse racing metaphor is too good to miss, and so we begin with a Felix Francis murder mystery set in the secretive world of The Sport of Kings. Our selection this week gallops across the crime sub-genres from cosy to noir, with…
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