KindlePrintReviews

Angel by Anita Waller

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A good measure of how much a book affects you is how much of it stays with you months, or years, later. Anita Waller’s debut Beautiful, which I reviewed here for New Talent November last year, is full of the kind of scenes that you…
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Book Club

Jihadi: A Love Story

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Yusuf Toropov’s novel deals with topics that may seem more at home on the pages of the daily papers – like terrorism and torture. Told alternately by the prisoner Ali Liddell and his interrogator/torturer/former partner, it recounts the tension between occupying forces and fundamentalists in The Islamic Republic, a…
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iBookKindlePrintReviews

Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama

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Translated by Jonathan Lloyd-Davies — The main attraction of a police procedural is the opportunity for readers to watch the characters develop over a series of short, complex novels – Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels, for example, or Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Martin Beck series. Both offer…
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KindlePrintReviews

Jihadi: A Love Story

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Written by Yusuf Toropov — The word ‘jihadi’ conjures up a very distinct image in the minds of most westerners: masked men in the desert clutching AK-47s, standing over their victims. It’s a preconception that’s far removed from the two so-called jihadis involved in this self-proclaimed love story. The word…
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KindlePrintReviews

Hard Cheese by Ulf Durling

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Translated by Bertil Falk — Män som hatar kvinnor (Men who hate women) became The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Polis, polis, potatismos! (Police, police, potatoes) became Murder at the Savoy, the sixth novel in Sjöwall and Wahlöö’s Martin Beck series. In a similar way, Gammal ost (Old Cheese)…
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Features

Nagaisayonara: Top five books of 2015

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Early in 2015 I said that this would be the year of the psychological thriller, and I wasn’t wrong. Perhaps you’ll see this reflected in my top picks, below. Although the trend for psychological crime is showing no sign of slowing, I’d love to see a…
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