iBookKindlePrintReviews

Crime at Christmas by CHB Kitchin

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British crime fiction from the so-called Golden Age grows in popularity. Sometimes modern writers produce pastiche versions, and sometimes publishers re-issue the genuine article, and this is the case here, with Faber & Faber unearthing a seasonal original dating back to 1934. The crucial thing…
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The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada

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Translated by Ross and Shika Mackenzie — Author Soji Shimada, whose groundbreaking 1981 novel has recently been translated afresh by Pushkin Press, is considered the godfather of the Shin-honkaku school of crime fiction in Japan. He inspired the New Orthodox group that aimed to return mystery fiction in…
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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

Golden Age of Murder

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Are we recommending a non-fiction book. Well certainly, when it is an erudite and loving account of a genre for which pretty well all crime fiction lovers have a secret place in their hearts. This book takes us down some well-travelled roads, dealing with the genius of…
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London Rain by Nicola Upton

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If you like your detective fiction with a pin-sharp historical setting, then Nicola Upson is the author for you. Her series of novels features real-life Golden Age writer Josephine Tey as a detective, and Upson’s attention to detail is jaw-dropping in its thoroughness. Suffolk-born Upson read…
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A Shadowed Livery by Charlie Garratt

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Autumn, 1938. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who is the MP for Edgebaston in Birmingham, has just returned from Munich clutching a piece of paper which, he proclaims, promises peace in our time. Meanwhile, in another part of Birmingham, Detective Inspector James Given watches, ashen faced,…
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