Author Archives: drewsmith28

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About drewsmith28

Words, words, words...

The Patient by Tim Sullivan (Head of Zeus)

Posted on August 12, 2026 by drewsmith28

Cross was unlocking his bike in the shelter outside the Major Crime Unit in Bristol when he heard a noise behind him. There is a masterly opening to this the third in the compulsively operatic George Cross crime series. He … Continue reading →

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The Dentist by Tim Sullivan (Head of Zeus)

Posted on August 3, 2026 by drewsmith28

“The young woman standing in front of him was smiling.” THE great thing about the legendary Elmore Leonard books were always his confrontations, the characters carefully built up and then dropped dramatically into opposition with each other. In Tim Sullivan’s … Continue reading →

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The Secrets of the Abbey by Jean-Luc Bannalec (Minotaur)

Posted on June 8, 2026 by drewsmith28

“The omens of death, without a doubt.” Summer reading. A new intrigue for commissaire Georges Dupin. His twelfth so far. This one set in the windy sand dunes of Aber Wrac’h, the remotest most north westerly, Atlantic facing tip of … Continue reading →

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My Year in Paris with Gertude Stein by Deborah Levy (Hamish Hamilton)

Posted on May 6, 2026 by drewsmith28

“Eva called to say she had lost it.” This clever, short novel is the kind of book I would nominate for the Booker Prize. Deborah Levy’s mission is to discern Gertrude Stein who wrote the first, maybe only, abstract novels. … Continue reading →

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Mrs Pearcey by Lottie Moggach (Phoenix)

Posted on March 31, 2026 by drewsmith28

“Hannah and Cosmo’s engagement dinner was being held at his parents’ house in Kensington.” This pastiche of a Victorian potboiler would make an excellent film. Hello, Hollywood! Camden calling – murder, real life crime, coming of age, a mystery to … Continue reading →

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Lessons for Young Artists by David Gentleman (Penguin)

Posted on December 7, 2025 by drewsmith28

“What is drawing for? Why are we tempted to do it at all?” ONE could ask also ask why it is that one artist becomes better known than another? David Gentleman is less known than many contemporaries, less valued in … Continue reading →

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Dead Point by Peter Temple (Quercus)

Posted on October 10, 2025 by drewsmith28

“On a grey whipped Wednesday in early winter, men in long coats came out and shot Renoir where he stood, noble, unbalanced, a foreleg dangling. In the terminating jolt of the bolt, dreams died.” Have a round on Jack Irish, … Continue reading →

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The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada (Portobello Books)

Posted on October 5, 2025 by drewsmith28

“Still in his blue silk pyjamas, Mumei sat with his bottom flat on the tatami. Perhaps it was his head, much too large…” It is post apocalypse, an eco-dystopian futurescape wrapped up in a warm family narrative. Yoshiro minds his … Continue reading →

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The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (Sceptre)

Posted on September 5, 2025 by drewsmith28

“He was lying on a varnished wooden board, the top of a boxed-in radiator.” The opening is slow, Andrew Miller has just turned on the fire to boil a kettle, like an episode of the Archers, quite a lot of … Continue reading →

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Portrait of an Oyster by Andreas Ammer (Greystone)

Posted on September 1, 2025 by drewsmith28

Andreas Ammer might have benefited from reading my own Oyster a Gastronomic history before embarking on his operatic ode to the world’s oldest and most iconic shellfish. He does, I admit, show a masterly, gynaecological, Germanic interest in the sex … Continue reading →

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