Author Archives: drewsmith28

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About drewsmith28

Words, words, words...

The disappearance of Adele Bedeau by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Contraband)

Posted on November 9, 2017 by drewsmith28

“It was an evening like any other at the Restaurant de la Cloche.” YOU are on page 88 of 244 before the character cards you hold start to reveal themselves as a full house of a plot. Here the main … Continue reading →

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Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham (Hodder)

Posted on November 8, 2017 by drewsmith28

“My name is Sebastian Rudd, and though I am a well-known street lawyer, you will not see my name on billboards, on bus benches, or screaming at you from the yellow pages.” THERE is a library near me, beside a … Continue reading →

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The accident on the A35 by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Contraband)

Posted on November 2, 2017 by drewsmith28

“There did not appear to be anything remarkable about the accident on the A35” THE pleasing aspect of Graham Macrae Burnet’s writing is that he is an old school story teller. From the first you know you are going to … Continue reading →

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A legacy of spies by John Le Carre (Viking)

Posted on September 18, 2017 by drewsmith28

“What follows is a truthful account, as best as I am able to provide it, of my role in the British deception operation codenamed Windfall..  THIS sequel to the Spy Who Came in from the Cold is probably best read … Continue reading →

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Vodka politics by Mark Lawrence Schrad (Oxford Uiversity Press)

Posted on August 31, 2017 by drewsmith28

“Nikita Khrushchev was an oddly disarming fellow: five foot three and nearly as wide, with a face that seemed to be made from putty”. THE big argument in this lush, brutal academic history of Russia is how vodka has fashioned … Continue reading →

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The trip to Echo Springs by Olivia Laing (Canongate)

Posted on August 23, 2017 by drewsmith28

“Here’s a thing. Iowa City, 1973. Two men in a car, a Ford Falcon convertible that’s seen better days. It’s winter, the kind of cold that hurts bones and lungs, that reddens knuckles, makes noses run. If you could, by … Continue reading →

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The 7th function of language by Laurent Binet (Harvill Secker)

Posted on July 6, 2017 by drewsmith28

“Life is not a novel. Or at least you would like to believe so.” How good is this tornado of a novel?  The plot is wildly ambitious, an intellectual version of the da Vinci Code, and mixing real-life characters with … Continue reading →

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Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Harper Collins)

Posted on June 26, 2017 by drewsmith28

“There was going to be a funeral.”   This is two books lashed together as one. The first is a detective story. We are gently introduced in a slow, west country way, to the cast of villagers. The net curtains … Continue reading →

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Bad business by Robert B Parker (No Exit Press)

Posted on June 13, 2017 by drewsmith28

‘Do you do divorce work’ the woman said. ‘I do,’ I said. ‘Are you any good?’ ‘I am,’ I said.   THE late Robert Brown Parker wrote more than 40 Spenser detective novels plus another nine around the character Jessie … Continue reading →

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My name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (Penguin)

Posted on May 24, 2017 by drewsmith28

“There was a time, and it was many years ago now, when I had to stay in hospital for almost nine weeks” THE thing about writing solely on a macro level is that there is no horizon over which the sun … Continue reading →

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