Category Archives: fiction

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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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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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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The vanishing futurist by Charlotte Hobson (Faber)

Posted on May 4, 2017 by drewsmith28

“In May 1914, much against the advice of my parents, I took up the post of governess to the Robelev family of No 7 Gagarinsky Lane, Moscow” THERE is an endearing description on page two of this provocative, colourful entertaining, … Continue reading →

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Ashes in the Wind by Christopher Bland (Head Zeus)

Posted on March 24, 2017 by drewsmith28

“John Burke wants to be Tomas Sullivan. John wants Tomas’s worn brown boots, the scabs on his knees, his green jersey darned with whatever coloured wool had come to his mother’s hand. He wants to talk like Tomas.” AN old … Continue reading →

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The poet by Michael Connelly (Orion)

Posted on March 8, 2017 by drewsmith28

“Death is my beat. I make a living from it.” IF you have a cold or flu, then Michael Connelly is a good companion. Being a bit dopey helps with the severe plot twists, not twists at all really but … Continue reading →

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The noise of time by Julian Barnes (Vintage)

Posted on January 24, 2017 by drewsmith28

“All he knew was that this was the worst time.” IT is 1936, Stalin is reaching the height of his paranoia. The child prodigy and revolutionary treasure Shostakovich is denounced in Pravda. Short paragraphs rather than chapters paint tableaux of … Continue reading →

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