Links to full review in the covers
Rebecca Makkai’s I Have Some Questions For You uses the creation of a true crime podcast to explore their popularity and their impact but also a range of other issues. Makkai makes readers think deeply about the issues that she is raising in an engaging, often quietly devastating way
Small Mercies finds Dennis Lehane back in the familiar territory of South Boston in the 1970s. Lehane uses familier elements to make some larger points – about the poisonous nature of racism, about the way communities can be used by the unscrupulous, about redemption and second chances. Small Mercies is one of his excoriating best.
Deepti Kapoor compulsive debut Age of Vice digs deep into Indian organised crime and the lives of the haves and have nots in modern India.
Amy Suiter Clark explores dangerous and exploitative power of religion in the hands of unscrupulous and charismatic leaders in her second novel Lay Your Body Down. But also, through her main character Del, tells the powerful story of a woman who, despite the pain that it brings, looks her very real demons in the eye to take back control of her life
Nick Harkaway delivers pitch perfect noir through the voice of a world weary detective in a dangerous world. This genre mashup of noir crime and science fiction tropes is cynical and sharp with not a word wasted.
Honourable Mentions
Old God’s Time is an elegaic exploration of Ireland’s legacy of child abuse through the eyes of an ageing retired policeman,
DV Bishop continues to knock it out of the park with the third in his crime series set in Renaissance Florence.
A Slough House adjacent novel of spies and bureaucracy full of the manouvring, action and sly observation that readers have come to expect from Herron.
The third in Margaret Hickey’s Mark Ariti series is set in and around the limestone caverns of the wild South Australian coast.
McKenzie continues her great run with the second in her Kate Miles series whicb began with The Torrent.
No Comments
Comments are closed.