Published by Éditions Albin Michel, 1982, 442 pages. Published in English as The Crimson Rivers, Harvill Press, 1999, 328 pages. Translated from French by Ian Monk. A mutilated body, suspended in a crevice, has been found in the French town of Guernon, a town surrounded by mountains. Commissaire Pierre Niémans is sent from Paris to …
Continue reading Les Rivières pourpres: Jean-Christophe Grangé
Published by Anchor Books / Doubleday, 1994, 390 pages. “I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident. I hadn’t learned that it can happen so gradually you don’t lose your stomach or hurt yourself in the landing. …
Published by Faber & Faber, 2018, 348 pages. A town in Northern Ireland in the 1970s, during the Troubles. A time of suspicion, deep divisions and violence. The unnamed narrator is an 18-year-old woman—referred to only as Middle Sister. She has mapped out a space for herself, staying out of political discussions. She avoids unnecessary …
Published by Hodder, 2014, 385 pages. Rome, 89 AD, during the reign of Emperor Domitian. Valerius Aviola and Mucia Lucilia, a recently married middle-aged couple, are found murdered in their rented ground-floor apartment. It seems to be a burglary gone wrong: a large quantity of silverware was taken, and the porter Nicostratus was badly beaten. …
Published by Manilla Press, 2023, 341 pages. “This morning, I met the man who started the fire. He did something terrible, but then, so did I. I left him.“I left him, and now he may be dead. I can see him clearly, exactly as he was this morning, sitting beneath the ancient tree, his eyes …
Published by John Murray, 2013, 431 pages. Can you imagine a world without alphabets? They are such an essential part of our lives; the letters help us form words to express ourselves and communicate with others. Take, for example, the “English” alphabet—which is what Michael Rosen’s book is about. It feels like it has been …
Continue reading Alphabetical—How Every Letter Tells a Story: Michael Rosen
Published by Picador, 1997, 444 pages. “You say, but for the golden hope of coffeefew men would get ahead.I say, when the people harvest,all they reap is bitter grounds.” Coffee plantations are the centre of the lives of two families: one, that of peasants who work picking coffee, and the other, the plantation owners. The …
Translated from Lithuanian by Marija MarcinkutePublished by Noir Press, 2018, 175 pages. Original version published in 2018. The Last Day is a book of absurdist short stories by a Lithuanian writer. The protagonists, mainly men (with one exception), are victims of circumstance, caught up in strange situations that they cannot control. In the title story, …
Photo: Ed Shaw Lindsey Davis is a British author. The first Falco book, The Silver Pigs, won the Authors’ Club Best First Novel award in 1989. Lindsey has won several awards, including the Crimewriters’ Association Dagger in the Library, Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, as well as the Crimewriters’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement …
Continue reading Bringing Ancient Rome to Life: An Interview with Lindsey Davis
Photo: FU via Adobe Stock Crime fiction has consistently been one of the most popular genres—in 2014, around one in three novels published in English was a crime novel.[1] What makes this genre so popular? For one, the plot is a puzzle, challenging the reader to guess who done it—which was what first attracted me …
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