Newest General Fiction Reviews
Butterflies in November by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
' 'It's all threes here,' she says, 'three men in your life over a distance of 300 kilometres, three dead animals, three minor accidents or mishaps… animals will be maimed… it'll wet more than your ankles… it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy a lottery ticket'.' And so an over-priced but miraculously accurate fortune-teller sets in process a narrative that provides for a very quirky read, with quite a bit of charm amongst the unusual. The lottery ticket and a loose end and a best friend stuck in hospital all conspire to make the narrator and said best friend's four-year-old son embark on a journey of discovery, all on the southern stretch of the ring road that encircles Iceland. Full review...
The Flavours of Love by Dorothy Koomson
Saffron's husband, Joel, was stabbed in the street eighteen months ago and no one has ever been arrested for his murder. It's hard for Saffron and her two children, Pheobe and Zane, to live with what happened but somehow they have to find a way of getting on with their lives; lives that no longer have Joel in them. It's hardly surprising that they struggle on a daily basis and it all culminates when Saffron is called into school to discuss fourteen year old Pheobe. Saffron doesn't know how to deal with the situation especially as her daughter won't talk to her. On top of all that, Joel's killer is still out there somewhere and that makes her scared for all her family's safety. Full review...
The Circle by Dave Eggers
Following a string of recent scandals, the government this month announced that secret cameras could be introduced into care homes in the hope of improving patient care. The theory being that constantly recording staff would prevent any inappropriate behaviour from those in positions of authority. Could such surveillance possibly work? And if it did would any potential rewards be outweighed by the threat to privacy of both the patients and the wholly innocent staff who become caught up in the snooping? It's this question of surveillance over privacy that is central to 'The Circle', the new novel from Dave Eggers. Full review...
Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield
When he was a young boy William Bellman committed one cruel act - he used his catapult to kill a rook. He didn't believe he could do it - believed until the moment that the rook fell that it would fly away before the stone hit - but the rook was dead. It can't be said that the killing worried William and as he grew it seemed that he was a fortunate man. His work satisfied him. He loved his wife and his children, but then tragedy struck and the visits from the stranger in black began. William - now 'Bellman' to most of those who knew him - had a solution. He worked harder, obsessively and he founded a business which was decidedly macabre. And that business was Bellman and Black. Full review...
Black Chalk by Albert Alla
Seventeen-year-old Nate Dillingham is hailed as a hero following a horrific school shooting in which he is the only survivor. It soon becomes clear, however, that Nate has neglected to share the full extent of his involvement with the police, instead allowing others to place a more positive spin on his version of events. After recuperating in hospital and facing the interrogation of both the police and the media, Nate abandons his family and spends eight years working abroad in a succession of odd jobs. Black Chalk begins with Nate’s return to his family home, as Nate seeks catharsis by finally opening up about his experiences. Full review...
The Good House by Ann Leary
Hildy Good has reached a strange stage in her life. She's entering her seventh decade (that's one of the few phrases that make sixty feel good) and divorced. Most people - Hildy included - would have said that she had a lot of friends, but the reality is a little different. Her daughters had staged an intervention because they thought that her drinking had got out of control and after a period in rehab Hildy found social occasions a little difficult. Evenings spent at home - on her own - were no fun. Full review...
The Reluctant Cannibals by Ian Flitcroft
Over a truffled turkey at their college Christmas dinner in 1964, a group of Oxford dons decide to join their love of fine food and drink with their mutual appreciation for nineteenth-century French philosopher of food Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (author of the 1825 classic La Physiologie du Goût, or The Physiology of Taste) by forming a secret dining society. Together these fellows of St Jerome's College form the Shadow Faculty of Gastronomic Science, a group that will continue meeting to share new and daring culinary experiences until Oxford agrees to set up a proper gastronomic school of its own. Full review...
Isabel's Skin by Peter Benson
David Morris is a book trader and valuer in some indeterminate Victorian year, when he is given the job of perusing a great and valued collection held in a rich house in rural Somerset. One can guess – especially given the mood that leaps off these pages from the first and never relents – that something might go wrong, just him and the house's sole servant and her cats. But the clues build when we find just how much she dislikes a neighbour – who seems a decent enough fellow, living in seclusion, and culture and intellect wise the only equal to Morris for his short working holiday. But whose unusual behaviour can Morris trust – and who is Isabel? Full review...
Woman on Top by Deborah Schwartz
Kate and Jake had one of those brilliant marriages that looks set to last forever along with two wonderful children. But Fate is always hiding around the corner with its foot stuck out, waiting to trip you up and Jake was diagnosed with cancer. They both fought to do everything that they could to find a cure but within two years Kate was a widow. For nearly a decade she dedicated herself to the children and to making a career as a healthcare lawyer so that she could support the family. When she was ready to look for another relationship she met Len. It wasn't his looks that attracted her or his stature (she'd hastily searched out her flat shoes), but he did seem to have something about him. Full review...
I Came To Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington
Sometimes when you have clear expectations of a book based on its blurb, and then you get an utterly different story, it can be frustrating. While I think ‘misleading’ is too strong a word for it, I really could not have predicted the story of this book from what I read on the back cover. It sounded like an excellent story about a baby snatched from a hospital ward but instead it was…an excellent story about something else entirely. Full review...
The World is a Wedding by Wendy Jones
They say one door doesn't shut but for another opens. Wilfred Price, the most amenable 1920s Welsh undertaker in literature, is living proof of that. He took his beloved Flora Myffanwy to be his, after they both fell in love at her father's funeral. It did leave Grace alone and bereft, and forced out of town in a very unsavoury fashion, but for Wilfred and Flora married life is fine. Hesitant, but fine. He's finally got into the swing of things as regards calling her dear, and conjugal relations, and she has finally felt able to speak up about her place in the household of her husband and his father – and whoever happens to be left to settle in the workshop, having died on the loo and got stuck in a non-coffin-shaped pose. But do those doors stay firmly shut…? Full review...
Mr Lynch's Holiday by Catherine O'Flynn
Having read and enjoyed both of her previous novels, What Was Lost and The News Where You Are I was looking forward to this latest book. The story tells us of a father who surprises his son, living in Spain, with a visit. The father is recently widowed and the son's long-term partner has very recently left him, although it's some time before he admits that to his dad. What begins as a holiday turns into something of a pschological rescue mission as Dermot begins to see the problems depressing Eamonn and the ways in which he might be able to help. There's a lot about familial relationships in the book, as well as ideas about living at home and abroad. Full review...
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries is set in the New Zealand gold rush of the late 1860s. It's a story about greed, power, gold, dreams, opium, secrets, betrayal and identity, but most of all, it's a celebration of the art of story telling, both in terms of Catton's book and the stories her characters have to tell. It's the kind of book that is perfect escapism and which wraps you up in its world. If you like big, chunky books that you can get lost in for hours, then this is one for you. Full review...
Out of the Clouds of Deceit by David Canning
On his way to begin training to be a pilot in the RAF, Aiden met Dennis in a railway station buffet. As luck would have it they were both on their way to the same place, for the same reason and would find themselves sharing a room. Trained and mentored by older serving officers in what was the immediate post-war period they came to understand - and to some extent feel - the sense of betrayal which burdened the pilots from bomber command who had taken part in the Allied bombing campaign in the World War II. Flying was in Aiden's blood and he was at home in the air and in the mess - the comradeship of men suited him and he understood the nuances. He was less at home with women, never completely understanding the different needs a woman has in a relationship. Full review...
More Than This by Patrick Ness
Here is the boy, drowning.
And Seth does drown. He is alone; taken by the sea, arms and legs flailing and breaking, skull dashed against the rocks whilst the icy water constricts his muscles and breath. Seth is consciously aware of his final moments. His death consumes him with a heavy, confusing blur until… he awakens and finds himself in a desolate, shattered world; naked, alone, starving and alive. This place looks familiar. It looks exactly like the English village where he spent his early childhood before his brother’s accident and his family’s move to America, but it is now overgrown and devoid of human life. It is as if the whole place was simply abandoned one day. Full review...
Straight White Male by John Niven
In Kill Your Friends, John Niven delivered a scathing and hugely entertaining satire on the music industry. In Straight White Male he's turned his attention to Hollywood and academia with similarly impressive results. Full review...
The Kills by Richard House
Richard House's Booker-longlisted The Kills is a collection of four related books, originally published in e-book format between February and June 2013. In some ways, the e-book format is the natural habitat for House's creation as it includes a largely optional multi-media component to the story. It is a hugely ambitious piece about money, murder, greed, stories and where things start and equally where, if ever, they end. Covering more countries than feature in Michael Palin's passport, the book starts with corruption and embezzlement in a US civilian company working in the re-building of Iraq, and ends with a kind of 'Tales of the Unexpected' story in Cyprus having taken in a gruesome story of murder in Naples. Full review...
Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers by Alexander McCall Smith
So. Bertie. Yes, dear Bertie finally turns seven in this book! And about time too! His birthday gifts from his parents are perhaps not everything he wished for, nor even what his dad might have wanted to get him, but Bertie's mother, Irene, has very definite ideas about what makes a good birthday present for a little boy. Fortunately for my blood pressure the odious Irene is soon whisked away to another country after winning a newspaper competition, and her stay there might be rather longer than she'd intended... Full review...
The Outline of Love by Morgan McCarthy
Persephone Triebold has spent most of her life on the Assynt Peninsula in north-west Scotland. It's isolated, rugged and under-populated. Her father opted to live there after the death of his wife, feeling that it was safe for his young daughter. She's been home-schooled and has had very little contact with other people - but makes the decision that she's going to university in London. Once there she shares a house with three other girls and develops a crush on former indie musician and Booker-winning novelist Leo Ford. She works her way into his circle of friends - and finally into his bed - but never feels that has connected with him. Part of it is that she can't get past that incident in his past which involved his sister, Ivy, her partner, a gun and a sword - and no one will talk about it. Full review...
Another Way to Fall by Amanda Brooke
On a crisp November day, Emma steps out of the doctor’s office, beaming from ear to ear. Finally, she has received the news she has been waiting so long to hear; her cancer is in complete remission. She can now put the last five years behind her and start get on with the rest of her life. At least that is how things would work in a perfect world. Sadly, the truth is a little different. The 'all clear' diagnosis is the first chapter of a book that Emma is writing, a book that is a coping mechanism to help her come to terms with the fact that her cancer is incurable and her options are very limited indeed. Full review...
Ostrich by Matt Greene
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon deserves every piece of praise it received, as a children's novel with plenty to interest older readers and a wonderful way of portraying Asperger's Syndrome through its narrator, Christopher Boone. Ostrich by Matt Greene follows quite similar lines, although this time the narrator, Alex, has a brain tumour. Full review...
The Second Life of Amy Archer by R S Pateman
Ten years ago, a little girl vanished from a playground near her London home. Her body was never found. A decade on, and her parents are different people, her mother Beth still hung up on what did, or didn’t happen that day, her father Brian trying to move on with his new family, his new daughters. On the anniversary of her disappearance, a strange visitor arrives on Beth’s doorstep saying she knows what happened to Amy Archer. She also knows a great deal about Beth’s life, and Amy’s, from that time. Things no one should know. No one could know. But the only explanation is beyond belief. Either someone is playing a cruel joke on Beth, or it’s time to start believing in miracles. Full review...
The Night Rainbow by Claire King
You know, there’s no reason a book has to be happy in order to be good. The Night Rainbow is proof of this. Set geographically in France and actually in the head of a five year old girl, it follows the adventures of the summer when Pea’s (short for Peony or Pivoine, depending who you ask) pregnant mother was too miserable to care for her; the summer following the still birth of Pea’s sister and the tragic accidental death of her father. Full review...
Longbourn by Jo Baker
So we have had Jane Austen meet zombies, and now something perhaps even more reprehensible – social realism. This is a world where people slip up in hogshit, where rain pisses it down, and if the weekly routine washday is bad, you should try it when five Bennet daughters have their coinciding periods. Sarah is in the middle of all this, trying to do her share of the housework with one hand at times, lest pus from her blisters get on the linen, or her callouses crack open. But why can she not get her feelings about James, the new mysterious footman fresh from who-knows-where, straight in her head, and why is her heart turned by the mulatto servant of the Bingleys up at Netherfield? Full review...
Beneath an Irish Sky by Isabella Connor
In a hospital ward, Luke Kiernan is stirring from a tranquiliser-induced sleep following a serious car accident. His ribs and legs hurt and he has an awful feeling that his mother is dead. But who is that stranger sitting beside the bed? Surely it can’t be his father, the father who pushed his mother away twenty years ago because he was ashamed to have a gypo kid around? Luke wants answers. But more than that, he wants revenge. Full review...
