Title: The Whistling Writer: Rebecca Netley Publishing House: Michael Joseph Date of Publication: October 14th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’As I neared Iskar, my eyes drifted to Hettie’s window, and something against the pane stopped me in my tracks. I pinned my attention to it and was assailed with a spike of disquiet. As I…
Tag: UK
Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales For Christmas Nights
Title: Haunters at the Hearth: Eerie Tales for Christmas Nights Writer: Various edited by Tanya Kirk Publishing House: British Library (Tales of the Weird) Date of Publication: October 2022 Rating: 5 stars ”There was a little snow on the ground, and the church clock had just struck midnight. Hampstead in the night of winter for…
Ghosts of Christmas Past
Title: Ghosts of Christmas Past Writer: Various edited by Tim Martin Publishing House: John Murray Date of Publication: October 19th 2017 Rating: 5 stars ”And what a long night it is, out there beyond the warm rooms and the firelight. Don’t worry about the noises. Ignore the moving shapes. It’s time to step out. Turn…
Hare House
Title: Hare House Writer: Sally Hinchcliffe Publishing House: Mantle Date of Publication: January 6th 2022 Rating: 5 stars ‘’We walked through a landscape bleached with frost, the earth standing hard and frozen. Ice crept everywhere. Even the streams had begun to freeze, ice fingering out from their edges, tombing them over. Yet the cold left…
The Doll: Short Stories
Title: The Doll: Short Stories Writer: Daphne du Maurier Publishing House: Virago Modern Classics Date of Publication: 2011 Rating: 5 stars ”There was only the island. Beyond it lay the ghostly, the intangible; the truth was in the seared rock, in the touch of the soil, in the sound of the waves breaking against the…
Checkmate to Murder
Title: Checkmate to Murder Writer: E.C.R.Lorac Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: August 10th 2020 (first published 1944) Rating: 5 stars As London descends into the familiar darkness of war, a man of questionable morality is murdered. The fog cannot hide the frightened young man who is arrested for the murder of his…
Murder of a Lady
Title: Murder of a Lady Writer: Anthony Wynne Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: January 4th 2016 (first published 1931) Rating: 5 stars ”Autumn was dressing herself in her scarlets and saffrons; already the air held that magical quality of light which belongs only to diminishing days and which seems to be…
Death of a Bookseller
Title: Death of a Bookseller Writer: Bernard J. Farmer Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: March 17th 2022 (first published 1931) Rating: 5 stars A book collector is found murdered in his study, surrounded by valuable volumes. His friend, Sergeant Wigan, helps in arresting the alleged murderer. But what if the wrong…
Α Little London Scandal
Title: A Little London Scandal Writer: Miranda Emmerson Publishing House: Fourth Estate Date of Publication: August 6th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’And I know I don’t really fit in but someone has to ask the questions.’’ Anna Treadway embarks on a quest in what many consider the ‘’shady’’ parts of London, to save a young…
Murder By The Book: Mysteries For Bibliophiles
Title: Murder By The Book: Mysteries For Bibliophiles Writer: Various, edited by Martin Edwards Publishing House: British Library Crimes Classics Date of Publication: August 10th 2021 Rating: 5 stars ‘’That’s our daily job, inventing stories; making a definite pattern of a number of incidents. Dammit, I could contrive some sort of story out of any…
Escape Routes
Title: Escape Routes Writer: Naomi Ishiguro Publishing House: Tinder Press Date of Publication: February 6th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’I can climb out on to the roof from the windows and see the whole metropolis stretched out before me, those hundreds of buildings – white, or grey, or black, depending on how filthy they are…
O Caledonia
Title: O Caledonia Writer: Elspeth Barker Publishing House: Weidenfeld Nicolson Date of Publication: March 29th 2022 (first published August 19th 1991) Rating: 5 stars ‘’At night, when the moon is high it beams through the dying cockatoo and casts his blood drops in a chain of rubies on to the flagstones of the hall. Here…
Serpents in Eden : Countryside Crimes
Title: Serpents in Eden Writer: Various, edited by Martin Edwards Publishing House: British Library Crime Classics Date of Publication: March 1st 2016 Rating: 5 stars ‘’It was a day of cloud, and the very air over the moors was grey, and the long waves of heather were dark as the black earth, the distant woodland…
Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars
Title: Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars Writer: Miranda Emmerson Publishing House: 4th Estate GB Date of Publication: August 2nd 2017 (first published February 28th 2017) Rating: 5 stars ‘’Everything can be given a price if someone chooses’, her mother said. ‘It doesn’t have to make sense to us, Anna. So little of the…
Weird Woods: Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain
Title: Weird Woods: Tales from the Haunted Forests of Britain Writer: Various edited by John Miller Publishing House: British Library Publishing Date of Publication: August 27th 2020 Rating: 5 stars ‘’These are the aspects of our experience of nature that cannot be offset; the history of a place cannot be traded off against the history…
The First Person and Other Stories
Title: The First Person and Other Stories Writer: Ali Smith Publishing House: Hamish Hamilton Ltd Date of Publication: January 2nd 2008 Rating: 5 stars ‘’Williams Carlos Williams says that the short story, which acts like the flare of a match struck in the dark, is the only real form for describing the briefness, the brokenness…
Western Isles Folk Tales
Title: Western Isles Folk Tales Writer: Ian Stephen Publishing House: The History Press Date of Publication: February 1st 2015 (first published October 15th 2014) Rating: 5 stars “Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls, Boils round the naked, melancholy isles Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.” Charlotte Bronté…
Water Shall Refuse Them
Title: Water Shall Refuse Them Writer: Lucie McKnight Hardy Publishing House: Dead Ink Date of Publication: July 4th 2019 Rating: 5 stars ‘’There’s a special time of day, when light is caught in limbo. Dusk: that time when the twilight dips to a level where light and dark start to merge, and everything takes on…
Τhe Shape of Darkness
Title:The Shape of Darkness Writer: Laura Purcell Publishing House: Raven Books Date of Publication: January 21st 2021 Rate: 5 stars ‘’Shadows flee across the cobbles and climb up walls. Agnes has spent her life studying them, but she has not appreciated their sheer number until tonight. She sees shadows thrown by a dancing flame, the…
Offshore
Title: Offshore Writer: Penelope Fitzgerald Publishing House: Fourth Estate Date of Publication: March 28th 2013 (first published 1979) Rating: 5 stars ‘’I can’t do the things that women can’t do,’ she said. ‘I can’t turn over The Times so that the pages lie flat, I can’t fold up a map in the right creases, I…
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