Title: Olivia Author: Dorothy Strachey Publisher: Vintage Classics Date: 2008 (1949) Genre: Fiction Summary: When Olivia turns sixteen she is sent to a Parisian finishing school to broaden her education. Soon after her arrival, she finds herself falling under the spell of her beautiful and charismatic teacher. But Madamoiselle Julie’s life is not as straightforward… Continue reading Book Review: Olivia by Dorothy Strachey
Title: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas Author: Agatha Christie Publisher: HarperCollins Date: 2013 (1938) Genre: Crime / Mystery Summary: It is Christmas Eve. The Lee family reunion is shattered by a deafening crash of furniture, followed by a high-pitched wailing scream. The tyrannical Simeon Lee has been murdered, and Hercule Poirot is called in to investigate. Christmas was over… Continue reading Book Review: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
Title: Appointment with DeathAuthor: Agatha ChristiePublisher: HarperCollinsDate: 2001 (1938)Genre: Crime / MysterySummary: Among the towering red cliffs of Petra, like some monstrous swollen Buddha, sat the corpse of Mrs Boynton. A tiny puncture mark on her wrist was the only sign of the fatal injection that had killed her. With only 24 hours available to solve the… Continue reading Book Review: Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
Title: Death on the NileAuthor: Agatha ChristiePublisher: HarperCollinsDate: 2014 (1937)Genre: Crime / MysterySummary: The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier… Continue reading Book Review: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Title: Gentlemen and PlayersAuthor: Joanne HarrisPublisher: Transworld Publishers LtdDate: 2006 (2005)Genre: Mystery / Psychological ThrillerSummary: For generations, privileged young men have attended St. Oswald’s Grammar School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric Classics teacher who has been a fixture there for more than thirty years. But this year the… Continue reading Book Review: Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris
Title: The Dangers of Smoking in BedAuthor: Mariana EnríquezTranslator: Megan McDowellPublisher: GrantaDate: 2021 (2009)Genre: Horror / Short storiesSummary: Welcome to Buenos Aires, a city thrumming with murderous intentions and morbid desires, where missing children come back from the dead and unearthed bones carry terrible curses. These brilliant, unsettling tales of revenge, witchcraft, fetishes, disappearances and urban madness… Continue reading Book Review: The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez
Title: The Garden Party and Other StoriesAuthor: Katherine MansfieldPublisher: Penguin English LibraryDate: 2002 (1922)Genre: Realism / Short storiesSummary: ‘They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it.’ A windless, warm day greets the Sheridan family on the day of their garden party. As daughter Laura takes the reins… Continue reading Book Review: The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield
Title: Dumb WitnessAuthor: Agatha ChristiePublisher: HarperCollinsDate: 2002 (1937)Genre: Crime / MysterySummary: Everyone blamed Emily’s accident on a rubber ball left on the stairs by her frisky terrier. But the more she thought about her fall, the more convinced she became that one of her relatives was trying to kill her. On April 17th she wrote her suspicions… Continue reading Book Review: Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
Title: MilkmanAuthor: Anna BurnsPublisher: Faber & FaberDate: 2018Genre: HistoricalSummary: In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to… Continue reading Book Review: Milkman by Anna Burns
Title: The Devil and the Dark WaterAuthor: Stuart TurtonPublisher: Raven BooksDate: 2021 (2020)Genre: Historical / Mystery Summary: It’s 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world’s greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is… Continue reading Book Review: The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
warm days will never cease 