...something thrilling

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

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Bad Blood

A peek into the dark corners of Silicon Valley

Twenty-one-year-old Stanford drop-out Elizabeth Holmes had a game changing idea for the health care industry, a steely determination and seductive powers of persuasion; she also had an execution problem and questionable ethics. In Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, an investigative journalist at The Wall Street Journal, we get the shocking story of Theranos, the largest health care start-up fraud in recent history. A page turning real-life thriller which has been turned into the highest-grossing US documentary in 15 years just two weeks after it’s release. Read it now, before the rest of the world does.

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The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

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The Big Sleep

The original whiskey drinking sleuth

The cynical, whiskey drinking, mac-wearing sleuth Philip Marlow is one of crime literature’s most enduring characters. Written in 1936, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler has stood the test of time despite a dash of homophobia and sexism which, today, seem so outlandish it just makes you laugh. The story involves the wealthy General Sternwood, his spoilt, unruly daughters Carmen and Vivian, and blackmail. Chandler was in a league of his own when it came to astute observations of people and places and it’s this that sets The Big Sleep apart from so many others in the genre.

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Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley

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Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel

Miss Marple is back on the case

2026 marks fifty years since the death of Dame Agatha Christie and the posthumous publication of her last Miss Marple detective story. Since then the legendary Jane Marple has been portrayed countless times on screen and stage, knitting needles click-clacking as the imperturbable elderly sleuth solves yet another crime. Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel by Lucy Foley is the first Marple continuation novel. On holiday in a luxury hotel in the Swiss alps, Marple steps in when a fellow guest is murdered. Written with wit and élan, abuzz with drama and red herrings, Foley’s first Marple outing is the perfect weekend sofa read.

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London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

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London Falling

A visit to London's underworld

You might have heard about 19-year-old Zac Brettler’s death falling from a Thames luxury apartment block. Police ruled it to be suicide – MI6 surveillance cameras from across the Thames showed he jumped. Zac’s parents were not so sure. Determined to find out what happened and with the help of an investigative journalist, they start digging. What they unearth will leave you gobsmacked. London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe is a gripping non-fiction book: well-researched, well-written, an almost unbelievable story and, ultimately, deeply sad.

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Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett

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Skin Lane

Repression and desire in bygone London

Legend has it that 1967 was a marvellous year for London’s most swinging residents, whether it be getting stoned in Hyde Park or parking their Minis in the city’s first multi-storey car park. Boho glamour for some, but a decidedly post-war landscape for everyone else, exuding a greyness and reserve left over from the austerity years. In Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett, we’re transported to a furrier’s workshop just off Garlick Hill, EC4. Here we meet the outwardly dull and fastidious Mr F, the man the 1960’s forgot, whose hidden desires are set to ignite a nightmare of rage and shame.

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Bad Nature by Ariel Courage

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Bad Nature

Bold, bizarre debut novel of revenge and resistance

Possessed of a murderous streak, Hester has always known that one day she’ll kill her father. When her 40th birthday is marked by an oncologist’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, she decides to walk away from her outwardly successful life and take a road trip to California: final destination Dad’s house, to deliver a bullet to his treacherous brain. In the fabulous debut, Bad Nature by Ariel Courage, we join Hester on a chaotic journey, accompanied by hitchhiking eco-activist, John, a man intent on saving the world while Hester turns a blind and indifferent eye. Read full Review

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

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Victorian Psycho

An outrageous unravelling

For those with a deliciously dark sense of humour and a taste for the macabre, Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito is an unmissable treat. Set in 19th-century England, this is the tale of Miss Winifred Notty, both demure governess and vengeful murderess. Arriving at her new placement with the well-to-do Pounds family, Winifred tells us that in three months time everyone in the house will be dead. Cue a journey into the mind of  a female psychopath in a cleverly parodic novel that borrows brilliantly from Victorian literature (with a nod to Charles Dickens, in particular). This sensationally cinematic book is already in the Hollywood movie pipeline.

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Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd

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Gabriel’s Moon

A useful idiot

In Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd a trip to Congo and an unexpected interview with the president throws travel writer Gabriel Dax into a maelstrom of espionage and counterespionage.  Congo’s president is assassinated soon after the interview and Gabriel possesses, unknowingly, information that reveal the perpetrator and the sinister geo-political game that lies behind. For reasons I can’t explain, I’ve never read anything by William Boyd. It’s clearly been my loss.

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The Pledge by Freidrich Dürrenmatt

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The Pledge

An eerie crime novel with a twist

I have to confess to not being a big consumer (or fan) of crime fiction (perhaps I just haven’t read enough good ones), but this intense and eerie little book got the better of me. Written in the 1950s, The Pledge by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, a Swiss dramatist and novelist, is a crime novel with a twist designed to challenge the formulaic (according to Dürrenmatt) nature of the genre.

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O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker

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O Caledonia

Gloriously dark outsider tale

In surely one of the most captivating opening scenes in British literature, O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker, takes us to the vaulted hall of a remote Scottish castle. Here, in a crumpled heap on the flagstones, beneath a tall stained-glass window, lies sixteen-year-old Janet, dressed in her mother’s black lace evening dress, and covered in blood. Unloved and misunderstood in life, she has met a ‘murderous death.’ Moonlight filtering through the stained-glass picks out the legend Moriens sed Invictus; dying but unconquered. In Barker’s glorious and darkly funny portrayal of an outsider heroine’s short and intense life, the truth of this proves undeniable.

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