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March 1941. Joseph Gunner is back on the streets of Glasgow after being wounded on the front lines in France. Keeping the pain in his leg at bay with the help of morphine, Gunner, a former detective, is hoping to lie low as the Luftwaffe begins bombing Glasgow. But when he runs into his old boss Drummond, he is persuaded to help examine a body found in the wreckage. When it turns out to be that…

A Hollywood idol. The Virgin Mary. An everyday girl from Hull. Three women, three eras, surprising things in common… On 4th August 1962, the night she should have died, Marilyn Monroe – the biggest star in the world – receives a visitor who changes the course of her destiny. The Virgin Mary appears in her kitchen with a curious message. Inspired, Marilyn abandons her home, her life, her fame,…

Ah, it’s that time of year again. The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Longlist 2026 is out. I’ve read half of the 18 books on the list so far this year, and enjoyed them all. I bought 8 out of the nine myself, and only one was a proof copy. Here’s the ones I’ve read: The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani is a strong contender for me. A layered, complex exploration of a dark mind…

Ello my little book-loving nuggets! I was on holiday last week. We went to the Yorkshire coast and it was dreadful. I mean, just look at it. clouding over, I see Also got a load of reading done, and I know how much you lot love a good book roundup (yes, I know I’ve still not done April’s yet, been on holiday innit). Somehow I managed to get through six books last week. And they were all…

In modern day Vienna, city of spies, American Sterling Lockwood is the loyal Concierge & Keeper of Secrets at the infamous Hotel Orient, a love hotel where cameras are banned, aliases are required, and every guest has a secret. After the double murder of two guests, including a tech mogul building an Austrian surveillance state, Sterling has to turn detective. But finding the truth will require…

Canada, 1898. The Gold Rush is on in the frozen wilderness of the Yukon. Fortunes are made as quickly as they’re lost, and Dawson City has become a lawless settlement. In its midst, three women are trying to find their place on the edge of civilisation. Journalist Kate, along with her dog Yukon, has travelled hundreds of miles after receiving a letter from her sister warning that her husband…

When Hop awakens in an ancient labyrinth, he has no memory of his life, or how he got here. He does not recognise the mysterious girl trapped with him. And he certainly cannot identify the shadowy figure stalking him, whispering terrible things… But there is one thing he is certain of: He must escape. The only way out of the labyrinth is through The Bone Door. But it lies behind a series of…

Irody Hasp is a Mortedant, a cleric tasked with reading the last thoughts of the dead—though no one thanks him for it. No Mortedant is popular, but Irody is scarcely tolerated even by the other members of his own guild, and rarely selected for anything but the lowliest of jobs. This impoverished existence would be dismal enough—but after reading the corpse of a low-level records keeper, Irody’s…

Source: review copy Published by Harvill, April 2026 Every place has its ghosts. Edenscar, a town in the Peak District, has more than most. 17 years ago, its inhabitants were hit by tragedy when a school bus veered off the road and everyone on board drowned. Everyone, that is, except Joseph Ashe. His miraculous survival has haunted him and the town ever since. Now a Detective Sergeant in the…

A waiter’s job is to deceive you. They want you to believe in a luxurious calm because on the other side of that door . . . is hell. Edward Chisholm’s spellbinding memoir of his time as a Parisian waiter takes you beneath the surface of one of the most iconic cities in the world—and right into its glorious underbelly. He inhabits a world of inhuman hours, snatched sleep and dive bars; scraping by…

A road trip across America with her teenage daughter was meant to be much-needed bonding time for Simone before Lucy leaves home for university.But on the first night of their stay, in a cabin deep in the Texan desert, Simone wakes to find Lucy missing and a mobile phone in her place. The phone rings and the voice on the other end issues instructions: Don’t tell the police. Come to this location.…

Three months ago, a bunch of twelve-year-olds saved the world. Now they’re stuck investigating a talking hamster. After everything they’ve been through, they expected grander mysteries, higher stakes, something legendary. Instead, they’re bored, restless and growing apart … until someone breaks into the British Museum. An ancient artifact has been stolen, and they’re framed for the crime. With…

Hello my little book loving chums! We’ve made it to April (well done) so it’s time to look back over the books of March. Not as many books read as in previous months, but it’s quality over quantity, innit? Kicking things off with an advance copy of David Goodman’s Solitary Agents, which I reviewed here. It’s really really good. Properly tense, fantastic characters, some absolutely superb…

Solitary Agents, by David Goodman Source: Advance ebook copy, Headline Published: June 2026 Jamie Tulloch and Sam Li never intended to be spies. Jamie, a former exec at a tech company, found himself caught up in a mission and discovered a taste for the secret world while Sam, a burnt-out corporate lawyer, was unexpectedly talent spotted by MI5. When both are plunged into covert training, they…

Hello my little book loving chums! We made it through February and onto some hopefully warmer and sunnier days. Eight books read this month, which is pretty good by my standards. However, we mustn’t get held up about numbers – any books read is a good amount! Ready? Let’s go. I started the month with The Death of Us by Abigail Dean, who I saw at the fabulous Stockport Noir in January. There…

Finally approaching the end of January, which feels like it’s been going on FOREVER. The plus side of which is that I’ve got a lot of reading done! Eleven books is a lot, even for me, though it was helped by being struck down with an awful cold and confined to bed for four days at the start of the month! A kind reader commented that they ‘appreciate the brevity of your descriptions while still…