Blacktop Wasteland was a book that got so much hype around its release that I do what I normally do, I buy a copy and keep it on my shelf and that that saintly dust settle before I dive into it – because as I’ve grown to appreciate over the years, sometimes the hype surrounding
Here’s an interesting premise for a thriller: three students are brutally attacked and lynched by a mob in the Nigerian university town of Okriki. Everybody knows who did it – the whole thing was captured on social media – but nobody knows why. Dr Philip Taiwo, a psychologist and expert on the behaviour of crowds,
A huge thank you goes out to Well Read Beard – why have you not subscribed to his YouTube channel yet, you are missing a trick. So I’ve made it easier for you, just click here and have your mind opened to a whole host of indie writers you’ve not heard of but need to
I have to say that I’m not a huge crime fan, I’ve read my fare share of books in this field but it’s a genre that doesn’t really excite me, that was until I discovered John Bowie’s first book Untethered (review can be read at the bottom of this post) part one of the Black
Detective Sergeant Frankie Sheehan is back, and investigating the disappearance of a Woman in a quiet village outside Dublin. Surrounded by her strong and trustworthy team including Baz and a few, not so familiar local constabulary. A great start to this thriller; you are immersed immediately into the life of Frankie, getting on with life
I’ve not read Alicia Hilton’s work before but after this short outing in Demain Publishing’s ‘Short Sharp Shocks!’ series this is something I am going to have to remedy – and double time. Hilton delivers two stunning short stories that are each beautifully woven together, the first, and the title story has us at the
‘All stories are ghost stories, about things lost, people, memories, home, passion, youth, about things struggling to be seen, to be accepted by the living.’ I’m not going to apologise for being a little quote heavy in this review of Sarah Jane by James Sallis, such is the beauty of the prose on every page.
First published in 1994, John Berendt’s account of the 1981 killing of 21-year-old Danny Hansford in the city of Savannah, Georgia by local antiques dealer Jim Williams, ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ received massive success on its debut, remaining a New York Times best-seller for over two hundred weeks. What made William’s
There is one thing that’s unshakeable about Irish culture and that’s our desire to tell stories. It’s not too much to say that in Ireland, writer or no, the ability to spin a good yarn is seen as a very favourable quality. And I grew up around some great storytellers. Some of my earliest childhood
You only need to look at the cover of this book to know it’s going to be a dark, gritty thriller. Set in Ireland, it has two stories running simultaneously. We start with a 17 year old crime. Sean Hennessey has just been released from prison after serving time for murdering his parents and attempting
