To the marketing department at Picador, The Sealed Letter must have seemed one of those rare things in publishing – a sure thing. Building upon author Emma Donoghue’s critical and financial success with Room, The Sealed Letter purports to take the idea of ‘high concept’ fiction to the next level, […]

There are certain things one should never do if you’re a literary character. Top of the list tends to be not taking shortcuts through the woods. Little Red Riding Hood learned this lesson the hard way, and in Adam Nevill’s novel The Ritual, a group of four hikers must learn […]

Before I begin this review proper, I feel I should give something of a fair warning to those of you who haven’t yet succumbed to the puzzley delights of S.J. Watson’s debut novel Before I Go To Sleep. While I’ll do my best to keep major spoilers to a minimum, […]

There are many ways one could start a review of Tea Obreht’s Orange Prize winning debut, the majority of which would use a cheap joke in one way or another (she’s earned her stripes, it’s ggrreat!, I’d hate to be sitting on the Groom’s side at that wedding etc., etc.,). […]

Experimental novels are often given something of a free pass when it comes to literary criticism. After all, who wants to stick their head above the parapet and point out the grating flaws of such a book if they face the ultimate put down from the country’s literati – that […]

It’s impossible to review a new crime book by a Scandinavian author without making comparisons to Stieg Larsson’s behemoth of modern literature. However such comparisons are generally unfair, as Larsson’s trilogy subverts the genre to such an extent that it can’t really be described as crime. Traditional crime novels pit […]