There must be thousands of takes on the Arthurian legend by now, from Thomas Mallory to Rosemary Sutcliff; TV’s Arthur of the Britons to Merlin; Camelot 3000, The Kid Who Would Be King, books, graphic novels, musicals, movies, plays, poems…the list goes on and on. Sophie Keetch’s Morgan is My Name is one of the…
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Review: Dream Weaver by Steven Paulsen
I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the history of Central Asia in the last few months. One book on the period in which 19th Century UK and Russia played their ‘Great Game’ (and with countless lives) in the battle for borders and supremacy led to another, then another and thence down the rabbit…
Read moreReview: The Whitewash by Siang Lu
Siang Lu’s delightfully satire, The Whitewash, is part entertainment essay on the history of Asian cinema and the Hollywood beast, part farce about the spectacular failure of a breakthrough, big budget Asian-led extravaganza, part love letter to Asian cinema and even part (a small part) romance – and the whole package is fabulous, snarky fun….
Read moreNews and reviews: “The Only One in the World”
Over the last few months I’ve been chatting all over the place about The Only One in the World – and I’m utterly delighted and proud of the work of its contributors, and mine in pulling the book together, and of Clan Destine Press for taking on the pitch and guiding its literary birth! CDP’s…
Read moreReview: The Schoolgirl Strangler by Katherine Kovacic
Katherine Kovacic has proven herself an excellent crime writer, beginning with her debut, The Portrait of Molly Dean (a fictionalised take on the real 1930 Melbourne murder of 25-year-old Dean) and its sequel, the wholly fictional Painting in the Shadows (featuring the same art historian dealer/sleuth Alex Clayton). With The Schoolgirl Strangler, Kovacic takes on…
Read moreReview: Inheritance of Secrets by Sonya Bates
Inheritance of Secrets opens with its narrator, Juliet, in the Adelaide morgue to identify the bodies of her viciously murdered grandparents, Karl and Grete Weiss. It’s the great and terrible blow that cracks her life wide and fills it with doubt, grief, fear and danger. As she and her estranged sister Lily try to understand…
Read moreReview: The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey
It’s 1922 and Perveen Mistry, a lawyer from Bombay, has been called to the kingdom of Satapur to help resolve a conflict about an underage maharajah’s education. Jiva Rao’s mother and grandmother disagree bitterly on the best choice and as they’re observing purdah, Perveen, a woman, is the only lawyer who can visit them. Along…
Read moreReview: The Sugared Game by KJ Charles
I discovered KJ Charles in March 2019 – a friend had raved about The Henchmen of Zenda, and when someone whose taste in books allies very closely to your own, you listen to their raves. I actually began with a few other books first, but five books later I was ready to be a lifelong…
Read moreReview: Octavius and the Perfect Governess by Emily Larkin
Emily Larkin has released a new book in her wonderful Regency-era Baleful Godmother series, and is taking the series in a new direction after a series of short stories called the Pryor Prequels. The series began when a woman and her three daughters save a faerie child from drowning. It’s fae mother rewards them with…
Read moreReview: Ghost Story by GV Pearce
The latest book from Improbable Press gives us a piquant blend of love story, character study and spoooookiness. This Holmes/Watson tale has an original contemporary London/York setting and opens with John and Sherlock, married for several months now, on what ought to be a belated honeymoon but which John knows to be a case –…
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