Paranormal / Fantasy / Sci Fi Archives

Book review: Whistle by Linwood Barclay

December 20, 20252 min read

Whistle by Linwood Barclay dips into the supernatural / horror genres which I don’t usually read. I didn’t realise it when I bought it at the local second-hand bookstore and might not have picked it up had I realised. It’s interesting as I used to love Stephen King back in the 1990s and wasn’t bothered by the unexplainable, but nowadays I need my baddies (antagonists) to be soused in realism – albeit with sociopathic, psychopathic or vengeful tendencies. However… I’ve not got a lot of reading fodder at the moment so I hung in there, which was easy enough to do as Barclay boxes this book into separate segments and timelines following a scene-setting prologue.

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Book review: Framed in Death by JD Robb

December 9, 20252 min read

Framed in Death by JD Robb was a score from a local second hand book store. Although I was a religious reader of the series I haven’t received a lot of recent In Death books for review so my reading (from book 53 and on) has been a bit hit and miss. So I was surprised to stumble over Robb’s very-recent 2025 offering. I always find it fascinating what Robb (Nora Roberts) envisages for our future… some of the books’ inclusions have already come to life (AI etc) but others (flying cars, off-planet prisons)… not yet. Though of course we do have 30+ years to catch up.

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Book review: Bonded in Death by JD Robb

December 11, 20242 min read

Bonded in Death by JD Robb opens with a prologue set in 2026 as the Urban Wars neared their conclusion… which started a few years earlier (ie about now in JD Robb / Nora Roberts’s world so let’s hope she’s not psychic). We don’t spend much time in the past however before moving to the present (40 years later) in Robb’s futuristic series. And for those who’ve been following the series for a long time, it’s pretty easy to guess that this book will hit close-to-home for NYPD cop Eve Dallas and her mega-wealthy husband Roarke… given their majordomo-cum-father-figure-to-Roarke (Summerset) often talks about his work with the Resistance during the Urban Wars.

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Book review: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

November 10, 20243 min read

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig was always going to be a gamble for me. I loved The Midnight Library but generally dislike fantasy and avoid books featuring paranormal and mystical stuff. I adore Haig’s writing but unfollowed him on Twitter years ago because I couldn’t stand the preachy positivity*. Although I suspect that’s an indication that I’m Haig’s ideal target audience. I marked line after line. Paragraph after paragraph here. There was so much I could relate to. I hate the ‘woo woo’ stuff* but much of this is fucking profound. Haig is so frickin’ insightful in his writing I wonder if he’s found himself a ‘La Presencia’. Or perhaps just psychedelic-induced enlightenment that allows him to be so connected with his surroundings and himself?

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Book review: If It Bleeds by Stephen King

May 3, 20203 min read

I don’t read short stories. And yes I know, it’s weird and makes no sense. However as I launched into Stephen King’s newest release If It Bleeds, I was reminded that much of his early work, that I loved, were (in fact) short stories.

The title’s namesake, If It Bleeds, is in fact possibly almost a novella and is a sequel to The Outsider. It’s complemented by three other shorter stories and I actually… preferred a couple of those as I’m not a huge fan of the fantasy / horror genre. Twisty yes, but I’m a lover of logic so I like trying to wrap my head around something mysterious or even mind-bending, rather than fantastical. If that makes sense.

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Book review: The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen

October 1, 20193 min read

So… it has to be said, The Shape of Night is quite a departure from the Tess Gerritsen novel I was expecting.

It dips into gothic otherworldly ghostly stuff which is a genre I don’t read and struggle to engage (with), so I confess my review is tainted by that. I did, however, finish the book which I guess says something about the fact that I realised there was some good ol’ crime fiction buried in there and wanted some sort of closure for our flawed but likeable protagonist.

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Book review: The Institute by Stephen King

September 24, 20193 min read

The first part of this book introduces us to one of our narrators and lead characters. Interestingly it doesn’t touch on ‘the institute’ at all. I’d read the backcover blurb and wondered what on earth disgraced-but-heroic cop Tim Jamieson had to do with gifted kids being kidnapped in Maine but Stephen King is such a masterful storyteller I didn’t really care. I was happy to read about Tim hitch-hiking to DuPray, South Carolina and the people he met along the way, as well as the way he settled into the local community on his arrival.

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Book review: The Outsider by Stephen King

June 3, 20182 min read

Stephen King is a very gifted writer. I suspect I – and many others – have been distracted over the years by his plots and quirky / endearing / just pure evil characters… that it’s easy to forget how effortlessly engaging his writing can be.

It was something that struck me most in his new novel, The Outsider, which is predominantly centred around new character and local cop Ralph Anderson, although King later introduces Holly Gibney – who regular readers met in the Mr Mercedes / Finders Keepers / End of Watch series.

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