Atlantic Monthly Press Archives

Book review: Papercut by Rachel Taff

January 27, 20263 min read

Papercut by Rachel Taff features a woman who found infamy as a teenager, committing murder to escape a cult. It’s a heavily textured read, set twenty years later as Lucy continues to ‘live off’ the proceeds of her memoir and appearances at ‘true crime’ events. She’s keeping secrets however, telling us she’s worried they’ll come out and Taff sets this up so readers are in suspense wondering what [those secrets] are or – in my case – how bad they may be, and being joined by Lucy (years later) discovering some she wasn’t aware of and twists we didn’t see coming.

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Book review: The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Done by Clare Stephens

October 18, 20253 min read

The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Done by Clare Stephens is a little outside of my crime fiction/thriller genre and I’m unsure if I requested the review copy but I’ve received so few (print / real) books lately I was keen to turn the pages of something tangible during my evening baths. And this, by the former Mama Mia editor-in-chief is certainly well-written, offering an insightful commentary on the online world today. Stephens knows that world and is well-placed to reflect on it… warts-n-all. In fact it means we get to go behind the scenes of the world of clickbait headlines and regurgitated stories featuring the royal family or B list celebrities.

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Book review: What the Night Brings by Mark Billingham

July 18, 20252 min read

What the Night Brings by Mark Billingham is the 19th in the series featuring Detective Tom Thorne (and Nicola Tanner). I was a latecomer to the series, kicking off with book #13 in 2015. I was relieved a few books ago when Tom broke up with this then girlfriend and fellow cop Helen and moved on with a new love interest. For reasons I now cannot remember I was not a fan of Helen. And wouldn’t you know it… he’s back with Helen here. A reunion I somehow did not share in my review of book #18 The Murder Book, though I didn’t bemoan the fact so maybe whatever irked me about her has dissipated a little. She’s left the police now so perhaps the career move has made her less-irksome in my eyes.

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Book review: The Red Queen by Martha Grimes

February 19, 20253 min read

The Red Queen by Martha Grimes only arrived in my NetGalley review folder Friday morning and I allowed it to leap-frog over EVERYTHING else and read it that night in a sitting. Martha Grimes’s Richard Jury / Melrose Plant series used to be my ultimate comfort read. Most of which I read pre-2014 before I started reviewing books on this site.

I used to say that if I could live in ONE book world it would be Melrose Plant’s Long Piddleton with the aristocrats who spend the day at the pub when when they’re not helping Scotland Yard Superintendent Richard Jury solve cases. I’ve always found it kinda fascinating that, though the series is quintessentially English (with each book named after a pub and many references English life), Grimes is American.

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Book review: The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham

July 23, 20242 min read

The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham is the second in the series featuring Declan Miller. I absolutely loved the first, The Last Dance, as Miller reminded me of wise-cracking gumshoes of the past. I adored Billingham (Declan’s) fairly manic thought processes, his snark and the random sharing of facts he imparts on everyone and anyone. We were introduced to a few other players in the first book, including his partner DS Sara Xiu (aka Posh because her surname sounds like jus… posh gravy) in addition to his bosses (one of whom is supportive) as well as other less-supportive colleagues, ballroom dancing friends and a couple of mobsters or may or may not have been involved in Dec’s wife murder. And then of course there’s Alex, his aforementioned wife with whom he continues to share his thoughts. Despite her being dead ‘n’ all.

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Book review: The Murder Book by Mark Billingham

August 13, 20222 min read

I was a latecomer to the DI Tom Thorne (and more recently Nicola Tanner) series but mentioned in earlier reviews that I disliked Tom’s previous love interest so was glad when they split. I’d forgotten he had a new partner here… and think it’s because Billingham took a break from the series last year to write the (very brilliant) Rabbit Hole.

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Book review: Cry Baby by Mark Billingham

August 13, 20202 min read

I’m a fan of Mark Billingham and Detective Tom Thorne. I read the sixteenth in the series (Their Little Secret) last year and assumed this would pick up where it left off. In fact, I didn’t read the backcover blurb at all before I started the book and found it a little strange that the series was set in the past and I didn’t remember that being the case.

I knew I disliked his partner or girlfriend and was relieved she seemed to be moving on; and here Tom’s separated from his wife. So it made sense but it didn’t. And, as it happens, there’s nothing in the book until the very end that references that this is a flashback of sorts*. It meant that I read the book amidst some puzzlement worrying that my memory was even worse than it is and that I’d just not remembered the books were set in the 1990s.

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Book review: How The Dead Speak by Val McDermid

September 4, 20194 min read

I try hard not to write reviews with spoilers. Or ones that give away too much of the plot. Of course it also means I sometimes re-read a review of a book before starting the next book of the series and – unless it’s ingrained into my mind for some reason – I rarely remember the detail.

So, given two years has passed since Val McDermid’s last Tony Hill / Carol Jordan novel Insidious Intent was published (and I can’t believe it’s that long!), I’d completely forgotten Tony had gone to jail. I can’t remember any of the specifics, but that’s kind-of a good thing as newcomers to the series won’t be lost, suddenly introduced to characters – many of whom have been around now for 11 novels (and 24 years).

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