There Was a Country From the author of ‘Things Fall Apart’, ‘There Was a Country’ is Chinua Achebe’s long-awaited account of the significant experiences of his life, most notably during the Nigerian Civil War (or Biafran War). Charting one of the last century’s greatest humanitarian disasters, successful novelist Achebe recalls his observations as a spectator…
Month: July 2019
‘The Kraken Wakes’ by John Wyndham
The Kraken Wakes After a series of fireballs rain down from the sky, crash into the oceans of the world and ships begin sinking mysteriously, two journalists, who experience the strange phenomenon from aboard ship, relate the story of the alien ‘invasion’ and humankind’s struggle to survive. Though I’m a big fan of John Wyndham,…
‘The Invention of Murder’ by Judith Flanders
The Invention of Murder With its subtitle – ‘How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime’, this book traces the British public’s interest in murder as a sort of national entertainment. Though the book’s title clearly suggests we’re talking about the Victorian period (1837-1901), Ms Flanders begins her romp through the…
‘The Moving Target’ by Ross MacDonald
The Moving Target When millionaire Ralph Sampson goes missing, PI Lew Archer is called in to hunt him down before something really bad happens. The trail leads Archer all over Southern California, from sun-bleached canyons and sea-side beach houses to dodgy bars and even dodgier women. But is this case about money, sex or just…
Killer Pottery
Without the benefits of 20th-century technology, the faces of Victorian villains couldn’t be plastered all over the media, so how were their images and stories relayed to the general public? These days when a murder is discovered, the news hits the media in text, photos and on film, not to mention Facebook and Twitter. However,…
‘Beyond’ by Graham McNamee
Beyond Seventeen-year-old best friends Jane and Lexi aren’t typical teenagers. Known by their classmates as the Creep Sisters, they have a special ‘freakishness’ in common, but it’s Jane who has the upper hand on the truly weird – her shadow sometimes moves on its own, dragging her towards dangerous situations. Setting out to discover what…
‘Predators’ by Michaelbrent Collings
Predators Struggling to deal with an abusive relationship, Evie Childs hopes an African safari will make her life more bearable, but when the tour group she’s travelling with are kidnapped by freedom fighters, the experience she’d longed for turns into a terrifying ordeal. Threatened by guns and with no way of communicating their distress back…
Colin Garrow 