My Review (4 stars out of 5) Holmes and Watson embark on a new case on behalf of a friend of their landlady, Mrs Hudson, when a young girl goes missing. Together with the ever-present Inspector Lestrade, they soon find themselves embroiled in a case of abduction and murder. There’s something comforting about settling down…
Category: Classic
‘The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ by Alan Sillitoe
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Thought to be a groundbreaking work on its first publication, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner is a collection of short stories describing the lives of working-class people in the Midlands during the fifties and sixties (the title story relating the thoughts of a Borstal boy who finds…
‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’ by Laurie Lee
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) Leaving his home in a Cotswolds village, Laurie Lee walked to London, earning a living as a labourer and busking in the streets with his violin. Yearning to travel, he set out for Spain, travelling from the northern to the southern coast… I never got around to…
‘A Dutiful Son’ by Kelly Miller
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Struggling to honour his father, Fitzwilliam Darcy is faced with a dilemma when the old man determines that Elizabeth Bennet is not the girl for his son. When Darcy’s sister Georgiana gets chummy with Elizabeth, Darcy hopes his father will recognise her qualities, but love and duty seem…
‘A Moveable Feast’ by Ernest Hemingway
My Review (5 stars out of 5) A Moveable Feast is Ernest Hemingway’s reflections on his early days as a writer in Paris, meeting other writers, struggling to sell his stories and often being short of money. Firstly, the paperback I bought has a different cover. It also does not contain the ‘personal foreword by…
‘Blue Lightning’ by Ann Cleeves
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Visiting his family on Fair Isle, Jimmy Perez and his girlfriend Fran are treated to a party to celebrate their engagement, but the celebrations don’t last long. One of the field centre workers is found with a knife in her back and bird feathers threaded into her hair.…
‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Kesey
My Review (5 stars out of 5) When new patient Randle McMurphy arrives on her ward, dictatorial Nurse Ratched is not about to let him disrupt her daily routine, or that of the other patients. But McMurphy aims to have fun and soon begins to persuade his fellow inmates to challenge the nurse and her…
‘Laidlaw’ by William McIlvanney
My Review (5 stars out of 5) The murder of a young woman in Kelvingrove Park brings rebel detective Jack Laidlaw onto the streets of Glasgow. Laidlaw’s unconventional approach unsettles his new sidekick but the pair gradually begin to track the killer down. Trouble is, the cops aren’t the only ones looking for justice… This…
‘Malice Aforethought’ by Francis Iles
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In the garden of Doctor and Mrs Bickleigh during the inter-war years, a tennis party brings together friends and neighbours. But socialising is not on the henpecked doctor’s mind. Instead, he has his sights on the young Gwynyfryd Rattery whose charms he hopes to surmount under the guise…
‘Carrie’ by Stephen King
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Unpopular teenager Carrie White is no ordinary girl and when a traumatic event unnerves her, she begins to harness the power inside her mind – telekinesis. When one of the girls who tormented her feels guilty, she persuades her boyfriend to ask Carrie out to the high school…
Colin Garrow 