My Review (5 stars out of 5) Striving to avoid his debts, Tom Ripley is given an opportunity when a businessman offers him a free trip to Europe to track down the man’s errant offspring. With money in his pocket and a talent for forgery, Ripley sets out to create a new life for himself…
Category: Classic
‘Rosemary’s Baby’ by Ira Levin
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Rosemary and actor-husband, Guy, are desperate to move out of their one-room bachelor pad when they hear about an apartment in the Bramford. The old New York City building might have a worrying reputation and a tenant list that seems only to include ‘mature’ residents, but the couple…
‘Brighton Rock’ by Graham Greene
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In pre-war Brighton, a gang war propels seventeen-year-old Pinkie to lead his clan in a bid to take over from rival gangster Colleoni. Having killed a man for betraying the gang, Pinkie is unaware his victim had already made contact with Ida, a bright and bubbly woman, who,…
‘Shane’ by Jack Schaefer
My Review (5 stars out of 5) A stranger known only as Shane rides into the lives of the Starrett family – homesteaders struggling to keep their small farm from being taken over by rancher Fletcher. Told from the point of view of the Starrett’s son, we see how Shane’s influence changes the lives of…
‘The Chinese Keyhole’ by Richard Himmel
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Following the murder of his pal, Tom, lawyer Johnny Maguire decides to check out a Chinatown strip joint. With not much to go on, he ingratiates himself with one of the club’s ‘stars’ in the hope she might let slip information about the place being used as a…
‘Strangers on a Train’ by Patricia Highsmith
**** On a train journey to meet up with his flirtatious wife in the hope of her agreeing to a divorce, Guy Haines falls into conversation with another passenger, Charles Bruno. Bruno is an odd man whose interest in Guy unearths deep-seated uneasiness about the task Guy hopes to accomplish. Bruno, however, has an idea…
‘Ghost Story’ by Peter Straub
***** The elderly members of The Chowder Society meet regularly to tell each other stories, but after one of their number dies, the stories become more ghoulish in nature. More disturbingly, each of the remaining members begins to experience similar, nightmarish, dreams. Contacting the nephew of their dead friend, they find he also has something…
‘Pietr the Latvian’ by Georges Simenon
**** Georges Simenon’s first outing with his Parisian detective follows the pipe-smoking investigator round the seamier side of the city, as he attempts to track down master criminal, Pietr the Latvian. My first impressions of this book were that either Simeonon was a really crap writer, or that the translation is at fault, my reasoning…
‘Lucky Jim’ by Kingsley Amis
**** Lecturer Jim Dixon’s future in the History Department looks set to blossom, so long as he can forestall the amorous advances of Margaret, while trying to stay on the right side of Professor Welch and his annoying family. But getting lumbered with delivering a lecture on Merrie England isn’t Jim’s only problem… This edition…
‘Fog of Doubt’ by Christianna Brand
***** When Belgian paramour Raoul Vernet is found with his head bashed in on the night of a particularly dense fog, suspicion naturally falls on members of the house he was visiting at the time. While no-one appears to have been in the immediate vicinity when Vernet was killed, Inspector Charlesworth is certain someone in…
Colin Garrow 