CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
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Crime fiction with Mat Coward
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A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
New releases from Javon Jackson, IZE Trio, and Mal Waldron Trio
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself
EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
FIVE DECEMBERS by James Kestrel (Hard Case Crime, £16.99) starts in Honolulu, in December 1941, with police detective Joe McGrady investigating a murder.
Following a lead takes him abroad, as a result of which he’s not at home when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour takes place. Instead, he’s somewhere even worse.
Through three countries, and through a world war as well as its preamble and its epilogue, Joe keeps his murder investigation alive — and in the darkest of days, it keeps him alive too.
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