ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Crime fiction with Mat Coward: September 24, 2024
Country house locked rooms, actuarial anomalies, murdered scientists and black-out disorientation
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
CABARET MACABRE by Tom Mead (Head of Zeus, £20) continues the 1930s-set adventures of stage illusionist turned amateur sleuth, Joseph Spector, and Inspector Flint of the Yard. This time they are each approached separately by two sides of a deadly vendetta. The wife of a notorious hanging judge wants Spector to investigate threats on his life, while the sister of a man detained in a lunatic asylum for a previous assault on M'lud tries to convince the inspector that the judge is planning a murder.
Working together, the two friends must solve a series of impossible crimes and locked-room mysteries to get at the truth — which inevitably is to be found in a country house, cut off from the world by a snowstorm.
As long as Mead can keep coming up with ideas for these fun, atmospheric stories, I'll keep reading them.
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While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
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The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
