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GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power
Round-up 2016: Crime fiction with Mat Coward
Star columnists run through what’s impressed them this year
MIGUEL YOSHIDA explains the evolution and influence of the Cuban Casa De Las Americas in joining culture to the revolutionary struggle
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries
MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness
Flitting between myth and the modern world, Medusa is determined to steer clear of human affairs. When her resolve crumbles, the result is petrifying in every sense
WHEN I reviewed A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny (Sphere) earlier in the year, I suggested that it was “the sort of book you might want to save for Christmas” because this series, set largely in an isolated Quebecois village, is rich in snow, reunions, food and booze, neighbourly conviviality and other such seasonal themes.
Its satisfyingly complex mysteries do not exclusively involve criminal matters and all Penny’s books carry an elusive, haunting air of strangeness without ever quite setting foot outside the real world.
I wouldn’t want to give the impression that this is a “cosy,” however, because, as always, it sees retired Chief Inspector Gamache investigating violent death, corruption and the lasting consequences of cruelty.
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Conman conned in a twisty thriller, blind trust tested to the limit, cunning murder methods, and tip-top police procedural
DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
Do frozen colonists carry the virus of empire? Why is monstrosity a great way to describe capital? Was God a dustman?
Timeloop murder, trad family MomBomb, Sicilian crime pages and Craven praise