STEVE ANDREW enjoys an account of the many communities that flourished independently of and in resistance to the empires of old
Latest editorial
Crime fiction
Reviews of the Cut by Chris Brookmyre, The Measure of Time by Gianrico Carofiglio, The Art of the Assassin by Kevin Sullivan and The Moment Before Impact by Alison Bruce
TOM STONE urges you to catch the last dates of a New York singer/songwriter, never afraid to challenge her audiences musically or politically
JAN WOOLF examines work that aims to give viewers a material experience of the environments in the polar north and Britain equally affected by the climate crisis
The bard recalls advice received 50 years ago from his TRB muse, and sorts out appropriate legislation for football club ownership
MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Facing War, Kontinental ’25, Bugonia, and Relay
MAYER WAKEFIELD is frustrated by a production of Ibsen’s classic study of an anti-heroine that fails to elucidate her motivations
PETER MASON tunes his ear into the domestic affairs of a Carribbean couple with a troublesome son
THE CUT (Little Brown, £18.99), possibly Chris Brookmyre’s most exciting and funniest thriller yet, features Millicent, who has spent 25 years in prison for murdering her lover, a charge which she still denies.
Released to live with friends of friends in Glasgow, she finds the world a strange place and her existence pointless. But a chance discovery gives just the hint of a possibility of figuring out why her boyfriend was killed.
Pre-jail, Millicent was a special effects expert working in horror films and was the best in the business. When her path crosses that of a horror-obsessed film student and reluctant part-time burglar, the result is a dangerous chase across Europe and through the world of the video — itself a much-maligned art form, in the view of the odd-couple protagonists.
Similar stories
Timeloop murder, trad family MomBomb, Sicilian crime pages and Craven praise
A heatwave, a crimewave, and weird bollocks in Aberdeen, Indiana horror, and the end of the American Dream
Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz
A no-nonsense ex-Garda female cop, Scandi-noir’s newest flawed hero, the lure of Aussie gold, and unexpected decency in Silicon valley