MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Crime fiction
Reviews of The Lady Thrillers, How to Betray Your Country by James Wolff, Hellyer's Coup by Philip Prowse and The April Dead by Alan Parks
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
THE launch of Crimeucopia, a series of themed paperback anthologies, is a promising development for British crime fiction, especially for those who treasure the purest form of the genre, the short story.
The first quarterly issue is a women-only volume subtitled The Lady Thrillers (Murderous Ink Press, £8.99), featuring 16 women writers from various countries and of varying styles.
At the start of How to Betray Your Country by James Wolff (Bitter Lemon, £8.99), August Drummond has been sacked by MI5 and his wife has died in an accident.
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