GEOFF BOTTOMS relishes a profoundly human portrait of a family as it evolves across 55 years in Sheffield
Fantasy and science fiction round-up
Reviews of the latest from Leigh Bardugo, Nina Allan, Mike Shackle and Simon Morden
Captivating: Nina Allan
[Diana Patient/United Agents]
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an excellently crafted new musical that explores the life and death of Ruth Ellis
PAUL DONOVAN is tickled by the excruciating take-downs of one of the funniest, wittiest, political writers around.
RON JACOBS points out, via a transcription of Kissinger’s secret recordings, that Trump could never have existed without Nixon and Kissinger
ELLIS RAE is persuaded that the advantages of the ‘talking cure’ are superior to the treatment of mental illness with drugs
JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
WE’VE all heard of the ultra-conservative, secret societies based at Yale University such as Skull and Bones. But what we didn’t know is that each of the eight “houses” specialises in a different type of sorcery, like using the entrails of homeless people to foretell movements on the stock market.
That at least is the premise of Leigh Bardugo’s fabulous fantasy novel Ninth House (Gollancz, £16.99).
In her version, the ninth of the societies polices a code of conduct intended to prevent the young aristos from getting completely out of control.
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Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall