DENNIS BROE enjoys the political edge of a series that unmasks British imperialism, resonates with the present and has been buried by Disney
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Crime fiction round-up: August 16, 2019
Stephen King’s meditations plus Sherri Smith and Peter Lovesey’s fun thrillers and Sergio Olguin’s take on corruption in Buenos Aires
STEVE JOHNSON speaks to DJ and singer/songwriter Mark Radcliffe
JAMES WALSH takes advantage of an evening of comedy snippets to pick out which clowns will make it in Edinburgh
MAYER WAKEFIELD is swept up by the tale of the south London venue where music forged alliances across race, class and identity
MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds Rosamund Pike’s punchy and tragic portrayal of a multi-tasking mother and high court judge
FIONA O CONNOR recommends an unflinching depiction of child sexual abuse and its aftershocks, set in a working-class Liverpool family
AN unidentified man’s found dead on the beach of an island off the Maine coast in The Colorado Kid by Stephen King (Hard Case Crime, £7.99). Establishing who he is increases, instead of decreasing the baffling nature of his death and the days that preceded it.
Originally published in 2005, and out of print for years, this much admired puzzler is a very curious little book. It warns you from the start that the mysteries it presents will not be solved within its pages. Essentially a three-way conversation between two elderly, small-town newspapermen, and the young woman “from away” who is their cherished protege, it’s an open-ended meditation on mystery itself.
Why are humans drawn to mysteries? And what do we learn about ourselves from our reaction to those that remain unsolved? I found it bewitching, as many others have, but if you’re prone to frustration from whodunnits that don’t end properly, avoid it.
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A corrupted chemist, a Hampstead homosexual and finely observed class-conflict at The Bohemia
Beet likes warmth, who doesn’t, so attention to detail is required if you’re to succeed, writes MAT COWARD
