THE GIGANTIC BEARD THAT WAS EVIL by Stephen Collins

THE GIGANTIC BEARD THAT WAS EVIL Stephen Collins (www.stephencollinsillustration.com) Jonathan Cape (www.randomhouse.co.uk/…/jonathan-cape) £16.99 The island of Here is a place where order reigns supreme. ‘Tidy’ is the watchword, and everything follows pre-defined patterns, and no-one stands out. Across the sea is There, the complete opposite to Here, a place where chaos rules and nothing is […]

SAVE YOURSELF by Kelly Braffet

SAVE YOURSELF Kelly Braffet (www.kellybraffet.com) Corvus (atlantic-books.co.uk) £12.99 When Patrick Cusimano’s father kills a child while driving drunk, Patrick calls the police. The "right thing", morally, isn’t necessarily the right thing for the Cusimano family, and Patrick’s older brother Mike resents him for it. Layla and Verna Elshere are the daughters of a preacher; Layla […]

DOCTOR SLEEP by Stephen King

DOCTOR SLEEP Stephen King (www.stephenking.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £19.99 ‘Because that was then and this is now. Because the past is gone, even though it defines the present.’ Thirty-six years after the events described in The Shining, Dan Torrance – once Danny to most, and doc to those that mattered – is living in […]

THE SILENT WIFE by A.S.A. Harrison

THE SILENT WIFE A.S.A. Harrison (asaharrison.com) Headline (www.headline.co.uk) £12.99 Jodi and Todd have been together for over 20 years. Todd, a self-made man, is prone to dalliance while Jodi, a part-time psychologist, has always been happy to turn a blind eye in order to maintain the status quo. This time, things are different. This time […]

JOYLAND by Stephen King

JOYLAND Stephen King (www.stephenking.com) Titan Books / Hard Case Crime (titanbooks.com / http://www.hardcasecrime.com) £7.99 The safety bars came down with a clank, and a few girls tuned up with preparatory screams. Clearing their vocal chords for dark-ride arias to come, you might say. There was a jerk, and we rode into Horror House. Summer, 1973. […]

Hospital Reading Round-up, or: A Letter of Apology

Dear Reader, I hope you will forgive this break from the usual straightforward literary(?) criticism for this personal note to explain the relative quiet at Reader Dad of late, and to apologise to authors, publishers, publicists and potential readers for the lack of reviews written and published on the site since mid-February. Anyone who follows […]

THE FIRST BOOK OF CALAMITY LEEK by Paula Lichtarowicz

THE FIRST BOOK OF CALAMITY LEEK Paula Lichtarowicz Hutchinson (www.randomhouse.co.uk/…/hutchinson) £12.99 Calamity Leek is a teenage girl who lives, along with her many sisters, in a walled compound known as The Garden. Under the watchful, and more than a little demented, eye of their Aunty, the girls perform their daily chores and undertake their training […]

THE EXPLORER by James Smythe

THE EXPLORER James Smythe (james-smythe.com) Harper Voyager (www.harpercollins.co.uk/…/voyager/Pages/Voyager.aspx) £12.99 Released: 17 January 2013 My name is Cormac Easton. I am a journalist, and, I suppose, an astronaut. In the middle of the twenty-first century, man strives, once again, to further his knowledge. Turning once more to space, the vessel Ishiguro is launched, its purpose simple: […]

THE HUMAN PART by Kari Hotakainen

THE HUMAN PART Kari Hotakainen Translated by Owen F. Witesman (www.suomitranslation.com) MacLehose Press (maclehosepress.com) £14.99 Lieutenant Richard Guérin, the protagonist of Antonin Varenne’s Bed of Nails had a theory of interconnectedness that revolved around a red thread tied around the ankles of people who were linked in some way. It’s not until around three-quarters of […]

THE SEA ON FIRE by Howard Cunnell

THE SEA ON FIRE Howard Cunnell Picador (www.picador.com) £12.99 Kim is a man in his mid-thirties who has spent the vast majority of the latter half of his life travelling the world and diving some of its most beautiful spots. Nowadays he is living in Brixton with his wife and three daughters, the call of […]