IF IT BLEEDS by Stephen King

IF IT BLEEDS Stephen King (stephenking.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £20 We are living through strange – nay, unprecedented – times, and it has been said more than once that 2020 feels like we’re living through a Stephen King novel. As fans of post-apocalyptic fiction, we’ve lived through this scenario, through the escapism provided by […]

THE BURNING MEN by Will Shindler

THE BURNING MEN Will Shindler Hodder & Stoughon (hodder.co.uk) £16.99 When an ex-fireman is doused in accelerant and set alight at his wedding, Detective Inspector Alex Finn finds himself leading the investigation despite the fact that he shouldn’t even be working. The deceased paid for the lavish party out of his own pocket, and when […]

THE LAST HUNT by Deon Meyer

THE LAST HUNT Deon Meyer (www.deonmeyer.com) Translated by K.L. Seegers Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £19.99 Ex-cop Johnson Johnson’s body is found in the wilderness, beside a railway line days after he disappears from the world’s most luxurious train. Captains Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido, stars of South African police’s elite Hawks unit are assigned what […]

THE INSTITUTE by Stephen King

THE INSTITUTE Stephen King (stephenking.com) Hodder & Stoughton (hodder.co.uk) £20 Luke Ellis is twelve years old when he is abducted from his bed while his parents are murdered in theirs. When he awakes, he finds himself in a room that is almost exactly like his bedroom at home, but it doesn’t take Luke long to […]

NOT THAT I COULD TELL by Jessica Strawser

NOT THAT I COULD TELL Jessica Strawser (jessicastrawser.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £18.99 An intimate get-together in the back garden of a house in Yellow Springs, Ohio may seem inconspicuous – a group of friends and neighbours gathered together for drinks and gossip – but when one of the women and her twin children have […]

IT by Stephen King

IT Stephen King (stephenking.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £10.99 (he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts) In May 1985 six people receive a phone call from a friend they have long forgotten reminding them of an oath they swore when they were just eleven years old. The phone […]

HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

HEX Thomas Olde Heuvelt (www.oldeheuvelt.com) Translated by Nancy Forest-Flier (jimandnancyforest.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £16.99 The town of Black Spring lies on the banks of the Hudson River, close to the military academy at West Point. It looks like any other small town, but its residents are hiding a terrible secret from the rest of […]

The 2014 Round-Up

As another year draws to a close, it’s time for my annual retrospective of what’s gone on at Reader Dad. There’s a lot to cover this year, so without further ado… THE ROUND-UP As the reading year closes, I have read 65 books this year, more than every year except last year, but I had […]

A MAN LIES DREAMING by Lavie Tidhar

A MAN LIES DREAMING Lavie Tidhar (lavietidhar.wordpress.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £18.99 In another time and place, a man lies dreaming. National Socialism is routed at the 1933 elections by Communism, and its leadership exiled from Germany. Sentenced to a concentration camp, Adolf Hitler escapes and makes his way to London where, under his old […]

REVIVAL by Stephen King

REVIVAL Stephen King (stephenking.com) Hodder & Stoughton (www.hodder.co.uk) £20.00 That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons, even death may die. Aficionados of the horror genre will instantly recognise this couplet as the work of H.P. Lovecraft, an excerpt from his fictional Book of the Dead, the Necronomicon. Referenced in Stephen […]