JAMES by Percival Everett

JAMES Percival Everett Mantle (panmacmillan.com) £20.00 Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop In mid-19th century Missouri, Jim is a slave owned by Miss Watson, a man who often finds himself the butt of the jokes of local boys Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. When Jim hears a rumour that he is to be […]

THE AXE WOMAN by Håkan Nesser

THE AXE WOMAN Håkan Nesser (nesser.se) Translated by Sarah Death Mantle (panmacmillan.com) £18.99 Inspector Gunnar Barbarotti returns to work following the sudden death of his wife as they slept in bed together. In order to ease him back into things, his boss hands him a cold case file and asks him to investigate: a man […]

THE SEARCHER by Chris Morgan Jones

THE SEARCHER Chris Morgan Jones (www.chrismorganjones.com) Mantle (www.panmacmillan.com) £16.99 Isaac Hammer’s world seems to be falling down around him. The offices of his intelligence agency, Ikertu, have been raided by the police, and Ike himself has been arrested. The charge? Obtaining information by illegal means: hacking and phone tapping. But this isn’t Ike’s style, and […]

The 2015 Round-Up

As 2015 draws to a close, it’s time to take a step back and reflect on the year that has been. As is now “traditional”, I’ll be using this post to talk about my favourite books of the year, but first a quick blast through some of the non-bookish stuff that happened in the past […]

EVERY NIGHT I DREAM OF HELL by Malcolm Mackay

EVERY NIGHT I DREAM OF HELL Malcolm Mackay Mantle (www.panmacmillan.com) £12.99 Nate Colgan is a name feared throughout the Glasgow underworld. Now, as “security consultant” for the Jamieson organisation, he has the heft to back up the reputation. Nate’s new job coincides with the murder of one of the members of the Jamieson lower echelon; […]

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 […]

THE AXEMAN’S JAZZ by Ray Celestin

THE AXEMAN’S JAZZ Ray Celestin Mantle (www.panmacmillan.com) £16.99 New Orleans, May 1919. A man, styling himself the Axeman, has already brutally murdered six people, leaving tarot cards by their mutilated bodies, and has sent a letter to the Times-Picayune promising more in the future. Independently of each other, three people – Detective Lieutenant Michael Talbot; […]

THE INVESTIGATION by Jung-Myung Lee

THE INVESTIGATION Jung-Myung Lee Translated by Chi-Young Kim (www.chiyoungkim.com) Mantle (www.panmacmillan.com) £16.99 Fukuoka Prison, shortly after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour, is used for the incarceration of, amongst others, dissidents and those of anti-Japanese tendencies. For the most part , these people are Koreans, a race whose language has been outlawed and whose culture […]

THE BLACK-EYED BLONDE by Benjamin Black

THE BLACK-EYED BLONDE Benjamin Black (www.benjaminblackbooks.com) Mantle (www.panmacmillan.com) £16.99 It seems like a straightforward case: Nico Peterson, the boyfriend of Philip Marlowe’s married client, has disappeared. It’s a scenario Marlowe has investigated often and it usually means the boyfriend has wanted to end the affair and decided disappearing might be an easier option than going […]

THE WIND IS NOT A RIVER by Brian Payton

THE WIND IS NOT A RIVER Brian Payton (brianpayton.com) Mantle (www.panmacmillan.com) £16.99 John Easley, a reporter for the National Geographic is ejected – along with every other journalist in the region – from the Aleutian Islands when the Japanese make their first incursion onto American soil. When his brother, a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, […]