The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney

(Audiobook read by Shelley Atkinson)

Reviewer: JJ Marsh

What we thought: You can see why this won the Bailey’s Prize.

McInerney has a skill with voice, but not just the one. This novel is populated by voices, personalities and characters, causing the reader to change her/his mind every chapter and make you care about every last one of them, even if they get on your nerves. By the end, it feels like this is your own extended, unruly, frustrating and loveable family.

The book is set in the city of Cork, Ireland. It’s big and small and complex and simple and sad and yes indeed, glorious.

There’s a dead man on the floor and someone has to clear up the mess. One body affects several lives. A criss-crossing series of connections mean that one accident has a ripple effect, disrupting some futures and dredging some pasts. Some stories make you laugh, others induce tears of frustration and impotence. And the chance meetings and coincidences, drawing every thread into the tapestry is beautiful and somehow inevitable.
A wonderful patchwork of stories connect to make a rich, emotionally arresting whole commentary on faith, beliefs and community, as if The Sopranos was set in Cork.

I listened to the audio version and Shelley Atkinson’s talented voice draws you into the story so effectively, you feel like more of a bystander than a reader.

A real treat.

You’ll enjoy this if you liked: The Works by Joseph Connolly, The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling or Inishowen by Joseph O’Connor

Avoid if you don’t like: Social commentary, swearing, violence

Ideal accompaniments: Pork scratchings, a glass of Tullamore Dew and The Pogues singing Dirty Old Town

Genre: Literary fiction 

Buy on Amazon

The Moth Catcher by Ann Cleeves

Reviewer: Gillian Hamer, author of The Charter, Closure, Complicit, Crimson Shore & False Lights. (www.gillianhamer.com)


What we thought: I am a huge fan of Ann Cleeves and her style of writing. I love her Shetland series and I equally adore her Vera series. So, you can probably tell already that this is going to be a glowing review.

Characterisation is one of Cleeves’s major strengths. Every character in the book is a living, breathing, believable person in their own right, with their own idiosyncrasies, their own strengths and weaknesses. And strong characterisation is important in this novel as we are faced with a murder in a small, rural community where every single member of the locality could be a suspected killer. And with so many lives to juggle, it could be easy for the characters to blur, but Cleeves does an excellent job balancing each one throughout.

Vera and her team find themselves dealing with a double murder enquiry, when two male victims, who initially seem to have no connection with each other are found dead in and around the grounds of a country estate. With Vera’s instinct and grit, she soon begins to peel away the layers of each person’s life story, until a connection is discovered, and the killer is unmasked.

There are the usual twists and turns, and moments of conflict and drama, that mark our Cleeves’s clever writing style and attention to detail. But most of all for anyone who enjoys crime fiction, this is a lesson in how to write a pacy, gripping page turner, without the need for melodrama or clever deception. A thoroughly solid, entertaining read, and as ever I look forward to the next one.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Val McDermid, Peter James, Ian Rankin.

Avoid if you don’t like: Clever female leads.

Ideal accompaniments: Takeaway pizza and a bottle of Guinness.

Genre: Crime Fiction.

Available on Amazon

Her Turn to Cry by Chris Curran

Reviewer: Liza Perrat, author of Spirit of Lost Angels, Wolfsangel and Blood Rose Angel

What we thought: Having loved Chris Curran’s debut novel Mindsight, I was eagerly awaiting her second and Her Turn to Cry proved to be just as gripping and page-turning.

It is 1965 and Joycie Todd, a famous model, lives with her photographer boyfriend, Marcus. She seems to have it all. However, we soon learn that events from Joycie’s past have left her damaged and unhappy. Despite Marcus bolstering her modelling career, and his obvious love for her, Joycie is unable to reciprocate his attentions.

Growing up in the 1950s, with her father and his friend as a popular theatre act, Joycie’s mother disappears. Rumour says she ran off with a man, but when Joycie finds a bloodstained rug under the bed, and is haunted by nightmares and snippets of memories from her past, she begins to ask questions. When Joycie reconnects with her aunt, she is propelled to seek the truth about her parents, if she is ever to settle in her present life.

The author smoothly switches between the past and the present, as we follow Joycie on her gripping journey towards the truth. I had a real sense of the 50s dilapidated English coastal towns and the performers of the old music halls, along with the backstage atmosphere, right to “present” day 1965.

Themes of abuse and power are deftly handled, yet the author doesn’t shy away from the realities of those times.

I found Her Turn to Cry an addictive page-turner, as Joycie develops and eventually blooms into her true self. With incredible suspense, excellently-drawn characters and a thrilling plot, I would highly recommend this to readers of crime and psychological thrillers.

You’ll like this if you enjoy: Crime Fiction, tales of dark family secrets.

Avoid if you don’t like: stories that deal with abuse of power, prejudice and hatred.

Ideal accompaniments: Serve of fish and chips on the harbourfront.

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Available on Amazon

Hampstead Fever by Carol Cooper

Reviewer: Liza Perrat, author of Spirit of Lost Angels, Wolfsangel and Blood Rose Angel

What we thought: I’m always keen to read the sequel to books I’ve enjoyed, so was delighted to find Carol Cooper had written Hampstead Fever, following her wonderfully entertaining debut, One Night at the Jacaranda. I felt I was meeting old friends again, following their lives and interactions which began during a night of speed dating at the Jacaranda Club. However, it is not just the old friends we catch up with; new characters, and events, come into play in Hampstead Fever.

Through witty and entertaining dialogue, and suspense-infused events –– adultery, a mysterious illness, break ups and reunions –– the author vibrantly depicts the singles’ scene in London, and the lives of those playing it out. We empathise with her characters, their strengths and their flaws, as they each find themselves caught up in complicated webs.

Carol Cooper’s experience as a doctor shines through in her meticulous research, her compassion and her empathy, all of which add many more layers to this tale than is at first imagined.

If you’re looking for an easy, page-turning read this summer, I would highly recommend you grab a copy of Hampstead Fever!

You’ll like this if you enjoy: Carol Cooper’s One Night at the Jacaranda

Avoid if you don’t like: tales of interacting human lives.

Ideal accompaniments: Cold glass of bubbly

Genre: Contemporary fiction

Available on Amazon

Outcast by Dianne Noble

Reviewer: JJ Marsh

What we thought: A coming-of-age story with a difference.

Rose is happy, running a Cornish café and regaining her independence after her failed marriage. But when her daughter refuses to return from her gap year in India, Rose realises that an email just won’t cut it. If she really wants to prove to Ellie that she cares, she has to go to India and meet Ellie on her own terms.

The main strand of this novel is Rose’s change – she acclimatises not just to India, but to her daughter’s personality, Kolkata, heat, the caste system and the everyday injustices inflicted on society’s poorest. She begins to understand how much the volunteers matter to the children, who have, quite literally, nothing else. She also begins to understand how wide the breach between herself and Ellie remains.

In parallel, another mother/daughter relationship follows a less positive trajectory. Hannah’s looking after the café in Cornwall. She loves it. The responsibility, the order, the routine suit her perfectly and get her away from her dopehead mother. She cares for the customers, runs the place with diligence and imagination, trying to live up to Rose’s standards. Then her mother arrives in a police car, after accidentally burning down her caravan.

This is an unexpectedly touching and truthful novel of family relationships, which can lift you up or drag you down. Rose breaks her seal of safety and enters a harsh world of uncertainty, dirt and humanity. Her compassion and sympathy involve, teach and ultimately change her.

Compassion and loyalty coupled with a sense of responsibility influence Hannah, but not in the same way. Her mother’s self-indulgence and all she thought she’d escaped follow her, tainting her new life and testing her love to the limit.

This novel is as transformative as it is absorbing. Watching these characters change takes us with them, in full sensory and emotional detail. Noble conjures cultural shocks in such immersive prose – whether the limited options of a small Cornish town or the unlimited dangers of a Kolkata slum – the reader is there: hot, angry, confused, disgusted, sad, itchy and overjoyed.

This beautifully written book transports you to a place where the foreign and familiar are equally scary. A thoroughly absorbing read.


You’ll enjoy this if you liked: Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Snowdrops by AD Miller or The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Avoid if you don’t like: Realistic descriptions of the lives of Dalits (the lowest caste), detail of Indian city life, emotional upheaval

Ideal accompaniments: Spicy samosas, smoky chai and Ancestral Lullabies by The Psychedelic Muse

Genre: Contemporary, women's fiction

Available on Amazon

Mosquitoes by John R McKay

Reviewer: Jerome Griffin

What we thought: Mosquitoes is a rage against the machine struggle by an everyman frustrated with his life and the establishment. John McKay conjures images of a weary northern soul who is desperate to better the lot of his and his wife’s lives, but meets irresistible force after immovable object at every turn.

The story unfolds across two timelines. In the present, our protagonist, Alex Sumner, is incarcerated in a mental healthcare unit and his treatment whilst there delves into his recent past, which McKay uses to transport us to the backstory of how he has arrived at such a sorry situation. In these flashbacks we learn that he has grown bitter and impatient with everything in his life. His bosses are incompetent pen pushers, while his peers rise up the ranks despite their ineptitude and because they play the corporate three bags full game. Outside of work he is surrounded by morons incapable of holding a coherent conversation and at home his wife has almost become a virtual stranger.

In so many ways Mosquitoes is a snapshot of real life.

The one hope he has for his future is his novel which, by his own admission, is a brilliant masterpiece. It's in the hands of a well-established agent in London who is bound to love it. It's right up her street, or so he thinks.

Inevitably the last straw of annoyance cripples the camel and he embarks on a one-man campaign to shake things up a little and take control of his life. Just like Brexit only with more of an after plan! With every step he gets thumped ever harder by another wake-up call from his job to his marriage, and from his so-called friends to his shattered dreams. As each hit lands he descends further into a self-destructive path of mayhem, which spirals out of control at breakneck speed before arriving at his current location.

On one level, Mosquitoes is the tale of a regular guy trying to cope with his own existence, while on another it is a savage indictment of 21st century Britain.

McKay reminds us that we all have our own journey to make and none of us knows the route or destination. All we have is the steering wheel and the fuel. As individuals we can’t beat the system. By the same token, we can choose our battles and strive to find a path to our own peace.

You’ll like this if you like: Stories of revenge, redemption and coming to terms with the hand you’ve been dealt.

Avoid if you don’t like: A miserable, negative protagonist.

Ideal accompaniments: Panic by The Smiths and any ale except London Pride.

Genre: Contemporary fiction

Available from Amazon

Holding the Man by Timothy Conigrave

Reviewer: David C Dawson www.davidcdawson.co.uk.

What we thought: Holding the Man was first published in 1995, a year after the author’s death. It was released as a reasonably good film in 2016, reviving some interest in the book.

I strongly recommend that you read the book first. It is a beautiful love story, simply told with a refreshing directness and honesty. It is both heart breaking and very funny.

Timothy Conigrave charts his lifelong love affair with John Caleo. He starts in the mid-1970s, when they first meet at an all boys Catholic school in Melbourne, Australia. Timothy loves literature and performing in the school play. John is the captain of the football team.

The pair of them were clearly ahead of their time. Homosexuality remained illegal in Melbourne until 1981. In some parts of Australia it was illegal until 1990. Yet the two teenagers declare their love for each other openly while still at school. Their honesty brings them into trouble with the school and with John’s parents. And yet they refuse to comply with the conventions of the time and hide their relationship.

When they leave school, Timothy goes away to drama school and John remains in Melbourne. Timothy has many encounters with other men, but eventually returns home and is reunited with John. They then share a happy and loving life together until John’s untimely death from AIDS in 1992.

This could be the story of any couple, gay or straight. They have highs and they have lows. From being young, teenage lovers, their relationship is tested and strengthens over the years. When they are both diagnosed as HIV-positive, the ultimate test of their relationship begins. The result is a deepening love of great beauty and tenderness.

Conigrave’s writing style is simple and clear. He is very open about his weaknesses and his guilt about his lack of fidelity to John. It feels like we are hearing John’s voice represented accurately in the story, even though he is not there to confirm the events.

I urge you to read this book. It is emotionally satisfying and tells of a world of intolerance that is still very recent history.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Shameless by Paul Burston

Avoid if you don’t like: Occasional explicit sex description

Ideal accompaniments: A decent Australian beer

Genre: Romance, LGBTQ

Available on Amazon