SEVERAL DAYS AGO, in my post 'Medieval Monastery Murder Mysteries,' I wrote of the Brother Cadfael whodunnits by writer, Ellis Peters ― a fiction series which had delighted me in the 1990s. That reflection had been prompted by my recent re-read of 'The Leper of Saint Giles,' book five in that series. Through the story's …
WITH ONLY a few days to go before Christmas I completed, what was at that point, my thirty-fifth book for the year. It was therefore time to choose what to read next. I'd already dropped a few hints for presents, and hoped to be opening at least one of my desired novels on Christmas morning. …
IN MY PREVIOUS post, 'History's Long Shadow on the Land,' I revealed my passion for historical fiction — especially that which covers the period from 1485 to 1714. Of all the chapters in England’s past, none grip my imagination quite like the Tudor and Stuart centuries. It was a time when England was reborn through …
Jeremy Brett and the Price of Being Holmes WHEN WRITING my two previous posts — 'The Timeless Detective' and 'The Melancholy Moor' — I was prompted to reflect on the actor who, for me, epitomised perfectly the precision and intensity of the Sherlock Holmes character. His was a performance that redefined the role for my …
IN MY PREVIOUS post—'The Timeless Detective'—I declared who, of the innumerable literary characters in English fiction, is my all time favourite. I also explained why. 'Few reading pleasures rival a Holmes mystery. Each feels like a game played in candlelight — a test of wits where the clues are laid before us, daring us to …
I PLACED MY first order with Book Club Associates sometime in 1977. The now defunct mail-order book company ran six specialist clubs at the time, and I'd elected to join their Mystery & Thriller Club. Of the six books that eventually arrived, two remain on my shelf today. Their dust-covers are now sun bleached, with …
Turning the Page SOMETIMES THE END of one chapter really is the beginning of another. Take Lee Child, for example. Back in the mid-1990s, he wasn’t yet the bestselling author we know today — he was Jim Grant, a TV executive at Granada Studios. And then - after nearly two decades in the industry, he …
Ever since I discovered the joy of novels at an early age, my bookshelves have been a sort of gentleman’s club. Not through sexism or prejudice — I just figured men wrote in a style I was most comfortable with. One glance at my book collection will show that I like a literary diet of …
WRITING RECENTLY about my mental health crisis and the long, torturous path to recovery was challenging, to say the least. The story was raw, deeply personal, and not an easy one to share—or, I imagine, to read. So in this post, and as a postscript to my previous one — ‘The Raven’ — I’d like …
In mist-wreathed centuries before loathsome Norman banners flew over the island of the mighty, and when the names of kings were writ in runes, there came across the grey, white-capped sea many longships of oaken hull. Carven serpents adorned their prows, winds of fate filled their sails - and they came bearing stern-browed men with …
RAVEN MOON 