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Tuesday, 8 July 2025

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz Review


If you’ve read Anthony Horowitz’s Susan Ryeland novels, you’ll know the drill by now and if you haven’t they’re about a book editor who keeps finding herself embroiled in murder mysteries that have an uncanny resemblance to an Agatha Christie-ish mystery that runs parallel to her own.

Saturday, 5 July 2025

James Bond: 007: Your Cold, Cold Heart Review (Garth Ennis, Rapha Lobosco)


The Ruskies have nicked weaponised water - “stalvoda”, literally “steel water”, which instantly freezes after exploding - from the Brits, who originally nicked it from the Ruskies during the Soviet era. Bond’s gotta - sigh - nick it back. International espionage, eh?

Friday, 4 July 2025

Muybridge by Guy Delisle Review


Apparently one of the great scientific mysteries of the 19th century was how exactly a horse moves at a gallop(!) with the keenest scientific minds insisting that they run like a frog jumps. It would take the fortune of the richest man in America, Leland Stanford, and the ingenuity of a British photographer whose parents didn’t know how to spell “Edward”, Eadweard Muybridge, to prove otherwise. All that and more in Guy Delisle’s latest book, a comics bio of weird Ed Muybridge!

Saturday, 28 June 2025

Spider-Man: Reign 2 by Kaare Andrews Review


It’s the future so the Matrix is real and Peter Parker’s stuck in there because. Where’s MJ? Well, the sensible thing to do is time-travel with a mini Black Cat and actual goblins(!?) to fight Venom as MJ to not prevent the dystopian future that an Akira’d out Kingpin will enact for some reason. Time to get your dumbrellas out everyone - we’re heading back into Kaare Andrews’ Reign!

Tuesday, 24 June 2025

Jenny Sparks Review (Tom King, Jeff Spokes)


There was a Justice League piss-take team called The Authority at the end of the ‘90s created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. Both The Authority and Ellis have been cancelled, in different meanings of the word, since then (Hitch is still knocking around) and one of the founding members of that team was Jenny Sparks, the Spirit of the 20th Century.

Monday, 23 June 2025

G.I. Joe Volume 1: The Cobra Strikes! Review (Joshua Williamson, Tom Reilly)


GI Joe, a toy that became a cartoon and a comic and is now a newer comic aimed at the same audience from back in the ‘80s except they’re old men now getting nostalgic for garbage that was never good - yo poo!

Sunday, 22 June 2025

Sailing to Byzantium by W. B. Yeats Review


I forget why but I came across William Butler Yeats’ poem The Second Coming recently and was quite taken with it. I’d never read it before but recognised several lines and was surprised they all came from this short poem. Here’s some you too might know:


“Turning and turning in the widening gyre… Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; … The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity… And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

Saturday, 21 June 2025

Attila by Javier Serena Review


Aliocha Coll was a 20th century Spanish writer who produced experimental books, of which few were published and those that did failed to connect with a large audience - hence his name being practically unknown today.

Thursday, 19 June 2025

Marvel Knights: The World To Come #1 Review (Christopher Priest, Joe Quesada)


If you unfortunately pay attention to the digital slurry that is online discourse then you may have noticed in the past week memes about how “Black Panther is WHITE!” with a fake image of Ryan Gosling’s increasingly-botoxed face (don’t do it Ryan, age naturally!) on the MCU’s Black Panther.

Monday, 9 June 2025

The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Review


The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes is a mid-16th century Spanish novella written by… nobody knows! And it’s about the title character narrating his rather rough yet sorta comedic early life as the downtrodden servant to a series of scumbag masters: a blind man who pretends to be a holy man, a priest who is even more stingy and cruel than the blind man, a sham nobleman who’s as poor as Lazaro, and another conman who sells papal indulgences.

Sunday, 8 June 2025

The Deviant, Book Two Review (James Tynion IV, Joshua Hixson)


The Deviant Killer, supposedly a gay peeping tom who chopped up the young boys he took pics of at Christmas, has been locked up since the early ‘70s. Half a century later and a copycat killer is recreating his MO on a new generation of victims. True crime aficionado Michael is arrested - his fascination with the case and his ID being found at a crime scene being enough to put him away for now. Meanwhile his boyfriend Derek and FBI Agent Hall continue looking into the case to see if Michael really was the new Deviant Killer or not.

Saturday, 7 June 2025

The Book of George by Kate Greathead Review


George is just a guy. He doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life and goes through it, like most people, checking boxes: go to college, get a series of arbitrary jobs, get into a relationship, move into a series of crappy apartments, etc. And the book follows George from his teens to his late 30s as he bumbles around, has adventures. And that is the book. Of George.

Tuesday, 3 June 2025

Superman: Action Comics: Superstars Volume 1 Review (Jason Aaron, John Timms)


Superman: Action Comics: Superstars: Volume 1: Jesus Can We Can We Get Another Fucking Subtitle In Here Already is a collection of three short stories that I guess filled up space in between the main storylines written by whoever drew the short straw to write this title. “Superstars” is a bit of a misnomer. Jason Aaron, sure, but Gail Simone and Rainbow Rowell? Definitely not - especially with the quality of their contributions to this book.

Sunday, 1 June 2025

The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen Review


Joshua Cohen was interviewing the literary critic Harold Bloom shortly before his death in 2019, trying to get as many stories out of him as he could. During this time Bloom mentioned an episode from early in his teaching career at Yale when he was asked to coordinate a visit over the winter of 1959-60 for Dr Benzion Netanyahu, his wife and their three children. Cohen’s novel The Netanyahus is a reimagining of that episode.

Saturday, 10 May 2025

The Pursued by CS Forester Review


Returning from a night out, Ted and Marjorie discover Marjorie’s sister Dot dead in the kitchen - head in the gas oven, the gas on. Did Dot take her own life - or, as Marjorie begins to suspect, was her husband Ted somehow involved…

Thursday, 8 May 2025

Batman: Off-World Review (Jason Aaron, Doug Mahnke)


Deep space. A crew’s vessel is alerted to an alien intruder onboard. The alien is tricksy, zips around the spacecraft, picking off its crew one by one. The alien is called… Batman?

Wednesday, 30 April 2025

The Red Handler by Johan Harstad Review


Johan Harstad’s The Red Handler presents itself as the collected and annotated crime novels featuring a private detective called The Red Handler by a fictional Norwegian author, Frode Brandeggen. Except these are experimental micro novels that are mere pages long - some “chapters” are literally a sentence and there are maybe four or five chapters to a “novel”. So that’s how you can fit 15 “novels” into less than 150 pages (especially if you space them out to a sentence/chapter per page)!

Sunday, 27 April 2025

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman Review


All you need is… Tesco pizza. Tesco pizza is all you need…?


But Tesco pizza is all Eleanor Oliphant has.

Thursday, 24 April 2025

Beat It, Rufus by Noah Van Sciver Review


Rufus Baxter is a never-was, pathetic moron of a failed rock star. Fed-up with scrounging a living on the music circuit for decades, his drug-addled brain somehow concocts a semi-coherent plan: he’s gonna road trip cross-country to the blighted town of Camden, New Jersey, to finally claim royalties on his ‘80s record, Funky Cool, from his scummy label, Bliggum Records, and retire in style. Will he get what he deserves - and what was the fate of his two bandmates all those years ago?

Wednesday, 23 April 2025

Payment Deferred by CS Forester Review


It was a dark and stormy night…


… when a nephew, fortuitously flush with cash, that Mr Marble didn’t know he had appears on his doorstep, just when he’s up against it with bills he can’t pay! Desperate, Marble is seized with a wild idea of murder - an action that sets him on a doomed path of further pain and misery.

Tuesday, 22 April 2025

Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu by Junji Ito Review


Cats - the final frontier.


At least it feels like it’s inevitable that if you’re a comics creator then you’re going to make a cat comic at some point in your career - even horror mangaka Junji Ito’s made one!

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

Batman, Volume 4: Dark Prisons Review (Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez)


Batman’s in prison because… And Zur is in Failsafe and he’s Batman because… Then Absolute Poo-er means more robots and Batman’s gotta… Yeah, so Batman the series is in shit shape. Chip Zdarsky’s run has been about as bad, if not worse, than Tynion’s, and DC needs to change things sharpish.

Monday, 14 April 2025

The Anechoic Chamber and Other Weird Tales by Will Wiles Review


Of the nine stories in Will Wiles’ short story collection, The Anechoic Chamber and Other Weird Tales, about two were ok and the others were generally quite bad.

Sunday, 13 April 2025

The Custard Heart by Dorothy Parker Review


I’ve known of Dorothy Parker for a while now - she was this fabled female American Oscar Wilde wit, writing for the New Yorker and part of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of artists from the 1920s - but never read her until now. And maybe her wit comes across more strongly in her non-fiction because I didn’t see anything funny or clever in her fiction, three stories of which are collected in this small book.

Saturday, 29 March 2025

The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale Review


“Oh, England’s fantastic for this kind of thing,” - Alfred Hitchcock on the 10 Rillington Place murders


Reg and Ethel Christie had lived at 10 Rillington Place, London, since 1938 but strange things had happened in the winter of 1952/53. Nobody had seen Ethel since December and Reg disappeared from the flat altogether in March 1953. When their landlord instructed a workman to clean up the Christies’ kitchen, the workman found what appeared to be human remains behind an alcove. Three womens’ corpses were stuffed in there. And the mystery of Ethel’s absence was soon solved: her corpse was under the front room’s floor. As the manhunt for Reg Christie began, the police would soon unearth more horrors on the property…

Friday, 28 March 2025

A Month in the Country by JL Carr Review


It’s the summer of 1920 and Tom Birkin, fresh from the trenches of World War One and slowly acclimating back into civilian life, arrives in the English countryside town of Oxgodby on a commission to uncover/restore a medieval painting on the wall of the local church. And there’s where he meets the one that got away: Mrs Keach, the Reverend’s wife.

Thursday, 27 March 2025

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates Review


Back in 2007/08, I was a regular reader of Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish at The Atlantic and, when I finished his articles, as I often did (I was working a particularly dull desk job at the time that afforded me plenty of time for reading), I’d read other writers’ pieces on the site. Ta-Nehisi Coates was one of these writers and I enjoyed his work much less than I did Sullivan’s - everything was race-related to Coates and, worse, his writing and points were both forgettable and vague.

Monday, 24 March 2025

The Infinity War Review (Jim Starlin, Ron Lim)


Because story, Magus - the evil manifestation of the evil-sounding but actually good Adam Warlock’s personality - is somehow free and trolling around… trolling for POWAH! And what says more powah than the Infinity Gauntlet? That’s right, it’s another Jim Starlin comic starring Thanos with Infinity in the title, involving a bad guy after the Infinity Gauntlet and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes out to stop him - it’s time for The Infinity Gauntlet 2 aka The Infinity War.

Sunday, 23 March 2025

May You Have Delicious Meals by Junko Takase Review


“May you live in interesting times” - apocryphal “Chinese curse”


A woman begins making rich home-made treats for her office - much to the quiet indignation of her secret co-worker boyfriend, whose culinary tastes run to the more basic side.

Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte Review


A male feminist pushed too far. A couple of friends hook-up, destroying one of the friend’s lives. A closeted man represses his very strange fantasies from everyone - until he doesn’t. A hyper-driven type A personality’s bizarre life goal clashes with his girlfriend’s. An identity-obsessed individual changes the internet. And presiding over all of it is Tony Tulathimutte (hereafter referred to as TT), a writer and potential character/s in the novel Rejection.

Tuesday, 18 March 2025

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff Review


In 1949, aspiring New York playwright Helene Hanff saw an advertisement for an antiquarian bookseller in London that shipped books internationally. A fan of obscure and old books, she reached out to them with a list of books she’s looking for, thus beginning a 20 year correspondence between herself and the principal bookseller at Marks and Co, Frank Doel, based at 84 Charing Cross Road.

Monday, 17 March 2025

The Power Fantasy, Volume 1: The Superpowers Review (Kieron Gillen, Caspar Wijngaard)


You know how a lot of people think Superman is a boring character because he’s overpowered - nothing really hurts him besides the green rock and he can do whatever, whenever, however, effortlessly. Because he’s Superman. But it’s too much and makes it really hard to get people invested in a character so wildly unrelatable. Now imagine the entire cast of a series were ALL Superman. That’s The Power Fantasy.

Thursday, 13 March 2025

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Volume 1: Return to New York Review (Jason Aaron, Chris Burnham)


The Turtles are broken up and scattered across the world: Donnie is enslaved and forced to fight cage matches against mutant-haters; Mikey’s starring in a hit Japanese TV show about his life; Raph’s in prison; Leo’s in India, meditating with non-mutant flesh-eating turtles. Meanwhile in New York City, a brutal new mayoral candidate seeks to consolidate his populist anti-mutant platform with the help of the Foot Clan.

Wednesday, 12 March 2025

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel Review


The Daughters of America finals boxing tournament in Reno takes place over a couple of days where female teenage fighters gather to see who’s the best boxer in their class.

Tuesday, 11 March 2025

The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe Review


Political blogger Christopher Swann attends a conservative conference, uncovers secrets and gets killed - but whodunit? The answer lies somehow in an obscure 1980s novel called My Innocence, the last book by conservative writer Peter Cockerill - or more precisely, an early proof copy of that book…

Monday, 10 March 2025

The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz Review


Literary widow Anna Williams-Bonner decides to write her own bestseller, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s just that easy to write an acclaimed commercial novel, even when you’ve never written a word of fiction in your life, and soon she’s as famous and wealthy as her late husband! But oh no someone knows her secret - what’s she gonna dooo…

Sunday, 9 March 2025

Cat Person and Other Stories by Kristen Roupenian Review


This short story collection was originally entitled You Know You Want This but quickly got changed to Cat Person and Other Stories because Cat Person became a hit online, got optioned and then made into a movie, and is by far the best story in this collection. It’d be amazing if the other 11 stories were even half as good as Cat Person but, alas, there’s only one other good story here - Look At Your Game Girl - and a middling one - The Mirror, The Bucket, and The Old Thigh Bone. The rest is cat litter.

Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Lester of the Lesser Gods Review (Eric Powell, Lucky Yates)


Back in the ‘80s, Lester’s drunken slob mother hooked up with Norse God Odin and produced Lester. Now he’s fat, ungainfully employed and in his 30s - and it’s the apocalypse for no reason. So Lester decides to prove his worthiness to his deadbeat dad. Hold onto your sides - this one’s going for big yuks!

Thursday, 6 February 2025

Fishflies Review (Jeff Lemire, Shawn Kuruneru)


Franny is a lonely schoolgirl with a permanently runny nose who befriends a convenience store robber that transforms into a giant bug for shooting a kid during his botched robbery. The two become unlikely friends and go on the lam. A giant bug… what??!

Come Closer by Sara Gran Review


Amanda and Ed’s lives are going great until, wouldn’t ya know it, she goes and gets possessed by a demon! Now their marriage is going to pot and it’s all the demon’s fault! Time for some magic shampoo to save the day - but is it too late?!/1,

Tuesday, 4 February 2025

Get Fury Review (Garth Ennis, Jacen Burrows)


It’s the height of the Vietnam war and Nick Fury has gotten himself captured by the Vietcong. Fury being Fury, he knows all about the CIA’s massive drug-smuggling operation and they can’t afford for that knowledge to potentially leak. The CIA needs a mindless, efficient killing machine to take him out, just in case - who else but Frank Castle? Time for him to… Get Fury!

Monday, 3 February 2025

A New Jerusalem by Benjamin Dickson Review


With Germany’s surrender in May 1945, the war was over for some of the Allied soldiers in Europe who returned home. Like Ralph’s dad, who was physically maimed in a flamethrower attack, but also mentally broken - what we call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder today and was called shell shock at the time. And though the family unit is restored, the experiences of war have changed Ralph’s dad - forever.

Sunday, 2 February 2025

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz Review


Jacob Finch Bonner, a once promising novelist whose career has now flatlined, is resigned to being a humble writing teacher. Then he meets a cocky student convinced that he has a can’t-fail novelistic plot that’ll make him rich and famous. Jake reads a fragment of the novel but hears the plot in full during their only one-to-one. Years pass, and Jake learns that his student never did write his incredible novel - because he died mere months after telling Jake the full story. Jake decides to realise his student’s plot but without crediting him - which does in fact finally make Jake a bestselling author. Except now he’s getting messages from a mysterious person online threatening to expose Jake’s theft to the world. Who is this person and how do they know his secret? The plot unfolds…

Saturday, 1 February 2025

Cain's Jawbone by E. Powys Mathers Review


I don’t think I’ve ever read a book and been at a total loss as to describe what the story was or who any of the characters were, but that’s entirely the case with Cain’s Jawbone!

Thursday, 30 January 2025

The Pole and Other Stories by JM Coetzee Review


Old age, eh? That’s kinda the theme for this collection of short stories by Sarth Ifrikan writer JM Coetzee.


The Pole is the longest story here, taking up nearly two-thirds of the book. An elderly Polish pianist falls for a slightly younger Spanish woman and woos her, old folks-style. It’s a realistic romance story where Coetzee doesn’t go for overblown melodrama, but the story is still quite predictable. And boring.

Monday, 27 January 2025

Mr. Boop by Alec Robbins Review


Cartoonist Alec Robbins is married to classic cartoon pinup Betty Boop and they’re madly in love with one another. They also can’t stop having orgies with the likes of Bugs Bunny and Peter Griffin. Then Sonic the Hedgehog gets jealous and tries to assassinate Alec. You know - that hoary old canard!

Sunday, 26 January 2025

The Shallows by Nicholas Carr Review


In his 2010 book The Shallows, Nicholas Carr argues that the internet is changing the way we think and act - for the worse. Shocker! I don’t think anyone would argue differently, given the prevalence these days of garbage timesink sites like TikTok and news stories about how literature students these days can’t read books, let alone the average person!

Saturday, 25 January 2025

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos Review


Lorelei Lee is 18 years old, hot, blonde and dumb. So of course men are falling over themselves to marry her. So LL stumbles from one wealthy guy throwing money at her to another, all while traipsing around Europe, with her faithful sarcastic buddy Dorothy along for the ride. Then the book ends.

Thursday, 23 January 2025

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky Review


This Penguin Little Black Classics edition collects two stories: the novella-length White Nights and the short story Bobek, both by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a writer whose name I’ve seen spelt differently depending on who’s publishing him, and many publishers publish him. Why is that?! It’s his name! The vagaries of the Russian language eh?