Katie W Stewart

Katie Stewart hits just the right note for young people in this book but still manages to amuse and educate those of us no longer young. You'll need two copies. I'm giving one to my grand-daughter but I've kept one for myself!

Famous Animals

Amazon.com

My review -

If you have a young person with a sense of humour and a thirst for knowledge in your life, you really need this book. I ordered two copies. My nearly -11 year-old grand-daughter will really appreciate it, but I wanted one for myself. Why should the youngsters get all the fun? Each full page illustrations (for example, Felix Mendelsswan – the cover character) faces a page with a little information about the animal and a brief biography of the person. It’s beautifully done, with delightful pictures and is both fun and factual. If you buy one to give away you’ll want another to keep! For the number and quality of the illustrations it’s an absolute bargain.

The author writes for young people and doesn’t talk down to them. It’s all done with wit and imagination. The best thing about it is discovering there’s a Volume II in production. Wonderful!

David Haynes

A new horror story by a master of the genre. A great read!

The Cage

Amazon.com

My review -

Ted, retired from the police force, works as a private detective. He has some regrets. If he had killed a child-molester who got off through the incompetence of one of his colleagues, he knows he could have saved further harm to children but his conscience wouldn't let him kill. He's called in to look into a murder in a remote hotel. Heavy snow traps him there and we find out more about him - and the occasion on which he actually did take a life.

David Haynes has created a claustrophobic story which works very well as a horror novel at surface level. It's as creepy and spooky as you could want. It works as a metaphor too, of the cages in our minds where we hide our secrets or our fears. The literal and metaphorical cages in this novel make you shudder. There are hauntings of different types here and the slow crumbling of a mind. This is a modern classic horror story by a man who has made the genre his own.

Seb Kirby

Seb writes an admirable thriller and can crank up the mood till you're breathless. This is a stand-alone and is fantastic. 

Each Day I Wake

Amazon.com

My review -

Tom Markland is rescued from Canary Wharf after almost drowning. He loses his memory as a result but when it begins to return he recalls the strangling of four young women - apparently by himself. Gradually his memory returns and he finds he is a journalist who was engaged in investigating a company's huge financial irregularity. He is in danger from the company boss and his enforcer and also from the real killer of the girls.

The story is an exciting one with a tangled web of characters and motives which the investigative journalist teases apart, only to find he's still not at the end of the journey. I too found I jumped to erroneous conclusions and the swift changes kept me on my toes. This is an action-packed thriller in which, although the story unfolds and results are achieved, there is a slightly unsettling ending. I loved it!