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FictionFan’s Book Reviews
Welcome to my blog! I hope you enjoy your visit. I’m a Scottish book blogger with fairly eclectic tastes, and I’ve been blogging about books since 2013. You’ll find indexes to my reviews in the menu at the top of the page. Alternatively, you can find a review by author, genre or title using the Find A Review drop-down box on the right, click on … Continue reading FictionFan’s Book Reviews
Esther Summerson tells her truth…
While rummaging through a pile of yellowing documents in an old curiosity shop, I came across a folded document, sealed and addressed “To the future”. Naturally I immediately broke the seal and opened it, for who are we if not the future? Imagine my astonishment to find the following… Continue reading Esther Summerson tells her truth…
Review: Behold, Here’s Poison (Supt Hannasyde 2) by Georgette Heyer | Vintage Crime
When Gregory Matthews is found dead in his bed, no one grieves. He was an unpleasant, bullying man who ruled over his family like an absolute monarch. Not that his family deserved much better – a feckless bunch, on the whole, happy to live off Uncle Gregory’s money but resenting his interference in their lives. It transpires that Gregory was poisoned by nicotine, and so the hunt for a murderer is on! Enter Superintendent Hannasyde and his trusty sidekick, Sergeant Hemingway… Continue reading Review: Behold, Here’s Poison (Supt Hannasyde 2) by Georgette Heyer | Vintage Crime
TBR Thursday 490 – Quarterly Round-Up
A look back at the past three months to see how I’m getting on with all the various challenges I set myself. Stats and brief summaries of books reviewed for each challenge – the Classics Club, the Looking Forward Challenge, the King Kong Challenge, the CWA Daggers Challenge, and the Wanderlust Bingo Challenge… Continue reading TBR Thursday 490 – Quarterly Round-Up
Review: Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler | Classic Noir
Private eye Philip Marlowe is working a missing‑person case that’s going nowhere when he bumps into Moose Molloy, a recently released felon searching for his ex‑girlfriend, Velma. She’s the love of his life, and he’s convinced she’ll feel the same if he can find her. He drags Marlowe into Florian’s, the club where she used to sing, but the visit ends in violence when Molloy kills the owner and disappears. Marlowe tells the police: find Velma, and you’ll find Molloy… Continue reading Review: Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler | Classic Noir
Review: Joseph Knight by James Robertson | Scottish Historical Fiction
Attorney’s agent Archibald Jamieson is tasked with finding a man for old Sir John Wedderburn. Twenty‑four years earlier, Joseph Knight, a slave Wedderburn had brought from Jamaica to Scotland, had sued for his freedom and won. Jamieson can’t imagine Wedderburn wanting to apologise or make amends, and when he fails to trace Knight the matter should end there. But his brief encounter with Wedderburn has left him curious, and he can’t quite let the search go… Continue reading Review: Joseph Knight by James Robertson | Scottish Historical Fiction
TBR Thursday 489…
The current state of the TBR, and a preview of four books I’ll be reading soon: The Passage of Roses by Tie Ning, Opposite Sully’s Gym by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson, Maigret and Monsieur Charles by Georges Simenon, and Man of Two Tribes by Arthur W. Upfield read by Peter Hosking. Continue reading TBR Thursday 489…
Review: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury | Science Fiction
A collection of eighteen stories, loosely held together by the framing device of the illustrated man of the title – a man covered in tattoos which come to life and reveal stories to the observer. Although this allows the blurb to call the stories ‘linked’, in reality they have nothing in common except for the fact that they all seem to end with death – of the characters or the world, or another world, or a rocket ship… Continue reading Review: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury | Science Fiction
Time for a Review-Along!
An invitation to join in a Review-Along of Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s most sensational novel – Lady Audley’s Secret! What’s a Review-Along? The rules are simple: read the book at a time and pace of your own choosing, and post your review on the chosen date. If you would like to join in but don’t have a book blog, you are cordially invited to leave your thoughts on the book in the comments section of my review on the day, which is Monday, 1st June, 2026. Read on for more info… Continue reading Time for a Review-Along!
Review: The Day of the Scorpion (Raj Quartet 2) by Paul Scott | English Classic
August 1942, and the war is creeping closer to the Indian border. Outwardly, life for the British in Ranpur remains unchanged, but anxiety is growing beneath the surface. In the hill station of Pankot, headquarters of the 1st Pankot Rifles, the Layton family wait for the return of Colonel Layton, now a prisoner of war. His wife and daughters live their desultory lives in his absence: beautiful, shallow Susan, and Sarah, more complex and more aware of the approaching end of the Raj… Continue reading Review: The Day of the Scorpion (Raj Quartet 2) by Paul Scott | English Classic
Review: Gillespie by John MacDougall Hay | Scottish Classic
CC Spin #43: Failure Report 😐 😐 Well, People, the Spin Gods finally defeated me! They may not have found the longest book on my list for once, but they zoomed in on the most miserable. I didn’t get far enough to give it a fair or proper review, but since it’s the Spin Winner, it earns a post of some kind! The Blurb says: … Continue reading Review: Gillespie by John MacDougall Hay | Scottish Classic
Review: Whip Hand by Dick Francis | Thriller
Sid Halley’s career as a champion jockey came to an abrupt halt when an accident caused him to lose one of his hands, and somewhere along the way he also lost his marriage. Now equipped with an artificial hand and his intimate insider knowledge of the world of horse-racing, he’s carving out a new career as a private detective. He is approached by Rosemary Casper, wife of a top trainer, who believes someone may be nobbling her husband’s best horses… Continue reading Review: Whip Hand by Dick Francis | Thriller
Filing alphabetically…
It’s the book-lover’s biggest problem – how to file the ever-growing pile of books jostling for pole position on our shelves. Some file by genre, some by author, and some even file by the colour of the spine. But I suspect every system shares a common feature – that is, filing alphabetically. So here’s my attempt to bring some order to my virtual bookshelf, starting conventionally with A… Continue reading Filing alphabetically…
Review: The Untouchable by John Banville | Literary Fiction
Victor Maskell has just been outed as a spy. His carefully nurtured reputation as an art historian, his knighthood, his position in the top ranks of British society – all swept away. He reminisces about his life, drifting back to the heady days of the 1930s, when a small group of brilliant scholars were swept up in the roiling politics of Europe, coming to believe that only communist Russia stood as a bulwark against fascism. Or maybe they just enjoyed the excitement of transgression… Continue reading Review: The Untouchable by John Banville | Literary Fiction
Minis – March 2026
Four mini reviews: Over Her Dead Body by AB Morgan, Past Lying by Val McDermid, The Hand of Strange Children by Robert Richardson, and No Friendly Drop by Henry Wade. Continue reading Minis – March 2026
TBR Thursday 488…
The current state of the TBR, and a preview of four books I’ll be reading soon: A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Headcase by Peter Helton, Crack Down by Val McDermid read by Chloe Massey, and In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut read by himself. Continue reading TBR Thursday 488…
Review: Dressed for Death (Commissario Brunetti 3) by Donna Leon | Crime Fiction
Venice is sweltering in the summer heat. Commissario Brunetti is looking forward to a trip to the mountains with his family, but his hopes are dashed when a body is found in a field where the local sex workers ply their trade The corpse is a man dressed in women’s clothing and make-up, so the obvious inference is that he was a transvestite prostitute. But Brunetti knows that sometimes the obvious answer is not the right one… Continue reading Review: Dressed for Death (Commissario Brunetti 3) by Donna Leon | Crime Fiction
Review-Along! Henrik Pontoppidan – A Fortunate Man and Emanuel, or Children of the Soil | Danish Classics
A Fortunate Man tells the story of Per, an aspiring engineer: his attempts to bring modernisation to a backward Denmark, his social climbing, and his battle with his faith, torn between his Lutheran upbringing and the new Folk Church movement.
Emanuel depicts the earlier revivalist movement and its effects on a newly-qualified Lutheran pastor, drawn to the more egalitarian style of the meeting house.
Two novels, between them showing the social and cultural changes in Denmark in latter half of the 19th century. Continue reading Review-Along! Henrik Pontoppidan – A Fortunate Man and Emanuel, or Children of the Soil | Danish Classics
TBR Thursday 487…
The current state of the TBR, and a preview of four books I’ll be reading soon: Triumph and Tragedy by Winston Churchill, Communion by Jon Doyle, Birth Marks by Sarah Dunant, and Saints at the River by Ron Rash read by Megan Tusing. Continue reading TBR Thursday 487…
Review: A Demon in My View by Ruth Rendell | Psychological Thriller
Arthur Johnson lives in the top-floor flat at 142, Trinity Road. He never misses a day at work and keeps his flat as neat as a new pin, just as his Auntie Gracie would have expected. But now a new tenant has taken the flat below – a man coincidentally named Anthony Johnson. This second Mr Johnson, it transpires, is a PhD candidate, researching his thesis on psychopaths. Which is another coincidence, since Mr Johnson – the first Mr Johnson – just happens to be a psychopath… Continue reading Review: A Demon in My View by Ruth Rendell | Psychological Thriller
Review: The Dark Philosophers by Gwyn Thomas | Welsh Classic
For Reading Wales 2026 comes this classic collection of three Welsh novellas, dark, comic, and ultimately disturbing. Set in the years between the wars, they explore poverty, inequality, and the early working‑class socialism that forged a new vocabulary of resistance. Thomas gives voice to an array of working‑class characters, often through a communal “we”, capturing both the bleakness of their circumstances and the solidarity that helped them endure. Continue reading Review: The Dark Philosophers by Gwyn Thomas | Welsh Classic
FictionFan's Book Reviews 