Books tagged with: murder

A Festival of Skeletons is a dark comedic fantasy novel by RJ Astruc. At such rare times of self-doubt, Sink usually fell back on his old adage: What I see I cannot change. But in the aftermath of the massacre it sounded somehow hollow. The merkind hadn’t been right but she hadn’t been far wrong. Fa...

A Heist Too Far is a fantasy novel by Rob Knipe. Mallik is a skilled assassin who is very quick on his feet with an even quicker temper, he travels with Dick Swede (aka The Black Moustache) who is nearly famous as a highwayman and Jules Van Jives - a quickly bored elf with an unhealthy obession for...

Dan Shaper is a wreck, a private "fixer" who takes on jobs for those people who won't or can't go to the police. Constantly haunted by an event in his past life while working as a violent underworld enforcer the only way he can keep those crippling memories at bay is by a growing cocktail of drugs....

Angel of Death is a contemporary fantasy / horror novel by author J Robert King. The Angel of Death for Chicago overseas a an area that stretches from lake county Indiana to Milwaukee, a vast sprawl of a metropolis. His task is to ensure that each person's death matches their lives as closely as pos...

I remember reading the short story "Red Reign" about 20 years ago, written by Newman and published in the Mammoth Book of Vampires. This short story formed the basis for the novel and it's been on my list of books to read for some time. The imminent re-release of the sequel "The Bloody Red Baron" ha...

Ten weeks ago Homicide Detective Sailor Doyle worked on his first ever solo case, a horrific double murder in a remote area of Virginia that almost finished him for good. Now he's recuperating from the physical wounds and mental trauma, the near death experience acting as a focus to overcome his oth...

Beautiful Dead: Jonas is the first volume in a new series by Eden Maguire. A young adult novel, Jonas follows the events surrounding the pupils of Ellerton High. Phoenix is the fourth teenager to died within the space of a year, the victim of a knife attack. The three previous deaths, Jonas in a mot...

Bloodstone is the third and final volume of David Gemmell's Jon Shannow trilogy, and it brings the saga of the Jerusalem Man to a close with all of Gemmell's customary style and grace. I have said of both earlier books that I consider them among Gemmell's finest work, and I will say it again here; m...

Boy's Life is a speculative fiction novel by Robert R McCammon. Boy's Life is a masterpiece of magic and mystery, of splendors of growing up in a small town, and of the wonders beyond. Narrated by one of the most engaging young voices in modern fiction, Boy's Life takes us back to our own childhoods...

This is the second book in The Bookman Histories, the first being The Bookman and I would suggest you start with that first. Although Camera Obscura would stand alone you may find a few references confusing. Once again Tidhar has constructed a masterpiece of a novel. His steampunk world where Lizard...

Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling is a unique offering that manages to create a Victorian gothic-esque supernatural adventure that manages to create a tangible feeling of suspense. Set within an ancient, remote manor house, the story begins with the murder of Nanny Prum - carer for James a...

City of Dreams & Nightmare is the debut novel from Ian Whates and published by Angry Robot Books. The first in a new series of novels, the story is set against the vertical city of Thaiburley. Thaiburley, known as the "City of a Hundred Rows" is an incredible creation of towering majestic heights an...

Cold Light of Day is a contemporary horror novel by Paul Cave. Student Josh Sawyer's passionate encounter with Anna, a beautiful and mysterious young woman, was one that would change his life forever. He must come to terms with Anna's deep, dark and terrifying secrets - that thrust him into a nightm...

Dead by Dawn is the 7th novel in the Jason Dark series by Guido Henkel. A woman in good health dies overnight, and to make matters worse it's Jason Dark's next door neighbour who's snuffed it, something wicked is at work in London town. As his investigation leads him down to the seedy underbelly of...

I’m going to start by saying that this isn’t usually a book I’d consider reading, my usual reads being Sci-Fi and Fantasy (usually humorous), or history books, but I was very surprised and really, really enjoyed it. The book is seen through the eyes of a Collector, Sam Thornton, who collects the sou...

Death Most Definite is an urban fantasy novel by Trent Jamieson. Steven de Selby has a most unusual career, he helps spirits pass to the underworld, and stops Zombies (stirrers) walking the earth. He and his parents are necromancers, also known as "pomps". This being the 21st century, these pomps ha...

There have been thousands of years of conflict between humans and parahumans, a war that's been happening in secret has finally reached an uneasy truce. But now this peace is threatened by the awakening of an unspeakable evil, a sadistic serial killer who is slaughtering teenage shapeshifters and ri...

I’m already a fan of Landy’s previous work, Demon Road shows some of the same great dialogue and riveting narrative that made his Skulduggery Pleasant series such a great read. But his latest offering is definitely darker in tone and content, with murderous demon parents, twisted witches, and even t...

Dodger, a young sewer "tosher" who works beneath the streets of Victorian London is guided along series of events that will transform his life and those around him. It all starts when a young women is beset upon by two ruffians and Dodger rescues the young lady from certain death. I was quite surpri...

Tim's middle names should be has super because there just isn't really any other explanation as to how someone can write the way he does. This is nowhere more evident than in his Fault Lines Trilogy and in particular the finale of the story — Earthquake Weather . The book is set within the San Frans...

Eragon is the first volume in the Inheritance Cycle and has been written by Christopher Paolini. Eragon, a 15-year-old boy and lives with his uncle and cousin on a farm near a small village. While hunting in a large range of mountains nearby, Eragon is surprised to see a polished blue stone appear i...

Fake Chronicles: Fakrilias is a young adult fantasy novel and the first in a series by Ulysses Gerdes. Around every corner, behind every person, underneath every stone, lies a dark past in Zeibesia. War, greed, and murder are but few of the troubles many have faced. In Fake World, the worst dwell, t...

Abarrach, the World of Stone is just that: lava, stone, poisonous fumes, and precious little food that can be grown. The peoples of Abarrach rely on giant rune-inscribed stone pillars called colossi to provide warmth and breathable atmosphere, but the colossi have been failing slowly for many years....

In the sensational sequel to Poison Study and Magic Study, Yelena's apprenticeship is over - now her real test has begun. When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder - able to capture and release souls - spreads like wildfire, people grow uneasy. Already Yelena's unusual abilities and past have set her ap...

Brandon Sanderson needs little introduction: wantonly imaginative; rollicking action scenes; well thought-out magic systems. Firefight, the second book in his YA Reckoners series is perhaps less well known, and centres on a group of humans in post-apocalyptic American cities hunting evil X-Men - sor...

Adrian sul’Han, known by the nickname Ash, is a powerful healer who wants revenge. After being forced into hiding after a series of murders throws the queendom into chaos, Ash went into training for healing. During his summer’s off, he would exact revenge on the important political figures of Arden,...

Fool Moon is the second book in the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and once again we meet up with Chicago's only professional wizard and one of only a dozen of his power in the country. Since we left Harry business has been pretty non-existant and he's been unable to find any kind of work at all munda...

A steampunk fantasy set in a world that draws some uncomfortable inspiration from our own, Foreign Devils is the sequel to John Hornor Jacobs’ The Incorruptibles and follows the adventures of Fisk and Shoe – two would be mercenaries making their way through a world of demons, feral elves and worse....

Full Dark House is the first novel in the long running series that follows the enigmatic detectives Bryant and May as they attempt to solves crimes that few would dare to touch. The novel begins in a very unexpected and quite brilliant manner, by one of the main characters dying in a large explosion...

For those who have never met them, Gotrek and Felix are unsung heroes of the Warhammer fantasy Empire, the dwarven slayer* Gotrek Gurnisson and his human rememberer Felix Jaeger are the stuff of legend and have been featured in 13 novels, numerous short stories, the Warhammer fantasy Battle game and...

Harbinger of the Storm is the second volume in the Obsidian and Blood series of novels by Aliette de Bodard, and follows on from the events in Servant of the Underworld, both published by Angry Robot Books. One and a half years have passed since the events in Servant of the Underworld and the Empero...

Another episode is the Mountain Man series always brings a degree of eagerness; not only with knowledge that you just know the dialogue will be entertaining but in the authors wonderfully rewarding tone too; Hellifax is no exception. Gus, the reluctant hero of the previous two Mountain Man novels is...

In the Shadow of Swords is the first volume in the Tales of Ciris Sarn by Val Gunn. When the legendary killer Ciris Sarn ends a life in an empty city plaza with a single dagger thrust, little does he know that an insidious game has been triggered by the brutal slaying. Turning predator into prey, th...

On Abarrach, Xar is attempting to learn the secret of necromancy, but he needs a corpse to test it on. He interrogates the lazar Kleitus about the location of any living Sartan, and Kleitus reveals that Haplo lied to Xar about all the Sartan dying at the hands of the dead; Balthazar and his group re...

So here we have the return of Johannes Cabal, a little older, maybe a little wiser; at the very least more "complete" than he was, this time he's attempting to steal a rare book in his continued quest to understand how to defeat death. Captured in the act and awaiting execution Cabal is forced to re...

King Rat is the debut of the award winning British author China Miéville. The novel begins with Saul returning from a camping trip to the top floor flat he shares with his father, deciding not to wake him he goes straight to bed. In the early hours of the following morning he is rudely awakened by t...

Some books arrive in your life at exactly the right moment and lodge there for good, and Konrad is one of those for me. I came to it as a young reader, at a time when the Warhammer world was still new and strange and dangerous in my imagination, and whatever its flaws, and I will be honest about the...

Legends of Marithia is a fantasy novel by Peter Koevari. After her sorceress mother and vampire father are horrifically murdered right in front of her, Kassina makes a pact with the Lord of Darkness Shindar and swears revenge over the lands responsible for her parents demise. With Sindar's help she...

Logic of Demons: The Quest for Nadines Soul is a contemporary fantasy novel by H A Goodman. Devin's life has been ripped to pieces, his wife raped and murdered while still carrying his unborn child, revenge is the only thing that drives his continued existence. He listens as his father-in-law counse...

London Falling is the first in Paul Cornell's Shadow Police series. For those who don't know, Paul Cornell is an award winning author who writes across a variety of media and one of only two people to have been Hugo nominated for prose, TV and comics. He's also written a number of Doctor Who stories...

The wolves are howling outside the city of Constantinople and mysterious sorcery plagues its citizens. On a field of battle littered with the dead and dying stumbles a ragged figure dressed in wolfskin and wreaking of death. Slipping past the guards he enters the tent of the Emperor and draws his sw...

Mockingbird reunites us with that wonderfully screwed-up, dark and acerbic character of Miriam Black; the girl who has the (mis)fortune to witness how someone will depart this mortal coil with just a simple contact of skin. Some time has passed since we last met that crazy bird and after a lifetime...

Reviewed by Ed Prior. Moon Over Soho is the second novel in Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series about Metropolitan Police Constable and trainee wizard Peter Grant and his magical mentor DCI Thomas Nightingale. Moon Over Soho finds PC Peter Grant still living with the fallout from his first enc...

Nekropolis is the first volume in a new series of fantasy horror, written by Tim Waggoner and is based on his novella Necropolis. Matt Richter is a former cop now a private eye with a big difference, he is a zombie (could happen to anyone really). A zombie private detective does have it's advantages...

San Francisco Homicide detective Bryan Clauser thinks he may be losing his mind. What other explanation could there be for the dreams he keeps having, dreams where he witnesses some really gruesome murders that also happen to be actually carried out all over the city. As he and his partner Pookie Ch...

A continuation of the story from the comic books, Powers: The Secret History of Deena Pilgrim is a standalone novel, that links into the comic book story arc. Fans of the Playstation Network TV series may notice a few inconsistencies in terms of the background of its principle character, Deena Pilgr...

Primeval: Extinction Event is an original story set within the Primeval universe and featuring the cast of the hit TV series, written by Dan Abnett and published by Titan Books. Strange anomalies are ripping holes in the very fabric of time, creating rifts that allow creatures from the distant past...

I've bought a few Abercrombie novels over the past few years, partly due to the huge amount of positive feedback his work attracts but also as he is a fellow Lancastrian, hailing from the same fine city as I. Due to the sheer volume of review copies I receive I've yet to have time to actually read a...

It's funny how even if you follow a genre closely you can still miss some pretty successful authors, I guess that there are just so many novels published nowadays that this will become increasingly common. I haven't read anything by Holly Black before but I have been aware of her work without realis...

Werewolves are often given second place to those pale undead that are now thankfully on the wane, where one wanes another waxes and perhaps 2013 will be year of the werewolf - it will if Red Moon has anything to do with it. The novel is set in an alternate world where werewolves are not only real bu...

Return to Canifis is the sequel to Betrayal at Falador, set within the Runescape Universe and written by T S Church. Varrock is considered to be one of the greatest cities in the known world, but even here danger lurks - people have been dissapearing, or their bodies discovered ripped apart. Some ar...

Rivers of London is an urban fantasy novel by Ben Aaronovitch. Peter Grant was just a probationary constable in the Metropolitan Police Force and faced a life in the drudgery of the Case Progression Unit (doing paperwork so real coppers don't have to). Then one night, on a cold, wet night while inve...

Sanctus is a mystery detective novel and the debut of Simon Toyne. An enigmatic citadel sits atop a steep mountain, overlooking the ancient Turkish city of Ruin. One of the oldest and most secretive inhabited places on earth is about to draw the attention of the world as a symbolic suicide set's off...

Serial Killers Incorporated is a dark urban fantasy novel by Andy Remic and published by Anarchy Books. Callaghan is a drug and drink fuelled, womanising, amoral, hardcore photographer for the tabloid rag Black & White. He's a guy with very few redeeming features (if any) and his journey on the road...

Servant of the Underworld is the debut novel from a rising star in the fantasy world, Aliette de Bodard. Acatl is the high priest of the Dead for the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan. It is his role to oversee the dead making sure they receive the correct rituals and rites of passage into the next...

ShadowBreed is the second book of David Ferring's Konrad trilogy, and it picks up the instant the first volume leaves off, ramping the violence and the strangeness up considerably. If you have not read Konrad , start there; this is not a series to come into halfway, whatever the occasional bursts of...

In the holy city of Othir treachery and corruption are rife, the ideal breeding ground for any freelance assassins with no scruples. Caim is one of the best, living on the edge of a blade he has carved out an impeccable reputation but when he reluctantly takes on a job at very short notice he finds...

Snowblind follows the events of a small town of Coventry in the US state of Massachusetts which appears to have something of a unique storm. Not only a storm where people go missing or are killed but one that has an unearthly, supernatural twist. When the lights are extinguished demonic icicles grab...

Graham Joyce has a wonderful knack of writing about very ordinary, very real characters that lead generally ordinary lives and yet making those people not only highly engaging but also act in a realistic fashion to events around them. He then places just one small idea that is outside the realms of...

Storm Front is the first novel introducing the wizard P.I. Harry Dresden to the world, a gritty urban fantasy that manages to captivate right from the start. We join Harry as he's going through a bit of a slow patch and so when the Chicago PD asks for help with a double homicide he jumps at the chan...

String of Pearls asks the question; what if Heaven turned out to be just as dangerous as Hell? Dayson Snow has spent most of his life fighting against the greed of multinational corporations and when he arrives in Washington DC with Yumi Mihara - the love of his life - he becomes embroiled in a race...

Hank Mondale is a rough and ready P.I. who likes to drink and gamble more than he should, a lifestyle choice which has led to his landlord threatening to evict him and bookie threatening a great deal worse, he desperately needs a break. When the real estate mogul Thomas Blake calls with a paid job o...

Way before be became a household name with his Songs of Ice and Fire series, George RR Martin wrote a number of stand-out novels and Armageddon Rag is often seen as one the most off-the-wall if not his finest early works. Nominated for the Locus and World Fantasy awards it failed to gain any notable...

The Aylesford Skull is the fourth novel in the Narbondo series, following the adventures of the brilliant but eccentric Professor Langdon St. Ives and written by one of the founding fathers of the Steampunk genre - James P Blaylock. Not only has Blaylock won a number of awards, he's also been recomm...

From the books description page: The gaslight and shadows of the underground city of Recoletta hide secrets and lies. When Inspector Liesl Malone investigates the murder of a renowned historian, she finds herself stonewalled by the all-powerful Directorate of Preservation – Recoletta’s top-secret hi...

Framed for Murder and on the run, Detective Inspector Cass Jones gets unwelcome attention wherever he goes, including being hounded by his former colleagues. As he works desperately to save his kidnapped nephew and gain answers he finds himself going up against The Bank and its sinister employees on...

The City & the City is an award winning and critically acclaimed novel by China Miéville. If you are a fan of science fiction or fantasy the chances are you will already be aware of this novel, not only has it won nearly every major genre award for 2010, it also received critical acclaim from almost...

The Curse of Kali is the 10th volume in the Jason Dark series by Guido Henkel. The intrepid Inspector Lestrade needs all the help he can get after a the decapitated corpse of a rich writer is found in the hands of a statue of the Hindu goddess Kali. Not even sure if he's looking for a human killer o...

Do not read this review if you have not read the The Gunslinger - it contains spoilers for it. The Drawing of the Three (or DT2) takes off where The Gunslinger ended, with Roland lying on the beach of the western sea. The book tells the tale of Roland as he journeys along this beach and draws "the t...

One of my favourite series has now reached book four and continues to astonish and astound in the quality and conviction of the writing, the continued building of the rich tapestry that is The Courts of the Feyre and the journey of the complex characters that inhabit Shevdon's urban fantasy. The nov...

The Emperor's Edge is a speculative fiction novel by Lindsay Buroker. Amaranthe Lokdon is one of the first ever female watch officers in the city, she works harder than anyone else and yet is overlooked for promotion while others rise in the ranks around her. When ravaged bodies begin to show up on...

The Executioners Heart is the fourth novel in the Newbury and Hobbes series and follows on from the events of The Immorality Engine - although you don't need to have read that or any of the previous books to enjoy The Executioners Heart. The Queen's agents Sir Maurice Newbury and Miss Veronica Hobbe...

The Falconer by Elizabeth May is the first in what appears to be a series of books following the adventures of Lady Aileana Kameron (or Kam) as she lives the double life of daughter of the Marquess of Douglas on one hand and the life of a fairy hunter (or aforementioned Falconer) on the other.  The...

There is a bittersweet air that surrounds the publication of The Final Testimony of Raphael Ignatius Phoenix . It was the authors very first work and yet it has also proved to be his last. Paul Sussman passed away at the untimely age of 45 in May 2012. The book remained unpublished until his wife ma...

Following the horrific murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a dis-used graveyard populated by ghosts and other undead creatures of the night - completely unaware of the death of his parents. Taking pity on the innocent child the ghosts agree to raise him as their own, naming him Nobod...

Sometimes when I've read a really bad book it's hard for me to write a review about it - I just want to leave it at "this book is bad - stay away from it" and then forget about the book as fast as possible. With Stephen King's The Gunslinger it's the other way around. A short "Go buy this book at on...

The stupidity around the release of this book has grown to new heights. If somebody 10 years ago have told me that a book series would become so popular that, people would go to great lengths as breaking and entering, just to read the next volume before everybody else, I probably wouldn't have belie...

Haplo takes a submersible back to Draknor to retrieve his ship. He finds Samah there— wet, haggard, and lost. The leader of the Council has opened Death's Gate, allowing the dragon-snakes free access to all the four worlds. Haplo decides he is too tired to physically capture Samah and uses his ship...

The Heir of Night was reviewed by me for the 2012 David Gemmell Morningstar Award, which went on to win the award! I've been aware of the novel for some time now but as it was never sent to me it remained one I'd been meaning to buy and I'm very glad that I'm getting the chance to read it for the Ge...

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is the first volume in the The Inheritance Trilogy and the debut of N. K. Jemisin. This review has been written for the David Gemmell Morningstar award . Yeine Darr, ruler of her people is still mourning the untimely death of her mother when she is summoned to the magni...

As someone who likes their fantasy fictions quite traditional, i.e. heroes riding on horses, rather than riding subways, I was a little apprehensive of The Immortals (Olympus Bound) by Jordanna Max Brodsky. However I was pleasantly surprised. The story is set in modern day Manhattan, where our 'kick...

The King of the Crags is the follow up to The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas. Prince Jehal is now reaping the fruits of his new found power after murdering, poisoning and backstabbing his way to the top, enjoying the confidence (and Bed) of the new speaker. Those loyal to the old regime are still...

The Last Wish is the first of two short story collections that precede the main Witcher Saga, written by the polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The majority of the stories that make up this novel were originally published in the Polish science fiction magazine Fantastyka which have been intertwined wi...

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun is a previously unknown work written by the late JRR Tolkien over 80 years ago. Edited by his son Christopher, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun tells the story of the Norse legend Sigurd the dragon slayer, the revenge of his wife, Gudrun, and the Fall of the Nibelungs....

The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster was a rollercoaster ride from start to finish. Though it begins a little bit slow, as more and more threads are strung together for the reader, everything picks up. I love the storyline, I love the characters, and I love the settings. In modern San Francisco, Annab...

Review by Ed Prior. Homeless young orphan Locke Lamora is deemed not "circumspect" enough to make it as a thief. Narrowly escaping a swift death he is packed off to be a disciple at the temple of the Crooked Warden, the god of Fate and Fortune - patron of thieves and rogues. Locke soon learns the te...

Kelsea Glynn is the only heir to the throne of Tearling but rather than growing up surrounded by servants and sophistication she has been raised in a woods by foster parents, in secret. Mostly this is due to her real mothers failings - Queen Elyssa was murdered for ruining the kingdom and for 18 yea...

The Rook is a surprisingly impressive piece of fiction, managing to turn a literary device often used to provide back story into an integral part of the story. Myfanwy Thomas wakes one morning in a London park surrounded by bodies wearing latex gloves, somewhat battered and bruised and with no memor...

The most tragic tale from the Time of Legends tells of the fall of the greatest houses of the elves and the fates of three kings: Pheonix, Witch and Shadow. There was once a time when all was order, now so distant that no mortal creature can remember it. Since time immemorial the elves have dwelt up...

One the greatest advantages of this ever shrinking world is being able to read stories that break out of the "western" mindset. Initially The Throne of the Crescent Moon may seem like a traditional sword & sorcery that was a stable of fantasy in the 80's however look a little deeper and you will fin...

The Troll Hunter is a heroic fantasy novel by Keith Blackmore. Fresh from the battle infirmaries, a band of rogues, cuts throats and killers return to duty and are ordered north through the war torn country. They know nothing of their mission except that they must protect a mysterious Koch (armoured...

The Twyning is the story of young ratling Efren, born into a time of change for the Kingdom of rats that live beneath the city streets. After the King is assassinated by a human scientist Dr Henry Ross-Gibbon the whole rat society is in turmoil. This death is just the start though, with the Doctor o...

The new king of Thendylath Gavin Kinshield has vowed to protect the realm and it's people from the evil of the Beyonders - creatures of chaos who appear without warning and invade the world of men to wreak havoc. For this though he will need an army and of course a huge amount of funds to support su...

Tomorrow the Killing returns to that hive of villainy that is Low Town and to our guide through these mean streets, the Warden. Following on from The Straight Razor Cure and the Warden is back to his usual tricks, that is until he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a missing persons case that opens up...

Turn Coat is the eleventh book in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and as ever, events have a habit of turning against Harry Dresden. This time his help is being sought from the most unlikely of people - Morgan, the warden who has persecuted Harry mercilessly in the past. Morgan is on the run after being...

Ceda fights in the pits of Sharakhai, scraping a living like so many in the city known as "the amber jewel of the desert". She, like most, pray for an end to the tyrannical and cruel rule of the city by it's immortal Kings. She has, until now never been in a position to do anything about it. That al...

V.E Schwab’s Vicious is a superhero novel, but perhaps not the one you’d expect. There’s no comic action, no explosions, no duels in the sky before frightened citizens. Those with powers work in the background, still regarded as a myth or urban legends. Vicious is about what happens when two college...

Waking the Witch is an urban fantasy novel by Kelley Armstrong. Savannah is a young, powerful witch who can't resist a chance to throw her magical weight around with her first chance at a real investigation involving a triple murder. At 21 she also knows it's her first chance to prove to her guardia...

As with many urban fantasy detective novels, Whispers Underground starts with the discovery of a body. On this occasion its an American exchange student with a wealthy, politically powerful family who is found brutally murdered at the far end of the Baker street tube station. With the pressure of an...

White Knight marks the ninth book in Jim Butchers urban fantasy series featuring Chicago's first and only Wizard P.I. Regular visitors to SFBook may be aware that we are (slowly) reviewing the series. Those who haven't read any of the Dresden Files would be better starting at the beginning with Stor...

Zoo City is an Urban fantasy novel by the South African author Lauren Beukes. Zinzi December is a woman with a gift, and perhaps a curse - over ten years ago a remarkable and disturbing event changed the lives of many, and the world in general. Those who have committed the crime of murder, or otherw...

The best thing about Amanda Foody’s debut lies in the title itself. Her ‘Burning City’ is an immersive, sensory experience that rivets from the very first page. The smoke from her traveling circus wafts off the page, the dirt and ash from the trodden ground almost tangible on the tongue. The ‘freaks...

Hallowdene is the second book in the Wychwood series, a crime thriller that weaves into the story supernatural elements. Elspeth Reeves is making a new life for herself in a quiet, sleepy village near Oxford, having escaped the hectic life of London. As a journalist for the local paper, she is often...

Where do dreams go when we forget them? Do they dissipate into the ether, or do they settle somewhere? This is the intriguing premise of Tyler Hayes’ The Imaginary Corpse , an alternative detective noir novel. How alternative? It stars a stuffed toy triceratops private investigator called Tippy who...

I picked this book up some time ago as I like tales of immortality and time and what not, and it seemed intriguing that the same author who wrote The boy in the striped pajamas  would write an historical fantasy. Of course it's one of those books that people who don't like fantasy will tell you it i...

The first in the Eidyn series, The Lost War begins its story part way through, in the aftermath of a ruinous war for the kingdom of Eidyn. The location of the opening scenes, in a tavern no less, and the easy interplay of two of the main characters Aranok the draoidh and Allandria, his bodyguard and...

Dragons get a bad press. They may have been known to ransack a few villages and eat people, but if they were left alone, they would not bother you. They are, of course, extinct now. If one or two of them remained where would they hide? Somewhere remote enough to be away from crowds carrying pitchfor...

The past twenty years or so has seen a massive increase in the visibility of Superheroes. The likes of Superman , Batman and Spiderman have been around for decades, but the market is so rich that many niche properties are having their time in the sun. The boom has not only promoted Superheroes, but...

A brief admission to start. I've just finished Twelve Months and realised, slightly to my embarrassment, that I never actually got round to writing a review for Battle Ground . So here, six years late, is that review. I will keep this one largely spoiler-free; the events of Battle Ground are by now...

Life in a Fantasy novel is often epic. A grand journey to destroy a ring or a fight to the death against an invading force. Our heroes rush from one end of the land on a mission , but if you look behind them you may see some of the normal people pass in a blur. The shopkeepers, the local police, the...

One of the wonderful things about genre fiction is that an author can take their imagination anywhere and run with it. I can imagine a lot of things, but an alternative urban fantasy that has Knights on motorbikes. That is a new on me. Laure Eve’s  Blackheart Knights  takes some of the essence of th...

Watching television in the 70s and 80s was less about choice and more about just watching what was on. You only had four channels and not much catered for children, we would watch anything. Re-runs of  The Land of the Giants  or  Star Trek  became the bread and butter of Sunday viewing. It was not a...

I find it amazing how easy it is to miss things that are right on your doorstep. I grabbed this book online (not by choice, this was before the shops had re-opened) because I was after some easy reading. I often find good urban fantasy easy and immersive. It was only after actually picking the book...

Urban Fantasy is its own distinct genre from Fantasy as it takes the essence of swords, orcs and elves and brings them into an urban setting. Having read a lot of this sub-genre, it has increasingly become a victim of its own tropes. A lot of Urban Fantasy feels the same. P. Djeli Clark has created...

Secrets are powerful. They can make or break someone. In the alternative Edwardian England of Freya Marske’s  A Marvellous Light  there is a magical society of people who hide their powers. This is a big secret to keep, but there are others. Both Robin Blyth and Edwin Courcey have another secret, th...

I have read many genre books and I see trends in what is currently popular or going through a period of high quality. The dark gothic fairy tale is having a moment in the sun as I have recently read some excellent stories that hark back to a feel of past fables but are their own modern take. T Kingf...

Everyone knows the story of Sleeping Beauty, or do they? Malice by Heather Walter retold the story leading up to Aurora falling asleep, but with far more detail on Aurora and her relationship with Alyce, the person responsible for her curse. Misrule opens 100 years later and tells the second part of...

Are you a night person or a day person? Do you like to wake up at 5am and then go to the gym before a full day at work and an early night? Perhaps you like to wake up in time for Bargain Hunt and work from home into the late hours? Either way, you are you. The night owl and the early bird, same pers...

Destiny is a tricky thing as it is something that you should not be aware of. I want to be surprised if it turns out that I save the world, or perhaps destroy it. Some characters have their destiny thrust upon them from a young age and are told what it will be. Anton is a Blade Priest for Craithe, t...

The supernatural has always worked well with noir as they are both genres of the night. It is only an undead hop and skip between a detective finding a corpse in the alley and that corpse waking up. Conan Doyle walked the line between the supernatural and the super-real, Holmes always discovered tha...

Having grown up in a village, life there had its pros and its cons. There is a real sense of community, and everyone knows each other. Great, but also not so great. Any small incident can become gossip, no matter how benign, so I can only imagine what would happen should a fire break out and a body...

I have read more than my fair share of fantasy novels and I love them. As a rule, they fall into a couple of camps on how they are narrated – from a single point of view, or through the eyes of several people, normally 3-7. Leaping from one character and back again works in the genre as it gives you...

There is something about Low Fantasy that makes it such a good genre. It is not the violence, swearing or muckraking, it is the people. Reading a fantasy book where the heroes are not in white and the villains in black. In J. L Worrad’s The Keep Within the nominal hero is one Sir Harrance 'Harry' La...

One of the many lessons that I have learned in life is that you do not mess with Mummies. Either kind. Annoying a new mother who is trying to get their child onto the bus if dangerous and only equalled by an antient Egyptian Mummy rising from the dead. The Mummies in Lisa Tuttle’s The Curious Case o...

Advances in forensic science can feel like magic from the discovery that we all had unique fingerprints to the use of DNA to catch criminals, but what would you do in a world were magic exists? Can science be used to solve crimes committed by magic? The Undetectables believe so, they use their scien...

There are two ways of writing fiction set in the Victorian era; set a fictional book in the real era or write within the Victorian multiverse. This is a playground that I have read many books in, a world where Sherlock Holmes can investigate new cases, but also one in which he can work alongside Mr...

The locked room scenario is a classic of the crime genre and does not have to mean just a locked room but the idea of a contained place that holds all the victims, suspects, and clues within. A monastery perched atop a remote island only passable when the tide is low would be a perfect place for thi...

I have read a lot of magical books in recent years and the genre is not rigid. There are books that are steeped in magic, the reader unsure what is real and what is fake. Other books like A. G. Slatter’s The Briar Book of the Dead have a sense of magical realism to them. Yes, the witches can curse p...

I love Fantasy and read enough to know that there are so many layers to the genre; from high to low, from Tolkien, through the Golden Age to modern darker fantasy. The genre twists and turns through the ages. A lot of modern Fantasy is shorter and darker, and I miss a stonking big slice of High Fant...

Forget Marvel and their Marvelverse, the place that I want to be is in Christian Klaver’s Victorianverse. This is an alternative history of the era, but also of the fiction of the time. In the author’s 'The Classified Dossier’ series, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson have already come across the li...

It feels like we take science for granted in the modern world; buildings that tower into the sky, above them flying machines made from metal. Stop and think for a moment at how wonderous all these advances have been, how we use the internet to communicate today, or how a simple invention like the LE...

You should be careful what you wish for, but also careful what you promise. Are you going to be able to live up to the hype? Arcadia Books are pretty pumped with James Logan’s The Silverblood Promise stating that it is the best fantasy debut of the year. Let me be the judge of that and having read t...

History is facinating, but we often focus on the big characters, the big battles. Whilst King’s were being beheaded and bombs dropped, people kept on peopleling. The history of the normal person can be forgotten, but we exist too. What happened to the normal person on the street when organised relig...

What is the fantasy genre? It is not just one thing. You can have elves and orcs battling against the backdrop of high wizardry, but you can also write something simpler. Low fantasy is getting so low that it starts to feel like alternative medieval history. Like why write about real history when yo...

What is Fantasy if it is not epic battles against elves and orcs? Fans of the genre know that it can be a lot of other things than just that. Some of the best modern fantasy that I have read have been smaller stories set in fantasy worlds. How about a Die Hard-like experience set in a castle where a...

There is a long tradition of Folk Horror in the UK, but plenty of other countries bring their own flavour to the genre. American Gothic has all the trappings of classic Folk Horror, but has that distinct US flavour. The woods out there seem different, ancient landscapes unused to the people that roc...

For any author magic is a tricky beast as you can easily paint yourself into the corner. You can make the magic too powerful, or you can develop a whole magic system that is unbalanced. Things become even trickier when you add those tricksy Fae. Fairy magic is all about breaking rules on a contract...

I always forget how unpleasant some of the antiheros were in Victorian era fantasy and science fiction. In my mind I think of the era being full of ladies and gentlemen, but there were plenty of loathsome people too. Looking back on the working conditions and how society treated its poor, perhaps I...

I adore the fantasy genre and as someone who reads it a lot, I have seen the ebbs and flows in the genre over the years. There have always been outliers, but there is a certain style of fantasy that dominated for each of the decades. Until recently, I have read a lot of Low Fantasy, a genre low on m...

I have not read the synopsis of a book I am about to read for over twenty years, ever since I read a spoiler on the back of the novel that revealed the massive twist that occurred two thirds of the way through. I will have to add Series Titles to the list of things not to read as The Vengeance by Em...

I have not lived in the village I grew up in over twenty years, but I still talk about going home when I am visiting. Where I live now has been my home for longer, but there is something about those formative years that make a place always feel like home. I return to see family, but for some people,...

The fantasy genre is a form of comfort reading for me. The genre often follows similar tropes, and you can get into the rhythm of the story quickly. However, increasingly often in modern fantasy, authors are creating new and challenging ideas to shake up the genre. Magical systems are an area you ca...

How do you like your science fiction and fantasy? I will admit to being someone who loves a simple and accessible tale, but the genres can offer so much more than this. There are few genres better equipped to take a reader to truly alien places, to worlds that feel like they were designed in a fever...

I read a lot of genre fiction that has been mixed with a crime drama as it is an excellent way of giving a story a solid throughline. A murder mystery can concentrate the narrative when exploring a high concept Science Fiction world. It is also a great way of giving grit to an Urban Fantasy story, g...

In the fantasy that I usually read Regicide is usually the goal for the end of the book. In fact, I have read entire trilogies in which the protagonist is trying to kill a royal. You get the sense that Evan Leikam is going to tackle things a little differently in Anji Kills a King when the first sce...

I have read a lot of epic fantasy, and it comes in many flavours, but it does not always feel like it. Often, it feels like an alternative Medieval Europe with a few elves thrown in. This is less so today as innovative ideas and visions come to the genre, taking a typical fantasy novel and giving it...

The fantasy genre has the reputation of producing books big enough that you could use as a casual seat, trilogies that you could line up, throw some cushions on top and make into a settee. It does not have to be this way and T Kingfisher has certainly bucked the trend with Clockwork Boys, which come...

Conan was a character that had a rich and long life. You may be a fan of the films and only imagine the man as a loincloth wearing barbarian, cleaving the heads of various cult leaders. That is a large part of his appeal, but he was also a bandit leader, pirate and eventually a King. In fact, he was...

If you could invite anyone to a winter retreat, who would it be? Family, friends, someone famous. What you should never do is invite a detective, anytime you do, someone always seems to end up dead. In the case of  Jekyll & Hyde: Winter Retreat  by Tim Major, you get two private detectives for the p...

How do you push a story forward? One method used in movies is known as a MacGuffin, a meaningless plot device that someone must find that will drive all their intentions. It does not happen as often in literature, but in the case of The Blackfire Blade by James Logan it has one of the most Macguggin...

I like when a genre becomes so embedded that as a whole, we can play with it. This has happened for years in comic books, even the films are so prevalent now that you get plenty of leftfield superhero movies. One genre that has been around longer and has even deeper roots is Fantasy, but has it expl...

I am not sure if readers have noticed, but we have quietly entered a new Golden Era of Fantasy writing. There is a handful or more of established fantasy authors who have the experience and skill to be writing at the top of their game. Fantasy novels that are not just simple retellings of old tropes...