Brenden Carlson’s Night Call, available from Dundurn Press is set in the past, an alternate 1933, and yet in describing it, I lean towards the phrase retro-future noir. We are introduced to the cynical hard-boiled detective, Elias Roche, who is haunted by an incident in his past and walks a fine line between the law…
Tag: first person
The Last House on Needless Street (2021) – Catriona Ward
Catriona Ward delivers a fantastic, engaging tale that is horrific, heartbreaking, and revelatory. I discovered this title when I went searching for something scary to read, something to freak me out, and mess with my brain a bit. The Last House on Needless Street does exactly that. The book is broken up into three narratives,…
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) – Agatha Christie
This week’s Agatha Christie isn’t quite the romp of the previous entry, but like all her tales, is wonderfully engaging and entertaining as she weaves a tale of murder, secret marriages, servants, doctors, drugs, wayward sons, and hidden secrets and truths. And in the middle of it all, Hercule Poirot. This one is a bit…
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) – Agatha Christie
It’s been decades, literally decades, since I read an Agatha Christie novel, in fact I remember where I was, and though I don’t recall the title, I know that it was a Poirot mystery. Something tells me a teacher may have suggested them to me, or perhaps the school librarian. I was curious what I…
The Devil You Know (2006) – Mike Carey
UK author Mike Carey launched a new series with The Devil You Know, which sees him visiting territory that is very familiar to him considering his past writing credits, including The Girl With The Gifts as well as the comic series Lucifer, and Constantine. He treads the realm of the supernatural noir easily in a…
The Possession: The Anomaly Files #2 (2019) – Micheal Rutger
Michael Rutger puts Nolan, his friends, and shooting crew Ken, Molly, Pierre, and his ex-wife, Kristy, in harm’s way as he gives us another instalment of The Anomaly Files. The second book in the series goes in a different direction than the first, but still uses an actual unsolved mystery as a launching point. There…
The Loney (2014) – Andrew Micheal Hurley
I found this book on a list of recent horror novels, and though it is definitely spooky, readers who like concrete explanations, and horrific reveals, as well as being led from plot point to plot point may not enjoy this one. A modern Gothic tale, set in a remote part of England long the Irish…
The Spy Who Loved Me (1962) – Ian Fleming
The tenth James Bond book, and the ninth novel, is this week’s 007 Book Shelf entry, and it’s a bit of a unique creation. It’s a small, almost non-event in the life of secret agent James Bond, and is told from the first person perspective of the heroine of the tale, French-Canadian Vivienne Michel. Recently…
Star Trek: Dreadnought! (1986) – Diane Carey
When I was younger, living in Bermuda, back in 1986, I would hit the rather meagre offerings in the book racks of the American Exchange store which served Canadian, British and American forces as our mult-need department store. I would grab each Trek book I came across, and would tear through them, devouring the adventures…
The Tournament (2013) – Matthew Reilly
Matthew Reilly brings his thrill-a-minute style of writing back to the 16th century as he populates his novel with historical figures caught up in intrigue, lust and a legendary chess tournament in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople. A young English princess, Elizabeth Tudor, Bess, all of thirteen years old, accompanies her teacher Roger…
The Mind Reels 