The prose has a deliberate hard-boiled rhythm (the novel’s opening sentences – “Murder didn’t mean much to Raven. It was just a new job. You had to be careful…” – illustrates this as well as anything) and the suspense is…
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A review of You Are Going Away edited by Matthew Ward
Most of the stories, and particularly the three winners, have all of those qualities: are tightly structured with a conflict that pulls the reader in and drives the narrative forward, leading carefully and conclusively towards the ending. Interestingly, a large…
A review of The Secrets of Writing Successful Short Stories by Drew McAdam
If you follow McAdam’s didactic advice to the letter, you will not only end up with a file of suitable markets with a calculated fog index, word count, and samples, but you’ll end up with a ready to submit piece,…
A review of Fruit’s Burn
The style is, at times, reminiscent of kd lang’s, with its deep moody smoothness and wide range, especially on the torchier songs like “Burn“ or “Jennifer Says.” The voices move up and down the chromatic scale, toughening down low into…
Interview with Emily Raboteau
The author of The Professor’s Daughter talks about her first novel and its main character, the value of her MFA, the musical and literary sources of her inspiration, her uses of layers of direct and indirect storytelling, what she learned from writing The Professor’s Daughter, her next book, and lots more.
A review of The Professor’s Daughter by Emily Raboteau
The stories of Emma, her father Bernard, her brother Bernie, professor Lestor and Meteke form an intricate dance of stories, an impressionistic picture of life through Raboteau’s eyes. The complexity of the picture is too great to be contained by…
A review of King Harald’s Saga and Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson
This is a vigorous and intelligent account by a man who, although he played the political game badly and with fatal results, understood politics, and was able also to breathe life into his work as very few historians can. Neither…
A review of Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
Barnes has clearly done a tremendous amount of research, and even a reader who comes to this work without the slightest knowledge of Arthur Conan-Doyle will leave with a good understanding of the key events in his life, from his…
A review of The Best Australian Stories 2005
This is an accessible collection with stories that almost always add up to something which wasn’t there before. The economy and careful construction of this work is one which a serious reader will appreciate–Moorhouse has chosen well–but overall, what is…
A review of The Penultimate Peril (Book the Twelfth) by Lemony Snicket
The plot is very good, taking unexpected turns in every chapter. The most appealing thing for me though, is that the main characters, despite their young age, are heroic, and manage some very difficult tasks, getting into some situations that…