fiction

The novels of Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler started writing after being sacked from his position as a top executive in an oil company for drunkenness and failing to turn up for work. His first stories were published in the 1930s in the pulp magazine Black Mask. In his own words, ‘I spent five months over an 18,000 word novelette and sold it for $180. After that I never looked back, although I had a good many uneasy periods looking forward.’ We have five of his novels in the library.

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The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz

Reviews

Review: The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz, by Jeremy Dronfield

This book is available from the Library It is not a plot spoiler to say from the outset that both father and son survive the horrors of the death camps; we are told this in the Foreword. This true story is based on historical sources, on the very detailed research of all the archives available, and on the diary of…

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Reviews

Review: The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins

One of my favourite books is The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins.

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Reviews

Review: A Kiss Before Dying, by Ira Levin

Ira Levin wrote novels and plays, many of which have been made into very successful films. He combines mystery and intrigue with crime, horror and science fiction, and wrote his novels primarily in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The first book of Levin’s that I read was Rosemary’s Baby (written in 1967 and widely thought to have been the inspiration…

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Reviews

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

The German private detective Atticus Pünd has been invited to Saxby-on-Avon, a stereotypical 1950s English village, to investigate the death of the housekeeper at the local manor house. But when the lord of the manor also meets a violent end, Agatha Christie-like motives for his murder pop up all over the place. Yet that's not the whole story – metaphorically…

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