This is the second novel in Walker's very engaging series featuring Bruno Correges, chief of police in a fictional town in the Dordogne. In Dark Vineyard, Bruno has to contend with an arson attack on a barn belonging to an agricultural company experimenting with genetically-modified crops. On top of that, the arrival of an American businessman in the area with a proposal to establish a commercial winery sparks resentment and protests. When two bodies are found, the story becomes very complex and Bruno has to call on all his skill and guile to solve the mounting crime spree. Bruno himself is a

It is hard to believe that this novel, now a cult classic, was almost not published and that it was only the persistent efforts of the writer’s mother, Thelma, that saw it into print. Disheartened at being unable to have the work published, Kennedy Toole took his life and left behind a smeared carbon copy of the original manuscript that his mother discovered following his death. Thelma never gave up on the novel and eventually persuaded Walker Percy, a lecturer at Loyola University in New Orleans, to read it. Initially reluctant he was soon captivated by it and wrote the introduction to it

This is a fiendish murder mystery by celebrated Japanese crime writer Seishi Yokomizo (1902-81), which has only recently been translated into English and published by Pushkin’s Vertigo imprint. The book, set not long after the war features Yokomizo’s eccentric detective Kosuka Kindaichi who appears in seventy-seven of his crime novels, the first of which was published in1946. In this story, Kindaichi has to solve a series of bizarre murders, but first he has to figure out ‘whydunit’ before he can see ‘whodunit’.

After a robbery at the home of a senior civil servant, a criminal discovers a trove of top secret documents which he returns to the British security services. The civil servant who is an anti-communist has been passing them secretly to an official from apartheid South Africa who is in fact a KGB agent. The traitor is turned by veteran intelligence operative John Preston and his superior Sir John Irvine and forced to feed his contact disinformation.

Pale Grey for Guilt, published in 1968, is the ninth novel in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. McGee is neither a police officer nor a private investigator. Instead, he describes himself as a "salvage consultant" who recovers others' property for a fee of 50%. The plot revolves around McGee's investigation in to the death of his close friend Tush Bannon, who he suspects was murdered to acquire his waterfront property when he refused to sell to developers. Together with his friend, Meyer, a respected economist, McGee sets out to take revenge on his friend's killers. MacDonald

Raymond Chander was a failed oil industry executive who turned to writing pulp detective fiction to make ends meet. The Big Sleep was his first novel, produced by combining several of his previously published stories and introduced his private investigator, Philip Marlowe, to the world. It has since become one of the corner stones of noir crime literature and was memorably filmed in 1949 by Howard Hawkes with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The novel has a labyrinthine plot in which characters have multiple secrets and double cross each other. Marlowe is called in by the elderly General

Mary Stewart’s tales of adventure featuring intrepid heroines and square-jawed heroes have all but been forgotten now, and were probably even considered out-dated back when my mother passed on her dog-eared copies to me as a young teenager. But rereading them recently (as part of my on-going nostalgia kick) I felt again something of the thrill they once invoked in me. Long before I had ever been on a plane these books filled me with wanderlust and a determination to one day visit the locations of her most exotic thrillers.

This intriguingly titled one begins with our protagonist, Charity

When Oscar Dunleavy’s bike is found in the sea, his community marks a great loss. However, for Meg, Oscar’s best friend and his brother Stevie, things just don’t add up. In Meg’s eyes Oscar was a well liked student with a special gift for helping those in need, making this tragedy so confusing. As they search for answers, hope leads the way.

Overall the tone, pace, characterisation and structure of this work make for a truly rewarding read. In the first instance, Oscar is a wonderful character and protagonist with whom the reader can so easily empathise. This is galvanized as each strand of the

Meg Rosoff’s beautifully written coming of age story echoes classical literature. We follow a family on their annual holiday to the seaside full of sun, Great Gatsby styled summer lunches and spending time outdoors. The yearly holiday is halted when a serpent enters Eden, with the arrival of two visitors. Kit and Hugo are distant family friends who are abandoned by their mother for the summer and left with the family during their holiday. Kit and Hugo are opposites in every way. Kit is beautiful, golden and charismatic. Hugo is shy, silent, often resisting all overtures with his talent for