Category Archives: Literature

Book Review: Omar El Akkad ~ American War

Posted on August 14, 2018 by odeboyz

Omar was born in Egypt, lived in Qatar and is now a Canadian. This matters, American War is a dystopian novel set in the late 21st century. America is engaged in a vicious civil war. Climate change has caused havoc … Continue reading →

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Book review: Anonymous ~ The Secret Barrister: stories of the Law and How It’s Broken

Posted on August 7, 2018 by odeboyz

The Secret Barrister quickly establishes his non-traditional background. He was educated at a comprehensive school and isn’t a high-flyer. His post-2000 career has been blighted by reductions in legal aid payments. He offers many examples of stellar legal work but … Continue reading →

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Book Review: A A Dhand ~ Girl Zero

Posted on July 31, 2018 by odeboyz

The hackneyed British thriller genre featuring maverick Detective Inspectors is moved on by Dhand. Detective Inspector Harry Virdee is British-Asian brought up in Bradford where his father owned a corner shop. As a teenager Harry murdered a thief who was … Continue reading →

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Chris Grayling: A Tory extremist

Posted on July 27, 2018 by odeboyz

…. Chris Grayling MP, Secretary of State for Justice between 2012 and 2015, announced his populist plans to make prisons, already hideous tombs of violence, death and terror, ‘less lax’ and more ‘spartan’, introducing severe restrictions on prisoners’ ‘privileges’ – … Continue reading →

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Book Review: John Burdett – Bangkok Eight

Posted on June 5, 2018 by odeboyz

John Burdett’s book is a very exotic thriller. Burdett begins Bangkok Eight with a murder. Unlike routine thrillers this murder isn’t crude and obvious. This murder is exquisite in its sophistication. Bangkok Eight hasn’t anything like the Anglo-Saxon thriller genre. … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Keigo Higashino – The Devotion of Suspect X (translated by Alexander O Smith)

Posted on May 8, 2018 by odeboyz

Those of us who read a lot of Anglo-American thrillers are used to a particular narrative arc. There’s usually a sadistic murder say of a woman/women, a maverick Detective Inspector accompanied by a hero-worshipping sergeant, who solve the crime. Often … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Andre Aciman – Call me by your name

Posted on May 1, 2018 by odeboyz

Aciman’s wonderfully sensitive book about a teenager’s rite-of-passage proved eminently translatable to the big screen. It was a wonderful film but the book is possibly(?) better. Aciman sets his novel in an erudite hot-house intellectual atmosphere. Elio, the son of … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Mohsin Hamid ~ How to get filthy rich in Rising Asia

Posted on April 24, 2018 by odeboyz

When your first book is The Reluctant Fundamentalist the bar is set very high indeed for subsequent books. The temptation is to write the same book again. I have in mind Lee Child, Ian Rankin et al. who write scores … Continue reading →

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Book review: Anthony Trollope~ The way we live now (1875)

Posted on April 17, 2018 by odeboyz

If you want a long (780 pages) novel that you can wallow in like a warm bath that doesn’t get cold and sweeps along with brilliant writing this is for you. Trollope wrote this in 100 chapters, which were published … Continue reading →

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Book Reviews: Jason Matthews~ Red Sparrow and Palace of Treason

Posted on April 10, 2018 by odeboyz

Fortunately I saw the film first. I rated the film as excellent but the book is far better. Matthews must have been paid an awful lot of money for film rights as there are significant U turns in both the … Continue reading →

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