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Showing posts from November, 2017

FEAR by Dirk Kurbjuweit, Book Review

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‘I am guilty. I killed somebody because   I didn’t know how else to help my family. I must be punished for that and I will bear my punishment with humility.’  Would you give your life for someone else? Most societies have a concept of sacrifice. The West, to a large extent based on Judeo-Christian values, has a strong archetype of self sacrifice. You may have already considered who you, hypothetically, would give your life for. But would you kill for someone else? Would you bear both the weight of the guilt and the punishment meted out by our justice system for the sake, of say, your family? In this fascinating and well written psychological thriller set in Germany, Kurbjuweit introduces the neighbour from hell, a police force unwilling to help and a family threatened to the core of their sanity and living in fear. And a murder.  If, like me, you have had a neighbour from hell, you will thrill at this murder, revel in it, rejoice that it was committed. What you won’t e

Camino Island by John Grisham, Book Review

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John Grisham has another first – a crime book written - not for the usual suspects, but for crime authors and want-to-be bookshop owners. Camino Island brings the world of crime into the heart of the literary scene. Once again Grisham, this time as author, rather than lawyer, writes what he knows about and paints for us the world of authors, the book signing circuit, bookshop owners and the struggles of getting published. Get to know the ins and outs of running a successful bookshop, what life is like for a struggling author, the incestuous world of publishing and the shenanigans that this literary universe contains.   Grisham also outlines writing do´s and don´ts – a useful quick guide to the aspiring crime writer-reader!  The theft of Scott F. Fitzgerald’s priceless original manuscripts, which are stolen from Princeton University, form the backdrop of the story which takes us to the resort town of Camino Island, Florida. There we enter the world of the flamboyant bookshop o