Maxine’s book reviews

Publish or Perish, by Margot Kinberg

2009-11-06T12:22:39Z

Academic intrigue is deeply entrenched at Tilton University. Graduate student Nick Merrill has devised Learn It!, a computer program to help students learn English, which seems from initial trials to be very effective. Nick asks Connor Hadley, h...

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The Shadow in the Water, by Inger Frimansson

2009-11-06T12:15:26Z

Translated by Laura A. Wideburg. Six years after the events in GOOD NIGHT, MY DARLING, we re-encounter Justine Dalvik, still living in the house in the woods left to her by her father, the 'candy millionaire' whose 'Sandy Concern' bought materi...

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Hypothermia, by Arnaldur Indridason

2009-11-01T15:15:49Z

Translated by Victoria Cribb. HYPOTHERMIA is among the very best of the books I've read this year. It's the sixth of the author's Erlendur series to be translated into English; it is truly a mature, masterful and utterly fantastic book. It's a s...

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Good Night, My Darling, by Inger Frimansson

2009-11-01T15:11:17Z

Translated by Laura A. Wideburg. GOOD NIGHT, MY DARLING tells the life-story of Justine, a lonely woman in her mid-forties who lives on her own in an isolated house in the woods near a lake, somewhere in Sweden. Justine is trying to move on with ...

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The Lie, by Petra Hammesfahr

2009-11-01T15:04:26Z

Translated by Mike Mitchell. THE LIE is an "identical twins" thriller, though the two women concerned, Suzanne Lasko and Nadia Trenkler, are apparently not related. Suzanne is down on her luck - her marriage has failed, she's lost her job as a ba...

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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, by Stieg Larsson

2009-11-01T14:51:57Z

Translated by Reg Keeland. The long-awaited final part of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy reaches an English-language readership in 2009, five years after its first publication in Sweden. And it is certainly worth the wait. The story of Lisbet...

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Back to the Coast, by Saskia Noort

2009-10-21T18:39:38Z

Translated by Laura Vroomen. BACK TO THE COAST is an excellent little thriller, an easy read that can be raced through in a couple of hours and that leaves a haunting impression. The protagonist, a young rock singer called Maria, has a somewhat c...

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Close Up, by Esther Verhoef

2009-09-25T12:42:21Z

Translated by Leon Vincent. Margot Laine is an office-furnishings salesperson who calls herself an interior designer. She's recently been dumped by her husband of seven years, John, and has moved from the village where she's lived since childhood...

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Fever of the Bone, by Val McDermid

2009-09-25T12:36:22Z

FEVER OF THE BONE is the sixth in the author's series about DCI Carol Jordan and criminal psychologist Tony Hill, but you don't need to have read the previous novels to appreciate this one. It is written with multi award-winning Val McDermid's us...

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Dead Time, by Stephen White

2009-09-25T12:32:58Z

Dead Time is the latest in Steven White’s gripping series about psychologist Alan Gregory. Although it could be read as a stand-alone, I recommend reading some of the earlier books in the series first to fully appreciate the dynamics – which ar...

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