Book review

The Phantom of Thomas Hardy by Floyd Skloot

Litchfield Reviews The Phantom of Thomas Hardy by Floyd Skloot for the Colorado Review

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Colorado Review book review by Nicholas Litchfield: American memoirist, novelist, and poet Floyd Skloot nimbly crosses the gorge between fact and fiction in his uniquely inventive The Phantom of Thomas Hardy. Part travelogue, part memoir, part novel, this semi-autobiographical and semi-biographical endeavor is multifaceted and blends the various categories so thoroughly that the result is comparable to a rich, smooth-textured cocktail with a faintly peculiar flavor.

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Saratoga Payback by Stephen Dobyns

Litchfield Reviews Saratoga Payback by Stephen Dobyns for the Lancashire Post

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Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: After an absence of almost 20 years, Stephen Dobyns’ popular laconic hero, former police sergeant turned private eye Charlie Bradshaw, makes a welcome return to the sleuthing world in a lively tale of multiple murder, mutilation and horse-napping.

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Date with the Executioner by Edward Marston

Litchfield Reviews Date with the Executioner by Edward Marston for the Lancashire Post

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Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: In the latest novel in the highly addictive Bow Street Rivals series, identical-twin detectives Peter and Paul Skillen are embroiled in a dangerous case of treachery, fraud and murder involving two ill-matched duellists sparring over a beautiful woman.

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Angels Flight by Lou Cameron

Litchfield Reviews Angel’s Flight by Lou Cameron for the Lancashire Post

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Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: Reprinted for the first time in 57 years comes a hard-hitting crime noir tour de force charting a gutsy musician’s bruising journey through the cut-throat American music business during the Dirty Thirties to the Fabulous Fifties.

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A Garden Fed by Lightning by Marshall Moore

Litchfield Reviews A Garden Fed by Lightning by Marshall Moore for the Colorado Review

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Colorado Review book review by Nicholas Litchfield: Throughout A Garden Fed by Lightning, the third story collection from Marshall Moore, the quality of the writing is consistently sharp, continually impressive. Infused with an element of the fantastical, many of the stories, initially appearing straightforward and grounded in reality, veer off into unexpected, outlandish territory, and, more often than not, characters are not what they seem.

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Book review: The Bertie Project by Alexander McCall Smith

Litchfield Reviews The Bertie Project by Alexander McCall Smith for the Lancashire Post

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Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: Love and marriage, freedom and loneliness, and risk and misadventure are some of the themes in the latest instalment of prolific, bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith’s delightfully witty 44 Scotland Street series.

The Bertie Project, the eleventh novel in the immensely popular series focused on the lives of a small community of people inhabiting a somewhat Bohemian corner of Edinburgh’s New Town, finds many of the streets best-loved residents buffeted by the winds of change.

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Book review: Death and the Naked Lady and The Lady and the Cheetah_John Flagg

Litchfield Reviews Death and the Naked Lady and The Lady and the Cheetah by John Flagg in the Lancashire Post

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Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: John Flagg, pseudonym of American crime writer John Gearon who died in 1970, delivers a barrage of murder and mayhem in two fabulous 1951 mysteries… with the added bonus of a suspense-packed short story.

Litchfield Reviews Death and the Naked Lady and The Lady and the Cheetah by John Flagg in the Lancashire Post Read More »

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