Book Reviews

A new DI Bill Slider novel by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is to be savoured.

A young woman is stabbed to death while jogging in a London park.

She is the third to die in six weeks and Slider hates serial killers. This victim has a modest income but an expensive lifestyle and at first there are suspicions as to where she gets her money.

Every one of her friends and people she works with speak of her as a kindly, lovely girl -- so what caused someone to kill her?

Very readable, the novel also follows Slider's private life with his pregnant partner.

Highly recommended.

Pam Spencer

A Penny for Tomorrow -- Jeannie Johnson

It is 1953 and Coronation year. And although it's a time to look forward, three Bristol women are still dealing with the consequences of the past.

Charlotte is dedicated to repatriating Polish refugees and has little time for her daughter, Polly dreams of a better life in Australia, while Edna lives only for her wounded husband and her young family but can't protect them from either her past or their future.

Only a second novel for Jeannie Johnson, published in hardback by Orion Books. Although rather laboured it raises well researched issues with a wide range of characters and is quite a good read.

Margaret Malpass

Cradle Song -- Robert Edric

Robert Edric's first thriller is an excellent book which held me riveted until the end.

Edric's style is neat and to the point. Without any wastage of words he vividly describes both his characters and the chill wasteland where the action takes place -- at the same time as creating an intricate plot.

Private investigator, Leo Rivers, has been approached by a wealthy businessman to investigate the death of his teenage daughter Nicola five years earlier.

A paedophile is appealing against a murder conviction, but the businessman believes he was also guilty of killing several girls including his own daughter Nicola.

Reopening the case involves Rivers unveiling the depths of depravity in which men were prepared to sink and unleashes a great deal of violence.

Beryl Simister

A Short History of Nearly Everything -- Bill Bryson

More than two decades since leaving school, I'd love to learn more about those scientific subjects I never understood in the first place.

I've read widely trying to understand physics, chemistry, biology, cosmology, palaeontology and whatnot, but now at last I've found the perfect book.

In each, popular travel writer Bill Bryson has put down his passport and instead taken a very entertaining voyage into the past.

His journey from the Big Bang to the advent of civilisation takes in every kind of scientific field as he seeks answers to all his wide-eyed questions.

Bryson's explanations of complex principles are always understandable, and are mixed liberally with entertaining accounts of the people involved in their discoveries.

This very readable paperback should be given to every school child before they're allowed to open a GCSE textbook -- and every one of their parents too.

David Knights

Elizabeth's London -- Liza Picard

Picard has produced a riveting portrayal of London at the time of Elizabeth 1 -- a warts and all description so detailed it is easy to think yourself back in an era on the brink of the enlightenment.

London then was no bigger than a large modern town mostly still within its old walls. But it was immensely cosmopolitan with immigrant residents and visitors from throughout the globe.

Picard manages to combine the scholarly -- outlining immigration, crime and poor relief --- with fascinating character portrayals and an exploration of the more trivial.

The book is divided into two sections, the first looking at old London town. The second section focuses on the people, looking at what they wore, the food they ate, the medicines they used and the amusements they enjoyed.

It is a fascinating book, every chapter filled with incident and surprise.

Clive White