The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
Fantasy , Garth Nix , Gollancz / October 8, 2020

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn’t get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin. Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the ...

Dead Man in a Ditch by Luke Arnold
Crime , Fantasy , Luke Arnold , Orbit / October 1, 2020

Please note, Dead Man in a Ditch is a direct sequel to the first Fetch Phillips novel, The Last Smile in Sunder City. If you want my advice, if you haven’t already, I would start there. If you don’t what follows may contain some minor spoilers. Consider yourselves suitably warned. The name's Fetch Phillips -- what do you need? Cover a Gnome with a crossbow while he does a dodgy deal? Sure. Find out who killed Lance Niles, the big-sh...

The Trials of Koli by M R Carey
M R Carey , Orbit , Sci-Fi / September 25, 2020

Please note The Trials of Koli is a direct sequel to The Book of Koli. If you haven’t read book one of The Rampart trilogy the review that follows will likely contain minor spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Beyond the walls of Koli’s small village lies a fearsome landscape filled with choker trees, vicious beasts and shunned men. As an exile, Koli’s been forced to journey out into this mysterious, hostile world. But he he...

The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercrombie
Fantasy , Gollancz , Joe Abercrombie / September 17, 2020

You know the drill. What follows is the review of the second book in a trilogy. If you’ve not read book one in this series, A Little Hatred, then it is likely there may be minor spoilers ahead. Do not tell me later that you haven’t been suitably warned. Conspiracy. Betrayal. Rebellion. Peace is just another kind of battlefield . . . Savine dan Glokta, once Adua’s most powerful investor, finds her judgement, fortune and reputation ...

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
Andrea Stewart , Fantasy , Orbit / September 10, 2020

The emperor's reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire's many islands. Lin is the emperor's daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering ...

A Burning Sea by Theodore Brun
Corvus , Historical , Theodore Brun / September 3, 2020

Please note, A Burning Sea is book three in The Wanderer Chronicles. It is highly likely that the following review will contain minor spoilers if you have not read books one and two. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Erlan Aurvandil has turned his back on the past and his native Northern lands, taking a perilous journey to the greatest city in the world, Constantinople. But as his voyage ends, Erlan is brutally betrayed, captured and ens...

Divine Heretic by Jaime Lee Moyer

Everyone knows the story of Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who put Charles VII on the throne and spearheaded France's victory over Britain before being burned by the English as a heretic and witch. But things are not always as they appear. Jeanne d'Arc was only five when three angels and saints first came to her. Shrouded by a halo of heavenly light, she believed their claim to be holy. The Archangel Michael and Saint Margaret told her she...

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Crime , Richard Osman , Viking / August 21, 2020

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved killings. But when a local property developer shows up dead, 'The Thursday Murder Club' find themselves in the middle of their first live case.  The four friends, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron, might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it'...

Night Train by David Quantick
David Quantick , Horror , News , Sci-Fi , Titan Books / August 13, 2020

A woman wakes up, frightened and alone - with no idea where she is. She's in a room but it's shaking and jumping like it's alive. Stumbling through a door, she realizes she is in a train carriage. A carriage full of the dead. This is the Night Train. A bizarre ride on a terrifying locomotive, heading somewhere into the endless night. How did the woman get here? Who is she? And who are the dead? As she struggles to reach the front of the...

Bystander 27 by Rik Hoskin
Angry Robot , Rik Hoskin , Sci-Fi / August 7, 2020

For ex-Navy SEAL Jon Hayes, the super-powered 'costumes' are just part of ordinary life in New York City, until the day his pregnant wife Melanie is senselessly killed in a clash between Captain Light and The Jade Shade. But as Hayes struggles to come to terms with his loss, and questions for the first time who the costumes are and where they come from, the once sharp lines of his reality begin to blur... If Hayes wants to uncover the s...

The Living Dead by George A. Romero & Daniel Kraus

A pair of medical examiners find themselves battling a dead man who won’t stay dead. It spreads quickly. In a Midwestern trailer park, an African American teenage girl and a Muslim immigrant battle newly-risen friends and family. On a US aircraft carrier, living sailors hide from dead ones while a fanatic makes a new religion out of death. At a cable news station, a surviving anchor keeps broadcasting while his undead colleagues try t...

A Decade of Book Waffling – The Eloquent Page is 10!
News , The Eloquent Page / July 15, 2020

The Eloquent Page sprung into life way back in 2010. I had posted a couple of reviews on my personal blog and my other half suggested I should have a bash at doing something a bit more structured. I was forever bemoaning the fact that I had nothing to occupy my spare time. Since then, I’ve spent the last decade sitting about engrossed in one book or another. Time well spent, I’m sure you’ll agree. So here we are, 772 posts later (...

Random Sh*t Flying Through The Air by Jackson Ford
Jackson Ford , Orbit , Sci-Fi , Thriller / July 9, 2020

Please note, this is a direct sequel to The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind. It is entirely possible that if you have not read book one in The Frost Files series then this review will contain something akin to minor spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya! Teagan Frost’s life is finally back on track. Her role working for the government as a psychokinetic operative is going well and she might even be on course for convincing h...