3+ mon, 1+ week ago   (1026+ words) As a critic, I love being proved wrong. I try to approach each book objectively, but sometimes it’s difficult to suppress the desire to judge early and fast. I picked up A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper and couldn’t help…...

3+ mon, 4+ week ago   (811+ words) If Quite Ugly One Morning was an angry book, its successor is downright furious The Herald Review: Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Brookmyre: A welcome return Quite Ugly One Evening, Chris Brookmyre, (Abacus, £22) It’s been 30 years since Chris Brookmyre’s…...

3+ mon, 4+ hour ago   (873+ words) I’m not a literary critic and so I’ll say only this: that I can hardly recall any previous time when a book, a first-timer at that, has demanded to be finished so urgently. Only Liam McIlvanney’s The Good Father comes…...

3+ mon, 3+ day ago   (1013+ words) Acclaimed Scottish gang-life author is back with a chaotically funny novel The Herald Review: Raveheart by Graeme Armstrong: From Airdrie to dystopia Produced by the esteemed, London-based literary journal once every decade since 1983, it has given early boosts to (and…...

6+ mon, 3+ week ago   (599+ words) Pat Black’s second D.I. Lomond thriller makes the avoidance of violent death a trickier goal, by cleverly infusing modern housing developments… Review: Pat Black’s second D.I. Lomond thriller is worth exploring Jack-in-the-box, Pat Black, (Polygon, £9.99) After waving her daughter…...

4+ day, 2+ hour ago   (255+ words) Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa (Image: Getty) Chatto & Windus, £18.99 Ukrainian Lessons: Art in a Time of War (Image: Jonathan Cape) Arts journalist and classicist, Charlotte Higgins first visited Ukraine in 2022, a few months into the war, and has since returned…...

1+ mon, 5+ day ago   (1819+ words) At around 10.40am my mobile pings. A text message. “I am somehow lost in Glenrothes, but won’t be long!! Gabriella.” It’s a Thursday morning in July and Bennett is lost in Glenrothes and lost to Glenrothes, perhaps. For a long time,…...

3+ mon, 2+ week ago   (161+ words) Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark James Bailey (Image: Sceptre) Running On Air by Sophie Raworth (Image: Bloomsbury Sport/PA) In her mid-forties, previously unsporty BBC presenter Sophie Raworth took inspiration from a friend…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (1076+ words) The tragedy of my generation is that we were raised in a period when news and analysis moved slowly enough for even those who didn’t stay across current affairs to have a fairly good understanding of important events. I recall,…...

2+ mon, 2+ week ago   (280+ words) Writing fiction has been a dream for national treasure Lorraine Kelly since she was four years old and living surrounded by books. She’s grown up to be credited with a fair few of her own, but this is only her…...