First published in 1886, this detective mystery set in Melbourne became an international best seller, outselling Sherlock Holmes' first appearance in A Study in Scarlet. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab follows the investigation by police detective Samuel Gorby into the murder of well-connected Oliver Whyte which takes him from the mansions of St Kilda … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Mystery of a Handsome Cab by Fergus Hume
Book reviews
One Minute Book Review – Angelica by Arthur Phillips
This is an unsettling novel where reality and the supernatural blend together. Set in London in the 1880s, it the story of a family on the verge of breakdown. Angelica has spent the first four years of her life sleeping in her parents’ room. When her father, Joseph Barton, moves her into a room of … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Angelica by Arthur Phillips
One Minute Book Review – The Darkest Hour by Barbara Erskine
Barbara Erskine is one of my favourite writers of popular time-slip fiction. The modern narrative in this novel concerns art historian, Lucy Standish, who is writing a biography of wartime artist, Evie Lucas, about whom little is known. The historical narrative begins in the summer of 1940 at the start of the Battle of Britain … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Darkest Hour by Barbara Erskine
One Minute Book Review – Still She Wished for Company by Margaret Irwin
The major part of this engaging time-slip/ghost story (choose according to your own preferences) is set in the 1770s and tells of Juliana Clare, the youngest daughter of a landed English family and her initially routine life on the family estate, Chidleigh. When Juliana's father dies and her dissolute brother Lucian inherits the title and … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Still She Wished for Company by Margaret Irwin
One Minute Book review – The Bodysurfers by Robert Drewe
This collection of short stories by Robert Drewe is set mainly in coastal Australia. The stories are interlinked and follow the lives of various members of the Lang family and capture both the light and darkness of the sea and the bush, places where appearances often belie what is happening beneath the surface. Drewe's prose … Continue reading One Minute Book review – The Bodysurfers by Robert Drewe
One Minute Book Review – Soul Catcher by Michael White
Set in the period just prior to the Civil War, Soul Catcher follows the dangerous journey of professional slave hunter, or soul catcher, Augustus Cain to bring back two runaway slaves of wealthy plantation owner Eberly to whom Cain has gambling debts. The prose is descriptive and evocative with its greatest strength in characterization. Cain … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Soul Catcher by Michael White
One Minute Book Review – Come in Spinner by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James
Originally published in 1951, Come in Spinner follows the lives of a group of women in Sydney over a period of eight days during the latter part of World War 2. Sydney is brought vividly to life - the ever present soldiers both local and American. The women's lives and both the pressures and excitement … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Come in Spinner by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James
One Minute Book Review – Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
This, the 40th Discworld novel, chronicles the arrival of the locomotive in the Discworld. As would be expected, it is full of Terry Pratchett's usual humour and insight into the human condition. Totally entertaining, it touches lightly on themes such as industrialization, fundamentalism and even gender without even a hint of preachyness. Old characters are … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
One Minute Book Review – Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis
Set in Anatolia in the 1920s under Turkish rule, Christ Recrucified tells the story of Manolios, a shepherd, chosen to play the part of Christ in the village's Passion Play. With the arrival of a group of refugees whose village has been destroyed by the Turks, the lives of those chosen to take part in … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Christ Recrucified by Nikos Kazantzakis
One Minute Book Review – Noonday by Pat Barker
The third book in Pat Barker's Life Class trilogy takes up the story of Elinor Brooke, Paul Tarrant and Kit Neville in 1940, over twenty years after the events of the first two books ( 1 -Life Class and 2-Toby's Room) The world is at war again and London is suffering sustained aerial bombing. As … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Noonday by Pat Barker
