My Review (5 stars out of 5) In the garden of Doctor and Mrs Bickleigh during the inter-war years, a tennis party brings together friends and neighbours. But socialising is not on the henpecked doctor’s mind. Instead, he has his sights on the young Gwynyfryd Rattery whose charms he hopes to surmount under the guise…
Category: Classic
‘Carrie’ by Stephen King
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Unpopular teenager Carrie White is no ordinary girl and when a traumatic event unnerves her, she begins to harness the power inside her mind – telekinesis. When one of the girls who tormented her feels guilty, she persuades her boyfriend to ask Carrie out to the high school…
‘The Talented Mr Ripley’ by Patricia Highsmith
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Striving to avoid his debts, Tom Ripley is given an opportunity when a businessman offers him a free trip to Europe to track down the man’s errant offspring. With money in his pocket and a talent for forgery, Ripley sets out to create a new life for himself…
‘Rosemary’s Baby’ by Ira Levin
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Rosemary and actor-husband, Guy, are desperate to move out of their one-room bachelor pad when they hear about an apartment in the Bramford. The old New York City building might have a worrying reputation and a tenant list that seems only to include ‘mature’ residents, but the couple…
‘Brighton Rock’ by Graham Greene
My Review (5 stars out of 5) In pre-war Brighton, a gang war propels seventeen-year-old Pinkie to lead his clan in a bid to take over from rival gangster Colleoni. Having killed a man for betraying the gang, Pinkie is unaware his victim had already made contact with Ida, a bright and bubbly woman, who,…
‘Shane’ by Jack Schaefer
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (A stranger known only as Shane rides into the lives of the Starrett family – homesteaders struggling to keep their small farm from being taken over by rancher Fletcher. Told from the point of view of the Starrett’s son, we see how Shane’s influence changes the lives of…
‘The Chinese Keyhole’ by Richard Himmel
My Review (4 stars out of 5) Following the murder of his pal, Tom, lawyer Johnny Maguire decides to check out a Chinatown strip joint. With not much to go on, he ingratiates himself with one of the club’s ‘stars’ in the hope she might let slip information about the place being used as a…
‘Strangers on a Train’ by Patricia Highsmith
**** On a train journey to meet up with his flirtatious wife in the hope of her agreeing to a divorce, Guy Haines falls into conversation with another passenger, Charles Bruno. Bruno is an odd man whose interest in Guy unearths deep-seated uneasiness about the task Guy hopes to accomplish. Bruno, however, has an idea…
‘Ghost Story’ by Peter Straub
***** The elderly members of The Chowder Society meet regularly to tell each other stories, but after one of their number dies, the stories become more ghoulish in nature. More disturbingly, each of the remaining members begins to experience similar, nightmarish, dreams. Contacting the nephew of their dead friend, they find he also has something…
‘Pietr the Latvian’ by Georges Simenon
**** Georges Simenon’s first outing with his Parisian detective follows the pipe-smoking investigator round the seamier side of the city, as he attempts to track down master criminal, Pietr the Latvian. My first impressions of this book were that either Simeonon was a really crap writer, or that the translation is at fault, my reasoning…
