Hello, I am looking for the title of a book I once read. It is about a traintrip to the Florida Keys. Its an older book, maybe written in the 60’s of 70’s and the story is around late 1800’s or beginning 1900’s.  it is a thriller and its about a robbery of the train.  Does anyone know this book? Thanks for your help!  ..read more

From Amazon : It's 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported from the Dutch East Indies to Amsterdam, where he is set to face trial for a crime that no one dares speak of. But no sooner is the ship out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. Strange symbols appear on the sails. A figure stalks the decks. Livestock are slaughtered. Passengers are plagued with ominous threats, promising them three unholy miracles. First: an impossible pursuit. Second: an impossible theft. Then: an impossible murder. With Pipps imprisoned in the depths of the shi ..read more

Why are there so few westerns in bookshops these days? The only ones I generally see are True Grit by Charles Portis, the Lonesome Dove series by Larry McMurtry, and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. It is odd, because it used to be such a popular genre. I think maybe Hollywood killed it. My theory is that when anyone wrote a good western it was immediately turned into a film, so everyone remembers the film but not the book ..read more

I am still interested in knowing if anyone had recommendations for any historical fictions set during WWI, even though I am not allowed to mention the book I recently read myself because someone thinks its too promotional for me to mention its title ..read more

Hi All,   Just wanted to check what the etiquette is for authors (like me) posting about their books? Don't want to be a spammer, but thought you guys might like to know about my latest. Just let me know. Cheers Gordon ..read more

I am reading a book called Hornet's Sting by Derek Robinson. It is about a squadron of RFC pilots in 1917. I have read two of his other books: Goshawk Squadron and A Piece of Cake. Goshawk Squadron was shortlisted for the Booker Prize back in the 70s. A Piece of Cake was serialised on telly. His books are characterised by limitless ways a fighter pilot can die, and their great wit and ability to have fun. They are entertaining books and well researched ..read more

Seven Moons is an absolutely terrific, excellent and clever novel for which mere words can never be enough. It is a thoroughly immersive experience in both this world and the next, working on so many levels, and always with a flash of deadpan humour.    Maali Almeida finds himself in the afterlife, having exited 1990 Colombi somewhat suddenly. he is/was a photojournalist, gay and dating the son of a cabinet minister. During a civil war. What, you wonder, could possibly go wrong?    Maali has seven moons (days) left on Earth as a ghost , trying to piece together what happene ..read more

Fire Rush is an exploration of life on the margins of society seen through the life of Yamaye, a young and poor West Indian woman in 1970s-1980s Britain. The novel moves from the (literally) underground music scene on London, through to criminal gangs in Bristol, and finally to Yamaha's roots in Jamaica as she seeks out the family of her lost lover Moose.    The novel is technically well written in a convincing patois, and I am sure the historical detail is accurate even though to this (white) reader who lived through those times, it feels sometimes unfamiliar. The nightclubbing, the ..read more

By Baroness Orczy. Published in 1905 but set in 1792, so it is historical fiction. I am only three chapters in, but it is quite good so far. The way it reads makes me think of a 1940's British film. I understand a pimpernel is a type of wild flower ..read more

Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty finds himself in the Vatican during the Nazi occupation of Italy in 1943. As an Irishman, his own nation is supposedly neutral in the war, and the Vatican City State treads a careful line between professing neutrality and not incurring the wrath of an army that could conquer the state in twenty minutes.    Yet O'Flaherty has hitched himself with the local resistance and their mission to rescue, protect and repatriate Allied airmen. His politically sensitive superiors in the Vatican become increasingly distressed by his conduct while never fully appreciating ..read more