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There was a time when Christmas meant a new Patricia Cornwell. I’d be so excited I’d even fork out for the hardcover—and I hate hardcovers. Then Cornwell went off the boil and I, well, fell off the Kay Scarpetta-worshipping wagon. Which is why I hadn’t realised Cornwell had penned some Scarpetta novels in recent years—I’d [...]

I picked up Val McDermid’s new book by pure chance at the airport bookshop the other day, stumbling across it while I performed a community service: covering up copies of Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap*. The latter’s a book that I’ve made no secret I think it truly awful and that has, much to my chagrin, [...]

Call it airport fiction, call it mass market fiction, or call it trash, the reading equivalent of quick-fix, craving-inducing simple carbohydrates are something we all secretly or not-so-secretly love. You know the ones. The Dan Brown bestsellers and the books that need not be named by the Mormon mom turned author that have tweens and [...]