In the iconic film Back to the Future, Marty McFly travels from the 1980s to the 1950s, changing the path of his parents’ destiny. Now fans of the movie can travel back even further to the 16th century, where the Bard of Avon unveils his latest masterpiece: William Shakespeare’s Get Thee Back to the Future! Every scene and line of dialogue from the hit is recreated here, with authentic Shakespearean rhyme, meter and stage directions, and with jokes and Easter eggs for movie fans and Shakespearean Read more […]

In the 1990s, heavy metal band Dürt Würk was poised for breakout success — but then lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom as Koffin, leaving his fellow bandmates to rot in rural Pennsylvania. Two decades later, former guitarist Kris Pulaski works as the night manager of a Best Western – she’s tired, broke, and unhappy. Everything changes when she discovers a shocking secret from her heavy metal past: Turns out that Terry’s meteoric rise to success may have Read more […]

Please note Countdown City is the direct sequel to The Last Policeman. If you haven’t read the first book in this series then this review will likely contain spoilers. Got it? Good, now forward to the end of the world.  There are just 77 days before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank’s days of solving crimes are over…until a woman from his past begs for help Read more […]

The world is about to end – would you investigate a murder?  An asteroid is about to collide with the Earth in six months time, and wipe us all out. Would you give up your life and go of to fulfill your ambition, take solace in drunken pleasure, live in fear, or solidly carry on doing what you do? Detective Hank Palace faces this stark question, and as others walk away from their jobs he carries on. A murder has been committed, and it is his job to solve it – problem is, none of his colleges Read more […]

Sleep Tight. Susan and Alex Wendt are the prefect couple in search of the perfect brownstone – and they find their dream house in the heart of Brooklyn Heights. Sure, the landlady is eccentric, and the handyman drops cryptic remarks about the previous tenants. But the rent is so low; it’s too good to pass up. Big mistake: Susan soon discovers the brownstone is crawling with bedbugs – or is it? She awakens every morning with fresh bites, but neither Alex nor their daughter Emma has a single Read more […]

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very peculiar photographs. A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen year old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that Miss Peregrine’s children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been Read more […]

By way of some sort of explanation – In an effort to expand the my reading horizons I’ve decided that it was high time read something that was not a novel. Quirk Books very kindly provided what I think is some sort of self help/how to guide? The results, I think, speak for themselves…. Pirates, by nature, aren’t terribly literate. As a consequence, no book can hope to fully prepare the pampered, modern-day layabout for the lusty life of a pirate. This book,however, will put you on the Read more […]

They thought space was the final frontier – they were wrong. Recently I spent a bit of time examining the phenomenon that is the mash-up novel. I reviewed the zombie/Jane Austen trilogy that begins with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Overall, the experience was a lot of fun and it was nice to read various authors attempts to bring two dramatically different genres together in such a full on way. For my next foray into the world of mash-up novels I decided to stick with zombies but bring things Read more […]

For those that have not read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as well as Dawn of the Dreadfuls please note that this review contains some minor spoilers. The final novel in the Pride and Prejudice and Zombie trilogy is published today. Dreadfully Ever After by Steve Hockensmith picks up the story four years later. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are now happily married and living at Mr Darcy’s country estate, Pemberly. Elizabeth has hung up her flintlock and katana, as it is improper for Read more […]

Journey back to Regency England – Land of the Undead Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith is a prequel to the hugely successful zombie/Jane Austen mash-up novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Set five years before the first novel, it follows the five Bennet sisters as they are trained in the deadly arts of the warrior, in order to combat the undead menace that plagues England. The reader learns of Oscar Bennet’s part in ‘The Troubles’ and how, as a younger man, he made a promise to Read more […]

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” Recently I wrote the following statement while reviewing a book – I have often suspected any novel can only be enhanced by the addition of rampaging hordes of undead. The publisher Quirk Books, originators of the mash-up novel, were obviously listening and sent me some books that would allow me to test that theory. Over the next few days I’ll be posting reviews of a few of them. Read more […]