Quick Book Reviews with Philippa Hall

The wonderful Louise Candlish is back on the podcast to talk about her new book, A Knock at the Door. A three-year-old girl goes missing on a family weekend away. Eighteen years later, a young woman turns up at her parents’ door claiming to be their lost daughter. Is she really her, or is she an imposter?

Louise tells me:

• why this book feels different in tone from her last few
• its original working title
• how a young intern helped her make the Telegram messages sound authentic
• why she has called this one “imposter noir”

We also talk about:

• her dream writing location, a silent penthouse suite overlooking a royal park
• her nightmare one, a noisy train, and what happened when her husband challenged a fellow passenger on the Stansted Express
• twists and blurbs, and why publishers shouldn’t promise a twist
• the book Louise thinks has the best twist ever
• why e-readers turned her into a speed reader
• my 15 holiday books and their run-in with Athens customs
• the brownie that powered the words

Before that, I review three books:

• What We Ask Google by Simon Rogers. I finished it in a day and it made me feel hopeful about the human race. My non-fiction Christmas present pick.
• The Castle by Jon Ronson. I really enjoyed it, with a couple of stodgy bits.
• The Players Club by Rachel Mills. Lots of people are raving about this one, but it didn’t quite work for me.

You’ll also hear about a retired couple and some spontaneous synchronised swimming.

Books mentioned

• A Knock at the Door by Louise Candlish
• What We Ask Google by Simon Rogers
• The Castle by Jon Ronson
• The Players Club by Rachel Mills
• Eyes on You by Adele Parks
• Fallen Women by Tammy Cohen (out February 2027)
• The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish
• Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
• Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Watch the episode

Quick Book Reviews on Apple Podcasts (video)

Get in touch - links:

Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com

Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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I’ve found out something very scary about the Waterstones points system and I have to tell you straight away. Booksellers have reported customers with £300, £900, even over £1,000 worth of points on their cards. Before you start saving yours, there’s a catch in the terms and conditions you need to know about. If you have that many points and can’t think what to buy, I’m putting my hand up to help.

Then it’s the final round-up of our first Book Club read, The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway. I found the first half hard going, not because of the writing but because of what the main character goes through. Then something clicked. I’ll tell you my score and whether I’d read more of Brian’s books. No spoilers.

And the Book Club is carrying on. I share my rules for choosing each month’s book and announce the pick for November, The Only One Left by Riley Sager, a gothic crime thriller BookTube has been raving about. If you want something cosy and uplifting, this probably isn’t for you. If you’re twisted and troubled like me, it’s perfect.

November Book Club reading schedule: The Only One Left by Riley Sager

I’ve given chapters as well as page numbers, so it works for paperback, ebook and audiobook.

• Week 1: up to page 99, just before Chapter 11 starts
• Week 2: up to page 193, just before Chapter 24 starts
• Week 3: up to page 285, just before Chapter 34 starts
• Week 4: finish the book

Books mentioned

• The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway
• The Only One Left by Riley Sager

Watch the episode

Quick Book Reviews on Apple Podcasts (video)

Get in touch - links:

Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com

Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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Hello my fellow bookworms! This week I’m delighted to welcome back the wonderful Louise Penny to talk about her latest Three Pines mystery, Miss Wolcott’s Ghost. Plus I review The Strangers by Naomi Alderman, share another swimming pool story (earplugs, I’m sorry), and reveal the book club picks for the next four months.

In conversation with Louise Penny

Miss Wolcott’s Ghost is book 21 in the Chief Inspector Gamache series, but you can absolutely start here. Louise tells me where the name Three Pines really came from, how her friends found Lost Nation and its forgotten cemetery deep in the Quebec woods, and why this is very much not cosy crime. We talk about courage and cowardice, book covers, dreams, her co-written thriller The Last Mandarin, what she’s reading now, and of course, the biscuit (or butter tart) that powered the writing. No spoilers, as always.

Miss Wolcott’s Ghost by Louise Penny

Book review

The Strangers by Naomi Alderman. Mysterious creatures called mimmoths appear across the world, while the author navigates grief after losing her mother. I loved the dystopian element, but I’m honestly not sure how I felt about the whole. Have you read it? I’d love to know what you think.

Book club: November to February

• November: The Only One Left by Riley Sager
• December: Unsolved by Heather Critchlow
• January: Split Second by R.C. Bridgestock, published by Orenda Books
• February: A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford, out in paperback in time for February

As before, we’ll read a quarter of the book each week.

Also mentioned

• The Last Mandarin by Louise Penny and Melissa Fung
• The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet
• A Fish Caught in Time by Samantha Weinberg

Watch the video

Watch on Apple Podcasts

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Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com

Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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Is it ever acceptable to give up on a book on page one? Should the classics be dropped from GCSE English? And which bookish trend deserves to go on the bonfire?

This Friday is an AUTUMN SPECIAL: the Autumn Book Tag, bookish opinions edition. Ten questions, no preparation, and answers coming straight out of my mouth, so we should all be very worried. Then it is part three of our book club read, The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway, with no spoilers as always.

The Autumn Book Tag

• Falling leaves: Is it ever acceptable to give up on a book, and how many pages does it get before you do?
• Clocks go back: With an extra hour to read, would you reread an old favourite or start something new?
• Back to school: Should we be made to read the classics at school, or does it put people off reading for life?
• Dark evenings: Does a book have to match the season, or is the "autumn read" just marketing?
• Halloween: What scares you more in a book, the supernatural or what ordinary people do to each other?
• Bonfire night: Which bookish habit or trend would you happily throw on the bonfire?
• Harvest: Is a huge to-be-read pile a comfort or a source of guilt? Is buying books a separate hobby from reading them?
• Conkers: Reading challenges and yearly targets, motivating or joyless?
• Cosy jumper: Is "cosy" a compliment or an insult when applied to a book?
• Prize season: Do prize winners actually make better reading, or do judges and readers want different things?

In this episode

• Why I think you can DNF a book at any point, and why it is always a me problem and never the book
• The honest reason I almost never reread
• Why I would take the classics out of GCSE English and bring in graphic novels and scripts instead (I am expecting flack for this one)
• My confession that I read out of season: Christmas books in summer, summer books at Christmas
• What goes on my bonfire, and it will not surprise regular listeners
• Why buying books has to be a separate hobby, or we are at situation critical in this house
• Cosy fantasy versus cosy crime, and why I like my crime a bit meaner
• The year a prize shortlist left me so incensed I have not done it since, and why I think the longlist is often better than the winner

Book club, part three

The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway, with no spoilers as always.

is still very dark and troubling, even more so in this section, and I worry about some of these characters so much. And yet I am fully locked in and cannot wait to read the final quarter. Thank you to Tony for the brilliant suggestion of splitting book club sections by chapter instead of page number, so it works whether you are reading the hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook. If we do this again, that is how we will do it.

Coming up

Episodes on bookish judging and on celebrity novels, because I have views. And I will be back on Monday with another author interview.

I would love to know your answers to the tag, and what you are thinking about the book club read.

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Get in touch - links:

Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com

Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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Five days, twenty strangers, eighty-four miles of whitewater and no way out. Today I am talking to bestselling thriller author Noelle W. Ihli about The Last to Drown, the book that has put me off whitewater rafting for life. Before that, three book reviews, and a swimming pool mystery I need your help with.

Three book reviews

• A Knock at the Door by Louise Candlish (out 5 November). A three-year-old goes missing on a weekend break. Eighteen years later, a young woman arrives at the door claiming to be her. I thought I knew where this was going and I was wrong. This could be Louise's best book yet, and she will be joining me to talk about it in a few weeks.
• The Angel of Death by Trevor Wood. The third DCI Jack Parker book. An anonymous killer in Newcastle is offering the terminally ill a dignified escape, while Jack tries to hide his own early onset dementia diagnosis. Superbly written crime with a fascinating lead, and now published by our friends at Orenda Books.
• Wreck by Catherine Newman. I listened to this on audio while swimming and laughed out loud in the changing room. Funny in places, much more moving than I expected, and a family you want to sit with at the dining table. The narration is spot on.

Author interview: Noelle W. Ihli on The Last to Drown

The Last to Drown follows Kaia, recently widowed, on the rafting trip her husband always wanted to take. Seven years earlier a guide murdered a group of rafters on the same stretch of river, and the true crime community has never stopped asking questions. We talk about:

• The family rafting trip in Idaho that gave her the idea, and why her guides were "slightly concerned" by her questions
• Writing 500 to 1,000 words a day, and making herself sit there like a naughty child in time out
• Why she cannot write on a plane or in an airport
• Grief at the heart of the book, and the conversation with her husband that inspired it
• Writing with real survivors in mind, and the line she will not cross
• Being a true pantser who does not know how her characters will get out
• Survival as a group effort and not something you do alone
• Where to start with her books: The Last to Drown or Gray After Dark
• The candy drawer that powers the words: peanut butter M&Ms and Twizzlers

Noelle is reading

• Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
• The Witch by Freida McFadden
• The forthcoming book by John Marrs

And finally

If you wear a swimming cap but leave all your hair out underneath it, please tell me why. I am intrigued.

Watch on Apple Podcasts

Get in touch - links:

Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com

Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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It's past my bedtime, my microphone has given up the ghost, and I've got something to get off my chest: the National Year of Reading. I've been having a dig into where the money is going, and by my calculations the £150,000 set aside for libraries works out at around £41 per library. That's a fair few biscuits, but not many books.

So I'm putting forward some ideas of my own for getting adults reading again:

• Book monitors: volunteers in tabards helping nervous shoppers find the right book, the way a good cheese shop lets you try before you buy
• Making reading cool again, with more famous faces seen with a book in hand
• Audiobooks and graphic novels as an easy way in
• Five minutes a day, with reading streaks to keep you going
• Libraries on trains for long commutes and delays
• World Book Day for adults: a book voucher for everyone, no dressing up required (and maybe a free biscuit)

Are my ideas ridiculous? Have you seen the National Year of Reading making a difference in schools? I'd love to know what you think.

Then it's our October book club roundup of The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway. I've read the second quarter, up to around page 188, and share how it's making me feel, with no spoilers. If you're not reading along, you can stop listening at that point.

I'll be back on Monday with an author interview.

Watch this episode on Apple Podcasts: Quick Book Reviews with Philippa Hall on Apple Podcasts

Get in touch - links:

Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com

Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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This episode is a special one — a full interview with Ian Rankin on The Heights, his first standalone thriller in nearly two decades. But first, a confession: I've just been away for the weekend and had a small crisis about how some people can remember every name — actors, characters, everyone — while I can't hold onto a single one. Is it just me? Answers on a postcard (or better yet, in your own colour-coding system, which is apparently what I need).

Then it's on to the books. I'm reviewing three with no spoilers, before sitting down with Ian to talk about how a short story character, Detective Gillian Gish, refused to let him go; why Tottenham and a gleaming Hyde Park high-rise became the perfect collision of two Londons; and why he thinks readers have fallen out of love with police procedurals in an age of institutional corruption. Ian also tells me how the book was written almost entirely at sea, and what would happen if I sent him to write in a tiny, sweltering Tokyo apartment instead. Plus: his verdict on the correct way to eat a chocolate hobnob.

This week's reviews:

• Someone Just Followed You, Liane Child — a propulsive, unsettling look at the world of kidfluencers, told mostly from a teenager's perspective
• Hum, Helen Phillips — winner of the Climate Fiction Prize 2026; gripping, reflective, slightly dystopian, and hard to put down
• The Eyewitness, Naomi Williams — a quick, twisty read about a woman whose eyes shut tight for 48 hours at a time, and the fear that someone is watching when she can't see

Featured book:

The Heights, Ian Rankin

That's this episode — spoiler-free reviews of Someone Just Followed You, Hum, and The Eyewitness, plus Ian Rankin on The Heights.

Get in touch

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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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My Book Haul Confession + Book Club Begins

I have a confession: despite trying to go all-in on ebooks, I found myself with an hour to kill, a closed independent bookshop, and a chain store that was open — and I came out with a stack of books I need to tell you all about. This episode I'm running through my haul, including Naomi Alderman's The Strangers, Elizabeth Macneal's The Burial Plot, Benjamin Stevenson's Everyone in This Bank Is a Thief, William Boyd's The Predicament, Ross Montgomery's Murder at World's End, and Jon Ronson's The Castle — plus a slightly spicy admission about book four of Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses series and some very poorly timed public listening moments.

Then it's the first week of our October Book Club, discussing the opening quarter of The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway. I share my honest, no-spoiler thoughts on the first 93 pages — what surprised me, how it compares to what I expected, and why I ended up reading it in the early hours after a very different night than planned. I'd love to hear your thoughts too — get in touch using the details below.

Book club pick:

The One You Least Suspect, Brian McGilloway

This episode is available as video on Apple Podcasts — watch it here.

Get in touch links

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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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In Conversation with Ann Cleeves: The Dying Light

This is a special Wednesday episode — Ann Cleeves joins me to talk about The Dying Light, the fourth Matthew Venn novel, out this Thursday. We talk about the white Art Deco bungalow that started the whole book, why she never knows who did it when she begins writing, and how a hint of resentment over second homes in Devon became the beating heart of the story. Ann also opens up about Matthew's evangelical upbringing and why she thinks it drew him to policing, what forty books' worth of experience has taught her about pushing through a block, and why long train journeys are the best plotting tool she's found. Plus: Irish dancing at Harrogate, imposter syndrome at the big literary festivals, and a very disciplined approach to dunking a digestive.

Featured book:

The Dying Light, Ann Cleeves

That's this episode — Ann Cleeves on The Dying Light, out Thursday 8th October.

This episode is available as video on Apple Podcasts — watch it here.

Get in touch

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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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In Conversation with Linwood Barclay: Not a Word

This episode is a special one — Linwood Barclay returns to talk about Not a Word, a family secrets thriller that opens with a horrific discovery and spirals into a story spanning three generations, inspired in part by the real-life opioid scandal in North America. We talk about why the book was originally titled The Pond, his rule that a twist has to land at the end of a chapter or it loses its punch, and his refreshingly no-nonsense take on writer's block ("there's no plumber's block"). Linwood also explains why his dream writing location is just... upstairs from his kitchen, and delivers a very firm verdict on cookie dunking.

Before that, a spoiler-free look at three very different things I've been reading and watching:

• The Distance, Ben Norris — a play performed almost entirely on a treadmill at the Edinburgh Fringe, and just as gripping to read as it clearly was to watch
• A Schooling in Murder, Andrew Taylor — a wartime boarding school murder mystery that needed a slow, immersive start (audiobook helped) before I couldn't put it down
• Fruit Fly, Josh Silver — raw, dark, and not for the cosy crime crowd; one that's stayed with me since

Featured book:

Not a Word, Linwood Barclay

This episode is available as video on Apple Podcasts — watch it here.

Get in touch - Links:

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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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Alison Barrow, PR Director at Transworld, joins me again to lift the lid on what's really happening in publishing right now — from late-night manuscript reads and "beauty contest" pitches for new books, to why the Christmas run-up is the busiest time of the year for gifting, self-purchase, and special editions. We talk about how author expectations around social media have changed, why debut authors are usually held back for spring rather than launched into the autumn scrum, and Alison gives us a look inside her own experience of seeing a book cover for the first time — as the author.

Plus, it's the first Friday of October, which means the launch of our October Book Club! We're reading The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway over the course of the month, 93 pages a week. I run through my seven pre-reading questions about the book — my expectations for pace, twists, and what I think I'll come away feeling — and I'd love to hear your answers too. Join in and come back each Friday in October as we discuss a quarter of the book at a time.

Book club pick:

The One You Least Suspect, Brian McGilloway

This episode is available as video on Apple Podcasts — watch it here.

Get in touch

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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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Episode 500! In Conversation with Val McDermid and Jo Sharp: This Door of the Seas

A huge milestone — this is episode 500 of Quick Book Reviews! Thank you to everyone who's been listening since the very start (sadly the first few episodes were lost in a platform move years ago, but the memories remain).

To celebrate, I'm joined by Val McDermid and Jo Sharp to talk about This Door of the Seas, their first book written together, and the latest in Polygon's Darkland Tales series. It tells the true and largely forgotten story of the Darien Scheme — Scotland's disastrous 17th-century attempt to found a trading colony in Panama, an event so significant it helped push the country into union with England, yet one neither of them were taught in school. We talk about how the idea was born on a very long drive down the A9, why they chose to tell the story entirely through letters (including real historical figure Dr James Wallace), and the moment Val discovered — almost as an aside — that there was a murder in the story she hadn't been told about. Jo also describes the genuinely moving experience of holding one of the original 1698 letters in the National Library of Scotland, and we talk about what it's actually like to co-write a book with your spouse.

Plus: the Darien colonists' extraordinary questions from the era's leading scientists (yes, including one about an animal that breathes through its navel), what Val and Jo are both reading right now, and their verdict on the classic Quick Book Reviews question — the biscuit that powered the words.

Featured book:

This Door of the Seas, Val McDermid and Jo Sharp

This episode is available as video on Apple Podcasts — watch it here.

Get in touch - links:

Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com

Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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This episode is a special one — Kate Atkinson joins me to talk about Our Noble Selves, her wonderful new novel set at the 1951 Festival of Britain. We talk about her traumatised journalist hero Harry Flynn (nearly named Quinn, and nearly given a much darker backstory), the real dog behind fictional character Mrs Betty, and the working title she changed at the very last minute. Kate also reveals her dream writing location is not a beach or a cabin, but Specsavers, and delivers the most devastating answer in this podcast's history to the crucial biscuit question.

Before that, a spoiler-free look at three books I've been reading:

• Endless Night, Agatha Christie — no Poirot, no Miss Marple, a slow start that turned into one I couldn't put down
• Call Me By Your Name (graphic novel edition), André Aciman — a beautiful, reflective illustrated edition of the love story, not one for the kids
• Whistler, Ann Patchett — a book everyone else is raving about; I liked it, didn't love it, and that's entirely on me

Featured book:

Our Noble Selves, Kate Atkinson

That's this episode — spoiler-free reviews of Endless Night, Call Me By Your Name, and Whistler, plus Kate Atkinson on Our Noble Selves.

This episode is available as video on Apple Podcasts on your browser — watch it here.

Get in touch

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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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A shorter episode this week, but a packed one. Philippa has an announcement, a question to answer honestly, and a book-related confession she has been sitting on for a while. Brace yourselves.

October Book Club: The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway

Philippa is launching a relaxed, no-pressure book club in October. Each week she'll read 96 pages and share her thoughts at the end of that week's episode. You can join in, get in touch with your thoughts, or simply skip that section if it's not for you — it'll always be at the end of the episode so nothing is missed.

The book: The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway. Katie is a barmaid in Derry who is approached by two detectives wanting her to become their informant. Trapped between the police and the dangerous brothers she works for, her only hope is to remain the one nobody suspects.

Available in paperback, audiobook, and at most libraries. No quiz. No dress code. No deadline. Just books.

Am I Being Paid to Review Books?

Someone recently asked whether Philippa charges for book reviews — prompted by another reviewer apparently charging $200 to listen to an audiobook and $800 for a video review. The answer is no. Philippa receives books for free and earns a small amount from podcast advertising, but has never been paid to review a book and would never recommend something she didn't genuinely love. She also declines paid video offers — partly on principle, partly because she suspects publishers would be politely horrified by the result.

The Confession:

She said it. She means it. She is ready for the hate mail.

Prologues grind her gears — the running-through-a-forest opener followed by a gentle chapter one that has nothing to do with it, the bones discovered in a field that are never referenced again until page 300, the dramatic peril that is forgotten by the time the story gets going. Philippa's view: just start the story. She acknowledges you may disagree. She welcomes the debate.

Get in touch — whatever your views are on prologues

Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com

Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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Victorian Women Weren't Allowed to Play Football. They Did It Anyway.

In 1897, a woman calling herself Nettie Honeyball founded Britain's first ladies' football club — and doctors wrote to the newspapers warning it would make women infertile. Author Frances Quinn joins me to talk about The Scandalous Ladies' Football Club, her brilliant historical fiction novel inspired by that true story, and the real Victorian scandal of women simply choosing to play the game.

We talk about inventing a fictional rival team to give the real history its missing plot, writing three women each trapped by Victorian society in different ways, and the friend who told her a 70,000-word draft was "a little bit rubbish" — and was right. Frances also tells me about her dream writing retreat with three fellow authors in a Norfolk cottage, why a sea view would ruin her concentration completely, and what powered the words this time round (a chocolate digestive, eaten strictly undunked).

Before that, a spoiler-free look at three books I've been reading:

• Not Quite Myself, by Mike and Claire Gayle — a body-swap story about a couple who separate the morning after dropping their youngest at university, told in alternating chapters by a husband-and-wife writing team
• The Butler, by Clare Mackintosh — a shorter, glamorous whodunnit set at a French villa during Cannes, a real change of pace for the author
• In Deep Water, by Elle Blair — a cruise-ship murder mystery that didn't land for me, though the reviews suggest it may well land for you

Featured book:

The Scandalous Ladies' Football Club, Frances Quinn

That's this episode — spoiler-free reviews of Not Quite Myself, The Butler, and In Deep Water, plus Frances Quinn on the real history behind The Scandalous Ladies' Football Club.

Get in touch

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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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Philippa went to Harrogate Crime Festival and came back with an alarming number of books. Here is everything she picked up, was given, or had rescued from the ladies' toilets on her behalf.

Out Now

The Angel of Death - Trevor Wood

DCI Jack Parker has a secret early onset dementia diagnosis. When a mercy killer begins targeting the terminally ill in Newcastle, and the killings are traced to a carers group his wife has been attending in secret, Jack faces a question he cannot ignore.

The Fifteenth Man - William Cook

A Cold War thriller hunting the last Nazi war criminal alive to have signed off on the final solution. Rescued from the women's toilets at Harrogate. Out October.

The Man Comes Around - Caimh McDonnell

Smiling Johnny — charming, monstrous, long thought dead — is back in Dublin with scores to settle. Bunny McGarry must find him before he reaches Pamela Cassidy. Also: someone has nicked a bonfire.

Her Last Move - John Marrs

Reissued with a bonus chapter. DS Becca Vincent hunts a killer with the help of a super-recogniser — while the killer watches her every move.

The Museum of Second Chances - Jo Leevers

Evelyn Silver has spent sixty years gathering objects the tide leaves behind. At the heart of her small museum is a fragment of lace found in her blanket when she was abandoned as a newborn. Already out.

The Housewife - Natalie Borelli

Jodie has the perfect life. She is also convinced her husband killed his first wife. Out since June.

Seeing Red - Damien Boyd

Book 16 in the DI Nick Dixon series. A body staged too neatly in a Somerset churchyard. Dixon is certain someone is being silenced. Already out.

Coming Soon

The Domino Man - Helen Jones (January 2027)

Cardiff, 1972. Six bodies, each a decapitated corpse with a different head sewn on. Case never solved. Cardiff, 2022. A cold case unit reopens it. Philippa met the author in the food truck queue.

Bitter Fruit - Tempest Black (March 2027)

A debut. A ritualistically posed body in a Dublin churchyard. A detective. A woman haunted by visions. The publisher handed out branded fruit boxes.

Face First Case - Jeffrey Boakye (February 2027)

Faith Apponsa runs the Met canteen with an iron fist — until a shocking discovery pulls her into the middle of a murder investigation. Sharp and darkly funny. One of Pan Macmillan's big books for 2027.

Extraordinary Correspondence - Robert Hutton (June 2027)

Sycamore Bell answers letters addressed to Sherlock Holmes — until one arrives begging Holmes to save a man on death row. The proof arrives in the shape of an actual envelope you can open.

It Didn't End There - Charlotte Dolman

New Year's Eve 1999. A threat. A decision. Twenty-three years later, six estranged friends are summoned to a manor house and everything buried comes back up. Discovered in the beer tent.

Almost the Whole Truth - Robin Stevens (June 2027)

Robin Stevens's debut adult novel. Alice Dearlove's ex is convicted of murdering the woman he left her for. Then a podcast starts pointing the finger at Alice instead.

Confessions of a Crime Writer - Louise Mangos

Crime writer Nigel Inchcock attends a literary festival and things go badly, funnily wrong. Louise signed Philippa's copy with hope you have a laugh.

A Christmas Mystery - Katie Lumsden (November)

December 1884. A country estate. A family. Guests. And a body. 478 pages. Philippa is completely here for it.

Get in touch

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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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Philippa is back with her first author interview in two months — and opens with a confession: she recorded the entire thing without plugging her microphone in. Apologies have been issued. The show goes on.

The guest is the wonderful Sarah Pinborough — author of over 30 books including Behind Her Eyes — talking about her latest novel They Say a Girl Died Here. Plus three book reviews ranging from emotionally devastating to cosy Miss Marple, with a live retraction of a book review opinion somewhere in the middle.

Three Book Reviews:

Saving Noah – Lucinda Berry

Discovered via a Wild & Wordy subscription box swap. A top student, a champion swimmer, a hometown hero — and a confession that changes everything. Philippa was utterly consumed by this book, was stunned by the direction it took, and is now following Lucinda Berry's every move. Very emotional, not for everyone, but extraordinary writing.

The Body in the Library – Agatha Christie

After Saving Noah, Philippa needed something cosy. Miss Marple delivered. A beautiful edition spotted in a bookshop, a body in the library, and the enduring joy of watching Miss Marple quietly observe everyone into a corner. Philippa always thinks she knows who did it. She never does.

Cross My Heart I Hope You Die – Mallory Arnold

Three women discover they've all been dating the same man and hatch a revenge plan at a remote mountain cabin. Philippa wasn't sure how she felt about it while recording — and then issued a live retraction mid-review. On reflection: she liked it. Didn't love it. Would like you to read it and tell her what you think.

Sarah Pinborough on They Say a Girl Died Here

Anna Mayborn arrives in Harper's Creek — a drought-stricken Nebraska town — with her mum, her little sister, and her grandmother, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Two girls have been murdered three years apart. The anniversary is approaching. Anna starts digging. Her grandmother starts having strange nightly episodes. And everyone in town seems to know more than they're saying.

Sarah and Philippa discuss:

• How the book began as a horror novella ten years ago — different ending, younger Anna — and how it was transformed into a crime thriller by her UK editor
• Why Anna is a different kind of unreliable narrator: not hiding something from the reader, but genuinely unable to trust her own judgment after trauma
• The drought as a character in itself — the smell of the book would be dry summer with a slight rot, because nothing washes away when there's no water
• How small towns work: reputations linger, everyone knows everyone, and a town's willingness to look away is as interesting as the murders themselves
• The book is optioned for screen — Sarah is currently writing the first episode
• Why she'll never be a one-lane author and has made peace with that
• Her preference for sofa over desk, dog over coffee machine, and staying home over book festivals
• Living in a small town herself and knowing exactly how reputations work
• Her next book: The Winter Bones, set in West Virginia — a whole town unravelling after a little boy dies. Secrets and snow this time, rather than secrets and sun.

What she's reading: A biography of George Boleyn, and Fitcher's Bird by Angela Slatter — a dark modern fairy tale novella by an author she considers an auto-buy.

Biscuit answer: Doesn't buy biscuits because she'd eat all of them. The book was probably powered by Itsu and Deliveroo. Her true love is pick and mix — particularly after a life-changing visit to a vast pick and mix shop in Boston where a stranger told her to just try one and covered her.

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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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Philippa is back from holiday — and the books made it to Rhodes eventually, after a handwritten letter to Athens customs explaining why a normal person would post books to themselves. Today she's sharing her top eight reads from the trip, spanning crime, horror, graphic novels, historical fiction, and AI thrillers. All different. All five stars.

The Top 8 Holiday Reads (in reverse order)

8. Under the Hammer – Samantha Dooey Miles

A woman whose landlord has a fatal accident discovers her life's mission: punishing as many landlords as possible, starting with the ones she's spotted on a home improvement TV show. Sharp, witty, and wickedly entertaining.

7. Splasher – Billie Host

Bought at Imagine Things bookshop in Harrogate. A swim coach returns to Richardson University a decade after tragedy struck — and on the first day of training, two students are found dead in the pool. Funny horror, perfectly read beside a swimming pool.

6. The Confessions – Paul Bradley Carr

AI bot Liam powers society — until he goes offline. Then identical white envelopes start arriving at people's houses, confessing their darkest secrets. Dystopian, clever, and full of unexpected turns. Philippa was audibly groaning with delight.

Joint 4th. The Scandalous Ladies Football Club – Frances Quinn

London, 1897. A schoolteacher places a newspaper ad asking for volunteers for the first ever women's football team. Philippa was so engrossed she propped the book up at the edge of the private pool and swam on the spot while reading it. Auto-buy author. Frances Quinn joins the podcast soon.

Joint 4th. Roman Mornings – Matson Taylor

Rome, 1952. A young English woman arrives full of idealism. By 1976, she's wilting — until a chance encounter with a young carpenter changes everything. A celebration of friendship, identity, and the eternal city. Mattson Taylor joins the podcast over Christmas.

3rd. The Corfe Castle Murders – Rachel McLean

DCI Leslie Clark is transferred to rural Dorset after being injured in a bomb attack — and before she's even started, she's investigating a murder at Corfe Castle. Book one of a long series. Philippa loved it and wants the next one immediately.

2nd. The Bad Doctor – Ian Williams

A graphic novel following a rural GP whose patients cause equal measures of empathy and dismay. Funny, serious, and with mental health storylines that Philippa found astonishing. Highly recommended as a first graphic novel for anyone curious about the format. Found at Hay-on-Wye Comics.

1st. Better Off Dead – Sean Watkin

The second DCI De Silva and DS Barkley novel — and Philippa's undisputed book of the holiday. She was so immersed she didn't realise she was mouthing the words as she read. A cold case, a dismembered body in the Formby woods, and a duo who can't trust anyone around them. The third book in the series is already pre-ordered. The first is Black Water Rising. Auto-buy author who Philippa insists needs to be on every crime reader's radar immediately.

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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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Philippa reviews four books — including two she couldn't wait to tell you about — before a wonderful, wide-ranging conversation with C.J. Tudor about her latest novel Serenity Falls, out 10th September, the book she needed to write after the hardest year of her life.

📚 Four Book Reviews

One of Us is Guilty – Steve Cavanagh

The 10th Eddie Flynn case finds con-man-turned-lawyer Eddie investigating a brutal murder with only two suspects — and one of them is guilty. Philippa loves everything Steve Cavanagh writes, and this is no exception.

The Silent Appeal – Janice Hallett

The Fairway Players are back, rehearsing Agatha Christie's The Hollow, and someone isn't going to make it to opening night. Lawyers Charlotte and Femi must sift through the evidence once again in what Philippa considers one of her favourite Hallett books yet.

A Stranger in Corfu – Alex Preston

Former MI6 operatives, exiled to a Greek island to be forgotten, find their uneasy peace shattered when one of their own washes up dead. Beautifully written, thoughtful, and atmospheric — blurbed as "Le Carré meets the Durrells," which Philippa thinks is entirely fair.

Signals: The Inside Story of Our Hormones – Dr. Saira Hameed

A fascinating nonfiction exploration of how hormones shape everything from our health to our eating habits — told through real patient cases. Philippa went to hear the author speak, bought the book immediately, got it signed, and then went straight out for a double chocolate cookie. Blame the ancestors.

C.J. Tudor on Serenity Falls

Dan and his teenage daughter Sadie arrive at their mysterious inheritance in Serenity Falls — a picture-perfect Disney-style town in Florida — only to find a body in the swimming pool, dressed as a cartoon character, on day one. Things don't get more normal from there.

Inspired by Celebration, the real Disney-built town near Orlando, Caz and Philippa discuss:

• Why the idea of a perfect, theme-park-adjacent town is inherently sinister — and what happens when you actually go and visit one
• How the creepy ice cream van started as a small detail and grew into a major character and the cover image
• Writing Serenity Falls — and why she needed a new idea to fall in love with before she could write again
• Why this is perhaps her least horror-y book, but also her most uncanny — and what the word "uncanny" really means in a C.J. Tudor context
• The dark humor running through the book, and why Sadie is one of her favourite characters she's ever written
• TV developments, the patience required to wait for news, and why she's learned not to get too excited too early
• Her next book The Last Caretaker — currently being written, out autumn 2027
• What she's looking forward to reading: The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer, which arrived as a lovely exchange for a quote on Serenity Falls
• Ten years since her publishing deal — and why it's worth stopping to appreciate how far you've come

If Serenity Falls had a smell: Buttered popcorn. Lovely at first. Overwhelming very quickly. Which is, she immediately agreed, the whole vibe.

Biscuit answer: Pick and mix for writing fuel, but biscuit-wise: plain rich tea or digestive for daytime dunking (no timing, pure instinct), and Border biscuits for evenings — too posh to dunk, chocolate gets melty.

💬 Get in touch

Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com

Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

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No author interview, no book reviews — just Philippa's most personal episode of the year: her best reads of the first six months of 2026. Twelve books, one honourable mention, and the admission that it was genuinely hard to narrow it down.

These are books Philippa read between January and June — not necessarily published this year — in alphabetical order by author surname, because she doesn't want to rank them.

🎖️ Honourable Mention

The Wedding Suit – Rachel Joyce (BBC Radio Drama)

A five-part radio serial about an eccentric elderly couple whose isolated lives are transformed by the unexpected arrival of a child. Written by Rachel Joyce, narrated by her husband Paul Venables (Yakob in The Archers). Still available on BBC Sounds — Philippa considers it essential listening.

📚 The Top 12

YesterYear – Caro Claire Burke

The trad wife book everyone's been talking about — and rightly so. A brilliant concept, word-of-mouth sensation, and genuinely hard to put down.

Body of Lies – Jo Callaghan

The fourth and final Kat and Lock book. An AI detective, a murdered MP, a cyberattack, and a taunting binary code message. Plus: Philippa gets a mention in the acknowledgements. Chef's kiss.

Solitary Agents – David Goodman

The second Jamie Tulloch spy novel. Clever concept, brilliant writing, and completely readable without the first book.

Broken Country – Claire Leslie Hall

A quiet sucker punch of a book — part courtroom, part countryside, all heart. Beautifully written and emotionally devastating.

The Drowning Place – Sarah Hilary

A Peak District crime series debut unlike anything else in the genre right now. Joseph's story is different in a way Philippa isn't willing to spoil — but can't stop recommending.

A Family Matter – Claire Lynch

Short, devastating, and extraordinary. A letter arrives. Two timeframes — 1982 and 2022. About love, acceptance, and everything in between.

Slings and Arrows – Nick McLachlan

A book about darts in the 1980s that turns out to be about friendship, marriage, health, and everything men don't say to each other. Published 2024. Beautiful.

Night Swimmers – Roisin McGuire

A coastal Northern Ireland village, a quirky swimmer called Grace, a visitor with a complicated story, and a cast of locals who made Philippa laugh out loud. The audiobook is gorgeous.

Land – Maggie O'Farrell

Starting in 1865 Ireland, this is Philippa's favourite Maggie O'Farrell yet. Exquisite writing, emotional gut-punches from nowhere, and a book that feels like the land itself is reading alongside you.

Mars One – Charlotte Robinson

A sci-fi thriller that works even if you don't read sci-fi. A one-way mission to Mars, a conspiracy, a vanished coder in Hong Kong, and his cat. Needs to be a film immediately.

The Things We Never Say – Elizabeth Strout

Philippa's first Strout & now she wants them all. A teacher named Arty handles life with quiet grace & devastating tenderness. Already pressed into multiple people's hands.

The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal – Jodi Taylor

Time travel, hijinks, chaos, and joy. A brilliant entry point into Jodi Taylor's world, and the audiobook is perfection.

💬 What were your best reads of the first half of 2026?

Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com

Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.

Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.