Savagely funny but serious, cynical and sanguine and whippingly plotted – Michele Magwood reviews Mick Herron’s fifth novel featuring the greedy gaseous lunk, Jackson Lamb

by Marylee MacDonald in For Readers

Published in the Sunday Times London Rules ***** Mick Herron, John Murray, R295 One of the authors I’m most looking forward to meeting at the Franschhoek Literary Festival next week is Mick Herron. The British writer has been quietly turning out a series of spy novels that have built […] Click here to view full […]

Poe Ballantine: The TNB Self-Interview

by Marylee MacDonald in For Readers

The last time we talked we learned you were born in a log cabin and the illegitimate son of the Queen of England, what good that did anyone is hard to say, but I see you have another book coming out. Quite the coincidence. I’ll say, and thanks for […] Click here to view full […]

Excerpt of Whirlaway, by Poe Ballantine

by Marylee MacDonald in For Readers

As an illustration of what I was up against at Napa State Hospital, what they used to call an asylum for the criminally insane, my fellow inmate Arn Boothby, an angry three-hundred-pound paranoid schizophrenic who regularly “cheeked” his meds, tried to kill another inmate one day in the client […] Click here to view full […]

Natalia Sylvester: The TNB Self-Interview

by Marylee MacDonald in For Readers

Your book is dedicated To Ceci . Who’s that? She’s my mom. So why not say, To Mom ? My sister and I have always called my parents by their first names. It’s always been the most natural thing for us—I think I tried calling them Mom and Dad […] Click here to view full […]

Christina Lynch: The TNB Self-Interview

by Marylee MacDonald in For Readers

Your novel The Italian Party is about someone trying to manipulate an election using some very sneaky methods. Are you about to be subpoenaed? I don’t think so, but it’s a pretty weird coincidence. When I started writing the novel in the summer of 2013, I came across a […] Click here to view full […]

Excerpt of The Italian Party, by Christina Lynch

by Marylee MacDonald in For Readers

2. Michael and Scottie stood out from the moment they strolled down the gangplank of the sleek ocean liner that carried them and their possessions to Italy. They seemed to have stepped right out of an advertisement for Betty Crocker, Wonder Bread or capitalism itself. He was twenty-four, handsome, […] Click here to view full […]

Literary Prize Long List | Man Booker Finalists

by Marylee MacDonald in For Readers

If there were one literary prize I would be honored to win, it’s the Man Booker Prize. What’s wonderful about the long-list is that it showcases the diversity and vitality of literary fiction. I was happy to discover some names I recognize among the many I don’t. Britain’s The Guardian published this list of finalists to […]