Reading diary

Now here's an interesting gem of a book; hailed by Dennis Lehane as the best noir he's read in a decade and by the master of the genre Kem Nunn as 'beautifully rendered'; a finalist for last year's Edgar award. Nic Pizzolatto has before this only published short stories in literary magazines and then he springs this dark story of redemption and hurricanes on us. I really enjoyed the arch of the story and the wonderful sentences. A really terrific noir.

This is possibly the last book Diana Wynne Jones wrote before her death earlier this year. Earwig and the Witch tells the story of 10-year old Earwig, who gets adopted from an orphanage by a very strange couple indeed: they turn out to be a witch and someone called the Mandrake. She misses her friends and is being forced to help out with the witch's potions, but is never allowed to learn.

Just finished this first noir novel by acclaimed creator of the Artemis Fowl kid's books. This is about an Irish ex-military working as a bouncer at a strip-joint in New Jersey when things start to go abysmally wrong. I enjoyed it, it has lots of humour and violence and I'm looking forward to reading more by Mr Colfer.