Mystery

Book Review: ‘Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’ by Olga Tokarczuk

16th Jul 2025Leave a comment

Olga Tokarczuk’s ‘Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’ is my latest read of 2025.

Like ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’ and ‘Alias Grace’, this novel was a pick for my work’s book club. This month’s theme? Nobel Prize Winners. (Tokarczuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018 – nine years after ‘Drive Your Plow…’ was first published.)

The story follows Janina, an older woman living on a wooded mountain near a rural Polish village. The novel starts with a bang. Oddball (a neighbour) awakens her in the middle of the night to say that Bigfoot (another neighbour) is dead. From the names alone, you can likely tell this is a dark, quirky little book. You’d be right. Bigfoot appears to have choked to death on an animal bone. From this point on, residents begin dropping off, one by one.

I enjoyed ‘Drive Your Plow…’ a lot. The beginning was excellent – strange, with a terrific hook. The middle sagged a bit under the weight of astrology talk. (We get it: Janina is eccentric!) But Tokarczuk brings it back under control for the final third. The dark Polish humour that simmers beneath the surface is perfect. And the English translation is top-notch – I often forgot I was reading a translated work.

I wouldn’t call this a ‘mystery’, though. It was clear where the plot was going. To me, the whodunit aspect is scaffolding for the real story (which I won’t spoil here).

Still, I’d recommend ‘Drive Your Plow…’ – if only because I’ve never read anything quite like it. It’s a peculiar book. If you can push past the astrology, you’ll find the ending rewarding, if unsurprising.

As for me, I’m keen to read more of Tokarczuk’s work – especially ‘Flights’, the book that helped her win the Nobel.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ☆

Book Review: ‘Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone’ by Benjamin Stevenson

7th Apr 20247th Apr 2024Leave a comment

Benjamin Stevenson’s ‘Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone’ is my next read of the year.

I liked being in a book club so much that I decided to start a new one at my workplace. ‘EIMFHKS’ was our first book choice, and I have to say that we started on a hell of a good novel.

The story follows Ernest Cunningham, a crime fiction rulebook writer. He’s on his way to a family retreat in the snowy mountains of Australia (I didn’t know Australia had snow). In the very first few pages, Ern assures us that – as given away by the title – everyone in his family has killed someone. But as soon as he arrives at the secluded hotel, things start going awry, and the body count rises.

I haven’t read many murder mysteries – I like the genre, but only when it’s bloody good. But ‘EIMFHKS’ enthralled me. The sense of humour with which Stevenson writes crackles and vibrates from the pages. The protagonist is witty and hilarious, and I laughed out loud more than once. If I had to summarise the novel in a singular word, I’d pick ‘playful’. It’s fun through and through. Stevenson recognises that his job is, first, to entertain. And he pulls this feat off with aplomb. As I said, I haven’t read much mystery. But this book feels like a deconstruction of the genre, only to build it back up into something original.

I recommend this book to everybody, even if you’re not into mysteries. Because I’m not a huge fan, and I completely adored this book.

I will read more from Stevenson in the future.

Book Review: ‘A Study in Scarlet’ by Arthur Conan Doyle

29th Dec 2023Leave a comment

For the final book on my 2023 list, I chose Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘A Study in Scarlet’.

I’ve had Stephen Fry’s narration of the Sherlock Holmes collection for years. But I never could find the time to listen. With my recent rediscovery of audiobooks, I decided to delve into these, one book at a time. I’ve always been a big fan of Fry’s—the man has a beautiful voice. His audiobook work seemed the next logical step.

I’m always wary of older books since teachers forced me to read Shakespeare and Dickens in school. Since choosing my reading material, I have stuck to the twentieth century and beyond. But Doyle’s work drew me in within a few pages. Of course, the language is old-fashioned. But his prose avoids the clutter typical of Victorian writings.

We meet Holmes and Watson as they first meet each other. He seems well-formed for the first story ever containing the detective. All his oddities and quirks that we all know are on display here. The story soon takes off with the discovery of a murdered man. What surprised me was the novel’s diversion into America. When I think of Holmes, narrow London streets—cobbles slick with rain—come to mind. And that is the case for half of this novel. But Doyle also explores the US and delves into the religion of the Latter-Day Saints.

If this is the start of the Holmes saga—a piece I expected to be the weakest—I understand why these books are so revered.

I look forward to journeying into the next one with Mr Fry sometime in 2024.

Book Review: “The Passenger” by Cormac McCarthy

21st Mar 2023Leave a comment

It took me a while—as everything McCarthy has written has—but The Passenger was my ninth read of the year.

And what can I say about this piece? I almost don’t know what I’ve read. It doesn’t make sense, and there’s no neat ending, and I can’t help but feel that that’s the point.

It opens with Bobby, a salvage diver, coming across a crashed plane with a missing passenger. Yet, the novel doesn’t occupy itself with solving this mystery. Instead, it delights itself by creating more.

The story spirals outwards.

An unnamed agency is after Bobby because of what he saw on the ocean floor. Bobby’s sister is dead by suicide a decade before the novel begins. She hallucinates a cast of characters, the chief of which is the Thalidomide Kid, a caustic enigma. Bobby’s father helped make the atomic bomb. Countless debates on God, life, death, physics, morality, and sin clutter the pages. Time seems to move forward and backwards at the exact moment.

Does any of this make sense to you?

It didn’t make sense to me.

And it was beautiful.

Please read it.

Understand it—or don’t.

Isn’t that life?

Confusing and beautiful?

A Curveball Double Feature: Two Children’s Stories!

9th Jul 20208th Jul 2020Leave a comment

So, these next two really break the mould for me — they’re both children’s stories. (I know, right?!) They were each written for different prompts, but they both have similar themes and protagonists, so I thought I’d bundle ’em together in this double feature!

Part One

The first one was written for the contest Fuzzy Friends (Or Foes?) — I chose the prompt, “Write a story featuring an animal who subverts expectations.” The title is Deep Space Canine (yes, that is a pun on Deep Space Nine…) and you can read it here on WordPress, or over on my Reedsy profile.

“Grrround Control, mission has successfully been completed, repeat, mission has been successfully completed, Grrround Control.”
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Part Two

All right! The next one was written for the contest Kidding Around — I chose the prompt, “Write a story about someone who discovers a mysterious object in their home.” The title is Winston and the Legend of Va-Khum, and you can read it here on WordPress, or over on my Reedsy profile!

Listen closely, Little One, and I shall tell you a tale of a day long since passed.
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Well, I hope you liked these! I actually had a lot of fun writing ’em — even if they are completely different to my usual fare. This doesn’t mean I’m leaving my horror roots, I just like to branch out and explore a bit, y’know?