This is a quirky detective story set predominantly in London but some of the main characters are Irish, so an ‘Irishness’ runs through the story, especially the humour. The book is hilarious. The detail is fantastic and Kidd's ability to paint pictures with her words is superb. The character building is spot on. The hoarder of the title Cathal Flood, foul mouthed and grumpy as hell but very funny too (and he knows it). Maud Drennan, our lead, getting drawn into the Flood family's dark past. Maud is sent to the Flood's large ramshackle house to bring some order to Cathal’s existence and a love/hate relationship develops. Maud's friend and amateur sleuth Renata is a joy, and who wouldn't want to spend time with the Nifty Fifty Dance Troupe. More of that would have been great. I've got to admit I wasn't particularly bothered about solving the mystery, I was just enjoying spending some time with this bunch of absolute crack pots.

Loved the characters, the banter between Flood and Maud. Renata larger than life and Lillian a contrast. Both love hate relationships. Atmospheric house, barricaded in, art important. Flood and Maud – loss, blame.

I’m going to begin with the characters and in short, they were great! Maud and Cathal were like the odd couple, always sparring and get one over the other. Their dialogue begins in an antagonistic way but moves into the truce of insults you can find with friends. The dialogue is hilarious and reminded me of Roddy Doyle’s writing and I so enjoy the Irish sweary thing they had going on. Another odd couple are Renata and her sister Lillian, where Renata is larger than life and somehow Lillian is smaller; a peahen to Renata’s peacock. Theirs is a love hate relationship where love wins out. Cathal and his wife also seem at odds.

How can you forget the saints who visit Maud! Their personalities are all different, from the camp to the simpering girl and the armoured St George. They are an excellent vehicle for filling in the gaps, without giving the plot away. A very clever device on Kidd’s part as they add humour and quirkiness to the tale.

The plot is seemingly straight forward, a murder or two from the past, that need to be resolved. But there is so much more. Reconciliation, acceptance, rage, jealousy, fear, false loyalty, loss and the need to allow the dead to rest. Big themes presented with humour and yet gentleness.

The prose is excellent. As I said earlier, the banter is superb and realistic. The conversations with the saints are also funny. What I really liked were the descriptions of the house as they were so atmospheric. It felt claustrophobic and menacing, like it was trying to close in on itself but the spirits were too powerful and too in need for their stories to be told and so they kept things at bay.

Maud, an unintentional psychic with her communion of saints is assigned to care for the eccentric, belligerent hoarder, Cathal Flood. Encouraged by Renata, her glamorous, agoraphobic transvestite landlady, Maud investigates what they believe to be the mysterious death of Cathal’s wife and the disappearance of a young girl.

I loved the character of Maud with the unhelpful, sarcastic saints, citing the rules that prevented constructive behaviour. I could picture the gangly, fearsome, unpredictable geriatric Cathal leaping over the mounds of his cache. I enjoyed the way in which their relationship unfolded, Cathal’s rude, suspicious behaviour mellowing with Maud’s patience and care. Maud treats Cathal with dignity rather than pity and their shared loneliness that culminates in their fragile connection.

An unusual genre, I believe it is considered to be contemporary gothic, magical realism and mystery. Not without some (forgivable) plot holes, the narrative successfully combines these three separate aspects to make a tense, imaginative and compelling read.

TFirst up, I loved this book. It was written with such a light touch that I could accept all the supernatural aspects of the story. In fact, it is one of those books where you laugh out loud. I loved the descriptions of the Saints, and their sometimes rather unsaintly behaviour. The characters all fitted seamlessly into the story and to me it was never contrived and I felt sympathy with most of them. That many, indeed most of the clues were misinterpreted and wrong conclusions drawn, added to the story but never detracted. I would recommend this book.

Many names appear in this story, some are real, but others are only in Maud’s mind. I got rather confused to start with, but nevertheless, as the story progressed, I came to realize that they are leading Maud to understand the signs and clues to the mystery, like Renata, her accomplice in solving the mystery. I thought that Cathal was responsible for, what happened to Mary Flood, Cathal’s deceased wife and for his missing daughter, Maggie.

In the end, everything seems to have been caused by some kind of misfortune. Cathal dies from natural causes. Gabriel and Stephent getting trapped by the fire meant the family secret would remain secret, as everyone seems to have gone. Then it’s time for Maud’s new adventure, this time to find her long lost sister.

I did enjoy reading the book. There are some unexplained happenings and that seems to be the part of the mystery, I think, but normally, I like to find out how and why. However, it was a good read and the ending seems to suggest that there might be another story waiting to be told…

A fantastical, mystery investigation. Maud, with the help of numerous saints, ghosts and the transvestite Renata, delves into the life of Mr Flood, his wife, Mary, and the disappearance of the child Marguerite. A secondary mystery, that of Maud's sister Deirdre, is woven through. A readable and unusual tale. Not a choice I would normally make but it held my attention to the end.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this story. The writing was clever, and the characters well-developed. Maud's constant accompaniment of ghostly saints was amusing but also confusing. If she always saw these, how much can we trust what else she saw? I found the main plot difficult to follow at times because of revisiting Maud's own past and the disappearance of her sister. Also because the vivid descriptions of dreams or imagination sometimes left me unclear as to what was reality and what was fantasy. Not sure I was satisfied by the ending, but it was an interesting read.

Reviewed in February 2026.

Set in the 'upmarket' Hill Topp, with the constant threat of transfer to Low Moor, the residents of a care home go about daily life. Until Covid strikes. Locked down, numbers dwindling, a lucky find amongst a new resident's possessions enables the survivors to buy the lease on the home. One resident's long held secret is revealed. Written with Bennett’s blend of dark humour, absurdity and irreverence, at 63 pages it is a quick read but not his best.

Tyler based her novel on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Kate is bored with her life and her constant efforts to take care of her academic father and beautiful younger sister. Her father’s research assistant is about to be deported as his work visa is due to expire. Her father and Pyotr, concoct a plan to get Kate to marry so Pyotr can get a Green Card. Can they get Kate to agree? Will Bunny, Kate’s sister, put a spanner in the works? Tyler has such a knack of creating believable characters, ones you cheer for and she writes with great humour. Such a good read!

The novel is set in Bologna during the latter part of the 16th century. Elena is orphaned and after spending time in an orphanage, she is given to a seamstress to work as an apprentice. However, this is not enough as she learned so much at the side of her father, a tailor, and she wants to follow in his footsteps. The problem is that she is female and so won’t be accepted for an apprenticeship. Not one to give up, Elena finally finds a master tailor who will take her on. Cue the nasty, predatory customer, Fontana, a man who runs Bologna and who abused the girls in the orphanage. For her protection, Elena cuts her hair and dresses as a boy. The streets are ‘policed’ by a militia style gang who are bent on ridding the city of gay men and loose women, usually in ways that are fatal. Can Elena get revenge on the powerful Fontana? Will her master and his lover survive? How does Elena repay her gratitude to those who have helped her along the way? Not high literature but a pleasant and easy read.

Once I began, I had to keep reading it till the end, it is that kind of book. Right from the beginning, we find out that Ove’s beloved wife, Sonja is no longer around in this world. He visits her grave everyday bringing flowers, cleans the surrounding area, and talks to her. It’s the way he spends the day, after having spent the morning, patrolling his neighbourhood, making sure that everything is as it should be according to his rules. Meanwhile, having lost the love of his life, Ove cannot overcome his grief and he finds that only way to reunite with Sonja will be to join her. He knows that Sonja won’t agree with him.

From time to time, he tries to kill himself, without great success, due to interference from his new neighbour. Gradually, Ove comes to get involve with his neighbours, only because according to him, they are clueless as to what’s happening around the neighbourhood area. He has been a strong believer that practical abilities, such as mending bicycles and cars are necessary skills of manhood. He begins to help with whatever needs to be done. Then one day, after being attacked by the men who try to rob his neighbour’s house, he becomes rather unwell. Never fully recovered, and with his weak heart-condition, he dies, naturally and peacefully. All the neighbours attend his funeral which Ove would have hated to see! In a way it’s quite a funny book because I can see him screwing his face with disapproval.

It is said that great comedy is born out of great pain and this is certainly true of Kathy Burke. Her mother died when Kathy was a toddler and she was brought up, loosely so, by her father and older brothers. Her father was an alcoholic who would go on binges, come home, beat his children, including Kathy then go to bed for days. Once sober, he would lament his actions and promise to change but it never happened. Neighbours and family helped and local shopkeepers added extras to shopping and turned a blind eye to the shoplifting.

Burke’s chaotic family life made school and learning difficult. She attended a theatre school in her teens and her career as a writer, stand up comedian, actor, director and playwright have given us many gems. Who can forget Kevin and Perry? Or Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie, appearances in sketch shows with French and Saunders, Harry Enfield and in Absolutely Fabulous? She’s won awards such as a BAFTA for Best Actress, Best Actress at Cannes and a British Comedy Award. She directed the dramatisation of Graham Norton’s novel Holding. She has been in music videos with Bananarama, Morrissey and The Spice Girls. The book is hard to read at times but there are also laugh out loud moments. It tells her story and the story of women in comedy and the arts and the mountains they have to climb. My only negative is that there was a lot of name dropping and I hadn’t heard of most of the actors and comedians she mentioned.

Bucky Bronco is a seventy-year-old American living in Chicago, who used to be a soul singer and had a hit record in the late 1960s. He gets invited to come to Scarborough, England, to make a guest appearance at a northern soul weekender. As he's recently widowed, unemployed, skint, and down on his luck, he thinks 'why not?' He's having his flights and hotel paid for him, plus a good fee. Bucky is amazed that anyone would even remember him and his hit record, but it turns out he has lots of adoring fans in Britain. Especially Dinah, whose job it is to look after him while he's in Scarborough. She's got family problems of her own, and she and Bucky become good friends.

But Bucky has a few problems. He hasn't actually performed or sung a note in fifty years, so he's terrified of the upcoming gig. Old age has taken its toll: he is in constant pain from his joints, and he's become addicted to very strong painkillers. Unfortunately he accidentally leaves these on the plane when he gets off at Leeds / Bradford Airport. He soon starts to break down without them, turns to drink, and seems to weigh up almost everyone he meets, in the hope that they might be able to score him some drugs to get him through the week. It’s a nice story, definitely recommended.

Set just before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 this plays out as the story of a family, existing - not quite living - in East Berlin. Secrets tear this family apart but this is a state where secrets reign supreme. Children are encouraged to spy and denounce their parents, classmates, teachers, the lot. Lies are pedalled by those in charge - sounds familiar – and are parroted by others who know they are falsehoods but everyone plays along. A toxic atmosphere in other words but shot through with rays of hope and kindness and integrity. I give away no spoilers as we all know the Wall came down. Unfortunately, many more walls go up around the world to replace it. A good, salutary read.