March 1941. Joseph Gunner is back on the streets of Glasgow after being wounded on the front lines in France.
Keeping the pain in his leg at bay with the help of morphine, Gunner, a former detective, is hoping to lie low as the Luftwaffe begins bombing Glasgow.
But when he runs into his old boss Drummond, he is persuaded to help examine a body found in the wreckage. When it turns out to be that of a German, mutilated to disguise his identity, Gunner reluctantly agrees to investigate.
As he begins to hunt for the truth Gunner runs into old flames and bitter enemies, before finding himself embroiled in a high-level conspiracy that reaches far beyond his hometown of Glasgow.
This was very kindly sent to me as a proof last year by the lovely folk at Baskerville and was sat on a shelf waiting to be read for far too long. I swear I am a good book blogger, honest. I get to them eventually.
I took it on holiday with me recently and was hooked immediately. It’s flipping brilliant. I’m annoyed with myself that I put this off for so long. Don’t make the same mistake!
I’m not usually a historical fiction kinda guy, but absolutely loved this one. Joseph Gunner is back from the war, discharged due to his horrific injuries on the front line in France, and now back in Glasgow. Fresh off the train he’s approached by his old boss Drummond, who wants him to look into something odd involving a body that turned up after a bombing raid.
What exactly is a mutilated German doing amongst the bodies found in the rubble? Conspiracies abound. I loved the gritty feel of wartime Glasgow, there’s a real sense of place as we follow Gunner down the streets as he investigates.
Joe Gunner is a brilliant character and I absolutely cannot wait to find out what happens next. Book 2 will NOT even get close to the bookshelf before being read immediately, and the only benefit of my laxity in reading book one is that I will not have long to wait.
Highly recommended.
Gunner by Alan Parks is published by Baskerville and is out now in paperback. Many thanks to the publisher for the advance copy for review. Opinions remain, as ever, my own.
A Hollywood idol. The Virgin Mary. An everyday girl from Hull.
Three women, three eras, surprising things in common…
On 4th August 1962, the night she should have died, Marilyn Monroe – the biggest star in the world – receives a visitor who changes the course of her destiny. The Virgin Mary appears in her kitchen with a curious message. Inspired, Marilyn abandons her home, her life, her fame, and disappears into the night…
Fifty-four years later, in a Hull kitchen, Flora Baker finds Mary, bathed in light. She has a similar message for the working class woman who is on the poverty line and dreaming of a better life. Flora begins to make changes that impact not only her life but the lives of those around her…
Do Marilyn and Flora have more in common than just Mary’s visit? Are they somehow linked across time? And is Mary’s message for all the women of the world?
I know very little about Marilyn Monroe, other than the surface level stuff – glamorous movie star, the ‘blonde bombshell’, “happy birthday mister president”. And that she died in 1962, far too young.
Wonderful is the story about what might have happened if Marilyn Monroe didn’t die in August 1962. And how her story links to Flora, a working class woman from Hull, a million miles away from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.
And how a visitor to both of them changed both their lives.
On the face of it, this is a story that I thought might not be for me. But I’ve read a lot of Louise Beech’s books now, and trust her implicitly that she’s going to tell a great story.
And reader, this is a great story. Full of life and hope and wonder, a story about celebrity and how we treat them. A glorious ‘what if’ from someone who clearly adores Marilyn. And by the end of this book, you will too.
Wonderful is exactly what it says on the cover – a truly wonderful story which might just have brought a tear to my eye. I’m denying everything. Damnit, Beech, you made me cry. Again.
Published on what would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday. It’s a (looks up another word for wonderful, gives up) wonderful tribute to a lost star.
As you might have guessed, I loved this book. Hugely, highly recommended.
Wonderful by Louise Beech is published by Pick Lock Publishing and is out now. Enormous thanks to Louise Beech for sending me an advance ebook copy for review. Opinions remain, as ever, my own.
A layered, complex exploration of a dark mind and the impact on family and community. One wise blogger (ok yes, it was me) said it was:
a book where all of the sentences just fit perfectly together, where nothing is wasted, nothing is quite as it appears on the surface, and which will leave you thinking about it for a long, long time.
Yes, I liked it. I liked it a lot.
Human Remains by Jo Callaghan is the third in her series featuring the AI hologram detective AIDE Lock.
I was on a bit of a reading slump when I got to this last July and powered through it. For some reason I thought I’d listened to them all in audiobook, but it seems I read this one on my Kindle. It’s a great series, and I’m very much looking forward to book 4, which is sadly to be the last!
The Death of Us by Abigail Dean is one which I’d heard so much about then finally picked up a copy (last one in the bookshop!) at Stockport Noir where I also had a brief chance to say hello and get it signed.
Blimey. I’d heard a lot of good things about this book from Adam Simcox and Louise Beech, amongst others. They were not wrong. It’s a tough read and doesn’t really hold back at all. It’s the story of Edward and Isabel, and how their world changed when a serial killer entered their home. The aftermath is just crushing. Beautifully written, this will live with you for a long, long time.
Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney was one I read back in January.
I’ve seen several of my bookblogger chums raving about Alice Feeney’s books and I’d been meaning to pick one up for ages. Absolute page turner, the story drew me in, and the writing and plot was great. Until it wasn’t. Unfortunately the twist didn’t land for me but I know tons of others absolutely loved it. I’ll be picking up some more of Alice’s books though as I saw her at Stockport too.
I read The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths whilst on holiday earlier this month.
Ali Dawson works cold cases. So cold they’re frozen, she jokes. She works for a specialist unit who go back in time to solve crimes, and ends up in 1850 looking into a relative of wannabe PM Isaac Templeton. Except when she arrives in 1850 there’s a dead body at her feet, and she can’t seem to find her way back to the present day…
A cracking time-hop mystery! I really liked Ali Dawson, and loved the way she had to find her feet in 1850 – a modern woman dealing with a very unmodern society. Great plot and a fantastic start to a new series. Book 2 can’t come soon enough.
I really enjoyed The Examiner by Janice Hallett.
I’ve loved all of Janice’s books to be fair. They’re cleverly constructed of emails, text messages, snippets of documents, all coming together to tell a story in an entirely unconventional way. Absolutely gripping!
Clown Town by Mick Herron is the ninth in his fabulous Slough House series.
Whilst I love this series and adore Mick Herron’s turn of phrase (you’ll regularly find me cackling with laughter while reading) and utterly brilliant characters, I’m going to be a bit churlish here and ask whether the ninth book in a series by a hugely successful author is really one of the books of the year? Similarly with Mark Billingham’s latest which is also on the list and the 19th in his best-selling series. Again, I love Mark’s writing and it might well be his best Thorne novel yet, but is it up amongst the very best books of the year?
I adored Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan.
Featuring everyone’s favourite Quartermaster, Quantum of Menace delves into what happens after Q is unceremoniously let go from MI6 and finds himself back in his small hometown of Wickstone-on-Water where his old friend Peter Napier turns up dead. Quantum computers, shady goings-on and a cameo from a certain super spy. I loved it. Very very much looking forward to the further adventures of Q!
Last up, and a recent read is Gunner, by Alan Parks.
This was very kindly sent to me as a proof by the lovely folk at Baskerville and was sat on a shelf waiting to be read for far too long. I swear I am a good book blogger, honest. I get to them eventually.
Flippin’ brilliant. I’m gutted that I put this off for so long. I’m not usually a historical fiction kinda guy, but absolutely loved this one. Joseph Gunner is back from the war, discharged due to his (horrific) injuries on the front line in France, and now back in Glasgow. Fresh off the train he’s approached by his old boss Drummond, who wants him to look into something odd involving a body that turned up after a bombing raid. What exactly is a mutilated German doing there? Conspiracies abound. Joe Gunner is a brilliant character and I absolutely cannot wait to find out what happens next. Book 2 will NOT even get close to the bookshelf before being read immediately.
I’ve got my eye on a few others from the list too. Big fan of AA Dhand so I’ll read The Chemist, I will pick up the Mark Billingham book, and I really want to read Callum McSorley’s Paperboy. And I’ve been told by reputable book bloggers that I really need to read We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough.
I think I’ve done quite well by reading half the list. And it’s a good list (despite my minor grumbling above).
Have you read any of the long list? Which one will be getting your vote?
I was on holiday last week. We went to the Yorkshire coast and it was dreadful. I mean, just look at it.
clouding over, I see
Also got a load of reading done, and I know how much you lot love a good book roundup (yes, I know I’ve still not done April’s yet, been on holiday innit).
Somehow I managed to get through six books last week.
And they were all great! Well, mostly great. One was less great than the others, but we’ll get to that (place your bets now…)
Let’s kick off with The Killer Question, by Janice Hallett.
I’d picked this up a couple of months ago and kept meaning to read it but kept getting horribly distracted so popped it in the Holiday Reading Bag. Absolutely tore through this. If you’ve read any of Janice Hallett’s books before (surely you have?), then you’ll know what to expect – a tale told via WhatsApp messages and emails, excerpts from police reports, snippets of things rather than your standard narrative. And Hallett does it so well. Rival quiz teams (and quiz masters) at local pubs find themselves in the middle of a murder mystery. But who are these mysterious quizzers who mysteriously appear and mysteriously keep getting all the answers right?
Next up we had The Ophelia Murders by J.M. Simpson.
Now I met J.M. Simpson at Harrogate last year, and she was kind enough to press a copy of her book into my grubby little bookblogger hands (and sign it). Another book I’ve been meaning to read for ages!
It was fantastic. Great plot (murders up in a Scottish mountain resort town), fantastic characters and those pages just kept turning. So good that I DM’d Jo after I finishing going OMG BRILLIANT WHEN IS BOOK 2 OUT? and she very kindly pointed out that it was actually out now so I immediately bought a copy. You should too, it’s really dead good.
We’re on a roll now. Two books in and both fantastic. Could book 3 keep up the winning streak? Well, it was Lisa Hall’s The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl.
My super helpful reading assistant, Amber. Being super helpful and keeping one leg warm.
This is the second in her fabulous time-hopping mystery series, following on from the events of The Mysterious Double Death of Honey Black which I read back in January. Well this one is just as fabulous as the first. Think Quantum Leap but with more feathers and sequins. Lily and the gang are back in 1950 to try and stop another murder, but this time in the glamorous world of Las Vegas. Utterly fab.
I’ve also just realised that all three of these books were signed by their lovely authors!
I told you that one of the books was less great than the others, and book 4 is that book. Don’t get me wrong, it was still good, and I enjoyed it. It’s Bicycle Diaries, by David Byrne. Yes, that David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame.
Now I’ve been reading this book on and off for years. I’d pick it up, read a chapter and pop it back on the shelf. It’s interesting, if a little rambling. Mr Byrne travels a lot, as one would expect of a world-famous musician, and he likes to take his folding bike with him whenever possible, to explore new places. Part travelogue (he visits a range of places, from Manila to London, to San Franciso and Sydney, amongst others), part random musings, it was interesting. It just didn’t blow me away, as evidenced by the fact it’s probably taken me five years to read.
Speaking of fives, we’re up to book five. The lovely folk at Baskerville very kindly sent me a review copy of Alan Parks’ Gunner to read and, erm, review some time ago.
Yet another book that was sat on a shelf waiting to be read. I swear I am a good book blogger, honest. I get to them eventually.
Flippin’ brilliant. I’m gutted that I put this off for so long. I’m not usually a historical fiction kinda guy, but absolutely loved this one. Joseph Gunner is back from the war, discharged due to his (horrific) injuries on the front line in France, and now back in Glasgow. Fresh off the train he’s approached by his old boss Drummond, who wants him to look into something odd involving a body that turned up after a bombing raid. What exactly is a mutilated German doing there? Conspiracies abound. Joe Gunner is a brilliant character and I absolutely cannot wait to find out what happens next. Book 2 will NOT even get close to the bookshelf before being read immediately.
Book six feels like a bit of a cheat in that I didn’t actually read it whilst away on holiday, but I did read it before I got back to work, and I did buy it from the fabulous Whitby Bookshop. It is Ellie Griffiths’ The Frozen People.
Ali Dawson works cold cases. So cold they’re frozen, she jokes. She works for a specialist unit who go back in time to solve crimes, and ends up in 1850 looking into a relative of wannabe PM Isaac Templeton. Except when she arrives in 1850 there’s a dead body at her feet, and she can’t seem to find her way back to the present day…
Another cracking time-hop mystery! I really liked Ali Dawson, and loved the way she had to find her feet in 1850 – a modern woman dealing with a very unmodern society. Great plot and a fantastic start to a new series. Book 2 can’t come soon enough!
Right, that was my holiday reading. Six books in and we’re only a third of the way through May. Feels like a good reading month, eh?
Have you read any of these books? Any catch your eye?
As ever, I’d love to know what you’ve been reading.
In modern day Vienna, city of spies, American Sterling Lockwood is the loyal Concierge & Keeper of Secrets at the infamous Hotel Orient, a love hotel where cameras are banned, aliases are required, and every guest has a secret.
After the double murder of two guests, including a tech mogul building an Austrian surveillance state, Sterling has to turn detective. But finding the truth will require breaking the Orient’s sacred code of secrecy, while keeping a few secrets of her own. The police struggle when modern investigative technology proves useless at the old-fashioned hotel. Because clients use aliases, pay cash, and stay mere hours, all suspects have vanished.
Sterling agrees to assist alongside her best friend and colleague Fernando, if only to avoid arrest and fight suspicion regarding her own movements that night. As enemies close in, she risks everything to solve a case haunted by the past in a city with a fetish for nostalgia.
It’s a world of secrets, the Hotel Orient. A world where you can do what you will, where names are discouraged, where pleasures are taken (with consent, naturally), phones left at the door, and where your host Sterling Lockwood will look after your every whim. It’s a gloriously decadent setting, oozing with glamour, secrets and champagne, of course. With a side order of murder, naturally. Who would be so… gauche as to do the deed? It’s up to Sterling to find out. One can’t let the good name of the Hotel Orient be besmirched in such a fashion, can one?
The book is fabulous, I adored Sterling, smart, witty and pithy. I also loved her stiff-upper-lipped police nemesis Andreas and watching them gradually, oh so very gradually start to succumb to Sterling’s charms.
And of course Serafina. But you’ll need to read the book to find out more about her. Vienna itself plays a huge role in the book too, and it was fascinating to wander the streets and clubs and bars and soak up the atmosphere. We’re back to the ‘give a book a good sense of place and make me a happy boy’ thing.
I hope we get to see much more of the Hotel Orient and her concierge/keeper of secrets. Because I feel that there are a LOT more secrets to be peeled away.
Get this on your lists for next year kids. And remember, Sterling is watching, and will know if you’ve been naughty or nice. As to which she prefers, well you’ll have to wait and see…
Highly recommended.
Murder at the Hotel Orient by Alessandra Ranelli is published by Baskerville in May 2026. Many thanks to the publisher for an advance copy for review, and to Alessandra for inviting me to take part in the publicity shenanigans in Harrogate!
Canada, 1898. The Gold Rush is on in the frozen wilderness of the Yukon. Fortunes are made as quickly as they’re lost, and Dawson City has become a lawless settlement.
In its midst, three women are trying to find their place on the edge of civilisation. Journalist Kate, along with her dog Yukon, has travelled hundreds of miles after receiving a letter from her sister warning that her husband means to kill her. Martha’s hotel and livelihood are under threat from the local strongman, who is set on buying up the town. And down by the river, where gold shimmers from between the rocks, Ellen feels her future slip away as her husband fails to find the fortune they risked so much to seek.
When a woman is found murdered, Kate, Martha and Ellen find their lives, fates and fortunes intertwined. But to unmask her killer, they must navigate a desperate land run by dangerous men who will do anything for a glimpse of gold…
Well, regular readers around these parts, or anyone who has innocently asked ‘read any good books recently?’ will know how much I adore Beth’s books. And luckily for you, dear reader, The Rush is both out now in paperback, and utterly brilliant (as per usual).
Three women’s lives in the gold rush collide. You emerge blinking into the sunlight almost feeling the grit under your fingernails from the trail, sunburnt from the environment, looking over your shoulder to see if that man has an itchy trigger finger, and is that a glimmer of gold over there?
It’s so refreshing to read a book with so many strong female leads. Kate, the journalist, travelling the Yukon trail to find her sister who has written to say her husband is going to kill her. Martha, hotel owner and madam, whose girls look after the men, but is under threat from the local hard man. And Ellen, whose husband is convinced that gold is just around the bend of the river.
Great characters, and a plot that finds these three incredible women’s lives coming together. It’s a historical murder mystery, it’s a book about the lives of the women in the Yukon, it’s about the gold rush. What more could you want?
Oh, and there’s a dog called Yukon. We love dogs.
Stunning. If you’ve not read any of Beth’s books yet, you’ve been missing out (and ignoring me).
Start here! Go buy a copy!
I loved it so much I bought myself the beautiful shiny hardback, but the new paperback is possibly even more gorgeous…
The Rush by Beth Lewis is published by Viper (many thanks for the early ebook copy for review, sorry it took so long…) and is out now in paperback. Which you’d already know if you’ve read this far.
Opinions remain, as ever, my own. Now, go buy the book…
When Hop awakens in an ancient labyrinth, he has no memory of his life, or how he got here. He does not recognise the mysterious girl trapped with him. And he certainly cannot identify the shadowy figure stalking him, whispering terrible things…
But there is one thing he is certain of: He must escape.
The only way out of the labyrinth is through The Bone Door. But it lies behind a series of locked doors hidden across an array of strange realms. To open the way, Hop must complete impossible tasks before his time runs out.
As Hop travels deeper into the maze, he discovers that he and his companions may be more connected to the place and its horrors than he could ever imagine.
Unless Hop is able to unravel the true mystery of the labyrinth, and his own role within it, the Bone Door and any hope of escape will be lost forever.
Every now and again a book comes along which you just know from the very first page is going to be special. The Bone Door is one of those books.
The skeleton was sleeping in the snow, its tea-stained bones scattered like freckles across a pale face.
I mean, come on. As first lines go, that’s pretty great. And as I read I found myself highlighting more and more lines that just sang off the page. It’s a gorgeous book.
The mysterious yet eternally cheerful Hop finds himself in a narrow chamber with only a skeleton for company. He can’t remember who he is, doesn’t know where he is, and has no idea what he needs to do to get out of there. Hop and Skully join forces and they’re off in search of the Bone Door…
What follows is an adventure through the many rooms of the labyrinth. Each rooms offers a unique challenge which needs to be completed within a certain amount of time, or they will be stuck there forever. Along the way they meet gods and monsters, as well as some new members of the gang – I don’t want to say too much as you really need to meet them yourself along the way.
There’s so much I want to say about this book – the characters are messy and wonderful and broken and there for each other. The worldbuilding is just incredible – Frances White has woven together dreams and nightmares and come up with something entirely unique. Echoes of the movie Labyrinth (appropriate, given where Hop wakes up) lace through the story like a fine golden filigree. This book takes you on a journey, breaks you into pieces then puts you back together again.
It is, quite simply, a glorious thing, and will be very high on my books of the year list come the end of 2026, I’m quite sure.
Absolutely stunning. Buy this one as soon as it comes out. 11/10.
Whilst the book features children as the main characters, this is very much not a kid’s book. It tackles mature themes such as abuse, trauma and how we face up to it. The author has a list of content warnings on their website, should you need them. I really appreciated this way of presenting this – rather than as some books do, showing the warnings up front, the author has acknowledge that some people might need them, and gently pointed at where they can be found.
The Bone Door by Frances White is published by Michael Joseph in May 2026. Thanks to the publisher for an advance ebook copy of the book to review.
Irody Hasp is a Mortedant, a cleric tasked with reading the last thoughts of the dead—though no one thanks him for it. No Mortedant is popular, but Irody is scarcely tolerated even by the other members of his own guild, and rarely selected for anything but the lowliest of jobs.
This impoverished existence would be dismal enough—but after reading the corpse of a low-level records keeper, Irody’s troubles quickly multiply when his own apprentice is murdered, and all fingers point to him as a suspect. The only way to save his own skin is to find the real culprit himself, an investigation that quickly attracts powerful enemies with few scruples, and draws him into a plot that threatens the entire corrupt yet wondrous city he calls home.
Well now, this is exciting. A new book by RJ Barker is always a lovely, slightly odd thing. But in a delightful way. And Mortedant’s Peril (The Trials of Irody Hasp #1) is quite the most delightfully weird book.
We follow the adventures of Irody Hasp, a Mortedant. He can read the last thoughts of the deceased. But then his apprentice is murdered, he gets the blame, and has four days to identify the real culprit or face the gallows. So far, so murder mystery – who actually killed Malkin? Why do they want Irody to swing for it?
Conspiracies abound as Mortedant Hasp has to delve through the layered tiers of the city (an utterly lovely piece of worldbuilding, ruled by the goat satyr Niofa), accompanied by his new neophyte (and Malkin’s sister) Mirial and Whisper, an ‘unhuman’ Oster sea person tasked with guarding him until his execution day.
It’s a beautiful, strange world that RJ Barker has created, and I’ve been savouring it over the past couple of weeks rather than doing my usual of just inhaling the book in a couple of sittings. Some books just want you to take your time with them, to soak in the atmosphere, to feel the cobbles on the streets and listen to the shouts of the low-tier folk as they go about their day, pausing to see the harried Irody Hasp rush past, black Mortedant robes billowing behind him as he struggles to save himself from the hangman’s noose.
I loved every bit of it. If you’ve read any of RJ’s books before, you’ll no doubt already have this on your lists. If not, get your favourite pencil out and write down the words “MORTEDANT’S PERIL – BUY A COPY IN MAY” in your very best handwriting, and stick it to your fridge.
Hugely recommended. All the stars.
Mortedant’s Peril by RJ Barker is published by Tor Books in May 2026. Huge thanks to the publisher for an ebook copy of the book to review.
Edenscar, a town in the Peak District, has more than most. 17 years ago, its inhabitants were hit by tragedy when a school bus veered off the road and everyone on board drowned. Everyone, that is, except Joseph Ashe. His miraculous survival has haunted him and the town ever since.
Now a Detective Sergeant in the local police, Joe is called to the scene of a brutal and apparently inexplicable crime. The whole town is spooked, but Joe’s new boss, DI Laurie Bower, more used to inner-city police work, has no time for superstition. She just wants to find the very real killer who has left no trace and apparently had no motive.
Joining forces, Joe and Laurie work to uncover the secrets of Edenscar, both past and present.
But when you dig up the dead, expect to get your hands dirty…
Well now, that was a bit good. If you’re looking for a great murder mystery which is a bit different, then The Drowning Place should be very high on your list.
Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I read a lot of books. And a lot of crime books. And there’s a point where sometimes they can start to feel a little samey. This is very much not the case here – it has a refreshingly different twist with DS Joseph Ashe, who was involved in a tragic accident on a school trip where he lost his best friend Sammi and is literally haunted by the events of that day. A miracle, say some. Others are less convinced…
I loved the setting, the village of Edenscar is very much a character itself, eerie and surrounded by the moors and woodlands of the Peak District. It’s broody and slightly oppressive, with some fantastic inhabitants, all with their own secrets.
Throw in DI Laurie Bower from the bright lights of Salford, a smart, no-nonsense sort of copper who is tasked with investigating the brutal murders. Joe and Laurie are quite the pair!
It’ll keep you up late reading, just make sure the lights are on and the doors are firmly locked. Edenscar is out there, lurking in the dark.
And it’s the start of a new series! I can’t wait to see what other cases our detectives have to investigate. Hugely recommended.
The Drowning Place by Sarah Hilary is published by Harvill and is out now in hardback. Many thanks to the publisher for an advance copy for review. Opinions remain my own.
A waiter’s job is to deceive you. They want you to believe in a luxurious calm because on the other side of that door . . . is hell. Edward Chisholm’s spellbinding memoir of his time as a Parisian waiter takes you beneath the surface of one of the most iconic cities in the world—and right into its glorious underbelly. He inhabits a world of inhuman hours, snatched sleep and dive bars; scraping by on coffee, bread and cigarettes, often under sadistic managers, with a wage so low you’re fighting your colleagues for tips. Your colleagues—including thieves, narcissists, ex-soldiers, immigrants, wannabe actors, and drug dealers—are the closest thing to family that you’ve got. It’s physically demanding, frequently humiliating and incredibly competitive. But it doesn’t matter because you’re in Paris, the center of the universe, and there’s nowhere else you’d rather be in the world.
Let’s start with a confession. Edward Chisholm’s A Waiter in Paris had been on my NetGalley TBR pile for so long that I couldn’t find it on my kindle. I’m a terrible bookblogger!
Then I was in Harrogate with my daughter for a day out recently and spotted it on the shelf so bought a copy. Amends would be made.
This is fascinating stuff. We follow Edward, known as l’Anglais by his coworkers, from his lowly start as a runner (lower than a waiter) in a Parisian bistro. The tales of scrounging coffees from the Tamils who run the pass – the interface between the kitchens (terrifying, you do not go there as a waiter, ever), run-ins with the director, badly fitting suits, scrounging euros from the actual waiters (usually with little to no success), living in cramped bedbug-ridden accomodation through to finally becoming accepted by his colleagues (mostly) are deftly told.
The writing is crisp, often amusing, and a love of Paris shines through.
I loved it.
A Waiter in Paris by Edward Chisholm is published by Monoray and is out in paperback now.
espresso coco 
