The Book Plank

Best Detective books of 2014 Next to the reading more of the Horror genre I have tried to delve more into the Detective genre as well. When you think of a fictional detective you will most likely firstly answer Sherlock Holmes. I found out this year that there is much more than Sherlock. What also struck me is that there are many fantasy/detective mix stories out there instead of focusing only on an current day murder case. This former case fitted nicely into my current reading regime. Murder by Sarah Pinborough already made it on my Best Horror list but next to giving a great scare it is also a very solid detective. The story is narrated very strongly, and what Sarah Pinborough does with the main protagonist Thomas Bond... well that is for you to find out! The Curse of the House of Foskett is the direct follow up of MRC Kasasian's debut The Mangled Street Murders , this series takes place in the same timeframe as Sherlock Holmes. Following the footsteps of the most interesting...

Review Round-up November 1. Willful Child by Steven Erikson, Bantam Press/Tor This venture of Steven Erikson into the dark reaches of was a very wild, fast and rip roaring adventure that for me succeeded in many ways. Not only does Steven Erikson show that he is a brilliant writer switching from writing Epic Fantasy to Science Fiction, also the story alone is jsut so much fun to read and this was clearly the intention that Steven Erikson had in mind, bringing down several tropes often seen in Science Fiction and creating humorous scenes around them. Captain Hadrian Sawback is really a piece of work, many will hate his arrogance but there is also much to like and I think deep down the reason why you might hate Hadrian is that he just does what he likes and we are often bound by rules and protocols. Willful Child is a superb read and excellent escape from reality. After an eventful mission, Captain Hadrian goes about his constitutive mission in space, so lets hope we w...

(p)review forecast November part 2 1. Retribution by Mark Charan Newton, Tor THEY'LL KILL TO HIDE THE TRUTH. HE'LL KILL TO FIND IT. Having just solved a difficult case in his home city of Tryum, Sun Chamber Officer Lucan Drakenfeld and his associate Leana are ordered to journey to the exotic city of Kuvash in Koton, where a revered priest has gone missing. When they arrive, they discover the priest has already been found - or at least parts of him have. But investigating the unusual death isn't a priority for the legislature of Kuvash; there's a kingdom to run, a census to create and a dictatorial Queen to placate. Soon Drakenfeld finds that he is suddenly in charge of an investigation in a strange city, whose customs and politics are as complex as they are dangerous. Kuvash is a city of contradictions; wealth and poverty exist uneasily side-by-side and behind the rich facades of gilded streets and buildings, all levels of depravity and decadence are...

Author interview Mark Charan Newton Author bio:  Mark Charan Newton was born in 1981, and holds a degree in Environmental Science. After working in bookselling, he moved into editorial positions at imprints covering film and media tie-in fiction, and later, science fiction and fantasy. He currently lives and works in Nottingham. His major label debut is Nights of Villjamur, which is published by Tor UK (Pan Macmillan) and Bantam Spectra (Random House). Hi Mark, welcome over at The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these few questions for us.  BP: First off, could you give us a short introduction as to who Mark Charan Newton is? What do you like to do in your spare time, what are your likes and dislikes? MN: With the risk of this sounding like a dating profile, I’m a 33 year old who lives in Nottingham. In my spare time I run a whisky blog (malt-review.com) and spend a lot of time on my allotment. Likes include tweed, read...

Excerp: Retribution Having just solved a difficult case in his home city of Tryum, Sun Chamber Officer Lucan Drakenfeld and his associate Leana are ordered to journey to Kuvash, the exotic capital of Koton, where a revered priest has gone missing. When they arrive, they discover the priest has already been found . . . or at least parts of him have. But investigating the unusual death isn’t a priority for the legislature of Kuvash; there’s a kingdom to run, a census to create and a dictatorial queen to placate. Drakenfeld finds that he is suddenly in charge of an inquiry in a strange city, whose customs and politics are as complex as they are dangerous. For Kuvash is a place of contradictions; wealth and poverty exist uneasily side-by-side and behind the rich facades of gilded streets and buildings, all levels of depravity and decadence are practised. When several more bodies are discovered mutilated and dumped in a public place, Drakenfeld realizes there’s a killer at wo...