...yet yet more reviews by Philip Spires
Explore in-depth book reviews by Philip Spires. Discover critiques and insights on a curated list of books spanning various genres and authors.
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Arthur & George
by Julian Barnes
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • From the bestselling author of The Sense of an Ending comes an “extraordinary … first rate” novel (The New York Times Book Review) that follows the lives of two very different British men and explores the grand tapestry of late-Victorian Britain. As boys, George, the son of a Midlands vicar, and Arthur, living in shabby genteel Edinburgh, find themselves in a vast and complex world at the heart of the British Empire. Years later—one struggling with his identity in a world hostile to his ancestry, the other creating the world’s most famous detective while in love with a woman who is not his wife—their fates become inextricably connected.
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Restless
by William Boyd
In December, 2012 The Sundance Channel will air the BBC-produced film RESTLESS starring Charlotte Rampling, Michael Gambon, Hayley Atwell, and Rufus Sewell, based on this novel by William Boyd. Someone is trying to kill Sally Gilmartin. It is the summer of 1976, and the only person she can trust is her daughter, Ruth, a young single mother struggling with her own demons. Now Sally must tell her daughter the truth: She is actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré recruited for the British Secret Service in 1939. Soon Ruth is drawn deeper into the astonishing events of her mother's past, including her work in New York City manipulating the press in order to shift public sentiment toward U.S. involvement in Second World War and her dangerous love affair with another spy. Ruth also discovers that her mother has one final assignment. This time, though, Eva can't do it alone—she needs Ruth's help. Full of tension and drama, emotion and history, this is storytelling at its finest.
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A Million Would Be Nice
by Ken Scott
Good looks, top job in the city, a Ferrari, multiple homes--Donavan Smith had it all. When Vicky Mackenzie tells him all about the cold-blooded murder of her husband, the phony bank raid, and how the money was still out there somewhere, Donavan wonders how he can get his hands on the money.
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Mission
by Philip Spires
Michael, a missionary priest in Kenya, has just killed Munyasya, a retired army officer. It might have been an accident, but Mulonzya, a politician resentful of the power of foreign churches, tries to exploit the tragedy for his own ends. Boniface, a young church worker, and his wife, Josephine, have just lost their child. They did not make it to the hospital in time, possibly because Michael made a detour to retrieve a letter from the Mission, a letter from Janet, a former volunteer teacher who was the priest's neighbour for two years. It is Munyasya who has the last laugh, however, when he reveals that he was probably in control of events all along. Thirty years on, the same characters find their lives still influenced by his memory.
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A Bucket of Ashes
by Jill Lanchbery
As friends separated by time, distance, and culture meet again in Nigeria, their lives intertwine. They are forced to confront their problems and make choices they had never wanted or expected to make.