Violence
An odd new feeling has crept up on me – sympathy for the police
Spring has come to my local park in its usual way. First the magnolias, then the cherry blossom, then the…
‘Sorted’ has always had connotations of menace
My heart leapt up on Newport station, an unusual place for that to happen, when I heard a recorded announcement:…
Despite everything, America is beautiful — especially at West Point
What is left to say after the church shooting in the Home of the Depraved? Those killed in Texas included…
On the waterfront
Much has been made of the American novelist Jennifer Egan’s mutation, in her latest novel, from purveyor of metafiction and…
Recent crime fiction
Gabriel Tallent’s My Absolute Darling (4th Estate, £12.99) has the word masterpiece emblazoned on the cover, alongside quotes from several…
The search for meaning
He’s not what you’d call prolific, Bernard MacLaverty. Midwinter Break is his fifth novel in 40 years, and his first…
A clash of creeds
This is a very modern novel. Terrorist atrocity sits side by side with the familiar and the mundane. Where better…
Nostalgia and nihilism
‘Gilded doorknobs,’ spits a Party diehard as she contemplates the blessings of the Soviet Union’s collapse. ‘Is this freedom?’ Dozens…
Kathmandu — or don’t
Although Nepal’s earthquake last April visited our television screens with images of seismic devastation, the disaster has probably had little…
Why Archers fans are raising funds to save Helen
Archers listeners are so obsessed with the soap’s domestic abuse storyline that they have set up a real-life charity appeal
Terror Management Studies is a brand new area of research — and it’s not about IS or Boko Haram
This is not a book to be read in solitude. Not for the obvious reason that it’s frightening, but because…
A ghost story without the scary bits
Two men walk into an ice cream parlour in Austin, Texas, order the three teenage girls working there to undress,…
What makes mankind behave so atrociously? Ian Buruma and Joanna Bourke investigate
The first interaction between two men recorded in the Bible involves a murder. In the earliest classic of English literature,…
A Jamaican civil war, with cameos from Bob Marley
There are many more than seven killings in this ironically titled novel — in fact very long — that starts…
Ukraine vs Sparta
As rebels, terrorists, fascists, foreign forces, activists, separatists, militants, militias, nationalist groups, Neo-Nazis, Right Sector forces — take your pick — spread…
Deserter, wifebeater, great poet: the shame and glory of Vernon Scannell
Vernon Scannell was a thief, a liar, a deserter, a bigamist, a fraud, an alcoholic, a woman-beater and a coward.…
How Grand Theft Auto prevents crime and violence
It was about a week ago, at 8 p.m., when our blackout happened. In the 1980s people would have headed…
'A little bit of rape is good for a man's soul': the outrageous life of Norman Mailer
Heroically brave and mad, prodigious in his industry and appetites, Norman Mailer was an altogether excessive figure. Since his death…
