'The Scent of Death' by Andrew Taylor

 22 May 2026

Andrew Taylor is an incredibly prolific contemporary writer of historical fiction. I have really enjoyed reading my first Andrew Taylor novel, 'The Scent of Death' - a thriller (published in 2014) set in New York in 1778 during the American War of Independence. It was interesting to contrast this New York with the 1746 version described by Francis Spufford in his brilliant novel 'Golden Hill' (reviewed here in August 2017). By the 1770s New York is a stronghold of the British army, backed by American loyalists who are supporting the crown against the revolutionary army led by George Washington. The story follows Edward Savill, a civil servant in the American Department who has been sent from London to assess the situation in New York. He is quickly distracted from the wider political and military scene by a series of odd events involving the family with whom he is lodging, and finds himself investigating assault and murder. Andrew Taylor writes in the style and sensibilities of the period: while Savill is kinder and more considerate to the servants than some of his colleagues, his attitudes towards slaves feels upsettingly uncomfortable to the modern reader. The plot begins slowly but gathers pace, becoming genuinely thrilling and shockingly violent. It's well written and obviously carefully researched, giving a fascinating portrait of this transitional period in American history, without ever feeling like a history lesson. I chose this Andrew Taylor novel to start with because it wasn't labelled as part of a multi-novel series, but having finished it I was delighted to discover that Edward Savill appears in another Taylor novel, which I am now looking forward to reading.

'The Kellerby Code' by Jonny Sweet

12 May 2026

Jonny Sweet is a comedian and actor who I knew from Tom Basden's brilliant Radio 4 sitcom 'Party' - about a group of naïve students who have decided to start their own political party. His debut novel 'The Kellerby Code' (which I have just finished reading as an unabridged audio book, narrated by Jack Davenport) is a dark comic thriller which Sweet has described as 'Brideshead Revisited' meets 'The Talented Mr Ripley'. Edward Jevons is a lower-middle-class young man besotted with his upper-class university friends Robert and Stanza. His increasingly desperate attempts to ingratiate himself by being helpful seem to be casting him in the role of a servant rather than a friend. Through a series of small incremental steps Edward's journey becomes more macabre and his predicament more cringeworthy. While it might be unfair to expect a novel by a comedian to have to be funny, a novel by a comedian that specifically references 'The Code of the Woosters' by PG Wodehouse wasn't as funny as I was expecting. It's a thrilling ride but I didn't find Edward a sympathetic enough character. Jonny Sweet said he was aiming for a mixture of Wodehouse and the Coen Brothers. It's an interesting and very readable debut but the grand guignol needed a bit more light relief for me. 

'Driftwood' by Martina Laird

4 May 2026

On Saturday we were at The Other Place in Stratford-upon-Avon to see 'Driftwood' - a new play by Martina Laird, directed by Justin Audibert, in a RSC production in association with Kiln Theatre. This is the debut play by Martina Laird - an actor who has previously appeared in a number of RSC productions in Stratford. We saw her playing an American political strategist in 'The New Real' by David Edgar, also at The Other Place, in 2024 (reviewed here in October 2024). 'Driftwood' is set in Trinidad and Tobago in 1956 as Eric Williams' People's National Movement is about to win the general election that will set the country on the path to self governance and then independence (which was achieved in 1962). The play focuses on a gentleman's club in Port of Spain, which is owned by an Englishman, managed by a local woman Pearl and her daughter Ruby, and is attracting the interest of a corrupt US Marine who wants to use the premises to store some form of contraband. The action takes place in one room of the club where the six characters interact with each other with the feel of a Tennessee Williams play. But the story of the club, its ownership, its future and the family who have been running it, is clearly an analogy for what is happening to Trinidad and Tobago. 'Driftwood' is enjoyable, emotional and unpredictable. Martina Laird's writing is strong, including a particularly clever multi-layered card game scene. But I think a little more reference within the play to the historical political setting might have helped us fully to appreciate the intended parallels. The acting is excellent, especially Cat White as Ruby and Martins Imhangbe as Diamond - the stranger whose arrival at the club opens the play. 

'There are Rivers in the Sky' by Elif Shafak

1 May 2026

I really enjoyed Elif Shafak's 2021 novel ‘The Island of Missing Trees’ (reviewed here in April 2023) - a beautifully written family saga through which she tells the history of the division of Cyprus. The British Turkish novelist's 2024 book 'There are Rivers in the Sky' is an even more ambitious combination of compelling narrative and a vast span of history, linked by a single drop of water that travels from the Assyrian court of King Ashurbanipal to Victorian London to modern day Iraq and contemporary London. In alternating chapters, Elif Shafak tells the stories of three characters in different historical periods who are linked by connections to 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' (the earliest recorded piece of literature), the Yazidis (history's most persecuted ethnic minority) and water. It's incredibly well researched, with some characters adapted from real historical figures. Narratively compelling, the three strands are obviously thematically linked but you gradually realise they are also going to have actual connections, which turn out to be quite surprising. 'There are Rivers in the Sky' deals with some grim topics, including genocide and sexual slavery, but it's a fascinating, impressive, epic tale.