Category Archives: Books

Stephen King: You Like It Darker. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In some respects, it is possible to look upon the literary works of Stephen King and understand that in his novellas and short stories the labour behind them is more intensely arrived at than some of his larger bound novels.

There has long been a question mark about the modern master of horror and his ability to complete a novel with a greater tightness, cruelly perhaps driven by some who seek the alternative narrative of dismissing the saga and only wishing for the attention span to be satisfied rather than working and striving for a greater insight into the man and his nightmares.

Stephen King: You Like It Darker. Book Review. full post

(445 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Adrian Edmondson: Beserker. Autobiography Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The reader will always understand that to read an autobiography at times will leave them curious as well as informed. The willingness to immerse yourself into another life through the painted verbal tales is one of sharing, of commitment, perhaps a smidgen of questioning interest at the beans they wish to spill on their time at top, but you never expect to be completely broken by a passage that becomes the backbone of the book.

Adrian Edmondson: Beserker. Autobiography Review. full post

(545 words, 1 image, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Kit Derrick: Hush. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We are a collection of stories that reside in time, occasionally finding our paths careering into the orbits and narrative of others to whom we may not have interacted with before, until a day of reckoning comes out of the blue. It is a crash, an accident waiting to happen, and the outcome can send shockwaves through every sphere of influence and relationship that we all once held dear.

Kit Derrick: Hush. Book Review. full post

(437 words, 1 image, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Spencer Leigh. Little Richard: Send Me Some Lovin’. Music Biography Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

To have the arrogance of self-belief that you are the number one, the top dog in your field must at times surely mean you court controversy with a willing heart.

There is no point being a showman on stage, a diva on the boards, if you don’t have the confidence to be even more outrageous in real life, for the states of being go hand in hand, they are the heights we reach for when we have something to say and are driven by a beating heart that has a measure of ego spurring it on.

Spencer Leigh. Little Richard: Send Me Some Lovin’. Music Biography Review. full post

(665 words, estimated 2:40 mins reading time)

James Patterson: Alex Cross Must Die. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * *

James Patterson’s Alex Cross will go down as one of the immortal detectives of his time. His longevity in the world of fiction has been assured not least because of the number of novels and stories that have his name impacted upon the front cover, but because of who he is as a man created by a writer of instinct, one of high morals, of loyalty and integrity bound up in soul who never seems to know what it means to quit.

James Patterson: Alex Cross Must Die. Book Review. full post

(486 words, 1 image, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Kit Derrick: Lorelei. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Myths and legends give credence to a world beyond our comprehension, a world of fairy’s and goblins offer a sideways romantic look to a world we have lost, the ugly monsters that live under the bridges, all gone…and yet we find the mythic names resides in our mind and we place association on them when we admonish ourselves as mistakes and cruel acts are undertaken, when we wish to give a syndrome a title.

Kit Derrick: Lorelei. Book Review. full post

(482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Liz Hedgecock: A Spider’s Web. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Whilst Arthur Conan Doyle is rightly lauded by many as the godfather of the British detective, it can also be argued, quite intently, that because of the Victorian and Edwardian attitudes that prevailed during his writing career, his ability to write about women was poor at best, and at worst, damning.  Of course, you write what you know, and that world in which Sherlock Holmes was born into, was one forced by the rampant progression of the notion of Empire and what it meant to be British, what it meant to be a man.

Liz Hedgecock: A Spider’s Web. Book Review. full post

(478 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

D.E. McCluskey: The Boyfriend. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Horror may come in different guises, the simple fact that the most terrifying is that which comes close to home is what will scare you most.

You can read about mutant insects that make your skin scratch and itch as though they are running around in your body, you can feel the terror in the unexplained, the vampires, the ghouls, the psycho goblins, the spectres that float and the demons who will tear you limb from limb, but nothing comes close to the truth that fear is driven by the one that you invite into your home.

D.E. McCluskey: The Boyfriend. Book Review. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Gavin Baddeley And Paul Woods: Jack The Ripper – The Murders And The Myths. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is perhaps telling of our modern approach to certain beguiling questions that a series of murders committed more than 130 years ago still finds ways to take hold of a conversation when other, arguably more pressing, concerns consistently become relegated to that of whimsy and fruitless explorations.

The consistency of new books and theories concerning Jack The Ripper and his insidious crimes has become its own cottage industry, and to find something novel, an original piece of thinking is its own reward when found.

Gavin Baddeley And Paul Woods: Jack The Ripper – The Murders And The Myths. Book Review. full post

(490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

G R P Janes: I’ll Write A Book Of Poetry. Poetry Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To see reason and clarity you must first break the chains that tie you down, which bind you to the prison others have created, and which you cannot envisage freedom. That which offers no escape is the greatest reason to keep fighting.

G R P Janes: I’ll Write A Book Of Poetry. Poetry Book Review. full post

(427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)