S MAGAZINE ★ 28 JULY 2019 53
bookS
To buy these books, see Express
Bookshop on page 77kH Irvine pulls off this multi-stranded glimpse
into the near future with aplomb.
We are in the post-brexit britain of 2023,
where parts of London have become no-go
areas for non-Muslims and the Government
is systematically eroding civil liberties.
From the viewpoint of three old university
friends – an investigative journalist, an
academic expert on radicalisation and a
lapsed Muslim comedian – Irvine explores
the ways in which extremists on both sides
of the argument are sending the country to
hell in a handcart.
I hope every politician in the country reads
this book and heeds it the way Scrooge heeded
the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. Although
I certainly don’t want to live in this world, I
revelled in Irvine’s depiction of it.Death In A Desert Land
by Andrew Wilson
(Simon & Schuster, £16.99)
We know from her books
that Agatha Christie was
blessed with a beady eye for
human iniquity and unusually
lively little grey cells, so the
idea of the queen of crime
turning detective herself seems plausible.The third in Andrew Wilson’s series of novels
casting Agatha as a sleuth is inspired by the
trip she made to baghdad in 1928 and
imagines her being mixed up in the death of
pioneering british traveller Gertrude bell.
The writer has a good deal of rather
impertinent fun weaving a murder thriller
around the various real-life figures working at
an archaeological dig in the ancient city of
Ur. He shares with the great Dame the gift of
sheer readability.On My Life
by Angela Clarke
(Mulholland, £7.99)
Thrillers in which a middle-
class woman’s perfect
life suddenly falls apart
are 10 a penny, but Angela
Clarke’s novel ups the
stakes. The narrator, Jenna,
finds herself in prison, accused of murdering
her 14-year-old stepdaughter.
The book is a searing indictment of our
prison system, so white hot with anger at the
way it is stacked against women that at times
you will feel like your hands are burning. but
the story is so compellingly told that you won’t
be putting it down.One Way Out
by AA Dhand
(Bantam, £16.99)
This is the fourth entry in
AA Dhand’s series featuring
DCI Harry Virdee, a Sikh
whose beat is the mean
melting pot of modern
bradford. After a tricky time
of it, Harry has reached some equilibrium in
his professional and private lives and so, in PG
Wodehouse’s phrase, fate must be lurking
around the corner with a stuffed eel-skin.
The book begins when Harry’s quality time
in City Park with his son is interrupted by a
terrorist atrocity. It’s the work of a far-right
group called The Patriots, who are also holding
Muslims hostage in the city’s many mosques.
With the Government refusing to negotiate,
Harry has to undertake a dangerous mission
that will test his mettle – as does his wife,
Saima, although in a different way, as she is
one of the imprisoned worshippers.
This couldn’t be more topical if AA Dhand
was handing you the freshly written pages as
he watched the news. It’s hugely exciting, too.Special offer for
S Magazine readers
Get 10 per cent off The Abuse Of Power
by Anthony Daly (rrp £7.99), plus p&p.
Call 01256 302 699 or order online at
mirrorbooks.co.uk. Offer code X10
A dark scandal is hidden in the heart
of 1970s London. After escaping the
Troubles in his native Northern Ireland,
Anthony accepted a job in Foyles
bookshop and began a new life in
England. However, his naivety rapidly saw
him fall foul of predators looking for
young men to sexually exploit and
blackmail. After years of concealing the
secret of his abuse at the hands of
some of the most influential men in
britain, Anthony’s
trauma became
harder to contain.
Stylishly written
and politically
explosive, this is
the haunting true
story of a young
man’s descent into
a hell designed
to satisfy the
powerful.GETTY IMAGES