A Writer Reads

My recent reads

A quick shout-out for books that I have enjoyed in the month of the newsletter. Each round-up points readers toward a novel worth picking up, paired with a few words on what made it memorable.

The list ranges from historical fiction — including a review of The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson from March 2018 — to the contemporary psychological thrillers that sit alongside my own writing.

A monthly reading list offers readers a carefully curated window into the kinds of stories that capture the imagination of a writer deeply immersed in the world of psychological suspense. Each round-up tends to gather a small handful of titles into one place, mixing well-loved classics with newer discoveries, and pairing them with a few honest sentences about what made the book linger. The result is less a formal review column and more a personal letter from one reader to another, inviting curiosity and conversation about novels worth spending a quiet evening with.

Readers who follow along from month to month often notice a quiet range in the selections, as the lists drift between contemporary thrillers and older historical fiction, between dark domestic suspense and slower character-driven narratives set in distant centuries. That breadth reflects an understanding that a good reading life is not built on a single genre but on variety, contrast, and the occasional surprise of finding a voice entirely unlike your own. The commentary accompanying each title is deliberately conversational, the way one might describe a book to a friend over coffee, offering just enough detail to tempt without spoiling.

Beyond the recommendations themselves, a recurring readers column becomes a kind of ongoing reading diary, charting shifting moods, returning interests, and the slow accumulation of stories that shape a writer's craft. Month after month, the lists build a quiet record of what one author is paying attention to, what themes are resonating, and which narrative techniques are quietly admired from the other side of the desk. For visitors who love books about books, it offers a steady companion piece to the thrillers on the shelves, a reminder that every novel published is also a novel read.