Gary Raymond (Parthian)
A funeral with one attendant; a Russian benefactor with a curious preoccupation with his dreams and the secrets of his past; a struggling painter and a city in Cyprus like a realm of a fairy tale. I wrote this almost immediately after having finished reading The Golden Orphans in the hopes that I would be able to transfer the high I felt from this fast-paced and energetic story. What’s impressive is not only how Raymond manages to make a reasonably complex storyline seem simple and light, but also by how the short length of the novel in no way makes it seem incomplete. It’s packed with the detail, characterisation and flair of a doorstop-sized literary thriller, keeping us asking more questions the more that get answered. (MT)
Price: £8.99. Info: www.parthianbooks.com