Red Pen Books

See Reviews by Score: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5

Category: 4 Star Reviews

  • Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle that Made England by Juliet Barker – Short Review

    Non-fiction / Military History

    I like to read everything and anything that falls into my lap. So one day I found myself reading Agincourt by Juliet Barker. It’s a fascinating piece of history and details events leading up to, during, and after the famous battle. The writing style is good, and particular note must be given to the research which clearly had a lot of effort put into it. It is also refreshing to see that…

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  • The Swarm by Frank Schätzing – Short Review

    Thriller / Sci-fi

    Fishermen disappear, tourists on the beaches are attacked, and whales start ramming cargo ships, overtaken by a strange “madness”. But why? We are greeted to two main characters. One, a whale specialist, works for a whale watching company in Alaska, and the other, a Norwegian scientist and marine expert. As the attacks and disappearances increase in number and severity the paths of these two characters…

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  • Small Town Horror by Ronald Malfi – Short Review

    Horror / Thriller

    This is from an author I’d never read before so wasn’t sure what to expect. The cover design didn’t particularly scream quality to me (yes, judging a book by it’s cover etc). However, the quality of the writing cannot be denied, this is a supremely well written story.
    It is advertised as a horror book but I would describe it as a horror backdrop for a slow-burn thriller…

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  • Close-Up by Len Deighton – Short Review

    Fiction / Slice of Life

    Many of us know Len Deighton for some of his more famous books such as The Ipcress File or SS-GB. This one I’d say counts as one of his more obscure works and if ever there was a hard book to rate, it would be this one. The story is about a “fictional” famous actor and a writer who has the task of writing his biography. We see glimpses of the actor’s current life which appears to be at it’s peak, and him wondering where…

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  • Abroad in Japan: Ten Years in the Land of the Rising Sun by Chris Broad – Short Review

    Non-fiction / Travel

    A very well written book in which we are recounted the memories of Chris Broad who has travelled to Japan to teach English.
    This is not a typical book of memoirs – while it follows Chris from his initial job interview at the Japanese Embassy in London and onwards to teaching in Japan and his further life there, the cultural insights we experience are…

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  • Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England’s Kings and Queens by David Mitchell – Short Review

    Non-fiction / History

    We’ve just finished this gem. It’s snarky, sarky, and full of wit. It doesn’t go into a huge amount of detail for each monarch (that would require several books all in itself) but gives a general overview of…

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