Set in Venice, 'The Bookbinder's Apprentice' is a hugely atmospheric tale, full of underlying menace and with a chilling ending. Having read it, I fear I'll never look at certain things in quite the same light ever again!On a smaller scale than Daphne du Maurier's Don't Look Now or Ian McEwan's The Comfort of Strangers, 'The Bookbinder's Apprentice' is nevertheless a worthy and unsettling addition to the canon of Venetian horror. There's just something about that place, isn't there?
Probably best read from the comfort of home rather than at the airport en route to a holiday in the watery city . . .
'The Bookbinder's Apprentice' is published in The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries. (For a list of the other stories in the anthology, click here and scroll down.)
You can read Martin's account of the awards ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in Park Lane - and see some photos - on his blog.
4 comments:
Just in general, let me say that you are doing very well without your camera or your cell phone. I am sure you will be back in business on that score soon but in the meantime you have still managed a lot of interstingly illustrated posts. Also, I had a look at what I think are your new illutrated links - I will go back soon when I have more time to look around. Your blog is really an extraordinary piece of work!
Thanks for kind words, Kim. It's been dull here recently but it's a beautiful golden evening now and I'm off to the beach with the kids and dog for a fish and chip supper. I shall feel extremely naked and at a loss without a camera!
The phone is trying very hard to recover from its alcoholic adventures. Every few hours a bit more of the screen nudges back into action. One can almost hear it groaning with the effort. I think it's going to be OK but it'll be a few days yet!
Although, generally speaking, I'm not a great fan of crime novels, the time and the setting of this one could make me change the habits of a lifetime, J, so thanks for writing about it. I'm such a pushover for anything Venetian . . .
I'm not a short story fan these days (I liked them once), but this collection is already on order. If his long fiction is anything to go by, this will be excellent. (I have not read your post in detail as I haven't read the story yet, but will come back to it after I have done.)
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