The Night Gardener By George Pelecanos Reviewed By Nick Quantrill (Available 10th August)

The 14th novel from George Pelecanos, The Night Gardener sees him weave an ambitious story that aims to lift him up and beyond the conventions of the crime-fiction genre. Pelecanos has never flinched away from tackling difficult social issues, and his remit here is to take a broad look at how crime touches the lives of those outside of its direct consequences, and examine how such characters deal with the harsh circumstances forced upon them. The Night Gardener is inspired by a series of unsolved teenage murders in Pelecanos's home city of Washington, D.C. Using this is a starting point, Pelecanos's tale starts at the scene of the last these unsolved murders from twenty years ago, with the police, led by star homicide detective, Sergeant T.C. Cook, struggling to bring the killer to justice.

Seemingly, the only link between the cases is that all the victims' names are spelt the same backwards as they are forwards.

Fast forward twenty years and the two junior cops guarding that last crime-scene, Gus Ramone and Dan Holiday, have taken widely divergent paths. Ramone is a respected homicide detective with a solid career record and family, while Holiday has been drummed out of the police force after an internal investigation led by his one time colleague. Holiday now scratches a living chauffeuring clients to and from the local airport, but stumbles upon the dead body of teenager Asa Johnson in a community garden. Realising the importance of what he's discovered, Holiday is once again drawn into contact with Ramone and Cook.

With the discovery that the dead teenager is his son's friend, Ramone is sent on a personal journey that forces him to consider just how important his family is to him and the arbitrary nature of violence, while broken detectives Holiday and Cook sense the opportunity to make amends for previous failings. As ever, Pelecanos's dialogue is razor-sharp and rolls off his characters' tongues. The broad sweep of this book, both in the sense of time and theme, allows him to go far beyond presenting a mechanical murder investigation. Pelecanos's natural empathy and understanding of his characters, and the way they interact within the city, combines to lift Pelecanos ahead of the crime-fiction pack. Put simply, his hard-hitting but warm prose means this is crime-fiction writing at its very best. www.georgepelecanos.com

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - Friday 30th June 2006 - Galloway: A Language Of Dissent? A Personal View By Pablo Luis González
	Having watched the rather impressive performance that George Galloway MP put at Hull Truck Theatre on Friday 30th of June 2006 as part of the Humber Mouth Literature Festival, where he spoke without notes or sitting down for nearly an hour, in spite of the rather fancy white leatherette chair provided for him on stage. I was enthralled not only for what he Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Northern Broadsides Company at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough - Wars of The Roses by Patrick Henry
	Battles depicted by semaphoric flag-wielding and huge rattling drums, vigorous balletics, sack-barrows deployed as steeds or track-turning tanks; speeches characterised by robust Northern or Midlands accents, and their inherent ironies and wiliness; intrigues concocted rapidly and sadistically, mirroring statecraft strategy related to our day now. Such are the best Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - Saturday 1st July - Germaine Greer at Hull By Laura Kilvington
	As a enthusiastic follower of feminist literature, I attended the talk by Germaine Greer with the expectation of an intense, second wave feminism discussion like the, all societies on the verge of death are masculine (Greer:1984) type opinions which I associated with her. Instead, the rubric of Greer's discussion was Anne Hathaway, the older and greatly overlooked Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - Friday 30th June - Galloway Trucking in Hull By Martin J Deane George Galloway Photographs by Ben Gurevitch
	George Galloway, MP for Tower Hamlets in East London played Spring Street Theatre, Hull on Friday. Despite introducing himself as having spent 6 hours in the back of a car suffering from food poisoning he delivered an entertaining, insightful and though-provoking show. Here is a flavour of it! It's not verbatim but from notes so any errors are my own! Read more...

Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 - John Pilger at the Ferens By Martin J Deane
	Blair is the most right wing Prime Minister I have ever known. And that includes Thatcher! In a wide ranging talk on Tuesday night, John Pilger shared his experiences of nearly 40 years of investigative journalism giving a flavour of the man who, over 40 years, has made it an art. In his opening remarks, John Pilger said how he used to cover northern England for Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Storm Watcher By Graham Joyce Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Simultaneously an unusual and extraordinary story set in France, a multitude of winning elements ensure that The Storm Watcher is always an engrossing read, as sheer drama is played up against some chilling thrills and spills. The author in the award-winning Joyce grew up in Coventry, but over the years he has lived in various places, such as on Read more...

Reviews, Books - Bowie : Loving The Alien By Christopher Sandford Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Rock writer Christopher Sandford sure doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to writing highly detailed and thoroughly engrossing biographies of some of the biggest names in rock music. As well as having written this mini-masterpiece about Bowie, he's also dedicated huge swathes of time and energy to documenting the fascinating lives and times of other rock Read more...

Reviews, Books - Lunar Park By Bret Easton Ellis Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	This has to have been one of the most extraordinary and surprising books published in 2005, simply because it has been written by the hugely controversial author of American Psycho - and because the form that Lunar Park takes is so jaw-droppingly unexpected. Bret Easton Ellis is one clever man, as revealed by the way in which this novel unfolds, Read more...

Reviews, Books - Surfacing By Margaret Atwood Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Poetry and prose. Two separate entities, right? Wrong! Surfacing bears full-frontal, gob-gawping witness to that as one of the most important novels of the 20th century (according to the New York Times anyroad) in this bizarre beauty naturally glides with sheer poetry within rasping prose. Set in remote Quebec, this super slow-burning drama shadows a young Read more...

Reviews, Films - Welcome to Silent Hill By Gregory Anderson
	A deliciously dark film of fear mongering, Silent Hill takes you on a terrifyingly absurd quest. Where to? That is a question this film doesn't answer, but enjoys twisting round you to find it. Of course playing the game helps understand this film. I found the game itself to be relatively arbitrary and linear, rather like this film. However, the game is foreboding and visually Read more...

Reviews, Books - Magic Hoffman by Jakob Arjouni Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	'We were young then, as if getting older were some kind of illness for which there was no cure.' Magic Hoffman, the novel, is translated from the German original and follows the captivating story of Fred and his best friends Nickel and Annette. Following a botched bank heist, Fred serves 4 years' porridge and - as any friend would do - refrains from dobbing his mates in. Anyway, Read more...

Reviews, Films - An American Haunting (15) By Gregory Anderson
	Possession? On rental, probably. Call yourself a horror movie fan? Perhaps you'll get something from this. Not particularly focused on horror movies? Then you may still enjoy it. Imagine The Exorcist set in 1800s God-fearing America over the period of several weeks. The premises for this film look awesome on paper. Taking into account you've watched the trailer, Read more...

Reviews, Books - Stuart MacBride - Dying Light (HarperCollins) Published 2nd May 2006 Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	Dying Light is the eagerly anticipated second novel from new crime-fiction hotshot, Stuart MacBride, and follows sharply on the heels of last year's critically acclaimed debut, Cold Granite. Once again following the story of Detective Sergeant Logan 'Lazarus' McRae, Dying Light opens with him set to cement his position as the rising star of Aberdeen's CID. Read more...

Reviews, Films - The Dark (15) By Gregory Anderson
	Clever psychological horror, perhaps too clever? This clever psychological horror film perhaps lets itself down by being too clever? If you enjoy the blurred boundaries of the supernatural/subconscious, however, this is a well-paced, atmospheric film about a couple losing their daughter, only to believe they can bring her back from the dead. There are criticisms, however, that Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	One should never underestimate the power of books. New York-obsessed Paul Auster is back, and he's clearly writing better than ever in light of this astounding novel of epic and forever-surprising proportions. Paul was born back in 1947, and since 1974 he's rightfully become a widely acclaimed writer of novels, screenplays and poetry ... amongst other things. Read more...

Reviews, Films - The Road to Guantanamo, Channel 4, Thursday 9th March 06 By Patrick Henry
	Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross's work is hardly like anything else ever shown on television, which makes it remarkable and welcome, though not to The New Statesman's reviewer who complains of its deficiencies, TV-wise, and that it fails to inform about the political attitudes of the protagonists or the real nature of Camp X-Ray and as a road movie lacks amusement. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Mission Flats by William Landay Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Crime-thrillers come no better than this edge-of-the-seat masterwork from American writer William Landay, who here delivers a truly superb debut novel that attacks the senses and ultimately leaves you reeling from the brilliantly-staged shock ending. It's amazing how some Crime writers make their stories sound so authentic courtesy of the detailed lengths that they go to in order Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Friday 17th February - The Hull Blokes Present Love - A Night Of Comedy, Drama And Passion at Northern Theatre By Jane Foster
	The Hull Blokes are a talented bunch of 13 local, er, blokes! who I have had the pleasure of seeing twice before in their relatively short life. So I thought it was high time to do them justice and write a review. The Blokes have been lucky enough to secure themselves a home in the new Northern Theatre building, which in my opinion is more welcoming and Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Loop by Nicholas Evans Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	This is the second breathtaking novel from Nicholas, the first having being the international best-selling weepy, The Horse Whisperer which shot the English-based writer to fame. The Loop has nothing to do with horses whatsoever, and instead focuses on the trials of a wild pack of wolves that is terrorising a farming community in Montana. A 29-year old wolf expert called Helen is Read more...

Reviews, Books - Rising To Obscurity and How To Remain Anonymous by AAA Aarbon (Bitterne Books) Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
	Published by Hull-based Bitterne Books, the first two titles in this humorous series offer a different take on the modern world that we live in. Part satire, part social comment, they follow the story of AAA Aarbon, a self-confessed seeker of anonymity. AAA Aarbon is described by his editor as being best forgotten for many reasons. Rising To Obscurity charts the absurd Read more...