Finished The Chilling by Riley James and doing research before writing my review. It is usually during this process that I get to learn a lot, not just from other reviewers and their observations of the book, but more from the other titles they mention as a comparison or contrast to it.
For example, someone mentions “research station noir”, which led me to Paul French’s excellent article “Research Station Noir: Crime Fiction in Antarctica” via his fortnightly column “Crime and the City” for Literary Hub, founding website of Crime Reads (@crimereads). Crime Reads is “a culture website for people who believe suspense is the essence of storytelling, questions are as important as answers, and nothing beats the thrill of a good book”. Totally awesome.
I have known about French (@oldshanghaipaul) for a long time, since his Midnight in Peking (2011) to his numerous contributions to The Asian Review of Books, and then to his blog China Rhyming. What I did not know is French’s latest book Her Lotus Year (2024). And who is Willis Simpson, I dared ask? Oh…
Anyway, I enjoyed reading about the novels mentioned in French’s 2022 article. Various books belonging to the “research station noir” sub-genre have been published since then, but the earlier works mentioned in French’s article are still worth checking out, including Ann Turner’s Out of the Ice (2017).
(Day 80 #WarmWinterRead #WWR25 via @librarieschangelives)
Voices under the Sun 陽光下的聲音 