Liz Robinson - Editorial Expert
About Liz Robinson
Liz has been an Editorial Expert writing reviews for LoveReading since 2014. Reading has always played a huge part in her life and she can quite happily chat books all day. She previously spent twenty years working as a member of police support staff, including roles as Criminal Intelligence Analyst, Briefing Officer, and Crime Reduction Advisor. She relishes her time spent exploring all genres of fiction and non fiction. She video reviews her selections for the LoveReading LitFest Festival Favourites and is also a Presenter for their events. Liz has previously judged the Romantic Novelists’ Association Goldsboro Romantic Novel of the Year Award, the Chiddingstone Castle Literary Festival Short Story Competition, the LoveReading Very Short Story Award, and the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Gold Dagger Award. Her next judging stint sees her joining the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Award 2023-2025. She describes herself as a reader, a lover of all things books, and can be found on Twitter and Instagram as @LRLizRobinson.
Latest Reviews By Liz Robinson
As far as booky thrills, entertainment, and satisfaction goes, I declare this is pure reading gold and a LoveReading Star Book. Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are back, their skills are needed for two investigations. They unofficially involve themselves in the first after their friend Estelle Doyle is arrested for murder, and in the second a formidable poisoner is courting social media. The Washington Poe series sits towards the very top of my favourites of all time. It started with the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award Winning The Puppet Show and here we are at book five, each ... View Full Review
A debut that sings, in fact roars with strong vibrant themes, beautiful storytelling, and fabulous characters. Three women sit centre stage as the trials begin to find the next rulers of the Empire, each has different coloured blood and were born to very different roles. This is the first in the The Final Strife series, and Author Saara El-Arifi has created the most compelling world with roots in Ghanian folklore and Arabian myths. A vivid energy crackles into life from the start. The sense of place is immense, I saw, I felt, I believed. The three very different young women ... View Full Review
Intensely and gloriously entertaining, while being as provocative and thrilling as can be. Operative Hayley Chill stumbles into a conspiracy to start a second civil war as she heads to Texas searching for answers about her father. This is the third in the Hayley Chill Thriller series which began with the glorious Deep State. I have to admit that I did wonder where we would go after Savage Road as the story itself was so immense. In Storm Rising, the focus changes slightly, we get to see and feel more for Hayley. While she has always sat centre stage, ... View Full Review
Powerful and addictive reading heaven. Cyrus is called in to help investigate the case of a missing woman while preparing for the release of his brother from a secure psychiatric hospital. If you haven’t yet met Cyrus and Evie then I would advise starting with the first in the Cyrus Haven series Good Girl, Bad Girl, which I absolutely adored and was chosen as the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger winner for 2020. We are now at book three, and I have camped out for each new addition. I read Lying Beside You in one absolutely thrilling sitting, I ... View Full Review
A satisfyingly shocking and oh-so-readable novel, make sure you’re sitting comfortably when you begin! When your home life feels settled you have the most to lose, and Tom Thorne comes to realise this in the most horrifying way when the past screams hello.
The Murder Book is the eighteenth in the addictive Tom Thorne series which began with the fabulous Sleepyhead, and Mark Billingham’s writing is as on-point as ever. These police procedurals have it all, a tight knit policing team, flawed characters that you’d still want on your side, and twisty plots alongside ... View Full Review
Haunting and powerful Take My Hand burrowed its way into my awareness and will stay with me. Newly qualified nurse Civil Townsend is set to truly take care of her African American community, but a shocking discovery tests her resolve and courage. This skilful blend of fact and fiction is set in 2016 and early 1970’s Alabama, and the sense of place and time is extraordinary. The writing brings to life the characters and period, and surround the facts of the case so that it is all too easy to see, believe, begin to comprehend the enormity of actions taken. ... View Full Review
Satisfying, convincing, and rewarding, the final book of the Ration Book series is appropriately set in the last months of the war. Even more appropriately the focus is matriarch Queenie (a particular favourite of mine), and we float between her early life in Ireland, and the Queenie in her 70’s of the Second World War. If you haven’t yet started, I would recommend going back to the beginning of this series with A Ration Book Dream as A Ration Book Victory is a coming together of storylines and characters. It is obvious that Jean Fullerton has a ... View Full Review
A uniquely twisted and thought-scrambling psychological thriller set in the most routinely humdrum of circumstances, it made me think, wince, raise my eyebrows, and even cackle! Linda lives a mundane life, she looks out and dreams of more, but then her neighbourhood is shattered when young women start to go missing just as her husband begins to act differently, secretively even. I so love Joanna Cannon’s writing, she has real compassion and yet the ability to turn things, everyday normal things, inside out so that you see them differently and question your own thoughts. The prologue caught me, ... View Full Review
Thoroughly provocative, punchy, thoughtful and empathetic, I found this novel and its narrator to be an unforgettable reading experience. While his thoughts often put him on a different track to others, Kalmann is a hunter. His discovery of blood in the snow lead the police to believe a missing businessman has been murdered, even though there is no body. Kalmann has the most wonderfully distinctive voice, it feels open and trusting, and he appears to see the small almost inconsequential things that actually really matter. The plot hums along, the connection to Kalmanm grows, and Joachim B Schmidt encouraged the ... View Full Review
Thought-provoking, challenging, and hugely compassionate, this historical family drama pierces emotions as it combines fact and fiction. Eleanor and Edward Hamilton have a bright future in the eugenics movement, however their world begins to crumble when their daughter is diagnosed with epilepsy. Author Louise Fein takes a difficult subject and creates a world that feels all too real. The eugenics movement, which was widespread in the UK and US before it moved to Nazi Germany is difficult to fully process. The thoughts of the time seem so very distant, and yet look around today and more than echoes remain which ... View Full Review
A stunningly provocative and thought-provoking book viewing England from a different perspective, one where: “magic and rebellion and destruction are the horses to which the country is hitched. On these fabled shores we are all castaways, whether our family has lived here for four thousand years or four”.
Stephen Ellcock’s books are particular favourites of mine, I regularly dip into All Good Things, and The Book of Change. Here he has joined forces with Mat Osman, whose short texts sit as an introduction to each chapter where the images chosen are allowed to sing. I love ... View Full Review
Powerful, thought-provoking, and stunningly eloquent, this remarkable novel will be one of my books of the year. Two young men meet, under normal circumstances they would battle on different sides of the Glaswegian Catholic and Protestant divide, instead they fall in love. Although no date is given, this potentially takes place in the 90’s. Two different time frames slip into and through each other, with the past rushing to meet the present. Gangs of words squared up, pushing and shoving their way into my thoughts. While the focus remains on the main character Mungo, Booker prizewinner Douglas Stuart doesn&... View Full Review
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