Quick Book Reviews with Philippa Hall

Philippa is back with her first author interview in two months — and opens with a confession: she recorded the entire thing without plugging her microphone in. Apologies have been issued. The show goes on.
The guest is the wonderful Sarah Pinborough — author of over 30 books including Behind Her Eyes — talking about her latest novel They Say a Girl Died Here. Plus three book reviews ranging from emotionally devastating to cosy Miss Marple, with a live retraction of a book review opinion somewhere in the middle.
Three Book Reviews:
Saving Noah – Lucinda Berry
Discovered via a Wild & Wordy subscription box swap. A top student, a champion swimmer, a hometown hero — and a confession that changes everything. Philippa was utterly consumed by this book, was stunned by the direction it took, and is now following Lucinda Berry's every move. Very emotional, not for everyone, but extraordinary writing.
The Body in the Library – Agatha Christie
After Saving Noah, Philippa needed something cosy. Miss Marple delivered. A beautiful edition spotted in a bookshop, a body in the library, and the enduring joy of watching Miss Marple quietly observe everyone into a corner. Philippa always thinks she knows who did it. She never does.
Cross My Heart I Hope You Die – Mallory Arnold
Three women discover they've all been dating the same man and hatch a revenge plan at a remote mountain cabin. Philippa wasn't sure how she felt about it while recording — and then issued a live retraction mid-review. On reflection: she liked it. Didn't love it. Would like you to read it and tell her what you think.
Sarah Pinborough on They Say a Girl Died Here
Anna Mayborn arrives in Harper's Creek — a drought-stricken Nebraska town — with her mum, her little sister, and her grandmother, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Two girls have been murdered three years apart. The anniversary is approaching. Anna starts digging. Her grandmother starts having strange nightly episodes. And everyone in town seems to know more than they're saying.
Sarah and Philippa discuss:
How the book began as a horror novella ten years ago — different ending, younger Anna — and how it was transformed into a crime thriller by her UK editor
Why Anna is a different kind of unreliable narrator: not hiding something from the reader, but genuinely unable to trust her own judgment after trauma
The drought as a character in itself — the smell of the book would be dry summer with a slight rot, because nothing washes away when there's no water
How small towns work: reputations linger, everyone knows everyone, and a town's willingness to look away is as interesting as the murders themselves
The book is optioned for screen — Sarah is currently writing the first episode
Why she'll never be a one-lane author and has made peace with that
Her preference for sofa over desk, dog over coffee machine, and staying home over book festivals
Living in a small town herself and knowing exactly how reputations work
Her next book: The Winter Bones, set in West Virginia — a whole town unravelling after a little boy dies. Secrets and snow this time, rather than secrets and sun.
What she's reading: A biography of George Boleyn, and Fitcher's Bird by Angela Slatter — a dark modern fairy tale novella by an author she considers an auto-buy.
Biscuit answer: Doesn't buy biscuits because she'd eat all of them. The book was probably powered by Itsu and Deliveroo. Her true love is pick and mix — particularly after a life-changing visit to a vast pick and mix shop in Boston where a stranger told her to just try one and covered her.
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Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.
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Philippa is back from holiday — and the books made it to Rhodes eventually, after a handwritten letter to Athens customs explaining why a normal person would post books to themselves. Today she's sharing her top eight reads from the trip, spanning crime, horror, graphic novels, historical fiction, and AI thrillers. All different. All five stars.
The Top 8 Holiday Reads (in reverse order)
8. Under the Hammer – Samantha Dooey Miles
A woman whose landlord has a fatal accident discovers her life's mission: punishing as many landlords as possible, starting with the ones she's spotted on a home improvement TV show. Sharp, witty, and wickedly entertaining.
7. Splasher – Billie Host
Bought at Imagine Things bookshop in Harrogate. A swim coach returns to Richardson University a decade after tragedy struck — and on the first day of training, two students are found dead in the pool. Funny horror, perfectly read beside a swimming pool.
6. The Confessions – Paul Bradley Carr
AI bot Liam powers society — until he goes offline. Then identical white envelopes start arriving at people's houses, confessing their darkest secrets. Dystopian, clever, and full of unexpected turns. Philippa was audibly groaning with delight.
Joint 4th. The Scandalous Ladies Football Club – Frances Quinn
London, 1897. A schoolteacher places a newspaper ad asking for volunteers for the first ever women's football team. Philippa was so engrossed she propped the book up at the edge of the private pool and swam on the spot while reading it. Auto-buy author. Frances Quinn joins the podcast soon.
Joint 4th. Roman Mornings – Matson Taylor
Rome, 1952. A young English woman arrives full of idealism. By 1976, she's wilting — until a chance encounter with a young carpenter changes everything. A celebration of friendship, identity, and the eternal city. Mattson Taylor joins the podcast over Christmas.
3rd. The Corfe Castle Murders – Rachel McLean
DCI Leslie Clark is transferred to rural Dorset after being injured in a bomb attack — and before she's even started, she's investigating a murder at Corfe Castle. Book one of a long series. Philippa loved it and wants the next one immediately.
2nd. The Bad Doctor – Ian Williams
A graphic novel following a rural GP whose patients cause equal measures of empathy and dismay. Funny, serious, and with mental health storylines that Philippa found astonishing. Highly recommended as a first graphic novel for anyone curious about the format. Found at Hay-on-Wye Comics.
1st. Better Off Dead – Sean Watkin
The second DCI De Silva and DS Barkley novel — and Philippa's undisputed book of the holiday. She was so immersed she didn't realise she was mouthing the words as she read. A cold case, a dismembered body in the Formby woods, and a duo who can't trust anyone around them. The third book in the series is already pre-ordered. The first is Black Water Rising. Auto-buy author who Philippa insists needs to be on every crime reader's radar immediately.
Get in touch
Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com
Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Philippa reviews four books — including two she couldn't wait to tell you about — before a wonderful, wide-ranging conversation with C.J. Tudor about her latest novel Serenity Falls, out 10th September, the book she needed to write after the hardest year of her life.
📚 Four Book Reviews
One of Us is Guilty – Steve Cavanagh
The 10th Eddie Flynn case finds con-man-turned-lawyer Eddie investigating a brutal murder with only two suspects — and one of them is guilty. Philippa loves everything Steve Cavanagh writes, and this is no exception.
The Silent Appeal – Janice Hallett
The Fairway Players are back, rehearsing Agatha Christie's The Hollow, and someone isn't going to make it to opening night. Lawyers Charlotte and Femi must sift through the evidence once again in what Philippa considers one of her favourite Hallett books yet.
A Stranger in Corfu – Alex Preston
Former MI6 operatives, exiled to a Greek island to be forgotten, find their uneasy peace shattered when one of their own washes up dead. Beautifully written, thoughtful, and atmospheric — blurbed as "Le Carré meets the Durrells," which Philippa thinks is entirely fair.
Signals: The Inside Story of Our Hormones – Dr. Saira Hameed
A fascinating nonfiction exploration of how hormones shape everything from our health to our eating habits — told through real patient cases. Philippa went to hear the author speak, bought the book immediately, got it signed, and then went straight out for a double chocolate cookie. Blame the ancestors.
C.J. Tudor on Serenity Falls
Dan and his teenage daughter Sadie arrive at their mysterious inheritance in Serenity Falls — a picture-perfect Disney-style town in Florida — only to find a body in the swimming pool, dressed as a cartoon character, on day one. Things don't get more normal from there.
Inspired by Celebration, the real Disney-built town near Orlando, Caz and Philippa discuss:

Why the idea of a perfect, theme-park-adjacent town is inherently sinister — and what happens when you actually go and visit one
How the creepy ice cream van started as a small detail and grew into a major character and the cover image
Writing Serenity Falls — and why she needed a new idea to fall in love with before she could write again
Why this is perhaps her least horror-y book, but also her most uncanny — and what the word "uncanny" really means in a C.J. Tudor context
The dark humor running through the book, and why Sadie is one of her favourite characters she's ever written
TV developments, the patience required to wait for news, and why she's learned not to get too excited too early
Her next book The Last Caretaker — currently being written, out autumn 2027
What she's looking forward to reading: The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer, which arrived as a lovely exchange for a quote on Serenity Falls
Ten years since her publishing deal — and why it's worth stopping to appreciate how far you've come
If Serenity Falls had a smell: Buttered popcorn. Lovely at first. Overwhelming very quickly. Which is, she immediately agreed, the whole vibe.
Biscuit answer: Pick and mix for writing fuel, but biscuit-wise: plain rich tea or digestive for daytime dunking (no timing, pure instinct), and Border biscuits for evenings — too posh to dunk, chocolate gets melty.
💬 Get in touch
Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com
Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No author interview, no book reviews — just Philippa's most personal episode of the year: her best reads of the first six months of 2026. Twelve books, one honourable mention, and the admission that it was genuinely hard to narrow it down.
These are books Philippa read between January and June — not necessarily published this year — in alphabetical order by author surname, because she doesn't want to rank them.
🎖️ Honourable Mention
The Wedding Suit – Rachel Joyce (BBC Radio Drama)
A five-part radio serial about an eccentric elderly couple whose isolated lives are transformed by the unexpected arrival of a child. Written by Rachel Joyce, narrated by her husband Paul Venables (Yakob in The Archers). Still available on BBC Sounds — Philippa considers it essential listening.
📚 The Top 12
YesterYear – Caro Claire Burke
The trad wife book everyone's been talking about — and rightly so. A brilliant concept, word-of-mouth sensation, and genuinely hard to put down.
Body of Lies – Jo Callaghan
The fourth and final Kat and Lock book. An AI detective, a murdered MP, a cyberattack, and a taunting binary code message. Plus: Philippa gets a mention in the acknowledgements. Chef's kiss.
Solitary Agents – David Goodman
The second Jamie Tulloch spy novel. Clever concept, brilliant writing, and completely readable without the first book.
Broken Country – Claire Leslie Hall
A quiet sucker punch of a book — part courtroom, part countryside, all heart. Beautifully written and emotionally devastating.
The Drowning Place – Sarah Hilary
A Peak District crime series debut unlike anything else in the genre right now. Joseph's story is different in a way Philippa isn't willing to spoil — but can't stop recommending.
A Family Matter – Claire Lynch
Short, devastating, and extraordinary. A letter arrives. Two timeframes — 1982 and 2022. About love, acceptance, and everything in between.
Slings and Arrows – Nick McLachlan
A book about darts in the 1980s that turns out to be about friendship, marriage, health, and everything men don't say to each other. Published 2024. Beautiful.
Night Swimmers – Roisin McGuire
A coastal Northern Ireland village, a quirky swimmer called Grace, a visitor with a complicated story, and a cast of locals who made Philippa laugh out loud. The audiobook is gorgeous.
Land – Maggie O'Farrell
Starting in 1865 Ireland, this is Philippa's favourite Maggie O'Farrell yet. Exquisite writing, emotional gut-punches from nowhere, and a book that feels like the land itself is reading alongside you.
Mars One – Charlotte Robinson
A sci-fi thriller that works even if you don't read sci-fi. A one-way mission to Mars, a conspiracy, a vanished coder in Hong Kong, and his cat. Needs to be a film immediately.
The Things We Never Say – Elizabeth Strout
Philippa's first Strout & now she wants them all. A teacher named Arty handles life with quiet grace & devastating tenderness. Already pressed into multiple people's hands.
The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal – Jodi Taylor
Time travel, hijinks, chaos, and joy. A brilliant entry point into Jodi Taylor's world, and the audiobook is perfection.
💬 What were your best reads of the first half of 2026?
Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | quickbookreviews@outlook.com
Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A short but exciting episode! Philippa announces a brand new format for the podcast: a Quick Book Reviews Book Club, running throughout October.
The chosen book is The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway — already out in paperback, 384 pages, and available from libraries. Each week in October, listeners will read roughly 96 pages, with Philippa sharing her thoughts at the end of each episode so no one has to miss the main content if they're behind on reading.
About the book:
Katie is a barmaid in a quiet Derry neighbourhood, happy with her small life and her daughter, Hope. Everything changes when two detectives approach her, wanting her to become their informant. Caught between the police and the dangerous brothers she works for, Katie must survive by staying the one person nobody suspects.
Philippa also shares a quick update on changes to the podcast schedule:
Mondays — author interviews
Fridays — Philippa's own takes on the book world, publishing chat, and things on her mind
This is a one-off trial for now — no pressure to join, and listeners can catch up in their own time. Updates and discussion will also be shared on the Quick Book Reviews Facebook group throughout October.
The Book Club Pick: The One You Least Suspect by Brian McGilloway (out now in paperback)
Join the discussion
Quick Book Reviews Facebook Group | Instagram | Email: quickbookreviews@outlook.com
Quick Book Reviews: author interviews and book reviews with no spoilers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.