This double-review takes a look at Burial, the new novel from author Neil Cross, and compares it to Always The Sun, an earlier novel by the same author—especially in terms of the way Cross uses suspense and horror conventions in the two books. >>

Scrivener, a creative writing tool for Mac OS X, is a useful program that manages to be a tool rather than a distraction. It combines a word processor with a facility for storing and organising your research, notes, and other useful documents. >>

CB Editions have produced another gem in Lichtenberg and the Little Flower Girl, the final novel from German author Gert Hofmann. The story of a love affair between Georg Christoph Lichtenberg and Maria Stechard has been translated by the author's son Michael Hofmann, who also contributes an afterword. >>

Often seen as the "genre it's okay to like", crime fiction has a lot to offer both readers and writers. Crime Classics, a new series from Atlantic Books, is a great introduction to some of the older works that helped to form the modern concept of the genre, and have had their influence on literature as a whole. >>

The Maze of Cadiz, the debut novel from Aly Monroe, is a wartime thriller set in Spain and introducing "economic warfare" agent Peter Cotton. The first of a planned series of novels, it's a flawed but engaging story that's low on thrills but showcases its author's eye for character and setting. >>

In Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain, a debut collection of short stories from Kirsten Menger-Anderson, the author uses compact, unsettling prose to follow the strains of madness and obsession across a dozen generations of American doctors. >>

While everybody else lists their best reads of 2008, The Fiction Desk presents a list of some of the titles that I'm sure would have been good... if only I'd actually got around to reading them. >>