Post-modern Celtic noir

SLOOT Ian Macpherson Bluemoose Books, £8.99

Failing stand-up comic Hayden McGlynn decides he’s going to write a novel: a crime novel, since that’s apparently where the money is. Inspiration strikes when he goes home to Dublin for the funeral of Eddie, the eccentric artist uncle who raised him after Hayden’s parents moved to Hawaii. With gangsters for neighbours, the theft of a painting and hints that Eddie’s death was no accident, this could be the perfect launching pad for Hayden’s new genre of “Celtic screwball noir”. But Sloot is itself a literary experiment: Macpherson’s comedic take on postmodernism, with a selfaware narrator who warns of plot-twists in advance. Happily, it works well. Glasgow-based Macpherson, a multitalented comedian, author and playwright, pulls off the post-modern comedy thriller angle by ensuring that humour always predominates, keeping the tone light and the story generously sprinkled with jokes.

DRAMATIC EXCHANGES Edited by Daniel Rosenthal Profile, £20

Having written the official history of the South Bank’s National Theatre, David Rosenthal has opened up its archive of correspondence, and what a fascinating treasure trove it is. Around 800 letters are reproduced here, dealing with the production, staging and reception of NT plays from 1963 to 2017. From them we glean something of the contrasting approaches of its original director, Laurence Olivier, and his successors, and soak up their dialogues with the greatest actors and playwrights of the last halfcentury. Inevitably, these letters contain a fair degree of gushing (albeit informed gushing) over each other’s brilliance. But there’s much else besides. John Osborne being predictably prickly. Olivier turning down a baronetcy. A young Derek Jacobi pleading for more demanding roles. The Romans in Britain controversy. Judgement calls are made, feelings are bruised and friendships angrily curtailed. It’s a rare opportunity to sneak behind the curtain and eavesdrop on theatre at the highest level.

THE CONVICTION OF CORA BURNS Carolyn Kirby No Exit, £8.99

Born in a prison and abandoned by her mother, Cora Burns has endured a grim workhouse upbringing in late-19th Century

Birmingham only to wind up in prison again. A determined young woman, but an angry one, she and her friend Alice Salt murdered a child to see what it felt like – or at least that’s how Cora remembers it. Once released, she starts work as a maid for scientist Thomas Jerwood, who believes criminal tendencies can be discerned from facial features. His interest in the alleged criminality of the girl Violet, who lives in his house, appears sinister. But is it really Violet he’s studying? Kirby weaves a dark and richly textured story about science and ethics in the Victorian era around the mystery of Cora’s parentage and the fate of Alice Salt.