News and Dissentfrom the U.K.

Amanda Craig reviews Blood Fever by Charlie Higson for the Times and isn't all that impressed. (Blood Fever is the second title in the Young Bond series.) Craig writes of Blood Fever, "what is missing is a taut style, a plot that makes sense, a character that readers get involved with and a genuine sense of menace. At 372 pages, Blood Fever is too long, padded with unnecessary conversations and leaden clichés."

Recently, Robert McCrum reviewed Blood Fever favorably for the Guardian, as did Nicolette Jones for the (very same) Times.

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Also in the Times today, Nicolette Jones talks to Louise Rennison (of Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging fame).