Criminal conviction

I've known for some time that the Literary Review was going to run a review of The Einstein Girl, but last week, a little sooner than I'd expected, it turned up. Somewhat to my surprise, I found it in the 'Crime' section. It's written by the crime novelist Jessica Mann.

‘A serious, well-informed and interesting thriller about the private life and family of an undoubted genius. Excellent period setting in Berlin in 1932 and numerous psychological insights – highly recommended’.

Not the longest review I've ever had, but a very nice one and, of course, eminently quotable - which is really the value of reviews at this stage - at least, as far as writers and publishers are concerned.

Fiction is reviewed less than ever in the national press these days; so it remains to be seen what else is in the pipeline. People, it seems, increasingly get their book recommendations from Amazon and other on-line sources. That's a pity, because genuine literary criticism is something of an art form in its own right - one which (like some others) is slowly dying out.