Megan Nolan, plus crime summer reading recommendations from Vaseem Khan, Laura Wilson and Val McDermid

Books and Authors

BBC

Society & Culture, Books

4.2 • 824 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Johny Pitts speaks to Megan Nolan about her new novel, Ordinary Human Failings. The book explores the demonization of an Irish family and tabloid journalism in nineties London following a shocking tragedy.

Plus what is the best crime fiction out there this summer? Vaseem Khan, incoming chair of the Crime Writers Association, and critic Laura Wilson give their tips, from hot new psychological thrillers to reissued classics.

And Val McDermid chooses a very modern-feeling 1940s whodunit for her Book I'd Never Lend.

Book List – Sunday 16 July and Thursday 20 July

Ordinary Human Failing by Megan Nolan Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan Grave Expectations by Alice Bell The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson Kill For Me Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh The Wheel of Doll by Jonathan Ames Alchemy by SJ Parris The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff Uncle Paul by Celia Fremlin The Drowning Pool by Ross Macdonald Death of a Lesser God by Vaseem Khan Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation.
0:07.0	It was an extraordinary news story.
0:09.0	The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny,
0:14.0	mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared.
0:18.0	One of the great mysteries in English criminal history. We're still looking for Lucan.
0:22.1	It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime.
0:26.0	I'm Alex Fontunzelman.
0:27.4	This is The Lucan Obsession.
0:29.2	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:32.7	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:36.6	Whether it's hard-boiled detectives, classic hoodnets, or twisty psychological thrillers,
0:42.1	today on Open Book, we're spicing up your summer with some crime fiction.
0:46.4	Later, we'll learn about some of the chilling new places crime novelists are taking us in 2023.
0:52.0	But we'll begin with a simmering and atmospheric book by one of the years most hotly tipped young writers.
0:58.0	Two years ago, Megan Nolan's debut, acts of desperation spliced,
1:02.0	dark weight with unsettling observation about contemporary life, infatuation and control.
1:08.0	Nolan's new novel, Ordinary Human Failings,
1:11.0	switches focus away from our current times,
1:13.1	but retains all the trademark light and shade
1:15.6	that had a critics calling her a huge literary talent.
1:19.3	The story takes us to Skylar Square,
1:21.6	a fictional council estate in the London Borough of Southwark in 1990,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.