Smash Hit

Blind Eye by Stuart MacBride/The Complaints by Ian Rankin

The Sunday Times review by Karen Robinson

Sapper Martin: The Secret Great War Diary of Jack Martin edited by Richard van Emden

The Sunday Times review by Neil Hanson

A Dead Hand by Paul Theroux

The Sunday Times review by Peter Parker: Theroux returns to India in a jumbled tale of Hindu gods, tantric sex and murder mystery

Never Kiss a Man in a Canoe by Tanith Carey

The Sunday Times review by Lynne Truss: there’s a certain amusement value in this compilation of problem-page advice, but our worried reviewer...

The Great Silence by Juliet Nicolson

The Sunday Times review by Nick Rennison: how Britain struggled to come to terms with the terrible suffering and loss of life inflicted by the first...

Policing Controversy by Ian Blair

The Sunday Times review by Max Hastings: Ian Blair’s memoir of his turbulent years as Commissioner of the Met reveals him as self-pitying,...

The Maintenance of Headway by Magnus Mills/The Wonder by Diana Evans/A Winding Road by Jonathan Tulloch

The Sunday Times review by Trevor Lewis

The Letters of TS Eliot: Volumes 1 and 2 edited by Valerie Eliot and Hugh Haughton

The Sunday Times review by John Carey: the huge number of newly discovered letters in these volumes sheds unexpected light on Eliot’s...

Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years by Sue Townsend

The Sunday Times review by Sophie Harrison: our hero is approaching 40, and his bladder is playing up. The latest Adrian Mole story is both...

The Political Gene by Dennis Sewell

The Sunday Times review by James McConnachie: how ‘natural selection’ went rapidly from a Darwinian observation to a justification for...

The Wainscott Weasel by Tor Seidler

The Sunday Times review by Nicolette Jones

Free Radical: A Memoir by Vince Cable

The Sunday Times review by Robert Harris: the political late-bloomer who became famous for explaining the credit crunch reveals that he’s not...

Under the Dome by Stephen King

The Sunday Times review by John Dugdale

Too Big to Fail

Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Our Choice — A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis by Al Gore

Al Gore has faced criticism for talking up climate change without offering answers. Does his new book remedy that?

Erica Wagner reviews the week’s paperback nonfiction: November 7, 2009

Letters of Ted Hughes edited by Christopher Reid

Jealousy by Catherine Millet

Millet’s gospel of sexual abandon found at least one convert – her husband. Ouch

Natalie Sandison reviews the week’s paperback fiction

The Beacon by Susan Hill

The American Civil War by John Keegan

A noted British author tackles America’s most intimate conflict

The week’s audio books: November 7, 2009

The Times review by Christina Hardyment