Two new reviews from the Christchurch Press. First up is The Superior Person's Second Book of Words, packed with obscure words for people who are easily impressed. The author, Australian Peter Bowler, is apparently on a mission:

"The first object of these books is to provide the ordinary man in the street with new and better verbal weapons - words which until now have been available only to philologists, lexicographers and art critics," Bowler says.

On a less showy note is a translation of Fred Vargas’ novel Have Mercy On Us All. This murder mystery was picked by the booksellers of France and the readers of Elle magazine as their Book of the Year. According to Martin van Beynen, deputy chief reporter of the Press

… it's an interesting, suspenseful yarn although, as with a lot of detective stories, the plot gives the impression of being overly contrived …

Some of the translation is disconcerting and some of the dialogue - whether because of the translation or because Vargas is simply a bad writer of conversation - is very awkward …

Apart from these worries Have Mercy On Us All has some first-class writing, appealing characters and keeps you guessing.