Anglo-Irish landlords of the 1800s emerge poorly. Their daughters, like characters from Chekov, can't wait to emerge and escape their humdrum lives, marry and move to Dublin.

Better yet, London. To visit a place on bike is to see it in selective detail, and this one makes no claims to be comprehensive, though it is utterly charming.

Diamond Dove Adrian Holland Quercus 16, 307pps IN THE unusual locale for a thriller . . . the blackfeller (Aboriginal) community of central Australia . . . blackfeller leader Lincoln Flinders' mutilated body is discovered in the brush. There is a hole in his body and the kidney has been removed. Out here, kidneys have magical properties. Lincoln was a friend of the book's heroine Emily Tempest. Emily is half Caucasian (whitefeller), half Aboriginal. The action unfolds through Emily. She has returned home after working her way around the world where she encountered nothing but trouble.

Now she is facing into even worse trouble. Her old friend has been murdered and the chief suspect is her oldest enemy. This is a highly competent debut. The names are worthy of Annie Proulx: Gladys Kneebone, Cissy Whiskey, Timothy Windmill.

Voices Arnaldur Indridason Vintage 10, 351pps ON THE run up to the Christmas, the discovery of a dead man in a Santa suit throws a spanner in the sanctity of the season. Ho, ho, ho. The murder scene is a ritzy hotel in Reykjavik. A ritzy hotel with a murky staff and a creepy manager. The dead man wasn't in a celebratory mood, because he had just been sacked from his job as the hotel doorman. And yet he was mysteriously partying because he was found in a sexually compromising position; he is semi-naked wearing an unused condom. Cue detective Erlendur, Iceland's answer to Sherlock and his sidekick Sigurdor Oli, a man with an appalling sense of humour. When Oli sees the state and position of the corpse he quietly sings 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' and remarks, "At least he practised safe sex." Yeah, maybe, but it wasn't all that safe.

Europe East & West Norman Davies Pimlico 22, 336pps WHERE exactly does Eastern Europe begin. In the head, though Davies doesn't say as much, but that is his main reasoning here in these essays. We have perceptions of them, them of us. Western attitudes to Eastern Europe have been as derogatory to similar attitudes we have for Islamic countries. Mentalities change slowest of all, he argues, the Iron Curtain could not have been as easily dismissed from people's minds as it was so easily dismantled on the ground. He is equally as probing on Britain's ambiguous relationship with the old Soviet Union. On the mass murder of Allied POWs in the Katyn forests by the Soviets, he reminds readers that the British did nothing and defended its allies. Enthralling in parts, but it skims rather than digs.

Armed Madhouse: Undercover Dispatches From a Dying Regime, Greg Palast Penguin, 13 GREG PALAST is the American journalist who broke the story about Florida Governor Jeb Bush's rigging of the ballots in the 2000 Presidential Election that by rights was won by Al Gore. He has since uncovered similar irregularities in the 2004 elections, and explains how the Republicans are conspiring to cheat their way to power again next year. He's also got memos that show the White House knew the levees would break in New Orleans, as well as two documents, predating September 11, in which the neo-conservatives outline their plan to invade Iraq and seize control of its oil. The most comprehensive, as well as the most engagingly written, piece of Bush-bashing I've come across.