Growing pains

For publishers, explicitly drawing parallels with a runaway bestseller in the blurb for your latest novel is a calculated risk. On the one hand, it can act as a helpful signpost, attracting the attention of a much larger readership than it might otherwise have had; on the other, it can have the whiff of desperate bandwagon jumping, and set the book up for a fall if (as is likely) the comparison proves to be more of an unflattering contrast.

I can’t comment on whether Cold Grace is indeed “for readers of Where The Crawdads Sing”, having not read Delia Owens’ book – but I can appraise Meredith Miller’s fourth novel (and second for Welsh imprint Honno) on its own terms. And indeed I have, for Buzz, here.