Book Review: Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

There are books that leave a few lines imprinted upon you when you’re done. I’ve already annoyed the unfortunate souls that live with me by my constant repetition of the line, ‘with a head on her like hammered shite’ – a hangover, of course! – and though I haven’t yet had an opportunity to describe someone as having ‘a face on him like a vandalised church’, I’ll be storing the line up until I do. There are also novels who instal one or two characters as tenants in your head long after you’ve put the book down.