"Where words fail, music speaks." (Hans Anderson)


The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler, 1939)

When the wealthy, but paralysed, General Sternwood is blackmailed over the youngest, and wildest, of his two daughters, Carmen, he hires Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe to make the problem go away.

Private Investigations (Dire Straits, 1982)


The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy, 1997)

The first page throws the reader headfirst into the lives of Ammu and her twins, Estha and Rahel, and the consequences of their rebelling against "the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how."

River Lea (Adele, 2015)


Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn, 2012)

It is Nick and Amy Dunne's fifth wedding anniversary, presents are being wrapped and reservations made when Nick's clever and beautiful wife Amy disappears.

Black Heart (Stooshe, 2013)


The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925)

It's 1922, and Nick Carraway moves from the Midwest to West Egg to make a career for himself in the bond business. And then he meets his neighbour, Jay Gatsby, a man as mysterious as he is suave, and whose lavish parties are the talk of the city.

Twenty-something (Pet Shop Boys, 2016)


The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini, 2003)

Amir, the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, a member of the ruling caste of Pashtuns, is the unlikely friend of Hassan, his servant and a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste. But friends they are.

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (The Hollies, 1969)


Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Patrick Süskind, 1985)

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was born in Paris in 1738 with an extremely acute sense of smell, perceiving throug scent rather than vision, and without an odour of his own.

Darling Violetta (Jessamine, 2003)


A Quiet Belief in Angels (R.J. Ellory, 2007)

Growing up in the 1950s, Joseph Vaughan was at the centre of a series of killings of young girls in his small, rural community. Barely a teenager himself, Joseph becomes determined to protect his community and classmates from the predations of the killer.

Nervous (X Ambassadors, 2015)


Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier, 1938)

Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, the protagonist can barely believe her luck when the dashing widower Maxim de Winter suddenly proposes to her. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realises how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives.

Picking Up the Pieces (Paloma Faith, 2012)


The Road (Cormac McCarthy, 2006)

A man and his son walk through post-apocalyptic America, heading for the south. They have a pistol and two bullets, an old map preserved in torn fragments, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food, and each other.

Somewhere Between Highway 61 & 49 (Chris Rea, 2005)


The Trouble with Goats and Sheep (Joanna Cannon, 2015)

It's the summer of 1976 and, in the cul-de-sac where this beautiful story in set, the heat wave is being blamed for everything. Including the disappearance of Mrs Creasy.

Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen, 1984)


Do you think that these songs match these books? Which song and book pairings have I missed? Let me know either in the comments below or via Twitter!