Reviews

Alex Finlay’s What Have We Done is the type of thriller that should come with a seatbelt and safety goggles. Finlay wastes not one page before throwing readers into a tailspin, sending his plot off in a direction readers could hardly expect. By that point—again, just...

The first quarter of 2023 has already been packed with some first-class crime fiction and that trend shows no sign of slowing down. The latest book to register on the “future classic seismograph” is Time’s Undoing by Cheryl A. Head. This is Cheryl A. Head’s first...

Calling Rupert Holmes accomplished doesn’t even seem to come close to recognizing his achievements. Not only has he won the Edgar Award for Best Play twice (for The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Accomplice), but he also has a successful career as a novelist (Where the...

Art Taylor has just released his second short story collection—The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions. Unlike with his previous collection, The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74, this gathering of stories includes both new and...

The mother and son team writing as Charles Todd debuted to immediate critical acclaim with A Test of Wills in 1996. They would go on to write more than two dozen (and counting) books in that series featuring Ian Rutledge. However, in 2009, they were not content with...

With The House Guest, Hank Phillippi Ryan continues her string of excellent cat-and-mouse stand-alone thrillers, keeping readers wrong-footed throughout as they struggle to determine who is telling the truth and whose every word is a lie. The House Guest begins as...

Keeping a long running series fresh for almost two dozen books is a challenge for any author, but works like A Killing of Innocents—the nineteenth Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery—by Deborah Crombie make it look easy. The release of this new entry in this beloved...

From the moment Finlay Donovan sat down at that Panera Bread table in Finlay Donovan is Killing It, crime fiction fans knew she was a character who would be having many more on-page adventures. After the madcap escapades of Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘em Dead, Finlay and...

There are many different things that can make a novel a critical darling. It could be the depth of characterization that resonates with the reader. Sometimes the setting is brought to life in such a realistic way that readers feel transported. Or maybe the plot is...

Knowing that an Indian author, who resides in Singapore, has written a crime novel set in Mumbai, it is only natural that some readers would expect a work that sheds new light on old perspectives and something that might defy standard expectations because of the...

Scandinavian crime fiction has a reputation of being some of the most morally complex and gritty writing available in the genre. This of course is a stereotype, but like most stereotypes, it is rooted in some grains of truth. One recent example from the region—Blaze...

The crime fiction community knows Craig Sisterson for his excellent book reviews, his stellar panel moderation, and his overall extensive background knowledge of the genre itself, but being unable to sit back and rest, Sisterson is also the editor of two excellent...

Tracy Clark amassed quite a fan following with her Cass Raines mystery series (including Broken Places and Borrowed Time), so when news broke that she was leaving this beloved character behind, there was obvious disappointment and concern. The release of Hide proves...

Ho Ho Ho! Yes, that’s Roddy Ho and the Slow Horses gang being referred to in Standing By the Wall. The series of spy novels written by Mick Herron and featuring his quirky collection of bumbling, but loveable (some of them anyway) MI5 agents is treasured by readers...

Lori Duffy Foster already has a successful traditional mystery series with the novels featuring journalist Lisa Jamison—A Dead Man’s Eyes and Never Broken—but now she is about to make a name for herself in the suspense/thriller realm as well. The end of the year sees...

Authors take on pen names for a variety of reasons, but the most common is a desire to signal that their new book is very different from what readers have seen from them previously. That is certainly the case for Liv Andersson—the new nom de plume used by Wendy...

Luca Veste is a popular crime fiction author based in the United Kingdom. While many readers in his native land are familiar with his work, he has not yet completely broken through over here in the United States. His latest novel, You Never Said Goodbye, should go a...

Some novels ease you into the story by orienting the reader to a new location, slowly introducing the cast of characters with each of their various personality traits, and stealthily dropping hints of the plot that will soon begin to unfold. Let’s be clear, Dana...

Nothing beats a creepy-as-hell read as the chill of Winter settles in. “The Devil is in Scotland” is poised to become one of those iconic opening lines of literature—one that is uttered in reverence, often imitated, but rarely replicated. With that simple statement,...

As usual, I have taken this task of selecting my Top Reads List very seriously and really struggled to make sure the list commemorates my favorite books of the year. Simply put, sometimes this means splitting hairs and having to leave off books that I truly loved but...