Reviews

Fans of the escapist entertainment typically associated with Lifetime Television movies, will find much to enjoy in Stephanie Wrobel’s debut novel, Darling Rose Gold. In many ways, the melodramatic moments and carefully-placed twists feel artificially manufactured,...

Peter Swanson has garnered a loyal following of fans by writing unique stand-alones that defy expectations at almost every turn. The only things you can count on when picking up a Peter Swanson novel are that you will be thoroughly entertained, guided by a skilled...

The joy of picking up a book by a new author, or even an author that is just new to the reader, is hard to describe. It is some nebulous mixture of anticipation, wonder, hope, and fear. This is odd given that what the author has done has been completed by multitudes...

If there was ever any question regarding Art Taylor’s talent in relation to short crime fiction, The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense will put those to rest immediately. This anthology demonstrates Art Taylor’s mastery of the skills...

Kathleen Barber’s Follow Me is about an as “of the moment” crime novel as one is likely to find. It’s exploration of the perils of social media will appeal to both those who are addicted to modern connectivity trends as well as those who are justifiably wary of such...

If you take the writings of Mary Higgins Clark, Victoria Holt, the Brontës, and Han Christian Andersen and mix them in a blender, the resulting concoction could serve as the building blocks for Carol Goodman’s oeuvre, the latest of which – The Sea of Lost Girls–...

From the Booking Desk: Continuing my new plan to post mini-reviews together in the hopes of creating cross-over readers in a selection of sub-genres, this week we have 4 short reviews - three historicals and a contemporary police procedural. But these books have links...

Every so often the crime fiction canon welcomes a new character who is instantly iconic. There is no easy formula for making this happen; otherwise it would not be nearly as rare an occurrence as it is. In theory, it is likely some elusive combination of character...

With the release of four novels under her wings – The Black Hour, Little Pretty Things, The Day I Died, and Under a Dark Sky – Lori Rader-Day has established herself as one of the most consistently-excellent and thoroughly-unpredictable writers of crime fiction. Part...

Typically, when a reviewer says a book is cinematic, it is a reference to the fact that the book could easily be adapted to the screen and would probably be successful if that happened. In the case of Elizabeth Little’s second novel, Pretty as a Picture, the term...

Actress Catherine Steadman (of Starz’s The Rook and ITV’s Downton Abbey) made a promising start to a second career as a thriller writer with 2018’s Something in the Water. Her new novel, Mr. Nobody, confirms this was no fluke; Catherine Steadman is a born storyteller....

From the Booking Desk: I am trying something new this year, sprinkling my longer reviews with some posts that gather a handful of shorter reviews together in one convenient place. My hope is that the cross-pollination of fans will inspire readers to pick up books they...

Sophie Hannah belongs at the top of the list of authors who can sell a book solely based on the synopsis. If you have never read one of her mystery novels, just check out the jacket copy of any one of them and I can almost guarantee you will be intrigued enough to...

While probably not intentional, it is fitting that there is a reference to length in the title of Liz Moore’s latest work, Long Bright River. This is an epic book in all meanings of the word. Clocking in at just about 500 densely-packed pages, the novel is a serious...

There is a long tradition of crime fiction being inspired by true life crimes. This runs the gamut from direct fictionalizations of actual cases to plots that simply harken back to various aspects of the cases that proved the launching point for the writing. Jess...

Most people are aware of the existence of scammers working out of impoverished foreign locations, using technology for a nefarious purpose, but it takes a forward-thinking writer such as Kwei Quartey to take readers behind the scenes of these “operations,” exposing...

From the Booking Desk: When I post my Top Reads list each year, I never actually rank the books and I rarely mention what my very favorite book is for any given year. This is largely because it is never as cut and dried as it might seem. There are so many factors that...

From the Booking Desk: During the holiday season, it is always tough to keep up with blogging work along with all the demands of the day job, family obligations, festive appointments, and just general life. But I don't want to let the days pass without mentioning a...

By this point, you have likely read at least one crime novel that uses our culture's current obsession with true crime podcasts as a storytelling device. It has become clear that we are still at the early stages of this trend and market saturation remains a distant...

Time travel has always been a popular subject in our culture. From H.G. Wells' The Time Machine through to current obsessions like Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, this plot device has proven its ability to open up all kinds of possibilities. Back to the Future mined it...