New collection from Joe Hill is relentless Joe Hill is one of those rare authors who seems equally adept at short fiction (see the previous 20th Century Ghosts (HarperCollins, 2007) as he is with full-length novels (my favorites being his debut Heart-Shaped Box (William Morrow, 2007) and The Fireman (William Morrow, 2016). He’s also hadContinue reading “‘Full Throttle’”
Tag Archives: fiction
Delicious murder mystery
‘A Bitter Feast’ serves up delectable meals along with its charming detecting duo You will be forgiven if your mouth waters uncontrollably while reading Deborah Crombie’s latest entry in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James mystery series, A Bitter Feast (HarperCollins, 2019). The action is set in the picturesque Cotswolds and centers around a pub in theContinue reading “Delicious murder mystery”
Read it before you see it
Long before it was a movie, ‘The Goldfinch’ cast a spell on its readers With the recent release of a major motion picture based on Donna Tartt’s runaway bestseller, I thought it would be worthwhile to revisit my initial review of the book. This review was originally written in 2014. Wow, what a sprawling, magnificent,Continue reading “Read it before you see it”
Jackson Brodie returns
Nine years on, the moody detective picks up right where he left off in ‘Big Sky’ When last we saw Jackson Brodie, in 2011’s Started Early, Took My Dog, the introspective private investigator at the center of Kate Atkinson’s literary mystery series was wandering around Yorkshire, trying to track down an adopted woman’s biological familyContinue reading “Jackson Brodie returns”
Ellery Queen takes a trip
The sleuth leaves the city behind to tackle a small-town family’s misery in ‘calamity town’ My mom had the Wrightsville Murders omnibus pictured at left on our bookshelves when I was growing up. It was a big heavy hardcover book containing three full-length Ellery Queen novels — Calamity Town, Crazy Like a Fox, and TenContinue reading “Ellery Queen takes a trip”
Illusions of safety and danger
Dennis Lehane dives deep in ‘Since We Fell’ Rachel Childs is a television journalist in Boston whose career is on a steep upward trajectory until she is sent to Haiti on assignment after the devastating 2010 earthquake. The horror she sees and experiences there leave her with a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder thatContinue reading “Illusions of safety and danger”
The Irish Book of Job
John Boyne puts his hero through some heavy trials in ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ So many friends on LibraryThing have recommended John Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies (Hogarth, 2017) to me, and one went so far as to send me a copy of the trade paperback (thanks, Amber!) It took me entirely too long toContinue reading “The Irish Book of Job”
Viral video opens old wounds in ‘The Hidden Things’
With The Hidden Things (Gallery Books, 2019) Jamie Mason has crafted a solid suspense thriller that is firmly rooted in contemporary culture. It all begins when 14-year-old Carly fends off a would-be attacker who follows her home from school. Their encounter in the front hallway of her family’s home is captured by the surveillance camerasContinue reading “Viral video opens old wounds in ‘The Hidden Things’”
Up in the air
Only Dick Francis could combine horses and air travel in such a fascinating way The most amazing thing about Rat Race, a 1970 mystery written by Dick Francis, is that it isn’t the only horse-racing mystery that Francis set in the world of aviation. Flying Finish, published four years earlier, delved into the world ofContinue reading “Up in the air”
Big things come in small packages
a family tragedy of the american west Montana 1948 (Milkweek, 2007) is a story of sibling rivalry, the malleability of the criminal justice system when it’s applied to people of color, the internal struggles that we all experience when it feels like the only way to do the right thing is by doing the wrongContinue reading “Big things come in small packages”
An American Bluestocking 