The Cider House Rules tells the story of the child Homer Wells raised in an orphanage in Maine.     It is a coming-of-age story, but the lives of the Director, Dr. Wilbur Larch, the nurses, and the other children are also part of the story.    Some of the orphans are adopted and go on ...

The Under Dog and Other Stories is a collection of short stories published in 1953.    The stories were published into magazines between 1923 and 1926.     Included in the collection are: The Under Dog The Plymouth Express The Affair at the Victory Ball The Market Basing Mystery The Lemesurier Inheritance The Cornish Mystery The King of Clubs The Submarine Plans The Adventure of ...

Dead Man’s Folly is the 35th story in the Hercule Poirot books, written in 1956.   Agatha Christie wrote 33 full novels, 2 plays, and 51 short stories featuring Poirot.   She was one of the most popular writers of the twentieth century and her books are still widely read and adaptations of her books are part ...

Set in Darkness is the eleventh book in the Inspector Rebus series.     Ian Rankin’s crime novels are all set in Scotland, mostly based near Edinburgh.    The books are sometimes referred to as “tartan noir.”   All of the books are dark, with layers of criminal enterprises, violence, and murders to be investigated.   Rebus himself ...

Remains of the Day is novel written in 1989 by Kazuo Ishiguro.    It is narrated by Mr. Stevens, a butler at Darlington Hall.   He decides to take a 6-day motoring trip across to the west and shares numerous thoughts and anecdotes along the way.   He reflects on his profession, his long-term service to 2 masters, ...

The Last Argument of Kings is the third book of the First Law series by Joe Abercrombie.   The title is from a quote by Louis XIV.    “The Final Argument of Kings” is the act of declaring war (Ultimo Ratio Regum). This series is very enjoyable, hitting all the right buttons – adventure, humour, irony, character development, ...

I chose to read the first book in the Cork O’Connor series, his first book of 23.    Unfortunately, this book did not resonate for me.    I found it neither interesting, nor believable.    The premises of the book were sound, but the execution was weak.    At a number of spots, I cringed.  ...

Before They Are Hanged is the second book in the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.    It carries on the story from where the first book left off.   In my review of The First Law, I praised the book for being very readable, but also full of great characterization, dark humor, and clever dialogue.    I ...

Faceless Killers is the first book of 14 crime novels in the Wallender series by Swedish author Henning Mankell, written between 1991 and 2014.    Wallander is a police inspector in the town of Ystad, located southeast of Malmo.   The books were written in Swedish and translated into English. There have been several TV series and movies ...

The Blade Itself is the first book in the First Law series, a grimdark (speculative fiction that is dark and possibly violent) fantasy novel.   It is similar to Game of Thrones in some ways, but it is lighter reading with interesting characters, some gallows-style humor, lots of battles, and with clever dialogue.     We never really ...

The Women is a novel based on memoirs of an army nurse during the Vietnam War.     The author chooses a well-to-do naive young lady (Frankie) who wants to contribute and make her family proud.      As a newly graduated nurse she enlists and after basic training lands in the war zone, as a novice in a ...

Embassytown is another powerful science fiction novel by China Mieville.   The setting is on a planet on the edge of humanity’s expansion.    Humans have an outpost there (Embassytown), allowed by the sentient native aliens, the Ariekei.    Their technology is biological in nature, but has been adapted to support human life.    The Ariekei’s means of communication ...

Standing in the Shadows is the final book (the 28th) of the Inspector Banks series, written in 2023.    All of the books are police procedurals, mostly centered in East Vale in the Yorkshire Dales.   The author has been writing and publishing solid crime stories for 35 years.    A TV show featured some of the books ...

Boon Island – A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck, and Cannibalism is a retelling of a famous survival story in American history.    In 1710 the Nottingham Gallery wrecked on a very small barren island just off the New England Coast in winter.   Most of the crew scrambled to shore, but the treeless rocky islet had ...

The Hunter is the second book in the Cal Hooper series, set in Ardnakalty, a rural community on the side of a mountain on the west coast of Ireland.   Cal is a retired American detective who wants to live a peaceful and quiet life, but finds himself caught up in the secrets and hidden crimes, ...

Gerald’s Game is a suspense/terror novel, written in 1992.    It is set to coincide with a full solar eclipse in Maine in that year   He wrote 2 books (Dolores Claiborne is the other) and the two books are connected by the eclipse and similar themes (abuse).     This book will challenge the reader at several ...

Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves is Book 7 of the Shetland series, featuring Jimmy Perez.   All of the books in the series are atmospheric, reflecting the northern setting in the Shetland Islands.    These are procedural crime stories, slow-moving plots with a methodical unravelling of the who, what, where, and how.    The characters are well-drawn and ...

The Running Grave is an investigation/detective crime novel, the 7th book in the C.B. Strike series by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling).   This has been a very good series with strong characters and varied plots.    All of the books feature Cormoran Strike, an amputee war veteran now turned detective and his new-to-investigation partner, Robin Ellacott.    Strike’s ...

Dolores Claiborne is an unusual novel, even by Stephen King standards.   There are no chapters and  there is no dialogue –  just a long tale told by the narrator/protagonist.    The whole book is a transcript of a police interview of Dolores,  who is suspected of killing her employer.   She tells her story in a single, ...

Inspector Singh Investigates is a crime series written by Shamini Flint, a Malaysian author.     The first book is subtitled A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder.     Inspector Singh is an overweight detective from Singapore who does not fit into the police culture of his home nation, so he is sent to other locations whenever possible.    He arrives ...

The Scar is a science fiction – fantasy novel set on Bas -Lag, a world of many alien creatures.     The first book in the series, Perdido Street Station takes place in the principal city New Crobuzon.    It is a mesmerizing story, strange and unsettling, but is also the winner of several awards.    The Scar starts ...

A Lesson in Dying is the first book in the Inspector Ramsay series by Ann Cleeves.   Thus series is less well known, as compared to the Shetland or the Vera series.    Ramsay is not as engaging a protagonist, but the story is still a good one – a cozy murder mystery in a small town ...

All the Sinners Bleed is a crime-thriller novel that uses a police procedural point of view.     The setting is in small rural town in the Southern states.   The protagonist (Titus Crown)is a black sheriff in a community where the divide between whites and blacks has a long, troubled history.     The strongest part of the book ...

A Mind to Murder is a detective/crime novel by P.D. James.     It is the second book of fourteen in the popular Adam Dalgliesh series (1962 – 2008).    All of the books are skilfully written, following a classic British mystery style.    In this case, the murder takes place in the Steen Psychiatric Clinic and because of ...

The Witch Elm is a mystery/psychological thriller by Tana French.    It is told in the first person (Toby), but the narrator is not always reliable since it is told by a character who has been damaged both physically and mentally and looking back, some of the memories are unclear.    As the story progresses, we read ...

Resurrection Walk is a crime novel which combines two characters – Micky Haller from the Lincoln Lawyer series (7 books) and Bosch from the Harry Bosch series (25 books).    The main story is a legal procedural story where Mickey Haller pursues a case of a woman imprisoned for killing her husband, a policeman.     Mickey ...

Too Good to be True is a detective story in the Shetland Series.   It is sometimes described as a “Quick Read” since it is short and an easy read. Jimmy Perez travels to Scottish border town (Stonebridge) to help his ex-wife find out more about an apparent suicide by the local schoolteacher.   He finds there are ...

Emily St. John Mandel is a  Canadian author who has written 6 novels, the last three to wide success.    Station Eleven won the Arthur C. Clarke award and was made into a mini-series. Sea of Tranquility is a science fiction/speculative fiction novel written with a non-linear plot line.   It is located in Canada, the US, and ...

The Summer that Never Was is a crime/mystery story by Canadian – English author Peter Robinson.   There are 28 books (1987 – 2023) in the Inspector Banks series and there were 5 seasons of adaptations (32 episodes), most still available for streaming.    All are set in Yorkshire and the books fit best into procedural detective ...

Endless Night is a crime novel, written by Agatha Christie.    When it was published in 1967 it was received well and she had listed it herself as one of her favorite books.     It is unlike most of her many novels.    It is narrated by the main character, telling the story from a later time.    It ...

Streets of Laredo is the sequel to Lonesome Dove, set 20 years later.    The characters who have survived are older and the borderlands are less wild, that is until a nineteen year old bandit (Joey Garza) holds up trains and kills many people.    Woodrow Call is now older, but he still takes on bounty hunter ...

Tree of Hands is a psychological thriller about three people, each with his/her own story, but there is a small connection between them that results in an unpredictable ending.     The main story is about a child kidnapping, an act by an unstable grandmother to help her own daughter who lost a child to illness.   In ...

Blackout is a book which won the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and the Nebula Award in 2010 – 2011 for the best science fiction novel.  It is part one of a two-part series, followed by All Clear.   Although it is fundamentally a science fiction story, there is a considerable level of historical accuracy, and ...

One Step Behind is the 8th book of the Wallander series, police procedural crime books, set in Ystad, Sweden and written in Swedish, translated to English.   Henning Mankell has written a number of books and plays, but the most famous were the Wallander stories.    There have been 3 popular TV crime series based on his ...

The Hobbit is a fantasy novel written in 1937.    It was originally written for a juvenile audience, but it has become one of the best selling books of all time, selling over 100 million copies, and read by all ages of readers. The story is told by Bilbo Baggins, an account of an adventure he took ...

Children of Time is the first book in the award-winning science fiction series written by Adrian Tchaikovsky.   It is the story of a future where Earth and its colonies are at the end, and so advanced spacecraft are sent out to terraform distant planets where humans can settle.   Ark ships follow with people kept in ...

All the Pretty Horses is a novel set in southern Texas and Mexico in the 1950s.   It is the story of John Grady, a 16 year old who has become disconnected from his ranch home and family.   He was raised by a Mexican familyso he is fluent in Spanish.   He and his friend Lacey Rawlings ...

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl is a history book by Timothy Egan.    He is a New York times journalist who has written a number of well-researched books, a few of which I have read.     This book was written in 2006 and it is about ...

Lonesome Dove is a western novel written in 1985 by Larry McMurtry.    It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 and has been well-received by reviewers.    It was adapted as a mini-series in 1989 and subsequently won 7 Emmy Awards. The book is about a small group of retired Texas Rangers living on a ranch in Lonesome ...

Holly is the latest book in the Holly Gibney series (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch, The Outsider, If It Bleeds).  We first met Holly as a minor character recruited to help Bill Hodges in Mr. Mercedes.   Over the course of the books Holly grows from a self-doubting, unemployed, harangued woman into the owner ...

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was Rachel Joyce’s first novel and it was an immediate critical success with both readers and critics.   A retired man living in Dorset receives a letter from an old friend who is in hospice with terminal cancer in Scotland.     She (Queenie) wants to say goodbye.    Harold writes back immediately ...

Recommended, with some caveats, as noted above.   HachetteAudio · The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith Read by Robert Glenister – Audiobook Excerpt Continue reading →

Outsider – An Old Man, a Mountain, and the Search for a Hidden Past – is the story of Dag Aabye, told by journalist Brett Popplewell.   Dag was born in Norway and was orphaned at the end of World War II.     He was brought up by foster parents, but the shadow of suspicion is that ...

It is hard to fit Another Kind of Eden into a genre or to compare it to other novels.     It best fits into other works by James Lee Burke.   He has written over 40 novels, many of them Detective stories featuring Dave Robichaud, set in New Iberia, Louisiana.       This book fits into the Holland Family ...

Demon Copperhead is a coming of age novel set in modern-day  Kentucky.    Barbara Kingsolver uses the David Copperfield novel as the framework for the storytelling, but it is set in the poorest District in the USA in the midst of unemployment and widespread opioid addiction.    Damon is orphaned , unwanted, and neglected.   He suffers a ...

Walking Home: Common Sense and Other Misadventures on the Pacific Crest Trail  is a memoir from a 6 month through hike, backpacking from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail.   There are a number of books available (A review of The Trail is found on this website), each with its own storyline about hiking ...

Lethal White is the fourth book in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling).    It picks up right where the previous book A Career of Evil ended.     A mentally unstable man tells Strike he witnessed a child being strangled and even though there is no payment for following up, he starts asking questions. ...

The Trespasser is the sixth book in the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French.    Whereas most detective/crime/mystery series follow the same narrative style, Tana French never does.    Each story is told from a different point of view and more than that, feels unique and somewhat daring.    This story is told by Antoinette Conway, a ...

Remarkably Bright Creatures is a delight from the first page to the last.   The three main characters (a senior, an octopus, and a young man) have all suffered from losses in their lives and cope on their own, but their lives intersect, and they find each other and themselves in the process.      This book will ...

The Trail is a story of a young man who is lost in his life in life in Los Angeles and an older man who is at the end of his life.    Through family connections, they set out to backpack the John Muir Trail, a rugged and difficult route in the Sierra Nevada.    Gil has ...

A Sight for Sore Eyes is a compelling but disturbing psychological thriller written by master storyteller Ruth Rendell.   She has written about 70 books and over the years I have read about 1/3 of them.    Every one has been engaging, providing deep insights into characters that are reflections of ourselves and the people we know.   ...

A Question of Blood is a Scottish crime novel by Ian Rankin, part of the John Rebus series.   Rebus is a bit of an incorrigible character that gets the job done, but he can be hard-to-get-along with and prone to repeated bad habits and poor communications.    The plot involves a school shooting and the suspect ...

Robert Galbraith’s (J.K. Rowling) fifth book in the Cormoran Strike series is a a 927 page detective story about a 40 year old cold case concerning a missing doctor.    It is intricately plotted and full of well-developed characters –  investigators, suspects, and witnesses.   The author takes great care to keep the dialogue fresh, characters believable, ...

The Secret of Chimneys was published in 1925. It was one of Agatha Christie’s first novels and compared to her other earlier books at that time – The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and the earliest Poirot books, it doesn’t compare, nor does it age well.   She wrote 66 detective novels ...

Career of Evil is the third book in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith, the pen-name for JK Rowling.      We read the first two books and enjoyed them so we will continue to work our way through the series.    This book was the best yet with some clever and skillful storytelling to ...

Act of Oblivion is a historical novel set in England and New England in the 1660’s.   It chronicles the extraordinary events of the time which included a civil war, the execution of King Charles I, the hunt, capture, and execution of the named regicides, the members who had signed the death warrant, international manhunts,  the ...

Dark is the Grave is a Scottish crime thriller, the first in the DCI Bone series.   The book fits the billing – a thriller with many twists and turns, a crime unit working to find the killer, a damaged detective with his own demons, police-politics to manage, and a climax at the end.    But, it ...

The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller that follows the case of a woman, Alicia,  who shot her husband 6 times in the head, then stop talking to anyone, including the police, the Courts, and medical staff.    The story is told by her psychotherapist, Theo Faber, who works in the clinic where she is sedated ...

The Thursday Murder Club is a whodunit novel featuring a small group of seniors living in a retirement home who get together once a week to discuss unsolved crimes.    Some members of the group have a police background.    Others were professionals who bring skills to any enquiry.   When murders occur in their area, they set ...

Gwendy’s Button Box is a novella written by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar.  It is a coming-of-age story about a young girl who meets a stranger who gives her a strange box (beware of strangers bearing strange gifts).  Most of the story follows Gwendy’s teenage years in Castle Rock and her interactions with the effects ...

Michael Connelly started the Harry Bosch series in 1992 and the Bosch  character has now appeared in 23 books.   The latest book (2022) features Bosch and Renee Ballard (5 books) working cold cases in Los Angeles.   All of the books are police/detective procedural stories.    In this book, there are two cases on the desk, one ...

Blood Song is the first book in an impressive trilogy Ravens Shadow.    It is the story of a young man, Vaelin al Sorna, who is left at age 10 to be part of the Sixth Order of the Brotherhood, as a warrior for the Faith.   The first half of the book is a coming-of-age story ...

The Music Shop is a wonderful book.    It is a story about ordinary people who strive for dignity and their guru is Frank who provides musical therapy in the form of albums selected to match each person’s needs.    Joyce introduces us to a series of characters who are touched by Frank’s caring and his vinyl ...

Pines by Blake Crouch is the first book in the Wayward Pines trilogy which was also made into a 10 part miniseries for TV.       This book uses a limited point of view to bring the reader to a big twist/revelation at the end.   It starts as a crime novel as the protagonist Ethan Burke, a ...

The Long Call is a mystery/crime novel by Ann Cleeves, the author of the Vera and the Shetland series.   Ann Cleeves is a master storyteller, writing procedural detective books with well-developed characters and complex  lives.    For much of the book, the pace is slow and the small team of detectives in rural Devon follow possible ...

Fairy Tale was published in 2022 and, as with all of his books, landed on the best sellers list.   It is indeed a fairy tale with direct and indirect references to well-known stories from the Brothers Grimm and other authors, but also to classics in the horror genre.    The 600 page book has three distinct ...

Bruce Springsteen’s fall of 2002 release of the album Only the Strong Survive brings a new sound to his fans.    The songs were chosen, arranged, and recorded during the Covid isolation time.    He has chosen older soul songs from the 1960’s.   In most cases, he has not reinterpreted the songs by artists like The Supremes, ...

The Mysterious Affair at Styles was Agatha Christie’s first book.   She wrote in on a dare in 1916 and tried to get it published, unsuccessfully until 1919.   It was then releases in serial format with 18 parts.   It was not published as a full book until 1920.   In the book we are first introduced to ...

The Silkworm is a British detective story in the Cormorant Strike series, written by Robert Galbraith which is the pen name for J.K. Rowling.   The first book of the series was The Cuckoo is Calling where we are introduced to a private detective, Cormorant Strike and his assistant Robin.   In this book Strike ...

An Unkindness of Ravens is a murder-mystery novel, part of the Inspector Wexford series (#13).     It is a tale of well-developed characters, most with secrets.   Ruth Rendell’s books lean toward a sub-genre she established – psychological thrillers.    There are a variety of suspects and the whole story of the murder requires understanding the “whys” as ...

V2 is a historical fiction account of a phase of the V2 missile attacks on London in 1944.   The story is told from the point of view of a German scientist, Dr. Rudi Graf and a WAAC officer Kay Caton-Walsh.   Graf is a ficntional character who worked on the rocket program with Wernher Von Braun ...

A Sleeping Life is the tenth book in the Inspector Wexford series of mystery novels by Ruth Rendell.   She is a master of the craft of storytelling and she does not disappoint with this book.    It is a police procedural format, with Wexford and his team investigating the murder of a woman in their territory.      ...

A Master of Djinn is the first book in the Dead Djinn series by Phenderson Djéli Clark.     It was the winner of a number of Fantasy Awards and is the part of the Dead Djinn Series.    Set in 1912, it is a world filled with magic, djinns, and various magical beings.    The protagonist is Fatma ...

Ordinary Grace is story of a  family living in small town in Minnesota in the summer of 1961.  Forty years later, Frank Drum reminisces about the events in New Bremen when he was just  13 years-old.   His father is a Methodist minister, his mother and sister are musicians, and his younger brother Jake suffers ...

The Girl on the Train has been a bestseller for years, and for a good reason.    It is a mystery, a psychological thriller, and a story about secrets that can ruin relationships.    There are three narrators, all unreliable, but most of the story is told by Rachel.    She means well, but her drinking, her obsessiveness, ...

The Searcher is a modern-day western set in Ireland.   Cal Hooper is a divorced, retired American who has moved to rural western Ireland, looking for peace, trying to leave behind a lifetime of police work and a broken marriage.   He picks a run-down house on the lower slopes of the mountain and sets about to ...

A Drink Before the War was Dennis Lehane’s debut novel, in which he introduced  detectives Kenzie and Gennaro.      His later novels are highly recommended – Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, and Shutter Island.    With the strengths of these novels I decided to try his first, published in 1994.    Lehane is a fine writer who provides ...

Near the end of her life Shirley Jackson had become homebound and felt isolated.   Her last novel was published in 1962 and instead of another Gothic horror story she created a story about the unusual Blackwood sisters living in a rural home, away from town, but isolated because of the mistrust  and hate of the ...

The Ruin is a crime story set in Ireland.    The story starts strong with a young policeman (Cormac Reilly) investigating the death of a woman who appeared to have killed herself with an overdose of heroin.   He takes the two apparently-abused/neglected children into custody.   The main story shifts to 20 years later when Jack, one ...

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo is a Norwegian crime novel in which Detective Harry Hole investigates and tries to find a serial killer dubbed The Snowman.   The novel follows the police procedural model/format, and the plot has many twists and turns, false leads, and it develops into a thriller in the last chapters.   There ...

The City and the City is mainly a murder mystery, but is also a fantasy or sci fi story.    Most readers would edge toward fantasy, but quantum physics ideas could make this sci fi.   Two cities are both adjacent and overlapping in space and time.   Beszel and Ul Qoma are cities in the southeastern part ...

Magpie Murders is a whodunit story, but it has a mystery inside a mystery structure, all told in a classic Agatha Christie story mode.    There are a number of introduced characters, any of which could be the suspects.    The plot is expertly developed and there are red-herrings, twists, surprises, and clever detection work by two ...

Michael Connelly’s latest book is the 23rd book in the Bosch Series and the 4th book in the Renee Ballard series and it is one of his best detective stories.   This is one of his best stories and is highly recommended Over the years the characters have evolved and, at the same time, so has ...

I found this book difficult to read. The style kept throwing me off the story. The author chose to use sentence fragments, juxtaposing words of phrases together, and making sense of them wasn’t always easy. There were frequent run-on sentences and sentence fragments which broke the reading rhythm. Some sections were opaque and I found ...

P.D. James’ novels are part of a classic British tradition crime authors. The Murder Room was published in 2003 when she was in her 80’s. It is her 12th book in the Inspector Dalgleish series and is set in London, specifically at the Dupayne Museum, a Gothic mansion dedicated to the Interwar Years. It was ...

Duma Key takes the reader into a deep dive into the protagonist Edgar Freemantle’s life of pain and partial recovery.    Stephen King himself was critically injured and spent part of his recovery time on a nearby key.    Some of the themes and motifs of the books Misery and IT are wound into a story ...

Station Eleven is a science fiction novel about a period time when a deadly pandemic kills most of the humans on the planet and the years afterward as the survivors come to grips with a new world. This is not a new plot line, but the author chooses a different path from the classics of ...

Some books stay with you for years after finishing them, and Mystic River is one of those books.   It is a complex and rich story of three boyhood friends who  go in different directions over the ensuing years.    We start with 11-year olds Dave Boyle, Jimmy Marcus, and Sean Devine playing in the street.    Dave ...

This may be the most unusual novel you will read. Here are some descriptors that apply to the book: outrageous courageous imaginative risky complex disturbing multi-voiced ambitious chaotic empathetic passionate collage-like daring strange tender powerful It is the historical account of the death of Abraham’s Lincoln’s son Willy and the “events”that follow. “Bardo” is a Tibetan word, used also in other contexts, referring to the place and state of consciousness between life ...

The Road is a lean, plain-spoken dark, almost nightmarish tale of the future.   The telling is very restrained, repetitive, and yet beautiful, tender, and rewarding.    There are really only two characters and we only know them as the father and the son.   There is despair, terror, horror, and bleakness, but there is also love, compassion, ...

A Gentleman in Moscow is a wonderful and creative historical fiction novel by Amor Towles.    The story begins in 1922 in Moscow and ends in 1954 in a Russian village.    Count Alexander Rostov  is sentenced to  lifelong imprisonment in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow.    Following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, nobles were sentenced ...

Some of the words used to describe this novel include “spellbinding, captivating, suspenseful, and romantic, ” and it is all of those, but it is also a tour de force, offering ample rewards, but also a level of discomfort for the reader, a dark reflection of our own choices in life.    It is story about ...

Neil Gaimin describes this novel as an adult fairy tale. It is set in the English town of Wall on the border of the world of Faerie. Every 9 years the rift between our world and Faerie is bridged and a Great Fair is held in the meadow beyond the wall. A liaison between villager ...

Camilla Lackburg is the most popular novelist in Sweden.   She writes crime novels and has published 18 books since 2003.     The Hidden Child is the 5th book in the (detective) Patrik Hedström  and (writer) Erica Falck  series.   Lackberg’s stories tend to have complex plots and strong characterization.    In this story, there are several mysteries to ...

Fatherland falls into the genre of Speculative Fiction, providing a story based on the question, “What if?”   The premise is that Germany won World War Two and became the preeminent culture and authority in Europe.    This story is set in 1964 and Hitler’s 75th birthday is approaching.     Although this is alt-history, the author chooses to ...

Next to Last Stand is the latest book (#16) in the Walt Longmire series.     The series  follows the same characters and the same location, Absaroka County in Wyoming, and each one has a murder mystery which Sheriff Longmire and his staff investigate.    The stories all have a “folksy” tone with light dialogue.   Integrated into every ...

The first time I read Treasure Island, I was a teenager and the adventure and the first person storytelling was captivating.   The characters Long John Silver, Old Pew, Black Dog, Ben Gunn, Captain Smollett, and Jim seemed larger than life.     Pirate treasure, mutiny, murders, secrets, and battles made other books seem boring.    This was before ...

Sharpe’s Assassin is the latest book (#22) in the series about Richard Sharpe, a soldier in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. “The best battle scenes of any writer I’ve ever read, past or present. Cornwell really makes history come alive.” – George R.R. Martin “Cornwell’s skill is in aging his warrior-hero, who now creaks as ...

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson My rating: This book is a bit of a dupe. The author uses a gimmick to attract a select audience. The first two chapters are full of f-bombs, hyperbole, illogical generalizations, and unstructured conclusions. By chapter three ...

Murder in G Major is a murder mystery set in Ireland.   The premise is that a music teacher can communicate with a ghost of a musician murdered 25 years ago.   Gethsemane Brown finds herself as a reluctant investigator, tracking down evidence for an old cold case, and as she does so more murders multiply as ...

1979 by Val McDermid My rating: This book did not work for me. I found it to be a little formulaic and cliched. The characters seemed a little thin and the development was slow and uninspired. But, I have enjoyed other Val McDermid stories. Part of the problem for me was that I had just finished a ...

Cover Her face was the first book of the Adam Dalgliesh murder mystery series by P. D. James.   For many writers this would be the premier work, but P.D. James had set high standards in her writing career and this book shows great promise, but does not engage the reader fully.    The author herself wasn’t ...

Born to Run is a refreshing memoir written by Bruce Springsteen.   The storytelling is forthright, down-to-earth, and earnest.   He focuses on the influences in his early years growing up in New Jersey.   His father was a bus driver who had recurring mental illness problems.    His mother was a legal secretary and the person who provided ...

The House at Pooh Corner is a 1928 collection of Winnie the Pooh stories,  some of which are now embedded in modern culture by reading to our children and by watching adaptations on TV.   But they are a delightful read for all ages at any time. The title story is about Winnie the Pooh and Piglet ...

The Dead Zone is a psychological thriller, a crime story, and a science fiction story in a slow-burning mystery format.    Stephen King’s protagonist, Johnny Smith, awakens from a coma after 5 years and finds that he has some psychic powers.   He can read some people and see the future, but he also has had some ...

Shadow and Bone is a fantasy series about the Grisha, humans who practice the “small science”, specialized magic.    Most of the Grisha are one of three orders – Materialki, Corperalki, or Atherealki, but there are sub-order of each type too, all defined within a guild-like hierarchy.   The Grisha are an elite group enlisted as ...

Squeeze Me is a satirical novel set in South Florida.   It is also a murder mystery with bouts of action and and it is full of humor and edgy dialogue.   At times it is raucous and absurd.   At other times it has scathing political satire.    The characters are interesting and the story moves along well.    ...

The Midnight Library is speculative fiction which uses the metaphor of a library of books that provide opportunities to live different versions of a life.   Nora Seed arrives at the library at a point between life and death and is offered the chance to examine her choices, her regrets, and the possible paths from various ...

The Midnight Library is speculative fiction which uses the metaphor of a library of books that provide opportunities to live different versions of a life.   Nora Seed arrives at the library at a point between life and death and is offered the chance to examine her choices, her regrets, and the possible paths from various ...

Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951 and became famous, but also notorious.    With swearing and references to sexuality there was some outrage.    The literary world, though, admired the writing and it has stayed on many best books lists for 70 years.   The story is told by Holden Caulfield, a 17 year old New York ...

Eight Perfect Murders is a murder-mystery set in the world of the historical mystery literature genre.   The main character is Malcolm Kershaw, a bookstore owner and a blogger who writes about murder mysteries.    One of his articles is called “Eight Perfect Murders”, a meta-analysis of the the most perfect murder methods found in famous mystery ...

The House on the Cerulean Sea is a fantasy about an orphanage of very unusual magical children.   Each of the children are interesting and unique characters and this could have been the central part of the story, but it is a tale of redemption, compassion, and humanity as seen through the lead character, Linus Baker.   ...

The Tatooist of Auschwitz is a fictional account of a story told to the author by a survivor of the death camps.   Lale Sokolov (born as Ludwig Eisenberg) was a Slovakian Jew who endured the horrors of the death camp and lived partly through chance, partly through his own cleverness, and some unlikely good fortune ...

The Mist is a novella first published in 1980 and also included in the short story collection Skeleton Crew.   It is a horror story complete with horrific creatures, exciting encounters, savage killings, and a desperate attempt to escape.    Characters are well-developed (though most don’t survive). Stephen King is adept at setting up the “What if” scenario ...

The Mist is a novella first published in 1980 and also included in the short story collection Skeleton Crew.   It is a horror story complete with horrific creatures, exciting encounters, savage killings, and a desperate attempt to escape.    Characters are well-developed (though most don’t survive). Stephen King is adept at setting up the “What if” scenario ...

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (The Spy) was a breakthrough novel for John le Carre, but also for the general spy fiction class, adding a level of clever craftsmanship, setting it above others when it was published in 1962, but it is still a good read today. It is set in a time ...

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (The Spy) was a breakthrough novel for John le Carre, but also for the general spy fiction class, adding a level of clever craftsmanship, setting it above others when it was published in 1962, but it is still a good read today. It is set in a time ...

Two Girls Down is a mystery-crime-thriller novel about an investigation into two girls who went missing from a car when their mother was in shopping.      With no leads the mother hires a bounty hunter – detective, Alice Vega.    With a police department unwilling to work with her, Alice hires ex-cop Max Caplan, who has lots ...

The Circle of Magic is a four book fantasy series (1997 – 1999) about 4 somewhat troubled young people from different areas and different lives who are brought to a place where they can learn to control their natural magical and unique gifts.    The books are sometimes thought of as for Young Adults, but they ...

The Buried Giant was an enigma for most of the reading stages of this book.  I knew it was a historical fantasy, but it was clear that there was something more going on.   For much of the book it felt like a fairy tale, but there was always subtle reflections on thematic motifs – love, ...

After reading The Book of Koli, I was so impressed that I continued on, reading the second book, The Trials of Koli, then the final book, The Fall of Koli.     It is really a single story and unlike most series, all of the books are excellent. I guessed the ending of the Rampart Series halfway through ...

The Cuckoo’s Calling is a mystery-crime novel written by Robert Galbraith, the pen name for J. K. Rowling.    The story does not resemble Harry Potter in any way.   Reviews of the book were good so it was with no specific expectations that I read through the book.    My first response was to marvel at the ...

Billy Summers is a thriller-crime-noir story about a hit man who is asked to one final job, then he plans to retire.   Billy is a sniper who will only shoot “bad men”, but this leads to many moral dilemmas since he works for bad people and to not get caught, he has to undertake many ...

The Hate U Give is a young adult novel about a 16 year old black girl who witnesses the shooting of a friend at the hands of the police.    It is an expansion of a short story she wrote in College, after a real-life incident.    It has received a lot of recognition and some awards. It ...

The Great Alone had an appealing premise for an upcoming book to read.     A family heads off to the edge of wilderness in Alaska to live off the land.   The author herself had this kind of experience and she sets the story in an area where her family had a wilderness lodge.  The ...

The Last Kingdom is a story set in England in the 9th century.    Uhtred is a young noble living in a fortress in Northumbria when the Danes invade and overthrow the small kingdoms of the northeast.    Uhtred is taken at age 10 by the Danes and adopted by a family, learning their ways.    In the ...

Elizabeth is Missing is a mystery novel with an unreliable narrator, Maude Horsham.   She is in her late 80’s and has dementia.   She is convinced her friend is missing, although she has no short term memory and is often confused.   She sticks to her belief and the case of the missing friend becomes mixed with ...

In Cold Blood is a non-fiction (True Crime) novel that tells the story of a family brutally murdered by two killers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959.    Truman Capote and his friend Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) traveled to Kansas to interview the locals and authorities.    He made 8000 pages ...

A Darker Shade of Magic is an adventure-fantasy novel with parallel worlds, wizards, royal courts, secrets, duels, intrigue, and a quest for Kell (An Antari wizard from Red London) and Lila (a thief from Grey London).    There are no great underlying themes, nor any attempt to develop a parable, nor are there any obvious parallels ...

Although I enjoyed this book, I am also conflicted about the merits of the writing.   Delia Owens wrote a best-selling book, but she did not have a background as a novelist.    The story itself is inspired,  with its love of nature, the plight of an abandoned young girl, Society’s response to the “Marsh Girl,” and ...

Nickel Boys is narrated by Elwood Curtis living in New York City in the present time, looking back at a period of time when he attended the Nickel Academy (a reform school in Florida) when he was a teenager.   Colson Whitehead tells the story at various points in Ellwood’s life and it isn’t until the ...

The book of Koli is a dystopian science fiction novel, told in a future after civilization has broken down and genetically-altered nature has taken over.    People survive in small villages or enclaves and build their own way-of-life, complete with the myths created by those in charge. The story is told by an illiterate youth named Koli.   ...

After I have read a book, I sometimes go right to reviews to see what has been said about the story.    There are some excellent reviewers out there, including the New York Times, the Guardian, and Kirkus Reviews.   I am not a fan of retelling the story and in my own reviews, I try to ...

Quiet in her Bones is a mystery – thriller set in Aukland, New Zealand.   It is told in the first person, telling the story of a writer whose mother disappeared ten years earlier.     Almost all of the events of the mystery take place in a cul-de-sac of well-to-do families who have a number of secrets ...

The Shadow of the Wind was written in a nineteenth century story to tell the story of a young man (Daniel Sempere) who is introduced to rare and obscure books by his father, an owner of a bookshop.   When reaches a certain age, he is taken to the secret, hidden, and labyrinth Cemetery of Forgotten ...

The Book Thief is a tale narrated by Death, who tells the story of a young girl and the people in her life in Germany during World War Two,  “an attempt—a flying jump of an attempt—to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.”   In an interview, Zusak said he ...

Age of Iron is a historical action-adventure novel set in the Britain before the arrival of the Romans.   We are introduced to Dug Sealskinner, an aging mercenary who is battle-scarred, roaming and fleeing from the death of his family.   He is looking for work with the regional warlord (Zaidar) but gets caught in an invasion ...

The Girl with the Pearl Earring is a fictional account of events in the life of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, in a city of Delft, Holland in 1665.   In his home a teenage girl named Griet comes into the service of the family.    She lives in the painter’s home and is part of the domestic ...

Full disclosure first.    I have read all the Jeeves books, I have seen all of the Jeeves and Wooster shows, and I have read most of P.G. Wodehouse’s books, many more than once.   I am a full-fledged fan and always will be. The Inimitable Jeeves was the first of the Jeeves novels, but most of the ...

The start of The Secret History was a surprise.     We learn that the narrator (Richard Pappin) and his friends committed a murder of their friend.   The next 540+ pages explains the events that led up to the event, then what happened afterwards. The novel focuses on five college friends who are in a classics program at ...

Ian Rankin has written 25 novels, a number of them (inc. the Rebus series) bestsellers and award winners.    Before he settled on crime fiction, Rankin wrote a variety of books, some of them thrillers like Witch Hunt. Witch Hunt was an early novel, written under the pseudonym Jack Harvey.    It follows Special Services Officers in a ...

The Cadfael stories are medieval mysteries set in England in the mid 12th century.    Brother Cadfael, a Benedictine Welsh monk, is the central character.   Before entering the life of a monk in his 40s he was a soldier and a sailor, lived in Palestine, had relationships with several women, and  had a wide range of ...

Michael Connelly’s books have given us over 30 crime books in the last 30 years with central characters like Detective Harry Bosch and lawyer Micky Haller.    He has also written books featuring Jack McEvoy (crime writer), Terry McCaleb (criminal profiler), and more recently Renee Ballard (detective), all set in Los Angeles.     His books can be ...

Writing this book must have been a daunting task. The Bonaparte Plateau area is a sprawling area with limited access. With extensive logging there was access, but it changed every year. The author had the task of starting from scratch,since there was almost nothing in print about the area. Forestry companies, fly fishermen, hunters, trappers, ...

Project Hail Mary is a sustained, entertaining science fiction novel.    There is lots of science and engineering, many quips and lots of banter, several plot twists, and some excitement, providing ongoing tension throughout.   Best of all, there is a pervading sense of wonder, following a “what-if” premise developed by the author. The story starts with Ryland ...

Stephen King likes to start with an unlikely premise and then develop an engaging story around it.   This is another one of his “what-if?” stories that starts with an unusual event –  a transparent dome appears over the town of Chester Mills.    Every attempt to get through it ends up in disaster and the casualties ...

An Officer and a Spy is a historical thriller, retelling the story of the Georges Piquart, an officer in the French Military intelligence Service, who believes that Alfred Dreyfus had been wrongly convicted and sent to Devil’s Island.   The novel follows the actual historical accounts and people who were implicated in the “Dreyfus Affair”, the ...

An Officer and a Spy is a historical thriller, retelling the story of the Georges Piquart, an officer in the French Military intelligence Service, who believes that Alfred Dreyfus had been wrongly convicted and sent to Devil’s Island.   The novel follows the actual historical accounts and people who were implicated in the “Dreyfus Affair”, the ...

The Guest List is a mystery novel written in the tradition of Agatha Christie and a series of subsequent cozy-mystery writers.   The setting is on an isolated island off the coast of Ireland.    The events are part wedding for the central characters.   Friends, family, and associates are invited and have to be transported by a ...

American Dirt is a harrowing tale of the journey of a Mexican woman and her son fleeing from narcos in Aculpulco.   It has a straightforward driving narrative of the dangers they face in an attempt to migrate to America.   The story is a compelling one that was very successful.   It has many admirers, but some detractors ...

Red Rising is a dystopian science fiction story set on Mars more than 700 years after mankind has colonized the Solar System.   It is the first book in a series which starts with our main character working in the mines under Mars.   We soon find out that he is a member of the lowest “caste” ...

Educated is a fascinating memoir about a young girl brought up in a Fundamentalist Mormon family who live in a remote mountain valley in Idaho.   In a home where the father makes all the decisions, mental health, fanaticism, paranoia, and deep mistrust all play a role in shaping Tara’s life, her education, her relationships, and ...

Billy Collins is the most popular poet in North America, publishing collections of verse and filling seats at live readings throughout the year.   His poems are quite accessible and personal.   A few resonate; a few are just passing thoughts. He published Horoscopes for the Dead in 2010.   The title comes from this poem – Horoscopes for ...

Neverwhere is a fantasy about an everyday man who helps a girl in distress, then finds himself pulled into the alternate London, a world of creatures, angels, assassins, merchants, nights, and bizarre characters.   London Below is the setting for the story, an alternate world of a feudal class structure, commerce, and tribalism.    Richard Mayhew has ...

As a long term fan of Stephen King, I look forward to each new publication.   I have read all of his recent books going back to 2012 and I have been filling in (and enjoying) some of the missing earlier ones, including Misery, Pet Semetary, and Under the Dome.   My favorite Stephe King book is ...

Do not read book reviews or synopses of the book beforehand.   Dive into the book and allow yourself to be surprised.   Walk with Piranesi down the halls, aware of the rhythm of the tides, and the calls of the seabirds. There will be a mystery to unravel, but let it be revealed slowly.   There are some ...

Eye of the Needle is a spy thriller set in World War Two England.    Henry Faber (Die Nadel) is a long-term spy in England who is called on to find out about the British preparations for the D Day Invasion.   Historically this is Operation Fortitude in which Churchill and military leaders prepared a military deception ...

The Overstory won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2018 and was a New York Times Bestseller.   It is a sprawling, ambitious work that winds the stories of several trees and nine characters throughout the long narrative.   Some of the stories are interconnected and some are not, some feel unfinished, and some seem to have ...

The main character in Bluebird Bluebird is a black Texas Ranger who works for the State on a variety of types of crimes.    He leaves East Texas to pursue a profession which escapes the small-town racism, injustice, suspicion, and the pervading code of silence.   But he returns to the town of Lark to investigate two ...

Code Name Verity is a fictional historical story of two British women who are recruited, trained, and employed in the war effort in the RAF and in the British Secret Service.    They become close friends, but on a mission over France are shot down. Julie (the spy) is captured by the Gestapo and interrogated (tortured and ...

I read a review of The Ten Thousand Days of January and decided to listen to it as an audiobook.    It is a fantasy about a young girl who learns to open hidden doors to other worlds.    It is the story of January Scaller, the ward of Cornelius Locke, whose father was an explorer and ...

I had read The Other People and enjoyed it so I decided to try another book by C.J. Tudor.    The Burning Girls mixes several genres –  thriller, mystery, horror/fantasy, and moody psychological suspense.   The setting is in a small English town, Chapel Croft.    The main character is the Reverend Jack Brooks who comes to the ...

Red Dragon is a serial killer – FBI profiler thriller, the first of the Hannibal Lecter series.   It was published in 1981 and since that time there have been many books, TV series, and movies that have taken a similar premise, so even though this was a fresh story forty years ago, it has been ...

Nomadland is a well-researched, carefully-crafted book.    Jessica Bruder practiced immersive journalism, following nomads over a three-year period.   Her deep observations are combined with a shrewd analysis of a current-day phenomenon – a class of people who live in their vans, RVs, or vehicles for economic reasons, a single investment in “wheel estate.”   Many are ...

The Dry is a brisk-moving dark mystery set in the Outback of Australia.    Aaron Falk is a federal agent who returns to his home town for a funeral, but then is asked to help out in the investigation into why his friend allegedly killed his family.  In the small town, there are old memories and ...

Miss Benson’s Beetle caught me by surprise.   The premise sounded interesting, enough to prompt my interest, and a friend had recommended it, so I started the book in good faith.    The story started with a light touch, but with some humorous spots and some interesting characters.    The main character initially did not stir much interest, ...

I watched the movie when it was first released and I was surprised and a bit horrified by the story. The movie was a well done, but I decided I couldn’t read the story and I stuck with that choice for 31 years. Over the last decade, I have become an avid reader of Stephen ...

When I read Sharp Objects, I was entranced by the sharp, insightful writing. The characters were well-developed and the layers of their lives were revealed gradually throughout the book. Parts of the book were disturbing, but the storytelling remained strong throughout. Sharp Objects has received fine reviews since it was published in 2006, and it has ...

  Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and many other awards, this book is on the list of favorites for many people. There are two concurrent stories which run in France and Germany just before World Wat II, throughout the war, and a short reflection after the war years. Marie Laure is a young ...

  I chose not to find out more about Before the Fall before I started it. I had only a basic idea of the plot, but I had noted the fine reviews and recommendations. I was immediately caught up in the story, the characters, and the central mystery. After one chapter, I told my wife how ...

    When I read that the Estate of Agatha Christie had authorized Sophie Hannah to continue the Hercule Poirot stories, I was intrigued. I read about the book The Killings at Kingfisher Hall and I decided yo give it a go. Because I have been  a long-term fan of the Hercule Poirot books and the Agatha ...

Gone, Baby, Gone is another visceral, but rewarding novel by Dennis Lehane.   We can expect him to provide plot twists, surprises, revelations, and moral ambiguity.    Another author would write a thriller based on the premise – little girl kidnapped, police attempt to trace what happened, family hires a detective agency, conflict between police and PIs, ...

James Lee Burke has been an author worth following for over 50 years.   He was written over 40 books and has won many awards and received many accolades.    His best known series are the Dave Robicheaux crime stories.   I have read a few over the years, but I can never remember the plots of the ...

A friend gave me an audiobook of this story and without any background information, I started to listen to it.    I enjoyed the storytelling right away.   The tale is a bit quirky and unpredicatable which was part of its appeal.   The characters are interesting and nuanced; the plot moves along at a good pace and ...

Chris Riddell (a political cartoonist for the Observer) has selected 46 poems, some older and well-known,  and some newer, then he has grouped them into sections, each with a theme.    The book is full of his own illustrations, and the combination in this small volume has a grace and symmetry to it that was ...

I have enjoyed several of Bill Bryson’s books.    They are usually light, accessible, and easy to read.   This book was an interesting read too.   It does not try to be an anatomy text, nor does it try to be a version of The Human Body for Dummies.   Bryson organizes his book into chapters by functions ...

For years we have been seeing more and more people who seemed to spend a lot of time in trailers or vans.   When we talked to a few people we were surprised to find out that they were actually traveling in their homes.    We assumed it was just a choice they made, to be unattached,  ...

The setting for The Round House is on an Ojibwe Reservation in North Dakota.    The main character and the point of view in telling the story is through the eyes of 13 year old Joe Coutts.    His mother is brutally raped and narrowly escapes being murdered.   After being hospitalized she is released to her family, ...

Piranesi has a magical quality to it.   It is a simple tale that unfolds gradually and any review should avoid spoilers since there are a series of revelations throughout the book, which is all part of the delight of the tale.   It is a tale of an alternate reality and Piranesi himself is our guide.   ...

This is what I wrote on Goodreads right after finishing the book: This book came as a blessing in a time of difficulty because of the epidemic, but also in the dark and cold winter. The tale is told with a simple style, but with a gentle blend of humor and pathos. There is some of ...

Sapiens is an account of the history of mankind, using both natural science and social science to detail how homo sapiens became the predominant species on the planet.   The core premise is that sapiens’ ability to cooperate in large numbers enabled them to survive and flourish in the environments they faced.    He divides our history ...

This non-fictional oral history would be best “read” on Audiobook.    I was reviewing the top-rated audiobooks and The Only Plane in the Sky won top honors in 2020 and had wide-reaching praise for the research, storytelling, and production. The account is a moving one, telling the larger story from many perspectives, using the actual voices of ...

Kingdom of the Blind is the 14th book in the Inspector Gamache Series, written by Louise Penny.   All of her books are well-written, cleverly designed, and enjoyable throughout.    Some of the same characters are again in this novel – from the village of Three Pines, from Gamache’s family, and from the Sûreté du Quebec. Penny intertwines ...

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr belongs on the must-read shelf for many readers and it now is on my Favorites shelf.   It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2015 and has won other awards and has received many fine reviews, deservedly so. I started reading it without knowing anything about it, ...

This simple poem has stuck with me for decades.   When I took a Poetry course in a third year English class at UBC we spent an hour talking about the poem.    The instructor was a gifted professor.    He allowed us to find the meaning and allowed for contemplation with some silence between each stanza. “Whose woods ...

I was a geography wonk as a young person.    My room’s walls were covered with National Geographic Maps.    I scrutinized atlases and memorized countries, capitals, and natural features.   I practiced drawing maps from memory.   Social studies was my favorite subject and in high school I aced geography and history, then got scholarships in both.   I ...

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane was written in 2003.   It was made into a movie in 2009, but it was a movie I had not watched and so I knew very little about the book.   I had previously read Mystic River and had admired it,  finding the whole reading experience to be moving, but very ...