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MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

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He could have been king. Or a dictator. He retired instead.

He could have been king. Or a dictator. He retired instead.

Myths and legends swirl around the life of George Washington. Remember that cherry tree? The wooden teeth? Throwing a coin across a wide river? The white wig? All of these widely accepted beliefs about our founding President are flatly untrue. And, just for the record, he was...

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Popular Fiction

American history, laughing all the way

American history, laughing all the way

Scoot yourself over, Huckleberry Finn! Make room! Here comes Henry Shackleford, aka Henrietta, aka Little Onion, with a tall tale ripped and twisted out of the pages of history that's like to set your britches afire. Yes, here's The Good Lord Bird, courtesy of James McBride, a...

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Explore My “BEST OF the category” selections

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BOOK?

When people ask me that question, I never know what to say. In a lifetime of reading, I’ve read many thousands of books. And I’ve reviewed well over 2,000 of them on this site. Picking just one as a “favorite,” or even a handful of them, makes no sense to me.

The problem is, I read for many different reasons. Perhaps you do, too. And I read many different sorts of books. Mysteries and thrillers. Popular fiction, especially historical fiction. Science fiction.

And nonfiction, history in particular. You’ll find hundreds of reviews in every one of those categories on this site.

Look to the right for a rotating random selection culled from throughout this site.

Happy reading!

 

Harlem Shuffle

Life and crime on the edge in Harlem

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes His cousin Freddie brought him on the heist one hot night in early June." So opens Colson Whitehead's glorious recreation of the sights and sounds of the early 1960s in New York City. Grounded in Harlem, his crime novel offers up a colorful view of "the black city...
Cover image of "Troublemakers" by Leslie Berlin

Troublemakers: the people who put Silicon Valley on the map

Any casual reader whose knowledge about Silicon Valley comes from the headlines or the news online might get the impression that Steve Jobs and the Google and Facebook guys invented the place. Obviously, this is far from true. But even more serious coverage tends to focus on a handful of...
A Psalm for the Well-Built

The intriguing start to a new Becky Chambers series

Becky Chambers has made a name for herself among the newer crop of science fiction authors with her outstanding Wayfarers series, which won the Hugo Award for Best Series. The four books in that inaugural series introduced readers to a delightful future. Beginning with The Long Way to a Small,...
Cover image of "Quietly in Their Sleep," a novel about the Italian Catholic church

An indictment of the Italian Catholic Church

In Quietly in Their Sleep, Donna Leon's intrepid Italian policeman, Commissario Guido Brunetti, receives a visit from one of the nuns who has been caring for his aged mother in a nursing home. He knows her as Suor' Immacolata (Sister Immaculate) though she has shed her habit and appears panicked....
Who Cover image of "Who Is Vera Kelly?," a puzzling spy storyIs Vera Kelly?

A puzzling spy story set in Argentina in the time of the generals

At the outset of this puzzling spy story, we meet a teenage girl named Vera who may or may not have accidentally attempted suicide. It's October 1957. Vera lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her mother. The two do not get along. At all. Soon, we're introduced to a young woman named Anne. It's...
Cover image of "The Spy in Moscow Station," an exposé of the CIA

“The Spy in Moscow Station”

No, in spite of this book's title, it's not a story about a Russian spy in the CIA's Moscow Station. It's something much more engaging—an account of a long-running counterespionage investigation into KGB surveillance technology at the US Embassy in Moscow. An investigation that brought into focus...
A Measure of Darkness is the latest from the Kellerman father-son team.

The Kellerman father-son team produces a new crime thriller

The Kellerman family is a writing phenomenon. Papa Jonathan has written 33 thrillers in his Alex Delaware series as well as at least 14 other novels and five nonfiction books. Mama Faye is the author of 25 Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus mysteries plus eight other novels. Their son, Jesse, has...
Cover image of "March Violets" by Philip Kerr

A vivid snapshot of Nazi Berlin by Philip Kerr

In 1936, Berlin is abuzz about the civil war in Spain and the coming Olympics. Hitler's henchmen are crisscrossing the city to erase many of the outward signs of the anti-Semitism that fuels the Nazi regime. Under cover of false fronts and euphemistic names, Hermann Goering is building a fearsome...
Cover image of "The Burning Room," one of 5 top Los Angeles mysteries and thrillers.

Top Los Angeles mysteries and thrillers

Every major city has been the setting for numerous mysteries and thrillers. Amazon lists more than 10,000 for New York, 8,000 for Chicago, and 3,000 for Los Angeles. But there’s nothing mysterious about this. Crime is more visible, if not more common on a per capita basis, in cities. And the...
Cover image of "The Man Without a Face,"

Vladimir Putin, the KGB, and the restoration of Soviet Russia

A review of The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, by Masha Gessen. ★★★★☆. A critical biography of the three-term Russian President by a skilled Moscow reporter with personal knowledge of the people and events of the time since the fall of Communism.

My Most Popular Reviews

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Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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