The Latest

SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

Travis McGee wades into a sordid case of group sex and murder

Travis McGee wades into a sordid case of group sex and murder

Before there was Jack Reacher, there was Travis McGee. Lee Child, who created Reacher, has never been shy about the debt he owes. Neither have Carl Hiaasen, Dean Koontz, and a long list of other bestselling writers. Between 1964 and 1985, John D. MacDonald wrote 21 novels about...

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NONFICTION

The man who taught Donald Trump everything he knows

The man who taught Donald Trump everything he knows

It's difficult to imagine how any single American over the past 100 years could have done more damage to our country than Roy Cohn. Even Senator Joseph McCarthy and Donald Trump may bear less responsibility for the harm they've done to millions of lives, because to a great...

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Popular Fiction

Laughs in sci-fi? P. G. Wodehouse did humor better.

Laughs in sci-fi? P. G. Wodehouse did humor better.

The legendary English humorist Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975), known to readers as P. G., wrote about 100 books in a career that spanned much of the 20th century. His output included 71 novels, 24 collections of short stories, 42 plays, three memoirs, and a lot...

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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.

Check out our rotating random selection here, culled from throughout this site.

Happy reading!

 

Black Knight in Red Square foretells the collapse of the USSR.

The collapse of the USSR is underway in this detective novel

Why did the Soviet Union implode and the Berlin Wall crumble overnight? For many conservative Americans, the answer is Ronald Reagan. But level-headed analysts have debunked that thesis. In fact, the roots of the crisis that came to a head in the fall of the USSR lay deep in Soviet society. And...
Cover image of "Disclaimer," an unusual psychological thriller

An unusual psychological thriller from Britain

Mystery and thriller writers employ a wide variety of recognizable devices to create suspense and make their novels hard to put down. The most annoying of these are the clumsy clues sprinkled throughout whodunits and the deliberately misleading omission of facts known to a central character. None...
series starters cover images

Mystery and thriller series starters can be misleading

Cover images of the series starters for my favorite mystery and thriller series. So, what can you tell about mystery and thriller series from their series starters—the first books published in the sequence? Sometimes a whole lot. And sometimes not much at all, as it turns out. Mystery and thriller...
Last Looks is a satirical Hollywood detective novel.

An inventive Hollywood detective novel written by a veteran screenwriter

Should we be surprised that Hollywood has been the subject of so much satire? Frankly, it's hard to imagine that it wouldn't be. The place is soaked in money, it's a magnet for people seeking fame and fortune, and it's virtually infested with ambitious writers. So, when another one of their number...
1945 is an alternate WWII history.

What if Japan hadn’t surrendered?

One of the most hotly debated topics in recent American history was Harry Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although many within his administration resisted the action, Truman defended it on the grounds that the bomb would force Japan's surrender. The likelihood,...
Cover image of "Flood of Fire," a novel about the Opium War

An outstanding Indian novelist looks at the Opium War

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes Opium is at center stage in Flood of Fire, which traces the consequential history of the British, their Indian allies, and the mandarins ruling China just before and during the First Opium War. Though it occurred nearly two centuries ago, this historical event is...
Village of the Ghost Bears by Stan Jones

A clash of cultures and murder in “Village of the Ghost Bears”

A review of Village of the Ghost Bears, by Stan Jones. @@@@ (4out of 5). If you’ve never traveled to Alaska, you’ll feel you’ve been there anyway once you pick up the Stan Jones habit, as I have. Village of the Ghost Bears is a thoroughly satisfying mystery story, but it stands out more for its stark snowbound setting, its depiction of Eskimo culture, and the author’s obviously deep love for the land, than for its excellence as an example of genre fiction. Read it for either reason. You’ll enjoy it.

"Binti" is the Binti Trilogy book one.

An African student travels to the stars in the first book of the Binti Trilogy

You'll love Binti. In the first book of the trilogy that bears her name, she sets out at the age of sixteen for Oomza Uni on a distant planet. "None of my family had wanted me to go," she notes. Oomza Uni "was the top of the top, its population was only 5 percent human . . . [and Binti] was the...
Cover image of "Small Mercies," Dennis Lehane's latest crime thriller

When the cracks opened wide in Boston society

Mary Pat Fennessy lives on the wrong side of the tracks. In South Boston, or "Southie" as the locals call it, a heavily Irish American neighborhood marred by crumbling real estate, miles of mean streets, and scores of bars crammed to overflowing. It's 1974, and a Federal judge who lives in one of...
Starship Troopers spotlights reactionary politics.

Robert Heinlein’s classic novel is a showcase for his reactionary politics

In any list of the all-time best science fiction novels, you're certain to come across the name Robert A. Heinlein—and his 1959 novel, Starship Troopers, is one of the titles most likely to be cited. You may also find the list includes Stranger in a Strange Land, which is a very different sort of...

My Most Popular Reviews

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Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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