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MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

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For a century, the spy next door has been a reality

For a century, the spy next door has been a reality

Every self-respecting spy service equips agents with false credentials and dispatches them to conduct espionage illegally in other nations. But one country has been doing so for far longer and on a dramatically bigger scale than all the others. And the practice started more...

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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.

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

Happy reading!

 

And Justice There Is None by Deborah Crombie

A murder mystery unfolds against the backdrop of the antiques trade

Detective Inspector Gemma James and her former partner and current lover, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, make the big move into a home together in the eighth book in Deborah Crombie's excellent murder mystery series chronicling their rise through the ranks in the Metropolitan Police. The antiques...
The Hidden Habits of Genius

What is a genius? Does IQ matter?

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes Mozart. Joan of Arc. Einstein. Marie Curie. Steve Jobs. In The Hidden Habits of Genius, Craig Wright plumbs the depths of human capacity in nearly 100 extraordinarily successful individuals through the ages. In them, he finds the characteristics of genius that...
latest detective story: Breakdown by Sara Paretsky

The latest detective story from Sara Paretsky hits home

A review of Breakdown, by Sara Paretsky. @@@@ (4 out of 5). This is no straightforward whodunit where any reasonably intelligent reader is likely to know whodunit midway through the book. Paretsky kept me guessing until the end. Breakdown is a very satisfying read.

Cover image of "The Dying Day," a mystery based on ciphers

A baffling mystery based on ciphers

A teaser on the cover of the edition I read promises a tale of "a priceless manuscript, a missing scholar, and a trail of riddles." And so it is. The ciphers, codes, and wordplay in the second entry in Vaseem Khan's Malabar House series call to mind Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and a smattering...
Cover image of "The Flicker Men," a novel about quantum mechanics

A novel about quantum mechanics? Believe it!

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes When physicists talk about reality with precision, they do it with formulas; when they discuss it in general, they sound like monks."  Welcome to the strange new world of quantum mechanics! A word of warning, though: stay away from The Flicker Men unless you have...
Cover image of "The Battle of the Tanks,"

Was this tank battle the turning point of World War II?

If you read a lot about World War II, you'll come across not one but several battles mentioned as the "turning point." Focusing only on Europe, five events surface. Moscow (January 1942). Stalingrad (February 1943). Kursk (August 1943). Operation Bagration (August 1944). And, of course, Normandy...
How We Got to Now is one of the 10 best books about innovation.

10 best books about innovation

Today innovation is customarily associated with the digital revolution and Silicon Valley. Up to a point, that’s fitting, since how most of us in the world’s wealthy nations now live our lives has changed in major ways as a result of work done in what is generally called the tech industry. But...
An Officer and a Spy is one of Robert Harris' spellbinding thrillers.

The spellbinding thrillers of Robert Harris

Robert Harris has been selling millions of books ever since the publication of his first novel, Fatherland, in 1992. Earlier in life, he had worked as a print journalist and a BBC television reporter, and in the 1980s, he published five works of nonfiction. Fatherland sold so well that Harris...
Cover image of "Down Among the Dead Men," a good example of English mystery novels

Another contender among English mystery novels

It's interesting to speculate whether the number of murders depicted in English mystery novels is greater than the number of murders actually recorded in the country. I suspect it's a close call. Peter Lovesey is one of the culprits in that caper. He is responsible for not one but two detective...
Cover image of "The Matchmaker," a spy thriller

The best mysteries and thrillers of 2022

To be clear, what follows is not a list of the best mysteries and thrillers published during the past year. Instead, I’ve decided not to copy those reviewers who imply they've read the many thousands of mysteries and thrillers published in any given year. Nobody, and no team of...

My Most Popular Reviews

Weekly Reviews Delivered to You!

Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

Weekly book reviews to match your taste!

Love mysteries and thrillers? Historical fiction fan? Prefer to read nonfiction? Or, like me, you just love reading? Take your pick of my three weekly newsletters. Just click the Yes! button, and you’re on your way.

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Mal Warwick

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