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...

read more

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...

read more

Popular Fiction

The man behind the throne of Rome’s first Emperor

The man behind the throne of Rome’s first Emperor

Ancient history, especially that of Greece and Rome, continues to fascinate many of us even in the 21st century. Many observers continue to find parallels to events in our own time. "Cautionary tales" supposedly abound in the behavior of the Caesars and in the unraveling of the...

read more

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!

 

Cover image of "The Darkening Field," a compelling murder mystery

A compelling murder mystery set during Stalin’s terror

It's 1937. The Soviet Union, still reeling from its drive to collectivization and the elimination of the so-called kulaks (rich peasants), is now in the grips of the terror Stalin has initiated to purge the Party, the army, and Soviet society in general of anyone who so much as breathes a hint of...
Cover image of "The Blood-Dimmed Tide," an historical police procedural

A fascinating historical mystery novel

Every mystery novel possesses characters, a plot, and a setting—but one of those three elements tends to be dominant in each. For example, most long-running series of detective novels, such as those of Jo Nesbø or Michael Connelly, tend to be character-driven. We read those stories primarily...
Cover image of "The Redeemers," a novel filled with Southern-fried violence

Good ol’ boys and Southern-fried violence

Quinn Colson is a classic action hero. He was a sergeant in the Army Rangers, serving for 13 deployments over ten years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several years previously he returned home to Tibbehah County in northern Mississippi to pick up where he left off with his high-school girlfriend, now...
The Andalucian Friend

A rollercoaster ride into an international gang war

The publisher and critics alike have chosen to compare this novel to the Lisbeth Salander stories of Stieg Larsson. But I see no valid comparison. The protagonist, Sophie Brinkmann, is a widowed nurse with a fifteen-year-old son. She could hardly be any different from the diminutive, ass-kicking...
Cover image of "Sunset Limited," a novel about the New Orleans mob

The New Orleans mob, a crooked film director, and a 40-year-old crucifixion

Here’s what to expect from a novel in the Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke: Dave will get himself into trouble by ignoring orders from the Sheriff, his boss, and by disregarding threats from supremely dangerous people. Dave’s former partner in the New Orleans Police Department, Clete...
The Quiet American is a classic Vietnam novel.

The classic Vietnam novel by Graham Greene

Graham Greene (1904 -91) hovers near the top of any list of the twentieth century's most readable and insightful spy novelists. He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966 and 1967, confirming his bona fides as an author who roamed far outside the limits of genre. And of his more...
Cover image of "Operation Double Cross,"

Were British double agents the key to the Normandy invasion?

A review of Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies, by Ben McIntyre. ★★★★☆. How British intelligence, working through six European secret agents, misled the Germans about the date and place of the Normandy invasion and helped make its success possible.

Cover image of "The Deep Sky,"

Sabotage on a one-way interstellar journey

With a monumental global effort spearheaded by a trillionaire, the starship Phoenix has set out for the yet-to-be-named Planet X. An all-female crew of 80 represents the wealthier countries that have helped fund the project. They're on a "one-way interstellar voyage to settle a new world," free of...
Cover image of "Wired" by Douglas E. Richards, a bestselling science fiction novel

A bestselling science fiction novel that doesn’t measure up

Amazon boasts that this book was the #1 bestseller for an entire year in both technothrillers and science fiction. I don't think this speaks well for the reading taste of Amazon's customers. Wired is the first of two novels in Douglas E. Richards' series about a near-future breakthrough in...
Cover image of "Remnant Population," a novel about alien encounters

Alien encounters of the strange kind in a captivating sci-fi novel

Stephen Spielberg's iconic film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, appeared in 1977, starring Richard Dreyfuss and François Truffaut. Nearly forty years later, in 2016, Arrival covered similar territory with a cast headed by Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. Both films featured uniquely original...

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.

Here you can take your pick of the three newsletters I publish each week. They’re all free of ads, and I never share subscribers’ email addresses with anyone. Just make your newsletter selections below.

Feel free to subscribe to any or all of these newsletters. Remember, they’re ad-free, and I won’t share your contact information with anyone.

Enjoy reading!

Mal Warwick

The latest mystery
& thriller book
reviews every Tuesday.

…includes my latest mystery and thriller book reviews, with links to other content in the genre.

The latest nonfiction book reviews every Wednesday.

…includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.

My latest
book reviews,
every Thursday.

…includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.

The Latest Book Reviews of the Week

...includes summaries and links to all of the week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in the other newsletters.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Latest Mystery & Thriller Book
Reviews Every Week

Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review,
with links to other science fiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Latest Nonfiction Book
Reviews Every Week

Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review,
with links to other nonfiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Latest Book Reviews of the Week

The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Tuesday's Newsletter

Tuesday's Newsletter

Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Wednesday's Newsletter

Wednesday's Newsletter

Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Weekly Newsletter

Thursday's Newsletter

The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.

You have Successfully Subscribed!