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SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

Porfiry Rostnikov’s last case

Porfiry Rostnikov’s last case

Before his death in 2009, the prolific detective novelist Stuart Kaminsky wrote 16 police procedurals featuring a Moscow investigator named Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov. The books span the years 1981 to 2008. They encompass the final years of Communist rule and the first two...

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NONFICTION

Corruption at the epicenter of Silicon Valley

Corruption at the epicenter of Silicon Valley

In 2022, a 17-year-old computer wizard named Theo Baker entered Stanford University. Besotted with idealism, he'd come to California believing that Stanford could enable him to make the world a better place. As a "hobby," he volunteered for the Stanford Daily student newspaper....

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Popular Fiction

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!

 

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 "Career of Evil," one of J. K. Rowling's excellent adult novels

J. K. Rowling proves she can write excellent adult novels

In Career of Evil, the third installment in J. K. Rowling's pseudonymous series about the detective with the unlikely name of Cormoran Strike, we learn a great deal more of Cormoran's backstory and that of his intrepid sidekick, Robin Ellacott. The one-legged detective, formerly a military police...
superb spy novel: The Ghost War by Alex Berenson

North Korea, Afghanistan, China, Iran, all in one superb spy novel

A review of The Ghost War, by Alex Berenson. @@@@ (4 out of 5). The Ghost War opens on the coast of North Korea, where the CIA fumbles the extraction of their most valuable informer within the country. Soon afterwards, Wells is dispatched on a seemingly unrelated mission to Afghanistan, while his lover, Jennifer Exley, pursues the search for a mole within the CIA.

Cover image of "Private Revolutions,"

How wrenching change in China affects the lives of its average citizens

No major country, with the possible exception of Russia, has undergone such tumultuous change over the past century as has China. The Japanese invasion and occupation (1931-45). Civil war (1927-49). The Chinese Revolution (1949). Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward (1958-60). The Cultural Revolution...
Half of a Yellow Sun is one of the top 10 historical novels of the decade.

The decade’s top 10 historical novels, mysteries & thrillers, and science fiction

Here you'll find my lists of the top 10 historical novels as well as the top 10 mysteries & thrillers and top 10 science fiction novels of the decade from 2010 to 2019. I’ve reviewed them all here. The books are listed alphabetically by the authors’ last names within each category, and each...
Cover image of "Red Rising," a sci-fi novel about Roman gods in the future

Roman gods in the 30th Century?

Red Rising, and its two sequels in the trilogy of the same name, have been hailed as the equal of the Hunger Games Trilogy. The series' hero, Darrow, has been likened to Ender Wiggin of Orson Scott Card's classic four-book science fiction series as well as Katniss Everdeen of the Hunger Games. I...
In Agent Running in the Field, it becomes clear that John le Carré doesn't like Donald Trump.

John le Carré doesn’t like Donald Trump

John le Carré does not like Donald Trump. In fact, the eighty-eight-year-old author might well be described as one of the President's harshest critics on either side of the Atlantic. And, of course, he feels much the same about Brexit (and no doubt about Boris Johnson as well). He's made his views...
Cover image of "The Boy in the Suitcase," a novel that reveals something's rotten in denmark

Something’s rotten in Denmark

I've been wondering something about all this Nordic crime fiction that keeps creeping onto bestseller lists around the world. Since Scandinavia has one of the lowest rates of crime of anywhere in the world, do all those murder mysteries and thrillers from the region tell more stories about crime...
Cover image of "Golden Hill" by Francis Spufford, a charming historical novel

7,000 people lived in Old New York in this charming historical novel

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes Megacities abound in today's world. With approximately 20 million people, the New York City metropolitan area ranks 15th in the world by some accounts. (The nine largest cities are all in Asia.) It's surprising, then, to think about New York barely more than...
Odessa

The city of my ancestors’ dreams

My father's parents emigrated to the United States in 1901 with the three oldest of their eight children. I was led to believe they were survivors of a pogrom in the Russian Empire, but they wouldn't talk about the experience—or anything at all about their lives in the Old Country. At any rate, I...

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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…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.

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