Bestselling crime novelist John Sandford originally developed Virgil Flowers as a character in his long-running Prey series starring Lucas Davenport (another fascinating and entirely original Sandford character). The 12 excellent Virgil Flowers novels are a spinoff from the longer series. Writing...
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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes Science fiction fans tend to be well aware that even the sun is not immortal. Stars burn out over time. It may take billions of years, but it happens. The universe is littered with the evidence. But it takes a supreme work of the imagination to build a science...
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Stella Rimington won’t win any prizes for writing great literature. Her Liz Carlyle series of spy novels are written in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner. The prose is unembellished. Her strength as a novelist lies instead in her skill in plotting and her intimate knowledge of espionage...
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In most television cop shows, the clever detectives on the squad grapple with one baffling case. They solve it, of course. Then, in the next episode, they move on to another one. It’s neat, clean, and easy to follow. By contrast, the printed page offers space to paint a more realistic...
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If, like me, you were alive and aware on November 22, 1963, you’ve never forgotten the day. It was mid-afternoon in New York, and I had just arrived for a graduate course in international relations at Columbia University, only to discover a small number of my classmates aimlessly milling...
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Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review,
with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review,
with links to other nonfiction content.
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.
Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.
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.