Get this: the principal characters are named Bing, Ding, Jang, Wu, Hu, and O. Perhaps Chinese or Korean speakers can keep all these names straight, but I sure couldn’t. Of course, I might have found it easier if the plot were comprehensible. It was anything but. Even after reading through to...
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In 1989, an American history professor named David Christian was teaching at Macquarie University in Sydney when he offered a course entitled Big History. Rejecting historians’ definition of the discipline as beginning with the advent of written records just 5,500 years ago,...
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Start with a hapless French-American journalist imprisoned by the Emperor-President of a small African country. The Emperor is a cannibal, which is admittedly worrisome, but the journalist is rescued by Amnesty International and returned to the United States. He’s penniless but makes his way...
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In The Wrong Side of Goodbye, former LAPD detective Harry Bosch is hired as a private eye to find out whether a reclusive billionaire has an heir related to him by blood. Now well into his 80s, the man had left behind a pregnant underage Mexican girl “on the wrong side of goodbye” when...
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Martin Cruz Smith is best known for the eight novels featuring Moscow police investigator Arkady Renko. I’ve read and admired them all. (You can find reviews of three of those novels here, here, and here.) However, before creating the character of Arkady Renko in 1981, Cruz had written 17...
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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.