Western readers of suspense fiction look to the work of 19th century authors Wilkie Collins and Edgar Allen Poe for the origins of the detective novel. But in fact there are antecedents in China preceding the two men’s work by hundreds of years. Ming Dynasty stories appeared based on...
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A review of Victory Square, by Olen Steinhauer. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). The conclusion of Steinhauer’s five-novel cycle of thrillers set in Eastern Europe from 1948 to 1990, from the imposition of Communism to its fall.
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After 17 years as an officer in the CIA’s Clandestine Service, Amanda Cole chafes under diplomatic cover in Rome as the economic attaché. She’s bored. And her boss, three decades her senior, frustrates her every attempt to take the initiative. Then a nervous Russian walk-in describes a...
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We look upon the 1950s as a decade of conformity when little of consequence happened in the United States. But sweeping generalizations about any period in history are misleading at best, and none more so than about the Fifties. Because the period from the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950...
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Kwei Quartey has shined a bright light on life in contemporary Ghana in the ten mysteries and thrillers he has published to date. In his tenth novel, The Whitewashed Tombs, he writes about the persecution of people who identify as LGBTQ, pointing the finger at a massive nationwide campaign for...
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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.