At its best, science fiction illuminates the human condition by exploring our emotions and our behavior in a context that violates our sense of reality and challenges us to look more deeply into ourselves. The late Octavia E. Butler reached this peak of insight more often than most in her...
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True Confessions, first published in 1977, is widely regarded as a American classic novel. Set in Los Angeles in 1948 and based on the notorious, never-solved Black Dahlia murder case, the story plumbs the depths of guilt and corruption — in the L.A.P.D., the Catholic Church, the...
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For years I’ve been a big fan of Joseph Finder’s work. He has written a slew of excellent crime novels over the years. (Buried Secrets and Paranoia were two of my favorites.) But Finder’s latest crime novel, The Fixer doesn’t measure up—it’s good, but far...
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Despite his superficial resemblance to Harry Hole, the policeman who chases criminals and his personal demons in many of Jo Nesbo’s earlier novels, Chief Inspector Simon Kefas is definitely his own man. The Oslo police department, though just as corrupt as it is in the Harry Hole books, also...
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It’s hard to imagine a more timely book than Water to the Angels, a book about the Los Angeles Aqueduct that appears in the midst of a drought in California of historic proportions. Framed as a biography of William Mulholland, who built and managed the Los Angeles Aqueduct that supplied...
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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.