Setting a novel of suspense in a small town offers a writer several advantages. And those advantages multiply when the book is one in a series. Many of those in the cast of characters become familiar over time. They, and not just the investigator, as in an urban-based series, may come across as...
Read More
A quarter-century ago two widely read books by computer scientist Ray Kurzweil helped ignite a debate about humanity’s future. The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999) and The Singularity Is Near (2005) envisioned a world then a half-century in the future in which homo sapiens would merge with...
Read More
English-speaking readers and critics are likely to identify the earliest mystery novels in the work of American and British authors Edgar Allan Poe and Willkie Collins. But Chinese scholars might differ. As CrimeReads observes, “The first Chinese proto-mysteries—that is,...
Read More
We Americans have long believed that the US military is the most advanced and most capable in the world. But in some respects that’s no longer the case. For example, China’s new, nuclear-armed hypersonic missiles could destroy in an instant the USS Gerald R. Ford, the US Navy’s...
Read More
Does a farce need to be funny? Wikipedia defines farce as “comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable.” To me, it seems doubtful that Alex Gerlis set out to create a farce when he wrote...
Read More
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.