Gravity opens in the Galápagos Rift nineteen thousand feet below the surface of the South Pacific. And it reaches a shattering conclusion two hundred twenty miles above the Earth. The connection between these two events, two years apart, lies at the heart of the mystery in this pulse-pounding...
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For most Americans, World War II was all about the war in the Pacific and what took place after the Allied invasions of Italy and northern France. But it was, of course, a global war. It lasted at least from 1937, when Japan invaded China, to 1945, when the Red Army occupied Berlin. And a great...
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Robert Goddard writes suspenseful crime thrillers that typically span many years of British history. Invariably, they demonstrate graphically the unforeseen consequences of long-ago acts. Long Time Coming is one of the 31 novels he has written since the 1980s. It’s a thriller that reveals...
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James McBride won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2013 for The Good Lord Bird. It’s an often-hilarious novel about the abolitionist John Brown’s ill-conceived attack on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. That act is often cited as a triggering event for the...
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British American author Jacqueline Winspear has gained wide readership for the seventeen novels in her Maisie Dobbs series. The books follow the evolving career of a young woman raised in poverty in London through two world wars and the troubled times between. A nurse at the front in the first...
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A teaser on the cover of the edition I read promises a tale of “a priceless manuscript, a missing scholar, and a trail of riddles.” And so it is. The ciphers, codes, and wordplay in the second entry in Vaseem Khan’s Malabar House series call to mind Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci...
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Mary Pat Fennessy lives on the wrong side of the tracks. In South Boston, or “Southie” as the locals call it, a heavily Irish American neighborhood marred by crumbling real estate, miles of mean streets, and scores of bars crammed to overflowing. It’s 1974, and a Federal judge...
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Ironic, isn’t it? Some of the best English mystery novels are written by people who aren’t British. Consider the work of Elizabeth George, an American born in Ohio, and the Texan Deborah Crombie. To my mind, they’re easily the equal of Ian Rankin and Kate Atkinson, among the...
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On the globe, Sri Lanka is that small teardrop off the southeast coast of India, and today it’s the source of about one-tenth of the world’s tea. But ninety years ago, as the Depression ravaged the world’s economy, the island was called Ceylon—and it produced about half of all...
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Every mystery novel possesses characters, a plot, and a setting—but one of those three elements tends to be dominant in each. For example, most long-running series of detective novels, such as those of Jo Nesbø or Michael Connelly, tend to be character-driven. We read those stories primarily...
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Okay, it’s not entirely accurate to call the books listed below as “Russian mysteries and thrillers.” If the truth be told, none of them are. They’re mysteries and thrillers written by people who aren’t Russian. But they’re set in Russia, some of them in the present day, others in the past. Or the...
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Read the first several chapters of Sujata Massey’s engrossing fourth entry in her series about the first woman lawyer in Bombay, and you’ll get the impression that the book is all about a falling-out between two sisters and the mistreatment of a young woman servant. But don’t be...
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Russia holds the Crimea. But Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is nine months in the future as the tenth in the series of Arkady Renko novels opens in Moscow. The long-suffering police detective has been confined to make-work desk duty by his seemingly all-powerful boss, Prosecutor Zurin....
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When the world’s best spy agencies come to mind, it’s rare that the Mossad isn’t among them. Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, known domestically as “the Institute” (Hebrew: Mossad), has gained a reputation internationally as fearsome...
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John Grisham has become one of the world’s best-selling authors of crime and suspense novels. But he hasn’t accomplished this by creating a continuing series based on the exploits of a quirky hero-investigator. (Think Michael Connelly’s Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch, Sara...
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At the conclusion of Secret Service, the first novel in Tom Bradby’s new thriller series, Kate Henderson’s life lay shattered. Her loving husband, Stuart, had surfaced as an agent for the SVR, the KGB’s successor, and defected to Moscow. Now, in the opening of the sequel, Double...
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Quirke’s beloved wife, Evelyn, is dead. Shot in Spain by an assassin targeting someone else, and before Quirke’s eyes. Now, six months later as the new Quirke mystery opens, the pathologist is back in Dublin. Not on a nonstop bender, as everyone expects, but drinking heavily...
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At the conclusion of Secret Service, the first novel in Tom Bradby’s new thriller series, Kate Henderson’s life lay shattered. Her loving husband, Stuart, had surfaced as an agent for the SVR, the KGB’s successor, and defected to Moscow. Now, in the opening of the sequel, Double...
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Here’s a murder mystery with an implausible plot and an unlikely heroine that’s fun and rewarding to read despite the flaws. Harini Nagendra’s Murder Under a Red Moon, her second effort about the Bangalore Detectives Club, stars nineteen-year-old Kaveri Murthy. Because she...
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People as diverse as Bill Gates, Greta Thunberg, and Paul Hawken, among many others, have advanced scores of ideas about how to address climate change. But is there a single idea that holds the greatest promise of quick, large-scale action? In author Tom Rosenstiel’s fast-moving political...
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Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.
Science Fiction Monday includes my latest SF book review, with links to other science fiction content.
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.
Science Fiction Monday includes my latest SF book review, with links to other science fiction content.
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.