Despite having multiple viewpoint characters (a practice I’m not usually fond of), Lucy Foley’s The Guest List is both absorbing and easy to read. It is definitely the sort of book where you should not read reviews ahead of time,… Read More ›
Books
Overboard
Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series has been going on forever — or so it seems. Actually it’s been 43 years now, but that’s practically forever in the publishing world. After reading the earliest dozen or two, I started to get… Read More ›
Polostan
Of course I knew that I had to read Polostan as soon as I saw that the author was Neal Stephenson. His 19 previously published novels are all IMHO first-rate — ranging from 1984’s The Big U to 2021’s Termination… Read More ›
The Good Detective
Sometimes you just have to trust your instincts. I had checked out a copy of The Good Detective from the library on the strength of the review in the New York Times, which said this: John McMahon is one of… Read More ›
Accidence Will Happen
The title is a pun — but it makes sense only if you know what linguists mean by the word “accidence.” Despite that limitation, Accidence Will Happen is very much a book for the general educated reader, not for the… Read More ›
The Grey Wolf
Louise Penny’s 19th Gamache novel, The Grey Wolf, is a gripping mystery that raises as many questions as it provides answers. Clearly that fact bugs a vocal minority of readers — see below — but it’s just fine with me,… Read More ›
Close to Death
Close to Death is the fifth Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery by Anthony Horowitz. Yes, you read that correctly: Anthony Horowitz is both the author and the co-protagonist of this series. That’s part of its charm. Of the books in this… Read More ›
The Lady in the Silver Cloud
If you want to read a New York–based mystery that’s funny without being frivolous, serious while still being amusing, try The Lady in the Silver Cloud, by David Handler. Although this novel is #13 in a series — the “Stewart… Read More ›
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Have you been fortunate enough to have studied ancient Greek theater (either in the original or in English translation)? You know which playwrights I mean — Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes. If those are all Greek to you, just keep reading…. Read More ›
We solve murders.
Richard Osman reassures us: “Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim remain immortal.” I do feel reassured (despite the absence of the Oxford comma). I think. The issue, as I’m sure you’ve figured out, is that Osman’s new mystery novel does not… Read More ›
Math for English Majors
No, I was never an English major (although my mom was). I wasn’t even a math major (although I taught math for decades). But, as a linguistics major, I had entwining connections with both English and math, as linguistics intersects… Read More ›
Says Who?
My mom would have hated this book; I loved it. My dad, as a psychiatrist, would have had some thoughts about this family disagreement — but he would have kept quiet about it. (Apparently that’s the role of a Jewish… Read More ›
Another Day’s Pain
Two very different mysteries: K. C. Constantine’s Another Day’s Pain is quite a contrast to Maria DiRico’s The Witless Protection Program, which I recently reviewed. As Constantine’s mystery is dark, serious, and grim, it might seem strange when I say… Read More ›
The Witless Protection Program
As you can see in the cover image below, the publisher claims that The Witless Protection Program was written by Maria DiRico, even though we all know that it was written by Ellen Byron. This, of course, must be because… Read More ›
The Killings at Kingfisher Hill
What a deceptive cover! Take a look: You can see immediately that this is the new Poirot novel by Agatha Christie, right? But how is that possible? Was it just recently discovered, lurking in a file cabinet somewhere? Well, no…. Read More ›
“You can’t possibly be asking me to read an entire book!” he exclaimed.
At his public high school, [this first-year student at an Ivy League university] had never been required to read an entire book. He had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover. That… Read More ›
Never Saw Me Coming
This fast-paced novel by Vera Kurian will hold your attention from beginning to end. Never Saw Me Coming falls clearly into the psychological thriller subcategory of the mystery genre, although it has aspects of the traditional mystery as well. Without… Read More ›
Same Difference (Copperman)
Same Difference is apparently a popular title with contemporary authors (or at least their publishers), as you will conclude if you search for books with that title in various catalogs. The novel by E.J. Copperman is the one being reviewed… Read More ›
Fire and Bones
another fine addition to Kathy Reichs’s well-known Bones series. The novel Fire and Bones manages to be both calm and suspenseful at the same time. There’s also a lot of actual history thrown in with the detective fiction. I don’t… Read More ›
Dead Land (Sara Paretsky)
For reference here, I will start by quoting from what I wrote five years ago in a review of Sara Paretsky’s Shell Game: If you like Donald Trump, don’t bother reading Shell Game, Sara Paretsky’s newest mystery novel: it will only irritate… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 