Lawrence Block’s 1981 Matthew Scudder mystery, A Stab in the Dark, has recently been reissued in audiobook format. If you’ve only read some of the recent Scudder novels, where he’s a non-drinking alcoholic, you’ll find that A Stab in the… Read More ›
Books
Watch Your Back!
I recently read another funny novel by Donald Westlake, Watch Your Back!, and I can recommend it to anyone with a sense of humor. Though nominally in the thriller genre, this entrant in the Dortmunder series manages to combine convincing… Read More ›
Cruciverbalism
If you have any interest at all in crossword puzzles, you will definitely enjoy Cruciverbalism: A Crossword Fanatic’s Guide to Life in the Grid, a small but well-written book by Stanley Newman and Mark Lasswell. Fascinating, amusing, and full of… Read More ›
The Rottweiler
The Rottweiler is another excellent book in Ruth Rendell’s collection of thrillers (as distinguished from her Wexford detective novels). There is a richly developed cast of characters, including one who is the favorite suspect of the police but who the… Read More ›
Excellence without a Soul
I highly recommend Excellence without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education, by Harry Lewis. Though nominally about Harvard, it’s really about a much larger domain, including not only elite universities but also elite public high schools such as… Read More ›
A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines
Too often the books I review are mysteries (or novels in related genres, such as psychological thrillers). But not this time (and not next time either). Today we’re talking about a straight, mainstream novel — more or less. As you… Read More ›
Somebody Else's Music
I just finished reading Somebody Else’s Music, by Jane Haddam. One of the best in her Gregor Demarkian series, it is distinctly darker than its predecessors. Most interesting to a high-school teacher is its theme of high school as real… Read More ›
The Lincoln Lawyer
Recently I read The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly, on the strength of an enthusiastic review in the Boston Globe last year. I was not disappointed. Maybe the Globe review explained the title, but if so I didn’t remember. Is… Read More ›
Black Maps
Black Maps, by Peter Spiegelman, is clearly not for just any random reader of mysteries. It combines the loner private eye — traditional in the noir side of the genre — with the much less hot-blooded (and tiny) sub-genre of… Read More ›
Brainiac
All the word geeks, game show geeks, and trivia geeks out there should go read Brainiac, by all-time Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings. Part autobiography, part history of game shows and trivia contests, this fast-reading book is fun to read and… Read More ›
End in Tears
I recommend the latest novel in Ruth Rendell’s long-running Inspector Wexford series, End in Tears, at least if you’re familiar with some of the earlier installments. (This would probably not be the best introduction to Wexford and his colleagues.) As… Read More ›
The Keep
The Keep is an unusual, slightly surrealistic novel by Jennifer Egan. I can’t reveal the main gimmick because it would introduce a spoiler, but let’s just say that everything is not as it seemed in the first chapter. In the… Read More ›
The Big Over Easy & The Fourth Bear
On August 8 I wrote about the unusual novels of Jasper Fforde in his Thursday Next series, which could basically be described as science fantasy. Recently I finished the first two novels in his Nursery Crime series, set more-or-less in… Read More ›
The Rule of Four
I recently read The Rule of Four, a truly fascinating novel co-written by first-time authors Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. Fascinating to me, at any rate — your mileage may vary. If you’re interested in Latin, linguistics, typography, academic mysteries,… Read More ›
Case of Lies
Catching up on posts about recent reading: I highly recommend Case of Lies, by Perri O’Shaughnessy, especially if you are interested in math or linguistics. If you’re not, it’s still a solid mystery, well above average for the genre even… Read More ›
The Winter's Tale
I’ve never read it; I had never seen it before last night. The Weston High Theater Company is currently performing one of Shakespeare’s less well known plays, The Winter’s Tale. It’s very definitely worth seeing, with several outstanding performances and… Read More ›
Saturday
What an interesting novel! I have just finished Ian McEwan’s Saturday (on audiobook), a slow and powerful exploration of 24 hours in the life of an English neurosurgeon. But it’s full of flashbacks, so the reader gets much more than… Read More ›
A Cry for Self-Help
As a mystery combined with a satire on newage human-potential groups, Jaqueline Girdner’s A Cry for Self-Help is occasionally amusing. But there are too many nearly indistinguishable characters, far too many stereotypes, and almost no plot. Don’t bother reading it.
Dennis Lehane
Do you want to meet Dennis Lehane, the well-known author of eight novels, including Mystic River (made into a 2003 movie directed by Clint Eastwood) and Gone Baby Gone (made into an soon-to-be-released movie directed by Ben Affleck)? Aside from… Read More ›
Cold Moon
Just finished reading Jeffery Deaver’s Cold Moon. Like the rest of his Lincoln Rhyme series, this novel is full of surprise turns. At many points, just when you’re finally sure that you understand what’s going on, there’s some new twist… Read More ›
