Book Review: The Perfect Liar by Thomas Christopher Greene By John Valeri Thomas Christopher Greene may be relatively new to the realm of psychological suspense, but he’s got the bonafides to back him up. While The Headmaster’s Wife (2014) and If I Forget You (2016) announced his arrival, Greene wrote three previous novels (Mirror Lake, […]

Book Review of The Week: The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor THE CHALK MAN By C.J. Tudor New York: Crown, 2018. $27.00 C.J. Tudor is something of a Renaissance woman. Before circumstances enabled her to write full-time, she dabbled in professions that included copywriter, television host, voice-over artist, and professional dog walker. Despite whatever creative […]

The Verdict on American Mystery Classics: A Treat for Mystery fans… W.H. Auden once wrote: “Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.” Otto Penzler, the prolific editor of crime fiction and the proprietor of New York City’s “The Mysterious Bookshop,” is bringing back classic mystery novels from the past that have been long […]

The Mystery of Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery By Sophie Hannah HarperCollins 2018 $27.99   “One of these things is not like the others… one of these things just doesn’t belong…”   This classic Sesame Street song reflects the puzzle at the center of Sophie Hannah’s new book, the third in her series […]

BOOK OF THE WEEK: THE CHALK MAN By C.J. Tudor New York: Crown, 2018. $27.00 C.J. Tudor is something of a Renaissance woman. Before circumstances enabled her to write full-time, she dabbled in professions that included copywriter, television host, voice-over artist, and professional dog walker. Despite whatever creative inspirations may have come from those jobs, […]

REVIEW OF THE WEEK: Sleep No More:  Six Murderous Tales By P.D. James New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017, $21.00 The venerable P.D. James died in 2014.  In 2016, The Mistletoe Murder and other stories (a total of four) was released.  Now there are these six unsettling tales of mischief, mayhem, and murder.  The stories […]

Fever By Deon Meyer. Translated by K.L. Seefers Atlantic Monthly Press 2017 $26.00 A Review of Fever by Deon Meyer Fever is a lengthy journey into a post-apocalyptic society, where the goal of building a new utopia is marred by lack of understanding into human nature.  In this story, a terrible disease has wiped out […]

Book Review of the Week: Beau Death A Peter Diamond Investigation By Peter Lovesey New York: Soho Crime, 2017, $27.95   Beau Death is a doozy. It’s multi-award-winner Peter Lovesey’s seventeenth Peter Diamond novel. The series started in 1991 with the stunning The Last Detective (Anthony Award). Readers addicted to Lovesey’s appealing detective and the […]

Book Review of the Week: Parting Shot by Linwood Barclay Parting Shot is Linwood Barclay’s seventeenth novel. Among them is the chilling Promise Falls trilogy—Broken Promise (2015), Far From True (2016), and The Twenty–three (2016). Though technically not a sequel to that trilogy, this is a worthy standalone follow-up novel. It brings back many of […]