Top Ten Thrillers of 2016 By John B. Valeri Let me preface this list by noting that it’s based solely on books published this calendar year that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. No doubt, there are other exceptional titles that I have yet to acquaint myself with. In fact, I highly suspect that my […]
Category Archives: Reviews
Book Review: A VERY PUKKA MURDER By Arjun Raj Gaind
Book Review: A VERY PUKKA MURDER By Arjun Raj Gaind A VERY PUKKA MURDER By Arjun Raj Gaind Scottsdale: Poisoned Pen Press, 2016. $26.95 One of India’s best known comic book writers and the originator of several critically acclaimed, bestselling graphic novels, Arjun Raj Gaind is coveting a new audience with A Very Pukka […]
Book of The Week: The Old Man By Thomas Perry
Book of The Week: The Old Man By Thomas Perry The Old Man By Thomas Perry Mysterious Press 2017 $26.00 The Old Man is a thriller that illustrates that advancing years don’t necessarily mean that one’s life has to be dull and devoid of adventure. As the novel opens, Dan Chase is retired, his […]
Book Review: Every Man a Menace by Patrick Hoffman
Book Review: Every Man a Menace by Patrick Hoffman Every Man a Menace By Patrick Hoffman Atlantic Monthly Press 2016 $25.00 Patrick Hoffman’s Every Man a Menace is a panoramic international crime novel in which the action spans both hemispheres. The story revolves around drug-smuggling: MDMA is making its way to California, and a […]
Book Review: The One Man by Andrew Gross
The One Man by Andrew Gross “It begins with two men….they were running.” The old man looks out, but this time, his eyes are alive with memory. “Running for their lives,” He says as the prologue ends and Gross’ tale commences. In the short few pages of the prologue / opening, I found myself […]
The Women of Summer Suspense
The Women of Summer Suspense Forget the boys of summer—it’s the women of suspense who are packing some serious heat this season of the sunscreen. First up is Megan Abbott’s highly anticipated You Will Know Me (Little, Brown and Company), a penetrating glimpse into the world of competitive gymnastics. Katie and Eric Knox have sacrificed […]
This Summer’s Top Ten Audiobooks
This Summer’s Top Ten Audiobooks June is audiobook month! And we’ve chosen our top ten favorite audiobooks for summer listening! Before The Fall by Noah Hawley Read by Robert Petkoff (Hachette Audio) THE BLACK WIDOW by Daniel Silva Read by George Guidall (Harper Audio) The Letter Writer by Dan Fesperman Read by David Bendena (Dreamscape) A HERO OF […]
Book Review: HOLLOW CITY
HOLLOW CITY By Ransom Riggs Narrated by Kirby Heyborne CD: Blackstone Audio, 2014. (11 hrs, 39 mins) $29.95 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the first installment of Ransom Riggs’ Peculiar Children series, was a surprise best-seller in 2011. Like many of the best Young Adult books, the novel pulled no punches: war, death, betrayal, […]
Book Review of Week: Violent Crimes by Phillip Margolin
Violent Crimes by Phillip Margolin (Harper, 2016, $26.99) Throughout his long career, mystery master Phillip Margolin has introduced readers to a number of great protagonists, but few are as memorable as Amanda Jaffe. In the fifth book of the series, Violent Crimes, Jaffe finds herself caught in the middle of a massive financial conspiracy, multiple […]
What to Read in February?
What better way to celebrate those February holidays—Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day—than with some new books? Even if none of this month’s picks is explicitly about love (or even all-American, for that matter), there’s no doubt that our forefathers would want everyone to squeeze in a bit more reading time during a month that celebrates their […]
Review of the week: The Lost Codex
A faceless enemy has unleashed a series of coordinated attacks on U.S. targets. A covert ops team is tasked with a single mission: find and stop the terrorists, by any means necessary. What could have been just another counterterrorism novel is elevated to new heights in Alan Jacobson’s The Lost Codex. Jacobson brings a […]
Review of Miss Fisher Mysteries set 3
DVD Review: Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Series Three Who would have guessed that Australian criminals of the late 1920s would have to live in fear of a determined flapper private investigator? Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is an Australian period mystery series, starring Essie Davis as Phryne—pronounced FRY-nay—Fisher. (One early title for the series was Phryne […]