Reviews

I’m not a usual reader of mystery thrillers, but when a patron raved about Defending Jacob I gave it a try.  A start is all you need to get hooked.   The writing is fast-paced in that hard-boiled detective style.  But Andy Barber isn’t a detective, he’s the d

What do a cryptologist, patent lawyer, artist, writer, chemist, math teacher, and their waiter do when they get together? Why solve mysteries of course! At least, that is what they do in the mind and imagination of Isaac Asimov in his Black Widowers short stories. Each month this group gets together for dinner.

Fireproof picks up with Maggie O’Dell where we left off in Hotwire, the last Maggie O’Dell novel by Kava.  Maggie is recovering from her ordeal and the injuries from her last case in the Nebraska Sandhills as well as from her unreasonable and politically motivated boss.  Now a serial arsonist is burning warehouses in Washington D.C.

It’s been awhile since I first started reading Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series, at least ten years and thirteen books ago. I recently came across the first book in the series, Storm Front, and decided to reread it. I’m glad I did.

DC Comics made a controversial move last year by ending all of their comics, rebooting the popular (but increasingly crowded and convoluted) DC universe, and starting their titles over at #1. Although their sales have been good, many long-time fans—including me—complained and chastised DC for doing this.

I saw the Gary Oldman film adaptation of this classic John Le Carré novel last winter, which made me curious about this BBC series of produced in 1979.  Even though I knew “the story” from the film, I found this series riveting.  The basic set-up of

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach weaves a story of youth, identity and belonging against the backdrop of the perfect sport—baseball.  The president of a small midwestern college, Guert Affenlight, returns to his alma mater as a Herman Melville authority after

It is 1865 and the country is going through many changes. The Civil War is over. The Emancipation Proclamation has given freedom to millions of slaves. Conflicts continue between the Native Americans and settlers. In the midst of all this change, the Union Pacific is pushing westward to complete the first transcontinental railroad.

12.21 is Dustin Thomason’s second book after his well received debut novel Rule of Four that he co-wrote with his friend Ian Caldwell.