Category: FICTION

July 14, 2013

The Missing File by D.A. Mishani *** (of 4)

Why are so many contemporary detectives so depressed? Here’s another: Detective Avraham Avraham, a lonely, single, self-doubting Israeli detective slogging into a job that utterly...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

June 21, 2013

Calico Joe by John Grisham *** (of 4)

Warren Tracy, a journeyman pitcher for the 1973 New York Mets, beans Joe Castle of the Chicago Cubs during the August run at the National...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

June 1, 2013

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra **** (of 4)

Half a dozen fully realized characters intertwine as the Russian empire disintegrates in the early 2000s and the Republic of Chechnya is obliterated by two...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

May 24, 2013

A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming *** (of 4)

An Mi-6 spook, Thomas Kell, on involuntary leave for perhaps roughing up an Afghan captive in Kabul is called back into service when the incoming...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

May 20, 2013

That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx *** (of 4)

Proulx spins a tall Texas tale about a loner named Bob Dollar sent to the mythical panhandle town of Wooly Bucket. His objective is to...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

May 9, 2013

Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon *** (of 4)

Four horse races are run at a bottom-of-the-barrel track inWest Virginia. The horses are knock-kneed, belligerent, over-the-hill, lazy, or used-up. So are the people that...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

April 21, 2013

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson ** (of 4)

A computer hacker living in an unnamed Arab country with enough liberties to allow full internet access crosses the secret police who are monitoring his...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

April 5, 2013

Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino *** (of 4)

A Japanese husband announces that he will follow through on his promise to divorce his wife because she has not borne him a child within...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

March 17, 2013

HHhH by Laurent Binet **** (of 4)

Reinhard Heydrich, The Blonde Beast, ruled Czechoslovakia for the Nazis until he was assassinated in 1942. One of Hitler’s favorites — how is it I...

Book Reviews

0 Comments

February 21, 2013

The Hot Country by Robert Olen Butler ** (of 4)

The first in a series about a rough and tumble journalist, Christopher Marlowe Cobb, who in this episode finds himself covering a delicate series of...

Book Reviews

0 Comments