Category: Mystery

July 14, 2010

The Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith * (of 4)

Maybe McCall Smith writes like a woman or is writing for women: his characters notice intricate details and reveal their feelings about scented tissues and...

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July 14, 2010

Bethlehem Road Murder by Batya Gur ** (of 4)

At the height of the second intifada, with tensions between Israelis and Palestinians at the ignition point, a Jewish girl of Sephardic origin is found...

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July 14, 2010

Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett **** ( of 4)

It’s difficult to write a series of detective stories with the same cop in the same location and not get stale. Burdett, now writing book...

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July 14, 2010

Bangkok Tatoo by John Burdett *** (of 4)

This is the second in Burdett’s series starring a devout Buddhist cop whose boss is corrupt and whose mother runs a successful whorehouse for aging...

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July 14, 2010

Bangkok 8 by John Burdett *** (of 4)

It’s a mystery. I read mysteries not for the crime but to learn something about other places and times. This one takes place inside the...

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July 14, 2010

The Art Thief by Noah Charney ** (of 4)

Mildly entertaining. A Caravaggio is stolen from a baroque church in Italy. A 20th century painting is taken from the Kazimir Melevich Society in Paris....

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July 13, 2010

Pleading Guilty by Scott Turow ** (of 4)

A former Irish copper (really, that’s what Turow calls him, a copper) now an ex-alcoholic flunky in a powerful law firm goes on the hunt...

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June 22, 2010

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon **** (of 4)

Hard to say if this book plays in Peoria, but Chabon prepares a perfect rendition of two genres: 1940s noir detective novels and Yiddish culture....

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June 21, 2010

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid ** (of 4)

A famed British mystery writer, with 23 books beneath her belt takes on the tight society of British mine workers and the psychological devastation accompanying...

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June 20, 2010

The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett *** (of 4)

Burdett’s Thai detective travels to Nepal for this fourth in the series (search my earlier reviews under “Burdett”) and then travels very deep into Tantric...

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