How can a handful of words and a simple drawing be so moving? Over and over while reading through The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 2, I was startled at how a tiny amount of ink could make me laugh or make me want to cry. Perhaps because the drawings are so simple, the message is much sharper; the tiny… Read more
Oh hear us when we cry to thee For those in peril on the sea. — William Whiting I start off every book wanting to love it. You don’t choose books to review because you think they’ll be bad. But sometimes they are. Wilbur Smith’s Those in Peril would make a pretty decent spy novel. The problem is, he tries to… Read more
Father Night is the fourth book in Eric van Lustbader’s Jack McClure/Alli Carson series. These are spy novels with a bit of a supernatural twist. Jack McClure, Department of Defense special agent, has some curious abilities: he’s dyslexic, which has to be a detriment for an agent, but his unusual way of thinking lets him see things others miss. He can… Read more
I wanted to read Buried on Avenue B as soon as I read the premise: When a home health attendant, Paulette Williamson, appears at Homicide South in Manhattan, she’s introduced to the NYPD’s Detective Darlene O’Hara and skeptically reports the confession of a senior citizen struggling with Alzheimer’s. Gus Henderson, a former junkie and petty criminal, claims he murdered and buried… Read more
This is a tough review to write. The Code, by sportswriter G.B. Joyce, has a lot of things that I love — a good mystery, a flawed hero, and a bit of action. But it is all somehow a bit awkward. First, the story: Brad Shade is a former hockey player with a sad-luck story, now a scout for the team… Read more
Sometimes, a book comes along for review at just the right time. I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: Success Secrets Every Gutsy Girl Should Know by Kate White comes along just as I am doing going through a bit of personal career evaluation, so there are definitely tips and tricks in this book I can use. I like the structure of… Read more
Okay, this one is just weird. Bizarre, a little gory, pretty funny. You’d sort of like to have a drink with the sort of guy who comes up with an idea like this, but you’re a little afraid the drink might be grain alcohol, or maybe absinthe. in Eirik Gumeny’s Exponential Apocalypse: Dead Presidents, Thor, the former Norse God of… Read more
Shake Bouchon was livin’ the dream. For years, he’d been a wheelman for the Armenian mob, but he’d gotten away clean. He bought restaurant on the beach in Belize, where he hoped to start fresh. The location was postcard-perfect, sea breezes and tiki torches and tourists with credit cards. Should have been everything he needed for a perfect retirement in… Read more
Yesterday, I reviewed 1222 by Anne Holt, the first book in the Hanne Wilhelmsen series. Blind Goddess jumps back in time, back before the shooting the left Hanne in a wheelchair. This gives us more background on Hanne and what she was like as a detective, before she became the bitter woman we met in the first book. There’s an interesting mystery… Read more
The first thing I thought when I read the blurb for 1222 was, “Oh! It’s a Norwegian And Then There Were None.” I love a good mystery, and a good locked room mystery? Even more fun. Put that locked room in a snowed-in resort high in the mountains? Love it. The interesting thing about this is that Anne Holt’s detective, Hanne… Read more