Category Archives: Books

Tamera Berry’s Buried in a Good Book

Tamara Berry’s Buried in a Good Book is the first volume in the new By the Book series. Like many series there are familiar elements to fans of the genre. With any such series it is the specific mix of … Continue reading

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Rudolph Fisher’s The Conjure-Man Dies

Rudolph Fisher’s The Conjure-Man Dies is an important piece of crime and mystery novel history. The tale itself is a splendid blend of drawing room mystery and look at the world of Harlem in the Great Depression, warts and all.  … Continue reading

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Kerry Greenwood’s The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions: The Ultimate Miss Phryne Fisher Short Story Collection

Kerry Greenwood’s The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions: The Ultimate Miss Phryne Fisher Short Story Collection is pretty much exactly what it says on the cover. Featuring more than 16 stories related to the character, the fact the … Continue reading

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Lavie Tidhar’s Neom

Lavie Tidhar’s Neom is a stunning return to his world of Central Station, intertwining the fates of humans and robots at a futuristic city on the edge of the Red Sea.  There has been a town at the place called … Continue reading

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Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock

This book is the first post-Covid novel I’ve read, although there have probably been some others written by now. But given that it was published barely 18 months into the pandemic, and the time it takes to write, edit, and … Continue reading

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Anthony Boucher’s Rocket to the Morgue

Police Detective Lt. Terence Marshall, of the Los Angeles Police Department, is home with his wife, Leona, feeding their new baby, while she asks about his day. Nothing interesting, he tells her. One dead drifter, shot dead in a very … Continue reading

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James Lee Burke’s Last Car to Elysian Fields

David Kidney, in his review of the previous novel in this series, Purple Cane Road, noted: ‘Dave Robicheaux is a middle-aged guy, trying to get along. Still haunted by his experiences in Viet Nam, troubled by his relationship with his … Continue reading

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James Lee Burke’s The Tin Roof Blowdown

James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels have been a source of entertainment and excitement to me for many years. Burke has been particularly prolific in recent years (he even created a new series featuring Billy Bob Holland) and The Tin … Continue reading

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James Lee Burke’s Pegasus Descending

James Lee Burke lives in two places, and he writes about them both. He has a home in Montana (where he has set his Billy Bob Holland series) and another in New Iberia, Louisiana. Pegasus Descending is the latest in … Continue reading

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James Lee Burke’s Purple Cane Road

Dave Robicheaux is a middle-aged guy, trying to get along. Still haunted by his experiences in Viet Nam, troubled by his relationship with his long-dead parents, he is now a homicide detective in New Iberia Parish in Louisiana. His second … Continue reading

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