The Stacks
All book reviews
613 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 289-312 of 613
American Hero
by Larry Beinhart
Larry Beinhart's 1993 satirical thriller. A president faking a war for re-election. The book that became Wag the Dog. Sharper than the film.
Harrigan's File
by August Derleth
Harrigan's File by August Derleth review. A Judge Peck mystery from the Sac Prairie Saga. Quiet Wisconsin regional crime fiction by Derleth's less-famous detective sequence.
Quest for Cthulhu
by August Derleth
Quest for Cthulhu by August Derleth review. A career-spanning omnibus of his Lovecraft Mythos continuation stories. The expansion-tradition's most controversial founder at full strength.
Dark Tide
by Elizabeth Haynes
Dark Tide by Elizabeth Haynes review. A 2012 Kent coast psychological thriller. A woman starting over on a houseboat finds her past has followed her. Carefully structured suspense.
Human Remains
by Elizabeth Haynes
Elizabeth Haynes's 2013 psychological thriller about an epidemic of solitary deaths. Genuinely terrifying, beautifully written, severely underread.
Little Elvises
by Timothy Hallinan
The second Junior Bender novel. A 70s music-industry investigation, a senior-citizen Mafia kingpin, and Hallinan tightening every dial.
Crashed
by Timothy Hallinan
The first Junior Bender novel. Timothy Hallinan writing an LA burglar-turned-investigator with a stolen-art crisis and a teenage daughter. One of the most underread comic-crime debuts of the 2010s.
Death's Excellent Vacation
by Charlaine Harris
The second Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner paranormal anthology. Vacation theme, strong roster, solidly enjoyable.
Emerald Magic : Great Tales of Irish Fantasy
by Andrew M. Greeley
An Andrew Greeley-edited anthology of Irish fantasy stories. Strong roster, careful curation, useful introduction to the Celtic fantasy tradition.
Hunting Season
by Nevada Barr
The 10th Anna Pigeon. Nevada Barr at Natchez Trace, a deer-poaching case that opens into something worse.
Book Of Love
by Andrew M. Greeley
An Andrew M. Greeley anthology of Catholic-themed love stories. Greeley's sociological-romantic register at full strength.
The Cat Who Talked Turkey
by Lilian Jackson Braun
The 26th Cat Who book. Late Braun running on its own gentle inertia.
Crim on the Coast and No Flowers by Request
by John Dickson Carr
Two collaborative serial novels from the Detection Club. John Dickson Carr, Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, and others writing one chapter each.
A T. A. Barron Collection
by T. A. Barron
A T. A. Barron sampler volume with material from across his career. Useful for finding the right entry point.
A Stainless Steel Trio
by Harry Harrison
An omnibus of three Harry Harrison Stainless Steel Rat novels. Comic SF heist work from one of the form's most reliable comic voices.
The Mile High Club
by Kinky Friedman
A Kinky Friedman mystery. The form running on its own absurdity. For Friedman regulars.
The Leaning Land
by Rex Burns
A Rex Burns Gabe Wager novel. Colorado high country, an undermined county courthouse, and the kind of regional crime fiction the form rarely delivers.
Centaurus : The Best of Australian Science Fiction
by Damien Broderick
Damien Broderick and David Hartwell's canonical 1999 anthology of Australian SF. Greg Egan, Sean McMullen, George Turner, others. The right entry point.
Blind Date
by Frances Fyfield
Frances Fyfield's 1998 standalone. A traumatized woman ex-cop and the killer who took her sister. One of the British psychological-thriller form's genuine peaks.
Without Consent
by Frances Fyfield
Another Helen West novel. Frances Fyfield writing a serial-rapist prosecution that the Crown Prosecution Service is reluctant to pursue.
Matricide at St. Martha's
by Ruth Dudley Edwards
A Ruth Dudley Edwards Robert Amiss mystery. Cambridge college politics, a poisoned mistress, and Edwards' sharpest satirical voice.
Boy in the Water
by Stephen Dobyns
Stephen Dobyns's 1999 literary thriller. A prep-school psychologist arrives at a new posting and finds the school in slow institutional crisis. Dobyns at his most carefully observed.
Red Sky
by Carl Brookins
A Carl Brookins Sean Sean PI novel. Minneapolis, a charter-fishing operation, and a missing person who has been gone longer than the family will admit.
Bloody Halls
by Carl Brookins
A Carl Brookins academic mystery. Minnesota college, a college-board political fight, and a body in a campus office. Reliable regional cozy.