The Stacks
All book reviews
412 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 313-336 of 412
Cold Steel Rain
by Kenneth Abel
The first Danny Chaisson novel. Kenneth Abel writing New Orleans politics and corruption with a New Orleans-specific moral exhaustion you cannot fake.
Once A Spy
by Rennie Airth
Rennie Airth's 1981 standalone, before he became known for John Madden. South African anti-apartheid intelligence thriller with weight.
Catching Water In A net
by J. L. Abramo
The first Jake Diamond mystery. J. L. Abramo writing San Francisco hard-boiled with serious 50s-Hammett pedigree.
Dangerous Games
by Joan Aiken
A Joan Aiken Wolves Chronicles entry. Dido Twite in Roman Britain and Aiken at her wild best.
Amendment of Life
by Catherine Aird
The 19th Inspector Sloan. A body in a country church maze and Catherine Aird in her purest form.
Moon's Web
by C. T. Adams
The second Sazi novel by C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp. Tony Giodone learning to live as a werewolf in Chicago without becoming the kind of werewolf the Council wants.
Projection
by Keith Ablow
The second Frank Clevenger novel. Keith Ablow at his most clinical, with a state hospital murder and a witness who is presenting as someone she is not.
Edge of Fear
by Cherry Adair
A Cherry Adair Black Rose Chronicles entry. Romantic suspense with telekinesis and a deeply ridiculous global threat. Honest fun.
Holly Blues
by Susan Wittig Albert
The 18th China Bayles. Holiday-themed and unusually serious. McQuaid's ex-wife is back in town and the investigation hits closer to home than the series usually allows.
Hatchet Job
by Harold Adams
A mid-period Carl Wilcox mystery by Harold Adams. Depression-era South Dakota, an itinerant sign painter, and a community that knows how to keep its own counsel.
Get Off at Babylon
by Marvin Albert
A Pete Sawyer Riviera mystery by Marvin Albert. Half-French American PI in the South of France. Old-school hard-boiled with sun.
Quaker Silence
by Irene Allen
The first Elizabeth Elliot mystery. Quaker clerk as accidental detective in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Unusually thoughtful cozy.
Isaac Asimov's Inferno
by Roger MacBride Allen
The second Caliban novel. Roger MacBride Allen writing the smartest authorized Asimov sequels of the post-Foundation era.
Sea of Green
by Thomas Adcock
The first Neil Hockaday mystery by Thomas Adcock. NYPD detective in mid-90s Hell's Kitchen, before the neighborhood got polite.
Grimspace
by Ann Aguirre
The first Sirantha Jax novel. Ann Aguirre writing tough-femme space opera with one foot in Firefly and one in romance.
River Of Darkness
by Rennie Airth
The first John Madden mystery. Post-WWI English countryside, a returning detective, and a serial killer whose methods come straight from the trenches.
The Plague Dogs
by Richard Adams
Richard Adams's third novel. Two laboratory dogs escape in the Lake District. The book that broke me as a 12-year-old.
Maia
by Richard Adams
Richard Adams's prequel to Shardik. A 1,400-page erotic-political fantasy that is one of the strangest entries in any major writer's bibliography.
Shardik
by Richard Adams
Richard Adams's 1974 follow-up to Watership Down. A religious epic about a hunter and a giant bear. Difficult, devastating, deeply serious.
Last of the Dixie Heroes
by Peter Abrahams
Peter Abrahams sending a downsized executive into the world of Civil War reenactment. The slow tilt from hobby into something darker is masterfully timed.
Fear
by Jeff Abbott
A Jeff Abbott standalone thriller. An amnesia premise that should not work and a writer who knows exactly how to make it.
Promises of Home
by Jeff Abbott
The third Jordan Poteet mystery. Jeff Abbott bringing back a former friend to the small Texas town and turning the screws.
Their Wildest Dreams
by Peter Abrahams
Peter Abrahams sending three suburban midwives into the desert with one suitcase of money. The slow disintegration is the point.
Jane Fairfax : Jane Austen's Emma, Through Another's Eyes
by Joan Aiken
Joan Aiken telling Emma from the point of view of Jane Fairfax. The book Austen almost wrote, finally written.