The Stacks
All book reviews
613 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 361-384 of 613
The Two Minute Rule
by Robert Crais
A Robert Crais standalone outside the Cole/Pike series. An ex-bank-robber father searching for his estranged son's killer. Crais doing classic noir without his regulars.
Chasing Darkness
by Robert Crais
The 11th Elvis Cole. Robert Crais writing a cold-case sequel to one of his previous victories. A genuinely difficult moral problem.
Personal
by Lee Child
The 19th Reacher novel. Lee Child sending Reacher to Paris on a sniper-tracking job. Tighter than most late Reacher.
The Ghost from the Grand Banks
by Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke's 1990 Titanic-raising novel. Strange, gentle, slightly ramshackle. Late-Clarke unwinding in a particular direction.
The Hammer Of God
by Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke's 1993 asteroid-impact novel. Late-period Clarke at his most readable and his most quietly worried.
V is for Vengeance
by Sue Grafton
The 22nd Kinsey Millhone. A shoplifting operation, a banker's wife, and a Santa Teresa criminal economy that Grafton renders with care.
U is for Undertow
by Sue Grafton
The 21st Kinsey Millhone. A 1967 child-kidnapping case reopened by an adult recovered memory. Grafton at her structural best.
W is for Wasted
by Sue Grafton
The 23rd Kinsey Millhone. Sue Grafton near the end of the alphabet, writing two parallel cold cases and one of the most emotionally resonant entries in the series.
The Spirit Ring
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Bujold's 1992 Italian Renaissance fantasy. Magic, metallurgy, and a heroine whose hands are her best weapon.
The Curse of Chalion
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold's 2001 fantasy debut outside the Vorkosigan universe. A broken courtier in a Iberian-flavored fantasy kingdom, and a theology that actually works.
A Century of Noir : Thirty-Two Classic Crime Stories
by Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane co-edit a century of noir. Curated with care and historical seriousness. A reference shelf in one volume.
Reunion
by Carl Brookins
A Carl Brookins Minneapolis mystery. PI Sean Sean working a missing-persons case that turns into a family reunion gone wrong.
T is for Trespass
by Sue Grafton
The 20th Kinsey Millhone. Sue Grafton writing the late-series novel that almost no one writes well. A neighbor's elderly father, a new nurse, and one of the best villains of the form.
A Place of Hiding
by Elizabeth George
An Elizabeth George Inspector Lynley novel set largely on Guernsey. The Channel Islands geography and the wartime history both get serious attention.
Earthly Delights
by Kerry Greenwood
The first Corinna Chapman mystery. Kerry Greenwood starting a second long-running series. Melbourne baker, found family, contemporary register.
Hell Gate
by Linda Fairstein
The 12th Alex Cooper mystery. Linda Fairstein at her most New-York-specific, with Hell Gate at the center and the geography doing real work.
Early Evanovich
by Janet Evanovich
A collection of Janet Evanovich's pre-Stephanie Plum romance novels. Pleasant, slight, useful as career archaeology.
Arctic Drift
by Clive Cussler
A Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt novel co-written with Dirk Cussler. Late-Cussler doing exactly what late-Cussler does: NUMA, treasure, sea action.
Hard Truth
by Nevada Barr
The 13th Anna Pigeon mystery. Nevada Barr in Rocky Mountain National Park. Three girls survived a horror, and what they will not say is the case.
Eastern Standard Tribe
by Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow's second novel. Time-zone tribes, an asylum-committed protagonist, and a meditation on belonging in a globalized communication world.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
by Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow's 2003 debut. Reputation economies, post-scarcity Disneyland, and one of the cleanest near-future SF visions of its decade.
Enchantment
by Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card's Russian fairy tale novel. A graduate student in Kiev finds an enchanted princess in a glade. Card outside Ender, and at his most enjoyable.
Paladin of Souls
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Bujold's 2003 Hugo and Nebula double. The middle Chalion book. A middle-aged widow becomes the unexpected vessel of a god. One of the great fantasy novels of its decade.
Falling Free
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold's 1988 Nebula winner. The Quaddies and Leo Graf. The first book of what became one of the great SF series.