The Stacks
All book reviews
613 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 385-408 of 613
Hostage
by Robert Crais
Robert Crais's 2001 standalone. A small-town California police chief, three teenagers in a wrong house, and a hostage situation that escalates into something else.
Demolition Angel
by Robert Crais
Robert Crais's 2000 standalone. A LAPD bomb squad detective with a damaged past and a serial bomber. One of the best police procedurals of its decade.
Suspect
by Robert Crais
Robert Crais's standalone with K-9 dog Maggie and ex-Marine handler Scott James. The book that broke me and most other Crais readers I know.
Ordeal by Innocence
by Agatha Christie
Christie's 1958 standalone. A man returns to a family two years after one of them was hanged for a murder he could have alibi'd. Bleak, careful, unusually adult.
Endless Night
by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie's 1967 standalone. Her most modern and most genuinely unsettling novel. The book she said she wrote in six weeks.
Make Me
by Lee Child
The 20th Reacher novel. Lee Child in late-period form. A small Midwestern town named Mother's Rest and a missing private investigator.
Enough Rope
by Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block's collected short fiction. Eighty-plus stories. The case for Block as one of the most versatile American crime writers of his generation.
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
by Ray Bradbury
The career-spanning Ray Bradbury short fiction selection. As close to a complete introduction as a single volume gets.
Dead Air
by Iain M. Banks
Iain Banks (non-M) writing a post-9/11 London literary novel. A radio shock jock unraveling. Sharp, funny, and surprisingly tender.
The Algebraist
by Iain M. Banks
Iain M. Banks's standalone space opera. A galaxy without faster-than-light travel, a millennia-old gas-giant civilization, and one of his best villains.
The Secret Swan
by Shana Abe
Shana Abe writing pre-Drakon medieval romance. Lush, comfortable, slightly thin.
Dark Dreams
by Dominique Adair
A Dominique Adair paranormal romance. Vampires, telepathy, the formula in confident form.
Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson
by Keith Ablow
Keith Ablow doing tabloid true crime. His forensic psychiatry credentials used in the service of a media cycle. Predictably uneven.
Down in the Flood
by Kenneth Abel
The third Danny Chaisson novel. Kenneth Abel writing Hurricane Katrina before Katrina happened.
Trust Me
by Jeff Abbott
A Jeff Abbott standalone thriller. The kind of high-concept hook with a satisfying execution that the form sometimes still delivers.
The Children of Cthulhu
by Benjamin Adams
An anthology of Lovecraftian horror co-edited by Benjamin Adams and John Pelan. Mixed bag with several real standouts.
Skate Crime
by Alina Adams
A late Alina Adams figure-skating mystery. The formula running smoothly. Skating fans will be happy.
Sleeper
by Paul Adam
A Paul Adam intelligence thriller. Solid but the second-tier Adam.
Enemy Within
by Paul Adam
A Paul Adam political thriller. Italian Mafia and the postwar reckoning. Competent rather than essential.
The Rainaldi Quartet
by Paul Adam
Paul Adam's classical music mystery at its best. Four amateur musicians, a stolen Stradivarius, and a story that takes its setting fully seriously.
Deepcore
by James B. Adair
James B. Adair's submarine thriller. Cold War submarine fiction in the post-Hunt-for-Red-October mold. Reliable.
Rescue Me
by Cherry Adair
A Cherry Adair Black Rose Chronicles entry. Paranormal-talents romance with the formula in confident hand.
Out of Sight
by Cherry Adair
A T-FLAC romantic suspense. Cherry Adair in mid-period form. The formula working hard.
Kiss and Tell
by Cherry Adair
The first Cherry Adair T-FLAC novel. The book that launched a long career. Honest fun and the formula taking shape in real time.