The Stacks
All book reviews
623 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 433-456 of 623
Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories
by Jack Adrian
The Jack Adrian and Bill Pronzini-edited hard-boiled crime anthology. One of the best curated anthologies of the form ever assembled.
Dashiell Hammett: A Retrospective Anthology
by Jack Adrian
A Jack Adrian-edited Hammett anthology. The Continental Op stories, the Maltese Falcon outtakes, and a useful editorial frame.
A Way With Widows
by Harold Adams
Another Carl Wilcox novel. Harold Adams at his most observational about how small communities deal with desire.
The Ditched Blonde
by Harold Adams
A mid-period Carl Wilcox novel. Harold Adams writing the Depression-era prairie with the kind of dry honesty that the form usually pretends to.
A Cat on Stage Left
by Lydia Adamson
A theater-adjacent Alice Nestleton cat cozy. Lydia Adamson back in her comfort zone with off-Broadway dressing rooms.
Date with the Devil
by Cherry Adair
A T-FLAC romantic suspense from Cherry Adair. Counter-terror operative meets event planner. Reliably fun.
Alternatives
by Robert Adams
A Robert Adams short fiction collection. Horseclans-adjacent and Castaways-adjacent pieces in one volume. For pulp completists.
Orphan of Creation
by Roger MacBride Allen
Roger MacBride Allen's genuinely strange standalone SF novel. An anthropologist uncovers fossil australopithecines on a Mississippi plantation. The book that made Allen's reputation.
Gilead's Blood
by Dan Abnett
A Dan Abnett Warhammer Fantasy novel about a doomed high-elf swordsman. Abnett doing brooding tragic-hero fantasy. Better than most expected.
The Burying Field
by Kenneth Abel
The second Danny Chaisson novel. Kenneth Abel deepening the Louisiana political world with a parish-corruption investigation that earns its weight.
Killing Thyme
by Peter Abresch
The second James P. Dandy mystery. Retiree-detective at a culinary conference in the Smokies. Peter Abresch warming up the formula.
A Cat on a Beach Blanket
by Lydia Adamson
A summer-themed Alice Nestleton cat cozy. Lydia Adamson writing the formula on the East End of Long Island, with the usual loyal cats.
Hide in Plain Sight
by Skye Alexander
The second Skye Alexander astrologer-detective novel. Salem witch tourism, a murdered visiting psychic, and the formula in pleasant midstride.
Deep Water Death
by Glynn Marsh Alam
The second Luanne Fogarty mystery. Glynn Marsh Alam back in the Florida cave systems. Reliable regional cozy with serious diving texture.
WormWood
by Susan Wittig Albert
The 17th China Bayles. Susan Wittig Albert taking her herbalist sleuth into the Kentucky Shaker community at Pleasant Hill. Quietly fascinating.
Injury Time
by Catherine Aird
A mid-period Inspector Sloan. Catherine Aird at her most procedural and her most quietly observant.
Movie Cat
by Garrison Allen
The sixth Penelope Warren cat cozy. Garrison Allen takes Penelope and Mycroft to a Hollywood film shoot in the desert. Series in late-comfortable form.
Every First Saturday
by Bobby Jaye Allen
Bobby Jaye Allen writing a Southern small-town novel that is half mystery, half regional fiction, all comfortable in its own voice.
Isaac Asimov's Utopia
by Roger MacBride Allen
The third Caliban novel. Roger MacBride Allen closing out his Asimov continuation trilogy with appropriate political weight.
Allies and Aliens
by Roger MacBride Allen
A Roger MacBride Allen solo SF novel. Two short pieces in one volume, both with the careful diplomacy-first SF sensibility his Asimov books also have.
By Faith Divided
by Margaret Allan
Margaret Allan writing a 17th century Scottish historical. Religious conflict, a young Catholic woman in a Covenanter region, and steady period research.
The Last Smile
by Marvin Albert
Pete Sawyer back in Nice. Marvin Albert in late form, still competent, slightly more comfortable than his sharpest middle-period books.
Long Teeth
by Marvin Albert
Marvin Albert's Pete Sawyer Riviera PI in solidly mid-series form. The South of France treated as a working geography, not a postcard.
The Ties That Bind
by Warren Adler
Late Fiona Fitzgerald. Warren Adler's DC detective still working murders that the city would prefer remain unsolved.