The Stacks
All book reviews
613 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 553-576 of 613
Cult: A Novel of Brainwashing and Death
by Warren Adler
Warren Adler in domestic-thriller mode. A daughter's deprogramming, a parent's panic, and a mid-80s look at the cult crisis.
Nerve Damage
by Peter Abrahams
Peter Abrahams writing about a sculptor with a terminal diagnosis and unfinished business. Late-period Abrahams at his most controlled.
A Fatal Waltz
by Tasha Alexander
The third Lady Emily mystery. Vienna, anarchist plots, and Lady Emily's most uncomfortable house-party investigation.
Jack Knave and Fool
by Bruce Alexander
The fifth Sir John Fielding mystery. The blind magistrate investigates a murder at the Drury Lane Theatre. Bruce Alexander at his most relaxed.
The Also People
by Ben Aaronovitch
Aaronovitch's 1995 Doctor Who novel, riffing on Iain Banks's Culture. Better than tie-in fiction has any right to be.
The Brazen Gambit
by Lynn Abbey
The first Dark Sun: Chronicles of Athas book. Sword-and-sorcery with extreme heat. A Lynn Abbey shared-world entry.
After Effects
by Catherine Aird
Inspector Sloan investigating a pharmaceutical company's drug-trial gone wrong. Aird writing institutional procedural.
Mansfield Revisited
by Joan Aiken
Joan Aiken's sequel to Mansfield Park. Pleasant, careful, slightly more polite than the original.
End of Story
by Peter Abrahams
Peter Abrahams writing a writing-workshop thriller. The convict who attends has very good fiction and an inconvenient past.
Do Unto Others
by Jeff Abbott
The first Jeff Abbott mystery. Small-town Texas librarian as accidental detective. Edgar winner for a reason.
Blood Pact
by Dan Abnett
A late Gaunt's Ghosts novel. Abnett moving the series into a quieter and more political register.
Ravenor
by Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett doing far-future psychic-investigator novels in the Warhammer 40K universe. Tighter than the Eisenhorn books before it.
Mostly Harmless
by Douglas Adams
The fifth Hitchhiker's book. Famously bleak. Adams said later he wrote it in a bad mood. You can tell.
So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish
by Douglas Adams
The fourth Hitchhiker's book. Adams writing a love story disguised as an SF comedy. Calmer, sadder, surprising.
Life, the Universe and Everything
by Douglas Adams
The third Hitchhiker's book. Cricket-themed apocalypse. Funnier than its reputation and a small structural marvel.
The Alphabet House
by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Adler-Olsen's pre-Department Q standalone. Two British airmen hiding in a Nazi psychiatric hospital. Very different from his crime novels.
The Keeper of Lost Causes
by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The first Department Q novel. Detective Carl Morck goes down to the basement and finds a five-year-old missing-politician case. The series begins here.
Indian Killer
by Sherman Alexie
Alexie's darkest novel. A serial killer is targeting white men in Seattle. The book is not interested in being a thriller.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
by Sherman Alexie
The Alexie short story collection that made his career. Some of these became Smoke Signals. All of them earn their place.
Man In His Time
by Brian W. Aldiss
A second short fiction collection. The title story alone earns the entry.
Best SF Stories of Brian W. Aldiss
by Brian W. Aldiss
A career retrospective of one of British SF's most distinctive voices. Worth reading even if you already own Hothouse.
The Song Is You
by Megan Abbott
Abbott on a real cold case: the 1949 disappearance of Jean Spangler. Hollywood publicist as accidental detective.
The End of Everything
by Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott writing a thirteen-year-old's point of view as her best friend disappears. Quiet, devastating, almost too uncomfortable to recommend.
Pelagia and the Black Monk
by Boris Akunin
The second Sister Pelagia mystery. A ghost on a Volga island, an Athanasian monastery, and Akunin in full Dostoyevsky mode.