The Stacks
All book reviews
613 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 577-600 of 613
The Death of Achilles
by Boris Akunin
The fourth Fandorin novel. Boris Akunin doing the political thriller, with a wonderful villain and the most action-heavy of the early entries.
Last Argument Of Kings
by Joe Abercrombie
The final First Law book. Abercrombie sticks every landing he had been setting up for two books, and the result is bleak in the best way.
Double Eagle
by Dan Abnett
Warhammer 40,000 air-combat novel by Dan Abnett. Yes, really. Yes, it is much better than that description suggests.
A Cat on Jingle Bell Rock
by Lydia Adamson
A holiday-themed Alice Nestleton cat-cozy mystery. Comforting if you grade cozies on a curve.
A Poisoned Season
by Tasha Alexander
The second Lady Emily book. London Season jewel thefts and a Marie-Antoinette obsessive. Alexander hitting her stride.
And Only to Deceive
by Tasha Alexander
The first Lady Emily Ashton mystery. Victorian widow discovers her late husband's secret life among Greek antiquities.
Eliza's Daughter
by Joan Aiken
Joan Aiken's sequel to Sense and Sensibility, told from the point of view of the illegitimate daughter Austen left as an afterthought.
Jerlayne
by Lynn Abbey
Lynn Abbey writing solo fantasy about an elf-woman caught between cultures. Quieter than her better-known shared-world stuff.
A Going Concern
by Catherine Aird
Inspector Sloan investigating an old lady's death in a country house. Aird in her wheelhouse.
A Perfect Crime
by Peter Abrahams
Peter Abrahams writing the modern Strangers on a Train. A wronged husband and a wronged ex-husband strike a deal.
Remembrance of the Daleks
by Ben Aaronovitch
Aaronovitch novelizing his own Doctor Who script from 1988. Rare case where the novel outperforms the broadcast.
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
by Douglas Adams
The Dirk Gently sequel, with Norse gods stranded in modern London. Funnier than its predecessor, slightly less ambitious.
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
by Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams writing comic SF detective fiction with time travel, an electric monk, and the fundamental interconnectedness of all things.
The Turkish Gambit
by Boris Akunin
Fandorin on the Russo-Turkish War. War-correspondent mystery with deep affection for Tolstoy.
Murder on the Leviathan
by Boris Akunin
Akunin doing locked-room mystery on a Suez-bound steamer in 1878. Multiple narrators, a French detective, and Fandorin in supporting position.
The Winter Queen
by Boris Akunin
The first Erast Fandorin novel. A young clerk in 1876 Moscow investigates an apparent suicide and falls down a labyrinth.
Before They Are Hanged
by Joe Abercrombie
The second First Law novel. Three plot threads in three different countries, all going progressively worse. Abercrombie at his peak.
Person or Persons Unknown
by Bruce Alexander
The fourth Sir John Fielding mystery. Bruce Alexander writing 18th century London with a magistrate going blind.
The Absent one
by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The second Department Q book. An old boarding-school case the Danish elite would prefer stayed cold.
A Conspiracy of Faith
by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The third Department Q novel. Carl Morck investigates a message in a bottle written in blood. The best book in a great series.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie
YA semi-memoir about a kid who transfers off the rez to a white school. Funny, brutal, repeatedly banned, deserves to be read.
Reservation Blues
by Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie's first novel. Robert Johnson hands his guitar to a kid on the Spokane Reservation. Magic realism with grief in the bones.
Dracula Unbound
by Brian W. Aldiss
Aldiss writing a time-travel Dracula sequel. Sometimes inspired, sometimes the back half of a clearance sale.
Die a Little
by Megan Abbott
Abbott's debut, which announced what her career was going to be about. 1950s LA, two women, and a slow domestic poisoning.