The Stacks
All book reviews
773 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 745-768 of 773
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.
Queenpin
by Megan Abbott
Abbott's noir homage about a young woman apprenticed to an aging mob accountant. Reads like Cain in heels.
Bury Me Deep
by Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott rewriting a real 1930s Phoenix murder case as a fever dream. Period noir with a feminist undertow.
Special Assignments
by Boris Akunin
Two Fandorin novellas in one volume. Akunin writing pastiche so well it stops being pastiche.
Chapter and Hearse : And Other Mysteries
by Catherine Aird
A short story collection from a quiet master of the English procedural. Best read one a night, the way you would eat a chocolate.
Sister Pelagia and the White Bulldog
by Boris Akunin
A nun-detective in 19th century Russia investigating a poisoned dog. Funnier and warmer than that summary suggests.
Transit
by Ben Aaronovitch
A Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures novel from the mid-90s. Better than it has any right to be, weirder than the show ever managed.
The Blade Itself
by Joe Abercrombie
Grimdark fantasy with a beating heart underneath the cynicism. Abercrombie writes the kind of characters you would cross a kingdom for.
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide
by Douglas Adams
The collected Hitchhiker's books in one volume. If you have not read these, you have a treat ahead. If you have, you already know.