The Stacks
All book reviews
115 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 73-96 of 115
Crashed
by Timothy Hallinan
The first Junior Bender novel. Timothy Hallinan writing an LA burglar-turned-investigator with a stolen-art crisis and a teenage daughter. One of the most underread comic-crime debuts of the 2010s.
Blind Date
by Frances Fyfield
Frances Fyfield's 1998 standalone. A traumatized woman ex-cop and the killer who took her sister. One of the British psychological-thriller form's genuine peaks.
Eye of the Beholder
by David Ellis
David Ellis's 2007 thriller. A childhood friendship, a serial killer, and one of the cleanest psychological-thriller structures of its decade.
Five Great Novels
by Lawrence Block
A Lawrence Block omnibus collecting Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbarr, and Keller. The form on multiple registers in one volume.
Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century
by Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card editing an SF retrospective anthology. His introductions are worth the book on their own.
The Promise: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel
by Robert Crais
Robert Crais bringing Maggie the K-9 dog back into the Cole and Pike series. The crossover I did not know I needed.
U is for Undertow
by Sue Grafton
The 21st Kinsey Millhone. A 1967 child-kidnapping case reopened by an adult recovered memory. Grafton at her structural best.
W is for Wasted
by Sue Grafton
The 23rd Kinsey Millhone. Sue Grafton near the end of the alphabet, writing two parallel cold cases and one of the most emotionally resonant entries in the series.
The Curse of Chalion
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold's 2001 fantasy debut outside the Vorkosigan universe. A broken courtier in a Iberian-flavored fantasy kingdom, and a theology that actually works.
A Century of Noir : Thirty-Two Classic Crime Stories
by Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins and Mickey Spillane co-edit a century of noir. Curated with care and historical seriousness. A reference shelf in one volume.
T is for Trespass
by Sue Grafton
The 20th Kinsey Millhone. Sue Grafton writing the late-series novel that almost no one writes well. A neighbor's elderly father, a new nurse, and one of the best villains of the form.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
by Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow's 2003 debut. Reputation economies, post-scarcity Disneyland, and one of the cleanest near-future SF visions of its decade.
Paladin of Souls
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Bujold's 2003 Hugo and Nebula double. The middle Chalion book. A middle-aged widow becomes the unexpected vessel of a god. One of the great fantasy novels of its decade.
Falling Free
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold's 1988 Nebula winner. The Quaddies and Leo Graf. The first book of what became one of the great SF series.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Down in the Flood
by Kenneth Abel
The third Danny Chaisson novel. Kenneth Abel writing Hurricane Katrina before Katrina happened.
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.
All Things, All at Once
by Lee K. Abbott
Lee K. Abbott's career-spanning story collection. One of the great American short story writers of the late 20th century, finally collected.
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.