The Stacks
All book reviews
412 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 97-120 of 412
Requiem and a Tribute to the Grand Master
by Robert A. Heinlein
Requiem and Tributes to the Grand Master edited by Yoji Kondo 1992 review. The memorial collection assembled after Heinlein's 1988 death, featuring Asimov, Pournelle, Clarke, and the Heinlein essay 'Where To?'.
50 in 50
by Harry Harrison
50 in 50 by Harry Harrison 2001 review. A career-spanning fifty-story Harrison collection, one story per year, that doubles as the best single overview of his short fiction.
The Chains That You Refuse
by Elizabeth Bear
The Chains That You Refuse by Elizabeth Bear 2006 review. The first collection of short fiction from a Hugo-and-Campbell-winning writer at her most generous.
Steles of the Sky
by Elizabeth Bear
Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear 2014 review. The final book of the Eternal Sky trilogy lands its Mongol-empire-inspired epic fantasy with rare grace.
Stonemouth
by Iain M. Banks
Stonemouth by Iain Banks 2012 review. A Scottish prodigal son comes home five years after the wedding that ruined his future, and discovers nobody has forgotten anything.
The Church of the Dead Girls
by Stephen Dobyns
The Church of Dead Girls by Stephen Dobyns 1997 review. Three teenage girls disappear from an upstate New York town and the community begins to suspect everyone, including itself.
Make Room Make Room
by Harry Harrison
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison 1966 review. The 1966 Hugo-nominated overpopulation novel that became the 1973 film Soylent Green, and is meaningfully better than the film remembers.
Flash Point
by Paul Adam
Flash Point by Paul Adam 2006 review. A Glasgow journalist investigates the death of a young African violinist competing in the Tchaikovsky Competition and stumbles into a missing-instrument scandal.
When Rich Men Die
by Harold Adams
When Rich Men Die by Harold Adams 1987 review. The fifth Carl Wilcox Depression-era mystery sends the alcoholic itinerant artist back to Corden, South Dakota for a banker’s murder.
Murder on a Midsummer Night
by Kerry Greenwood
Murder on a Midsummer Night by Kerry Greenwood 2008 review. The seventeenth Phryne Fisher Mystery sends the Honourable Miss Fisher chasing two cases at once in summer 1929 Melbourne.
The Hidden Man
by David Ellis
The Hidden Man by David Ellis 2009 review. A Chicago defense attorney walks his oldest friend through a child-murder trial. Twenty-seven years ago, the victim was the attorney’s own kidnapped sister.
Invisible
by David Ellis
Invisible by David Ellis and James Patterson 2014 review. An FBI researcher with an obsessive-detail diagnosis sees a serial-arson pattern her bureau will not. Then she has to convince them.
The Murder House
by David Ellis
The Murder House by David Ellis and James Patterson 2015 review. A Bridgehampton detective with a tarnished badge investigates a brutal mansion killing that mirrors a sixty-year-old open case.
My Life
by Bill Clinton
My Life by Bill Clinton 2004 review. The 42nd President’s 957-page memoir, exhaustive on policy, charming on biography, evasive on Lewinsky, and surprisingly self-aware on race.
The Light Of Other Days
by Arthur C. Clarke
The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter 2000 review. Wormhole technology lets anyone look anywhere, anytime. The end of privacy and the end of secret history arrive in the same decade.
On Thin Ice
by Alina Adams
On Thin Ice by Alina Adams 2004 review. The first Figure Skating Mystery sends Russian-American researcher Bex Levy to investigate a Sandra Bullock-style backstage skating murder.
My Gun Has Bullets
by Lee Goldberg
My Gun Has Bullets by Lee Goldberg 1995 review. An LAPD officer accidentally becomes the lead of a network cop show. Then his ratings start killing people.
Storming Heaven
by Dale Brown
Storming Heaven by Dale Brown 1994 review. The Patrick McLanahan series goes counterterror as a fanatical pilot launches commercial-airliner attacks on American air traffic control infrastructure.
Mourning Glory
by Warren Adler
Mourning Glory by Warren Adler 1996 review. A broke single mother in Palm Beach starts trolling funerals for wealthy grieving widowers. Then she actually falls for one.
The Casanova Embrace
by Warren Adler
The Casanova Embrace by Warren Adler 1978 review. A Chilean dissident in Washington beds a string of women for political intelligence. An FBI handler tries to piece it together after his death.
The Last Time I Saw Paris
by Elizabeth Adler
The Last Time I Saw Paris by Elizabeth Adler 2001 review. A widow inherits a Paris apartment, a chateau, and a daughter she did not know about in this gentle expat romance.
Venus Envy
by Rita Mae Brown
Venus Envy by Rita Mae Brown 1993 review. A Virginia gallery owner mistakenly told she has weeks to live writes the truth to every important person in her life. Then she does not die.
The Jester
by Andrew Gross
The Jester by Andrew Gross and James Patterson 2003 review. A medieval-set thriller about a Crusader innkeeper turned court jester who infiltrates a French duke’s castle to find his wife.
Malice at the Palace
by Rhys Bowen
Malice at the Palace by Rhys Bowen 2015 review. The ninth Royal Spyness mystery sends Lady Georgiana Rannoch to Kensington Palace to chaperone Princess Marina before her royal wedding.