The Stacks
All book reviews
773 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 1-24 of 773
11/22/63
by Stephen King
11/22/63 by Stephen King 2011 review. An English teacher discovers a portal to 1958 and decides to stop the Kennedy assassination. The single best late-King novel and the rare time-travel book that earns its 849 pages.
15 Seconds
by Andrew Gross
15 Seconds by Andrew Gross 2012 review. A standalone thriller about a Florida cosmetic surgeon framed for a cop killing and forced to run as the noose tightens.
1Q84
by Haruki Murakami
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami 2009 review. An assassin and a novelist navigate a parallel-1984 Tokyo with two moons. Murakami's structural masterwork.
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.
A Banquet of Consequences
by Elizabeth George
The 19th Inspector Lynley novel. Elizabeth George doing late-period family-secrets and an investigation that genuinely deserves its 700 pages.
A Bridal Bouquet and a Body
by Cindy Bell
A Bridal Bouquet and a Body by Cindy Bell review. The 8th Sage Gardens cozy. A wedding-themed retirement-community murder. The form running on its established energy.
A Brief History of Seven Killings
by Marlon James
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James 2014 review. The 1976 attempt on Bob Marley's life and its aftermath across Jamaica, Miami, and New York. Booker Prize 2015 and the most structurally ambitious novel from the Caribbean in a generation.
A Cat With the Blues
by Lydia Adamson
A late-period Alice Nestleton cat cozy. Manhattan jazz club murder. Even the most loyal series readers can feel the diminishing returns.
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 Cat on Stage Left
by Lydia Adamson
A theater-adjacent Alice Nestleton cat cozy. Lydia Adamson back in her comfort zone with off-Broadway dressing rooms.
A Cat on a Beach Blanket
by Lydia Adamson
A summer-themed Alice Nestleton cat cozy. Lydia Adamson writing the formula on the East End of Long Island, with the usual loyal cats.
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.
A Clash of Kings
by George R. R. Martin
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin 1998 review. Five claimants vie for the Iron Throne while a comet crosses the sky over Westeros. The middle volume of A Song of Ice and Fire and the one most committed Martin readers consider his peak.
A Clear Conscience
by Frances Fyfield
A Helen West mystery. Frances Fyfield writing British legal procedural with the moral seriousness the form rarely delivers.
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.
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
by Anthony Marra
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra 2013 review. Five days in 2004 Chechnya - a doctor hides an eight-year-old girl whose father has just been disappeared. Marra's debut.
A Court of Mist and Fury
by Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas 2016 review. The second ACOTAR book and the volume that broke the romantasy genre open. Feyre's recovery from Under the Mountain and the Night Court arc.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
by Sarah J. Maas
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 2015 review. A human huntress is taken to the faerie kingdom of Prythian after killing a wolf in the woods. The first ACOTAR book and the romantasy series that set the table for the genre's BookTok-era explosion.
A Deadly Serious Gardening Contest
by Cindy Bell
A Deadly Serious Gardening Contest by Cindy Bell review. The 7th Sage Gardens cozy. Retirement-community garden show, predictable comfort, the cozy formula in late form.
A Fatal Waltz
by Tasha Alexander
The third Lady Emily mystery. Vienna, anarchist plots, and Lady Emily's most uncomfortable house-party investigation.
A Fete Worse Than Death
by Claudia Bishop
A Fete Worse Than Death by Claudia Bishop review. The 18th Hemlock Falls cozy. A village summer fete, a body in the pie tent, and the formula running smoothly.
A Game of Thrones
by George R. R. Martin
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin 1996 review. The book that rewrote what epic fantasy was allowed to do. Westeros, the Iron Throne, the deaths nobody saw coming. Required reading.
A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 2016 review. Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced in 1922 to lifelong house arrest at the Hotel Metropol. Towles's second novel and one of the most consistently recommended contemporary American literary commercial titles of the past decade.
A Going Concern
by Catherine Aird
Inspector Sloan investigating an old lady's death in a country house. Aird in her wheelhouse.