Category: Book Reviews

A Superior Death by Nevada Barr My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book won’t leave my head. I keep feeling the coldness of a Lake Superior summer, the lushness of a temperate climate, the aliveness of the protagonist Anna Pigeon. I’m sure I’ve read Nevada Barr before — I have memories of reading a…

Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat My rating: 4 of 5 stars I had heard great reviews of this book, but I found it a difficult read — not style-wise but content-wise. And so at first I read it on and off. “People just don’t talk about it,” [the Iranian woman] said. That’s true for…

Homicide Trinity by Rex Stout My rating: 4 of 5 stars The thing about Rex Stout’s writing is that it’s tight, matter-of-fact yet visually, auditorally, and smell-o-vision live. The characters are so strong it’s like they’re standing in front of you. By the time you finish your first Nero Wolfe mystery, you know Archie, Nero,…

The Torso by Helene Tursten My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’m enjoying this series set in Sweden. The Torso is rather gruesome but not relentlessly so. Humour, personal conflict, doggies, and vivid descriptions of Goteberg and Swedish life add welcome counterpoints and keep one engaged. I also like the peek this series gives into…

Dying Light by Stuart MacBride My rating: 2 of 5 stars This is a needlessly big book and it’s filled with visual imagery that so realistically conveys the grimness of life and its grossest aspects that you just want to go kill yourself or hide under a rock. The day I got to the point…

Body Work by Sara Paretsky My rating: 3 of 5 stars Geeze, I thought I’d marked this book as read and had written a review already. I guess I got distracted! Or was that when the computer was in the shop… Anyway, I always enjoy Paretsky and was thrilled to see a new (to me)…

Bloodmoney: A Novel of Espionage by David Ignatius My rating: 4 of 5 stars I don’t usually read spy novels, but the plot for this one sounded intriguing. And I was captured by the idea of a lead female character. I wasn’t disappointed. I read the ebook version of Bloodmoney. Fiction is probably the easiest…

Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’ve read only one foreign-language-translated-into-English mystery author before, and when I stumbled onto this book while browsing the shelves of the Toronto Public Library’s virtual branch, I decided to give her a try. Good decision! It’s interesting reading a story set in a…

Old City Hall: A Novel by Robert Rotenberg My rating: 3 of 5 stars I was looking for a Canadian mystery writer, and Robert Rotenberg was recommended to me, forget by whom. Even better for me as a Torontonian, he sets Old City Hall in Toronto. Unfortunately, that meant as a Torontonian, I got tossed…