In a Strange City by Laura Lippman My rating: 3 of 5 stars Middles. I’ve been thinking a lot about middles recently because I’ve been going through the final edits of my first novel She. The beginning needed little work (probably because I spent the most time on it in the writing phase), and the…
Category: Book Reviews
I occasionally write a review of a book I’ve read. These are those reviews.
Review: The Sugar House
The Sugar House by Laura Lippman My rating: 3 of 5 stars The Sugar House features Tess Monaghan, an eminently likable private investigator with interesting, complicated relationships and a good eye for the missed (by the reader) detail. I like how Baltimore is treated like a character in the book and how Tess interacts with…
Review: The Closers
The Closers by Michael Connelly My rating: 3 of 5 stars Harry Bosch is the hero of this mystery series that progresses in character development and personal plot points through time. But though this book is #11, which normally means feeling lost in this kind of series if you’re coming to it as a new…
Review: The Golden Spiders
The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout My rating: 4 of 5 stars What can I say? I love Rex Stout books. They’re my go-to when I need something light, easy to read, but with engaging characters, a realistic plot, and a good mystery. The Golden Spiders fills the bill just as well as other Stout…
Review: A Catskill Eagle
A Catskill Eagle by Robert B. Parker My rating: 3 of 5 stars Robert Parker is a good writer, though you wouldn’t think so with the kind of formulaic books that he writes. In the first sentence, I already had a sense of the narrator Spenser, plus the sentence itself wasn’t formula writing. By the…
Review: Cradle and All
Cradle and All by James Patterson My rating: 2 of 5 stars Boy, does James Patterson write short chapters. That was my first thought, this from someone who writes short chapters herself, but not quite that brief. This style of writing moves the story along rapidly and doesn’t require the author to put in transitions…
Review: Double for Death
Double for Death by Rex Stout My rating: 4 of 5 stars I borrowed Double for Death eBook from the Toronto Public Library, virtual branch, thinking it was a Nero Wolfe mystery, not knowing Rex Stout had written another series starring a different kind of detective called “Tecumseh Fox.” A bit of a surprise when…
Review: Death Loves a Messy Desk
Death Loves a Messy Desk by Mary Jane Maffini My rating: 3 of 5 stars Mary Jane Maffini writes a mystery series that’s perfect for reading when life is getting a bit much and you need an escape into a story filled with non-stop movement, nice characters, clues buried in details, a story that is…
Review: The Cluttered Corpse
The Cluttered Corpse by Mary Jane Maffini My rating: 3 of 5 stars I dove into this one right after reading the first in the series featuring Charlotte Adams, the non-stop organizer of people and things. Probably not a good idea. The protagonist’s unflagging energy and curiosity, disguised as concern, can be a bit wearing…