Category: Book Reviews

Where There’s a Will by Rex Stout My rating: 4 of 5 stars I borrowed this from the library. Good reading, although it was amusing and confusing to see the name of the inheritor change occasionally from Karn to Kara as well as the various other typos. It was authentic to the time! The other…

Lazybones by Mark Billingham My rating: 3 of 5 stars Maybe you need to be in the right mood to tolerate the volume of verbal violence and the never-ending angst — I mean seriously, people, stop whinging and be a man — of the characters, but I found it a little tedious. Maybe it helps…

The Power of More: How Small Steps Can Help You Achieve Big Goals by Marnie McBean My rating: 0 of 5 stars Well, that was a bummer. I borrowed the ebook from the Toronto Public Library, dug into it on a weekend I think, enjoyed what I read hugely, then promptly forgot about it after…

“Whisperer, The” by Donato Carrisi My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wow. I’m still reeling and trying to process what just happened at the end. This is a book that keeps on giving right until the last page, and it doesn’t use any ridiculous tricks to deceive and artificially heighten the tension either. The first…

Nothing but trouble by Roberta Kray My rating: 4 of 5 stars I won this book in a Twitter contest held by the UK’s The Crime Vault for for “What would you name your series character?” I came up with Inspector Everlast Forlorn. And I won ten books! I read the descriptions of all the…

The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton My rating: 3 of 5 stars I borrowed the ebook from the Toronto Public Library, and it’s, um, an interesting book. It has a ton of images in it, which in a regular kind of ebook as this was, are displayed strangely sometimes — image on one…

A Nation Worth Ranting About by Rick Mercer My rating: 4 of 5 stars Many of the rants were familiar to me, so I must admit I skimmed through those, but the Maclean’s articles were not, and some of the rants I just didn’t remember. I could hear Mercer ranting in my head as I…

Last Stop Sunnyside by Pat Capponi My rating: 2 of 5 stars When I began reading Last Stop Sunnyside, I was drawn in by the location (Parkdale in Toronto, my city) and the characters. The mystery sounded interesting too. But then, I’m not sure what happened, but as I read on, my interest waned till…

Winter Study by Nevada Barr My rating: 3 of 5 stars It was a bit humourless to start with, which made it feel slow. Maybe the tone was right for the setting and what was going on, but I felt too oppressed by it. There was also a few preachy bits I skipped right over.…