Category: Book Reviews

Three Witnesses by Rex Stout My rating: 4 of 5 stars I liked this threesome of short stories. Because it was an ebook that I’d borrowed from the Toronto Public Library, I hadn’t realised when I began reading it that it was three stories in the one book, each showing a different side of Nero…

Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout My rating: 4 of 5 stars Too Many Cooks is one of Rex Stout’s earlier Nero Wolfe’s books, but it’s as well put together as his later ones, which I’m more familiar with. There’s all of Wolfe’s idiosyncrasies, his food fetish (with attendant mouth-watering lists or descriptions — really,…

212 by Alafair Burke My rating: 3 of 5 stars A nice easy read in the familiar territory of a police drama with enough personal life to give it depth. When mentally taxing tasks dominate the schedule, this is the kind of ebook to read. View all my reviews

Darkness At The Stroke Of Noon by Dennis Murphy My rating: 3 of 5 stars It’s difficult for me to rate this book. I like the premise very much, of a mystery set in the far North with a small group of suspects and the Mountie trapped with them as winter ice sets in while…

Angels by Billy Graham My rating: 2 of 5 stars This book was recommended to me as a good start for reading up about angels, as it may have been the first to be written on the subject (in the modern era anyway). It starts out well, and it does cover many aspects of angels…

Claws by Stephen Booth My rating: 3 of 5 stars Only Ben Cooper appears in this nicely short story. I like the interplay befween Cooper and Uddal; the mystery itself is Intriguing; and the ending satisfies. But this is a mystery with a message. And that message is hammered home in Cooper’s thoughts, a policeman’s…

Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith My rating: 4 of 5 stars I find it a pleasure to read mysteries set in a country other than UK or US (yes, I didn’t include Canada because it’s not a big setting either), and I like this series because not only is the setting —…

Ill Wind by Nevada Barr My rating: 4 of 5 stars Another good read by Nevada Barr. What made me admire her more as a writer is that she had a scene where a lesser author, going for the easy titillation, would’ve thrown sex in. Instead Barr adds credibility and excitement and interest by not…

The Dead of Winter by Rennie Airth My rating: 1 of 5 stars OK, it’s rare for me not to finish a book. I’m endemically inclined to finish any book I pick up, even if it takes me years. But this writer has a really annoying habit of jumping around in time. At first, I…