Tag: Book Review

“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.…

The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories by Agatha Christie My rating: 3 of 5 stars I haven’t read Christie’s early works before, and it was interesting watching her development as a writer through reading this series of her short stories. Her writing here was very much in the style of the 1920s and was…

Fever Dream by Douglas Preston My rating: 3 of 5 stars This was not my usual kind of read in that I prefer to start mystery series from the beginning. But I saw this, liked the plot description, and borrowed the ebook from the library. It had good characterizations and action — both dramatic and…

Plot It Yourself by Rex Stout My rating: 5 of 5 stars Loved this book! I think it’s because Rex Stout had obvious fun writing it, and as a writer and long-time reader of Stout’s, I enjoyed the plot very much. He took swipes at publishers; he gleefully exploited the endless author-publisher tension; he was…