A Cineaste’s Bookshelf
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REVIEW: Blackstone Fell & Sepulchre Street
Rachel Savernake is the daughter of a judge, ridiculously wealthy, slightly bored, and smart as a whip. In other words, she has all the qualities of a Bright Young Thing ready to solve mysteries.Read More »
REVIEW: Death of a Bookseller
The author, Bernard J. Farmer, was a Metropolitan police officer himself and had a penchant for book collecting, so the hero of this novel reflects the author quite a bit.Read More »
REVIEW: Lady Caroline Lamb
Lady Caroline Lamb and Lord Byron were two celebrities, each proponents of the Romantic movements, swept up in a mad entanglement. Fraser's biography teases out the many facets of a once one-sided story.Read More »
REVIEW: The Wager
David Grann, noted for his eye-opening exploration in the The Killers of The Flower Moon, has tackled the complex, mutinous Antarctic voyage to round Cape Horn. Captain Anson brought The Wager and five other armed ships down the coast of South America, around the point between Chile and Antarctica, to attack the Spanish interests on the Pacific side of the continent.Read More »
ACCENT: House with Good Bones
It's a haunted house horror novel with Southern gothic tinges.Read More »
REVIEW: The Angel Makers
There was something about these women in their fight to survive, to claw their way out of an inhuman, unimaginable existence that makes them sympathetic -- at least a bit. These were not monsters. These were people pushing back on a world that had offered only its worst.Read More »
REVIEW: The Ghost Slayers
The British Library has gathered stories that include a supernatural detective. Each story revolves around an unusual event, that might -- or might not -- have a ghostly explanation.Read More »
REVIEW: Comet Madness
In 1910, the imminent appearance of Halley's Comet set off an unusual collection of fears, theories, and superstitions.Read More »
REVIEW: The Twyford Code
Steve "Smithy" Smith is both Magwitch and Pip in this unusual story of wild expectations and the long-delayed solution to a mystery that has haunted him for decades.Read More »
REVIEW: A Mystery of Mysteries
As many theories as there are about how Poe died, there are even more reasons why he lived. This book is a wonderful read for Poe enthusiasts, but it's also a reminder that there are dozens of ways people have come to admire Poe, and each is as beguiling as the last. Read More »
REVIEW: Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone
A somewhat estranged family agrees to meet up for a reunion for an odd reason -- one of the Cunningham sons is being released from prison. What follows is a thriller with numerous clues, multiple suspects, and of course, a blizzard that traps everyone at the hotel. When everyone is a suspect and no one can escape, time is ticking to find out who the killer is, and what they want. Read More »
REVIEW: City Under One Roof
This debut novel, a mystery thriller, is set in the fictional but entirely plausible Point Mettier, Alaska. Only a couple hundred people live there year-round, and they all live in one apartment building. Then body parts begin washing up on shore...Read More »
Books for January
A thriller inspired by Shelley and Byron, an historical investigation of an ancestor, and a local horror.Read More »
REVIEW: Murder After Christmas
First published in 1944 (the same year it is set), it intertwines the reality of Britain at war and a delightfully unserious tone. Amidst food rations, petrol shortages, and city evacuees are hidden mince-pies, vapid couples, and a doddering lawyer. Read More »
Best Books of 2022
It's time to look back on the year and take stock. I reviewed dozens of titles, and read even more. Here were my favorite reads in 2022. Read More »