REVIEW: THE BEDLAM DETECTIVE by Stephen Gallagher

My frequent readers will no doubt sigh and shake their heads at me for reading another English Victorian – set novel to do with murder and madness.  I know what I like – what can I do?  But this book was different.  While it used the framework of a Victorian sensational novel (although it’s technically…

REVIEW: THE COINCIDENCE ENGINE by Sam Leith

If HG Wells, Dave Barry and Jasper Fforde had a child, it would be Sam Leith.  Refreshingly original and smart, this novel follows multiple points of view ranging from a lovesick youth, a thug with no ability to judge consequences, a mastermind with a cutting sense of humor and an agent with a troubled past.…

REVIEW: IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS by Erik Larson

For more than a decade now Erik Larson has been digging up episodes lost to history and bringing them to the forefront.  In Issac’s Storm, he revealed a fledgling National Weather Service and recounted a hurricane of horrifying magnitude in 1900.  With The Devil In The White City, he pitted the very best and very…

QUICK REVIEW: OTHER PEOPLE’S REJECTION LETTERS

This tome is a collection of letters, ephemera, notes, cards and documents, all indicating some form of rejection.  Edited by Bill Shapiro, he and his assistants sifted through these chronicles, looking for glimpses into everyday life.  Shapiro notes in his introduction that in addition to the hurdle of convincing people to open up, is the primary…