Are you a fan of ‘noir fiction’ ? Do you even know what ‘noir’ means? There are various definitions for it, but I found this wikipedia listing pretty thorough, and the first sentence does enough for my purposes here: “In its modern form, noir has come to denote a marked darkness in theme and subject…
My faithful readers will know all too well how much I love a Ruth Ware book. I’ve had my minor complaints about them over the years, but it’s never enough to put me off reading her. I still get excited each and every time I hear she’s written another, and thank god she’s productive because…
I read Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay in a place far far away from any kind of elevator. I was staying in a cabin in Northern Ontario, dodging mosquitoes but blissfully distant from any and all high rises. Barclay’s name is well known to me, as I’ve read previous books by him AND listened to…
I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m getting sick and tired of the unreliable female narrator trope in thrillers these days. This cliché is so overused that I can feel my temper rising as I make my way through a novel that uses this technique to generate cheap twists. Thankfully, I am so happy to…
Two years ago I spotted the book You Belong to Me by Colin Harrison in a publisher’s catalogue, and I remember being intrigued by the premise, so I requested it for review. It was compared to The Da Vinci Code, but with more of a thriller-noirish aspect to it and to me that sounded unique,…
I try to avoid reviewing two or more novels in one post because I like to give each author their due, but these two books were begging to be compared against one another, and quite frankly, I’m reading so much these days that keeping up with my book reviews is getting challenging. I read The…
Most books that get sent my way for review are ones I’m interested in reading right away; mystery, thriller, suspense, literary coming-of-age stories, even the occasional memoir. But every once in a while, something is sent to me that’s clearly out of my reading comfort zone. Lipstick Voodoo by Kristi Charish is one of those…
I think this book may be the most ‘masculine’ thing I have ever read, except for maybe a GQ magazine article about belts. The Plotters by Un-Su Kim, translated into English by Sora Kim-Russell features men, lots of men, and they’re either fighting, drinking, joking around, or doing all three at the same time. There’s…
When I received this book in the mail for review, I was immediately hooked after reading the premise; a tropical couples retreat headed for impending doom when a hurricane is about to hit? Count me in! As you know, I love reading about marriages (especially those that are imploding) and the fact that this book…
How do you feel about books that jump from one time period to another? Is it jarring? Does it annoy you when it’s in a suspense novel especially? Of course it does, when you’re on the cusp of a cliff (hanger), you want to leap to the next page as quickly as possible to find…
What’s that you say? Another Alan Bradley book? Why yes please! The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley is the tenth installment in the Flavia de Luce series, which begins after a short period of time has gone by since the last Flavia book, The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place. Released once…
