I am currently reading The Severed Streets, sequel to Paul Cornell’s exemplary supernatural crime novel, London Falling, and the concept of ostentation came up for discussion (with author Neil Gaiman – who is a rather fateful fictional iteration of himself in the book – as the literary provocateur). Not the […]
The Silkworm Robert Galbraith Little, Brown and Company Release Date: June 19, 2014 ISBN978-0-316-20687-7 I daresay, even if I didn’t know that Robert Galbraith was a pen name of J.K. Rowling, I still would thoroughly enjoy the Cormoran Strike detective novels, of which The Silkworm is the second installment (The […]
Gone Girl Gillian Flynn Crown Publishers Publication Date: June 5, 2012 ISBN 978-0-307-58836-4 This is going to be a short review. Not because I didn’t thoroughly enjoy Gillian Flynn’s runaway best seller, Gone Girl, but because I did. Because writing even little details about this entertaining thriller would potentially give […]
Deadline Sandra Brown Grand Central Publishing ISBN-10: 1455501514 One of my favorite elements of suspense is something I call the “gasp factor”—the number of times and ways the author surprises the reader with a development in plot or character. It’s that twist in the story you didn’t see coming or […]
Leonard Elmore died on August 20, 2013 at his home in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, after suffering a stroke on July 29. He was 87. Even if you hadn’t read any of his early pulp Western stories or his later crime thrillers, there’s a good chance that you are still familiar […]
London Falling Paul Cornell Tor Books First Edition: April 13, 2013 ISBN: 978-0765330277 Two undercover officers, one a veteran, the other a rookie, at odds, suspicious of the other as far as techniques, motivations, loyalties. Add to that their abrasive, hard-nosed commander, who will battle for every inch even as […]
Dark Currents: Agent of Hel Jaqueline Carey A ROC Book First Edition: October 2, 2012 ISBN 978-0-451-46478-1 —♦— If you’ve read much of what I’ve had to say here at LitStack then you probably know that I am a huge fan of Jacqueline Carey. Her Kushiel Legacy series – especially […]
Lake Country Sean Doolittle Initial Release: July 31, 2012 Bantam Books ISBN 978-0-345-53392-0 Crime and/or suspense novels aren’t really my thing. Not because they aren’t potentially great reads, but I tend to like my literature at least one step removed from reality – sometimes the setting and situations in these […]
This month, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting the criminally talented Don Winslow as our Featured Author. We hope you’ll check out the reviews of his previous and new titles we’ve featured. We’d like to thank Mr. Winslow and his publicity team at Simon and Schuster for their encouragement and […]
The Gentlemen’s Hour Don Winslow Simon & Schuster ISBN-10: 0434019259 — ♦ — Let’s play “True Confessions.” I’ve never read a detective novel before. I’ve seen quite a few detective films, though I suspect that if I listed them, you’d tell me that they weren’t the good ones. […]
On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.