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Review Date: 12/19/2014
Reading a classic mystery writer like Symons is very rewarding . The plotting and the writing is impeccable, reflecting an era when writers and their publishers allowed for a more leisurely production schedule.
Review Date: 12/11/2011
Classic Tey. Superb manipulation of complex plot. Characters who involve the reader, even when the ethics are ambiguous.
Review Date: 3/13/2010
A witty mystery by the author of the Rumpole series, Charade takes place in 1944 at the English seaside. A young man is assigned to help an army film unit make a documentary . Then a sergeant falls to his death. Is it an accident? The timid hero is not convinced. Eccentric characters and situations abound.
Review Date: 10/5/2018
A wonderful Memoir by a beloved writer, the book begin with establishing her perspective as an 80-year-old widow. Lively then views her life through the lens of a few objects that have stayed with her through the years, despite many moves and changes of circumstance.
Review Date: 3/13/2010
A nicely-wrought academic mystery.
Review Date: 10/24/2014
Deborah Crombie is a masterful mystery writer, who seamlessly builds characters while she builds the plot. A Finer End is set in Glastonbury in England and Crombie is at her best in creating the atmosphere of the town and the historic Abbey.
Review Date: 8/18/2015
Written in the inimitable mode of far-fetched cleverness of the original Ellery Queen, The Finishing Stroke provides clues for each of the 12 days of Christmas. We think, then, that we know the answer, but the truth emerges years later when Queen looks at his notes again and sees a pattern he had overlooked.
If you enjoy good writing and wrestling with "puzzle"mysteries, the early Ellery Queen will please you. (Some of the later book were written by imitators, rather than the original team of two cousins from Brooklyn who created Inspector Queen and his sophisticated son. The fact that both the elder and the younger Queens are called Ellery suggests the sort of doubleness that lies at the heart of the ingenious plots.
Red Herrings abound, but Queen plays fair. The clues are there if you can unravel them.
If you enjoy good writing and wrestling with "puzzle"mysteries, the early Ellery Queen will please you. (Some of the later book were written by imitators, rather than the original team of two cousins from Brooklyn who created Inspector Queen and his sophisticated son. The fact that both the elder and the younger Queens are called Ellery suggests the sort of doubleness that lies at the heart of the ingenious plots.
Red Herrings abound, but Queen plays fair. The clues are there if you can unravel them.
Review Date: 6/9/2018
This wonderfully evocative memoir is a record of a St. Paul's MN childhood that establishes a place, a Catholic upbringing, and two very individual parents. Every sentence is so beautifully written that I couldn't scan it, but it repaid every attentive moment I spent with it. If you love the english language, you'll love Florist's Daughter.
Review Date: 12/11/2011
The Great Gatsby is probably the best American novel of the 20th century. It is certainly Fitzgerald's greatest book.
Review Date: 6/11/2015
I always enjoy Aaron Elkins, and book six of the Gideon Oliver series is cleverly plottws. As usual, Elkins displays his well-researched grasp of the setting, as well as forensic anthropology.
Still, this one is not one of my favorites. I seem to enjoy vineyards, European Cities, and the American southwest more than these Alaskan glaciers.
Still, this one is not one of my favorites. I seem to enjoy vineyards, European Cities, and the American southwest more than these Alaskan glaciers.
Review Date: 7/13/2015
Excellent. I started with a later book in the Peter Diamond series and enjoyed it so much that I'm starting from the beginning. Peter is the lovable, abrasive CID head who perseveres until he gets it right because justice matters more to him than buttering up his superiors, smoothing feathers, and getting along with everyone. There's always a fair but wholly unexpected twist of the plot, and Lovesey has great fun describing Diamond's ludicrous problems with any sort of gadget. Most entertaining.
Review Date: 6/16/2015
One of the most interesting Elkins I have read because it is set in the Amazon. I learned a lot about Chili, some remote tribes, and life around the Amazon and its tributaries.
I'm glad Elkins absorbed it all, so that I need not endure the humidity, the insects, and the other perils Gideon Oliver and friends endure.
Well plotted, as usual, with Gideon exhibiting his usual savior faire in solving the various mysteries.
I'm glad Elkins absorbed it all, so that I need not endure the humidity, the insects, and the other perils Gideon Oliver and friends endure.
Well plotted, as usual, with Gideon exhibiting his usual savior faire in solving the various mysteries.
Review Date: 8/4/2011
Bill Bryson is one of the funniest writers I have read lately. This early book has some wonderful moments, especially if you have also travelled in England, stayed in B&Bs, and navigated tiny, hedge-lined streets.
Review Date: 9/27/2018
Reverberations from one discovery, change lives. This Penelope Lively novel is especially poignant because by the close of the book, we discover that the people who should have known most about their dead wife, their dead sister, knew very little about her about her.
Review Date: 12/11/2011
One of the best mysteries I have ever read. I had no hint of the ending, but the clues are all there.
Review Date: 12/11/2011
I do not really like hardboiled detective fiction, and like is the wrong word to describe my response to The Postman Always Rings Twice. Rather, likeable or unlikeable, this book is unforgettable.
The Summer House : The Clothes in the Wardrobe / The Skeleton in the Cupboard / The Fly in the Ointment (Movie Tie-In)
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
8
Author:
Book Type: Paperback
8
Review Date: 12/11/2011
I am grateful for my belated discovery of Alice Thomas Ellis.
Review Date: 7/30/2011
I ordered A Tree Grows in Brooklyn because it appears on a book club's summer list. I vaguely remembered reading it in high school. Reading it now is a revelation. What a wonderfully dense, vibrant picture of the lives of the immigrant groups on Long Island. If you haven't read Tree in twenty years, pick it up again.
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