The Latest

SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

A hilarious romp through the byways of small-town crime

A hilarious romp through the byways of small-town crime

To be clear at the outset, you should not expect a realistic picture of small-town crime when you read Justin Halpern's comic masterpiece, Get Lost. What you'll get instead is a fiendishly clever story that somehow involves a missing woman, corrupt almond farmers, a Big Box...

read more

NONFICTION

He could have been king. Or a dictator. He retired instead.

He could have been king. Or a dictator. He retired instead.

Myths and legends swirl around the life of George Washington. Remember that cherry tree? The wooden teeth? Throwing a coin across a wide river? The white wig? All of these widely accepted beliefs about our founding President are flatly untrue. And, just for the record, he was...

read more

Popular Fiction

American history, laughing all the way

American history, laughing all the way

Scoot yourself over, Huckleberry Finn! Make room! Here comes Henry Shackleford, aka Henrietta, aka Little Onion, with a tall tale ripped and twisted out of the pages of history that's like to set your britches afire. Yes, here's The Good Lord Bird, courtesy of James McBride, a...

read more

Explore My “BEST OF the category” selections

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BOOK?

When people ask me that question, I never know what to say. In a lifetime of reading, I’ve read many thousands of books. And I’ve reviewed well over 2,000 of them on this site. Picking just one as a “favorite,” or even a handful of them, makes no sense to me.

The problem is, I read for many different reasons. Perhaps you do, too. And I read many different sorts of books. Mysteries and thrillers. Popular fiction, especially historical fiction. Science fiction.

And nonfiction, history in particular. You’ll find hundreds of reviews in every one of those categories on this site.

Look to the right for a rotating random selection culled from throughout this site.

Happy reading!

 

In "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs," Steve Brusatte explains that dinosaurs live today.

Dinosaurs live today: The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

Yes, dinosaurs live today. You'll learn a lot in this lively personal account by a passionate paleontologist. Quick: how many different species of dinosaurs can you name? T. rex, of course. Brontosaurus. Triceratops, maybe. Velociraptor, of Jurassic Park fame. Possibly also Pterodactyl...
Cover image of "Serpentine,"

Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis tackle an “unsolvable” cold case

Milo Sturgis is not your cookie-cutter homicide detective. He's gay, for one thing. But there's more. A lieutenant with the LAPD's highest close rate, he's claimed a privileged existence largely insulated from demands by his superiors. Except that this time around an assistant chief is insisting...
Camino Winds is about a hurricane and a corporate scam.

A hurricane, a murder, and a nursing home scam

John Grisham is widely regarded as a master of suspense. His facility with plots that steadily build anticipation toward a shattering and often surprising climax is legendary. But in his latest, he departs from the pattern. Camino Winds is a curious example of a novel that's really two books in...
Cover image of "Unscripted," a book about "Succession" in real life

Drama in a real-life version of “Succession”

In the four seasons of the award-winning HBO drama, Succession, the sons and daughter of billionaire media mogul Logan Roy fight like children in a sandbox for their father's favor—and the nod to succeed him in controlling the family business. Now, in a brilliant new book by two Pulitzer-winning...
Cover image of "Hide and Seek," an early Inspector Rebus novel

Devil worship and murder in this early Inspector Rebus novel

Detective Sergeant John Rebus (later Inspector Rebus) is pulled from a pressing murder investigation by his boss to become the front man in a new citywide campaign to combat drug trafficking. Since this leaves him with little to do, and since he is consistently an ornery sort, Rebus persists in...
Walking Shadows is the 25th Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus novel.

Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus are all grown up in Faye Kellerman’s latest

One of the pleasures of reading novels in a long-running series is the opportunity to watch the protagonists' growth. Faye Kellerman launched the Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series in 1986 with the publication of The Ritual Bath. Now, more than thirty years later, comes Walking Shadows, the...
Night of the Assassins

The startling Nazi plot to kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin

Novelists including Ken Follett, Jack Higgins, Alan Furst, and Philip Kerr have indulged us with thrilling accounts of spies and saboteurs in World War II. Rarely, though, have they managed to equal in their fiction the sheer audacity of the real-world Nazi plot to kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin...
Amphitrite 2

The mystery of Planet Nine goes unsolved in this novel

In recent years astronomers have speculated about the existence of a ninth planet orbiting the sun somewhere within the vast outer reaches of the Solar System. After all, Planet Nine is said to lie somewhere within the Oort Cloud, circling the inner planets at a hypothetical distance of as much as...
Cover image of "Girl Waits With Gun," an historical police novel

She was the country’s first female deputy sheriff

Based on the real-life figure of Constance Kopp, the remarkable woman who reportedly became the nation's first female deputy sheriff in 1916, the historical police novel Girl Waits With Gun is not, however, about Kopp's work in law enforcement. It's the backstory that leads up to her hiring...
When Money Talks

How the study of coins has enriched history

Read this book, and you'll never look the same way again at the change jiggling in your pocket or purse. Those little bits of copper, zinc, nickel, silver, or steel are far more than they seem. Over nearly three millennia of human history, tens of thousands of different coins have made their way...

My Most Popular Reviews

Weekly Reviews Delivered to You!

Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

Weekly book reviews to match your taste!

Love mysteries and thrillers? Historical fiction fan? Prefer to read nonfiction? Or, like me, you just love reading? Take your pick of my three weekly newsletters. Just click the Yes! button, and you’re on your way.

Here you can take your pick of the three newsletters I publish each week. They’re all free of ads, and I never share subscribers’ email addresses with anyone. Just make your newsletter selections below.

Feel free to subscribe to any or all of these newsletters. Remember, they’re ad-free, and I won’t share your contact information with anyone.

Enjoy reading!

Mal Warwick

The latest mystery
& thriller book
reviews every Tuesday.

…includes my latest mystery and thriller book reviews, with links to other content in the genre.

The latest nonfiction book reviews every Wednesday.

…includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.

My latest
book reviews,
every Thursday.

…includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.

The Latest Book Reviews of the Week

...includes summaries and links to all of the week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in the other newsletters.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Latest Mystery & Thriller Book
Reviews Every Week

Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review,
with links to other science fiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Latest Nonfiction Book
Reviews Every Week

Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review,
with links to other nonfiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Latest Book Reviews of the Week

The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Tuesday's Newsletter

Tuesday's Newsletter

Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Wednesday's Newsletter

Wednesday's Newsletter

Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

The Weekly Newsletter

Thursday's Newsletter

The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.

You have Successfully Subscribed!