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SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

A clever whodunit author outdoes himself

A clever whodunit author outdoes himself

In A Deadly Episode, the sixth book in his Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Anthony Horowitz delivers a belated sequel to the novel that launched the series, The Word is Murder. And, true to form, he delivers a baffling story with a devilishly clever premise. Yes, Horowitz does...

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NONFICTION

How the Occupied nations helped win World War II

How the Occupied nations helped win World War II

Thousands of books memorialize the story of World War II in Europe. Every aspect of the conflict has received its due, from the fighting itself, to the deprivations on the home front, to the role of intelligence and the personalities of the civilian and military leadership on...

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Popular Fiction

Laughs in sci-fi? P. G. Wodehouse did humor better.

Laughs in sci-fi? P. G. Wodehouse did humor better.

The legendary English humorist Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975), known to readers as P. G., wrote about 100 books in a career that spanned much of the 20th century. His output included 71 novels, 24 collections of short stories, 42 plays, three memoirs, and a lot...

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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!

 

Cover image of "The Keeper of Lost Causes" by Jussi Adler-Olsen, one of the Department Q thrillers

Jussi-Adler Olsen’s captivating Department Q thrillers

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes Since 2007, Danish thriller writer Jussi Adler-Olsen has written seven bestselling novels in his ongoing series about Department Q at police headquarters in Copenhagen. All the principal characters in their own ways are misfits. Detective Carl Mørck has...
Cover image of "Sucker," novel about a Silicon Valley scandal

A comic send-up of a Silicon Valley scandal

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Humor is a funny thing. What you find hilarious might leave me cold or even offend me deeply. And my own sense of humor, which some have found quirky, can make me laugh when no one else does. So, I'm prepared to believe that you'll think Daniel Hornsby's Sucker, a...
The Woman in Black is a Hollywood mystery woman.

A Hollywood mystery woman, the Blacklist, and a legendary actor

In film history, the Woman in Black was a Hollywood mystery woman who left flowers on the grave of Rudolph Valentino for 58 years. Valentino was a silent film star who died in 1926 at the age of 31. Now, in his new novel of the same name, bestselling Berkeley author Erik Tarloff brings the story...
Deep Freeze is the latest Virgil Flowers novel.

Murder most foul and sex toys in the latest Virgil Flowers novel

On the first page of the latest Virgil Flowers novel we learn that David Birkmann is a killer. "He'd gotten away with it, he thought." Naturally, since we also know that Virgil will be called on to investigate the murder, we're perfectly well aware that David most certainly will not get away with...
Cover image of "Churchill, Master and Commander,"

Winston Churchill, Britain’s warlord for six years

You might expect, if you've read a little about Winston Churchill, that only during World War II did he become deeply engaged with the military. But that's far from true. From the time he enlisted in the British Army as a second lieutenant in 1895, Churchill was almost continuously engaged in...
Cover image of "Braking Day,"

Class conflict and dissension on a generation starship

One hundred thirty-two years ago, three generation starships left Earth on a journey to the Tau Ceti system, 11.9 light-years distant. They are now within months of Braking Day, the time when they will reverse direction and fire up the engines to slow their descent to a planet they hope will be...
Cover image of "The Missing American," one of the best mysteries set in Africa

The best mysteries set in Africa

English-speaking readers and critics are likely to identify the earliest mystery novels in the work of American and British authors Edgar Allan Poe and Willkie Collins. But Chinese scholars might differ. As CrimeReads observes, “The first Chinese proto-mysteries—that is,...
Timescape

An ingenious twist on time travel

Physics can drive you crazy. Solid matter isn't solid. Black holes don't just make matter and light disappear; they suck up information, too. And Schrödinger's cat is both alive and dead at the same time. Go figure. And if paradoxes like these rattle your nerves, you may want to avoid reading...
Cover image of "The Third Industrial Revolution," a book that delivers a hopeful message

Afraid the end of the world is nigh? Here’s a hopeful message

Review of The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World, by Jeremy Rifkin. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). A hopeful take on the future of our civilization.

Cover image of "Lessons Learned," a hopeful dystopian novel

Recovering from the Apocalypse

When COVID first struck with lethal fury a few years ago, the pessimists among us conjured up visions of a landscape devoid of human life. Bodies in the streets and on the roads. Cities everywhere depopulated. Farmlands lying fallow for lack of attention. Government services failing to...

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Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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