The Latest

SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

NONFICTION

Popular Fiction

Ken Follett’s monumental saga of the First World War

Ken Follett’s monumental saga of the First World War

No one is still alive with any adult memory of World War I, which ended a century ago. So when we think of the events that have shaped the world we live in today it's likely World War II looms large. But its antecedent three decades earlier may have had greater long-term...

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!

 

Cover image of "The Mystery of Mrs. Christie," a mystery novel about Agatha Christie's disappearance

Where did Agatha Christie go when she disappeared?

On Friday, December 3, 1926, Agatha Christie vanished from her home in Berkshire. Eleven days later, a banjo player entertaining at the hotel in Harrogate where she was staying recognized her from the photos he'd seen in the extensive press coverage of her disappearance. After all, the story had...
Cover image of "1944," a book about FDR's complicity in the Holocaust

The sad story of FDR’s complicity with the Holocaust

I thought I'd read enough about World War II and the Holocaust at least to understand what was most important about each of these interlocked, milestone events in the history of the human race. I hadn't. In Jay Winik's book, 1944, I learned a great deal, especially about the Nazis' so-called Final...

Inside Scientology: set up your own religion, and make a billion dollars

A review of Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion, by Janet Reitman. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). A balanced and objective yet thoroughly damning account of the history of Scientology by an investigative journalist.

Cover image of "The Wrong Side of Goodbye," a Harry Bosch novel

An aging Harry Bosch is still in fine form

In The Wrong Side of Goodbye, former LAPD detective Harry Bosch is hired as a private eye to find out whether a reclusive billionaire has an heir related to him by blood. Now well into his 80s, the man had left behind a pregnant underage Mexican girl "on the wrong side of goodbye" when he was a...
Cover image of "Slow Horses" by Mick Herron, one of his novels about Clever British spies

Following Mick Herron’s clever British spies at Slough House

The eleven books in Mick Herron's Slough House series are the best known of the eighteen novels he has written to date. The series follows the screw-ups and misfits of Britain's MI5 who have been warehoused at a location distant from the agency's London headquarters and left in the charge of an...
Rift

The alien invasion is coming, and we even know when

Ever since the origins of the genre in the 1920s and 30s, American science fiction writers have imagined military conflict between humans and aliens. Amazon lists more than 60,000 books of military SF. To my mind, the best of the lot (at least among those I've read) is Joe Haldeman's 1974 classic...
Cover image of "The Hairdresser of Harare," a novel about a single mother

Zimbabwe through the eyes of a single mother

You can read a dozen nonfiction books about Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe's kleptocracy and fail to get a more vivid sense of what life is really like there than from this recent novel about a single mother by Tendai Huchu. In one short work of fiction, Huchu conjures up the sad reality of...
Cover image of "Camino Island," a mystery about a daring heist

A daring heist, a frustrated novelist, and the ghost of F. Scott Fitzgerald

A gang of five thieves pulls off a spectacular heist, making away with five priceless manuscripts handwritten by F. Scott Fitzgerald from the Firestone Library at Princeton University. They leave behind only one shred of evidence: a drop of blood. This alone enables the FBI to identify one of the...
Cover image of "Righteous" by Joe Ide, a novel about a ghetto detective

A ghetto detective, a Las Vegas loan shark, and a Chinese triad

Isaiah Quintabe, known as IQ, was a brilliant 17-year-old high school student in East Long Beach on the path to Harvard when his beloved older brother, Marcus, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Marcus' death upended IQ's life. So, how did he become the locally famous ghetto detective? At first,...
Cover image of "Brothers in Arms" by Lois McMaster Bujold," an interstellar adventure story

An interstellar adventure story in the award-winning Vorkosigan Saga

Lois McMaster Bujold has won numerous awards for her long-running Vorkosigan Saga. Given the light touch of her writing, the series might well be renamed Miles Vorkosigan's Excellent Adventures in the Galaxy. In the eighth book in the series, Brothers in Arms, the brilliant dwarf manages to insert...

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!