The Latest

SCIENCE FICTION

First Contact deep in the Amazon rainforest

First Contact deep in the Amazon rainforest

What can I say about a book that could have been great but isn't? In Entropy, the 31st entry in his long-running series of standalone novels about First Contact with alien intelligence, Australian author Peter Cawdron tells a gripping story about the crash of a private jet deep...

read more

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

Travis McGee stumbles into a massive financial fraud

Travis McGee stumbles into a massive financial fraud

He calls himself a beach bum. Travis McGee lives on a houseboat in Fort Lauderdale and only works when he's running out of money. Then he becomes a "salvage consultant," helping someone who's been robbed blind. He'll steal back the money or valuables—for half the take. But this...

read more

NONFICTION

Popular Fiction

A brilliant novel of love, hope, and the Rwanda genocide

A brilliant novel of love, hope, and the Rwanda genocide

Today, Rwanda is one of the brightest lights in Africa. The economy is booming. Corruption is rare. Government delivers services. The streets of Kigali, the capital, are clean. It's even easy to open a business. Thirty years ago the country was in chaos, as this award-winning...

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 "Dead on Arrival" by Matt Richtel, a novel that shows what happens when neurology meets high-tech

Neurology meets high-tech in this gripping science fiction novel

Just imagine. You've landed at a small regional airport somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. The world has gone silent. There's nothing but static on every channel on the radio. The body of a man in a jumpsuit lies sprawled on the tarmac, and human figures inside the terminal are motionless. Is this...

A human-centered history of the computer industry

The cover of this book about the Digital Revolution features cameo portraits of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and two others who are unlikely to be recognized by contemporary readers -- and that's a fairly good clue to the contents of this masterful, comprehensive history of the Digital Revolution....

A series of suspense novels that’s going strong after two decades

A review of Storm Prey, by John Sandford. @@@@ (4 out of 5). Sandford is a master of plotting. From an engrossing outset to a heart-pounding conclusion, Storm Prey steadily builds momentum from one surprise to the next.

Cover image of "The Boys from Biloxi," a new legal thriller

John Grisham is at the top of his form in his new legal thriller

You might think John Grisham would show signs of fatigue or a failure of imagination when writing his fiftieth novel. Not so. The reigning champion of the legal thriller is at the top of his form in The Boys from Biloxi, the story of one family's decades-long struggle against the mobsters of the...
Cover image of "The Scarred Woman" by Jussi Adler-Olsen, a Department Q novel

The latest addition to Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q series

The Scarred Woman is the seventh novel in Jussi Adler-Olsen's series about Danish detectives holed up in the basement of Copenhagen's police headquarters, ostensibly to work on cold cases. Like the six books that preceded it, it tells the story of how the small team in Department Q takes on...
Cover image of "Search the Dark," a British detective novel

A British detective novel that doesn’t measure up

What is it that keeps fans reading book after book in a series of detective novels? I should know as well as anyone, since I keep going back again and again to the work of Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter, Henning Mankell, Jacqueline Winspear, James Lee Burke, Cara Black, John Sandford, Tana...
Cover image of "Squeeze Me," a savage takedown of Donald Trump.

A snake stars in Carl Hiaasen’s savage takedown of Donald Trump

Carl Hiaasen sure knows how to lead off a story, and he proves it all over again in a savage takedown of Donald Trump. "On the night of January twenty-third, unseasonably warm," he writes, "a woman named Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons went missing during a charity gala in the exclusive island town of Palm...
Starship Troopers spotlights reactionary politics.

Robert Heinlein’s classic novel is a showcase for his reactionary politics

In any list of the all-time best science fiction novels, you're certain to come across the name Robert A. Heinlein—and his 1959 novel, Starship Troopers, is one of the titles most likely to be cited. You may also find the list includes Stranger in a Strange Land, which is a very different sort of...
Cover image of "Tomorrowville,"

He wakes up to a future dystopian America

For some reason I can't fathom, one of the most vivid fantasies of my childhood was the story of Rip Van Winkle. The celebrated American author Washington Irving published a short story of that title in 1819. His hero is an indolent Dutch-American man in pre-Revolutionary New York who wanders off...
The Forever War is a classic science fiction war novel.

This classic science fiction war novel won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards

Joe Haldeman's classic science fiction war novel, The Forever War, appears on most lists of the all-time most popular stories in the field. The book won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel. When it was published in 1974, the Vietnam War was winding down. Haldeman had fought in the war...

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!