The Latest

SCIENCE FICTION

MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

A compelling thriller full of surprises

A compelling thriller full of surprises

Ariel Pryce awakens to a sunny day in Lisbon only to find her new husband, John Wright, missing. After hours waiting for him to turn up, it's clear something's amiss. There's no message, and no sign of him whatsoever. Fearing he's fallen victim to an accident or been kidnapped,...

read more

NONFICTION

Popular Fiction

A satirical take on British politics at the top

A satirical take on British politics at the top

Meet the Fitzmaurices, a wealthy, aristocratic British family with more than their share of buried secrets. But, like most secrets, they can't remain hidden forever. And as they come to light, the family unravels. But the roots of their exposure lie far in the past at an elite...

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 "Black River,"

A murder in rural India seizes nationwide attention

Ever since Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist BJP party took the reins of India's central government in 2014, the country has grabbed headlines everywhere. For emerging as the world's most populous nation. For claiming the fifth spot among the world's largest economies. And for a dramatic upsurge...
Death by Disputation

Religious conflict in Elizabethan England fuels this gripping spy story

There is no lack of religious conflict in today's world. Hindus against Muslims. Sunni vs. Shia. Christians and Jews squaring off against Muslims. But it's hard to find anything today to surpass the sheer complexity of the festering three-way collision of incompatible faiths in sixteenth-century...
Cover image of "The Seventh Floor,"

The spy the bosses love to hate gets booted from the CIA

Offices on the building's seventh floor feature plush carpets, wood paneling, and other signs of their elite occupants. Because the best appointed of these offices accommodate Finn Gosford, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Deborah Sweet, known as Debs, the agency's Deputy...
In Groucho Marx, King of the Jungle, Groucho Marx solves another murder.

Groucho Marx solves another baffling murder

In the sixth and final entry in Ron Goulart's series of Groucho Marx Mysteries, the irrepressible comedian and his trusty sidekick and scriptwriter, Frank Denby, once again wander into the thicket of Hollywood studio politics to investigate a murder. This time around, the murder victim in question...
The Guarded Gate

The racist movement that stopped immigration a century ago

The tides of otherism have ebbed and flowed throughout five centuries of American history. Racism. Antisemitism. Xenophobia. From the genocide of the continent's native peoples, to the enslavement of millions of transplanted Africans, to the Know-Nothing fury toward Irish immigrants and Catholics,...
Cover image of 'The Predicament,"

Cold War intrigue turns violent. A reluctant MI6 agent is a target.

We first met Gabriel Dax in William Boyd's 2024 novel, Gabriel's Moon. Then, the itinerant travel-writer-turned-MI6-agent became ensnared in the intrigue surrounding the overthrow and murder of Patrice Lumumba, the first elected Prime Minister in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Now, three...
u.s. military: The Outpost by Jake Tapper

How the U.S. military wages war in Afghanistan

A review of The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, by Jake Tapper. @@@@ (4 out of 5). The story of the courageous U.S. soldiers who served in an isolated combat outpost in Afghanistan from 2006 to 2009.

The Second Sleep is set in a dystopian future England.

Robert Harris portrays a dystopian future England

Robert Harris has been writing bestselling novels since 1992. The Second Sleep, his thirteenth, ventures further into science fiction than any of his previous works. (Broadly speaking, three others — Fatherland, Conclave, and The Fear Index — also qualify.) Now, if you hope to read this novel and...
funny novels - They Eat Puppies, Don't They? by Christopher Buckley

My 10 favorite funny novels

Seventeen authors are represented on this post, four of whom have made a career of writing funny novels (Christopher Buckley, Carl Hiaasen, Donald E. Westlake, and Sophie Kinsella). That forced me to make arbitrary choices in several instances. Not to mention all the other humorous novels I've...

The quest to end poverty: Jeffrey Sachs unmasked

It’s difficult even to dip your toes into the field of poverty without tripping over the Millennium Villages Project. So extensive has been the coverage of this ambitious – some would say hubristic – endeavor that scholars may spend years sifting through the documented record. But anyone curious...

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!