Posts tagged with mystery
The Liar, by Nora Roberts
After her most recent—and truly terrible—series, I was ready to give up on Nora Roberts forever, but her latest standalone novel, The Liar, is the kind of satisfying, sturdy, girl-power effort that drags me right back in. Curse you, Nora Roberts, and your ability to wrest away my hard-earned spare cash...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Liar, by Nora Roberts
Okay, I'm giving Nora Roberts one more shot: this week our Book Giveaway is her recent standalone novel The Liar. We'll have to see where it ranks on her scale of shameless self-replication. My hopes aren't high, but Roberts has surprised me before...
Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear's novel Karen Memory has all the hallmarks of a great YA novel: the plot is unabashedly romantic and imaginative, and the author is clearly determined to deliver plenty of value for your entertainment dollar. In fact, I suspect the only reason this wasn't packaged as a teen book is because the sixteen-year-old heroine is A) gay and B) a prostitute...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear
This week's Book Giveaway pick is Elizabeth Bear's Karen Memory, a steampunk Western set in an otherworldly version of the Seattle Underground. I'm not very far into it yet, but I'll read anything that plays up Seattle's innate weirdness, and I'm already a fan of the heroine's frank, no-nonsense narration...
The Vanishing Game, by Kate Kae Myers
There's some good stuff in Kate Kae Myers's teen mystery/horror/romance novel The Vanishing Game, but it's one of those unfortunate novels where the whole is considerably less enjoyable than its individual parts...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Vanishing Game, by Kate Kae Myers
This week, we continue the fine Wordcandy tradition of picking our Book Giveaway titles based entirely on the virtue of eye-catching cover art. I have no idea what Kate Kae Myers's The Vanishing Game is actually about (our review will be posted later today), but I want to give Ms. Myers's cover artist two enthusiastic thumbs up...
Mojo, by Tim Tharp
Last week, I complained at length about a novelist whose characters spoke only in sparkling witticisms. I clearly need to be more careful what I wish for, because the first book I read this week features characters who show all the intellectual prowess of a cheese sandwich...
At least they don't all die in this one.
And speaking of film news, Variety reports that model Cara Delevingne is in talks to star in an adaptation of John Green’s Paper Towns. I haven't read the book, but if the Wikipedia plot summary is to be believed it sounds like it actually has a surprising amount in common with I Know What You Did Last Summer...
Bad Machinery: The Case of the Team Spirit and The Case of the Good Boy, by John Allison
I picked up the first volume of John Allison's Bad Machinery because I kept seeing it described as a spectacular title for children, and I figured: what the hell, I'm pretty childish. But now that I've read every Bad Machinery strip to date, I've decided Allison's publisher is making a mistake by pushing Bad Machinery exclusively at kids—this is a story about children, but that doesn't mean it's best appreciated by children...
Exposed, by Kimberly Marcus
Kimberly Marcus's Exposed is a YA novel written entirely in free verse. It's a gimmicky approach, but the poetry format proves to be a perfect fit for this book—it takes a dark, gripping story an...
The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, by Josh Berk
When I opened the package containing Josh Berk's debut novel The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, I assumed it was a book aimed at elementary school students. The colorful cover, the goofy nam...
Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher, by Wendelin Van Draanen
We adore Wendelin Van Draanen's books, but we understand why the director of the recent film adaptation of her novel Flipped re-set the plot in the 1950s—Ms. Van Draanen's unif...
Killer Summer, by Ridley Pearson
Ridley Pearson's Killer Summer is his third book featuring Walt Fleming, the sheriff of Sun Valley, a small Idaho resort town. I'm always hesitant about starting a ser...
Tribute, by Nora Roberts
When I channel-flipped past Lifetime’s made-for-television adaptation of Nora Roberts’ novel Tribute a few days ago, I thought it looked ridiculous—the TV equivalent of spray-can cheese, with...
Behold, Here's Poison, by Georgette Heyer
Behold, Here’s Poison features one the most creative weapons in murder-mystery history, and is my favorite of the three Heyer novels we’ve reviewed in the past week. Why Shoot a Butler? and...
Why Shoot a Butler?, by Georgette Heyer
Why Shoot a Butler? is perhaps Georgette Heyer’s most conventional detective story. Her murder weapons are unremarkable, her plot centers around a missing will, and her sleuth displays a lev...
The Unfinished Clue, by Georgette Heyer
While Georgette Heyer is best remembered for her Regency romances, she also wrote a handful of superb detective stories. These mid-twentieth century British mysteries amply display Heyer’s g...
Kisses and Lies, by Lauren Henderson
Kiss Me Kill Me, the first book in Lauren Henderson’s series featuring 16-year-old Scarlett Wakefield, was an unexpected delight: a YA mystery that blended the guilty pleasures of the Gossip Girl series with...
In The Woods, by Tana French
Tana French’s bestselling novel In the Woods opens with a never-solved mystery: three children in 1970s Ireland vanish from their suburban neighborhood. One is found, but he has no memory of what happene...
Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl, by John Feinstein
John Feinstein’s Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl offers an appealing alternative to the majority of books aimed at preteen male readers (most of which seem to feature wizards, spies, and/or laser-toting aliens). While Cover-Up includes its fair share of armed thugs and sneering bad guys, it’s basically a thoughtful, entertaining novel about the world of sports journalism...
Poltergeist, by Kat Richardson
Kat Richardson’s Poltergeist (sequel to 2006’s Greywalker) is a sharp, sinister urban fantasy that blends storytelling with Seattle history. Painstakingly researched and intelligent, this series is perfect for fantasy/horror fans looking for something more than a spine-tingling cheap thrill...
Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann
The set-up is stock casual mystery: in a rural Irish town, a friendly, reclusive shepherd is found dead in his pasture with a spade in his stomach. Everyone in the town had a reason to not only want him dead, but also to fear his death. None of the locals, including the police, care to investigate. Instead, the mystery is left to be solved by a set of lovable amateurs—the shepherd’s abandoned flock...
Evil Genius, by Catherine Jinks
Catherine Jinks’s novel Evil Genius opens with a list of the classes offered at the Axis Institute. Students can sign up for “Applied Physics”, “Cultural Appreciation”, or “Pragmatic Philosophy”. There’s even a wholesome-sounding offering entitled “Coping Skills”. It looks a lot like any other class list... or it would, if someone hadn’t crossed out the official class names and written in more accurate descriptions...