The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd William Morrow, 2010, $24.99, 390pages, ISBN 978-0-06-182701-3 There’s a special interest that we readers should be aware of and give some attention to: first novels. They have an aura about them because they encapsulate a lifetime of thought, expression and experience. (Or in some cases, inexperience . . . ) It makes no difference if the author is eight or eighty, they’ll put the
Well folks . . . this is the most difficult Mysterious Book Report I have ever written . . . because it’s the last one. Yes, you read it right; this is the last of the Mysterious Book Reports. I’ve known this day was coming for a while now. Since last year actually, and I’ve been thinking a lot, about how to say what I want to say .
The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura SOHO crime, PB, $14.95, 211 pages, ISBN 978-1-61695-202-0 Existentialism is a word that was often tossed around in discussions on college campuses back in the 60s when we were all busily self-absorbed discovering ourselves. The word existentialism means “a philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of
The Sixth Station by Linda Stasi Forge, $24.99, 361 pages, ISBN 978-0-7653-3427-5 . . . the intersection of science and religion. It’s always been impossible for me personally to be well-informed about the world’s religions and a believer in church dogma at the same time. The more I’ve learned the more confusing it all seems, because on one hand, the world’s religions all offer succor in times of distress,
Hard Twisted by C. Joseph Greaves Bloomsbury, $25.00, 291 pages, ISBN 978-1-60819-855-9 It is an unfortunate truth that the folks who lived through the hard years of the Great Depression are dying off at a rapid pace. Every day more and more of them, and their hard-won wisdom, are being lost to us. You know who they are . . . the elderly ones who live as frugally as
Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr Marion Wood Putnam, $26.95, 400 pages, ISBN 978-03969-15902-2 All my life, I’ve had a fascination with and a thirst for knowledge of the great conflagration and tragedy known as World War II. Could be it’s because I was born just a year after the end of it . . . and perhaps because my father and most of his generation, the fathers of friends
The Panther by Nelson DeMille Grand Central Publishing, $27.99, 629 pages, ISBN 978-0-446-58084-7 We’re taking a quantum leap of the imagination with this week’s Mysterious Book Report, from eighteenth century Sweden, to twenty-first century Yemen. Yemen, for those wanting a little bit of remedial geography, (yeah, me too . . .) is located to the south of Saudi Arabia and shares a long, undefined boarder with it called the
The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Englemann Harper-Collins-ECCO, $26.99, 421 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-199534-7 After the wild ride we took with last week’s cultish thriller, (Gun Church, MBR 87) I wanted to find another equally compelling novel, but one that’s the polar opposite in content, style and focus. Dame Fortune smiled and sent all of us a beautifully-written debut novel that’s historical fiction at it’s very best. It combines history, romance,
Gun Church by Reed Farrel Coleman Tyrus Books-F & W Media, $25.95, 396 pages, ISBN 978-1-4405-5170-3 I wasn’t sure about reviewing this week’s MBR after the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut and elsewhere. But after thinking about it for a while and seeking advice from friends on both sides of the issue, I’m going ahead with it. Some may see it as insensitive on my part, and I’m prepared to
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25.00, 288 pages, ISBN 978-0-374-21491-3 Do you ever wish you were a kid again? To go back in time when learning was easy and quick for you? When your biggest worry was coming up with your share of the rent? Do you like quests; the hunt for the priceless artifacts that belong to all of humanity, but somehow