Mysterious Book Report No. 223 – Hangman’s Game

By |2016-10-20T07:04:29+00:00October 20th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

Hangman’s Game by Bill Syken Thomas Donne/Minotaur Books, $25.99, 320 pages, ISBN 978-1-250-06715-9 Kids everywhere dream of playing professional sports and being on a championship team. I remember for example—back in the late ‘50s when we were all playing Little League baseball in the upstate New York hamlet of Grahamsville—that we had regular, and dead serious, discussions about whether we’d rather play for the Yankees or the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Mysterious Book Report No. 214 – The Devil’s Detective

By |2016-09-24T12:47:17+00:00September 24th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

The Devil’s Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth Doubleday/Random House, $25.95, 358 pages, ISBN 978-0-091956-51-6 We’re continuing with our Freak-Fest of weird reads in observance of Halloween, and you’d better brace yourself . . . because this one’s gonna be a wild ride. So far this month, we’ve covered fallen angels and a shattered New York City where the survivors zonk out, choosing to escape reality in an alternate World

Mysterious Book Report No. 211 – Last Winter We Parted

By |2016-09-07T07:41:59+00:00September 7th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

Last Winter We Parted by Fuminori Nakamura SOHO Press, $25.00, 216 pages, ISBN 978-1-61695-455-0 If the novel in this weeks MBR could only be described in one word, the one that comes to mind is inscrutable. It is defined as mysterious, enigmatic or incomprehensible, and its synonyms include words such as: hidden, impenetrable, and blank. None of those adjectives however, will lessen your enjoyment of this short, but multi-layered

Mysterious Book Report No. 209 – Endangered

By |2016-09-01T07:47:04+00:00September 1st, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

Endangered by C.J. Box Putnam, $26.95, 369 pages, ISBN 978-0-399-16077-6 I’m going way out on a limb with our review this week, and it’s a scary proposition, because it concerns a subject that engenders a wealth of strong feelings . . . The Endangered Species Act. It’s a concept that everyone has an opinion about—and pro or con—they all have validity. We’re not going to try hashing it out

Mysterious Book Report No. 204 – Dry Bones In The Valley

By |2016-08-22T06:51:24+00:00August 22nd, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman W.W. Norton & Company, $24.95, 281 pages, ISBN 978-0-393-24302-4 Are there any among us—living in Twenty-First Century America—who hasn’t heard of hydraulic fracking? It’s commonly referred to as Fracking and everyone has an opinion about it, good or bad, pro or con, informed or ignorant. It’s one of several hot-button words that polite folks don’t utter in social groups lest an

Mysterious Book Report No. 175 – The Girl On The Train

By |2016-07-15T07:51:21+00:00July 15th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins Riverhead Books/Penguin Group (USA) LLC, $26.95, 325 pages, ISBN 978-1-59463-366-9 We’ve just returned from the annual Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association Trade Show in Denver, Colorado. It’s a yearly affair with 70 or 80 publishers, several hundred bookstore owners, their employees and managers. It features thousands of new books, authors, lectures and seminars about what’s hot, what’s not, trends in the

Mysterious Book Report No. 173 – The Investigation

By |2016-07-13T07:39:16+00:00July 13th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

The Investigation by Jung-Myung Lee Mantle/Macmillan, £16.99 (about $26.00) 325 pages, ISBN 978-0-230-76871-0 Mention “World War II Prison Stories” in any group and the resulting discussion will invariably focus around one of three classic and much admired movies: Stalag 17, The Great Escape, and The Bridge on the River Kwai. But, if you’re willing to do more than sit on the couch with a dazed look and the TV

Mysterious Book Report No. 168 – The Weight of Blood

By |2016-07-10T14:57:47+00:00July 10th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh Spiegel & Grau, $26.00, 306 pages, ISBN 978-0-8129-9520-6 The state of Missouri has long held an exalted place in American Literature, giving us such memorable fictional characters as Tom and Huck, and living legends like Frank and Jesse James. It’s an area that’s rich in lore and atmosphere, has enough history for several states and it’s known as the gateway to the

Mysterious Book Report No. 153 – The Black-Eyed Blonde

By |2016-06-16T13:09:50+00:00June 16th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

The Black-eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black Henry Holt and Co, $27.00, 290 pages, ISBN 978-0-8050-9814-3 One of the most iconic writers of the twentieth century is Raymond Chandler. He is the father of the hard-boiled detective novel, and creator of a character named Phillip Marlowe, who became the prototypical private eye for many of our popular modern writers, notably Robert Parker's 'Spenser' and Michael Connelly's 'Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch,' an

Mysterious Book Report No. 152 – The Red Road

By |2016-06-16T12:18:33+00:00June 16th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

The Red Road by Denise Mina Little, Brown and Co., $26.00, 298 pages, ISBN 978-0-316-18851-7 Here's some news: I got involved with a young woman last week in a personal way. We spent a delightful afternoon and evening together; she even went to bed with me while my wife June snoozed right beside us. And hey . . . before any mendacious gossip of a salacious nature gets started

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