Hard-boiled Detectives
Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner are among the authors that popularized a very different style of detective from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's cerebral sleuth Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's…
Change of Habits
To now, my blog has contained weekly posts. But life is changing and I need more time for other projects; so, I'll be posting less often from here on out,…
Peter Robinson
If you enjoy England and crime stories, you'll want to read Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks Mysteries. Though an older book, Wednesday's Child has a timely topic: child abduction and abuse.…
STEVE BERRY
The Emperor's Tomb takes the reader from Denmark to Belgium to Vietnam to China, following a former American agent and his friend, a wealthy woman with a passion for archaeology…
DAN BROWN
I've featured Dan Brown's work before, but The Lost Symbol bears special consideration. Even the cover hints at the complex layers of symbols and meanings found throughout the story: When…
Heroines
Once upon a time women in novels were frail creatures always in need of rescuing, or silly dolts who could not be expected to know the time of day, or…
Robert Crais
More mystery than thriller, Robert Crais's Chasing Darkness follows a detective's hunt for the truth after a man he had helped clear of murder is found dead with evidence he…
Mallory Kane
If you like Harlequin Romances, you'll enjoy Mallory Kane's intriguing heroes. Solving the Mysterious Stranger, subtitled The Curse of Raven's Cliff, is set in a coastal Maine village and pits…
Dan Brown
Perhaps best known for The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown does not restrict himself to tales with religious overtones. In Digital Fortress, technology meant to crack codes succumbs to human…
Crimes in print
The genre that encompasses crime is vast and varied, from the mystery brain-teasers that keep you looking for clues and guessing whodunit (or guessing how the detective will prove the…