About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Will Thomas
Positive BookPage These real historical figures mingle freely and seamlessly with fictional characters, some of whom are prepared to die for them, while others seek the opportunity to kill them ... A bit of good news for readers: If you like this book, there are a dozen previous Barker & Llewelyn mysteries to keep you entertained for the foreseeable future.
T. Jefferson Parker
Rave BookPage We find out what is happening as Ford connects the dots—and he is very good at connecting the dots. I’m not giving away the ending here at all, but on the last page there is a sweet nod to author John D. MacDonald and his beloved character Travis McGee, without whom an entire generation of modern suspense novelists would have had no archetype.
Romy Hausmann, Trans. by Jamie Bulloch
Rave BookPage I didn’t even try to figure out whodunit. I just kept turning pages, wondering what the hell was going to happen until I had finished the book in one sitting, in the small-numbered hours of the late night.
Ken Bruen
Rave BookPage Ken Bruen peppers his tales of world-weary ex-Garda (Irish cop) Jack Taylor with shamrock bromides that are often thought provoking or darkly humorous ... Bruen’s command of language and metaphor is on full display in his trademark staccato verse, and his sense of place is superb. And to top it all off, the final scene is so artfully and powerfully rendered that I had to go back and read it again. And again. And I likely will again.
T. Jefferson Parker
Rave Bookpage ...there is nuance upon nuance, misdirection upon misdirection ... As is typical for Parker’s novels, the stage upon which the story unfolds is a microcosm of today’s America, with racism and intolerance, the escalating struggle between conservatives and liberals and the pervasive influence of megachurches and the politics espoused therein. As is also typical of Parker’s novels, it is a mighty fine read.
Karin Fossum, Trans. by Kari Dickson
Positive BookPage ...stark and oh-so-dark ... Fossum excels at this sort of psychological suspense, and as such, she is one of the leading lights of the Scandinavian whodunit genre.
Kristen Lepionka
Positive BookPage ... it gets complicated—and moves from complicated to lethal in very short order. Roxane is easily one of the edgiest and most deeply flawed suspense heroines since Robert Eversz’s Nina Zero. Read this one, and you’ll soon be perusing the bookstore shelves for the previous two books in the series.
C.J. Box
Rave Bookpage C.J. Box’s latest thriller, The Bitterroots, follows a family that redefines the word dysfunctional ... Box is in top form here, gilding his reputation for finely crafted suspense novels of the New West—a place you wouldn’t necessarily want to live but that is endlessly intriguing to read about.
Aoife Clifford
Positive BookPage ... a thematically rich study in fragile memories and outright duplicity. And yes, it is utterly gripping.
S. J. Rozan
Positive BookPage Rozan skillfully weaves this history into her narrative, adding texture and nuance to what is already a cracking good mystery.
Caz Frear
Positive BookPage I cannot think of a mystery protagonist who harbors more secrets or confronts more ethical challenges than Detective Catrina \'Cat\' Kinsella ... You will guess who did it, but you will be wrong.
Mark Billingham
Rave BookPage With lots of surprises and some very crisp, staccato storytelling, it’s impossible to put down Their Little Secret.
Abir Mukherjee
Positive BookPage Riveting ... Mukherjee has a substantive grasp of colonial Indian history, and his books have the feel of a modern-day and much more progressive Kipling, full of high intrigue and derring-do, yet overlaid with the day-to-day reality of a struggle with addiction.
T. J. Martinson
Positive BookPage A bit outside my wheelhouse, but I didn’t let that get in my way, and you shouldn’t either. This genre-bending book has plenty for suspense fiction aficionados to revel in.
Donna Leon
Positive BookPage \"Leon is a multifaceted, effortlessly assured writer. Her plots are innovative and layered, her characters have developed and matured over the course of a lengthy series, and her prose is imbued with wit and compassion on virtually every page. If you are a fan of Louise Penny (and who isn’t?), Leon should be on your short list.\
William Boyle
Positive BookPage \"[The book\'s premise] sounds a little bit loopy, along the lines of Carl Hiaasen or Tim Dorsey, and there is indeed a surreal element to this caper. But there is also more than a little Thelma & Louise in Boyle’s terrific tale, which has some of the most stylish noir prose to grace the page in some time.\
Taylor Adams
Positive BookPage \"... supercharged ... Oh, and one last thing, and it really is the last thing—the twist ending is way cool.\
James Lee Burke
Rave BookPage \"You don’t have to get past the opening paragraph of The New Iberia Blues to see his mastery of [Burke\'s] craft ... It is a long book, but I read it slowly, pausing from time to time to digest the first-rate prose, the atmospheric bayou setting and the complex interactions of people I feel I have known for 30-plus years.\
Ken Bruen
Rave BookPage Taut plotting, a staccato first-person narrative, deeply flawed yet sympathetic characters and the windy, wet Irish milieu conspire to put Bruen’s novels into a class by themselves.
Louise Penny
Rave BookPage \"Each Gamache adventure (we are now at the 14th) displaces the previous one as the best in the series. I have read each one twice—first as a one-sitting page turner, and then shortly afterward as a leisurely reread in which I revel in the artistry of the prose, the characterizations, the locales. It’s not to be missed!\
Val McDermid
Positive BookPage \"Enter Karen Pirie, cold case detective (because, hey, cases don’t get much colder than this), in the fifth installment of Val McDermid’s popular Karen Pirie series, Broken Ground ... McDermid’s books are relentlessly excellent, with sympathetically flawed characters, well-crafted storylines, a clever twist or two and crisp dialogue. It’s no wonder she is considered the queen of Scottish crime fiction.\
Martin Limón
Positive BookPage ...[a] fine series of military police procedurals ... I have read every Limón book since 1992’s Jade Lady Burning, and I have every intention of continuing to do so; they are that good.
Catriona McPherson
Rave Bookpage Catriona McPherson successfully channels the mystery chops of Agatha Christie and the dialogue skills of Noël Coward in her standalone psychological thriller Go to My Grave ... Eight guests are all family members, by blood or by marriage. But there is bad blood—and bad marriage—on display here, and another something awful is poised to take place. I’m not giving anything away to say that even a newbie reader of suspense fiction will feel a Stephen King-esque prickle of menace as things start to get out of hand, and even the most jaded of suspense aficionados should be gobsmacked by the twist at the end.
Sara Paretsky
Positive BookPage As is usually the case with Paretsky’s novels, there is considerable social and political commentary, so if you are a capital-C Conservative, you might want to give some thought to how much you are willing to have your convictions challenged. Everyone else can revel in the superb pacing, the well-developed characters and the crisp dialogue from one of the most consistently excellent writers in the genre.
Anthony Horowitz
Positive BookPage \"... of all the Bond books that have come out since Fleming’s death, this one may hew closest to the originals. The racy English sports cars, check. The sultry femme fatale, check. The oversize (both in girth and in ego) villain, check. Oh, and here’s a bonus: For those who have ever wondered why Bond drinks his martinis shaken, not stirred, this book is where you will find the answer.\
Ed Lin
Positive BookPage \"99 Ways to Die is the third in the series and is the most fleshed out of the three. Ultimately, Lin’s books are most appealing for the insider’s look at Taiwanese culture, the motley crew of supporting cast and the multiple laughs per page.\
Joe Ide
Positive BookPage Wrecked takes Ide’s unlikely hero into new territory, with foes that test his mettle in ways his previous adversaries could not even fathom, and with a possible love interest that exposes an entirely new facet of IQ’s character.
Sara Gran
Positive BookPage ...strange yet wildly entertaining ... As the narrative proceeds, another cold case gets woven in, and Gran deftly jumps back and forth between them, bringing the reader along for a wild ride across the decades.
Cara Black
Positive BookPage I have looked forward to each new installment of Cara Black’s series ... I’ve read them all, and there isn’t a clinker in the lot ... Black’s milieu-driven novels could not take place anywhere other than the City of Light, and they are all the better for that.