Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith

How do you investigate a murder in a society where the very idea of murder is unthinkable? This is the existential challenge confronting Leo Stepanovich Demidov, a Soviet state security (MGB) officer in the latter years of Stalin’s dictatorship. When he finds evidence that a colleague’s young son has been murdered, he covers it up.  [...]

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The Yard Dog, by Sheldon Russell

1943.  A dreary Oklahoma town, where the Dust Bowl and Depression still hang heavily over the residents.  Hook Runyon is drifting from one drunken spree to the next, moving the old caboose where he lives when he wants some variety.  Hook, you see, is a yard dog – a railroad bull – ok, a guy [...]

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Ordinary Heroes, by Scott Turow

Turow is well-known for his legal thrillers, including Presumed Innocent, which I think paved the way for a new generation of legal writers, including John Grisham.  Although he hasn’t scored as big since, his character development, courtroom drama, and exploration of the legal personality of the fictional Kindle County keep his books selling and circulating.  [...]

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The Bookshop, by Penelope Fitzgerald

It is my unscientific but educated opinion that most authors are better at short stories than longer works. With full-length narratives, authors are prone to blathering on or cramming in unnecessary details or cluttering the story with extraneous characters. With short stories they are forced to make careful choices about each word and sentence. The [...]

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Northlanders: Sven the Returned, by Brian Wood

“Vikings finally done right!” effuses the cover blurb from Entertainment Weekly (whose reviewers obviously never saw the Viking Kittens doing Led Zeppelin, but I digress). If we understand “Vikings” to mean “violent” and “gritty” and “bleak,” then the Northlanders series succeeds with flying colors…
…or, if we’re going to be literal about it, the Northlanders series [...]

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The Flickering Light, by Jane Kirkpatrick

Do you want your picture taken? Grab a digital camera and you’ll have it in an instant. But just a mere one hundred years ago, a photograph was a treasured object. Having your picture taken meant a trip to the photographer’s studio and spending considerable money. Today’s story is about a portrait photographer, his studio and his assistant in [...]

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The King’s Coat, by Dewey Lambdin

This is a good, rousing tale of sailing life in 1780. You will learn much about ships and how they work as well as battles of the time and the weapons used. Our “hero,” (and we use the word loosely) is a wild young fellow who suddenly finds himself in a new world. Think Horatio Hornblower, but [...]

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The Last Kingdom, by Bernard Cornwell

This is a fairly new series for Bernard Cornwell, who is already well-known for his 21-book Richard Sharpe series. Cornwell continues his great story-telling style but in a different time and place. Now we are in the year 866, on the northeast border of England, or Englaland as it was once called.
The Last Kingdom, the first book [...]

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Medicus, by Ruth Downie

Here is another story about the great Roman Empire interwoven with a murder mystery.  This is a fun, light read – and very enjoyable.
The year is 117 A.D., and expansionist Rome is dispatching the Army to the far reaches of its empire.  And so Gaius Petreius Ruso, a doctor with the 20th Legion, finds himself [...]

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SPQR: The King’s Gambit, by John Maddox Roberts

SPQR I: The King’s Gambit is an entertaining combination of murder mystery and light history lesson which takes us back to 44 B.C., to the bustling and powerful city of Rome.  The protagonist is Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger. As Head of the Commission of Twenty Six, his job is to solve the murders in his [...]

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