A Cineaste’s Bookshelf
Click here for information about my book review policy.
REVIEW: Comet Madness
In 1910, the imminent appearance of Halley's Comet set off an unusual collection of fears, theories, and superstitions.Read More »
REVIEW: The Twyford Code
Steve "Smithy" Smith is both Magwitch and Pip in this unusual story of wild expectations and the long-delayed solution to a mystery that has haunted him for decades.Read More »
REVIEW: A Mystery of Mysteries
As many theories as there are about how Poe died, there are even more reasons why he lived. This book is a wonderful read for Poe enthusiasts, but it's also a reminder that there are dozens of ways people have come to admire Poe, and each is as beguiling as the last. Read More »
REVIEW: Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone
A somewhat estranged family agrees to meet up for a reunion for an odd reason -- one of the Cunningham sons is being released from prison. What follows is a thriller with numerous clues, multiple suspects, and of course, a blizzard that traps everyone at the hotel. When everyone is a suspect and no one can escape, time is ticking to find out who the killer is, and what they want. Read More »
REVIEW: City Under One Roof
This debut novel, a mystery thriller, is set in the fictional but entirely plausible Point Mettier, Alaska. Only a couple hundred people live there year-round, and they all live in one apartment building. Then body parts begin washing up on shore...Read More »
Books for January
A thriller inspired by Shelley and Byron, an historical investigation of an ancestor, and a local horror.Read More »
REVIEW: Murder After Christmas
First published in 1944 (the same year it is set), it intertwines the reality of Britain at war and a delightfully unserious tone. Amidst food rations, petrol shortages, and city evacuees are hidden mince-pies, vapid couples, and a doddering lawyer. Read More »
Best Books of 2022
It's time to look back on the year and take stock. I reviewed dozens of titles, and read even more. Here were my favorite reads in 2022. Read More »
REVIEW: The Album
The setting is The Crescent, an enclave of five old houses inhabited by five old families. Although it is now firmly in the 1930s, these families live apart from most modern cares, employing Victorian traditions in their Victorian mansions. Then someone is murdered...Read More »
REVIEW: These Names Make Clues
Chief Inspector MacDonald is invited to an unusual party. Each guest is sent around the country estate with cryptic clues, full of puzzles and puns, to unravel, which will lead them to the next clue. Unfortunately for the players, a brief electrical outage reveals a dead body in the telephone room.Read More »
REVIEW: Sister Novelists
Before Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters, or the historical novels of Walter Scott, there were the Porter Sisters. Devoney Looser traces the fascinating, if difficult, lives of the influential authors that have been largely overlooked.Read More »
REVIEW: The New Yorkers
On the eve of the New York City's 400th anniversary, author Sam Roberts chose to tell the history of the city through 31 people who left their mark on the metropolis. Read More »
REVIEW: The Dame of Sark
The story of a fiesty woman who resisted the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands was so inspiring and, in many ways, hilarious.Read More »
Books for September
This month I'm highlighting some titles that were released in the last few months worthy of some attention and notice.Read More »
REVIEW: The Half Life of Valery K
Regular readers of Natasha Pulley will find this novel to be least like any of her others. While there are some winks to her other universes (a pet octopus, a lighthouse), this may be her most grim. The alternate realities explored by her previous characters exist only in the author's imagination. Here it is a battle of conflicting realities -- the one which is killing people covertly and the one which the government wishes to portray.Read More »