Without glorifying the colonial days of India, Carter has sketched an enjoyable adventure within these pages. India in 1837, the heydey of the British East India Company is the backdrop for two exceedingly unlikely heros. Both are Company men, and neither is happy about it. William Avery is young and finds himself broke in Calcutta.…
REVIEW: BLACK DIAMONDS by Catherine Bailey
Anyone with a penchant for the tension between the past traditions and the coming future (a la Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey) and historical nonfiction should pick up Black Diamonds. Catherine Bailey, author of The Secret Rooms, has once again scoured archives private and public looking for the missing links in noted family’s story. Posterity…
ACCENT: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins
Comparisons to Gone Girl are inevitable so let me start there. Yes, this is a suburban suspense, with a (perhaps) unreliable narrator at the heart of it. She views her old home from the commuter train everyday. My head leaning against the carriage window, I watch these houses roll past me like a tracking shot in…
READS for your winter break
A few days off mean more time to read. Right? Even between all the travel, parties and meals, we bibliophiles can usually find a few secret hours to read. Here are my suggestions on what to read (and what to skip) on your winter break. the big black lizard big book of locked-room mysteries Edited…
ACCENT: FOXCATCHER by Mark Schultz
In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Mark Schultz won a gold medal in wrestling. His brother, Dave, won as well in a higher weight class. The Schultz brothers represented a dynasty in that part of the athletic world. From the world stage, Mark was recruited to be the anchor for John du Pont’s world-class training camp…