Posts tagged with mystery

May 26 2015

The Liar, by Nora Roberts

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After her most recent—and truly terrible—series, I was ready to give up on Nora Roberts forever, but her latest standalone novel, The Liar, is the kind of satisfying, sturdy, girl-power effort that drags me right back in. Curse you, Nora Roberts, and your ability to wrest away my hard-earned spare cash...

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May 26 2015

Weekly Book Giveaway: The Liar, by Nora Roberts

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Okay, I'm giving Nora Roberts one more shot: this week our Book Giveaway is her recent standalone novel The Liar. We'll have to see where it ranks on her scale of shameless self-replication. My hopes aren't high, but Roberts has surprised me before...

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Feb 23 2015

Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear

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Elizabeth Bear's novel Karen Memory has all the hallmarks of a great YA novel: the plot is unabashedly romantic and imaginative, and the author is clearly determined to deliver plenty of value for your entertainment dollar. In fact, I suspect the only reason this wasn't packaged as a teen book is because the sixteen-year-old heroine is A) gay and B) a prostitute...

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Feb 23 2015

Weekly Book Giveaway: Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear

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This week's Book Giveaway pick is Elizabeth Bear's Karen Memory, a steampunk Western set in an otherworldly version of the Seattle Underground. I'm not very far into it yet, but I'll read anything that plays up Seattle's innate weirdness, and I'm already a fan of the heroine's frank, no-nonsense narration...

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Feb 9 2015

The Vanishing Game, by Kate Kae Myers

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There's some good stuff in Kate Kae Myers's teen mystery/horror/romance novel The Vanishing Game, but it's one of those unfortunate novels where the whole is considerably less enjoyable than its individual parts...

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Feb 9 2015

Weekly Book Giveaway: The Vanishing Game, by Kate Kae Myers

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This week, we continue the fine Wordcandy tradition of picking our Book Giveaway titles based entirely on the virtue of eye-catching cover art. I have no idea what Kate Kae Myers's The Vanishing Game is actually about (our review will be posted later today), but I want to give Ms. Myers's cover artist two enthusiastic thumbs up...

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Sep 29 2014

Mojo, by Tim Tharp

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Last week, I complained at length about a novelist whose characters spoke only in sparkling witticisms. I clearly need to be more careful what I wish for, because the first book I read this week features characters who show all the intellectual prowess of a cheese sandwich...

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Sep 16 2014

At least they don't all die in this one.

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And speaking of film news, Variety reports that model Cara Delevingne is in talks to star in an adaptation of John Green’s Paper Towns. I haven't read the book, but if the Wikipedia plot summary is to be believed it sounds like it actually has a surprising amount in common with I Know What You Did Last Summer...

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Jul 16 2014

Bad Machinery: The Case of the Team Spirit and The Case of the Good Boy, by John Allison

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I picked up the first volume of John Allison's Bad Machinery because I kept seeing it described as a spectacular title for children, and I figured: what the hell, I'm pretty childish. But now that I've read every Bad Machinery strip to date, I've decided Allison's publisher is making a mistake by pushing Bad Machinery exclusively at kids—this is a story about children, but that doesn't mean it's best appreciated by children...

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May 24 2011

Exposed, by Kimberly Marcus

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Kimberly Marcus's Exposed is a YA novel written entirely in free verse. It's a gimmicky approach, but the poetry format proves to be a perfect fit for this book—it takes a dark, gripping story an...

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Jan 18 2011

Josh Berk

Josh Berk is a Pennsylvania-based librarian with a professed (and, in our opinion, inexplicable) love of the Hardy Boys mysteries. His debut novel, The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, is one of ou...

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Jan 18 2011

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, by Josh Berk

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When I opened the package containing Josh Berk's debut novel The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, I assumed it was a book aimed at elementary school students. The colorful cover, the goofy nam...

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Dec 7 2010

Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher, by Wendelin Van Draanen

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We adore Wendelin Van Draanen's books, but we understand why the director of the recent film adaptation of her novel Flipped re-set the plot in the 1950s—Ms. Van Draanen's unif...

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Aug 13 2009

Killer Summer, by Ridley Pearson

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Ridley Pearson's Killer Summer is his third book featuring Walt Fleming, the sheriff of Sun Valley, a small Idaho resort town. I'm always hesitant about starting a ser...

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Apr 13 2009

Tribute, by Nora Roberts

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When I channel-flipped past Lifetime’s made-for-television adaptation of Nora Roberts’ novel Tribute a few days ago, I thought it looked ridiculous—the TV equivalent of spray-can cheese, with...

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Mar 28 2009

Behold, Here's Poison, by Georgette Heyer

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Behold, Here’s Poison features one the most creative weapons in murder-mystery history, and is my favorite of the three Heyer novels we’ve reviewed in the past week. Why Shoot a Butler? and...

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Mar 24 2009

Why Shoot a Butler?, by Georgette Heyer

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Why Shoot a Butler? is perhaps Georgette Heyer’s most conventional detective story. Her murder weapons are unremarkable, her plot centers around a missing will, and her sleuth displays a lev...

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Mar 23 2009

The Unfinished Clue, by Georgette Heyer

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While Georgette Heyer is best remembered for her Regency romances, she also wrote a handful of superb detective stories. These mid-twentieth century British mysteries amply display Heyer’s g...

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Jan 25 2009

Lauren Henderson

Lauren Henderson is the author of several books in the “tart noir” genre (and no, we have no idea what that is, either—it must be a British thing). She’s also the author of Kisses and Lies, the s...

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Jan 25 2009

Kisses and Lies, by Lauren Henderson

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Kiss Me Kill Me, the first book in Lauren Henderson’s series featuring 16-year-old Scarlett Wakefield, was an unexpected delight: a YA mystery that blended the guilty pleasures of the Gossip Girl series with...

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Jul 21 2008

Karen Neches

Karen Neches (who also writes those Bottom Dollar books under the name "Karin Gillespie") is the author of the supernatural romance/mystery Earthly Pleasures, one of our Featured Books.

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Jul 4 2008

Tana French

Tana French is a Dublin-based writer and former actress, and the author of the New York Times bestseller In The Woods, one of our Featured Book picks.

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Jul 4 2008

In The Woods, by Tana French

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Tana French’s bestselling novel In the Woods opens with a never-solved mystery: three children in 1970s Ireland vanish from their suburban neighborhood. One is found, but he has no memory of what happene...

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Oct 17 2007

John Feinstein

John Feinstein is a former Washington Post reporter, an occasional contributor to NPR, and the author of a number of best-selling sports books. He has also written a trio of well-received childre...

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Oct 17 2007

Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl, by John Feinstein

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John Feinstein’s Cover-Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl offers an appealing alternative to the majority of books aimed at preteen male readers (most of which seem to feature wizards, spies, and/or laser-toting aliens). While Cover-Up includes its fair share of armed thugs and sneering bad guys, it’s basically a thoughtful, entertaining novel about the world of sports journalism...

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Aug 5 2007

Poltergeist, by Kat Richardson

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Kat Richardson’s Poltergeist (sequel to 2006’s Greywalker) is a sharp, sinister urban fantasy that blends storytelling with Seattle history. Painstakingly researched and intelligent, this series is perfect for fantasy/horror fans looking for something more than a spine-tingling cheap thrill...

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Jul 26 2007

Leonie Swann

Leonie Swann is the German author of the internationally best-selling detective novel Three Bags Full, one of our "Featured Book" picks. According to her publishers, Ms. Swann has degrees in phil...

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Jul 26 2007

Three Bags Full, by Leonie Swann

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The set-up is stock casual mystery: in a rural Irish town, a friendly, reclusive shepherd is found dead in his pasture with a spade in his stomach. Everyone in the town had a reason to not only want him dead, but also to fear his death. None of the locals, including the police, care to investigate. Instead, the mystery is left to be solved by a set of lovable amateurs—the shepherd’s abandoned flock...

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May 1 2007

Evil Genius, by Catherine Jinks

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Catherine Jinks’s novel Evil Genius opens with a list of the classes offered at the Axis Institute. Students can sign up for “Applied Physics”, “Cultural Appreciation”, or “Pragmatic Philosophy”. There’s even a wholesome-sounding offering entitled “Coping Skills”. It looks a lot like any other class list... or it would, if someone hadn’t crossed out the official class names and written in more accurate descriptions...

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Apr 10 2007

Benjamin Black

Benjamin Black is the pen name of prize-winning Irish novelist and journalist John Banville. Banville’s books are short on charm, but long on intelligence, elegant prose, and dark humor. His mys...

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