When John Le Carre, the former British intelligence officer and the world’s leading author of realistic spy fiction, died in December 2020, his last novel had been basically complete for some time. As his son, (who writes and publishes under the pen name Nick Harkaway) says in a heartfelt and touching nonfiction afterword, we can […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Silverview"Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane (Mainstream/Relationship Novel, 2021). One of the UK’s best-selling authors of relationship fiction, in her latest novel sets out to write about grief in a romantic comedy setting (as she details in a brief Author’s Note at the end of the book). It’s a considerable challenge to blend such seemingly […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Just Last Night"I missed Hall’s award-winning, best-selling debut novel (The Raw Shark Texts) 14 years ago. But this, his 2nd novel, is an inventive, mind-and-plot-twisting source of fascination. Hall immerses us in the world of Thomas Quinn, a mostly failed novelist who still yearns for the approval his hugely famous late father directed to his mysterious assistant, […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Maxwell’s Demon"War Lord by Bernard Cornwell (Historical Novel, 2020) This is the 13th (and final) novel in the great series of historical war novels about how the fictional Uhtred of Bebbanburg helped (often against his will) King Alfred the Great (and his Saxon descendants) unite all of what today is England. Besides this literary series’ print […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: War Lord"Ian McKellen: A Biography by Garry O’Connor (Biography, November 2019). Garry O’Connor is a writer from the UK, best known for books about the lives of notable theatrical performers, playwrights and authors. He’s been around the theater world for years and, in addition to his personal experiences and contacts, he always does extensive research into […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Ian McKellen: A Biography"This very ambitious and largely successful debut novel is a thick (532-page) and generally very well-paced blend of alternate history and hard-science-based space adventure. In this book’s universe, humanity had early space shuttles as early as World War I (!), astronomers discovered an Earth-like planet in one of the nearer star systems years later and […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Do You Dream of Terra-Two?"FICTION PUBLICATIONS: I had 3 new stories published in 2019: “The Wounded Nark” (SF Story) published in the US-based print/electronic magazine OUTPOSTS OF BEYOND. “Sarcophagus Birthdays” (SF Story) also in OUTPOSTS OF BEYOND. “Alien Mating Habits: A Brief Overview” (Satirical SF Story) in the European-based online magazine SCI PHI JOURNAL. I also had one previously […]
Read more "2019: Recap of My Year of Modest Publishing Successes"Much-honored mystery writer Simon Brett returns yet again to the somewhat funky English coastal town of Fethering for his latest tale of cozy murder and wry wit. As usual, the local police are mostly faceless and ineffective. So when Leonard Mallett takes a fatal tumble down the stairs at his house, they’re inclined to write […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: The Killer in the Choir"The Old Success by Martha Grimes (Mystery Novel, November 2019). Mystery writer Martha Grimes has more than 30 published books to her credit. The Old Success, her latest, is the 25th book about an ace British crime-solver named Richard Jury. With such an extensive series, one would expect a considerable back-story involving Inspector Jury being in […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: The Old Success"The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell (Victorian Gothic Novel, 2018). First published in the UK, Laura Purcell’s 2nd novel is a compelling and subtle, ultimately satisfying Gothic tale of early Victorian England. Purcell opens the book with a telling excerpt from “The Song of the Shirt,” a poem from that era that recounts the poverty and […]
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