DeBooks

Every now and then you open a book that is completely unlike anything you've read before. Blood Book is one such book. It is translated from German; the original title is Blutbuch. It has won German and Swiss prizes, although readers on Amazon seem to have given it

I read three novels with S’s in the titles: A Mouth Full of Salt, The Surf House, and Secrets of the Starlit Sea. In all three, large bodies of water are present. The first is the more literary book, the other two are undiluted suspense. A Mouth Full of

Today Mercia S. Burger holds forth. She is an acclaimed writer and like my friend Louis Gaigher, she only reads literary books. She has a keen, unblinking eye and a way with words. Just so we know what we’re talking about – the British-Hungarian writer David Szalay’s surname

If you enjoy reading domestic noir, before long you start thinking the male gender is suspicious. It’s as if the male protagonists in every novel merge into a ghastly collage of messy manhood: narcissistic, selfish, bullying, domineering, false, and deceitful. At first romantic and considerate, and again briefly when

I want to discuss three books. I'll start with the least substantial one. The Woman in Ward 9 made me think that I'd recently read it. I was thinking of Ward D by Freida McFadden. Easy mistake, look at the titles and covers: Psychological thrillers like

I’m a crime fiction junkie, but I actually read Jo Nesbo for the sake of the characters and the dynamics between them. The main characters are as ruggedly butch as alley cats, but they possess a sensitive side and a true appreciation of women. Meet Detective Bob Oz. He’

When life’s storms rage fiercely around you and you’re plunged into an emotional crisis, your mind is too busy and your heart too full to read. You’re focused on survival—every cell in your body is working hard to gather hope, to believe in a good outcome.