Category Archives: Reviews

Treasure State

Posted on February 14, 2026 by smellincoffee

Who watches the watchers? Or in this case, who investigates private investigators? Cassie Dewell is intrigued by an odd phone call she gets: a wealthy Florida patron had hired a P.I. to investigate a man who swindled her out of … Continue reading →

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The Bitterroots

Posted on February 11, 2026 by smellincoffee

Cassie Dewell, formerly of law enforcement, is now a private investigator. Exhausted by dealing with corrupt or obfuscating police bureaucracy, she’s put out her own shingle. Now, in service to a defense attorney with a horrible case in front of … Continue reading →

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Frequently Asked Questions

Posted on February 6, 2026 by smellincoffee

Nearly twenty years ago, before I donned my first cardigan and became Liberry Man (this phrase has been shouted at me in grocery store parking lots), I loved an online comic strip called Unshelved, which was set in a library … Continue reading →

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Badlands

Posted on February 5, 2026 by smellincoffee

Cassie Dewell is the new girl on the block, having just been hired as a senior investigator away from her former position in Montana.  But that’s OK: that last position ended with her winning a shootout against corrupt cops, one … Continue reading →

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Provoked (not Justified)

Posted on February 2, 2026 by smellincoffee

Coming of age amid 9/11 and the terror war made me obsessed with DC’s foreign policy – understanding its actions in the world, and their consequences.  The government’s  line that “[terrorists]  hate us for our freedoms” fell apart pretty quickly … Continue reading →

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The Reversal

Posted on January 30, 2026 by smellincoffee

Mickey Haller has been asked to do the unthinkable: to cross the aisle and serve as a prosecutor.   The reason is simple: an old case is being re-tried, and for propriety’s sake,   the City of Los Angeles wants … Continue reading →

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“The Personification of the Nation’s Story”: John Quincy Adams

Posted on January 29, 2026 by smellincoffee

In his biography of Abraham Lincoln, Jon Meacham referred to John Quincy Adams — hereafter referred to as Quincy, following John Adams’ practice — as “the personification of the nation’s story”. That’s a hell of a epithet, one so striking … Continue reading →

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James Monroe

Posted on January 23, 2026 by smellincoffee

What do I know of Jimmy Monroe? I retain from Founding Rivals some notion of Monroe as a fundamentally military man, in opposition to his strictly-political allies like Jefferson and Madison, and that he was the last of the “Virginia … Continue reading →

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The Real Lincoln

Posted on January 22, 2026 by smellincoffee

Jon Meacham’s And There Was Light was a fairly flattering biography of Lincoln, seeing him as a visionary who checked his hatred of slavery only for politics’ sake, and who was finally allowed to lean in to and even weaponize … Continue reading →

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Harry Potter and the Dogfather

Posted on January 21, 2026 by smellincoffee

Harry Potter is in a bit of trouble: he’s accidentally blown up an awful woman, his uncle’s sister, and now he’s on the lam and expecting to be expelled from Hogwarts. (She’s blown up like a balloon, I should say, … Continue reading →

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