Tag Archives: mystery

Third Degree

Posted on June 11, 2009 by smellincoffee

Third Degree © 2007 Greg Iles 385 pages After being utterly captivated by The Quiet Game last week, reading more of Iles was a foregone conclusion. Although I had intended to read the fantasy-like Sleep No More, my sister — … Continue reading →

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The Quiet Game

Posted on June 4, 2009 by smellincoffee

The Quiet Game© 1999 Greg Iles576 pages Caitlin Masters: “God, I’m trapped in a Southern gothic novel!” (p. 204) Wow. I have rarely been as transfixed by a book as I have in the past two days while reading The … Continue reading →

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The DaVinci Code

Posted on May 17, 2009 by smellincoffee

The DaVinci Code© 2003 Dan Brown454 pages I don’t know that there is any point in introducing this book: given the controversy of its plot developments, I think it is safe to say that the whole of the English-speaking western … Continue reading →

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The Return of the Black Widowers

Posted on May 6, 2009 by smellincoffee

The Return of the Black Widowers© 2003 Isaac Asimov, ed. Harlan Ellison304 pages As regular readers know, I greatly enjoy Isaac Asimov’short story collections, and in particular his Black Widower series. The Black Widower stories are “cozy” mysteries, in which … Continue reading →

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The House of the Vestals

Posted on April 24, 2009 by smellincoffee

The House of the Vestals: The Investigations of Gordianus the Finder© 1997 Steven Saylor260 pages In previous weeks I have read two novels by Steven Saylor starring Gordianus the Finder, ancient Rome’s very own private detective. This book is a … Continue reading →

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The Associate

Posted on April 22, 2009 by smellincoffee

The Associate© 2009 John Grisham373 pages I will admit to taking John Grisham for granted. Like old t-shirts and Star Trek, when I begin a Grisham novel I do so with the expectation that I will enjoy it. Grisham rarely … Continue reading →

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Arms of Nemesis

Posted on April 12, 2009 by smellincoffee

Arms of Nemesis: A Mystery of Ancient Rome© 1992 Steven Saylor318 pages Two weeks ago I read Roman Blood, a mystery novel set in late-Republican Rome. It was the first in the series Roma sub Rosa, and Arms of Nemesis … Continue reading →

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The Ghost

Posted on April 5, 2009 by smellincoffee

The Ghost: a Novel© 2007 Robert Harris412 pages I know the Internet is the stuff a paranoiac’s dreams are made of. I know it parcels up everything — Lee Harvey Oswald, Princess Diana, Opus Dei, AL Qaeda, Israel, M16, crop … Continue reading →

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Roman Blood

Posted on March 28, 2009 by smellincoffee

Roman Blood: A Novel of Ancient Rome© 1991 Steven Saylor401 pages They had an awful lot of sex in ancient Rome. Not quite as much as the Cro–Magnons in Jean M. Auel’s Earth Children series, but a good part of … Continue reading →

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Archangel

Posted on March 23, 2009 by smellincoffee

Archangel: A Novel© 1998 Robert Harris432 pages No one can accuse Robert Harris of same-ness in his settings: after one alternate history mystery novel set in 1975 Nazi Germany, two novels set in ancient Rome, and another set in 1943 … Continue reading →

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