An Unfinished Love Story
The Tin Roof Blowdown
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. In Burke's meticulously textured 16th Dave Robicheaux novel (after 2006's Pegasus Descending), Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath provide the backdrop for an account of sin and redemption in New Orleans. When Detective Robicheaux's department is assigned to investigate the shooting of two looters in a wealthy neighborhood, he learns that […]
Einstein :his Life and Universe
Library Journal Review: Starred Review. This biography of Albert Einstein (1879-1955) takes a cue from Isaacson's recent success, Benjamin Franklin, and is written for a general audience. Although the author appropriately makes Einstein's extraordinary scientific achievements the center of attention, he also covers his subject's complex and often painful familial relationships, his political interventions and […]
Stalin's Ghost : an Arkady Renko Novel
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. Moscow-based Senior Investigator Arkady Renko, in his outstanding sixth outing (after Wolves Eat Dogs), investigates a murder-for-hire scheme that leads him to suspect two fellow police detectives, Nikolai Isakov and Marat Urman, both former members of Russia's elite Black Berets, who served in Chechnya. Isakov, a war hero, is now […]
The Last Thing He Told Me
The Shadow Catcher
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. Wiggins (Evidence of Things Unseen, etc.) takes a magnificently Sebald-like approach to fictionalizing the life of photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868?1952)?along with that of a woman named "Marianne Wiggins." The book opens as Wiggins presents her newly completed Curtis novel to a Hollywood agent. Curtis photographed American Indians in the […]
Our 50 States : a Family Adventure Across America
School Library Journal Review: Gr 2?5?The beauty and diversity of America are celebrated as three children, their parents, and their dog travel across the country in high spirits. Starting in Massachusetts, the family finds interesting details: Dr. Seuss National Memorial, the first post office, and famous people like Deborah Sampson and Herman Melville. The pages […]
The Summer of 1787 : the Men Who Invented the Constitution
Publisher Weekly Review: Starred Review. Since Catherine Drinker Bowen's Miracle at Philadelphia appeared in 1966, no work has challenged its classic status. Now, Stewart's work does. Briskly written, full of deft characterizations and drama, grounded firmly in the records of the Constitutional Convention and its members' letters, this is a splendid rendering of the document's […]
The Watchman
Library Journal Review: Crais (The Two-Minute Rule) writes a number of fine detective stories featuring wisecracking P.I. Elvis Cole, who is assisted at times by partner Joe Pike. Now it's Pike's turn, with Cole on hand to help. An ex-cop and ex-mercenary, Pike is a good-guy version of Parker, Richard Stark's no-nonsense crook. In the […]
The Spellman Files
Publisher Weekly Review: Cracking the case can get complicated and outrageously wacky when a family of detectives is involved, but Lutz has a blast doing it in her delicious debut. Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, a San Francisco PI who began working for Spellman Investigations at age 12, could easily pass as Buffy or Veronica Mars's wiser […]