Crime Fiction Dossier

Latest Chicago Sun-Times mystery/thriller round-up

Yes, I'm still alive and still reviewing.

This morning's Sun-Times features my latest round-up column. It includes reviews of the following books:

Brad Parks - Faces of the Gone
Sophie Littlefield - A Bad Day for Sorry
Joseph Wambaugh - Hollywood Moon
David Heinzmann - A Word to the Wise
Tom Piccirilli - Shadow Season

Elsewhere in the paper, the Sun-Times' book critics pick their favorite books of the year. My choice was Faces of the Gone by Brad Parks. I love debut novels (my latest column featured three of them) and Parks' was perhaps my favorite of 2009.

Latest Chicago Sun-Times review: Laura Caldwell's "Red" Trilogy

My review of Laura Caldwell's "Red" trilogy appeared yesterday in the Chicago Sun-Times. The books are: Red Hot Lies, Red Blooded Murder and Red, White & Dead -- entertaining romantic suspense, and paperback originals so they don't cost very much.

My latest reviews

I've been remiss in posting links to my latest reviews. So here you go:

In The Daily Beast, a single-book review of Richard Lange's debut neo-noir novel, This Wicked World.

In the Chicago Sun-Times, a round-up column featuring the following books:

• David Morrell - The Shimmer
• James Rollins - The Doomsday Key
• Megan Abbott - Bury Me Deep
• Joe R. Lansdale - Vanilla Ride
• Donald Westlake - Get Real

My latest Chicago Sun-Times round-up column

My latest round-up column is in this morning's Chicago Sun-Times. It includes reviews of the following books:

• George Pelecanos - The Way Home
• Travis Thrasher - Ghostwriter
• Attica Locke - Black Water Rising
• Dennis Tafoya - Dope Thief
• Ken Bruen - Sanctuary

Enjoy!

Latest Daily Beast review: Janet Evanovich's "Finger Lickin' Fifteen"

Back again so soon! My new review is up on The Daily Beast: Janet Evanovich's Finger Lickin' Fifteen.

This was a fun one to write. Fun book, too.

Latest Daily Beast review: Gregg Hurwitz' "Trust No One"

My latest review is up on The Daily Beast. The book is Gregg Hurwitz' Trust No One, one of the best thrillers I've read in a long time.

I first read this a year ago in an early galley form -- and was blown away by it. I then re-read it recently in order to write this review and was impressed by it again. It's a very entertaining, suspenseful book with a great main character and an interesting plot. What more could you ask for?

Review of Michael Connelly's "The Scarecrow"

I forgot to check the Sun-Times' website last weekend and it turns out my review of Michael Connelly's The Scarecrow finally ran. It seems like the book section has been having some space problems recently, thus the delay in this review running.

If you haven't picked it up yet, The Scarecrow is an entertaining book and worth reading. I like the Harry Bosch series more, but I'd read anything that Connelly wrote.

Edited to add: The URL for the review changed and it's now dated today. So maybe it ran in this morning's paper. I don't know.

Latest Daily Beast review: Lisa Gardner's "The Neighbor"

My weekly column is up at The Daily Beast: a review of Lisa Gardner's The Neighbor, in stores on Tuesday (6/16).

Gardner is a great example of an author who has improved significantly over time. I didn't care much for some of her early books, but I've really enjoyed her last few. It's nice to see when an author gets better as the years go by -- because so often it's the opposite.

Welcome to The Daily Beast

I have some exciting news to share with you all...I have joined The Daily Beast, Tina Brown's web magazine, as a critic and will be writing a weekly column about thriller/mystery fiction.

I will still be contributing to the Chicago Sun-Times on occasion, but have given up the monthly roundup column I wrote for the paper for the past six years. I enjoyed writing that column and was a little sad to say goodbye to it. However, I decided it was time to move on to new things and when this opportunity came to me, I jumped at it.

My first column -- a roundup of "5 Hot Summer Thrillers" -- is now live over on The Daily Beast. It contains short reviews of the following books:

• Michael Connelly - The Scarecrow
• Lee Child - Gone Tomorrow
• John Sandford - Wicked Prey
• Lisa Scottoline - Look Again
• Jeffery Deaver - Roadside Crosses

I hope you'll stop by to take a look. And please leave a comment once you're there.

Latest Chicago Sun-Times column

My latest round-up column ran in the Chicago Sun-Times over the weekend. It contained mini-reviews of:

• Harlan Coben - Long Lost
• Nevada Barr - Borderline
• Jack Kilborn - Afraid
• Paul Levine - Illegal
• Alan Bradley - The Sweetness at the Bottom off the Pie

Enjoy!