BookBrowse | Book Reviews and Recommendations

Reviews by Linda W. (Arlington, TX)

True Crime Story: A Novel
by Joseph Knox

RIVETING (12/8/2021)

The cover says True Crime Story A Novel, but on the first pages the author and publisher present this not as a novel but as transcripts about a true crime. So which it it?
By page 30, I didn't care, I just wanted to keep reading.
Zoe disappears from a party in her third month …more

Palace of the Drowned
by Christine Mangan

Not Compelling (3/30/2021)

I'm sorry to say that I found Palace of the Drowned more depressing than compelling. Frankie is recuperating in Venice after a very public breakdown caused by a poor review of her latest novel. I felt sorry for her but didn't find her very sympathetic or interesting. Venice …more

The Sun Down Motel
by Simone St. James

Five Stars (11/20/2019)

Simone St. James has written several other novels that combine mystery and ghost story, and here's another 5-star one that takes place in upper New York state. It switches back and forth from Viv, the young night clerk at the Sun Down Motel, who disappears in 1982, and her …more

The Chalk Man
by C. J. Tudor

Excellent! (12/24/2017)

The Chalk Man has only one narrator and two time periods, making it a welcome relief after some recent suspense novels that had too many characters and too much switching back and forth of time periods.
When Eddie is 12 years old, terrible things happen in his village, and …more

The Gypsy Moth Summer
by Julia Fierro

TOO MUCH PLOT (5/11/2017)

This novel has way too much going on plot-wise--troubled teens, mixed-race marriage, a big aviation factory, a maze, cancer, miscarriages, demented 80-year-old; and in the background, the first Clinton presidential campaign, and gypsy moths defoliating the countryside. I …more

The Secret Language of Stones: A Daughters of La Lune Novel
by M. J. Rose

I Wanted to Like It Better (4/17/2016)

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The plot elements are fascinating to me--Russian emigres in Paris in the last year of World War I, a young woman learning to be a fine jeweler. But the supernatural and witchcraft elements turned me off. Opaline is the daughter of …more

Home by Nightfall: A Charles Lenox Mystery
by Charles Finch

Leisurely Historical Mystery (9/28/2015)

This is a pleasant, leisurely-paced mystery set in 1876 England. Charles Lenox is a gentleman detective who runs a private detection agency. The plot features two mysteries--the disappearance of a famous German pianist, and strange goings-on in Lenox's home village. It …more

A Good Family
by Erik Fassnacht

Not my kind of novel (5/29/2015)

I'm not sure what about the reviews attracted me to this book, but I gave it up one-quarter of the way through. I know there lots of readers for novels of contemporary American families, but I felt no sympathy for the control-freak, cheating father or the clingy, pill- …more

The Paris Winter
by Imogen Robertson

Romantic and suspenseful (7/13/2014)

The word that kept coming to mind as I read The Paris Winter was fascinating--fascinating characters in a fascinating milieu in a fascination city. Imogen Robertson is a real pro who knows how to create lively characters and keep the plot moving along without wasted words …more

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Book Jacket — Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus

Praised by *Parade* and *The New York Times Book Review*, this debut features a 1960s scientist turned TV cooking star.

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