Category Archives: Fiction

The Devil in Silver

Posted on July 9, 2017 by

Pepper got into a fight at the wrong time. The police officers who broke up the fight were near the end of their shift, and it was too much trouble to fill out the paperwork needed to arrest the big … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 1 Comment

Someone At a Distance

Posted on July 8, 2017 by

I remember when Persephone reissued Dorothy Whipple’s Someone At a Distance in 2011. It felt like everyone was reading it; it was as much in the air in my own private blogosphere as the latest Scott Turow or Dan Brown … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 4 Comments

White Tears

Posted on July 5, 2017 by

Seth was a quiet, standoffish, broke college kid when he first became friends with the wealthy and popular Carter Wallace. Obsessed with sound recording, Seth was testing out some new equipment he’d cobbled together when Carter approached him, asked about … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Speculative Fiction | 9 Comments

Dolores Claiborne

Posted on July 4, 2017 by

I’ve read a lot of Stephen King’s novels and have a good sense of his style, but Dolores Claiborne surprised me. I knew the general outline of the plot before I picked it up, but I had no idea that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 13 Comments

Crosstalk

Posted on July 2, 2017 by

I don’t expect romantic comedies to be stressful, but the first third of Connie Willis’s latest novel was almost unendurable. It was entertaining, and I wanted to know where it was going, but I found almost every single person impossible … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Speculative Fiction | 10 Comments

The Year of the Runaways

Posted on June 30, 2017 by

Fiction about immigrants is commonplace today, so much so that there’s a whole course about it in my university’s English department. (I’d like to take it, in fact. It looks fascinating.) But like all literature, I suppose, this is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 2 Comments

Follow Her Home

Posted on June 29, 2017 by

Juniper Song is your fairly typical Korean-American mid-20s post-college student (if you can imagine that graduate being pretty rich.) She’s not doing much, just some part-time work and some socializing, taking in the LA scene, a pile of high heels … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Mysteries/Crime | 2 Comments

Man and Wife

Posted on June 28, 2017 by

I’m on record as being a massive Wilkie Collins fan. I love his sensationalist prose and his twists and turns and especially his unctuous villains. The books I’ve read of his (six so far) have all been complete hoots. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Fiction | 13 Comments

How It Went Down

Posted on June 25, 2017 by

This novel by Kekla Magoon begins with a brief description of the incident: The known facts about the shooting death of sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson are few. On the evening of June 2, at approximately 5:30 P.M., Johnson sustained two nine-millimeter … Continue reading →

Posted in Children's / YA Lit, Contemporary, Fiction | 4 Comments

The Truelove/Clarissa Oakes

Posted on June 24, 2017 by

Captain Jack Aubrey has never much liked having women on his ships, and in the 15th book in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, we can see why. Titled The Truelove in the U.S. and Clarissa Oakes overseas, this book follows the HMS Surprise through … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction | Leave a comment