Lisa Gardner has a talent for writing prose that is both raw and visceral. It pulls the reader into the story on an emotional level. In “Never Tell” (2019, 399 pages) the book unfolds through the narration of several characters, including Detective D.D. Warren, Evie (a former and present suspect), and Flora (a former victim of a vicious kidnapper, survivor, confidential informant for Det. Warren, and street-smart amateur sleuth). Sounds confusing, but it’s not because of the

It’s being advertised all over the Internet as well as within several of the news services that I receive, so I had to purchase a copy. One reviewer’s comment that shows up often is: “Grips you on page one and doesn’t let go.” Okay. Sounds like my kind of book. So, I was somewhat disappointed when I got to page 50, then 60, then 70 and didn’t really feel that I’d been gripped. But that’s not to say that the book is not enjoyable. I think it was just too enthusiastically prais

Greg Iles died a couple of months ago at the age of 65. He was born in Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg, West Germany but lived his life in Natchez, Mississippi. He was one of the great American novelists to have obtained his college education at Ole Miss. And like many other best-selling authors (some in the Southern Tradition, some not) like humorist Dave Barry, Stephen King, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Scott Turow, Roy Blunt, and Matt Groening, he was

Nelson DeMille is on my list of “Favorite All-Time Authors.”  The first of his twenty-four novels that I read was “The Gold Coast,” a mystery thriller that also illustrates quite clearly the difference between the “old money” upper-upper class and the “newly wealthy” lower-upper class.  He followed that with best-seller after best-seller, including “The General’s Daughter,” which became a motion picture, starring John Travolta and Madeleine Stowe.   A few years ago, he began

E. Lockhart’s “We Fell Apart” (2025, 305 pages in hardback format) is promoted as a YA (Young Adult) novel, but it’s really appropriate for any age, even younger teens as it is devoid of “adult” language and sex. Like the other YA books that I’ve reviewed over the years, it’s just a good story, well written. This is book #3 in Lockhart’s “Liar” series, but it’s a stand-alone.Fans of her previous books will remember the Sinclair family, but the aristocratic members are only p

As years come and go, there are fewer of us who remember World War II. In the United States, especially on the east coast, we suffered rationing and had to be sure that no light emanated from our homes after dark because of the fear that enemy planes might be passing overhead. But no bombs fell on our nation. That was not the case in London, the setting of David Baldacci’s newest novel, “Strangers in Time” (2025, 433 pages in hardback edition). His historically fictitious sto

Lisa Scottoline’s books almost always make the top tier of my favorite books. But I suppose that there’s an exception to everything. “Come Home” (2012, 368 pages in soft cover) simply isn’t up to the vaulted Scottoline standard. The theme that runs through the novel is that a stepmother is always a mother, just as a mother is always a mother. It’s sentimentality taken to the upchuck level. I kept turning pages because I thought that the standard Scottoline would come through

Imagine living in a small, quiet community that is just a few miles from a minimum-security prison. Well actually it used to be minimum security, but an escalating crime rate, overly-full prisons for serious offenders, and some administrative slight of hand has changed the prison population considerably. The facility now houses some of the most violent and dangerous prisoners in the state. In “A Small Town” (2020, 320 pages in softcover format), author Thomas Perry paints a p