I’ve been fascinated by mysteries since I was little. I've also always loved puzzles and brain-teasers. I’ve been a student of Jewish folklore, including folktales, superstitions, mystical ideas, and supernatural creatures all my life. I look for books that challenge my ability to unravel tangles and take me out of my everyday experience. I love mysteries that morph into thrillers, changing the question from “Whodunit” to “What’s at stake?” I read incessantly and obsessively, always on the lookout for new exotic locales, some history that I don’t know, eccentric characters, clever plotting. My own writing traces these same paths, and I love learning from new masters of the genre as well as newbies.
This is a high-octane thriller that never lets you relax—and I enjoyed every thrilling minute of it. Beauregard Montage, the fastest driver you’ll ever meet in prose, tries to get ahead through one daring con after another, and has us rooting for him all the way. I loved the slick, urbane, Southern voice of the narrator, the dizzying pace of the narrative, and the heartfelt passion of all the characters. It’s a joy ride I’ll never forget!
*GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLERS OF 2020* *LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER 2020*
'BLACKTOP WASTELAND may be the book of the year.' MICHAEL CONNELLY 'Sensationally good' LEE CHILD 'I loved BLACKTOP WASTELAND' STEPHEN KING 'Stunning. Can't remember the last time I read such a powerful crime novel' MARK BILLINGHAM
"Bug" Montage: honest mechanic, loving family man. He's no longer the criminal he was - the sharpest wheelman east of the Mississippi.
But when his respectable life crumbles, a shady associate comes calling with a one-time job promising a huge payout. Inexorably drawn to the driver's seat - and haunted by…
Colson Whitehead takes us into the bowels of 1960s Harlem, where slick operators, ruthless conmen, and aspiring citizens rub shoulders. I liked Ray Carney as soon as I met him and felt bad that life kept tossing him curveballs. Like his cousin Freddie, who dragged him into a life of crime and high anxiety. The book is funny, poignant, fast-paced, and utterly absorbing. And the prose, like all of Whitehead’s writing, dazzles and delights.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny ... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel" (San Francisco Chronicle).
"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents…
This book is a literary historical novel. It is set in Britain immediately after World War II, when people – gay, straight, young, and old - are struggling to get back on track with their lives, including their love lives. Because of the turmoil of the times, the number of…
I’d like to recommend the whole Shetland series by Ann Cleves, which has been made into a gripping TV series. But if I had to pick one book, it’s Red Bones, about an archaeological find of human remains on one of the Shetland Islands. What I most like about this series is the atmospheric vibes given off by the Shetland Islands, so remote and unfamiliar to most readers that it’s like traveling to a foreign planet. And Cleeves’ detective hero, Jimmy Perez, whose Spanish name immediately marks him as an exception to any rules on the islands, pursues his investigations with a singular integrity and humility that makes his success as a detective all the more remarkable.
When a young archaeologist discovers a set of human remains, the locals are intrigued. Is it an ancient find—or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman is fatally shot and Ann Cleeves's popular series detective Jimmy Perez is called in. As claustrophobic mists swirl around the island, Inspector Perez finds himself totally in the dark.
The third Shetland novel featuring detective Jimmy Perez.
Sometimes the dead won't stay buried . . .
When a young archaeologist uncovers a set of human remains, the island settlers are intrigued. Is it an ancient find - or a more contemporary mystery?
Then an elderly woman is shot in what appears to be a tragic accident in the middle of the night, Shetland detective Jimmy Perez is called to investigate.
The sparse landscape and the emptiness of the sea have bred a fierce and secretive people. As Jimmy looks to the islanders for answers, he finds instead two feuding…
It’s great to find a first mystery novel written by an author who’s established himself previously in non-fiction. Like me, that is. The protagonist of this series, Tenzing Norbu, is a Tibetan monk turned cop turned private investigator, who brings his spiritual training to bear as he pursues bad guys. But Tenzing is no pious monastic. He loves cats (especially his own cat named Tank), beautiful women, cold beer, and fast-paced adventure. I love the combination of humor and action in the narrative, and the quirky character that Ten meets, employs, and captures. Definitely a different spin on the detective genre!
'Don't ignore intuitive tickles lest they reappear as sledgehammers.' That's the first rule of Ten. In The First Rule of Ten, Tenzing Norbu ('Ten' for short) - ex-Buddhist monk and soon-to-be-ex-cop - takes on his first case as a private investigator in Los Angeles. Growing up in a Tibetan Monastery, Ten dreamed of becoming a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. So when he was sent to Los Angeles to teach meditation, he joined the LAPD instead. But as the Buddha says, change is inevitable; and ten years later, everything is about to change - big-time - for Ten. One resignation from the…
Pete West, a political columnist, travels to Prague to find a missing diplomat, later found murdered. He attempts to discover more about a cryptic note received from the diplomat and is immediately entangled in the secret Bilderberg Club’s strategy to form a world federation.
After watching Australia burn up recently from a series of catastrophic wildfires, I’ve come to appreciate what drought means Down-under. In this mystery, Jane Harper sets the narrative against a background of dry tinder, making the reader feel both parched and anxious. The writing is sophisticated and evocative. I don’t have to travel to Australia to feel that I’ve been there and witnessed its menace and charm.
A professor’s murder reveals his discovery of a lost Dead Sea Scroll, whose text encodes the secret hiding places of the lost Second Temple Treasures. Israeli intelligence agent Maya Rimon races against time to stop a religious extremist from launching a terrorist attack at the next Blood Moon, triggering the Apocalypse. The story centers around a genuine historical artifact, the Copper Scroll, whose secrets still remain undeciphered by contemporary scholars and treasure hunters.
Laced with clever spycraft, encrypted electronic files, mysterious ancient puzzles, plastique explosives, car chases, and Sherlockian ratiocination, The Deadly Scrollsexplores the timely theme of fanaticism: among Christian millennialists, Jewish messianists, Islamic terrorists, Israeli politicians, Orthodox Jews, conspiracy theorists, devout Zionists—and spies. In other words, it’s a Jewish Da Vinci Code!
In the first century, Rome’s celebrated love poet Ovid finds himself in exile, courtesy of an irate Emperor, in the far-flung town of Tomis. Appalled at being banished to a barbarous region at the very edge of the Empire, Ovid soon discovers that he has a far more urgent -…
Dolça Llull Prat, a wealthy Barcelona woman, is only 15 when she falls in love with an impoverished poet-solder. Theirs is a forbidden relationship, one that overcomes many obstacles until the fledgling writer renders her as the lowly Dulcinea in his bestseller.
