I once had a history advisor in school whom I informed that I was studying history so I could write fiction better. I saw him cringe a bit at that. Even so, I think that history and fiction–and the mystery–go together well. I am always drawn by mystery dramas–and by the drama of real lives facing and unraveling their way through real events. Of course, that led to graduate studies in cultural and intellectual history, to many years of teaching literature, and to passionate reading of mystery novels. Sparkling fiction and strong narrative history, for me, continue to stimulate a sense of wonder at human experience and this incredible universe we live in.
I loved the intrigue and the sleight-of-hand narrative quality of this character-driven mystery.
The magic interests of the main character drew me into a suspenseful reading experience. Kardos creates a kind of magic with twists and turns in plot and style. This character is a magician who needs all the savvy and brilliance of a wizard to untangle this puzzle.
A fast-paced, page-turning thriller for fans of Michael Connelly and Linwood Barclay.
With nothing left to lose you might as well risk it all.
Natalie Webb has taken the gamble of her life. To survive the night, she will have to use every trick she can - each stack of the deck could be her last.
Lured by a $1.5 million payoff, former card-trick prodigy Natalie has accepted a dangerous proposal from a beguiling card shark: to cheat the table at a high rollers' private poker game.
But blindsided by her own dazzling sleight of hand, Natalie hasn't realised the…
History comes alive in this mysterious story of a prohibition finagler and his underground operation.
I enjoyed how Bob Batchelor gives us the dirt on this smuggler of the prohibition years: his business, his secrets, his cronies, and his enemies. This is a stunningly sharp narrative that reads like a novel.
I read this book quickly. Its historically informative and inspirational quality caught my interest immediately. From the first chapters, the author brings us into World War II France, which will become a tangled web of occupation by the Nazis.
I discovered in this powerful story a relationship between two sisters that weaves secrets of the heart and key decisions. The characters are caught in a difficult situation: a predicament that reflects the struggle experienced by many people in France during the war years. The story stimulates a sense of empathy and curiosity about what will come next.
The historical setting is drawn colorfully. This novel is valuable both for gaining a broader historical sense and for the sheer you-are-there experience. The narrative skill with which the author weaves this tale and its inherent drama should sustain the reader’s interest, as it did mine. This story touches the core of human experience in a heartfelt way, and there is enough suspense in it to keep one reading late into the night.
Soon to be a major motion picture, The Nightingale is a multi-million copy bestseller across the world. It is a heart-breakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the endurance of women.
This story is about what it was like to be a woman during World War II when women's stories were all too often forgotten or overlooked . . . Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac are two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals and passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path towards survival, love and freedom in war-torn France.
A secret intelligence program with Nazi scientists is described in such colorful detail that this nonfiction book riveted my attention.
What was most compelling for me was the story of how these scientists and technological experts were utilized by American ingenuity. A fascinating and well-researched history book always holds my interest.
In the chaos following WWII, many of Germany's remaining resources were divvied up among allied forces. Some of the greatest spoils were the Third Reich's scientific minds--the minds that made their programs in aerospace and rocketry the best in the world. The United States secretly decided that the value of these former Nazis' forbidden knowledge outweighed their crimes, and the government formed a covert organization called Operation Paperclip to allow them to work without the knowledge of the American public.
Drawing on exclusive interviews with dozens of Paperclip family members, with access to German archival documents (including, notably, papers available…
This World War II book on Nazi racial "science" opened my eyes to the corruption of science to serve the nefarious purposes of Nazi racial policy.
For me, this book was deeply informative in a medical humanities sense. Robert Proctor has provided a service to readers and to the historical record by bringing this story to light with such a clear and careful rendering of the facts.
Scholars exploring the history of science under the Nazis have generally concentrated on the Nazi destruction of science or the corruption of intellectual and liberal values. Racial Hygiene focuses on how scientists themselves participated in the construction of Nazi racial policy. Robert Proctor demonstrates that the common picture of a passive scientific community coerced into cooperation with the Nazis fails to grasp the reality of what actually happened-namely, that many of the political initiatives of the Nazis arose from within the scientific community, and that medical scientists actively designed and administered key elements of National Socialist policy.
What if an aging Nazi scientist hid away on an American farm, pretending that he was dead because he knew too much?
Jake Kincaid’s chance encounter with Ezra, the elderly scientist, has led him to become aware of a diabolical plot. The frightening prospect of “Hitler’s children” (the lebensborn), a eugenics program begun with Nazi officers and Scandinavian women, has now returned. For years, the myth that Hitler’s own records were secreted away in Switzerland animated Ezra’s associate Heinz Schneider’s mad idea to reanimate that dream. Now Schneider has passed this vision along to his son, Gerhard, a charismatic politician and businessman, who, unlike his father, has tapped into strains of ethnic nationalism and is truly a deadly threat to world stability.
Writer, reader, editor, reviewer, publisher… those are all parts of me. With a lifetime of experience in the “words” industry, I have a pretty good handle on what makes a book not just good, but hot. I say this with the understanding that each reader brings their own histories to the reading experience, and what one person may like, another may not. Nonetheless, I offer you my professional and personal favorites in the mystery/thriller/suspense categories. It is my sincere hope that you find these books as addictive as I’d found them. Superb and clever writing, engaging characters, unpredictable plots—yes, please! Though I occasionally step outside my comfort zone, I'm consistently drawn back to these categories.
Liza O’Connell was a horror buff in every sense of the word. But there was one deadly nightmare she would never be able to talk about … her own. A friend murdered. A business in trouble. A marriage struggling to survive. And that’s just the beginning.
When salon owner Carrie King discovers Liza dead in the back room of her shop, everyone becomes a suspect, even her. As tensions in the community rise, so does the death toll, and now the local cops believe there’s a serial killer on the loose. The question is … are the two investigations connected?…
Liza O’Connell was a horror buff in every sense of the word. But there was one deadly nightmare she would never be able to talk about … her own.
A friend murdered.
A business in trouble.
A marriage struggling to survive.
And that’s just the beginning.
When salon owner Carrie King discovers Liza dead in the back room of her shop, everyone becomes a suspect, even her. As tensions in the community rise, so does the death toll, and now the local cops believe there’s a serial killer on the loose. The question is … are the two investigations connected?…
