A classic noir novel by the author of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford WivesA handsome young sociopathic decides to set himself up by romancing and marrying a young woman with a rich father; unfortunately, this plan depends on him not getting her pregnant until after they’re safely married. When he gets her pregnant before she’s even told her ( Read more... )

This blisteringly intense novel is one of the best books I’ve read all year. It’s a character portrait in gorgeous prose, has elements of magical realism and suspense thriller, and was impossible for me to put down once I’d started. (It’s short enough to read in one sitting.) So I’ll put off the plot description for a moment ( Read more... )

McCammon was a bestselling horror novelist a while back; his heyday was the 80s and early 90s. After publishing Gone South in 1992, he took a ten-year break from publishing. Nowadays he writes historical mysteries set in American Colonial times, the Matthew Corbett series (Speaks the Nightbird: A Novel (Matthew Corbett Book 1)
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A standalone novel by the author of the charming Mrs. Pollifax series, about a retired grandma who becomes a spy, which seems to be taking my f-list by storm ( Read more... )

Just a heads-up that Palm for Mrs. Pollifax (Mrs. Pollifax Series Book 4)
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I probably won't keep writing these up as pretty much everything that I said about # 1 is also true of # 2, though there's less of a voyage of self-discovery as you can only tell the story of "how a widow in her sixties discovered that she makes a really great spy" once. However, the strong supporting cast, travelogue, suspense, humor, and most of ( Read more... )

This oddly cozy spy thriller has some similar qualities as Gilman’s The Tightrope Walker: crisp writing, a sheltered and depressed heroine discovering that both her life and her own capacities are far greater than she imagined, and a generous view of humanity despite a fair amount of murder and mayhem ( Read more... )