This starts out as a stunningly impressive display of teenage emotion, bringing together three kids — Crisp, the biracial overachiever; Glynnie, the privileged white wild child, and JJ, the street kid doing whatever it takes to survive — on a night of reckless camaraderie that turns into a really bad time when adult criminals get …
Category: Mystery
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/26/last-night-the-searchers-2-by-karen-ellis/
Feb 25 2019
All the World’s a Stage by Boris Akunin
For a number of years, I was worried that Boris Akunin’s English-language publishers (the estimable Weidenfeld & Nicolson) had despaired of finding an audience for the Russian mystery writer’s work, and I would have to read the remaining stories in German and miss out on Andrew Bromfield’s witty translations, or really really really improve my …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/25/all-the-worlds-a-stage-by-boris-akunin/
Feb 22 2019
A Map of the Dark (The Searchers #1) by Karen Ellis
Insofar as flawed protagonists go, this was a surprisingly satisfying novel. At “only” 290 pages, it isn’t a dense novel, which works in its favor, honestly, as it keeps the plot moving. I can’t help but compare and prefer it to Tana French’s mystifyingly overrated Dublin Murder Squad series. Sure Ms French has moments of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/22/a-map-of-the-dark-the-searchers-1-by-karen-ellis/
Feb 14 2019
The Vanishing Stair (Truly Devious #2) by Maureen Johnson
In book two of the Truly Devious series, Stevie’s return to Ellingham Academy comes at a price. Her benefactor, the abhorrent politician Edward King whom her parents idolize, wants her back at the school in order to keep an eye on his wayward son, noting that her relationship with his kid seems to calm the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/02/14/the-vanishing-stair-truly-devious-2-by-maureen-johnson/
Jan 29 2019
The Dead Queens Club by Hannah Capin
The sordid tale of King Henry VIII and his six wives is probably the one most well-known to those with even only a passing interest in English history. As an Anglophile myself, I grew up reading Antonia Fraser’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII alongside other titles more obscure on the topic, and heartily enjoyed …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/01/29/the-dead-queens-club-by-hannah-capin/
Jan 05 2019
Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl
I absolutely adored Marisha Pessl’s debut novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics, and was one of many fans disappointed and confused by her follow-up, Night Film (tho the multimedia aspect of that novel was really, really nice.) So I put her third novel, Neverworld Wake, on my to-read pile but didn’t feel any burning need …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2019/01/05/neverworld-wake-by-marisha-pessl/
Dec 23 2018
Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton
Shamefully, I have never read The Talented Mr Ripley, electing instead to read the Wiki page to see how much symmetry there is between that classic and this novel that does not pretend not to be very much inspired by that earlier book (in my defense, there are only so many hours in the day, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/12/23/social-creature-by-tara-isabella-burton/
Dec 17 2018
The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll
I don’t think it’s possible to review The Favorite Sister without bringing up Jessica Knoll’s searing debut Luckiest Girl Alive. That book centered a female protagonist who was done being “nice”, to the consternation of a large number of readers. To the rest of us, TifAni FaNelli was a source of cathartic glee. TFS expands …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/12/17/the-favorite-sister-by-jessica-knoll/
Nov 01 2018
In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
I kinda don’t remember why I placed this on my library hold list, but I finally got around to reading it and, hmm. It’s very readable. I tore through the last half really quickly, almost compulsively: it’s written in such a way that I just had to keep going to find out whodunnit. Unfortunately, it …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/11/01/in-a-dark-dark-wood-by-ruth-ware/
Oct 12 2018
Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith
Precious and Grace begins with Mma Ramotswe, founder and proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, reflecting on the people in her life: people who are late, others who are still with us; family, particularly her husband Mr J.L.B. Matekoni; friends and colleagues, from the formidable Mma Potokwani who runs the local orphanage to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/10/12/precious-and-grace-by-alexander-mccall-smith/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire