‘Deep Blue Good-by’ (1964) a confident, rollicking hello to Travis McGee
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Already well-established with standalones, John D. MacDonald confidently segues to a series character.
Action gets heated in Grafton’s ‘H is for Homicide’ (1991)
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Kinsey finds herself undercover in gangland L.A. as the author wildly breaks from formula.
‘G is for Gumshoe’ (1990) … and for good, but not great
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Strong concepts are underdeveloped as Kinsey enters her second year of filing reports as a P.I.
McGee series cleanses itself in ‘The Lonely Silver Rain’ (1985)
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): John D. MacDonald didn’t intend for this to be his last Travis McGee novel, but it has a fitting coda.
‘Cinnamon Skin’ (1982) blows up into a good quest novel
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): MacDonald crafts one of his most psychologically interesting villains in the penultimate McGee yarn.
Fantastic ‘F is for Fugitive’ (1989) is far from a failure
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Grafton takes Kinsey up the coast to deliver her best novel since “C is for Corpse.”
YA-style mystery ‘Sun Down Motel’ (2020) floats off like a ghost
Book club book report: Simone St. James doesn’t do enough to make two narrators and time periods distinct in this supernatural-tinged yarn.
‘Hallmarked Man’: For the love of mystery, and for the love of love
Book review: The case is almost too complex. But thanks to an omniscient narrator, the romance is deceptively simple in Rowling’s eighth Strike novel.
‘E is for Evidence’ (1988) that a more evocative tale could’ve been told
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): The fifth Kinsey Millhone novel is a plate of Christmas cookies when it could’ve been a satisfying feast.
Preston writes what he knows, and ‘The Lost Tomb’ (2023) shows how he knows it
Preston & Child flashback (Book review): Thirteen of Douglas Preston’s best nonfiction writings are gathered together.