Hercule Poirot is known for using his understanding of human psychology to solve murders, and never is this more extreme than in “The Mystery of
A mystery novel can go off the rails if the author piles on too many implausibilities at the end. Sophie Hannah, in her second Christie-estate-approved
Vikram Paralkar’s “Night Theater” (2020) is a one-setting, small-cast novella of a little over 200 pages that raises big questions. It’s easy to read in
In “Agatha Christie: An Autobiography” (1977), Christie famously doesn’t go deep into analyzing her novels or the stories behind them. That might’ve been frustrating in
Woody Allen’s autobiography, “Apropos of Nothing” (2020), strikes a balance of self-deprecating wit and insightful reminiscences about his life and career. Although he possibly typed
Agatha Christie’s authorial career became fairly stable about a decade in, so she had the freedom to write non-mystery novels (sometimes called “mainstream” or “literary”
Peng Shepherd’s “The Cartographers” (2022) feels like it was released while still in the drafting stage. In her second novel, her passion for mapmaking –
With “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” (2022), Gabrielle Zevin does for video games what Michael Chabon did for comic books in “The Amazing Adventures of
From his perch in the mid-20th century, Philip K. Dick (1928-82) was a great predictor of how the 21st century would be – because he
In the late 1950s, Philip K. Dick found a career as a science fiction writer, and quickly became quite good at it, delivering several classics.