Bluff by Michael Kardos Mysterious Press/Grove Atlantic, $26.00, 272 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2804-1 Bluff is a novel about the practice of sleight of hand, or magic, and magic is done by practicing the art of misdirection. The conjurer talks the audience into looking over there while at the exact same time doing something over here and […]
The Old Man By Thomas Perry Mysterious Press/Grove Atlantic, $26.00, 337 pages, ISBN 978-0-80212585-6 Sixty some years ago, when I was just a boy back in the ‘50s, every year at Thanksgiving my parents would take me and my two younger brothers for “Turkey-Day” at my Great-Aunt Ruth’s house down in Westchester County. Pop would […]
The Emerald Lie by Ken Bruen Mysterious Press/Grove Atlantic, $25.00, 345 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2546-0 For the past few reviews the MBR has had a string of first time authors . . . so we thought a change of pace was in order for this week, and we’re going with an old favorite, an Irish writer […]
The White Van by Patrick Hoffman Atlantic Monthly Press/Grove Atlantic, Inc., $24.00, 240 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2304-6 We’ve all been guilty, at some time or another, of staying at the party just a wee bit too long, or succumbing to the exhortations of one of our Good Time Charlie pals, to Awwwgoahead, one more won’t killya […]
The House of Wolfe by James Carlos Blake Mysterious Press/Grove Atlantic, $24.00, 248 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2246-9 Today is an individual milestone with this, the 200th Mysterious Book Report, and I wanted it to be something special to commemorate the occasion. The selection is personal, one of my favorite novelist who’s influenced any number of other […]
The Shanghai Factor by Charles McCarry Mysterious Press-Grove/Atlantic, Inc., $26.00, 292 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2127-1 Here’s a true confession: I have been fascinated by spies, espionage and tradecraft ever since the 1950’s when I read that first issue of Mad Magazine and was introduced to the iconic Spy vs Spy cartoon strip with it’s two identical […]
