Synopsis:
While working on a novel in Tunisia, a writer encounters his own heart of darkness.
Review:
I had written a truly brilliant review of Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery, but it got eaten. Fie! The salient points were:

Patricia Highsmith plays cat and mouse with the reader just like her most famous creation Tom Ripley [...]

Popularity: 38% [?]

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Synopsis:
A summer job turns into a game of strategy with potentially deadly consequences for a young aspiring scientist hoping to learn more about the implications of the regenerative powers of starfish.
Review:
Of course I had to read a L’Engle as soon as humanly possible, and I wanted to read one I hadn’t read before. I [...]

Popularity: 31% [?]

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My review of Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand is up on Blogcritics.org. Here’s the opening paragraph:
How Cass Neary, the protagonist of Elizabeth Hand’s latest novel Generation Loss has stayed alive this long is anyone’s guess. Super young, super talented and super stoned at the birth of punk below 14th Street in the 1970s, Cass [...]

Popularity: 35% [?]

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Synopsis:
Young Leilani has a deformed hand and a brace on her leg–and she’s just told her alcoholic ex-con neighbor that her differences are why her deranged doctor stepfather and whacked-out druggie mother are going to kill her unless she’s abducted by aliens when she turns 10.
Review:
I read this book because it was recommended by Wesley [...]

Popularity: 48% [?]

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Synopsis:
An illiterate housekeeper’s resentment of the privileged family she serves boils over into a murderous rage.
Review:
Judgement in Stone was turned into an incredible movie called La Ceremonie by Claude Chabrol, starring Sandrine Bonnaire as Eunice, the “stone” of the title, and the marvelous Isabelle Huppert as Joan, the local postmistress who fans the flames of [...]

Popularity: 54% [?]

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Synopsis:
A teenage boy reconstructs the moment he discovered a secret about his past that might prove deadly.
Review:
Cormier is best known for The Chocolate War (Laurel Leaf Books), a grimly compelling fable about the perils of conformity. I Am the Cheese (Laurel-Leaf Library) has the same air of mystery about it, but it’s a less [...]

Popularity: 25% [?]

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Synopsis:
A suicidal teen is rescued by a charismatic drifter with designs on a woman he calls “The Princess.”
Review:
Gallowglass has not been my favorite Vine (the alter ego of crime writer Ruth Rendell), but subpar Vine is still head and shoulders above most of what’s out there in the mystery genre. Where Vine succeeds best [...]

Popularity: 30% [?]

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Synopsis:
A con man, an obsessive-compulsive, and a closeted Member of Parliament become locked together by circumstance and lies.
Popularity: 30% [?]

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Popularity: 30% [?]

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Synopsis:
First in a crime-solving series starring Harry Dresden, a wizard living in Chicago. He finds lost objects, investigates paranormal activities, and advises the police whenever a crime scene looks like magic was involved.
Popularity: 37% [?]

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Popularity: 37% [?]

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