Editorial reviews

About Living the Dream

Debut novelist Berry creates relatable characters who can laugh at themselves even when they fall down hard, but the gist of the book can be summed up when one of them approaches a problem by “produc[ing] a piece of writing about it and put[ting] it all behind her.”

About The Good Daughter

It’s hard to think of any writer since Flannery O’Connor, referenced at several key moments here, who’s succeeded as consistently as Slaughter at using horrific violence to evoke pity and terror. Whether she’s extending her franchise or creating stand-alones like this, she really does make your hair stand on end.

About The Last Tudor

Tedium is inevitable as we watch these Tudor heirs wait.

About Beneath the Depths

A sturdy, starchy police procedural most likely to appeal to readers with a hearty appetite for police routine.

About Autopsy of a Father

The novel haunts on all levels, both in the reader’s desire for a hint of hope, and in the author’s refusal to console. Once read, this story is not forgotten.

About Among the Dead

A procedural with a complex heroine and a torrid pace. This series kickoff is at once credible, moving, and suspenseful.

About Bosstown

This entertaining-enough thriller is built on a social history of a flawed American city.

About The Color of Fear

More seasonal goodwill (think of a rainbow-cast remake of It’s a Wonderful Life) than misdirection in a story that perfectly illustrates its heroine’s bromide: “When you think about it, all crimes are stupid.”

About Stanton: Lincoln's War Secretary

Stanton’s last official act for Abraham Lincoln was to organize the search for John Wilkes Booth and the others who were part of the assassination plot.

About Mrs. Fletcher: A Novel

Perrotta admirers will admire much of Mrs. Fletcher, though they may mourn the better version that’s visible in the margins.

About Dead On Arrival

[W]hat makes Dead On Arrival most appealing is that the issues it raises stay with the reader after the final page; it’s not just a good read, it’s a provocative one.

About Lights On, Rats Out

A brave and honest memoir.... Lights On, Rats Out is quite sad and piercingly smart, making for an unforgettable read.

About Behold the Dreamers: A Novel

Mbue’s prose is mostly straightforward and unadorned but her characters are complex, with contradictory motivations, which provide the story with depth and quiet power.

About WHEREAS

“Whereas” challenges the making and maintenance of an empire by transforming the page to withstand the tension of an occupied body, country and, specifically, an occupied language.

About The City Always Wins

The City Always Wins is a tale of defeat and dashed dreams and of hope’s persistence told in a poetic prose. The style is at once pared down and highly expressive.

About Rich People Problems: A Novel

Rich People Problems, the final act of Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, is one of this summer's best breezy beach reads, an audacious satire that lifts the curtain on the jet-set 1 per cent of Southeast Asian multibillionaires.

About Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Grann’s accomplished and necessary account of injustice, avarice and racist violence, tells a story both old and new.

About The Songs We Know Best

“The Songs We Know Best” offers up a feast of new details, documents and colorful anecdotes that will be foundational for any future understanding of Ashbery.