Riley Sager’s Lock Every Door is a gothic suspense - amateur detective - horror mash-up that shares many of the winning qualities that have made Mr. Sager’s crime fiction amongst the most highly anticipated of the season!
Read moreBook Review: UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN by Donna Leon
Thought-provoking, and with a wonderful sense of place, Unto Us a Son Is Given is a police procedural that is very light on police procedure; it is light, as well, on violence, darkness, and grit. Its underlying mystery and interweaving subplots unfold at a measured, traditional, “la dolce far niente pace”. Reading Donna Leon’s latest mystery novel is like returning to Venice on a warm, spring evening to savor a gelato and a relaxing passeggiata with old friends.
Read moreBook Review: THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides
With a clever and thought-provoking plot worthy of Agatha Christie or Alfred Hitchcock, plenty of red herrings for the reader to puzzle over, a confined main setting, as well as some unexpected twists and turns, The Silent Patient may very well appeal to fans of the work of Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling’s mystery-writing alter-ego), and fans of the book, The Woman in the Window.
Read moreBook Review: THE LOST MAN by Jane Harper
A richly evocative, beautiful, and important book, character-driven and expertly-plotted, with an ending that packs a wallop that screams to be pondered and discussed with others, Jane Harper’s The Lost Man is one of those novels in which atmosphere and landscape become an integral “character” in the story. The Lost Man would be a terrific choice for a mystery fiction book club!
Read moreBook Review: An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
An Anonymous Girl is the new novel of suspense by the writing duo that brought us the runaway, 2018 hit, The Wife Between Us. Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen have authored a book that held me fast in its sinister, sexy web of emotional control and psychological manipulation. Depicting a clever and captivating game of cat and mouse, with an ever-increasing sense of paranoia, An Anonymous Girl is pure, crime fiction fun!
Read moreHappy 2019!
Happy 2019!
In this new year, Mystery in Minutes will continue to bring you succinct book reviews, excerpts, adaptation news, author videos, and all things crime fiction that can be read, and watched, “in minutes”, and that can help guide you to mysteries and thrillers that will, I hope, provide “escape” and enjoyment!
Thank you for being a very important part of the Mystery in Minutes community of readers!
Read moreMINM Book Review: The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton
Are you looking for a crime novel that is devilishly dark, brooding, and gothic, tinged with horror and more than a little of the supernatural, with an antagonist who employs a most ghoulish method of dispatching victims? Then curl up in your favorite reading chair with your preferred, piping hot “cuppa”, and dig into this deeply personal story by British author, Sharon Bolton. The Craftsman screams out to be read in front of a crackling fire, or during an electrical storm, with lightning flashes periodically illuminating the windows! Ms. Bolton’s latest, hauntingly atmospheric offering, the first in a new trilogy, is tailor-made for the Halloween season!
Read moreMINM Book Review: The Wife by Alafair Burke
This layered, well-plotted, richly-characterized story sucked me in from the beginning, and called my name whenever I was unable to listen to Xe Sands’ engrossing audio book narration! The Wife ramps up to a twist-upon-twist crescendo, and, ultimately, finishes with an ending that will haunt readers, long after the final sentence. The Wife has been added to my list of Mystery in Minutes favorites for 2018! Author Alafair Burke has a new fan!
Read moreYOU by Caroline Kepnes Book Review and Video Trailer of the Series Adaptation
Season Two of the totally binge-worthy, series adaptation of the debut that generated, arguably, the most crime fiction buzz the year that it was originally published, coming soon!
Daring, captivating, and with a taboo quality that has readers that love it declaring it a guilty pleasure, and others being equally offended by it, YOU by Caroline Kepnes is, still, one of the freshest, most original novels I have read in years!
Read moreMINM Book Review: Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman
Two thumbs up! Way up!! Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman hit all the sweet spots for this reviewer, and is a Mystery in Minutes 2018 favorite! If, like me, you love to "shout" at book characters during highly suspenseful scenes, then get those vocal cords warmed up and buckle your seat belts, because Something in the Water becomes an increasingly tense, immersive, and utterly gripping ride, as it taps into primal fears that many of us share! Ms. Steadman’s novel also takes the amateur detective plot device, and turns it on its head!
Read moreMINM Book Review: NEED TO KNOW by Karen Cleveland
Espionage spy fiction meets domestic suspense in former CIA analyst Karen Cleveland's debut crime novel! Published in over twenty languages, and optioned for the screen by Universal Pictures, with Charlize Theron to develop, produce, and star in the adaptation, Need to Know is a story of how one choice can have a devastating ripple effect. Ms. Cleveland's book asks two crucial questions of the reader: first, if faced with the choice between loyalty to country, or personal loyalty, which would you choose? And second, would your patriotism be great enough to risk any potential consequences to yourself, or to your loved ones?
Read moreBook Review: THE LAST TIME I LIED by Riley Sager
Wonderfully haunting and atmospheric, The Last Time I Lied, by American author Riley Sager, is a Mystery in Minutes favorite of 2018, in a year of great, crime fiction reading! From its eye-catching, blue cover, to its breath-holdingly suspenseful, climactic action sequence, and its absolute zinger of a final twist, The Last Time I Lied just may be the quintessential summer psychological suspense!
Read moreMINM Book Review: SHARP OBJECTS by Gillian Flynn
Sharp Objects is the multi-award winning and nominated, 2006 debut by Gillian Flynn, the American author of a little book that you may have heard of, called "Gone Girl". So why is Mystery in Minutes reviewing this in 2018, you might ask? First, because Sharp Objects was the only full length novel of Ms. Flynn's that I had not yet read, and second, because the crime fiction world is all atwitter about the highly anticipated, July 8th premiere of HBO’s Sharp Objects mini-series, starring Amy Adams as Camille Preaker, and Patricia Clarkson as her mother, Adora.
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