The concept behind I Am Not A Serial Killer seems simple enough: a budding young sociopath (the surprisingly likeable John Wayne Cleaver) is obsessed with serial killers, because he knows it’s all too likely that he’s going to become one. And then the demon shows up. – Drew on I Am Not a Serial Killer  Mr. Monster picks up where I Am Not A Serial Killer leaves off, with John Wayne Cleaver – thing a younger version of Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter – struggling to control his own homicidal urges, while also trying to protect his family from predators. Darker and more intricate than its forerunner, Dan Wells transforms his first novel into a tightly focused series with his sophomore effort. – Drew on Mr. Monster
Faithful Place, Tana French’s third mystery, is what I’ve come to expect from her: an effortless masterpiece. Loosely connected to her first and second efforts but designed to stand entirely on its own, this lyrical, densely plotted novel focuses on the ties of family and history, and on the intimate connection between past sins and present debts. – Drew on Faithful Place
 Stewart O’Nan’s enchanting novel The Night Country glides like a ghost through elegiac New England nights; the metaphor’s fitting, as the story is narrated by the specters of three teenagers who died in a car crash, observing the lives of those most changed by their untimely demises. – Drew on The Night Country
Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn was a show-stopper when it was first published, a book that brought this amazingly talented writer into the public eye. The story of Lionel Essrog, a Tourette’s-afflicted young thug attempting to solve the circumstances, snaps off the page. To put it politely, Lethem’s writing after Motherless Brooklyn was published has divided critics, but Motherless Brooklyn is just as powerful as it was ten years ago. – Drew on Motherless Brooklyn
Maisie’s subject this time is a young
Flavia de Luce, everyone’s favorite madcap chemist is 
once more tearing up the lanes of Bishops Lacey. Adventure arrives in the form of a famous puppeteer who comes to town and then departs unexpectedly in the middle of his show. Rupert Porson, beloved creator of The Magic Kingdom and Snoddy the Squirrel dies during the denouement of his Jack & the Beanstalk act leaving behind a beautiful assistant and a mystery Flavia is determined to solve. Some of the components she is given to work with are: Mad Meg and her sketch of the devil in Gibbet Wood, a puppet that looks like a dead village child, a missing bicycle clip belonging to the vicar, and a German POW. Somehow all of this must be compounded and synthesized to form a solution. |
 Stephen King’s experienced a career resurgence lately; ever since he finished The Dark Tower, his writing’s been invigorated, and his novels have avoided the ‘it’s a haunted (fill in the blank)’ that plagued some of his mid-nineties efforts. Duma Key is the pinnacle of his newer work, a stunning portrait of a man wrestling with the changed circumstances of his life. – Drew on Duma Key
There never has been, nor shall there ever be, another writer like Haruki Murakami, and no amount of explanation can define his specific brand of surrealism, emotion, and psychological excavation. He is a talent like no other, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is his defining work. – Drew on The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Have you ever wondered what they
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Next SigningClaire Datnow
will be signing
 Wednesday
February 15
1:00 - 3:00 pm Little Professor Bookclub |
Staff Picks
Subpages (1):
Former Staff Picks
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American cartographer named Michael Clifton.
William Gibson almost single-handedly created the cyberpunk genre of science fiction in the early eighties; two decades later, he’s focusing instead on the current world, and the emerging technologies that are beginning to change its face forever.
Nothing David Mitchell writes is anything like anything else David Mitchell has written, beyond being brilliant.
How to describe “Patient Zero” in two sentences or so…
