Sunny's bookshelf
Sunny's bookshelf photo by Judy Solomon

Online book reviews since 2011, the very best in reviewing – connecting good readers with equally good writers

Mystery

The President is Missing
Fiction
Ann Ronald

The President is Missing

The President is Missing – A rip-roaring thriller for readers of every political persuasion. Co-authors Bill Clinton and James Patterson must have had marvelous fun crafting

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The Missing American
African American Writers
Ann Ronald

The Missing American

Missing American, African mystery untangled by Ghanian private detective Emma Djan If I were to summarize The Missing American in a single couplet, I would

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The Magpie Murders
British Authors
Ann Ronald

Magpie Murders

MAGPIE MURDERS The Magpie Murders is Deliciously British! Anthony Horowitz’s mystery is set in a circumscribed Somerset village populated by a quarrelsome set of eccentric

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Beautiful Bad
Fiction
Ann Ronald

Beautiful Bad

BEAUTIFUL BAD Beautiful Bad, the oxymoronic title of Annie Ward’s savagely violent novel, sums up the action precisely. Beautiful people doing bad things, beautiful prose

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A Baby's Bones
Fiction
Ann Ronald

A Baby’s Bones

A BABY’S BONES The plot of Rebecca Alexander’s novel, A Baby’s Bones, may sound familiar. An archaeological excavation on the Isle of Wight has uncovered

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What She Left Behind
Fiction
Ann Ronald

What She Left Behind

WHAT SHE LEFT BEHIND Ellen Marie Wiseman cites the Willard Suitcase Exhibit and a nonfiction book by Darby Penney and Peter Stastny, The Lives They

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Tahoe Hit
Fiction
Sunny Solomon

Tahoe Hit

TAHOE HIT, AN OWEN MCKENNA MYSTERY Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, time seems to move at a pace determined to mess with our internal calendars.

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Saint X
Fiction
Ann Ronald

Saint X

SAINT X Alexis Schaitkin’s debut novel, Saint X, opens with the languid ennui of a mid-winter Caribbean vacation. An omniscient narrator sets scenes filled with

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An Artless Demise
Fiction
Ann Ronald

An Artless Demise

AN ARTLESS DEMISE I initially encountered Anna Lee Huber’s mysteries in 2012 when her first novel featuring Lady Kiera Darcy, The Anatomist’s Wife, was published.

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The Secrets of Wishtide
British Authors
Ann Ronald

The Secrets of Wishtide

THE SECRETS OF WISHTIDE The Secrets of Wishtide is another Victorian murder mystery with a smart, articulate sleuth and dark Dickensian overtones.  The premise of

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Star of the North
Fiction
Ann Ronald

Star of the North

STAR OF THE NORTH D.B. John’s thriller, Star of the North, pulls back the curtain on North Korea’s secretive milieu. The novel explores the terrain

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Dog On It
Animal stories
Sunny Solomon

Dog On It

DOG ON IT Please don’t wait for the dog days of summer to read Spencer Quinn’s Dog On It. Based on our present pandemic restrictions,

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A Tale of Two Murders
Mystery
Ann Ronald

A Tale of Two Murders

A TALE OF TWO MURDERS Heather Redmond has begun writing a new detective series featuring a youthful Charles Dickens pursuing multiple murderous clues and figuring

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The Bookseller
Fiction
Ann Ronald

The Bookseller

The Bookseller introduces us to a new series featuring Hugo Marston. Much to my delight, I accidentally discovered a new mystery series (or new to

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Edinburgh Twilight
Fiction
Ann Ronald

Edinburgh Twilight

EDINBURGH TWILIGHT As soon as I discover I’m reading a mystery that involves a serial killer, especially if the murders sound gruesome, I put the

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A Woman of Two Minds
Mystery
Ann Ronald

A Woman of Two Minds

A WOMAN OF TWO MINDS Somehow, I never imagined the author of the three-book Red Queen mystery series would next turn her attention to science

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