One Bite at a Time

 I’m a little late with my Q2 list. That doesn’t mean I had trouble finding books to recommend. On the contrary, it was a good quarter.   ...

 This is a shorter quarterly list than usual. That doesn’t mean read any less, or that I didn’t like as many books. I’m a Shamus judge this ...

 My favorite reads from the fourth quarter of 2025.   Notice I don’t say the “best” books I read over the past three months; these are my ...

 This is a longer post than usual, but I had an excellent summer of reading.   On Tyranny , Timothy Snyder. I bought this during 45’s a...

  Assassins Anonymous , Rob Hart. Who would figure a twelve-step program for professional killers would make for an entertaining book? Rob...

  Within Plain Sight , Bruce Robert Coffin. The fourth in the outstanding Detective John Byron series shows Coffin’s skill at weaving an int...

  Savages , Don Winslow. The more I read of Winslow, the more I like him. This is a more complicated story than The Dawn Patrol or Californ...

 As you’ll soon see, the spring that just ended was a good season for reading, at least for me. Two vacations, one of them extended, gave me...

  Brown’s Requiem , James Ellroy. His first novel and a first-rate debut. Fritz Brown has enough resemblance to a traditional private eye fo...

  Subtle Felonies , Austin Camacho. I’ve always had a soft spot for Hannibal Jones, Camacho’s PI character, and Subtle Felonies shows why. ...

  Old Bill Miner , Frank Anderson. Brief biography of one of the last of the Western train robbers. Miner was known as a gentleman bandit, a...

  The Dramatist , Ken Bruen. It’s hard for a Jack Taylor novel not to make this quarterly recap. Bruen has as unique a voice as anyone, and ...