If you’ve seen the eleventy-four hundred thousand trailers and advertisements out there, you know a new Superman movie is coming out this Friday, the 14th. I’m just excited as any fanboy out there, if not …
Read the full story »This review originally appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers, and is reprinted here with permission.
Danish detective Carl Mørck and his Syrian assistant Assad are back with their third Department Q case in Jussi Adler-Olsen’s A Conspiracy of Faith, taking on an old mystery involving a message in a bottle. The note was written in blood in 1996, and the heading clearly says, “Help,” but time and exposure to the elements have obscured most of the rest of it.
Mørck, Assad, and the department’s temporary assistant Yrsa slowly piece together the message, and realize the writer was in a deadly situation. They track down his family, but the parents refuse to talk about him or even confirm whether their son is alive.
Despite their silence, the Department Q team discovers a serial killer preying on the fears of certain religious sects to murder and get away with his crimes. Mørck and Assad put their lives on the line to confront this cruel and violent man, but will they be in time to save his latest victims?
One of Adler-Olsen’s trademarks is creating hideous villains, and then giving them a backstory that makes readers almost feel sorry for them. The killer here is no different, having suffered a horrific childhood. It does not justify his actions, but at least gives him a strong motive. He’s not just evil for evil’s sake.
The main plot has holes and several subplots seem unnecessary, but Mørck and Assad remain an engaging duo, trying to help sympathetic victims in a disturbing case that’s timely in its portraiture of people who use religion to inflict unutterable grief on others.
Nerd verdict: The story has holes, but have Faith in Carl Mørck and Assad
I’ve been meaning to put this up for a couple of weeks now, because I think y’all should have a little Eric Beetner in your lives. He’s a gifted writer, funny man, and winner of last …
May is Mystery Month and June is International Crime Month so it’s time to submit your nominations for the third annual Stalker Awards, given to crime novels you’re obsessed with and the authors who write them. …
I went into this movie not knowing what to expect, since I really enjoyed the first one, but thought IM2 was too loud and chaotic. And this time Jon Favreau handed over directorial duties to …
May always brings me a sense of excitement because it makes me think of possibilities, all the good things that May happen, and there are supposed to be flowers from all the April showers, right? …
Recently, Brett Battles and Robert Gregory Browne, two popular thriller writers, released their first collaboration, Poe, a first-in-series action adventure about a woman who infiltrates a prison as part of a deal to learn more …
This review originally appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers, and is reprinted here with permission.
Daria Gibron, the formidable ex-agent for Shin Bet (Israeli Secret Service) from Dana Haynes’s Crashers and Breaking Point, gets to be …
Yesterday’s horrific events left me desolate, so I thought it’d be appropriate to republish—with permission—this review of mine, which ran in last week’s Shelf Awareness for Readers. The three lead characters in this novel have …
Spring has arrived, as has a deluge of new releases. The number of March and April titles I received increased dramatically from what came in for the first two months this year.
So let’s jump right …
Kate Baron is a Manhattan lawyer and single mom to fifteen-year-old Amelia, an academically superior student at a Brooklyn prep school. Imagine Kate’s shock, then, when she gets a phone call from the school asking …
By popular demand—OK, one person asked—I’m bringing back the First Impressions post, at least for today. You may have seen last week the pics of all the books that have entered my home.
I read the first …
I’ve been raving about this book since I read it a couple months ago. My review ran in Shelf Awareness for Readers last week, so I can finally publish it here with permission.—PCN
The prologue of …
I’m doing my taxes today so this will be a short post. Wanted to let you know about a couple of fun things you can vote for, if you feel so inclined.
The first is happening …
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