📕 Lewis Carol (1942) The Screwtape Letters – A tedious and self-important, more preachy than profound. The concept of demons exchanging letters about corrupting humans sounds clever at first, but the execution feels heavy-handed and moralistic. The book often sacrifices story and character for sermonizing, with Lewis using the format to lecture rather than entertain. Its dated tone and smug moral stance make it feel less like a satire and more like a sanctimonious essay disguised as fiction. For readers looking for genuine wit or insight into human nature, it can be a frustrating and overrated experience. 👎

📕 Charles Belfoure (2015) House of Thieves: A Novel – A gripping historical thriller set in Gilded Age New York, blending high society elegance with criminal intrigue. The story follows architect John Cross, a man of integrity forced into the underworld of burglary to save his son from ruthless gangsters. As Cross uses his architectural expertise to plan heists, he becomes entangled in a dangerous moral conflict between duty and corruption. Belfoure vividly portrays the opulence and decay of the era, exploring how desperation can dismantle principles. The novel’s fast-paced tension and sharp social observations make it both atmospheric and deeply compelling.

📕 Charlie Lovett (2014) First Impressions – intertwines romance, mystery, and literary history through a captivating dual narrative. The story follows Sophie Collingwood, a modern-day bibliophile who becomes entangled in a search for an elusive book that may reveal secrets about Jane Austen’s life and the true origins of Pride and Prejudice. Alternating between Sophie’s quest and Austen’s own struggles as a writer in the eighteenth century, Lovett explores themes of love, authorship, and the timeless power of storytelling. Blending fact and fiction, the novel celebrates the enduring magic of books and the connections they inspire across generations. 👎

📕 Nicholas Meyer (2019) The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols – revives Sherlock Holmes in a clever historical pastiche that blends classic mystery with political intrigue. Set in 1905, the story follows Holmes and Dr. Watson as they investigate the origins of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious anti-Semitic forgery. Meyer skillfully fuses Conan Doyle’s tone with real-world espionage and emerging 20th-century anxieties, taking readers across Europe and Russia amid revolutionary unrest. With its sharp dialogue, moral weight, and intellectual suspense, the novel captures both Holmes’s brilliance and Meyer’s gift for reimagining the detective in historically charged contexts. 👎 Mostly pro-jewish / pro-zionist screed.

📕 Hideo Yokoyama (2012) Six Four – a critically acclaimed Japanese crime novel about a police press officer, Yoshinobu Mikami, who is forced to confront an unsolved kidnapping case from 14 years prior, known as "Six Four," which has haunted him and the police department ever since. The story delves into the inner workings of the Japanese police force, media relations, and corruption, as Mikami uncovers secrets while dealing with his own personal struggles, including his own daughter's disappearance. It's known for its slow-burn, detailed, and complex plot that requires patience but offers a rewarding, twisty conclusion.

📕 Agatha Christie (1969) Hallowe'een Party – a festive evening in a quiet English village turns chilling when a young girl, Joyce Reynolds, boasts of having once witnessed a murder — only to be found drowned soon after during the celebration. Called upon to investigate, the meticulous Hercule Poirot steps into a web of deceit, gossip, and long-buried secrets. As he questions those who were present, Poirot peels back layers of respectability to expose jealousies and hidden crimes lurking beneath the town’s polite surface. Christie deftly blends eerie atmosphere, psychological intrigue, and cunning misdirection in this classic late-period mystery.

📕 Dan Chaon (2017) Ill Will - a haunting literary thriller that delves into the slippery boundaries between truth, memory, and trauma. The novel follows psychologist Dustin Tillman, whose life unravels after new doubts arise about his testimony that sent his adoptive brother to prison decades earlier. As Dustin becomes entangled in a patient’s conspiracy theories linking mysterious drownings, his grip on reality weakens. Chaon weaves multiple timelines and unreliable perspectives, creating a chilling study of grief, guilt, and self-deception. Ill Will lingers long after the final page as both a psychological puzzle and a meditation on the stories we tell ourselves. 👎

📕 Ian Caldwell (2015) The Fifth Gospel – a literary thriller that weaves theology, history, and family drama into a mystery set within the Vatican. When curator Ugo Nogara is murdered, two brothers—Greek Catholic priest Alex and Roman Catholic priest Simon—become entangled in the crime. Their search for the truth revolves around a controversial relic and a lost gospel that could redefine Christianity’s core narrative. As faith, loyalty, and institutional secrecy collide, Caldwell blends meticulous research with emotional depth, creating a story that explores the fragile relationship between faith and fact, and the human cost of protecting sacred truth.

📕 Michael Koryta (2014) Those Who Wish Me Dead – Fourteen-year-old Jace Wilson witnesses a brutal murder and is hidden under a false identity in a wilderness survival program for troubled teens in the Montana mountains. As relentless professional killers known as the Blackwell brothers close in, everyone who attempts to shield Jace, including Ethan and Allison Serbin and solitary fire lookout Hannah Faber, is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse amid unforgiving terrain and a raging wildfire. The novel blends coming-of-age elements with intense suspense, exploring courage, trauma, and moral resolve under extreme pressure. ️👎 Terrible characters, terrible plot, Terrible reader.

📕 Ray Bradbury (1951) The Illustrated Man – a haunting collection of interconnected stories that explore the wonder and danger of human imagination. Each tale emerges from the living tattoos on a mysterious man’s body, shifting to reveal visions of possible futures filled with beauty, fear, and moral consequence. Through vivid storytelling and lyrical prose, Bradbury examines the tension between technology and humanity, love and destruction, freedom and control. The result is a mesmerizing mosaic that captures both the hope and the dread of progress, reminding readers that the power to create worlds lies as much within us as beyond us. 💥 One annoying thing about this reading is it goes from one story to another with no break, so you can tell when a new story has started, and only realize 2-3 minutes into a new story.

📕 Kurt Vonnegut (1973) Breakfast of Champions – a darkly comic and wildly inventive novel that dismantles the illusions of free will, identity, and the American dream. Through the intersecting stories of struggling writer Kilgore Trout and delusional car dealer Dwayne Hoover, Vonnegut exposes the absurdity of modern life and the dangers of unchecked consumerism. Written in an irreverent, self-aware style, the book blurs the line between author and story, with Vonnegut even inserting himself as a character. Both satirical and existential, it’s a chaotic reflection on art, insanity, and the fragile machinery of human understanding. 👎 The only good thing to say about this book, is that it's only 5 hours long. The book has no real plot or resolution.

📕 Martin Amis (1989) London Fields – a darkly comedic, apocalyptic noir set in a degenerate, end-of-millennium London. The plot follows clairvoyant femme fatale Nicola Six, who orchestrates her own murder, manipulating two men—violent Keith Talent and romantic Guy Clinch—while terminally ill narrator Samson Young attempts to document the crime. 👎👎 total shit, incoherent nonsense.

📕 Richard Price (as Harry Brandt) (2015) The Whites – focusing on the life of NYPD Sergeant Billy Graves and his Manhattan Night Watch team as they investigate a murder at Penn Station, which leads to a deeper, haunting case from their past. The book explores the realities of police work, the psychological toll it takes, and the cases that stick with officers, known as "The Whites," using Price's signature realistic and lyrical style.

📕 Thomas Perry (2016) Forty Thieves – When a researcher is murdered, former LAPD detectives Sid and Ronnie Abel are hired to find the killer, only to discover that assassins Ed and Nicole Hoyt, equally skilled and devoted to one another, are also on the trail. As the two couples’ investigations collide, Perry weaves a sharp, suspenseful narrative filled with clever twists, tight plotting, and psychological nuance, exploring love, loyalty, and the blurred boundaries between justice and vengeance.

📕 William Landay (2012) Defending Jacob – It tells the story of a father dealing with the accusation that his 14-year-old son is a murderer.

📕 Dan Chaon (2022) Sleepwalk – Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon is a 2022 literary thriller about Will Bear, a man living off-grid who works as a henchman for a shadowy organization, whose life is upended when he's contacted by a woman claiming to be his daughter, leading him on a journey through a near-future America divided by factions. The novel blends suspense, dark humor, and science fiction as it follows his road trip and search for connection in a dystopian world dominated by corporations and fringe groups. 👍

📕 James Michener (1965) The Source – A historical novel. It is a survey of the history of the Jewish people and the land of Israel from pre-monotheistic days through the birth of the modern State of Israel and up until 1964. (Very long)

📕 Dan Brown’s 2025 The Secrets of Secrets plunges readers into a labyrinth of hidden codes, ancient manuscripts, and powerful institutions guarding unthinkable truths. When a linguist and a Vatican archivist uncover evidence of a lost gospel that could upend centuries of theology, a global chase unfolds from Istanbul’s cisterns to the catacombs beneath Rome. As allegiances blur and betrayal stalks every corner, Brown intertwines historical riddles with modern intrigue, questioning the boundaries between belief and knowledge. Fast-paced and relentlessly intelligent, the story explores humanity’s timeless obsession with the power of secrets and the peril of uncovering them.

📕 Alex North (2023) The Angel Maker – weaves a dark and unsettling tale about fate, memory, and the consequences of violence. The story revolves around Katie Shaw, a woman haunted by a brutal attack on her brother years earlier, and Detective Laurence Page, who investigates a new murder connected to an old crime. As past and present converge, the novel explores how trauma and guilt shape lives and how evil can linger in unexpected places. North blends psychological suspense with philosophical depth, creating an atmospheric, twisting narrative that examines whether destiny can ever be escaped. 👍

📕 Steve Berry (2004) The Romanov Prophecy – a fast-paced historical thriller blending fact and fiction. Set in post-Soviet Russia, it imagines a restored monarchy seeking a descendant of the Romanovs to lead the nation. Lawyer Miles Lord, working for a commission to select the next tsar, uncovers a conspiracy tied to the Romanov family’s fate and the possible survival of Anastasia and Alexei. As Lord follows a trail of historical clues across Russia and America, he faces danger from those intent on hiding the truth. Berry’s novel combines meticulous research, suspense, and political intrigue in his signature Dan Brown–style storytelling.

📕 The kingdoms of Savannah (2022) George Dawes Green – A haunting Southern mystery where family secrets, buried histories, and Savannah’s beauty clash with injustice, power, and long-hidden truths. 👎 Woke

📕 Next Year in Havana (2018) Chanel Cleeton – intertwines past and present, following a Cuban-American writer uncovering her grandmother’s exile story. Blending romance, politics, and family secrets, it portrays Cuba’s beauty and struggles, exploring identity, loyalty, and love across generations shaped by revolution and displacement. 👎 this was a book chosen for a local library book club. I asked an LLM about this book and it said.; Chanel Cleeton’s Next Year in Havana is primarily targeted at adult women, especially readers aged 25–50, who enjoy historical fiction blended with romance and family sagas. Not my cup of tea, obviously.

📕 Harlan Coben (2010) Caught – follows reporter Wendy Tynes, who exposes alleged sexual predators. When one suspect, Dan Mercer, is murdered, Wendy unravels a web of lies, secrets, and teenage manipulation. The thriller explores media responsibility, ruined reputations, and parental fears, keeping readers guessing until its tense, emotional resolution. 👎 Annoying nosy woman can't keep her nose out of other people's business. A typical narcissist.

📕 Peter Heller (2014) The Painter – follows Jim Stegner, a talented painter haunted by violence and grief. Seeking peace in rural Colorado, he’s drawn into moral conflict after avenging cruelty. Lyrical prose blends art, wilderness, and conscience, creating a gripping meditation on redemption, creativity, and the weight of past choices.

📕 John le Carré (2019) Agent Running in the Field – follows British intelligence officer Nat, caught in post-Brexit tensions and a spy scandal. Amid double agents, political betrayals, and the rise of nationalism, Nat navigates moral ambiguity and loyalty.

📕 The Night Ocean (2017) Paul La Farge – Charlie, has become obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life. Just when Charlie thinks he's solved the puzzle, a new scandal erupts, and he disappears. A great deal of sodomite, pedophilia, zionism, and other degenerate stuff. Also, there is no real plot it meanders for hours. 👎

📕 The Life We Bury (2014) Allen Eskens – College student Joe Talbert stumbles into a mystery that unravels his past and tests his moral compass. Tasked with a biography assignment, Joe interviews Carl Iverson, a dying Vietnam veteran and convicted murderer residing in a nursing home. 👍

📕 The River We Remember (2024) William Kent Krueger – In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by a shocking murder, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling novel, an instant New York Times bestseller and “a work of art” (The Denver Post). An interesting bleeding heart liberal story. 👎

📕 The Drop (2014) by Dennis Lehane – a gritty crime novel set in Boston. It follows bartender Bob Saginowski, who becomes entangled in a robbery, mob money, and a mysterious dog. Quiet, brooding tension builds as secrets surface. Themes of redemption, loneliness, and morality run through this dark, compelling story.

📕 Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1959) – a pioneering work of literary journalism that recounts the brutal 1959 murder of the Clutter family in Kansas. Blending factual reporting with novelistic detail, Capote explores the killers’ psychology and the town’s reaction, creating a haunting portrait of American violence and justice.

📕 George Pelecanos’s The Man Who Came Uptown (2018) explores redemption in gritty Washington, D.C. ex-con Michael Hudson, released on parole, confronts old temptations and finds unexpected hope through a literary mentor. Pelecanos weaves a taut, character-driven thriller that balances street-level realism with profound reflections on second chances. 👎 Lots of what I can only assume is black lingo. Seems to want to be an example to black young people about how to act well and avoid acting not well. But all the characters are involved in gun violence, and horrible behavior. Not a good example for any American.

📕 Jay Giles (2015) Blindsided - Matt Seattle Never Saw The Trouble Coming. Never Expected It From So Many Different Directions. Matt Seattle, a Sarasota stockbroker, befriends an older stock enthusiast, Joe Jesso. During one of their weekly Wednesday morning sessions, Joe announces he's gotten married. A week later, Joe dies.

📕Paul Cleave (2015) Trust No One - a psychological thriller that delves into the blurred lines between fiction and reality, memory and delusion. The story centers on Jerry Grey, a successful crime novelist known to his readers as Henry Cutter. At 49, Jerry is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, a revelation that shatters his life and career. - If this wasn't an audiobook, I would have given up long ago. But being an audiobook, I could listen to it through headphones and at the time I was listening to it I happen to be setting up a new computer so I just kind of used this story as background white noise I have no idea at a certain point what the hell this guy is talking about. I wonder if he does himself. I think it's supposed to be one of these really complex kind of things but to be honest it's just all fucking nonsense.

📕Alan Jacobson (2016) The Darkness of Evil - a gripping thriller where FBI profiler Karen Vail hunts escaped serial killer Roscoe Lee Marcks. Marcks seeks vengeance against his daughter, Jasmine, who exposed his crimes. As Vail races to protect Jasmine, the narrative delves into the complexities of familial betrayal and the relentless pursuit of justice.

📕Gregg Hurwitz (2007) The Crime Writer - follows Drew Danner, a mystery novelist who wakes up after brain surgery, accused of murdering his ex-fiancée. With no memory of the crime, he uses his detective instincts to uncover the truth, blurring lines between fiction, reality, and his fractured mind.

📕 Mette Ivie Harrison (2015) The Bishop's Wife - introduces Linda Wallheim, a Mormon bishop’s wife in Draper, Utah. When a young mother disappears, Linda suspects foul play and defies her husband's wishes to investigate. Her pursuit uncovers unsettling truths about her community, challenging her faith and the patriarchal structures she navigates. - shit, gave up 37% in.

📕 Chris Bohjalian (2011) The Night Strangers - blends psychological suspense with supernatural horror. A pilot haunted by a deadly crash moves his family to a remote New Hampshire town. There, eerie townspeople and a hidden basement door lead to chilling revelations. Grief, guilt, and ghostly secrets collide in this haunting tale.

📕 Anthony Horowitz (2017) Magpie Murders - a clever dual narrative. Editor Susan Ryeland reads a manuscript by author Alan Conway, featuring detective Atticus Pünd solving a 1950s village murder. When the manuscript's final chapter is missing and Conway dies suspiciously, Susan investigates, uncovering real-life secrets mirroring the fictional mystery.

📕 Bernhard Schlink (2012) The Woman on the Stairs - Sad self absorbed intellectuals talking about stupid philosophical stuff. No plot, unlikeable characters. 👎

📕 Anthony Horowitz (2014) Moriarty - a Sherlock Holmes mystery set after Holmes and Moriarty's presumed deaths at Reichenbach Falls. Pinkerton agent Frederick Chase and Scotland Yard's Inspector Athelney Jones investigate a new criminal mastermind filling Moriarty's void. Their pursuit through Victorian London uncovers a web of deception and a shocking twist.

📕 Charlie Lovett (2013) The Bookman's Tale - a literary mystery where antiquarian bookseller Peter Byerly discovers a Victorian portrait resembling his late wife. His quest to uncover its origins leads him into a world of forgery, Shakespearean secrets, and personal revelations, intertwining past and present in a bibliophile's adventure.

📕 Louis Bayard (2003) The Pale Blue Eye – The book is a murder mystery set at West Point in 1830, where the young Edgar Allan Poe was a cadet.

📕 Fuminori Nakamura (2014) Last Winter, We Parted – A young writer arrives at a prison to interview a convict. The writer has been commissioned to write a full account of the case, from the bizarre and grisly details of the crime to the nature of the man behind it. The suspect, a world-renowned photographer named Kiharazaka, has a deeply unsettling portfolio—lurking beneath the surface of each photograph is an acutely obsessive fascination with his subject.

📕 David Lagercrantz (2009) The Fall of Man in Wilmslow – Historical fiction about the English mathematician and cryptanalyst Alan Turing.

📕 Stephen King (2021) Later – The story is told in first person perspective using Jamie Conklin as the protagonist, who has the ability to see the ghosts of dead people.

📕 Caleb Carr (2016) Surrender, New York – In rural, impoverished Burgoyne County, New York, a pattern of strange deaths begins to emerge: adolescent boys and girls are found murdered, their corpses left hanging in gruesome, ritualistic fashion. Senior law enforcement officials are quick to blame a serial killer, yet their efforts to apprehend this criminal are peculiarly ineffective.

📕 Michael Koryta (2023) An Honest Man – In this breathtaking thriller the murder of several politicians at sea shatters the world of a local lobsterman who must prove his innocence and save his own life

📕 Brad Meltzer & Tod Goldberg (2016) The House of Secrets – "When Hazel Nash was six years old, her father taught her: mysteries need to be solved. He should know. Hazel's father is Jack Nash, the host of America's favorite conspiracy TV show, The House of Secrets. Even as a child, she loved hearing her dad's tall tales, especially the one about a leather book belonging to Benedict Arnold that was hidden in a corpse.

📕 P. D. James (2011) Death Comes to Pemberley – In a marvellous, thrilling re-creation of the world of Pride and Prejudice, P.D. James fuses the work of Jane Austen with her own great talent for writing crime fiction.

📕 Alex North (2019) The Whisper Man: A Novel – In this dark, suspenseful thriller, Alex North weaves a multi-generational tale of a father and son caught in the crosshairs of an investigation to catch a serial killer preying on a small town.