Barbara Clark
Content by Barbara Clark
-
Issue:
Conway Sax is not, in general, the kind of guy you cozy up to. He has close ties with girlfriend Charlene and her kids, but commitment often eludes him.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Who knows better than “us girls” how cruel young women can be, especially to one another?
Read more »
-
Issue:
Available Dark is dark, all right. It almost seems as if author Elizabeth Hand is not so much penning a novel as sending a series of cries into the night.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Family intrigue at its most seamy and dramatic, plus his usual firm grasp of lawyerly tactics and tricks, distinguish Richard North Patterson’s new thriller, Fall from Grace.
Read more »
-
Issue:
It always seems to be dark out or raining in Nicci French’s thriller, appropriately named Blue Monday, the first in a new series featuring Frieda Klein, a loner psychotherapi
Read more »
-
Issue:
In her fine debut mystery novel, The Return of Captain John Emmett, Elizabeth Speller has evoked the world of post-World War I Britain, its mood of hope and optimism contr
Read more »
-
Issue:
“The body slid heavily from the table and for a brief moment seemed to hang in the air, then broke the water’s surface with a tremendous crash.
Read more »
-
Issue:
You will definitely read The Solitary House from beginning to end, though perhaps not without some difficulty, if you tend to want to get on with things.
Read more »
-
Readers unfamiliar with Charles Todd’s superlative Ian Rutledge mystery series, set in Britain in the aftermath of World War I, will soon learn that the Scotland Yard detective carries scars
Read more »
-
The Frozen Rabbi tells the whimsical story of Polish rabbi Eliezer ben Zephyr, who, in 1890 and while in a meditative state, is unaccountably frozen alive in a block of ice during a freak st
Read more »
-
Issue:
The Sound of Broken Glass, the 15th entry in Deborah Crombie’s popular series featuring Det. Inspector James and Det.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Princess Elizabeth’s Spy is Susan Elia MacNeal’s tense second novel featuring MI5 secret agent Maggie Hope.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Readers of historical novels who discover Detective Simon Ziele will glom onto Stefanie Pintoff’s series of mysteries in a hurry.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Every chapter of Tracy Kiely’s new mystery, Murder Most Austen, begins with a pithy quote from Jane herself, the undisputed mistress of early 19th-century British
Read more »
-
Issue:
In Ranchero, a wonderfully original debut novel by Rick Gavin, former cop-turned-repo man Nick Reid speeds across the back roads of the Mississippi Delta in pursuit of a stolen 196
Read more »
-
Issue:
Four women dead and a serial killer on the loose—we’ve read it all before. But wait!
Read more »
-
Issue:
Anne Perry’s fine new book, Midnight at Marble Arch, features her well-known series duo Charlotte and Thomas Pitt in their familiar setting of Victorian England.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Amateur investigator Dandy Gilver is an upper-class lady who solves upper-class crimes, along with her friend Alec Osborne.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Diane Mott Davidson whips up a 16th adventure for her amateur caterer. This page-turner includes an elusive puppy breeder; long-missing jewels; upscale parties with assorted low-life guests; an electric skillet with lethal tendencies; plenty of local gossip and more.
Read more »
-
Issue:
In Ann B. Ross’s Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle, the 12th in her “Miss Julia” series, suspense takes a backseat, while the amusing soap opera conditions prevailing in Miss Julia’s home weigh in more heavily.
Read more »
-
With True Blue, best-selling author David Baldacci says he knew “from the beginning” that his memorable duo, Mace and Beth Perry, would be taking center stage again in future thr
Read more »
-
The second half of the word “hardscrabble” comes from the Dutch schrabbelen, "to scratch," as in “to scratch out a living” and other familiar phrases.
Read more »
-
Issue:
In What the Cat Saw, multiple award-winning mystery writer Carolyn Hart has penned another can’t-put-down tale—the first in a series—and this one comes with a nic
Read more »
-
Issue:
The early to mid-20th century is a popular setting in the world of detective fiction, touching as it does on the cataclysmic changes underway on the brink of the modern era.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Mystery fans will be delighted to learn that Margaret Maron has penned a new book in her long-running Deborah Knott series.
Read more »
-
Now and then—too seldom, really—one stumbles onto an addictive, engrossing novel. Every once in a while it’s also possible to find a fresh, engaging romance.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Hamlet is supremely aware of literary nuances, and can be counted on to pick just the right book from the shelves.
Read more »
-
Issue:
First-time author Robert Galbraith has added a singular new voice to the genre of crime fiction with his engaging debut novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, which keeps the form of a
Read more »
-
Issue:
Portland, Maine, 1893: Police deputy Archie Lean is called on to view a crime scene—a mutilated body found in an abandoned building, with strange occult symbols drawn near the corpse.
Read more »
-
Tell Me Something True is an apt title for this stunning novel.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Set in the fictional South Berlin Teaching Hospital, Christoph Spielberg’s amusing crime series features the adventures of Dr.
Read more »
-
Issue:
A.D. Scott’s intriguing mystery, A Double Death on the Black Isle, is set in the 1950s in the Scottish Highlands.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Marcia Muller’s writing instructor told her she didn’t have the goods to become a successful author, but in the early 1970s Muller tried her hand at mystery novels.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Hitler has begun his march across Europe, and the United States and England are locked in denial. It’s 1939, just at the dawn of the intelligence era in U.S. politics.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Take a small town in Cumbria, England, in 1783.
Read more »
-
In General Sherman’s Christmas, award-winning author and historian Stanley Weintraub has provided an engrossing, up-close-and-personal narrative describing Union General Will
Read more »
-
The engrossing debut The Murderer’s Daughters is a survival story, if ever there was one—a sturdily written book about the close-knit lives of sisters Lulu and Merry, whose fathe
Read more »
-
Issue:
Books come and go, and mysteries are prolific in the fiction category—but some stand out above the others. There’s nothing quite like a suspenseful tale well told.
Read more »
-
Issue:
In 2003, television comedy writer Laura Levine created a female sleuth in the person of freelance copywriter Jaine Austen.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Grab your geography book and ’fess up that you don’t really know that much about the British colony of Gibraltar, or about the current politics between “The Rock” and its co
Read more »
-
Issue:
Leslie Meier has penned more than 14 Lucy Stone mystery novels, and her latest, English Tea Murder, has arrived just in time for her many fans to stash it in their summer beach bag
Read more »
-
Issue:
Author Colin Cotterill has penned a new offbeat mystery series, and the first installment kindles in the mind like fireworks that bloom in showers of light.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Open the cover of the first book in Amanda Stevens’ Graveyard Queen Series, and meet a haunted but lovely young lady.
Read more »
-
Issue:
There’s treason in Lisson Grove!
Read more »
-
Issue:
Author Laurie King’s many readers will be delighted to learn that her character Mary Russell, known to mystery fans as the wife of famous sleuth Sherlock Holmes and a detective in her own rig
Read more »
-
Upscale restaurateur Jane, who’s gay, has an ex-husband she thought was gay but isn’t, really.
Read more »
-
Issue:
One of the lasting attractions of Alex Grecian’s debut historical crime novel, The Yard, is the fascinating way it lets readers in on the dramatic differences and particulars
Read more »
-
Issue:
In A Cold and Lonely Place, the second novel of her new series, author Sara J.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Cover of Snow calls to mind a wisp of remembered verse from an old Agatha Christie story, bland but somehow menacing: “Snow, snow, beautiful snow.
Read more »
-
Ivan Doig, born and bred in Montana, has written many popular works of fiction about the American West.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Antiques Disposal, a new entry in Barbara Allan’s Trash ‘n’ Treasures mystery series starring Brandy and Vivian Borne, is a high-spirited foray into the lives of
Read more »
-
Issue:
Author Tessa Harris is sure to garner a host of followers for her new mystery series featuring Dr. Thomas Silkstone, anatomist and forensic detective.
Read more »
-
Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun? Please! But once you read the first few pages of Lois Winston’s first-in-series whodunit, you’re hooked for the duration, weird M.O.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Clare O’Donohue has penned three previous mysteries in her Someday Quilts series, and like the others, her latest, The Devil’s Puzzle, is a haven for those who love a g
Read more »
-
Can a book be dark and delightful at the same time?
Read more »
-
When the word “Amish” comes up, it brings a slew of quick impressions: quiet, innocent, simple, non-violent. In Clouds Without Rain, the third in P.L.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Author Hallie Ephron’s third novel of suspense, There Was an Old Woman, hits all the right notes.
Read more »
-
Arf! Can you read your pet’s mind?
Read more »
-
Imagine what it would feel like to travel with a wagon train of pioneers, joining the great march to America’s western frontier in 1846.
Read more »
-
Issue:
As sole proprietors of the Little Detective Agency, canine detective Chet and his (human) friend Bernie are at it again in A Fistful of Collars.
Read more »
-
Seems there’s a Black Sheep Knitting Shop just around the corner near the seaside in Cape Ann, Massachusetts.
Read more »
-
Sometimes it’s a bad day for news. If you work for a newspaper, that means that nothing is happening.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Take a lovely tree-shaded campus, add wealthy alums and a big-ticket endowment, and fill it with rich and entitled preppies headed for big-name colleges.
Read more »
-
Issue:
Crime and politics in sub-Saharan Africa keep a tight hold on readers of Those Who Love Night, a truly fine mystery by acclaimed author Wessel Ebersohn.
Read more »
