This very short novella is available on Amazon Kindle for free — apparently one doesn’t buy the book, but “borrow” it. What a great idea. It’s the first part of a trilogy of short fiction…

I once asked a young Finnish historian which side Finland was on during the Second World War. His answer consisted of two words: “It’s complicated.” It is indeed. This book tries to make sense of…

Many, many years ago I read dozens of Agatha Christie’s novels. Here’s what put a stop to that: I began marking the page where I felt for sure that I knew who the murderer was….

From what I can tell, I’ve read all of Malcolm Gladwell’s books. And before reading this one, which is a kind-of sequel to his best-seller from 25 years ago, I read a blistering review attacking…

In 1936, George Orwell planted roses in the village of Wallington. I visited that village a few years ago and saw his cottage, but not the roses. It turns out that Orwell was an avid…

Imagine if Raymond Chandler wrote near-future science fiction. That pretty much sums up this book. A detective who helps the police but is not a part of the police, with incredible fighting skills and a…

This is a very strange and deeply unpleasant book about a young man who knew no love growing up in 18th century France, has a virtual super-power in his sense of smell, and becomes a…

An observation: If the first book in a series is called “Agent Seventeen”, wouldn’t the sequel be called something like “Agent Eighteen”? A minor quibble. The important thing to note is that the second in…

As this book received the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award in 2023, I thought I’d give it a go. It is a very silly book. Agent Seventeen — whose real name we never learn —…