He Started It

He Started It

Every aspiring writer is lectured, make the hero/heroine likeable. Not necessarily angelic, but likeable. Some anti-hero novels have sold well. Like Butch Cassidy, the protagonist may be a crook but is still the kind of guy you would want to have a drink with. But all...
Every Vow

Every Vow

Peter Swanson’s Every Vow You Break (Morrow $28) has a great premise and has gotten nice reviews (NY Times). But it may be the worst book I’ve ever reviewed. A great writer can take a well-worn premise or an old story like A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (based on...
The Holdout

The Holdout

Graham Moore The Holdout (Random House, $28.00) has written a 21st century Twelve Angry Men. Instead of Henry Fonda, Moore has created an obnoxious young woman named Maya, a recent college graduate. Living with her boyfriend and unemployed, she shows for jury duty...
Dead Letters

Dead Letters

Caite Dolan-Leach can really write beautiful sentences and sharp dialogue. Dead Letters (Random House, $27.00) is the story of identical twins Ava and Zelda, as in A to Z, who unfortunately at birth got switched. The first born was supposed to be Ava, but wound out...
The Secrets We Kept

The Secrets We Kept

Lara Prescott’s The Secrets We Kept (Knopf, $26.95) is a big hit, rating reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and The New York Times.  The main character, Irina, is the daughter of Russian immigrants who wins a typing contest and therefore a job at a Federal Agency in...
Girls Like Us

Girls Like Us

Girls Like Us (Putman, $26.00) by Cristina Alger is a fast three evening read. FBI agent Nell Flynn has returned home for the funeral of her father who was a detective in the Suffolk county police force on Long Island. While there, a partially decomposed body of a...