Former CIA employee Joseph Weisberg’s ‘An Ordinary Spy’ may attract attention for how much it redacts – whether by authorial choice or by CIA design – but its power comes from the growing frustration Weisberg’s fictional alter ego feels at a system designed to betray seeming innocents in the most casual and cruel manner possible. Sarah Weinman Read Quote
The Cold War was over, presidential sex scandals superseded foreign concerns, and the American public was more interested in reading about fiendish serial killers, dependable mystery series protagonists, and any book thought to be in the vein of Bridget Jones and her abbreviation-happy diary. Sarah Weinman Read Quote
Indeed, mysteries lead readers through an endless variety of subjects and settings; yet sometimes devotees of detection seek to be transported though another dimension as well: time. Sarah Weinman Read Quote
The Choirboys’ is very much a product of its mid-1970s time, especially in its two-dimensional portrayals of cop groupies Ora Lee and Carolina Moon, but the energy of Wambaugh’s newfound, blackly comedic voice is a revelation, a trap-door opening into all facets of a policeman’s world. Sarah Weinman Read Quote
Joseph Wambaugh did not invent the police novel, but no one had seen anything like ‘The New Centurions’ when it was published in 1971. Here was a working, living, breathing cop with a decade of experience on the beat. Sarah Weinman Read Quote
The make-believe world of ‘The Black Tower’ succeeds by broadcasting larger truths that might otherwise elude us. Sarah Weinman Read Quote
First, a confession: I liked ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ This news is even more of a surprise to me than it might be to those who, years ago, heard me quip that I quit reading it because ‘the moment the albino assassin came through the door, I left.’ Sarah Weinman Read Quote
There are two ways to approach the writing of a mystery novel: adhere to the rules, or break them with glee. Sarah Weinman Read Quote
Though ‘Child’s Play’ is ultimately more concerned with subverting storytelling expectations and satirizing the expected trajectory of traditional mystery, Posadas does embed some insights about the writer’s responsibility to the reader. Sarah Weinman Read Quote
Out of the ashes of the Great War came the freewheeling cultural renaissance that was the Jazz Age, but the decade-long party of flapper dresses and bootlegging came to a crashing halt with the Crash of ’29 – triggering the Great Depression and the New Deal that would help America get back on its feet, just in time for another, greater war. Sarah Weinman Read Quote
