Bethanne Patrick
-
This tale of an RAF pilot, the Italian woman who rescues him after a crash, and 30 years later, his daughter, is so skillful and comforting that you may not even notice the fact that there's a war on.
-
Nina Sadowsky's day job is high-level Hollywood producer, and it shows in the cinematic drive of her new thriller. But the book's nonstop action leaves little time for details of place and character.
-
Graeme Macrae Burnet's stylish, atmospheric mystery can be read just as a dark little detective story — but it's worth paying attention to the novel's playful found-manuscript framing device.
-
With The Pictures, British author Guy Bolton kicks off a mystery series set in classic-era Hollywood. He's clearly done his research on 1930s America, but sometimes all that detail obscures the story.
-
Kathleen Barber's debut novel is an on-trend mashup of murder, social media and Serial-style true-crime podcasting, but though well paced, it suffers from thin characters and a lack of context.
-
The title of Owen Egerton's new novel refers — mostly — to the old fable that the earth is hollow. But there's nothing hollow about this suspenseful tale of a religion professor's fall and rise.
-
Fiona Barton's latest — a followup to last year's hit The Widow — picks up with journalist Kate Waters as she digs into another cold case, this one an infant skeleton found at a building site.
-
French novelist Delphine De Vigan follows up her tell-all 2012 memoir with a creepy tale of a blocked novelist — also named Delphine — who falls under the sway of an elegant, menacing ghostwriter.
-
Elizabeth Kostova's deep love for her adopted homeland grounds this story of a young American woman in Sofia, who finds a mysterious urn full of ashes and has to piece together the lives behind it.
-
Dan Chaon's latest novel suggests that even people who seem kind can lead you down dangerous paths, whether they realize it or not.