The Book Shelf – Page 11

The Bass Reeves Trilogy: Follow the Angels Follow the Doves (2020), Hell on the Border (2021), and The Forsaken and the Dead (2023) – Sidney Thompson

After watching Paramount’s Lawmen: Bass Reeves and seeing in the opening credits that it was based on two books in a historical fiction trilogy written by Sidney Thompson, I had to hunt them down and dig into this historical personage that no one seems to know about. Over the course of three novels, Thompson documents…

Hide (2022) – Kiersten White

I loved Kiersten White’s Mister Magic so I had to hunt down another novel by her, Hide. Once again, she delivers a tale that is very easy to curl up in and explore. It’s fast-paced, and White is wonderfully skilled at bringing her characters to life, but despite the promise of twists and turns, there…

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece (2023) – Tom Hanks

Somehow this one got by me, but I was delighted to dig into it, as I quite enjoyed Hanks short story collection, Uncommon Type. For his first novel, Hanks delivers a tale that takes us behind the scenes of a big superhero movie and walks us through all the steps of its production, exploring the…

Mister Magic (2023) – Kiersten White

Kiersten White’s Mister Magic is an unnerving and spooky tale that definitely has a commentary on religion and those who believe. Mister Magic was a radio program, and later a television show that ran until the 90s when the final episode ended in tragedy. It seems a number of people remember the show, and remember…

The Andromeda Strain (1969) – Micheal Crichton

I’ve read lots of horror novels, and enjoy Stephen King’s stories but nothing I’ve read in the genre has ever gotten under my skin and unnerve me. Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain got me. I think the story got wrapped up too quickly, but the essence of the story really got to me, and seemed…

You Like It Darker (2024) – Stephen King

I love Stephen King books, the bigger the better, I love the heft of them in my hand, the weight of them as I carry them with me, the turning of each page revealing some new wonder or terror, and the way I connect to the characters and his stories. But sometimes you just need…

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Masks (1989) – John Vornholt

Set during the events of season two of The Next Generation, John Vornholt’s novel, Masks, is a bit of a basic tale, but does give Captain Picard a bit of a romance. The Enterprise arrives at the planet Lorca, transporting ambassador-at-large Fenton Lewis to open diplomatic relations with the inhabitants. This seems kind of odd,…

The Man with the Red Tattoo (2002) – Raymond Benson

Raymond Benson delivers his last original James Bond novel. His last 007 book was the adaptation of Die Another Day. So that means he has to wrap up the villain, Goro Yoshida, that he set up in the previous book, Never Dream of Dying. At the PM’s request, James has been assigned to look out…

The Ministry of Time (2024) – Kaliane Bradley

Simon & Schuster delivers a charming new novel by Kaliane Bradley today, one that is wonderfully funny, heartbreakingly romantic, and all wrapped up in time travel. Set in England, a young British-Cambodian civil servant is promoted and recruited into a top-secret project and is shocked to discover that time travel is real. A number of…

The Return of Ellie Black (2024) – Emiko Jean

To call The Return of Ellie Black a jaw-dropping page-turner doesn’t do the book, the story, or the author, Emiko Jean, justice. It was nothing short of a compulsive read, one that I stayed up late to finish, something that doesn’t happen often for me. I had to know how the story played out, I…