Mal Warwick on Books: Insightful Reviews and Recommendations

Agatha Christie died half a century ago, and her most celebrated works appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. Yet even today hundreds of thousands of readers, and possibly millions, participate in Agatha Christie fan clubs. But why? What can possibly cause so many people to cherish the books she wrote so long ago? After all, millions of mysteries and thrillers have been publish...

When years ago I read The Poisonwood Bible, I was flummoxed by its power and beauty. It was clear to me that Barbara Kingsolver possessed a fierce talent not just as a storyteller but also as a wordsmith and a reporter. Her vivid prose brought into high relief the tragic reality of life in the 1960s in what is today the Democratic Republic of Congo. Much later I ...

Crime in its innumerable manifestations has always been with us. But organized crime, American style—commanding the attention of government at the highest level—only came into existence in the US in the years leading up to the First World War. Then, immigrants on New York City’s Lower East Side protected by corrupt cops and

In Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Colson Whitehead begins the story of Harlem furniture de...

As a teenager growing up in the 1950s in Lima, Ohio, (population 50,000 then), I learned that our local daily, The Lima News, had been purchased by a man named R. C. Hoiles. Hoiles lived in Orange County, California, and was a member of the John Birch Society...