Reviews + Articles

What Are You Reading?

There might be a more important question today than "What are you reading?" How are you feeling, or how are you doing? I don't remember a time when I was so ashamed to be an American. My sister did two internships in Washington, D.C., one with our congressman; one...

Margie Bunting’s Favorite Reads of 2020

It's the perfect day for me to turn the blog post over to Margie Bunting. Today is the 16th anniversary of Lesa's Book Critiques. My first post was on Jan. 6, 2005. Oh, I'll stop by to read the comments, But, Margie Bunting, a friend, writer, and regular here at the...

Fatal Divisions by Claire Booth

Fatal Divisions is Claire Booth’s fourth Hank Worth mystery featuring the sheriff of Branson County, Missouri. I love these kind of small-town or community police procedurals. It reminds me of Steven Havill’s Posadas County mysteries. This one finds Sheriff Worth and...

What Waits for You by Joseph Schneider

I really liked Joseph Schneider's debut crime novel, One Day You'll Burn. It was a little grittier than the books I normally read, but I liked LAPD Homicide Detective Tully Jarsdel. The sophomore effort, though, What Waits for You, was an effort to read. Tully thinks...

Pickard County Atlas by Chris Harding Thornton

I thought Laura McHugh's The Wolf Wants In was a dark, grim book. Chris Harding Thornton's debut, Pickard County Atlas, has that beat. The story, set in north-central Nebraska, has a foreboding atmosphere, and one of the most disturbing endings I've read in a book....

Bloodline by Jess Lourey

Jess Lourey takes readers back to Lilydale, Minnesota, the setting of Unspeakable Things in Bloodline, a creepy novel that reminded me of a combination of The Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby. Horror fans might want to pick up this one. When reporter Joan Harken...