Grand Central Publishing Archives

Book review: Presumed Guilty by Scott Turow

December 19, 20244 min read

Presumed Guilty by Scott Turow is the third in the Presumed Innocent series which kicked off with its namesake waaaaay back in 1987, followed by Innocent in 2010. I suspect this third installation has something to do with the success of the series on offer this year via AppleTV+. I’ve always thought Turow led the way for other legal procedurals (by the likes of John Grisham, Lisa Scottoline, Steve Martini, Alafair Burke et al) with the original book (not to mention the 1990 movie starring Harrison Ford) positioning courtroom drama and legal thrillers front and centre in print and on the screen in a way we hadn’t seen since Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason series which kicked off in print in the 1930s.

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Book review: The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding

June 4, 20232 min read

The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding took me by surprise. I read the blurb and made some assumptions. As I started reading and met Lee and Hazel I pictured it… the way it was going to play out. I could see it clearly and felt disappointed. Knowing that what was to come was going to be an anticlimax. Predictable. I’d read many versions of this book before.

So… you can imagine my surprise when the first major twist comes and the book goes in a completely different direction. And it happens not once, not even twice, but three times. Or maybe it was more. I lost count.

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Book review: A Gambling Man by David Baldacci

April 2, 20213 min read

I wasn’t a fan of David Baldacci’s Camel Club series* but have loved almost everything he’s published since. Indeed, his books take up quite a bit of real estate on my bookshelves. I particularly love his Amos Decker and Atlee Pine series but somehow I missed the first in his new historical crime fiction series featuring ex-con Aloysius Archer.

And I enjoyed this so much I’m going to be hunting down its predecessor, One Good Deed.

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Book review: Girl Last Seen by Nina Laurin

June 18, 20173 min read

I’m not sure what it is at the moment, but I seem to be reading A LOT of books about missing girls and women. Particularly those held captive for a period of time. Perhaps the very popular Room by Emma Donohue made the topic more palatable for public consumption, or perhaps they’ve always been out there and I’m just stumbling over a heap all at once.

The third straight book I’ve read on the subject, Girl Last Seen by Nina Laurin is – as it happens – about the disappearance of two girls. Many years apart.

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Book review: The Last Mile by David Baldacci

May 2, 20162 min read

I’d like to pretend that I scheduled my review of The Last Mile by David Baldacci today on purpose. But alas, it’s mostly coincidence that (according to Facebook) – it’s a year ago on this very day – I posted my review of Memory Man, the first book in Baldacci’s new series featuring the quirky Amos Decker.

I adored that book and fell a little in love with Amos Decker. And neither he (nor Baldacci) have done anything in this second outing to diminish my affection.

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