About Me

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Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Bill's Best of ------


The choices reflect the year when the books were read by me. They are not always the year the book was published.

2023 -

FICTION

1.) The Discourtesy of Death by William Brodrick

2.) A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr

3.) A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

3.) Sunset and Jericho by Sam Wiebe


2020 -
FICTION

1.) The Last Trial by Scott Turow (opening, mid-trial

and closing)


2.) A Time for Mercy by John Grisham


3.) Greenwood by Michael Christie - (One of the posts discussed the physical makeup of the book and the beautiful edging and in another I exchanged emails with the author.)


3.) The Skull Mantra by Eliot Paterson (First, second and third posts)


2019 - 

 FICTION




2017 -

 FICTION

 1.) Last Days of Night

 2.) The Winners’ Circle 

 3.) The Fortunate Brother

 3.) Jade Dragon Mountain 



2014 -


 FICTION


 1.) Silver Totem of Shame by R.J. Harlick

2.)  An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris

3.) The Ascendant by Drew Chapman

3.) Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller


 2013 -


FICTION

1.) The Gifted by Gail Bowen

2.) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

3.) Stranglehold by Robert Rotenberg

3.) Sycamore Row by John Grisham


2012 -

FICTION–

1.) The Suspect by L.R. Wright

2.) Kaleidoscope by Gail Bowen

3.) Trackers by Deon Meyer

3.) Blessed Are the Dead by Malla Nunn


NON-FICTION

1.) Bush Dweller – Essays in Memory of Father James Gray, OSB edited by Donald Ward (Part I and Part II)


2.) Becoming Justice Blackmun by Linda Greenhouse 


3.) Hitler’s Empire - How the Nazis Ruled Europe by Mark Mazower


MOST INTERESTING


1.) One-L by Scott Turow (Guest post and my post)


2.) The Invention of Murder – How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime by Judith Flanders (Part I and Part II)


3.) Murder in a Cold Climate by Scott Young



2011 -
 

FICTION –

1.) Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (569.)

2.) Old City Hall by Robert Rotenberg (562.)

3.) The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (620.)

3.) The Sherlockian by Graham Moore (572.)
 

NON- FICTION

1.) The Cinderella Army by Terry Copp (596.)

2.) Simon Wiesenthal by Tom Segev (563.)

3.) He Left Them Laughing when He Said Good-bye by Grant MacEwan (589.)


MOST INTERESTING

1.) Prairie Hardball by Alison Gordon (588.)

2.) Cake in the Hat Box by Arthur Upfield (574.)

3.) The Judas Window by John Dickson Carr writing as Dickson Carter (629.)

3.) The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder by Roderick Benns (615.)
2010 -


FICTION –

1.) Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (551.)
2.) Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo (554.)
3.) Shaman Pass by Stan Jones (555.)

3.) Spies in the Balkans by Alan Furst (561.)


NON- FICTION

1.) The Snowball – Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder (521.)

2.) Kokada by Peter Fitzsimmons (539.)

3.) Talking About Detective Fiction by P.D. James (515.)


MOST INTERESTING FICTION AND NON-FICTION -


1.) Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (525.)

2.) Crossing Hitler by Benjamin Carter Hett (527.)

3.) Murder in Gutenthal by Armin Wiebe (546.)


2009 -


FICTION –


1.) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (475.) and (498.)

2.) Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xialong (489.)

3.) Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg (506.)

4.) Before the Frost by Henning Mankell (469.)

4.) The Murder Stone by Louise Penny (474.)


NON-FICTION

1.) The Trial Lawyers by Emily Couric (471.)

2.) A Life in My Hands by J.W. Ehrlich (465.)

3.) Frontsoldaten – The German Soldier in WW II by Stephen G. Fritz (513.)



MOST INTERESTING FICTION AND NON-FICTION -


1.) Sledge Patrol by David Howarth (484.)

2.) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (501.)

3.) When Corruption was King by Robert Cooley (468.)

3.) White Sky, Black Ice by Stan Jones (470.)


2000 -


FICTION –

1.) Airth, Rennie - River of Darkness

2.) Bowen, Gail - Burying Ariel

3.) Turow, Scott - Personal Injuries


NON-FICTION -

1.) McKillop, A.B. - The Spinster and the Prophet

2.) Thomas, Helen - Front Row at the White House


2001 -


FICTION –

1.) Crais, Robert - Demolition Angel

2.) Le Carre, John - The Constant Gardner

3.) Connelly, Michael - The Concrete Blonde


NON-FICTION -

1.) Gutenplan, D.D. - The Holocaust on Trial

2.) Graham, Katherine - Personal History


2002 -

FICTION –

Connelly, Michael - Blood Work (The Best of All Mysteries)

1.) Eisler, Barry - Rain Fall

2.) Rowling, J.K. - Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

3.) Stephenson, Neal - Cryptonomicon


NON-FICTION -

1.) Kershaw, Ian - Hubris and Nemesis Volumes I and II of Hitler's biography

2.) Hunter, Bill and Weber, Bob - Wild Bill


2003 -


FICTION –

1.) Brown, Dan - The Da Vinci Code

1.) Turow, Scott - Reversible Errors

2.) Alvtegen, Karin – Missing

3.) Topol, Edward - Red Snow


NON-FICTION -

1.) MacMillan, Margaret - Paris 1919

2.) Copp, Terry - Fields of Fire


MOST INTERESTING FICTION AND NON-FICTION -

Simpson, Gary L. - Tiger Ace (Non-fiction)


2004 -


FICTION –

1.) Smith, Alexander McCall - The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

2.) Thomas, Ross - Briarpatch

3.) Blunt, Giles  - Forty Words of Sorrow

3.) Porter, Henry - Remembrance Day


NON-FICTION -


1.) Lewis, Michael - Moneyball

2.) Edwards, John and Auchard, John - Four Trials


MOST INTERESTING FICTION AND NON-FICTION -

Bidulka, Anthony  - Amuse Bouche (Fiction)


2005 -


FICTION –

1.) Absolute Friends by John Le Carre

2.) Flight of Aquavit by Anthony Bidulka

3.) The Closers by Michael Connelly




3.) The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow


NON-FICTION -

1.) No Holding Back by Brian A. Reid

2.) Courting Justice by David Boies

3.) The Heiress vs The Establishment by Constance Backhouse and Nancy L. Backhouse

3.) The Healing Wound by Gitta Sereny


MOST INTERESTING FICTION AND NON-FICTION -

1.) The Chinese Gold Murders by Robert van Gulik

2.) Vatican by Malachi Martin

3.) Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason


2006 -


FICTION –

1.) Sidetracked by Henning Mankell

2.) The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill

3.) Dead Cold by Louise Penny

3.) Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver


NON-FICTION -

1.) The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

2.) The Blitzkreig Myth by John Mosier




3.) The File by Timothy Garton Ash

3.) Because We Are Canadians by Charles Kipp


MOST INTERESTING FICTION AND NON-FICTION -

1.) the perfection of the morning by Sharon Butala

2.) Wolves Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith


2007 -


FICTION –

1.) The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

2.) The Endless Knot by Gail Bowen

3.) One Step Behind by Henning Mankell


NON-FICTION -

1.) The Golden Spruce by John Vallant

2.) Historians in Trouble by John Mosier

3.) The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

3.) Hitler/Donitz and the Baltic Sea – The Third Reich’s Last Hope, 1944 – 1945 by Howard D. Grier


MOST INTERESTING FICTION AND NON-FICTION -

1.) Buried on Sunday by Edward O. Philips

2.) Mistress of Death by Ariana Franklin





2008 -


FICTION –

1.) Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

2.)  Citizen Vance by Jess Walter

3.) Kindness Goes Unpunished by Craig Johnson

3.) The Brutal Heart by Gail Bowen


NON-FICTION -

1.) Acedia & Me by Kathleen Norris

2.) The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow

3.) In Command of History – Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War by David Reynolds

3.) Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild


MOST INTERESTING FICTION AND NON-FICTION -

1.) Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan

2.) The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin

3.) The Torture Team by Phillipe Sands

3.) Red Finns on the Coteau by Larry Warwaruk





****

BEST MYSTERY SERIES -

Travis McGee by John D. MacDonald – (2004) - The Deep Blue Good-by; (2004) - Nightmare in Pink; (2005) - A Purple Place for Dying; (2005) - The Quick Red Fox; (2006) - A Deadly Shade of Gold; (2006) - Bright Orange for the Shroud


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