A GRITTY AUSTRALIAN NOIR thriller set in the mid-1960s sends a corrupt Sydney detective and his drug- and drink-addled colleague deep into the outback to solve a horrifying set of murders. Extravagantly bleak prose tells a grim story. SOLID B

THE DEVIL IN THE RED DIRT: THE TRAGIC TALE A NATION DIVIDED IN LIFE, UNIFIED IN MURDER
Michael P. Smith
2021

THE GHOSTS THAT HAUNTED MESOPOTAMIA: British Museum curator Irving Finkel’s latest is a delightful, revelatory survey of ancient Mesopotamian beliefs about ghosts and the afterlife. Beautiful, clear prose on a fascinating topic. SOLID A

THE FIRST GHOSTS
Hodder & Stoughton
2021

TENSE THRILLER, BRILLIANT satire of publishing workplace politics, absolutely devastating parable of race and gender in the US today—what can’t this impeccably written novel do? Not to be missed. A MINUS

THE OTHER BLACK GIRL
Atria Books
2021

AN ACCIDENTAL ACTION HERO goes from movies to real life in this snappy, stylish thriller about a beloved spy franchise whose stars are meeting unfortunate deaths. High concept and high energy fun. A MINUS

JOVE BRAND IS NEAR DEATH
CamCat Books
2021

FINDING A VOICE AND A LANGUAGE: a writer’s journey between her mother’s Puerto Rican family, languages, and spirituality, and her father’s disaffected Anglo whiteness and atheism, to her own power and creativity. Lovely, strong, thoughtful. B PLUS

MY BROKEN LANGUAGE
One World
2021

HARLEM AT A CROSSROADS, a man poised between the straight and narrow and the shady side hustle, the 1950s yielding to the 1960s: Colson Whitehead’s latest paints a vivid picture of a world in transition with all the power of Dickens or Ellison. SOLID A

HARLEM SHUFFLE
Doubleday
2021

AN ENGLISHMAN IN JAPAN: CURIOSITY and culture clash abound in this witty, thoughtful, vividly detailed memoir of four years spent teaching English in Tokyo. Absolute must for anyone thinking of working abroad. A MINUS

CANNED COFFEE AND KIMONOS
i2i Publishing
2021

A NOW-FORGOTTEN POET’S DEATH by suicide, and the scandal that ensued, opens a window onto the complicated passions of Gilded Age California’s literary set. Fascinating history reads like a thriller! A MINUS

THE GILDED EDGE
Dutton
2021

JOHN LE CARRÉ’S FAREWELL to his readers is an exquisitely crafted, elegiac novel about a spy service in disarray, a lost empire playing lapdog to an empire in decline, and above all, the many ways in which humans fail the people they love. B PLUS

SILVERVIEW
Viking
2021

DELICATE HISTORICAL THRILLER, set in Italy at the height of Mussolini’s power. Smart characterization and a strong sense of place. SOLID B

LITTLE SPARK
Writesideleft
2021