[In this feature, we highlight a handful of the best book reviews appearing over the weekend in major newspapers. Follow it here.]
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People Who Eat Darkness, by Richard Lloyd Parry. Reviewed by Carolyn Kellogg (Los Angeles Times).
Even without knowing anything about this book, you must admit it’s got a phenomenal title. The story the review goes on to describe is fascinating, and eerie. A young English woman who somehow wound up working in a Tokyo hostess bar goes missing. After months of the family searching while the Japanese police do little, the court system pretty much completely bungles the case, unsucessfully prosecuting a serial rapist who videotaped all his conquests. This book sounds a whole lot like In Cold Blood.
Find it on Goodreads.
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Experiment Eleven, by Peter Pringle. Reviewed by Marc Parrish (Barnes and Noble Review.)
Here’s a book about the quest for the TB cure. A history of pharmaceuticals sounds either incredibly dry or dramatically piquant, depending on your optimism for the promise of “dark secrets.” Parrish seems impressed enough, so there’s a decent enough shot for the latter:
But as Pringle unfolds what seems a straightforward story, he offers manifold glimpses into issues of class, ethnicity, corporate duplicity, the genesis of the pharmaceutical industry, and the way blockbuster drugs have reshaped our world.
Also, I like the quote at the beginning of the review asserting “scientists are ‘a cross between a mimosa and a porcupine[...]‘”
Find it on Goodreads.
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Dark Magic, by James Swain. Reviewed by Oline H. Cogdill (Miami Herald).
It’s got to be hard to be hopeful the 14th outing from an author slash professional magician. (He may not be an actual magician, it’s hard to tell if Cogdill is using a sloppy metaphor or not.) The book is definitely about a magician, though, one named Peter Warlock. Not only is he popular with Facebook users, he’s an FBI helper, earning gold stars for helping track down assassins targeting his psychic friends. I find it very hard to believe this book is any good. But Cogdill’s clearly an excited fan, and she’s got a cool name.
Find it on Goodreads.
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Quickly: 10 New Must-Reads for June. NYT Father’s Day gift suggestions. Play some Murakami Bingo. What’s for dinner in 2035?
