NON-MYSTERIES FOR THE MYSTERY FAN by Rob Lopresti No mysteries today. Instead I want to discuss some of my favorite novels that are almost mysteries, books that practically achieve that high standard. In other words, books that, ahem, transcend the mainstream, and almost acquire genre-dom. Island This is a novel about con artists, written by […]

Here is Chapter Two of Pushkin’s famous story of greed and corruption, “The Queen of Spades”. I have made some comments at the end of the column. The illustration shows Placido Domingo in the rôle of Hermann in a production of Tchaikovsky’s opera, Pique Dame, which was based on Pushkin’s story. —JLW THE QUEEN OF […]