Madison Smartt Bell

All Souls' Rising (2004)

This historical account of the great slave rebellion in Haiti in the 1790's, in one sense, made me think of the mostly disastrous American military invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. In both cases, it was a question of trying to control indigenous political and cultural turmoil with outs...

Toussaint Louverture: A Biography (2007)

Master of the Crossroads (2004)

When writers become obsessed with their subject matter, the final result can come out as relentless raving, or, as in this case, develop into total and uncompromising immersion.This second volume of Bell's Toussaint Louverture trilogy is as thoroughly mesmerizing as the first. Covering an eight...

Straight Cut (Hard Case Crime #21) (2006)

I almost clicked one star for this one. I did it! I clicked one star! Maybe I should go back and give the Max Allan Collins books one star, too, but they at least succeed in being an entertaining enough piece of genre fiction. This book doesn't succeed there at all. And it wasn't because I th...

Barking Man and Other Stories (1991)