Books by Randall Silvis and Complete Book Reviews

Randall Silvis, Author . St. Martin's Minotaur/ Dunne $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-312-26248-8
Atmospheric and cleverly researched, this shaky sequel to Silvis's well-received On Night's Shore (2001), which introduced precocious street urchin Augie Dubbins and his mystery-solving sidekick, Edgar A. Poe, takes time to build up a head...
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Randall Silvis, Author . Omnidawn $12.95 (155p) ISBN 978-1-890650-19-3
This beautiful, melancholy novella from Silvis (Doubly Dead ) unfolds as a timeless Central American seaside fable from the shifting memories of an old man with only a 15-year-old boy as his tireless audience. The man, called Grandfather Alberto,...
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Randall Silvis, Author Permanent Press (NY) $28 (256p) ISBN 978-1-877946-24-0
An unusually morbid detective protagonist, a verbosely stylized opening and occasional passages of vibrant prose produce mixed results in this first mystery from Silvis ( The Luckiest Man in the World ), a Drue Heinz Literature Prize winner. Before...
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Randall Silvis, Author Permanent Press (NY) $24 (128p) ISBN 978-1-877946-28-8
This bittersweet tale follows a man through a midlife crisis as he comes to terms with failure and mortality. Donald is still in the process of recovering from his close friend's death four years earlier when he discovers that another buddy is dying
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Randall Silvis, Author Henry Holt & Company $0 (293p) ISBN 978-0-8050-0440-3
John Bloomhardt, the hapless hero of this engaging first novel, is 34 years old and suffering from a pervasive malaise. He works as an accountant in an office that is pure bedlam, a dumping ground for besotted deadbeats and demented practical jokers.
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Randall Silvis, Author Carroll & Graf Publishers $21 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7867-0313-5
Mac Parris, the tortured hero of this darkly compelling story, has been hiding for 30 years, since an explosion killed his wife and child. He still hopes to find the 1960s terrorist responsible for the fatal bomb, while avoiding the FBI, which...
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Randall Silvis, Author Minotaur Books $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-312-26201-3
In 1840, when the poorhouse is the largest building on Manhattan island, a nicely drawn Edgar Allan Poe investigates the murder of shopgirl Mary Rogers in this updating of the original tale of ratiocination, with its post-Chinatown layers of...
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Randall Silvis. Berkley Prime Crime, $15 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-425-24346-6
When 12-year-old Jesse Rankin vanishes while out shooting crows in rural Cumberland County, Pa., at the start of this thoughtful character study, suspicion falls on an older boy, Dylan Hayes, a convenient scapegoat whose only fault is to be in the...
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Randall Silvis. Sourcebooks Landmark, $15.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-4926-3973-2
In this skillfully written thriller set in western Pennsylvania from Silvis (On Night’s Shore), Thomas Huston, a respected Shenango College professor and acclaimed author, appears to have murdered his wife, Claire, and their three children in their...
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Randall Silvis. Sourcebooks Landmark, $15.99 trade paper (464p) ISBN 978-1-4926-4691-4
Silvis’s deeply satisfying sequel to 2017’s Two Days Gone finds Sgt. Ryan DeMarco of the Pennsylvania State Police reeling from events of the recent past: the death of his best friend in action, his baby son’s death, and the end of his marriage. On...
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Randall Silvis. Sourcebooks Landmark, $15.99 trade paper (464p) ISBN 978-1-4926-6559-5
At the start of Silvis’s overwrought third Ryan DeMarco mystery (after 2018’s Walking the Bones), the former Pennsylvania state policeman turned PI is leaving the hospital where his estranged wife, Laraine, is being treated after a suicide attempt...
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Randall Silvis. Poisoned Pen, $16.99 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-1-4926-6562-5
In Silvis’s subpar fourth mystery featuring Pennsylvania state policeman turned PI Ryan DeMarco (after 2019’s A Long Way Down), Ryan and his PI girlfriend, Jayme Matson, who’s also former state police, help the police investigate a horrific triple...
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Randall Silvis. Poisoned Pen, $16.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-7282-2358-2
At the start of Silvis’s elegiac if slightly overstuffed fifth and final outing for Pennsylvania PI Ryan DeMarco (after 2020’s No Woods as Dark as These), DeMarco survives being shot in the chest during an ambush outside an abandoned mill where he’s
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Randall Silvis. Poisoned Pen, $16.95 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-7282-2361-2
Silvis (the Ryan DeMarco series) serves as his own protagonist in this frustrating standalone. Silvis, who lives in Pennsylvania’s rural Mercer County, is in search of a subject for his next book when he’s approached by Thomas Kennaday, who provides
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