SELECTED REVIEWS
Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2024, Review: Shanghai – “With Shanghai, Mr. Kanon has given readers one of his most satisfying historical thrillers to date.”
AARP, June 4, 2024, Recommend Book: Shanghai – “A fast-paced thriller.”
Parade, May 31, 2024, Recommended Book: Shanghai – “Joseph Kanon makes Shanghai a Casablanca-worthy setting for World War II-era intrigue. Start casting the movie version now.”
CrimeReads, May 23, 2024, Recommended Book: Shanghai – “A deeply engrossing tale of corruption, violence, and doomed love in a fully realized human drama. Shanghai proves one of his most powerful stories to date.”
Kirkus Reviews, April 20, 2024, Starred Review: Shanghai – “The contract between his impeccable control and the nightmarish chaos of this time and place gives things a powerful edge. Kanon goes to China with stirring results.”
Publishers Weekly, March 23, 2024, Starred Review: Shanghai – “In this superbly written WWII espionage thriller…it’s clear readers are in expert hands: Kanon writes with a master’s touch, flexing his gift for atmosphere and crafting characters who seem capable of walking off the page…this is as good as crime fiction gets.”
Booklist, Starred Review: Shanghai – “Edgar–winning Kanon plays global and personal intrigues to perfection here. Fans of historical thrillers will appreciate Kanon’s ability to cloak betrayals with the period’s looming uncertainty and evoke Shanghai’s particular vitality.”
The Daily Express UK, June 25, 2017, Review: Defectors – “If you think you’ve read enough books about this era, give this brilliant American novelist a try. He makes an old conflict feel as fresh as today’s headlines….[Kanon is] a writer at the top of his game.”
The Washington Post, June 6, 2017, Review: Defectors – “Kanon is a master of the genre … Defectors is as readable and suspenseful as the fine espionage novels of Eric Ambler, Graham Greene, Charles McCarry, Robert Littell, Alan Furst and John Le Carré — and its roller-coaster plot will keep you guessing until the final page.”
Head Butler, June 7, 2017, Review: Defectors
New York Times Book Review, June 4, 2017, Review: Defectors
The Times UK, June 3, 2017, Review: Defectors – “Joseph Kanon continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best of the present crop of spy thriller writers. No one offers a more convincing portrait of the shivery atmosphere of Cold War eastern Europe and a paranoid America. His interests are not so much the grand events and flamboyant heroes and villains of the period; he is the master of the shadows of the era.”
The Guardian UK, June 2, 2017, Review: Defectors
Kirkus Review, March 27, 2017, Starred Review: Defectors
Telegraph UK, August 3, 2016, “20 Best Spy Novels of All Time”
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, February 27, 2015, Review: Leaving Berlin
NY DAILY NEWS, February 22, 2015, Review: Leaving Berlin
New York Times Book Review, March 24, 2015, “Joseph Kanon’s ‘Leaving Berlin’”
Washington Independent, April 3, 2015, Review: Leaving Berlin
Winnepeg Free Press, March 28, 2015, “Berlin Buried in Secrets in Postwar Thriller”
The Buffalo News, March 1, 2015, “A New Thriller by a Master in the Tradition of Grahame Greene and John LeCarre”
Fort Worth Star Telegram, February 25, 2015, “Book Review: ‘Leaving Berlin’”
Library Journal, LEAVING BERLIN January 2015 issue.
TELEGRAPH UK, Dec 13, 2014, Review: Leaving Berlin
LA TIMES, August 5, 2012, “Istanbul Passage follows postwar maneuvers”
USA TODAY, June 17, 2012, “Istanbul Passage reminiscent of Casablanca”
THE WASHINGTON POST, June 10, 2012, “Istanbul Passage, by Joseph Kanon, is a complex spy world”
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, July 15, 2012, “Istanbul Passage a thriller with characters that resonate”
THE SCOTSMAN, June 16, 2012, “Book Review: Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon”
NEWARK STAR LEDGER REVIEW, June 3, 2012, “Istanbul Passage: A Book Review”
LA TIMES, August 5, 2012, “Istanbul Passage follows postwar maneuvers”
WNBC, “Stardust Review”
AARP MAGAZINE, March 2010, “Stardust Review”
HOUSTON PRESS, January 25, 2007, “Nostalgia Trip”
THE NEW REPUBLIC, January 22, 2007, “Years Past”
THE NEW YORK TIMES, October 14, 2001, “Love Among the Ruins – The Good German”
THE NEW YORK TIMES, September 25, 2011, Fiction Chronicle
