KN Magazine: Reviews

5/7/21 5/7/21

The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly/Review by Tim Suddeth

THE LAW OF INNOCENCE
Michael Connelly

Grand Central Publishing (April 27, 2021)
$16.99
978-1538752548
April 2021

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When Mickey Haller got pulled over leaving his party after celebrating winning a big case, he wasn’t too worried. He hadn’t been drinking, so it shouldn’t have taken long. But the night took a decidedly different turn when the police officer opened his trunk to discover a recently shot body.

The Lincoln Lawyer was about to take on his most serious case with the outcome as big as it gets, his own life. And everything seemed to be in the prosecution’s favor. Especially when he had to prepare for trial in a prison with some of the very men he had put there.

Michael Connelly takes us into a courtroom and shows us some of the dirty tricks used by both sides of the aisle. For courtroom drama enthusiasts, this is a must read.

And for fans of Michael Connelly, which is a whole lot of us, this is a sure-fire delight. It combines half-brothers Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch from both of Connelly’s popular series. We get to see the deep devotion he has for his family, including his college age daughter. (Who is attending law school. Mr. Connelly, please don’t miss this opportunity for a future series.)

We, also, see his first wife taking leave from her job at the DA’s to help with his defense. Does this mean she will work with him in the future? What kind of fallout will she face for helping the other side? What a great cliffhanger.

Two things stuck out to me from this novel. One, the legal tactics by Haller and the prosecutor and the line the judge had to walk to make sure that not only were the rules being followed, but that it is also fair for both sides. Connelly obviously knows more about the law than just the Cliff Notes.

Also, this is the first novel I’ve read that deals with the COVID pandemic. Connelly is known for bringing real events into his other books. In The Law of Innocence, he didn’t try to explain the details of the virus and the governments’ reactions to the reader. Instead, he showed how Haller, stuck in his cell with little outside contact, saw the protocols beginning to take place at the prison. When his ex-wife showed up to meet with him at the prison wearing a mask, it added another layer of tension and realism.

This novel is Michael Connelly at his best, which is saying a lot. And it’s a good example to writers of how to include current events without letting them take over the story.

5/6/21 5/6/21

Her Ocean Grave by Dana Perry/Review by Sheila Sobel

Her Ocean Grave
Dana Perry

Bookouture
$9.99
B091CRDBK2
June 2, 2021

BUY HERE

After decorated NYPD Homicide Detective Abby Pearce witnesses the death of her partner—a death she feels responsible for—she accepts an offer from the mayor of Cedar Cliffs to join the smaller, quieter Martha’s Vineyard police force, where she’ll be the only detective. Returning to Martha’s Vineyard, the place where she grew up, is a huge adjustment for Abby. As is adjusting to the small-town’s police work, which usually consists of nothing more than “rowdy beach parties, traffic problems and lost dogs,” a stark contrast to the more brutal crimes she witnessed during her ten years with the NYPD.

When a vacationing sixteen-year-old, Samantha Claymore—daughter of a cosmetics industry queen, Valerie Claymore—goes missing, Detective Abby Pearce is expected to find her and bring her home safely. That proves to be easier said than done. As with all high-profile missing persons cases, once the news is leaked, the media descends like locusts upon the exclusive hamlet, wreaking havoc on Abby’s investigation and ramping up the need for a more-than-swift solve. With few clues, little cooperation from Samantha’s mother and minimal support from her own police department, Abby is on her own.

After Abby learns Samantha is not the first girl to go missing from this idyllic vacation spot, she looks for a pattern, anything from those past cases that will help her find Samantha. When the broken body of Samantha’s best friend, Bridget, is found on a ledge beneath a cliff, Abby is convinced that all the cases are inextricably linked. She just can’t prove it. Yet.

Her Ocean Grave is a well-crafted police procedural with an exciting new character in Detective Abby Pearce. She’s capable. She’s smart. And, like every complex, compelling protagonist, she’s flawed. It’s what makes her relatable. That, and her thirty-five-pound dachshund, Oscar. In Detective Abby Pearce, Dana Perry has not only introduced readers to a thrilling new series but has left us anxiously awaiting the release of book two.

R.G. Belsky is an award-winning author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City. Belsky has published 14 novels—all set in the New York City media world where he has had a long career as a top editor at the New York Post, New York Daily News, Star Magazine and NBC News. Writing under the name Dana Perry his novels, The Silent Victim and The Golden Girl are the first two books in the Jessie Tucker Mystery series.

Sheila Sobel’s Middle-Grade work-in-progress, TIME FLIES was a finalist for the 2020 Killer Nashville Claymore Award. Her debut YA novel, Color Blind, won the 2017 Killer Nashville Reader’s Choice Award for Best YA Fiction and was a Finalist for the 2017 Silver Falchion Award for Best YA Fiction. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two dogs and a cat.

4/22/21 4/22/21

Slightly Murderous Intent by Lida Sideris/Review by Tim Suddeth

Slightly Murderous Intent
Lida Sideris

Level Best Books
$16.95
978-1947915923
October 2020

BUY HERE

Slightly Murderous Intent, book four in the Southern California Mysteries series, is in the same vein as Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series with a snarky heroine who is fully capable of standing up for herself and backing up her wise-cracking mouth.

Corrie Locke worked as a young attorney working for a film studio but dreamed of one day having her own private investigators office. One evening, she and her boyfriend joined his best friend, Assistant Deputy District Attorney James Zachary, to celebrate his winning a big case with his boss and others in the office. The party broke up when someone came into the restaurant and took a few shoots at their table.

It could have been a fluke, or someone who was a terrible shot. Until later that night, the same man showed up outside James’s apartment.

Now it’s personal.

Corrie wasn’t about to trust her friends’ lives to a detective on her first case. With a group of friends with a variety of skills, and the lessons she’d learned from her famous PI father, she was going to make sure the man didn’t get another chance to improve his aim.

From homeless veterans to a dueling pair of restauranteurs, Sideris entertains us with a unique cast of characters. Working as an entertainment attorney was the first job the author had after law school and it shows with her knowledge of Corrie’s world and the life of an Assistant Deputy DA.

Although it’s the fourth in the series, you can start with this story and not feel loss. A quick read with a lot of action. Corrie is a woman you would not mind joining for a drink, or two.

4/7/21 4/7/21

Runner by Tracy Clark/Review by Sheila Sobel

Runner
Tracy Clark

Kensington
$26.00
978-1496732019
June 29, 21

BUY HERE

At two in the morning during another unforgiving Chicago winter, private investigator Cass Raines would much rather be cozied up at home than sitting in an over-heated burger joint waiting for a potential client. When the woman arrives, Cass learns that Leesa Evans has had a hard life, one of her own making through a series of bad decisions. Her drug addiction caused her to lose her daughter to foster care. Now clean, her road to recovery is still a work-in-progress, but she desperately wants to get her daughter back and she needs Cass to help.

Like all things requiring the services of a private investigator, there is no straight line from the start of a new case to its conclusion. This case is no different. Fifteen-year-old Ramona has gone missing from her current foster home and the police believe she’s just another runaway. But Ramona is no ordinary runaway. Fearing for her life, she’s gone underground, finding refuge with a ragtag group of homeless kids who will do whatever it takes to protect one of their own. As Cass digs deeper into the world of abandoned children, she learns that the teenaged girl placed in the home before Ramona is missing as well. All is not as it appears to be with the picture-perfect, pearl-wearing foster mother. Or the man who placed Ramona into her care. With the clock ticking, Cass needs to find Ramona and learn her secrets before they both end up dead.

In Runner, Book 4 in the A Chicago Mystery Series, Tracy Clark provides readers with a well-crafted mystery for fans—both old and new—of former homicide detective turned private investigator, Cass Raines.

Growing up in Chicago, Tracy Clark read everything she could get her hands on. When a wave of fantabulous female crime writers swooped in bringing their thunder—Grafton, Muller, Maron, Paretsky, Bland, Neely, Wilson Wesley—she knew right away she wanted to be just like them. After graduating from grad school, she started her career in the newspaper business. Up every day at 5:30 AM with her laptop and a cup of Earl Grey, she edits by day and writes the Cass Raines mysteries around her work schedule. When not writing or editing, Tracy enjoys a good black-and-white movie. Learn more about Tracy Clark at: https://tracyclarkbooks.com/

Sheila Sobel’s debut, “Color Blind” won the 2017 Killer Nashville Reader's Choice Award for Best YA Fiction and was a Finalist for the 2017 Silver Falchion Award for Best YA Fiction. Her middle-grade WIP, “Time Flies,” was a finalist for the 2020 Killer Nashville Claymore Award.

Learn more about Sheila Sobel at: https://www.sheilasobel.com/

4/6/21 4/6/21

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan/Review by Clay Stafford

The Thirty-Nine Steps
John Buchan

Birlinn
$11.95
978-1846971983
Reprint edition (July 17, 2011)

BUY HERE

Classic Reads

The Novel That Popularized the Man on the Run and Modern Spy Thrillers

A terrorist group wishes to start a war between Germany and England (prior to World War I) and it is up to main character Richard Hannay, an ordinary man on the run from both the terrorist group and the police, to prevent that war from happening. Unfortunately, as we know by history, the effort failed, but the story is an incredible ticking-clock adventure of a man avoiding capture as he dons one disguise after another in an attempt to stay alive without resources in a Scottish and English setting where everyone he meets is suspect.

Author John Buchan (1875-1940) was a government official for Great Britain who wrote because he loved to write, writing an average of three books per year during the full course of his life. What is fascinating about Buchan is that he used his writing to help himself understand the world and his own views better as related to topics that were of interest to him. He then shared that interest with others through publication. Over the course of his life, he wrote and edited by my count over 106 books (fiction, nonfiction, short stories, biographies, and poetry).

Considered by the BBC as one of the United Kingdom’s “best-loved novels,” The Thirty-Nine Steps is set historically in Buchan’s current time period, a ripped-from-the-headline then-current novel, but its sense of adventure and pursuit are timeless. It is as delightful now as when it was written in 1915. The novel solidified the man-on-the-run thriller and created a derivative industry by other trendish thriller and suspense writers, even to today. What’s significant to our canon is that, from The Thirty-Nine Steps, Buchan is considered by many to be arguably the father of the modern spy thriller and the lone-man-on-the-run suspense novel. While not always believable, The Thirty-Nine Steps kept me alert and I read through the short novel in no time. (I’ve read The Thirty-Nine Steps three times over the course of many years.) I am always especially attracted to its brevity and concise storytelling and its honest portrayal of characters, including all their biased and prejudiced flaws. Buchan played fairly and the effect is timeless as its continued popularity proves.

Clay Stafford is a bestselling writer, filmmaker, publisher, and founder of Killer Nashville. He's spent the majority of his life in the Film/TV/Lit industries. He's the CEO of American Blackguard, the Writer-In-Residence at BGA, and a longtime promoter of writers & artists. Connect with him at www.ClayStafford.com.

3/26/21 3/26/21

Beyond the Headlines by R.G. Belsky/Review by Sheila Sobel

Beyond the Headlines
R.G. Belsky

Oceanview Publishing,
$26.95
978-1608094097
May 4, 2021

BUY HERE

In Beyond the Headlines, book four in the Clare Carlson Mystery series, Clare is busier than ever as the Channel 10 news director. Managing a news staff that includes an ambitious weatherperson and married co-anchors who are expecting their first child takes patience, common sense, and more than a touch of humor. Balancing her professional life and her personal life, which now includes the daughter she gave up at birth and a growing list of exes, is challenging, to say the least. But Clare didn’t win all those awards for investigative journalism for shying away from challenges. She embraces them.

Such is the case when her best friend, attorney Janet Wood, offers her the opportunity for an exclusive interview with actress Laurie Bateman. After emigrating to the United States from Vietnam as an infant, Laurie has been living an uber-American dream. But now she’s ready to tell all, to break the news of the pending divorce from her billionaire husband, Charles Hollister. And she wants Clare to do the interview.

When Clare arrives for the scheduled interview, she finds the Hollister home a hive of police activity. The divorce exclusive vanishes when Laurie is accused of murdering her soon-to-be ex-husband and is escorted from her luxury home in handcuffs. Clare doesn’t miss a beat. She runs with the story unfolding before her, pursuing an even more shocking exclusive: murder.

But when Laurie claims she’s innocent, that she’s suffered silently through years of spousal abuse, Clare believes her and champions her cause. As a series of complex events unfold, Clare does what Clare does best—she relentlessly looks for the story behind the story, the truth that is beyond the headlines.

R.G. Belsky is an award-winning author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City. Belsky won the 2016 Killer Nashville Claymore Award and previously finished as Finalist for both the Silver Falchion and David awards. As a former managing editor at the Daily News, Belsky has an extensive background in everything news. Learn more: https://www.rgbelsky.com/

Sheila Sobel’s debut, Color Blind won the 2017 Killer Nashville Reader's Choice Award for Best YA Fiction and was a Finalist for the 2017 Silver Falchion Award for Best YA Fiction. Her middle-grade WIP, Time Flies, was a finalist for the 2020 Killer Nashville Claymore Award. Learn more about Sheila Sobel at: https://www.sheilasobel.com/

3/12/21 3/12/21

The Desolations of Devil's Acre by Ramsom Riggs/Review by Liz Gatterer

The Desolations of Devil’s Acre
Ransom Riggs

Dutton Books for Young Readers
$22.99
978-0735231535
February 23, 2021

BUY HERE

Caul has returned.

For readers of the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series, that statement should send chills down your spine. There can be nothing worse for Peculiar-dom than his return. In this final installment of the Peculiar series. The Desolations of Devil’s Acre, the destiny of Jacob Portman and his family of Peculiars will finally be revealed.

This series of books may have been written for young adults, but it is a wonderful series for all readers. Jacob Portman is a young man from South Florida that spent most of his unremarkable life trying to figure out where he fit in. His parents think he is mentally unstable. At the recommendation of his therapist, Jacob and his father return to the small village that Grandpa Portman lived in before he emigrated to the United States half a century earlier. There, he discovers that his grandfather’s extraordinary tales—those of levitating and invisible children, a girl with mouths on both sides of her head, or one who could control bees that he kept in his stomach—were true. And the horrible creature Jacob witnessed murder his grandfather, a Hollowgast, was real as well.

Over the course of the next 5 books, we are introduced to a completely incredible world of people with very peculiar attributes, time loops, a mad man bent on destroying it all, and the wonderful Ingrams—Miss Peregrine, Miss Cuckoo, and Miss Wren—who keep everything in order like a flock of shapeshifting Mary Poppinses.

Now we have come to the end. The Desolations of Devil’s Acre. The outcome is dependent on the abilities of “The Seven.” Can they be found in time? If so, where in time? Ransom Rigg’s imagination is incredible. His writing style is similar in some ways to J.K. Rowling. Both authors tell children’s tales without being childish about it. Adults will enjoy these books as much as children.

1/28/21 1/28/21

Nine by Rachelle Dekker/Review by Liz Gatterer

Nine
Rachelle Dekker

Revell
$29.99
978-0800738693
Sept 1, 2020

BUY HERE

Zoe Johnson has mastered the art of hiding. She is alone in the world and is comfortable with that. But when Lucy, a wide-eyed, hungry teenager with no memory walks into the diner where Zoe works, Zoe sees in her the same lost girl she once was and decides to help. So, it begins – a wild race to Texas one step ahead of the shadowy government agents that are out to catch her. For somewhere in Lucy’s locked memory is a secret that many have died trying to keep.

Rachelle Dekker’s latest novel, Nine, is fast-paced – part thriller, part science fiction, and part self-help novel. The reader is propelled through the pages. The story is expertly laid out. The backstory is seamlessly woven into the action. The characters are well developed and feel genuine. The good guys aren’t always good, and the bad guys aren’t always bad. The ending is not quite what one would expect and yet it is wholly satisfying

In many ways, Dekker’s writing style reminds me of a great Dean Koontz novel. A top notch story that doesn’t need the explicit language or gratuitous sex scenes to keep a reader engaged. The only thing missing is a dog.

12/16/20 12/16/20

The Secrets They Left Behind by Lissa Marie Redmond/Review by Sheila Sobel

The Secrets They Left Behind
Lissa Marie Redmond

Crooked Lane Books
$26.99
978-1643852997
April 2020

BUY HERE

As a retired cold case homicide detective, author Lissa Marie Redmond brings the voice of authenticity to her latest mystery, The Secrets They Left Behind. With a youthful protagonist—twenty-three-year old Buffalo police officer, Shea O’Connor—this mystery will appeal to a broad audience, from YA readers to retirees.

When three college co-eds—Olivia, Emma and Skyler—go missing without a trace, Shea O’Connor is approached by the FBI to work undercover as the eighteen-year-old niece of Kelly’s Falls police chief, Roy Bishop. Infiltrating a school campus, blending in with students, and risking her own life is something Shea O’Connor has had experience with. And she has the physical and emotional scars to prove it. The lingering nightmares from her near-death trauma of the last undercover assignment don’t stop her from wanting to bring a killer to justice and a final sense of peace to the families of the missing girls.

But investigations are never linear, especially when subterfuge is the driving force behind good police work. Complications quickly arise when Shea befriends Kayla, Maddie and Jenna, friends of the missing girls. Now it isn’t just the town of Kelly’s Falls that has more than its fair share of secrets and lies, it’s Shea as well. And, at what cost? At the end of the case, will she be able to claim her actions were for the greater good? That the end justifies the means?

Chief Bishop isn’t happy about any of it. He is not a fan of Shea O’Connor. He is not a fan of the FBI. He is not a fan of lying to the Kelly’s Falls citizens who trust him. But Chief Bishop has no choice except to admit that his investigation has long grown cold and if the mystery of the missing girls is ever to be solved, he needs Shea’s help.

“The Secrets They Left Behind” is a terrific “whodunit” filled with relatable characters, small town intrigue and a little romance. A perfect police procedural to curl up with on a lazy afternoon.

After spending twenty-two years in law enforcement, including stints as a detective in both the Special Victims Unit and Cold Case Homicide squad, she retired to pursue a “normal” life. Lissa Marie Redmond decided to become a writer instead. She lives with her husband, raises her kids, pampers her puppy and spoils her ungrateful cat. She writes about the things that kept her up at night. Learn more about Lissa Marie Redmond at: https://www.lissamarieredmond.com/

Sheila Sobel’s debut, “Color Blind” won the 2017 Killer Nashville Reader’s Choice Award for Best Fiction YA and was a Finalist for the 2017 Silver Falchion Award for Best Fiction YA. Her middle-grade WIP, “Time Flies,” was a finalist for the 2020 Killer Nashville Claymore Award. Learn more about Sheila Sobel at: https://www.sheilasobel.com/

12/15/20 12/15/20

The Wayward Spy by Susan Ouellette/Review by Tim Suddeth

The Wayward Spy
Susan Ouellette

Camcat Books
$24.99
978-0744300536
Coming March 2021

BUY HERE

What would happen if Al Qaeda were able to a place a mole in the Congress of the United States?

In The Wayward Spy, Susan Ouellette takes us into today’s post-9/11 world of US-Russian-Chechen-Al Qaeda relations and gives us a page-turner of a spy story that could have come right from today’s newspaper. She walks us through the halls of the United States Capital, as well as the dangerous streets of a broken Soviet Union.

Maggie Jenkins learns that her fiancé was killed in an explosion in Tbilisi, Georgia. The CIA attributes the explosion to Chechen rebels. But when Maggie learns that he is suspected of treason, she decides to do her own investigation using her resources as an analyst for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Facing terrorists, assassins, and corrupt agents, will Maggie be able to prove her fiancé’s innocence before she has to commit treason, or is eliminated herself?

Susan Ouellette well knows the world she takes us into. She was an analyst for the CIA covering the Soviet Union in the early 90’s. After graduate school, she worked for the House Permanent Select Committee so she is familiar with the halls in the Capital and diplomatic red tape Maggie tread.

I found the heroine, Maggie Jenkins, to be engaging and believable. When she found herself in a position where she didn’t know who to trust, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

This is Susan Ouellette debut novel. And I hope to see mush more of both Susan and Maggie.

Tim Suddeth was the 2017 Jimmy Loftin Memorial Scholarship Award winner. He’s currently working on his fourth novel. He currently blogs for The Write Conversation and is trying to make a dent in his to-read bookcases. You can follow him on his blog at timingreenville.com or on Twitter @TimSuddeth.

11/25/20 11/25/20

Spellbreaker by Charlie N. Holber/Review by Liz Gatterer

Spellbreaker
Charlie N. Holmberg

47North
$14.95
978-1542020091
November 1, 2020

BUY HERE

Charlie N. Holmberg, author of the Paper Magician series, has returned to the Dickens-like magical universe with Spellbreaker. Set in a time where orphans go to work houses, women aren’t to go about alone, it explores the the unequal distribution of wealth and power, both normal and supernatural, that maintain the separation between the classes. Spellbreaker is the first in a new series featuring Elsie Camden, a young woman unique in the magical world. Abandoned by her family as a young girl, she was sent to a work house where she accidentally discovers that although she cannot perform a magic spell, she can break them. This is a closely regulated gift and those that can do it, must be registered or risk ending up at the end of a hangman’s noose. Elsie is unregistered. She has become the cats-paw of a secret society that seeks to even the scales between the “haves” and “have-nots” by risking Elsie’s life. There is also a love story, and an orphan story, but to me the real story was really the struggle between the classes that was the best part of the story. I always cheer for the underdog.

11/12/20 11/12/20

Elsewhere by Dean Koontz/Review by Emma Boyd

Elsewhere
Dean Koontz

Thomas & Mercer
$28.99
978-1542019859
October 6, 2020

BUY HERE

Dean Koontz has been a favorite author of mine for decades. One would think that after all this time he would have exhausted his topics for terror – but that is not so. Elsewhere is the exploration of parallel worlds, or the multiverse. Koontz has toyed with this to this theme for before, like in From the Corner of His Eye or his Frankenstein series. But this time, it is much more in depth.

Jeffrey “Jeffy” Coltrane lives with his daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach – a fictionalized version of Laguna Beach, California. Jeffy’s wife, Michelle had left them many years before, and the little family of two were doing pretty well. Jeffy sometimes talks to local eccentric “Spooky Ed”. One day Ed gives him a package telling him never to open it, and certainly never use what is inside, what he calls the “Key to Everything”. Moments later, the NSA invades their home. Jeffy opens the package to hide the contents more easily. It is in about the size of a smartphone, or remote control. They accidentally activate the device and Jeffy and Amity are immediately transported – elsewhere. It takes a bit of figuring, but they determine that they are on Earth 1.13, an alternate timeline in which America has become a fascist state. They are hunted down and return home just in the nick of time, but not without bringing an unexpected passenger.

“Elsewhere” is a science-fiction thriller in a contemporary setting, with an emphasis on family ties. The “Key to Everything” is a good McGuffin. The characters are likeable and it’s easy to become caught up in their story. The antagonist, government agent, John Falkirk, reminds me of the Agent Smith from the Matrix. Jeffy is a normal guy who ends up in abnormal circumstances. Amity is different from the children Koontz had previously written about in his stories. She is still more mature than her age would suggest, but she is also a real child. Attitude and all. The chapters alternate regularly between the characters, so the reader has multiple perspectives on the multiverse.

This is a very exciting story. I finished the book in one go – really didn’t want to put it down. Koontz makes very clear use of this rule in this story: always let the worst happen to your characters. Fortunately, Jeffy and Amity get help, because they do need it. But in the end, Koontz comes through and brings us a satisfying finish.

10/29/20 10/29/20

Taking a Quarantine Vacation with a Book/Reviews by Lee Matthew Goldberg

With Covid shutting down most people’s vacation plans for the fall and beyond, the cheapest and safest vacation you can do these days is with a book. I’ve definitely upped my reading game during these times, since there’s a lack of doing much else. Curl up with some of these titles that have helped pass the time during our quarantine days.

KILLING COMMENDATORE

Being a huge fan of Murakami, I’ve read all of his novels. Some have been my favorites like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Sputnik Sweetheart, and Hard-Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World. A few are less successful like Near Dark. The problem for prolific authors is you tend to repeat the same tropes. With Murakami, a woman often goes missing, jazz music plays, and there are cats. But his best work has a David Lynchian dream-like quality, and his novels seduce readers without be able to guess what comes next. I’ve read that Murakami writes in the morning and then runs every day where he goes over his ideas so the story and the running becomes enmeshed. The books then leave his control and veer in a direction he doesn’t anticipate. Killing Commendatore feels this way. There isn’t too much of a story. An unnamed narrator deals with the break-up of a marriage, and while isolating himself, he hears a bell in the woods that may be from a supernatural entity. A neighbor girl goes missing and the narrator tasks himself to find her. And is he drawn to a painting hidden in the attic. All of these plots will eventually converge. I would rank this mid-level Murakami. It always held my attention, but there is a rambling quality to the narrative. At seven hundred pages, one wonders if it could be edited down. But these are minor gripes. Languishing with the book is a pleasure because you always feel you are in the hands of a master, guiding you down these dark paths in the woods where a mysterious bell rings.

THE WALL

Since we’re living in a dystopian nightmare right now, why not check out an even worse one in John Lancaster’s The Wall? Due to the “Change,” life has become uninhabitable for most of the world, beaches are gone, and travel between countries prohibited. Things have gotten colder. In the UK, a wall has been built to protect the country and the novel follows soldiers who are tasked to guard the wall where life is pretty boring and grim. Young folks are all for the wall where the “olds” are against it, remembering the old ways too much and wanting life to return to that. For those who have no memories of what life was like before the “change,” they only know of survival. Reading this, I couldn’t help but think of children now whose first memory might be the pandemic. For my generation, the Challenger blowing up was many people’s first memory, an event so shocking because we all watched it live in school. For today’s young generation, this will have many more lasting effects. And while The Wall doesn’t widely differ from other dystopian novels, it offers a philosophical bent on our possible futures and is definitely worth a read.

SUCH A FUN AGE

The title of Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age, refers to Emira, a 25-year-old black woman who’s a babysitter to a white child named Briar. Floating through her twenties, Emira isn’t experiencing a “fun age.” One night she is called to take care of Briar and a white woman in a grocery store sees them out late and calls the security guard because she’s concerned. The incident is captured on video and goes viral, which horrifies Emira’s employers by making them question their own privileged tendencies. They make a show of sympathy as white saviors where Emira just wants to forget the incident and focus on getting a real job. The author is sharp and witty and the character’s motivations all believable. It asks difficult questions about how we handle racism and our roles in perpetuating it further. I know Lena Waithe has snapped up the rights and I’m very curious to see how it’s adapted.

CIRCE

Circe was a witch in The Odyssey who ensnared men and turned them into pigs. Here she gets a new retelling from the author Madeleine Miller in this lush novel that reads like a fever dream. Miller’s Circe is sympathetic and deservedly turns the men who wrong her into pigs. The author pulls back the curtains and expands her life: a lonely childhood with the gods, when she met mortals for the first time, and when she’s banished for turning a romantic rival into a beast. Homer only gives Circe a few lines, but they are rich enough with possibilities to spin an entire tale. The novel is vivid and begs to be made into a Netflix mini-series. It transports you to another, fantastical time and a good way to tap into a vacation of imagination these days.

WEATHER

Weather is a slim novel by Jenny Offill with shades of dystopia. It’s quick, funny, but with a biting undertone. The fear of anxiety and motherhood swirls with climate change and the rise in politics of the right-wing. It’s all too relatable and scary. The novel focuses on how we deal with this tumult using humor, panic, denial and steadfastness. Much like we are trying to cope with our own current situation. Its narrator Lizzie gave up on her studies to deal with her addicted brother and became a college librarian. She lives with her too-smart and precious husband and son in Brooklyn. The novel is nothing more than a series of observations, but readers will wholly be invested in Lizzie’s plight. It’s the kind of book you read with a pen to highlight certain passages, but it’s so good that you’ll be highlighting most of it. I’m into books you can read in one setting and this one is clearly meant to be inhaled.

NIGHT BOAT TO TANGIER

Two old Irish men are the main characters in Kevin Barry’s poetic Night Boat to Tangier. Maurice and Charlie while away their time in an Algericas ferry station “that reeks of tired bodies and dread”. They are searching for Maurice’s adult daughter Dilly, who runs with a crowd that would hang out at this station and is supposed to arrive. This becomes interspersed with flashbacks of their younger years as drug traffickers, but the business is long gone. They are aged and broke now. Shades of Waiting of Godot can be recognized. The novel works because of Barry’s talent. Every sentence is a jewel, carefully crafted over. And Maurice and Charlie, despite being criminals, each have a beating heart. You want for them to leave this station and find whatever it is that would make them happy again, even though that seems like a pipedream.

SAINT X

In Alexis Shaitkin’s Saint X, a teenage girl goes missing during a family vacation to a Caribbean Island. The visuals of the island are brilliantly written so you could smell the beaches and taste the rum cocktails. We meet up with the girl’s younger sister Claire later in life who has never got to really breathe outside of her sister’s disappearance. It wrecked her parents at first, who then made a conscious decision to barely speak of it again. She takes a cab one night and the driver is a Caribbean man named Clive Richardson who was one of the last people to see the missing girl, partying with her that night. Claire becomes drawn to him, weaseling her way into his life like a stalker. She wants answers about what happened to her sister, but she also wants to feel close to her again, having been robbed of an older sister many years ago. The novel also tackles racism and a class dichotomy in the Caribbean, as it begins to peel back layers of Clive’s life and how the missing girl still tortures him as well. A sad novel but also one brimming with possibility. We can become connected to someone we never would’ve met in life, who could change us irrevocably.

THE LIGHTEST OBJECT IN THE UNIVERSE

Kimi Eiesle’s The Lightest Object in the Universe asks, What would happen if all the lights went out? Obviously, society collapses. Cities become riotous and unsafe. People migrate to farms and build small communities as a means of protection and survival. A prophet on the radio urges followers to come to his sanctuary. And two lovers on separate ends of the US find their way back to one another. There’s an alienation that exists on each page. People leaving behind their homes and everything they once knew. But there’s a hopefulness too. We root for society to survive because it has to. It existed once without lights and it will again, maybe as a better society rebirthed. It makes one think how different we will be after the pandemic ends. We will be better because of it? Or shrug off our mistakes? It’s enough to know there is a possibility for change: to our environment, our reliance on technology, and even the way we treat one another.

THE NEW ME

Hallie Butler’s The New Me focuses on Millie, depressed at her temp job and even more depressed that it might become permanent. For anyone who has ever hated their job, it’s easy to relate. The voice is sharp, biting, and hilarious in its sadness. She watches too much true-crime and drinks like a fish. The book reminded me a lot of Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Relaxation, another slim, brilliant take on a hot mess. Even though Millie’s parents still support her into her twenties, we feel for her because she hasn’t achieved anything close to what she was expected to be.

EXHALATION: STORIES

Ted Chiang’s Exhalation is a series of non-connected stories that read like isolated episodes of the show Black Mirror. There’s a cold and detached quality that zeroes in more on the philosophical outcomes in our future rather than empathizing with the characters. The best stories like “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” imagine what happens to an AI being after they aren’t wanted anymore. “The Merchant at the Alchemist’s Gate” deals with choices that time travelers must make and those ramifications. A few of the stories lack punch. They are more about ideas, since Chiang is not a visual writer. He’s best known for the story from his last collection that was made into the great film Arrival, but his musings in these stories are what will stay with you long after you turn the page. We are headed toward a future where we will become more and more isolated from who we were as humans, drifting closer toward a merging of technology and ourselves. Are we ready?

THE ANCESTOR

Gotta give a shout-out to my own novel The Ancestor. A man wakes up in present-day Alaskan wilderness with no idea who he is, nothing on him save an empty journal with the date 1898 and a mirror. He sees another man hunting nearby, astounded that they look exactly alike except for his own beard. After following this other man home, he witnesses a wife and child that brings forth a rush of memories of his own wife and child, except he’s certain they do not exist in modern times — but from his life in the late 1800s.

After recalling his name is Wyatt, he worms his way into his doppelganger Travis Barlow’s life. Memories become unearthed the more time he spends, making him believe that he’d been frozen after coming to Alaska during the Gold Rush and that Travis is his great-great grandson. Wyatt is certain gold still exists in the area and finding it with Travis will ingratiate himself to the family, especially with Travis’s wife Callie, once Wyatt falls in love. This turns into a dangerous obsession affecting the Barlows and everyone in their small town, since Wyatt can’t be tamed until he also discovers the meaning of why he was able to be preserved on ice for over a century.

A meditation on love lost and unfulfilled dreams, The Ancestor is a thrilling page-turner in present day Alaska and a historical adventure about the perilous Gold Rush expeditions where prospectors left behind their lives for the promise of hope and a better future.

The question remains whether it was all worth the sacrifice…

Please support independent bookstores right now. All of these titles are available and I hope that some of them will help pass the time.

Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of the novels THE DESIRE CARD, THE MENTOR, and SLOW DOWN. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar. His Alaskan Gold Rush novel THE ANCESTOR is forthcoming in 2020. He is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe, dedicated to publishing fiction that’s outside-of-the-box. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared in the anthology DIRTY BOULEVARD, The Millions, Cagibi, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Underwood Press, Monologging and others. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series and lives in New York City. Follow him at leematthewgoldberg.com

10/12/20 10/12/20

Sherlock Holmes: The Werewolves of Edinburgh/Review by Joy Gorence

Sherlock Holmes: The Werewolves of Edinburgh
M.J. Downing

Burns and Lea Media
$10.99
ISBN 978-1733980616
Publication Date: November 10, 2020

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M.J. Downing rivals the suspense and mysterious interludes of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson with Sherlock Holmes: The Werewolves of Edinburgh. Based on Dr. Watson’s unpublished case files, avid enthusiasts of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels will not be disappointed to discover some of the lesser-known and previously undisclosed files documented by John H. Watson, M.D.

Dr. Watson recounts a case enmeshed in mythical and magical realms. With the passing of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson discloses his “ventures into the fantastic.” His work as an agent of Department Zed and his desire to become a member of the Logres Society serve as the catalyst for this engagement. The Logres Society is devoted to keeping the balance of the practical and the mystical for the good of humanity. For Dr. Watson, his acceptance into the Logres Society is dependent on his performance. That acceptance, however, comes with a cost.

Once again, Moriarty’s perfidy remains a constant in the background for Dr. Watson’s tale. In this account, the forces of evil manifest themselves at the beginning of the story with Spring Heeled Jack, a werewolf, who commits his attacks in London during the Christmas season. Omar Raboud, the occult advisor of the Logres Society, and Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s brother, enlist the help of Sherlock, Dr. Watson, and Guthrie to capture this creature alive. Their efforts are thwarted, however, with Spring Heeled Jack’s death. From that point forward, the twelve days of Christmas unleash onerous clashes, not only for Dr. Watson and his colleagues, but also for those who have sworn their allegiance to fighting the mysterious forces of evil.

The story begins on Boxing Day, December 26, 1888, in London when the dark shadows and cold night air propel Dr. Watson into the horrors of nightmares and dark magic. Told from his perspective, the narration mesmerizes the reader to follow Dr. Watson’s immersion into the world of fairies, werewolves, and lost kingdoms. With a steady and ominous pace, this account reveals a riveting tale of mystery and intrigue.

Joy Gorence is new to Killer Nashville. She is an author, world-traveler, English professor (ret.), and avid reader. Originally from Long Island, NY she now lives in South Florida with her husband, Bill, and their two pampered kitties.

9/30/20 9/30/20

The French Widow by Mark Pryor/Review by Tim Suddeth

The French Widow
Mark Pryor

Seventh Street Books
$15.95
ISBN 978-1645060239
Publication Date: Sept 15, 2020

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Any book that promises to take you to the ultimate romantic city, Paris, deserves a second look. And The French Widow by Mark Pryor, more than lives up to the billing.

This is the ninth installment in the Hugo Marston series. Marston, a former profiler with the FBI, is now the head of security at the U.S. embassy in Paris. In the country who first complained about the “ugly American tourist,” being a hero can be a fleeting thing. When Hugo stops a gunman indiscriminately shooting bystanders on the street, only a few snide comments of gun-toting Americans are heard. When it’s learned that the person he shot was also an American, and connected to the Embassy, the cries against Americans and the accusations of a conspiracy become even louder.

Getting Hugo away from the Embassy seems a good idea. The Ambassador asks him to attend an annual gala at one of Paris’s most prominent estates. The one time each year that the bluest-of-blue-bloods Lambourd family come together. A little wine, some history, and rubbing shoulders with the French elite should help Hugo deal with the trauma of the attack.

Until thefts and assaults begin happening at the chateau. Hugo learns just how cold the disdain of the upper crust can be, especially when they all have secrets they would prefer to keep to themselves.

Politics, family intrigue, unique characters, they’re all there for us to enjoy. Definitely this is one book that leaves you wanting more.

Tim Suddeth was the 2017 Jimmy Loftin Memorial Scholarship Award winner. He’s currently working on his fourth novel. He currently blogs for The Write Conversation and is trying to make a dent in his to-read bookcases. You can follow him at on his blog at timingreenville.com or on Twitter @TimSuddeth.

9/15/20 9/15/20

Hole in the Woods by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush/Review by Tim Suddeth

Hole in the Woods
Jennifer Graeser Dornbush

Ally Press
$17.99
ISBN 978-0800738624
Publication Date: August 3, 2020

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In Jennifer Graeser Dornbush’s latest novel, Hole in the Woods, we are guided into the world of a cold case investigator. Detroit Detective Riley St. James has been sent to the small town of Derby, MI to investigate the gruesome rape and murder of seventeen-year-old Nina Laramie from thirty years ago. What she encounters when she arrives is a town full of secrets and desperate to keep them. Only a few seem happy that the case is being reopened. Even the local detective assigned to assist her seems to be holding on to secrets of his own and agrees with the town that old news shouldn’t be dredged up. Is there anybody she can trust? And since her own secrets seem to be forcing their way to the surface at the worse times, can she even trust herself?

For readers interested in forensics, Ms. Dornbush is an author to follow. Being the daughter of a coroner, she grew up playing around crime scenes and having blood samples and body parts stored around the house. We hear how old cold cases are being solved by advances in DNA testing, but in this story, we see that even after thirty years, good old detective work and forensics can still come through.

This will also be a good read for people who enjoy well-developed characters. Dornbush switches the POVs in her chapters letting us further into the thoughts and fears of the characters. These are not your too-regular story with cardboard characters. Each character has their own secrets and motivations.

This story is based on a true event. At the end of the book, the author writes about meeting with the original victim’s father and tells how she used that to shape her own characters in the story. There is also a touching letter from the father describing his feelings.

A portion of the proceeds will go to the Cold Case Foundation who helps solve cold cases all around the world.

Tim Suddeth was the 2017 Jimmy Loftin Memorial Scholarship Award winner. He’s currently working on his fourth novel. He currently blogs for The Write Conversation and is trying to make a dent in his to-read bookcases. You can follow him at on his blog at timingreenville.com or on Twitter @TimSuddeth.

7/21/20 7/21/20

Don’t Keep Silent by Elizabeth Goddard/Review by Sheila Sobel

Don’t Keep Silent
Elizabeth Goddard.

Revell
$29.99
ISBN 978-0800738624
Publication Date: June 30, 2020

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In Don’t Keep Silent, when journalist Rae Burke’s sister-in-law, Zoey, goes missing, her brother Alan begs her to use all her investigative skills to locate his beloved wife. When the trail leads her to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Rae is reluctant to return to the scene of a previous crime. One that nearly cost her and former DEA agent, Liam McKade, their lives and did cost them their jobs. But Rae has no choice. family comes first. Once in Jackson Hole, it doesn’t take long for Rae and Liam to cross paths. As feelings are reignited, the two confront a past from which neither one has yet healed. Understanding Rae is desperate to find Zoey at whatever the cost—even her own life—Liam sets aside his distrust and once again teams up with her to solve the mystery of the missing sister-in-law. Set against the majestic backdrop of the Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole is a picture-perfect place where danger and romance seem to thrive. At least they do when Rae Burke is in town, when long buried secrets threaten to destroy everybody she cares about. Don’t Keep Silent is the third book in the Uncommon Justice series and will appeal to fans of both Romantic Suspense novels, as well as Christian fiction.

Elizabeth Goddard is the bestselling author of more than 40 books, including Never Let Go, Always Look Twice, and the Carol Award-winning, The Camera Never Lies. Her Mountain Cove series books have been finalists in the Daphne du Maurier Awards and the Carol Awards. Goddard is a seventh-generation Texan and can be found online at www.elizabethgoddard.com.

Sheila Sobel: After thirty-three years in the film business, Sheila left to complete her YA novel. Her debut, Color Blind won the 2017 Killer Nashville Reader’s Choice Award for Best Fiction YA and was a Finalist for the 2017 Silver Falchion Award for Best Fiction YA. www.sheilasobel.com

7/9/20 7/9/20

Queen's Gambit by Bradley Harper/Review by Liz Gatterer

Queen’s Gambit
By Bradley Harper

Seventh Street Books
$15.95
ISBN 978-1645060017
Publication Date: September 2019

BUY HERE

2020 Silver Falchion Finalist

A Queen’s Gambit is a well-known opening move in chess where a bishop or pawn is sacrificed to save the queen. In Bradley Harper’s new novel of the same name, we are treated to a tale that—move by move—proceeds like a champion chess match. Tension building with each opponent’s move. But will the gambit payoff? Who might be sacrificed, and will the Queen survive?

In Bradley Harper’s first novel A Knife in the Fog (winner of the 2019 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award), the main characters were Arthur Conan Doyle (as of yet un-knighted) and Professor Joseph Bell – the real-life author of Sherlock Holmes and the real-life inspiration for the character Sherlock Holmes respectively—and the fictious, but fabulous Margaret Hawkness. This wonderful tale features Margaret Hawkness, with just a taste of Prof. Bell. Doyle has killed off Sherlock Holmes (much to the disappointment of Queen and country) and is busy writing other stories. But Prof. Bell has an intriguing proposition for Harkness and together they take a brief trip to Germany to assist in uncovering a bit of espionage. After which, Bell returns to Edinburgh leaving Harkness on her own in England. But Harkness is a wonderful character and more than capable of carrying this story all by herself! In the novel Harper credits her as being the inspiration for Irene Adler in the original Sherlock Holmes stories, which is a fun little bit of surrealism since Hawkness is fictional and was more likely inspired (at least to a small degree) by the Irene Adler character but I happen to have it on good authority that the true inspiration for Margaret is real and much closer to home… but I’ll keep that a mystery for now. That is the fun of historical fiction – bits of facts laced with bits of fantasy. It is one of my favorite genres.

Bradley’s writing style is very fast paced and witty. He expertly weaves his factual details into the story so well the reader doesn’t realize how much true knowledge they are being taught. He reminds me of an expert docent from a museum that not only shows you some artifact but has engaging stories about that object and peoples from that time that cause you to happily stand there for hours listening to him. His character development is spot on, with even minor characters being well formed and not easily forgotten.

Does the Queen’s Gambit succeed? You will have to read it to find out. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more form Harper.

I had the privilege to listen to this as an audiobook as performed by Danielle Cohen. She did a phenomenal job employing multiple accents that truly brought the book to life. I highly recommend this format.

Liz Gatterer attended Tulane University while living in New Orleans. It was there that she first began working with authors in the printing industry. Originally from Upstate New York, she moved to Nashville with her husband to pursue their careers (his being music). Three (absolutely fabulous) children later, she has returned to the working world in the industry she loves. She currently lives in Spring Hill with said husband and children, dogs, cats, and various other creatures. The necessity of multitasking has led her to an addiction to audio books – but, when able to, she still prefers to curl up with a good book (and a child in her lap).

6/26/20 6/26/20

The Fog Ladies by Susan McCormick/Review by Joy Gorence

The Fog Ladies
by Susan McCormick

The Wild Rose Press
$17.99
ISBN 978-1509227006
Publication Date: October 2019

BUY HERE

2020 Silver Falchion Finalist

The Fog Ladies begins with the death of Muriel Bridge. After Sarah James, a medical intern in her twenties, moves into her newly acquired apartment in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights, she becomes acquainted with some of the building’s residents. When Sarah accompanies Mrs. Noonan, a neighbor, to Muriel’s funeral, she learns that Muriel’s death was due to an accidental fall. However, Olivia Honeycut, a friend and one of the Fog Ladies, doesn’t think that her death was the result of a mishap. When more casualties begin to befall the older residents in the building, the group, which also includes Mrs. Noonan, Alma Gordon, Enid Carmichael, and Harriet Flynn, they solicit Sarah’s help in uncovering the truth.

Susan McCormick has created a delightful cast of personalities in her novel The Fog Ladies, which includes her protagonist, Sarah James. Sarah provides the remaining group of five older women, who “played gin rummy on Mondays and Fridays, volunteered at the hospital, and kept each other company,” the moniker the Fog Ladies after Mrs. Noonan tells her “you could count on [us] like you could count on early morning fog.”

Eventually, the Fog Ladies adopt Sarah into their group. Despite the difference in age between Sarah and the older women, Sarah enjoys their company and begins to believe that the recent accidents may have a more sinister connection. She questions the intentions of some of the tenants and visitors to the apartment building. As the drama of their lives unfolds, Susan McCormick steers her readers through the everyday activities of the building’s residents.

With a series of twists and turns, McCormick builds intrigue through the characters’ interactions. Each character has his or her own story, which McCormick skillfully weaves into the plot. Just as the fog lifts as the day unfolds, Sarah uncovers the truth for the Fog Ladies.

6/23/20 6/23/20

The Silent Victim by Dana Perry/Review by Liz Gatterer

The Silent Victim
By Dana Perry

Bookouture
$10.99
ISBN 978-1838880941
Publication Date: November 2019

BUY HERE

2020 Silver Falchion Finalist

The Silent Victim: A Jessie Tucker Mystery is a new novel by Dana Perry and the first in what is shaping up to be a griping new crime series. The protagonist is Jessie Tucker, an award-winning journalist living in New York City. She is tough. Really tough. She's the survivor of a brutal attack in Central Park that should have killed her. Her doctors were not hopeful she would ever recover, but she was not about to give up. Twelve years later, the only outward sign of her attack is a slight limp. Her assailant was captured, confessed, and ultimately died in prison. Case closed. But when another woman is attacked in an eerily similar fashion in Central Park, Jessie is determined to find out why. Could it be a copycat? Could her attacker still be out there?

Perry packs a lot of action into just 346 pages. Brutal attacks in Central Park, rape, unjust convictions, identity theft, corrupt politicians, serial killers, drunk drivers, child abusers, hidden pasts, Iraq War heroes (and villains), cross county investigations, and the healing benefits of a good daily exercise regimen. The Silent Victim is an intense read that is worth the next day hangover of an all-night reading binge. Jessie Tucker is an amazing reporter. Even with the limp, she runs circles around law enforcement and stays one step ahead of those that would do her ill.

Dana Perry is the pen name for the very talented real-life reporter, and novelist R.G. Belsky. I have to wonder how much of Jessie is based on Belsky’s own experience a journalist. The characters feel very real. The progression of the story is logical and the twists he puts in, although jarring at the time, make perfect sense. His writing style is very concise. There is not a lot of flowery prose or soul-searching nonsense. It is much more of an honest, gut-check type of book. I am eager for the next book in the Jessie Tucker series.

I personally listened to the audiobook version of this novel narrated by Kate Handford. Her performance of this work was exceptional. I highly recommend giving it a listen.

Liz Gatterer attended Tulane University while living in New Orleans. It was there that she first began working with authors in the printing industry. Originally from Upstate New York, she moved to Nashville with her husband to pursue their careers (his being music). Three (absolutely fabulous) children later, she has returned to the working world in the industry she loves. She currently lives in Spring Hill with said husband and children, dogs, cats, and various other creatures. The necessity of multitasking has led her to an addiction to audiobooks – but, when able to, she still prefers to curl up with a good book (and a child in her lap).

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KN Magazine: Reviews

The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly/Review by Tim Suddeth

Her Ocean Grave by Dana Perry/Review by Sheila Sobel

Slightly Murderous Intent by Lida Sideris/Review by Tim Suddeth

Runner by Tracy Clark/Review by Sheila Sobel

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan/Review by Clay Stafford

Classic Reads

The Novel That Popularized the Man on the Run and Modern Spy Thrillers

Beyond the Headlines by R.G. Belsky/Review by Sheila Sobel

The Desolations of Devil's Acre by Ramsom Riggs/Review by Liz Gatterer

Nine by Rachelle Dekker/Review by Liz Gatterer

The Secrets They Left Behind by Lissa Marie Redmond/Review by Sheila Sobel

The Wayward Spy by Susan Ouellette/Review by Tim Suddeth

Spellbreaker by Charlie N. Holber/Review by Liz Gatterer

Elsewhere by Dean Koontz/Review by Emma Boyd

Taking a Quarantine Vacation with a Book/Reviews by Lee Matthew Goldberg

Sherlock Holmes: The Werewolves of Edinburgh/Review by Joy Gorence

The French Widow by Mark Pryor/Review by Tim Suddeth

Hole in the Woods by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush/Review by Tim Suddeth

Don’t Keep Silent by Elizabeth Goddard/Review by Sheila Sobel

Queen's Gambit by Bradley Harper/Review by Liz Gatterer

2020 Silver Falchion Finalist

The Fog Ladies by Susan McCormick/Review by Joy Gorence

2020 Silver Falchion Finalist

The Silent Victim by Dana Perry/Review by Liz Gatterer

2020 Silver Falchion Finalist

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