KN Magazine: Reviews

7/9/21 7/9/21

Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney/Review by Liz Gatterer

Rock, Paper, Scissors
Alice Feeney

Flatiron Books
$26.00
978-1250266101
September 7, 2021

*Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.

Something is wrong with Mr. and Mrs. Wright, and it has been for a long time. Adam and Amelia’s marriage is on the rocks. Amelia wins a free vacation at a converted chapel at Blackwater Loch in the Scottish Highlands they think this just might be the event that changes everything. A weekend of crisp Highland air, rolling hills of heather. But they are heading into a snowstorm, and they know nothing about the chapel or the area. What could go wrong in an Alice Feeney novel with this scenario?

Interspersed between chapters from Adam’s perspective and Amelia’s perspective are anniversary letters that Adam’s wife writes to him. These letters are her true feelings about each past year of marriage, detailing how she really feels about their marriage and the way Adam treats her. But she never lets him read them. She knows that his job comes first, it’s everything to him.

Nothing is as it seems and with Adam and Amelia at such odds, before they even get to the chapel, it doesn’t help that so much doesn’t seem to go right once they are there. Strange things start happening, the electricity goes off, there are weird sounds, a face in a window, the phones don’t work, things are not right. Is it really one of them or is it someone or something else? I’d think I might have an inkling of what was going on but really, I was mostly confused, suspicious, and was totally clueless to the main twist. The way the chapters were presented worked to keep me from figuring things out and I really liked that about this story.

I love an unreliable narrator. The novel is narrated by both Adam and Amelia but there is a third whose identity isn’t revealed until the end of the book. Although I had an inkling of who she might be. But no “spoilers” here! Let it suffice to say it is a satisfying twist.

This might just be my favorite Alice Feeney book. Sometimes I Lie was a real page-turner, but while this novel is a bit of a slow starter, it really races to the epic conclusion. The characters were well described with multifaceted personalities. Alice Feeney fans and lovers of psychological thrillers will enjoy this one!

Liz Gatterer is a staff member at Killer Nashville.

7/8/21 7/8/21

THE LONG GOODBYE by Raymond Chandler/Review by Robert Mangeot

The Long Goodbye
Raymond Chandler

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
$16.00
978-0394757681
Reissue edition (August 12, 1988)

BUY HERE

Classic Reads

Marlowe can’t let a death go in Chandler’s most personal novel.

The Long Goodbye opens with a famous first sentence:

“The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers.”

The “I,” of course, is Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. Marlowe rescues Lennox from the drunk tank after Lennox’s on-again, off-again wife leaves him stranded at the club. The unexpected kindness starts an unlikely friendship between a ruined socialite and a hard-boiled detective. A one-way friendship. Lennox appears whenever he craves a sympathetic drinking buddy or a shove back on the wagon. Marlowe, ever the knight noir, helps because Lennox needs it. Marlowe sees Lennox as someone who also lives by his own set of rules.

Eventually, the help Lennox needs is a fast drive to Tijuana. His long-cheating wife has been murdered. Lennox declares his innocence, but he knows he’ll take the rap. Marlowe agrees to the drive on one condition: Lennox doesn’t confide a single detail of what actually happened. That puts Homicide onto Marlowe and Marlowe into the papers for riding out the heat. The Mexican police report Lennox as an apparent suicide, and the police close the case fast. Marlowe might’ve dropped it there except Lennox managed to send a goodbye letter that is anything but a confession.

Marlowe’s sudden renown earns him another job. Best-selling author Roger Wade has gone missing after a serious bender. His wife and his publisher are desperate to get the latest saga novel done. Tracking Wade down leads Marlowe into organized crime tangles and family drama and a case surprisingly connected to Terry Lennox, a death still weighing on Marlowe.

Chandler needs little introduction to writers and readers. But we can start in 1933, when Chandler introduced himself to the crime genre, with his debut story “Blackmailers Don’t Shoot” in The Black Mask. After fits and starts at poetry, teaching, and corporate jobs, once Chandler latched onto hard-boiled fiction, his punch would transform the genre and American literature beyond. Chandler injected style. He challenged and raised expectations of genre quality with deep prose that captured the semi-nobility critical to the noir PI.

The Long Goodbye (1953) was Chandler’s sixth novel in the Marlowe series. There would be only a seventh, Playback, before Chandler died in 1959. The Long Goodbye snaps like Chandler at his peak powers, although in life Chandler felt those powers fading. He’d lost the productivity that brought The Big Sleep (1939), Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The High Window (1942), and The Lady in The Lake (1943) rapid-fire. By 1953, he’d walked away from screenwriting. His inner demons were circling. His wife was dying. In his 60s himself, mortality was on his mind.

The Long Goodbye is a master class in the Great American Crime Novel’s potential. It’s more than the wisecracks and the justice come what may. The Long Goodbye is about something: what we can’t shake and what we tell ourselves about that. Lost love, addiction, trauma, ambition, the certainty of death. Not one character can let go. Each must suffer the consequences, and this is a feast of consequences.

Even Chandler deals with this unresolved loss on the page. He inserts himself most obviously as Wade, the successful author who struggles with sobriety and literary acceptance, and as Lennox, a war-wounded Anglophile who doesn’t quite fit his place and time. It’s real to Chandler when the dying of the light haunts these characters.

That personal concoction makes this his best work. Sure, The Big Sleep has tight power and rocket pace, and Farewell, My Lovely is quintessential Los Angeles noir. Those novels were stitched-together from earlier short stories, and in places the seams show. I can’t be all wet here. The Long Goodbye won the Edgar in 1955.

I studied Chandler when I first ventured into writing. I deconstructed his paragraphs and turns of phrase. It was an instructive peek into structure and timing, but more than anything, I simply reveled in his use of language. That started me trying a style of my own. I won’t ever write a shadow as well as Chandler, but then, who does? We’re lucky that he left a treasure like The Long Goodbye to hold onto.

END

Robert Mangeot’s fiction appears here and there, including ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, THE FORGE LITERARY MAGAZINE, LOWESTOFT CHRONICLE, MYSTERY WEEKLY MAGAZINE, MWA’s ICE COLD, THE ODDVILLE PRESS, and the Anthony-winning MURDER UNDER THE OAKS. His work has three times been named a Derringer finalist. When not writing, he serves as a current officer for the Southeast chapter of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime Middle Tennessee. When not doing any of that, he can be found wandering the snack food aisles of America or France.

7/8/21 7/8/21

All We Buried by Elena Taylor/Review by Sheila Sobel

All We Buried
by Elena Taylor

Crooked Lane Books
$26.99
ISBN 978-1643852911
Publication Date: April 7, 2020

BUY HERE

There’s a new sheriff in town and her name is Elizabeth “Bet” Rivers. Born and raised in Collier, Bet left the cozy, close-knit Washington community to pursue a career in law enforcement in the big city—the City of Angels—Los Angeles, California. Bet’s plan is to move up the LAPD ranks to chief and come back to Collier in twenty years, but family means everything to Bet. When her father, Sheriff Earle Rivers, calls her home to act as interim sheriff while he recovers from his illness, she puts her life in sunny Southern California on hold and returns to the chilly Northwest. Like her father always says, “Competition. Family. Responsibility. Loyalty. Collier.” Once back in Collier, it doesn’t take an LAPD detective to figure out that Earle wasn’t completely honest about his chances of surviving the cancer. When Earle passes, Bet is torn—return to Los Angeles to pick up where she left off with LAPD or remain in Collier to compete with Earle’s deputy to become the next elected sheriff? When a canvas-wrapped dead woman surfaces from the icy cold waters of the lake, Bet has no choice but to stay. Her first homicide. In a town unaccustomed to murder, but not unaccustomed to secrets. Some of which are Bet’s own. Secrets she’s kept buried since childhood. With her instincts, her LAPD training, and the ghost of her father’s wisdom to guide her, Bet sets a course for herself that will not only be life-changing, but life-threatening. Filled with interesting characters and intriguing plot twists, “All We Buried” is the first book in a much-anticipated series by Elena Taylor.

Elena Taylor lives on the banks of the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River in a town made famous by Twin Peaks. When she’s not writing or working one-on-one with writers as a developmental editor, she can be found hanging out with her husband, dog, and two cats. Her favorite place to be (besides home) is the stables down the road, with her two horses Radar and Jasper. For more information, visit http://www.elenataylorauthor.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. Sheila was nominated for the 2016 Allegra Johnson Prize in Novel Writing through UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. Learn more: www.sheilasobel.com

6/24/21 6/24/21

Larceny at the Library by Colleen J. Shogan/Review by Joy Gorence

Larceny at the Library
Colleen J. Shogan

Camel Press
$16.25
978-1603818353
May 2020

BUY HERE

Set in the blustery month of February, Collen J. Shogan has created a mystery of surprising twists and turns among the passageways of the Library of Congress in Larceny at the Library.

Inside the halls of the Library of Congress, Kit Marshall finds herself involved in uncovering who murdered the Assistant Librarian, Gustav Gaffney. Because Kit’s husband, Doug Hollingsworth, reports finding the body, Sergeant O’Halloran regards him as a primary suspect. Doug, as “the head of the scholarly center at the Library of Congress,” is also one of the last people to have seen Gustav alive. In addition to the murder, recently unveiled artifacts from the pockets of Abraham Lincoln have been stolen from Gustav’s safe.

Miriam Dunlap, the Librarian of Congress, requests that Kit take an active involvement in finding the murderer. Ms. Dunlap knows that Kit as an amateur sleuth has “had much success in assisting the police previously with homicide cases.” Since the Assistant Librarian was a personal friend and the artifacts historically significant, Miriam wants the case solved quickly. Although Congresswoman Maeve Dixon, Kit’s boss and “chair of the oversight committee,” which includes the Library of Congress, is surprised at the request, she gives her permission to let Kit, her chief of staff, work with local authorities.

Early in the plot, Kit agrees to meet her brother, Sebastian at the Neptune, in front of the Thomas Jefferson Building. With concise diction, Ms. Shogan begins providing architectural descriptions of the important backdrops to the plot.

As the reader follows Kit around Washington, D.C. and its outskirts, one cannot help but marvel at the significant role the setting plays in this murder mystery. With attention to detail, Ms. Shogan provides precise portrayals of some of the most prestigious and historic edifices in Washington.

As Kit elicits the aid of her friends, the inner workings of the Washington’s political machine propel the plot towards its conclusion. With a cast of colorful characters, none of the suspects has a solid alibi for the time of the murder. Despite the challenges Kit faces, she prevails.

Ms. Shogan provides an accurate and edifying description of the Library of Congress within the pages of Larceny at the Library while providing the reader with a captivating tale.

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.

6/23/21 6/23/21

Black Label by James L'Etoile/Review by Sheila Sobel

Black Label
James L'Etoile

Level Best Books
$16.99
978-1953789143
July 20, 2021

BUY HERE

Waking up naked in a stranger’s bed with an alcohol-fueled raging headache and no memory of how she got there is a woman’s worst nightmare. But the nightmare is just beginning for Jillian Cooper, the rising marketing star at Dynalife Pharmaceutical, she just doesn’t know it yet. All she can think about now is quietly escaping the richly appointed San Francisco apartment and getting home to her migraine medication and the welcome relief it will bring. Maybe then she’ll be able to sort out the murky details of exactly what happened.

But her swift and stealthy exit is delayed when the newscaster from a still-playing television announces that her boss, CEO Jonathon Mattson, has died. Disoriented by the pain in her head and shocked by the news, she flees the apartment, signals for a taxi and spots the newspaper headlines, which boldly claim that billionaire Mattson was murdered.

It’s Monday? The last thing Jillian remembers happened Friday.

Before she can make it home, David Paulson, Dynalife’s COO, summons Jillian to headquarters for an emergency meeting, where her run-in with Jonathon Mattson on Friday gets blown out of proportion. It doesn’t take long for Inspector DiManno—waiting to interview her in the acting CEO’s office—to consider her the prime suspect in Mattson’s murder.

After leaving the Dynalife offices and regrouping long enough for her migraine medication to kick in, Jillian returns to the apartment where she woke up. There, she discovers that not only is the apartment vacant and has been for months, but the doorman she saw as she exited the building that morning was not the actual doorman. Jillian’s confusion turns to fear, as her situation is either an elaborate set-up to cast her as a killer or she’s sliding into dementia just like her mother—both equally frightening.

With the police waiting outside her home and nobody she can trust, Jillian decides her only recourse is to hide in plain sight as one of the many anonymous homeless people that populate San Francisco.

The mystery deepens when Jillian meets a recent parolee whose possessions include a Dynalife prescription bottle filled with Bosphizion, the very HIV drug that she and her boss fought over before he was killed.

Can Jillian discover the truth behind the madness that has become her life? She has no choice. Her freedom depends on it. Maybe even her life.

James L’Etoile’s latest thriller, Black Label, has a ripped-from-the headlines plot which explores the depth of Big Pharma corruption and just how far one company is willing to go to sustain their exceptional level of greed.

James L’Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an influence in his novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is a former associate warden in a maximum-security prison, a hostage negotiator, facility captain, and director of California’s state parole system. He is a nationally recognized expert witness on prison and jail operations. He has been nominated for the Silver Falchion for Best Procedural Mystery, and The Bill Crider Award for short fiction. His published novels include: At What Cost, Bury the Past, and Little River -The Other Side of Paradise. Look for Black Label in the summer of 2021 from Level Best Books. You can find out more at www.jamesletoile.com

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.

6/21/21 6/21/21

The Count of Monte Cristo/Review by Linda Hughes

The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas

BirlinnEveryman's Library;
$29.99
978-0307271129
Everymans Library edition (June 2, 2009)

BUY HERE

Classic Reads

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, first published in French in 1844, presently ranks as #1,000 in Amazon’s Classic Action and Adventure category, making it one of the longest-lasting classics available to us today.

Summary

The Count of Monte Cristo transcends traditional genres with mystery, action/adventure, historical fiction, and romance all intertwined throughout the story. Its translation into a hundred languages is a testament to how themes of injustice, revenge, forgiveness, and mercy resonate with readers everywhere.

The story begins during the tumultuous Napoleonic era in the early 1800s in France when the sailor Edmund Dantès is betrayed on the day of his wedding. Thrown into the horrific Château d'If, a dungeon prison on an island, he befriends a dying prisoner who mentors him on the ways of life. Edmund’s eventual miraculous escape and astounding discovery of treasure allow him to turn himself into the Count of Monte Cristo, whose obsession is revenge on his enemies.

However, Edmund’s plan has destructive consequences for everyone involved—his loved ones, his enemies, and himself. Forced to rethink his plot, he must open up to new possibilities.

A Bit about Alexandre Dumas

Most of us living today have seen movies based on the works of this prolific author, his timeless storytelling enticing numerous filmmakers. Dumas’s stories The CorsicanBrothers (1843), The Count of Monte Cristo (1844), The Three Musketeers (1844), Twenty Years After (1845), The Queen’s Necklace (1850), The Man in the Iron Mask (late 1840s), and The Prince of Thieves (1872, posthumously) are just a few that have been made into films.

Interestingly, Dumas published some of these as serials rather than full-length novels. His stories tend to focus on events of his era and of the recent history of his era, giving readers an intimate look at life during that time. His work sometimes ventures into the highbrow, but usually his writing style is easily accessible to the average reader, which may contribute to his enduring popularity. He lived from 1802-1870.

What The Count of Monte Cristo Means to Me

I first read this novel when I was fifteen years old, and I was hooked. Born and raised in a small town, where traveling fifteen miles away was considered a wild excursion, I couldn’t wait to grow up and have adventures like the ones in this story. The dramatic images fly off the page—a life of defeat and despair that turns into a life of opulence and intrigue! This book gave me dreams about the possibilities my future might hold. Although I have yet to find a treasure like Edmund, I have had some grand adventures. This story instilled in me a thirst for exploration that is with me to this day.

My suggestion to you is to read the book, watch one of the many movies based on this story, and then read the book again. You'll most likely be as hooked as so many have been in more than a hundred and seventy years. Enjoy the adventure!

Linda Hughes is a #1 bestselling co-author and award-winning author of twenty books, including her latest novella, Lilac Island. Find her at www.lindahughes.com

5/7/21 5/7/21

Murder in Galway by Carlene O’Connor/Review by Joy Gorence

Murder in Galway
Carlene O’Connor

Kensington
$7.99
978-1496724472
April, 2020

BUY HERE

Carlene O’Connor once again delights readers with her newest series of cozy mysteries, A Home to Ireland Mystery. Those who have enjoyed her Irish Village Mysteries will not be disappointed with the introduction of Tara Meehan, a New York City interior designer. In this first book: Murder in Galway, Tara embarks on a trip Galway, Ireland to spread her mother’s ashes. Hoping also to deliver a message from her dying mother to her Uncle Johnny, who has been estranged from his sister for more than twenty years, Tara discovers that the locals in Galway do not have kind words for her or her uncle

The novel opens with an infuriated Emmet Walsh, a man of wealth who believes he has been cheated by Johnny Meehan, Tara’s uncle. Emmet’s obsession over a cast-iron pig that he purchased through Johnny’s Irish Revivals was not delivered as promised. With Emmet’s reflections and thoughts, Carlene O’Connor provides the catalyst for a mystery that soon consumes Tara.

Meanwhile, while Emmet is at Johnny’s cottage, Tara arrives in Galway and is familiarizing herself with the village. The locals have not seen her uncle for a while, and they only seem to have disparaging comments about him. Tara, determined to find her uncle, goes to his cottage. Upon her arrival, she discovers a dead body spread across the entry way of his cottage. She mistakenly assumes it is her uncle. Her uncle, in the meantime, has disappeared.

Despite the obstacles placed before Tara, she is determined to find her uncle. Along the way, O’Connor introduces the reader to a cache of colorful characters. A constant pacing interlaced with tension, Murder in Galway comes to a conclusion that leaves readers anxiously waiting for the publication of the next novel in the series.

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

BUY HERE

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

Submit Your Writing to KN Magazine

Want to have your writing included in Killer Nashville Magazine?
Fill out our submission form and upload your writing here:

SUBMIT YOUR WRITING

KN Magazine: Reviews

Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney/Review by Liz Gatterer

THE LONG GOODBYE by Raymond Chandler/Review by Robert Mangeot

Classic Reads

All We Buried by Elena Taylor/Review by Sheila Sobel

Larceny at the Library by Colleen J. Shogan/Review by Joy Gorence

Black Label by James L'Etoile/Review by Sheila Sobel

The Count of Monte Cristo/Review by Linda Hughes

Classic Reads

Murder in Galway by Carlene O’Connor/Review by Joy Gorence

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

Submit Your Writing to KN Magazine

Home

About Us
Press
Success Stories
KN Gives Back
Sponsor KN

Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions

Conference

Register
Schedule
Conference Offerings
Who’s Who
Bookstore / Sign Books
Get Involved
Hotel Info

Awards / Scholarships

2023 KN Award Winners
The Claymore Award
The Silver Falchion Award
KN Reader’s Choice Award
John Seigenthaler Legends Award
C. Auguste Dupin Detective Award
Scholarships

KN Magazine

Search
Articles
Interviews
Reviews
Cover Archives
Submit to KN Magazine

2025 Sponsors