Austrian writer Lernet-Holenia (Mona Lisa, 1897–1976) addresses guilt over WWII in this masterly novel, originally published in 1955. Nearly a decade after the war, Alexander Jessiersky, the head of an Austrian transport business, travels to Rome, enters the catacomb beneath a church, and d... Continue reading »

A haunting reminiscent of the legend of Sleepy Hollow and a rash of robberies committed by someone wearing a black duffel coat highlight Marcum’s impressive 20th Sherlock Holmes anthology. Gayle Lange Puhl’s “The Blood-Spattered Bridge” sends Holmes and Watson to Kent to look into the apparent retur... Continue reading »

Seanan McGuire, writing as Baker, crafts a delightful, fable-like portal fantasy that works as a charming standalone adventure and serves as a metafictional tie-in to her 2019 blockbuster Middlegame, which features Baker as a character. When two children climb over a mysterious wall, they’r... Continue reading »

Rose delivers a pulse-pounding mix of romance and terror in the no-holds-barred sequel to Say You’re Sorry. When Mercy Reynolds was 13, her mother smuggled her out of the Northern California cult she was born into—a daring escape that cost Mercy’s mother her life, and nearly Mercy’s as well... Continue reading »

Scioli (the Gødland series) injects oomph into the already-energetic life story of the “King of Comics” through sweeping narrative and Scioli’s trademark detailed page layouts. Told from the point of view of Kirby (1917–1994), the biography also acts as a history of the comics industry, from early s... Continue reading »

The stunning third collection from Choi (Hardly War) is a feat of docupoetics, collage, and translation that bears witness to unheard voices from the Korean War and the Park Chung Hee military dictatorship. Choi braids personal and political histories, including her family’s flight from Sou... Continue reading »

Fuller (Hearts of Middlefield) delights with four joyful Amish stories of love and faith. In “Young Love,” 20-something Fern has rheumatoid arthritis and worries her illness will one day make marriage and life as an Amish wife difficult. When her longtime crush, Dan, becomes single, Fern ov... Continue reading »

Tate delivers a no-holds-barred account of her five-plus years in group therapy in this dazzling debut memoir. Growing up in Texas, Tate suffered from bulimia; she entered law school and moved to Chicago, where she continued to confront her eating disorder and attended 12-step programs. At a friend’... Continue reading »

Ripert, the chef at Michelin-starred Le Bernardin, follows his 2016 memoir 32 Yolks with an excellent celebration of the vegetable dishes that have sustained him since childhood. Known for his seafood, Ripert bestows equal elegance and care to plant-based recipes, most of which call for few... Continue reading »

Essayist Weinberger (The Ghosts of Birds) delivers a charming meditation on the nature of angels and saints, illustrated with gorgeous reproductions of the works of ninth century German Benedictine monk Hrabanus Maurus. Weinberger contributes the bulk of the text, comprising his interpretat... Continue reading »

Though Beetle’s formidable grandmother has long taught her goblin magic at home—all bones, potions, and ancient family practices—the green-eared girl yearns for and idolizes sorcery, which society deems the more powerful craft. It’s also the power that Beetle’s childhood best friend—skeletal, undead... Continue reading »