Skillfully blending the mundane and the macabre, Shehata (the Russian Tattoos trilogy) presents a delightful paranormal romance built on a foundation of suspense. Evelyn is an artist with a secret: ever since a near-death experience, the spirits of the dead contact her through her art. On the cusp of opening her own gallery in Chicago, she crosses paths with Det. Leo Ricci, a member of the violent crimes task force and avowed denier of the paranormal. After a coffee shop meet-cute, the pair are quickly thrown into a deadly game of cat and mouse when Evelyn’s real estate agent friend, Sydney, is murdered—and Leo reluctantly teams up with Evelyn to crack the case. Clues and red herrings abound, though character development occasionally gets lost in the shuffle, especially when it comes to the secondary cast members who play key roles. The supernatural aspects are where this truly shines, with Evelyn’s spirit encounters, automatic drawing, and clairvoyance presented in all of their spine-tingling glory. Aficionados of old-school paranormal romance will be eager for more. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

Chen (Three Terrible Tales) smoothly shifts between realism and fantasy in this unsettling collection. In “The Zhangs and the Zumans,” a couple visits their former starter home, which they’re renting out, and are surprised to find their tenants getting along with the chaotic next-door neighbors who drove them away. In the story’s surprise ending, Chen reveals how the couple’s attitude toward their former neighbors says more about themselves. “Wedding Day at St. Thomas” explores themes of complacency and passivity, as a woman realizes during the disastrous first kiss with her husband at their wedding ceremony that she’s having “one of the most terrible moments of her life,” but goes through with the marriage anyway. In “He’s Just Fine,” a mother enrolls her son at day care despite worrying he won’t be properly cared for, only to learn her fears have come true. Interspersed with these longer entries are flash fictions, often with more overtly creepy situations. In “Paradox,” for example, a woman fleeing a multiheaded dog takes refuge in her friends’ house, only to get lost in the home’s endless hallways. With a wide range of tones and subjects, Chen demonstrates an impressive ability to pinpoint the traps her characters get caught in. This allures and alarms in equal measure. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

Potenza (the Nicky Matthews series) pairs an idiosyncratic sleuth with a rip-roaring plot in this promising series launch. Gruff paleontologist and poison expert Myrna Lee, whose colorful past includes stealing from Siberian ivory hunters who subsequently threatened her with a rocket launcher, is seeking evidence to support her theory that human ancestors hunted prehistoric megafauna, including mammoths, with poison. With few promising leads and her grant funds drying up, Lee is thrilled to learn that a New Mexico ranch owned by the influential Donavan family houses a collection of artifacts that could help prove her thesis. Lee attempts to persuade matriarch Sylvia Donavan to give her access to the collection if she solves the mystery of what, or who, is poisoning elks on the ranch—deaths which, if they’re made public, could scuttle the presidential aspirations of Sylvia’s husband, Charles. Lee’s mission grows even more complicated when she finds evidence that the poisonings were intentional, then discovers the body of an apparent murder victim on the property. Potenza peppers the action with plenty of enjoyable plot twists, and Lee’s endearingly antisocial antics make her a refreshingly iconoclastic lead. Readers will be eager for the sequel. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 11/01/2024 | Details & Permalink

Higginbotham (The Traitor’s Wife) offers a stirring tale of suffragette and abolitionist Ernestine Rose (1810–1892), a contemporary of Susan B. Anthony. In 1822 Poland, Ernestine refuses the marriage arranged by her rabbi father, to take place when she’s 16, telling him, “It is unjust for women to be traded like cattle.” Pursuing her desire to travel the world, she moves to Berlin the next year to live with her sister. There, she invents and sells perfumed paper and teaches languages to support herself, and continues to speak out against societal restrictions on women. In Paris, she makes bullets for France’s Revolution of 1830, then moves to London, where she meets textile manufacturer and social reformer Robert Owen and his colleague, silversmith and fellow atheist William Rose. Ernestine gives her first public speech to condemn the Reform Act of 1832, the first British law to officially bar women from voting. After she marries William, the couple moves to New York City, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton dubs her “queen of the platform” for her fiery and witty lectures on women’s suffrage and abolition. In Higginbotham’s capable hands, Ernestine emerges as a well-rounded character and a figure worthy of more attention. It’s a satisfying portrait. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 11/01/2024 | Details & Permalink

Mystery writer Patton (Death and the Devil’s Revenge) makes his nonfiction debut with an unflinching examination of his tumultuous childhood. In anecdotes both hopeful and dire, Patton recounts growing up with an abusive, alcoholic father, and his own attempts to escape the cycle of abuse as an adult. “There is no yardstick for measuring the depth of the scars when your beatings begin as a baby,” he begins, setting the stage for an unvarnished, hyperdetailed account of his early years in West Virginia as the youngest of four children. He renders his first experience crashing a bicycle and the first time he saw his father hit his mother with equal intensity. Though the bulk of the narrative covers Patton’s coming-of-age, the most powerful chapters concern his adulthood, during which Patton grappled with the traumas his father suffered before Patton was born. Ultimately, he manages to extend hard-won empathy to his tormentor long after he’d died of a heart attack. Though occasionally long-winded, Patton is a forceful writer, bestowing his harrowing narrative with page-turning momentum. Readers looking to heal their own family trauma will find comfort here. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

A comic book writer has an episodic relationship with a cosplayer in this steamy but meandering debut romance from comics author Glass (The Pride). Welsh indie superhero comics creator Arran Wilson gets on Grindr to stave off boredom at a 2018 London comic con and connects with Cameron Perkins, a dreamy accountant who’s also attending the con as a cosplayer. Despite their age gap (Arran is nine years older than Cam), the two men’s chemistry propels them through the weekend and across several years of conventions where they meet up for deliciously described sex. Arran’s insecurities and career stumbles, including his longtime artistic collaborator landing a permanent gig with Marvel, choke off the chances for a deeper emotional investment, even after Cameron treks to Swansea for a visit. As Cameron pushes for more, Arran, under attack by bigoted online trolls after a platform agrees to support his LGBTQ superhero series, yearns to be able to offer a real relationship but can’t get out of his own way. Glass’s plot advances in fits and starts, and Cameron comes off as a bit too perfect at times, but the chemistry between the leads and rawness of their emotions makes up for the plodding pace. With a unique fandom focus and high-heat love scenes aplenty, this is sure to hook nerdy queer erotica fans. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

In Miller’s poignant debut, an elderly woman takes in a homeless boy and the pair get into mischief. Ruth spies the unnamed eight-year-old narrator outside her retirement home, eating sunflower seeds from her bird feeder because he’s starving. She invites him inside for cookies, and they bond while watching baseball on TV. She secretly allows him to stay, defying the building’s restrictions on overnight guests and insisting he hide whenever someone comes to the door. They also have a rule against talking about the past; it’s too painful, Ruth explains. In addition to watching baseball, they pull pranks on Ms. Millie, a neighbor Ruth dislikes, such as ordering pizza for her under the name Innedova Bath. When Ms. Millie catches the narrator living there and threatens to report Ruth, the pair takes drastic measures to silence her. More trouble follows, and when Ruth suffers a head injury, their roles reverse as the narrator attempts to care for her while holding onto his new home. Miller convincingly portrays the characters’ uncommon friendship as their initial caution fades and they go to great lengths to stay together. Miller’s curveball coming-of-age tale lands in the strike zone. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

This gentle multiverse fantasy from Steuernagel (the Fractured Orbit series) highlights the power of friendship and booze. Emma Corvus is a Hunter of the Cursed, tasked with ridding her medievalesque world of magic alongside her partner and crush, Liam. Then she discovers powers of her own—she can create magic-infused cocktails—and she’s forced to flee Liam and her former life. In the remote village of Cuanmore, she meets fairy Vespa; Professor Aldrich, who insists his wild inventions are built on science rather than magic; and Aldrich’s “quantum accelerator,” which can communicate with Emma and quickly becomes fond of the nickname Demon Box. When Liam catches up to Emma, she, Vespa, and Aldrich use Demon Box to escape, transporting them to a series of parallel worlds that differ in their amount of magic and tech, and the nature of the relationships between fairies and humans. As they adventure through the multiverse, the three become fast friends and Emma realizes her true calling is to become a magical bartender. Without the alcohol theme (and a few included recipes), the interpersonal dynamics and worldbuilding would fit right into a middle grade novel. Still, there’s plenty here that adults will find charming. It’s a worthy addition to the growing trend of cozy fantasy. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/18/2024 | Details & Permalink

American cartoonist Feign (The Flower Boat Girl) takes a tender look at the Hong Kong village he calls home in this whimsical memoir. Blending diary-like dispatches and vivid photographs, Feign presents a loving portrait of Wang Tong, the village on the southern coast of Lantau Island in the South China Sea where he’s lived since 1991, after moving from mainland Hong Kong with his wife and sons. With a population under 300, “even the local police don’t know where we are,” Feign writes. Through profiles of his neighbors, including Wang Tong’s last living farmer and the village’s elected chief, he captures the villagers’ intimacy and interreliance in such rosy terms it’s liable to stir envy in readers, though he also takes note of construction projects across Lantau that threaten the environmental stability in Wang Tong. Even with those worries, however—plus Feign’s admission that dilapidated homes and garbage-strewn streets make Wang Tong far from picturesque (“Appearances aren’t a major concern for most villagers”)—what emerges is a poignant love letter to community and life’s small pleasures. This has charm to spare. Photos. (Aug.)

Correction: A previous version of this review incorrectly described the book as self-published.

Reviewed on 10/04/2024 | Details & Permalink

Kenig debuts with a high-octane thriller about a journalist who stumbles on an international terrorist plot. Decorated investigative reporter Kate Brennan travels to London to reunite with her best friend, Ruby Cunningham, who moved to England three years earlier for her job at the U.N. Soon after Kate arrives, she learns that Ruby was killed in a motorcycle accident—a tragedy made stranger because the bus that hit her seemed to do so intentionally. Kate then learns that Ruby changed her name when she moved overseas, and that her real employer was the CIA, not the U.N. With her hopes of a restful vacation dashed, Kate fires up her reporter’s instincts and discovers that Ruby was entangled in a plot to assassinate a real-life political figure. While the details of that plot, once they’re revealed, undercut the tension somewhat, Kenig provides plenty of interpersonal betrayal and gunslinging action to keep readers invested. This satisfies. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 10/04/2024 | Details & Permalink