Stuart’s fifth Seattle-set whodunit featuring PI Cameron Chandler (after Moonlight Can Be Deadly) succeeds as both a mystery and a poignant exploration of homelessness. Cameron works for the scrappy, budget-conscious Penny-wise Investigations, whose office is in a shopping mall. While walking through the mall one afternoon, Cameron spots a young boy fleeing two violent men. She hides the child in her office, feeds him, and asks why he’s in trouble. He tells her his name is Cole White, and that he was being followed because he witnessed his pursuers kidnapping a woman named Bess who lived in the same homeless camp as him. Cameron decides to take Cole into her home and investigate the matter pro bono. As she digs, she learns that Bess is just the latest in a string of victims who have been snatched from homeless encampments across the city, and that most of the crimes haven’t been reported to the police. Stuart makes Cameron’s empathy and anger palpable as she tries to track the kidnappers down, offering a fresh and quietly hopeful spin on noir conventions along the way. This is a winner. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this melancholy fantasy, Huie (the Thedre trilogy) unspools a dragon’s centuries-long life story. Young warrior Sisal grew up hearing her grandparents’ tales of the monstrous red dragon that has been oppressing the town of Vakfored, hoarding precious materials and devouring any who disobey. Now Sisal is the chosen hero to slay the beast—but when she enters the dragon’s cave, he politely introduces himself as Vakandi Foreldri, once known as Life Giver by the people of Vakfored. He promises to “leave Vakfored alone if you listen to my story.” The dragon goes on to chronicle how, 800 years prior, he saved a group of humans, orcs, and dwarves from wolves and led them to a safe place to start a village. Over the centuries, he protected the townsfolk from monsters and foreign invaders. Vakfored came to excel in art, music, and magic, but always relied on Vakandi for protection, something the dragon realized too late could bring about the town’s downfall. He knew he had to teach the townsfolk to defend themselves, even if it meant they turned on him. It’s a promising premise, and though the prose is a bit clunky, Huie imbues Vakandi’s backstory with a good mix of sorrow and affection on the way to a heartfelt conclusion. This poignant tale is sure to please dragon lovers. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Sci-fi author Gerrib (One of Our Spaceships Is Missing) delivers a solid suspense debut. In 1986, high school senior Pat Kowalski is working on an oral history of Eastville, Ill., for his final project. He spends his birthday at his great-grandmother Barb’s nursing home in hopes that she might offer up useful stories, but he’s unsure how seriously to take her claims that, in 1896, a stranger with gold coins and a gun in his pockets dropped dead outside her Eastville home. Barb tells Pat she found the stranger’s bag nearby, which was overflowing with gold, and kept it for decades as a rainy day fund. She says $12,000 remains, but grows confused when Pat asks her where it is. With his father dying and his mother facing foreclosure on the family home, Pat sets aside his history project to track down the treasure with only Barb’s foggy testimony as his guide. His search catches the attention of his classmate, Vincent “Three Sticks” Bisceglie, who also needs cash, and who proves he’ll go to surprising lengths to get it. Gerrib wrings a lot of tense fun out of the treasure hunt, and Pat is an appealingly sensitive teenage lead. This grown-up Goonies riff is a treat. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

In Martynenka’s passionate if uneven debut, a young woman reflects on her infatuation with a rock star and his untimely death from a drug overdose. As a teen in 2008, Janina travels from Belarus with her rock journalist father to Ukraine, where he’s covering a music festival. After catching a set by Rockets, she falls for keyboardist Raman. They later connect over social media, and in 2015, he invites her backstage at concerts in Belarus with his new band. At one point, Raman even declares his love to her from the stage, but he also keeps her at a distance, typically abandoning her after a show to hook up with another woman or do drugs. Janina’s friends frequently warn her that Raman isn’t good for her, but she persists in obsessing over him and trying to get him help for his addiction to heroin, even as friends start leaving his side. After Raman dies, Janina is plagued by survivor’s guilt. The narrative contains some astute observations about the nature of addiction, though they’re often delivered in unpolished prose (“I needed the constant embrace of alcohol to shield me from the overwhelming emotions”). Still, it’s a convincing depiction of one person’s unhealthy pull on another. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

Former actor Lenz (Hello, Rest of My Life) delves into Hollywood film lore with his immersive latest, about a personal assistant’s quixotic 1970s quest to complete an obscure unfinished film rumored to have costarred John Wayne and James Dean. Emily Bennett first hears about Showdown’s 1955 production from a fellow extra on a 1973 TV shoot. A few years later, while working for an actor on the set of The Shootist, Wayne’s final film, she works up the courage to ask the taciturn star about Showdown but fails to convince him to finish it (“I’m too old to play myself,” Wayne says). After Wayne dies in 1979, she recruits Wayne impersonator Tom Manfredo and Dean impersonator Jimmy Riley to act in the film, and a love triangle develops as she falls for Tom while Jimmy nurses his feelings for her. Things get a bit unwieldy in the melodramatic third act with a pair of shoehorned and occasionally confusing Oedipal motifs (one character has killed his father and another may have had sex with his mother), but for the most part Lenz, who also appeared in The Shootist, offers a fascinating perspective on Hollywood’s Golden Age and its pull on his cast. This is worth a look. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 07/04/2025 | Details & Permalink

Fogle (City of Liars) offers an enchanting narrative of the tumultuous friendship between composers Erik Satie and Claude Debussy. In 1890, 24-year-old music school dropout Erik meets the older and more successful Claude in a Paris music shop. Claude, recognizing the young man’s talent, invites him to become a Rosicrucian, and the order performs one of Erik’s pieces at a salon. Still, Erik struggles to make ends meet until he finds success incorporating American popular music into his compositions, while Claude takes a break from his own work to care for his wife after a miscarriage. Their relationship turns sour after Erik learns that Claude, who has grown resentful of Erik’s success, has used part of his work without permission in the 1908 piece “Children’s Corner.” Some of the prose is awkward (“I never wanted to perform dreary sauerkraut to their standards of mechanical perfection,” Erik narrates, describing his dismissal from a conservatory as a teen), but Fogle effectively captures the composers’ innovations and respect for each other’s work (“Somewhere between a chant and a recitative.... The music blurs the temporal boundaries, drawing me into another world,” Erik remarks on Claude’s 1902 opera, Pelléas et Mélisande). Those with an interest in classical music will find this hard to put down. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 06/27/2025 | Details & Permalink

Boyer’s second Carolina Tales mystery (after Big Trouble on Sullivan’s Island) is another charming cozy set in the sleepy beach town of Sullivan’s Island, S.C. At the outset, Sarabeth Boone has just thrown “the Titanic of all neighborhood parties” in hopes of mending multiple interpersonal rifts between her acquaintances, but the event quickly became so heated that the police arrested several guests. Hours later, a disappointed Sarabeth is awakened by a neighbor who reports that there’s a corpse in her front yard. Initially, Sarabeth assumes it’s a drunk stranger, but she eventually realizes that she knows the deceased, who was bludgeoned to death—possibly by one of Sarabeth’s own shovels. Flashbacks to five years earlier flesh out the events leading up to the murder, which Boyer resolves with aplomb. En route to the solution, she keeps readers in the dark about who died for far longer than the typical cozy, without sacrificing suspense. It adds up to a unique and satisfying whodunit. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 06/27/2025 | Details & Permalink

An emotional reunion animates bestseller Ryan’s steamy third Dark Horse Dive Bar contemporary (after Wilde for You). As children, Fox Bridges and Melody Wilde were inseparable. After Melody’s dad stepped in to save Fox from his abusive parents, Fox ended up in foster care, taking him far from Blackrock Falls, Wyo.—but he’s never forgotten Melody. Sixteen years later, Fox, now a successful computer programmer, is back in town to take care of his mother, who has terminal cancer. Though Fox has been messaging Melody online, she doesn’t realize who he is until they meet up at the bar she owns. Their relationship quickly heats up, though Fox is initially worried that Melody is only attracted to him because of his money, having been burned before. Their evolving romance leads Melody to contemplate how they will work as a couple when Fox moves back to Boston. Meanwhile, a secret from Fox’s past may land them both in danger. Sensuous love scenes and a touch of mystery will draw in returning readers and new fans alike. This is a winner. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 06/27/2025 | Details & Permalink

Carr debuts with a charming story of three lonely Minnesota women who find a renewed sense of purpose during preparations for their town’s 1976 bicentennial celebration. School lunch ladies Crystal, Sheila, and Coralene are tasked by their ambitious boss, Gordon, with putting together meals for the town’s Independence Day parade. The plan draws each of the women out of her quirky routines. Crystal is fixated on reading obituaries and imagining who among her acquaintances might have made a good match for the deceased, a habit that distracts her from worrying about her ailing grandmother who raised her. Coralene, who’s very happily married, frets over her 20-year-old nephew, whom she raised after her sister’s death from cancer eight years earlier. She worries that his drifting lifestyle means she failed her promise to her sister to set him on the right path. Sheila holds everyone at arm’s length except for Lexie, a waitress at the Denny’s where she dines every Friday night. When Lexie tries to set Sheila up with a school plumber, she surprises everyone by agreeing. As the holiday approaches, each woman’s story line builds to a climax. Along the way, Carr develops a colorful portrait of grief in its varied forms, shot through with just the right amount of humor. It’s a satisfying slice of life. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 06/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

Freeman (The Blackwell Files) kicks off a new series set in Renaissance-era Italy with this stylish espionage thriller. Ship captain Niccolo Corsini is summoned by banker Lorenzo de’ Medici, the de facto ruler of Florence, after a fleet of ships bearing the mysterious sign of a black cross on their sails attacks the coast of San Vincenzo. Believing that a flotilla of Florence’s armed ships would be quickly overwhelmed by the unknown assailants, Medici hopes that Corsini’s merchant vessel will be able to get near enough to the fleet to learn who’s leading it and what their intentions are. The mission proves hazardous when Corsini’s own crew is infiltrated by a spy for the mysterious fleet. Eventually, Corsini grows conflicted about his role as an enforcer for the often-cruel Medici. Freeman brings the period to vivid life (though a cameo from Leonardo da Vinci feels somewhat out of place) and provides enough runway to keep readers on the hook for a sequel. Historical fans should give this a look. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 06/13/2025 | Details & Permalink