Monday’s Lie by Jamie Mason (Gallery Books, February 3, 2015) – I have a thing for Hitchcock. The man knew how to spin a good yarn and dangle tantalizing little clues, all the while beckoning you closer to an ending you’d never suspect. So when the book description for Jamie Mason’s Monday’s Lie included the… Read more »
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby (Balzar & Bray, March 3, 2015)-Welcome to Bone Gap, Illinois, where the people are a bit odd, magic lingers. Bone Gap is an apropos name since there are places, or “gaps” in the town where reality is a bit fluid, and otherworldly doors appear. Brothers Sean and Finn O’Sullivan live… Read more »
Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell (Mulholland, March 24th, 2015)-In which we find our heroes, Thomas De Quincey, his daughter Emily, and Scotland Yard Detectives Ryan and Becker at the center of a murder mystery leading back to Queen Victoria herself. It’s been about 7 weeks since the events of Murder as a Fine… Read more »
The Devil’s Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth (Knopf, March 3, 2015)-The Devil’s Detective was unlike anything I’ve ever read. The very basic premise is that Thomas Fool is an Information Man in Hell. He gets these missives sent via pneumatic tube to his room and must mark them according to their status (most get marked… Read more »
House Immortal by Devon Monk (Roc, Sept. 2014)-Like I’ve lamented lately, I’ve begun to get picky when it comes to new series, but I’m glad I gave Devon Monk’s House Immortal a chance. Most of the book is told in Matilda (Tilly) Case’s voice and takes place about 200 years from now after the world… Read more »
The Swimmer by Joakim Zander (Feb.10th, 2015)-Klara Walldéen is secure in her job as an EU parliament aide in Brussels. If she still has twinges of regret about a romance that ended years previously, she has her pick of smart, handsome men, and one in particular is the object of a current passionate, clandestine affair…. Read more »
Get Carter by Ted Lewis (Soho Syndicate, 2014) – After being estranged from his brother, Frank, for over a decade, Jack Carter heads back home. Unfortunately, it’s for his brother’s funeral. It’s chalked up as a sad, drunken driving episode, but Carter knew his brother too well to believe that and resolves to get down… Read more »
White Plague by James Abel (Berkley, Jan 2015)-White Plague kind of has everything I like in a straight up thriller: strong, interesting protagonist in Joe Rush, a Marine who happens to be a bioterror expert; a cold, inhospitable environment (here, it’s the Arctic); people trapped in claustrophobic environs with a danger that can’t be escaped…… Read more »
Cannonbridge by Jonathan Barnes (Solaris, Feb. 10th, 2015)-The past and the present collide to fantastic effect in Jonathan Barnes’s dark gothic fantasy. Matthew Cannonbridge is revered for his beloved Victorian stories, even above such literary greats as Dickens, Byron, Wilde, and many more. In fact, Cannonbridge has touched the lives of all of the Victorian… Read more »
Persona by Genevieve Valentine (Saga Press, March 10, 2015)-For 5 years Suyana Sapaki has been the Face of the United Amazonian Rainforest Confederation (UARC) which is part of the Internation Assembly, a stable of diplomats from around the world. They are carefully groomed for years and rigorously controlled (it will, at times, remind you of… Read more »