In this month’s roundup of the best-reviewed self-published titles, we highlight a thriller about a man drawn into a deadly mystery by his deceased doctor, a collection of devotionals, a sci-fi mystery, and more.
★ The Smart One
Drew Yanno
Plot: An unnamed narrator receives a list of apparently unrelated and unfamiliar names after the death of his former family doctor. But the list soon draws him into a mystery that has him running for his life.
PW’s Takeaway: An outstanding Hitchcockian thriller... The twists are surprising.... The spare prose a good match for the fast-moving plot.
Comparable Titles: Desperate, Before He Finds Her
Sample Line: “Ironically, I keep mentioning life when, in fact, it was death that started the ball rolling....”
My Temporary Life
Martin Crosbie
Plot: Crosbie tells the story of Malcolm Wilson, from his school days to his meeting, decades later, with a beautiful woman with a mysterious secret.
PW’s Takeaway: Crosbie’s novel captivates from the get-go with spine-tingling drama and penetrating character portrayals.
Comparable Titles: This Boy’s Life, The End of Eddy
Sample Line: “Numbers don’t vary. They don’t stray. If a series of numbers add, or multiply, or subtract a certain way today, they’ll do that over and over again tomorrow, without fail.”
Journey to Peace
Keanna Barnes
Plot: Barnes collects 31 devotionals to help mothers process the grief of miscarriages and stillbirths.
PW’s Takeaway: Barnes’s writing is intimate.... The daily meditations are quick doses of hope.
Comparable Titles: What Was Lost, From God’s Word to a Woman’s Heart
Levels
D.H. Richards
Plot: Set in a fantastic multilevel city, the novel follows small-time fixer Talbot Singh’s investigation of a murder that is more than it appears.
PW’s Takeaway: The superior worldbuilding offers plenty of potential for a sequel.
Comparable Titles: James S.A. Corey’s Expanse series
Judah’s Scepter and the Sacred Stone
D.A. Brittain
Plot: A princess flees Jerusalem, meeting the son of a king in Egypt, where an attraction develops.
PW’s Takeaway: An engrossing tale of faith and love.
Comparable Titles: Connilyn Cossette’s Out from Egypt series
