An orphaned teen takes on powerful men in this rousing series launch from Lane (the Ramsbolt series). Charlotte Morris and her younger brother, Emmett, hail from the coal mining town of Stoke, Pa., where her miner father agitated for better working conditions. After both of their parents die from illnesses related to pollution from the coal mine in 1900, Charlotte and Emmett go to live with foster parents in North East, Md. The Ryans, alcoholic Finn and stern Regina, offer the siblings a cold welcome and put them to work with fishing and other chores. When Charlotte sees the town’s mayor on a train platform meeting with the owner of Stoke’s mine, she suspects the mayor of corruption and starts connecting the dots between the pollution in Stoke and the massive fish die-off in North East. Gathering allies, including a group of suffragists, Charlotte concocts a plan to continue her late father’s labor activism and expose the truth behind the environmental devastation. Her crusade is complicated by increasing tension with Emmett, who chafes against Charlotte’s protectiveness, and Charlotte struggles with whom to trust. The pacing and character work are a bit rough, but Lane succeeds at making Charlotte a heroine to root for. Those who appreciate muckraking social realism in the vein of Mary Doria Russell’s Women of Copper Country ought to check this out. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 02/07/2025 | Details & Permalink

Hawkins (Downpour) spins the familiar into the grotesque in this chilling collection of 13 horror shorts. The author excels at putting dark twists on everyday domestic circumstances. A painter escapes an unhappy marriage with some supernatural aid in “Moonrise Over Water with Sargassum, 2022. Oil On Canvas.” In “Green Eyes,” a child cares for her ailing mother even after the woman’s death. An uncanny children’s TV show takes center stage in “The Stumblyum Imperative,” while in “A Candle for the Birthday Boy,” a six-year-old’s birthday party goes horribly wrong. The exceptional gore—narrators perform revolting actions such as probing “the glistening yellow-gray” of their own exposed fat, which “yields beneath [their] touch like molded gelatin” (“Storms of the Present”)—makes looking away impossible. Not all the stories are quite as successful, however. If, as in “Interlude,” about a little boy whose parents think he has a rash, the buildup is too mundane in its purposeful misdirection, what should be a delightful shock ending turns into a cheap trick. Still, plenty of entertainment lies within these pages. Readers will be thinking about Hawkins’s skin-crawling fables long after they turn off the lights. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 02/07/2025 | Details & Permalink

Beaumont (Shadow of Doubt) delivers an intriguing tale of WWII espionage and the last days of the Cold War. In 1943, Mae Webster, a codebreaker at Bletchley Park, meets and falls for Lt. Jack Knight, New Zealand war photographer. After learning Jack’s security clearance is higher than hers, she suspects he’s a spy. They get married the next April, and after Paris is liberated, Jack travels there to take photos, including one that appears to capture a Bletchley colleague passing an envelope to a Soviet agent. Mae never sees Jack again. In a parallel narrative set in fall 1989, Mae tells her granddaughter Rachel Talbot, a London-based photojournalist, that she’s seen a television clip of the Stasi officer she believes was responsible for Jack’s death. The mystery of what happened to Jack in Paris gradually unfolds as Rachel investigates the officer while on assignment in Berlin, covering the imminent fall of the Berlin Wall. Beaumont skillfully links Jack’s and Rachel’s stories as each character’s search for the truth leads them into mortal danger. Readers will be enthralled. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 02/07/2025 | Details & Permalink

A British woman attracts the attention of a French marquis in the chaste but alluring fourth installment of the multiauthor Georgians in Paris series (after Sofi Laporte’s The Vicomte’s Masquerade) from Goutet (A Whimsical Notion). Sophie Twisden meets Basile Gervain, Marquis de Verdelle, while visiting Paris with her grandmother in 1774. Basile’s flirtation with Sophie annoys her pompous British escort, Sheldon Cholmsley, who’s courting her. Sheldon and Sophie are both in for a shock when, soon thereafter, Basile—seeking to ward off the unwanted attentions of another woman—publicly announces his engagement to Sophie. Sophie goes along with it, hoping to similarly shake herself free of Sheldon’s advances. The stakes of their fake engagement intensify, however, when their relationship catches the interest of Marie Antoinette. Now their ruse must withstand both her scrutiny and their own shifting feelings. Goutet transports readers to the glittering aristocratic world of pre-revolutionary France, spotlighting the soapy gossip and machinations of society’s elite. Historical romance fans looking for a vacation from Regency England will find this hits the spot. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 01/31/2025 | Details & Permalink

Giroux revisits the dilapidated Massachusetts town of his previous novel, Ring on Deli, for this charming if meandering romp. Wild boars still roam Pennacook, and frequent flooding has turned the town’s roads into canals. Middle schooler Wendy Zhou is walking her dog when she discovers a rundown building hidden in the woods. As one of the children who staff the local newspaper, the Pennacook Beat, she asks frequently inebriated editor Graham Brundt, an adult, if she can look into the mystery. Meanwhile, the townspeople are divided over what to do about the flooding, with some supporting an unnamed entity’s proposal to plop a geodesic dome over the town, while others,­ led by Selectman Archie Simmons­, call for the town to weigh its options and bring them to a vote. After a suspicious accident puts Archie in a coma, the rest of the board puts the town up for sale. Giroux intercuts the present-day action with chapters set in 2032, in which Wendy, now a college student, interviews a now sober Graham and draws connections between the previous events. Though the time jumps are gratuitous, Giroux keenly portrays a young girl’s growing awareness of the corruption and hubris of adults. This comic novel has surprising depth. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 01/20/2025 | Details & Permalink

Corporate consultant Newman (Do It! Speaking) delivers an energetic resource for business-to-business salespeople looking to move ahead. To scout potential clients, Newman recommends perusing lists of the top local or national companies related to one’s target demographic (e.g., those who work with women executives might consult Fortune magazine’s “Best Workplaces for Women”) and reaching out to individuals in upper management. The “five tips for first contact calls” include inviting a prospect to open up by asking them “what have you done to get to where you are today” and demonstrating the value of one’s services by either challenging the prospect’s thinking or sharing stories of how one has helped previous clients. Elsewhere, Newman encourages readers to gain clarity on a prospect’s objectives by asking such questions as “what specifically are you hoping to gain from our work together,” and to win over wavering prospects by following up with insights or ideas tailored to their business needs. Though Newman doesn’t include much in the way of research studies, success stories, or other supporting evidence, the many enumerated lists (“17 great answers to ‘how much do you charge?’ ”; “7 things sales pros must do daily”) provide a lean, easily digestible overview of how to seal the deal. This gets the job done. Photos. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 01/03/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this solid cozy from Vallere (Gilt Trip), former fashion buyer Samantha Kidd probes a murder at a New Jersey dude ranch. Samantha and her husband, Nick, have traveled from Philadelphia to join her father-in-law, Nick Sr., at the Down Home Ranch for a weeklong stay. Nick Sr. is toying with the idea of purchasing the property from its current owner, Joey Baldwin. Samantha hopes to take it easy, but her plan goes awry when she discovers Baldwin’s bludgeoned corpse in an empty horse stable. The situation triggers Samantha’s investigative instincts, and, despite the local sheriff’s warning to stay out of the case, she starts investigating staff members, Baldwin’s widow, and other suspects. Vallere approaches the material—and Samantha’s narration—with a light touch; the gumshoe makes her grim discovery because she learned from “six seasons of Yellowstone” that horses shouldn’t be wandering a farm alone at night. When the solution comes, it’s clever and satisfying. Readers in the mood for a low-stakes whodunit will be charmed. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 01/06/2025 | Details & Permalink

Minson (Sun City) delivers a heartfelt and hilarious story of greed, environmental protection, and small-town life in West Texas. Dave Crockett, acquisitions agent for Enroxx Energy, is no fan of the outdoors and the suffocating Texas heat, so he’s dismayed when he’s dispatched to the state by his eccentric boss, Dick Dunlap. Dick, a nudist who’s often naked at the Houston office, erroneously believes Dave is descended from the famous frontiersman of the same last name and insists on calling him Davy. Dave’s mission: purchase the sleepy desert town of Crockettville, Tex., which has the most consistent wind currents in America, and where Enroxx plans to install wind turbines. Dave eventually learns to appreciate the landscape’s charms—including a crystal-clear swimming hole and wondrous night sky free from light pollution—and bonds with café owner Bettie, maker of an addictive fried apricot pie, along with beautiful biodiversity researcher Angie and stoic Native American Geronimo, a direct descendant of the Apache warrior, who watches over the town with his donkey, BidenTrump. After an Enroxx engineer reveals the company’s true motives for the site, which would devastate the town, Crockett tries to intervene. Infused with deadpan humor and stocked with appealing characters, Minson’s witty tale builds to a stirring environmental rallying cry. This is sure to put a smile on readers’ faces. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 01/06/2025 | Details & Permalink

Umber (Sound of Snow Falling) presents nine unsettling graphic shorts that delve into darkness, grief, and the author’s fascination with James Harris, a demonic figure from a 17th-century ballad. The collection eschews a standard comics-style narrative in favor of evoking an eerie and contemplative vibe, through ephemeral black and gray story fragments and portraits. In “Rine,” a faceless man and woman marry in an abandoned Victorian mansion before the man fades into shadow, leaving the woman alone. A woman on a ship falls in love with a cloven-footed man in “The Devil Is a Hell of a Dancer,” only to drown in the sea on which they sail. A ghost rows a lonely, lost woman in a small boat in “The Rock.” Harris haunts the collection, showing up as a suit-clad suitor, a dapper lover, and the devil himself. Umber’s gestural sketches with gothic tones add to the spectral atmosphere. Fans of Frank Gogel’s Grief anthology will find a comfortable discomfort here. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 12/13/2024 | Details & Permalink

Behan (A Measured Thread) delivers an immersive story of a woman’s search for answers about her birth. In rural Wisconsin, Isobel Babić receives an unexpected inheritance of $50,000 from the woman for whom she was a full-time caregiver. Isobel, who was raised in Canada, delays her plan to start veterinary school and flies to New Zealand to visit her adoptive parents, Novak and Christina, who live there now, and get answers about the circumstances of her adoption. Novak, who was born in Yugoslavia, discloses that Isobel is the daughter of his brother, Toma, who arranged for a woman to bring Isobel to Canada from Sarajevo after his wife, Amela, was killed during the Bosnian war. Though Novak’s acquaintances in Bosnia told him that Toma died in the war, Isobel flies to Sarajevo to meet with Gordana, the woman who brought her to Canada, and discovers some startling information about her birth parents. Behan expertly traces the complex web of relationships surrounding an adoption and Isobel’s conflicted emotions upon uncovering her family’s secrets. This will move readers. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 11/22/2024 | Details & Permalink