Chapter 1 The ocean was singing in the hushed, undulating tones of low tide on this still, damp night. Nature’s beguiling lullaby swelled and ebbed in Kira Tanner’s body, transfixing her as powerfully as the mist-furred brilliance of the sickle moon hanging in a starless sky. Its cool light frosted the water and spread a…
With one seemingly simple comment from one character to another, Ava Barry perfectly captures the heart of her newest thriller, Double Exposure: “Double exposure. A broken piece of film. Damaged imagery, you know?” Double Exposure is a cat and mouse mystery where the role of the cat and the mouse are constantly interchanging. Set in…
Canada’s Rio Youers is the critically acclaimed author of five novels, short fiction, and two comic series. His books include Westlake Soul, The Forgotten Girl, Halcyon, and Lola on Fire; these titles have earned him nominations for the British Fantasy, Sunburst, and Arthur Ellis Awards. His newest standalone novel of suspense, No Second Chances, is…
I had an appointment to view a small house to rent in West Hollywood. It was my second day in Los Angeles having just moved—with my ten-year-old daughter and two cats—from a tiny English village to pursue a screenwriting dream. Luckily, I had a job lined up at New Line Cinema and a green card. …
Thriller writer Tessa Wegert says “crime fiction writers are like journalists.” She zeroed in on a word—authenticity—that fits my thoughts on Larry Darter’s Omerta to a tee. Former journalist Wegert examines Michael Connelly’s oeuvre but fans of Omerta will undoubtedly see similarities: Regardless of characters, setting, or storyline, a single word always comes to mind when…
When I was a kid, two of my favorite TV shows were Barney Miller and Hill Street Blues. I was fascinated by them mainly because they were so much different from the other cop shows. On Barney Miller, they spent all their time in the squadroom dealing with ridiculously petty stuff for the most part,…
Told through the intimate lens of a mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand each other, The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim is a powerful and exquisitely woven debut novel that explores identity, family, secrets, and what it truly means to belong. When 26-year-old Margot Lee’s best friend,…
New York Times bestseller P. J. Tracy returns with Deep into the Dark (Minotaur Books, January 12, 2021), the first in a new series set in LA and featuring up-and-coming LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan and murder suspect Sam Easton. Take a first look at the striking book cover right here, and read on for a…
The story of a modern-day ninja warrior following the code of the #MeToo movement, The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge is as impactful as a throwing star. The Ninja Daughter by Tori Eldridge is a debut novel that is perfectly positioned as the first in a series following a lovable, yet deadly, young female ninja…
This Storm by James Ellroy is a massive novel of World War II Los Angeles—when torrential rainstorms hit the city, a body is unearthed in Griffith Park. The cops rate it a routine dead-man job. They’re grievously wrong. I’ve been reading the Demon Dog of American Literature since I stumbled across The Black Dahlia in…
