Part of why Philip K. Dick’s novels are so effective is how the daring, game-changing sci-fi author juxtaposed the extraordinary with the relatable. Take his 1970 novel A Maze of Death, for instance. The main thrust of that story involves fourteen humans who come to inhabit a mysterious space colony which proves to be treacherous…
So, full disclaimer, I’ve been a huge fan of Fabian Nicieza since the 1990s, when he wrote multiple X-Men titles for Marvel Comics. When I heard that he had moved into writing novels, I was ecstatic. Mortifyingly, I have not yet had time to pick up the first book in the Suburban Dicks series, but…
Tell Us No Secrets plays out across the graduation year of four adolescent girls whose lives are inextricably intertwined. Stonybridge School for Girls is an exclusive—but not top-tier—New England boarding school; it’s the school that families choose if their daughters “couldn’t get into a school like Madeira or Miss Porter’s, or if your mother had…
After recovering from breast cancer but still reeling from her longtime boyfriend’s defection, Rarity Cole pulls up stakes and moves from St. Louis to Sedona, Arizona. She embraces “her second shot at life” by opening The Next Chapter bookstore, nestled between “a fortune teller’s shop and a place that sells crystals.” Books, chocolate, ice cream,…
Lem Devlin has had it with being surrounded by art that costs more than his entire life. Working for the Fine Artemis shipping and storage company, he doesn’t mind so much the value assigned to the beauty he sees every day. What bothers him is the casual consumerism that buys an extravagant work of art…
As A Killing Rain starts, our heroine—homicide detective Raven Burns—thinks she’s finally put at least some of her demons to rest. Her father was notorious serial killer Floyd Burns, who used his only daughter as bait in his sick schemes. When Raven grew up, she was determined to put Floyd behind her by enrolling in…
Detective Elise King is convalescing from cancer treatments in the seaside town of Ebbing—a hamlet filled to the brim with gossiping, secret-keeping locals and ambitious newcomers. Elise spends her days gazing out of her front window, watching the comings-and-goings of the people along the street, so she has a front-row view of the music festival…
Yip Tolroy was born mute, but even before his speechlessness was discerned, the pale, hairless baby was not thought to be long for this world. His father, already in a state of high emotion at the birth of his first child, went outside to get some air after the doctor expressed his doubts as to…
When two high school students break into a disabled old man’s home one night looking for a fast score, the last thing they expect is for him to be more than a match for them. Jenny Wheeler is a good kid most of the time, but her slightly older boyfriend Jesse Crawford is desperate to…
It’s been long enough that Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett no longer views her assignment to head Cumbria Constabulary’s Cold Case Review Team as a demotion from regular policing. Now, with the election of new Police and Crime Commissioner Kit Gleadall, Hannah has some hope that her overstretched team—about to be taxed further by the…
