by Liz Nugent
Scout Press/S&S
This is a disturbing book dealing with kidnapping and rape and the long-term effects of both. Not an easy book to read but the characters, especially Sally, are very well drawn, as is the sense of a small town attempting to deal with, and in some cases, help a damaged member of their community.
If you would like to know more about or purchase this book, please try your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org .
by Tim Johnston
Hachette Book Group
There is a crime, in fact several, but this is primarily a story of friendship and love - familial and romantic. It is filled with honesty, hard work and ripples of horror from years of a small town's bereavement.
Johnston's earlier novels - Descent and The Current - are also very compelling reads - suspense with a large dose of family love. Worth your time.
If you would like to read or own any of these books please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place - bookshop.org .
by Percival Everett
Graywolf Press
This is an amazing work of art. It is at once horrifying, moving, challenging and funny. It is terribly, sadly, very relevant to our times. The brutal murders, acts of much deserved retribution, confound the racist local police and the Black FBI investigators, as the killings spread. Yet Everett manages at several different points to make you laugh out loud.
This should be, and most likely won't be, required reading in high schools.
If you'd like to know more about this book, or own it, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place - bookshop.org .
by Mike McCormack
Soho Press
Jan. 2024
The reader is immediately pulled into Nealon's world - a hazy place of loss, secrets and suspense. There is a man who claims to know things that Nealon needs to know, which he will trade for things that Nealon does (maybe) know. Paranoia grows to the climax of a meeting in a hotel lobby where the world waits anxiously to learn what threat has the security forces on high alert.
Presented in poetic and concise language, this is not your typical noir. But it should not be missed. If you haven't tried Solar Bones, that is another wonderful and strange novel by McCormack.
If you would like to know more about these books, please check your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org .
by Lea Carpenter
Knopf/ PRH
Jan 2024
This is a slow-moving, suspenseful story of a young woman coming to know herself and the husband she fell in love with, precipitously married, and the world of espionage the marriage brought her into.
It is slow because the narrator is thoughtful and observant of the different kinds of people involved in this world, of their personalities, philosophies, loyalties and affections.
This is a very satisfying look into a world we don't really want to encounter outside fiction.
If you would like to know more about this book, or own it, please check your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org .
