Deadly Animals, Marie Tierney’s brilliantly plotted debut mystery, introduces readers to Ava Bonney: a 14-year-old English girl obsessed with decomposing bodies.
Deadly Animals, Marie Tierney’s brilliantly plotted debut mystery, introduces readers to Ava Bonney: a 14-year-old English girl obsessed with decomposing bodies.
John Straley’s nonstop, high-octane Big Breath In introduces the unforgettable Delphine, a 68-year-old cancer patient-turned-investigator.
John Straley’s nonstop, high-octane Big Breath In introduces the unforgettable Delphine, a 68-year-old cancer patient-turned-investigator.
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Collaborative novels can be tricky propositions, even for writers as accomplished as the father-son duo of Stephen and Owen King. Each author’s stylistic and thematic concerns can stick out in jarring ways, creating a mashup far less seamless than either author perhaps would like. Sleeping Beauties is not one of those novels. In the grand tradition of team-ups like Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens and Stephen King’s own The Talisman (with Peter Straub), it is a triumph of two voices blending wonderfully to take us into a dark and all-too-real dream.

All the women in the Appalachian town of Dooling (and around the world) are falling asleep and refusing to wake up. Once sleep takes them, their bodies are covered by a mysterious, fluffy coating, and if they are disturbed, they awaken as homicidal maniacs. This development naturally sows chaos, inciting riots across the nation and sending men into a frenzy. In Dooling, though, there’s something different: Evie, an enigmatic woman with strange abilities, seems unaffected by the sleeping sickness. Some men think she’s a monster, others a savior, but whatever side they take in a world without women, Dooling is transformed into a powder keg.

Sleeping Beauties traffics in some very potent themes, from the obvious question of what an all-male society would devolve into to less obvious concerns like the politics of a women’s prison and the evolution of sexuality during the aging process. None of these issues, though, are dealt with cheaply or crudely. The book wields the best attributes of each author—Stephen’s ability to ratchet up tension, Owen’s wit and their joint gifts for character detail—with a deftness that makes it feel like the work of a single hybrid imagination. In the authors’ hands, the themes and characters of Sleeping Beauties become powerful fictional case studies, holding the mirror up to our own powder keg of a society in unforgettable and often unnerving ways.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Collaborative novels can be tricky propositions, even for writers as accomplished as the father-son duo of Stephen and Owen King. Each author’s stylistic and thematic concerns can stick out in jarring ways, creating a mashup far less seamless than either author perhaps would like. Sleeping Beauties is not one of those novels. In the grand tradition of team-ups like Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens and Stephen King’s own The Talisman (with Peter Straub), it is a triumph of two voices blending wonderfully to take us into a dark and all-too-real dream.

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Cate Holahan’s latest thriller, Lies She Told, masterfully weaves together the parallel tales of two troubled young wives, sweeping readers along as each story echoes and advances the narrative. Both protagonists and readers must attempt to distinguish between truth and lies.

In one story, writer Liza Cole is desperate to write another bestselling novel after lackluster recent sales. She also wants to conceive a child and is in a medical trial using new drugs that may help her achieve that goal. Her husband’s law partner/best friend is missing and presumed dead, creating family tension by distracting him from Liza’s goal of starting a family.

The other storyline follows Beth, who is the protagonist of the new book Liza is writing. In the story, Beth has just had a baby, and she suspects her husband of having an affair. Once she gets proof, she actively pursues her husband and his lover, planning revenge on the guilty parties.

Chapters alternate between Beth’s story and Liza’s life and make for compelling reading. Two superbly written stories in one book are a tension-filled treat for readers. Even more fascinating, there are mysterious parallels between the stories that spin and undulate with ever-growing similarities.

Holahan’s previous novel, The Widower’s Wife, catapulted to success last year, drawing critical acclaim and a spot on at least one best books of the year list. Lies She Told is another thriller where nothing is as it seems. This is a fast-paced read that will keep readers riveted as the surprise endings of both story lines blossom into a crescendo of compassion and conflict resolution.

Cate Holahan’s latest thriller, Lies She Told, masterfully weaves together the parallel tales of two troubled young wives, sweeping readers along as each story echoes and advances the narrative. Both protagonists and readers must attempt to distinguish between truth and lies.

Part of the fun of reading a book like Ali Land’s Good Me Bad Me is the anticipation of what’s to come. You know from the get-go that you’re going to be in for a few shocks—you just aren’t sure how you’ll get there. Fortunately, Land delivers on all accounts.

The concept provides an instant hook: The 15-year-old daughter of a serial killer turns in her mother and, while waiting to testify, worries if she too is bad and will become a killer. You might think Annie, who is later renamed Milly by her foster family in order to protect her identity, would breathe easier after escaping her mother’s reign of terror. But her nightmare is just beginning.

In addition to the psychological ramifications of having lived with a serial murderer, Milly must adjust to life with a new family and new school environment. Neither is much of a comfort. Her foster family has its own dysfunctional relationships—an uneasy marriage and a spoiled 15-year-old daughter of their own, Phoebe—while school presents more than its share of challenges. Her foster dad, who doubles as her therapist, seems more interested in making notes for his book about Milly. And instead of embracing Milly with sympathy and care, Phoebe sees her as a rival for her parents’ attention and immediately subjects her to bullying and ridicule in front of their classmates.

As the title of the book implies, it’s only a matter of time before Milly’s darker tendencies get the better of her. Getting there is just half the fun.

A former child and adolescent mental health nurse, Land expertly captures the angst and trauma of teenage adolescence through Milly’s compelling narrative voice. The result is a starkly realized and haunting thriller.

Part of the fun of reading a book like Ali Land’s Good Me Bad Me is the anticipation of what’s to come. You know from the get-go that you’re going to be in for a few shocks—you just aren’t sure how you’ll get there. Fortunately, Land delivers on all accounts.

E. Lockhart’s latest novel opens in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where 18-year-old Jule West Williams is spending a month at a luxury resort. She speaks with a London accent and makes friends with the bartender. She swims laps and studies Spanish. She’s friendly and outgoing, but always holds something back, and she always looks over her shoulder. She is also entirely alone. On the outside, it would appear that Jule is a wealthy heiress with time to kill and money to burn, but on the inside, Jule is a self-trained fighter with a shady past. Then, there’s Imogen Sokoloff, Jule’s charismatic friend who loves Victorian novels and global jaunts. Both Jule and Imogen are orphans, but one was adopted into money, and the other most definitely was not. And yet, somehow, their lives become impossibly intertwined.

To reveal anything else would spoil this deftly plotted and fast-paced narrative told in reverse-chronological order. However, readers familiar with Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley—which Lockhart, bestselling author of We Were Liars, cites as an influence—will sense the story’s chilling trajectory. This isn’t a typical teen novel with clear-cut heroines and antagonists, and yet young readers will identify bits of themselves in these complicated characters. Because, as Jule discovers, the biggest hurdle of adolescence is simply finding out who you are.

 

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

This isn’t a typical teen novel with clear-cut heroines and antagonists, and yet young readers will identify bits of themselves in these complicated characters.

The Child Finder, Rene Denfeld’s second novel and her most personal to date, is a harrowing story about a young girl living in captivity and the one woman who could possibly find her and bring her home. Naomi Cottle, the titular heroine, has a knack for locating missing children. She’s found 30 of them—but not all of them alive.

Her latest case brings her to the chilling remoteness of Oregon’s mountainous Skookum National Forest, where three years earlier, Madison Culver went missing at the age of 5 while looking for a Christmas tree with her family. Previous search-and-rescue attempts have all failed, largely due to the vast terrain and ice-cold temperatures. But Naomi is not one to give up, and as her investigation proceeds, she believes that Madison’s disappearance can only be the result of an abduction.

Naomi’s personal journey from foster child to adulthood parallels her search for Madison. As Naomi’s fears and sources of determination come to light, the narrative also dips into Madison’s mind, allowing readers to experience her terrifying ordeal at the hands of her captor, known only as Mr. B. Both narratives are expertly intertwined into a deeply moving story of survival and hope.

Denfeld writes in part from personal experience. Her stepfather was a sexual predator, and she has adopted three kids from foster care. She’s worked as a death penalty investigator and brings depth and understanding to the victims of such crimes as well as the perpetrators.

The Child Finder is a chillingly good read that will stay with you long after you close the book.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The Child Finder, Rene Denfeld’s second novel and her most personal to date, is a harrowing story about a young girl living in captivity and the one woman who could possibly find her and bring her home. Naomi Cottle, the titular heroine, has a knack for locating missing children. She’s found 30 of them—but not all of them alive.

At first blush, a debut novel by comedian and BBC late-night host Graham Norton sounds like it would be rife with wry humor and witty antics in the vein of his TV show. But aside from a somewhat quirky lead character, this novel is surprisingly down to earth. You could say it’s downright cozy, because, essentially, that’s what it is: a modern-day cozy mystery in the tradition of one of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple adventures.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, Holding is a refreshing, albeit nostalgic, change of pace from the grittier, fast-paced domestic thrillers crowding for space on bookshelves this summer.

At its heart is Sergeant P. J. Collins, a somewhat overweight, middle-aged cop who's content to patrol the remote Irish village of Duneen where nothing exciting really happens. Even after human remains are discovered on the site of a new housing development, Collins is quick to let the more experienced Detective Superintendent Linus Dunne from neighboring Cork lead the investigation.

He’s surprised and flattered when Dunne encourages him to conduct his own line of inquiry of residents—particularly Brid Riordan and Evelyn Ross, who both had affairs with the deceased, Tommy Burke. A new set of bones, those belonging to an infant, are soon found near the first set and propel the investigation toward even darker secrets.

As Collins delves into the trio’s background and learns about their sordid past, his own sense of self-worth and confidence slowly awaken—as do his own affections for Brid.

Norton weaves in occasional humor, mostly at Collins’ expense, but overall opts for a more subtle and touching narrative of secrets long buried, lost love and self-discovery that will stay with readers well after reaching the end of this story.

At first blush, a debut novel by comedian and BBC late-night host Graham Norton sounds like it would be rife with wry humor and witty antics in the vein of his TV show. But aside from a somewhat quirky lead character, this novel is surprisingly down to earth. You could say it’s downright cozy, because, essentially, that’s what it is: a modern-day cozy mystery in the tradition of one of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple adventures.

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Kate Hamer’s piercingly sad, engrossing novel is a modern fairy tale.

It’s a familiar premise: An orphan finds out that the perfectly dreadful people who raised her aren’t her biological parents and so embarks on a search to find her real ones. Per usual in such a tale, the questing orphan has something special about her. In the latest novel from the author of The Girl in the Red Coat, the orphan is a British girl named Ruby with a port wine stain on her face and a talent that truly sets her apart—she sees dead people.

Ruby finds a surrogate family in the woods: three teenage siblings, not orphaned but abandoned by their hippie parents in a great pile of a house. There’s Tom, who loves her at first sight, flame-haired Elizabeth and tetchy Crispin. One of the kids has a secret, the nature of which is such that when it’s revealed, readers may go back to the earlier chapters to look for clues. While Ruby lives with her new family, they make do, milking goats and shooting wild rabbits for supper. And bit by bit, she learns the sad tale of her Mum and Dad, who were too young when she came along and not ready for her.

In The Doll Funeral, the relations of parents and children are not only difficult but impossible. There isn’t a single parent/child relationship that works. Ruby’s horrid adoptive parents were no more ready for her than her biological parents, who had lost a child too soon before they brought her into their lives. The siblings’ parents eventually stop sending money. Even Ruby’s ghostly companion, Shadow, was once a boy abandoned and left to die. Yet despite the grief all of this entails, Hamer’s novel reminds the reader that family does not necessarily mean blood, and love and connection are possible. For a girl like Ruby, they transcend death itself.

Kate Hamer’s piercingly sad, engrossing novel is a modern fairy tale.

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“What do you do when the one true thing in your life turns out to be a lie?” Lee Cuddy, the main character in Augustus Rose’s debut novel, spends the book deciding whom to trust. At 17, she steals for friends, but when the friends who’ve been benefiting from her thievery betray her, she’s sent to a juvenile detention center for a crime she ironically didn’t commit. She escapes—into the hands of a nefarious Philadelphia network of Marcel Duchamp fans, The Société Anonyme. She trusts them until she links the glassy-eyed, obliging kids from the mental ward of her detention center to Société Anoyme’s raves. To escape the Société requires all her thieving skills, navigating the Subnet (Rose’s conception of a network akin to Silk Road or 4Chan), urban exploration and her own instinct. Lee becomes an artist herself, as defined by Duchamp: “a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his own way out to a clearing.” A true heroine, Lee forges her own path and finds her own truth.

The story is structured like the Duchamp piece at its center, the elusive “Large Glass.” Like the nine bachelors in the artwork, The Readymade Thief is composed of nine books, with multiple chapters each. Steadily linear in chronology, it manages to digress into quantum and philosophical exploration without losing pace. (Keep up with the discussion using the resources cited at the end.) While much of the action takes place in dark, dirty subterranean spaces, the tone is expansive; Lee’s voice soars, a testament to her male creator.

The Readymade Thief features ingenious, culture-altering teens resembling another recent debut novel, Rules for Werewolves by Kirk Lynn. Rose’s work entertains as well as invites us to think and imagine, as though we’re part of the conceit.

The Readymade Thief features ingenious, culture-altering teens resembling another recent debut novel, Rules for Werewolves by Kirk Lynn. Rose’s work entertains as well as invites us to think and imagine, as though we’re part of the conceit.

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When Stella Krakus, curator at a renowned Manhattan art museum, finds an unusual map among the possessions of a missing colleague, the strangest week of her life turns into an insatiable quest to discover the map’s origin. Through the smart, dazzling prose of a witty narrator, accomplished poet Lucy Ives creates a mysterious historical adventure sure to delight and inspire.

Thirty-something Stella is enduring almost more than she can handle. Complete with a fading workplace affair, annoying appearances by her almost-ex-husband, lunch with her glamorous and successful mother and a museum sponsor who wants to take over the world’s water supply, her week could not be more bizarre—until her coworker Paul is pronounced missing. As Stella begins to solve the mystery behind the map of a historical utopia, she is pulled into the museum’s origins and realizes there was much more to Paul and his work than she knew, with the potential to alter her life and her career as she knows it.

Impossible Views of the World is an original debut ringing with smart prose, engaging humor and cultivated taste. Similar to the brilliance on display in Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, Ives’ genius is apparent in the intricate way she weaves ironic confession, romantic comedy and artful treatise with explorations into the historic art world. The novel is best read thoughtfully to fully capture the details of Stella’s academic discoveries and the playful writing style incorporated into the banter between the lively characters. Readers are invited into Stella’s mind as she navigates the plethora of emotions that come with an early-30s crisis. Full of intelligence and imagination, this relatable literary mystery will charm even the most apprentice art devotee.

When Stella Krakus, curator at a renowned Manhattan art museum, finds an unusual map among the possessions of a missing colleague, the strangest week of her life turns into an insatiable quest to discover the map’s origin. Through the smart, dazzling prose of a witty narrator, accomplished poet Lucy Ives creates a mysterious historical adventure sure to delight and inspire.

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Combining elements of Bill Clegg’s Did You Ever Have a Family with Dennis Lehane’s contemporary classic Mystic River, Danya Kukafka’s debut novel is an intricate, seductive murder mystery, in which a single awful crime exposes conflicts and traumas in an entire community.

“When they told him Lucinda Hayes was dead,” Girl in Snow begins, “Cameron thought of her shoulder blades and how they framed her naked spine, like a pair of static lungs.” Thus, Kukafka plunges us into the story: Lucinda is dead, though it turns out this high school beauty is not quite the angel everyone remembers her to be. Then there’s Cameron, the creepy kid next door, who peeked though Lucinda’s windows (and worse), making him a likely suspect in the crime. Told largely over the course of a few winter days following Lucinda’s murder, Girl in Snow unfolds through deftly alternating chapters, through the eyes of many different characters. There’s Jade, an angry misfit with an abusive mother who disliked Lucinda. And Russ, a police officer with secrets. And Lee, another cop and Cameron’s absentee father, accused of his own violent crime.

Digging deeply into each of these lives paints a vivid, compelling canvas. Kukafka makes it seem eminently plausible for several of these characters to have killed Lucinda. “Everyone’s looking for the truth,” Jade thinks at one point. “I’m so afraid I’ll have to pry open its grave.”

Girl in Snow may not quite be perfect. Some sections are a tad breathlessly overwritten, and one (or two) of the many secrets that spill out may stretch the bounds of credulity for some readers. But overall, Girl in Snow is not just an impressive debut but one of the best literary mysteries to come along in some time.

Combining elements of Bill Clegg’s Did You Ever Have a Family with Dennis Lehane’s contemporary classic Mystic River, Danya Kukafka’s debut novel is an intricate, seductive murder mystery, in which a single awful crime exposes conflicts and traumas in an entire community.

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Australian author Sarah Schmidt plunges readers into one of America’s most notorious true crime stories with her fiction debut, See What I Have Done. In August 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were found bludgeoned to death by axe in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Who killed the Bordens, and why? Evidence pointed to Andrew’s adult daughter, Lizzie, but she was acquitted. Popular myth never let her quite off the hook (you’ve heard that eerie nursery rhyme). But was she really guilty?

See What I Have Done is interested in this question, but perhaps not as much as some readers might be. Schmidt eschews the “whodunit” format to focus on the warped relationships and deep resentments that hover over the house in Fall River. Told in the voices of Lizzie; her older sister, Emma; the family maid, Bridget; and a mysterious stranger named Benjamin, who comes to town with LIzzie’s sinister Uncle John, the novel turns that August afternoon around and around, examining it in microscopic detail from these four separate angles like a jeweler making an appraisal of a singularly dark gem. Lizzie and Emma have a codependent yet contentious relationship, and neither can stand their stepmother. Bridget can’t get over Mrs. Borden’s refusal to let her go home to Ireland. And Uncle John is holding a grudge against his brother, Andrew.

Schmidt sketches the motivations of her characters with subtle strokes, allowing readers to fill in some notable blanks—what is Uncle John’s deal, anyway?—but she leaves little to the imagination when it comes to their physical bodies. The damage done to the Borden parents is described with visceral relish; the scents of vomit, sweat and blood are almost palpable. Like her fellow Australian Hannah Kent, whose debut novel, Burial Rites, also centered on a real-life 19th-century crime, Schmidt conjures the explosive mix of claustrophobia and frustration that life in a small community with a rigid social structure can engender. See What I Have Done is a chilling summer read.

Australian author Sarah Schmidt plunges readers into one of America’s most notorious true crime stories with her fiction debut, See What I Have Done.

Best friends Izzie, Graham, Viv and Harry know their idyllic California town harbors secrets—specifically the cover-up of a teen girl’s murder five years ago—so they start a secret society intent on carrying out revenge and justice. Dubbing themselves the Order of the IV, the group tests the waters with small pranks until their antics bring the unwanted attention of the popular clique. But as the Order grows and the pranks dangerously intensify, the friends must navigate their love for one another amid the deep hatred they feel for their targets of revenge.

Alexandra Sirowy uses creepy imagery to peel back the layers of a quaint, coastal town to reveal its seedy core and to bring this twisty ride to its inevitable yet shocking conclusion. Narrated through Izzie’s haunting first-person point of view, the original Order struggles to remain true to themselves and the tight bonds they’ve formed, even as their plan to topple corrupt adults goes horribly wrong.

 

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.

This article was originally published in the August 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Best friends Izzie, Graham, Viv and Harry know their idyllic California town harbors secrets—specifically the cover-up of a teen girl’s murder five years ago—so they start a secret society intent on carrying out revenge and justice.

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We have an understandable human fascination with stories of underground societies. Homeless and often forgotten people have done what seems incredible and unnatural to humankind—a species that has always thrived in the open air and on high ground. Here are the people who choose to go underground; and much has been written about the individuals who shelter in the tunnels and abandoned human byways that exist under earth’s cities.

In her outstanding new Ruth Galloway novel, The Chalk Pit, author Elly Griffiths as usual has drawn on her extensive knowledge of archaeology and history, enticing readers beneath the streets of Norwich, England, on a dark journey that will yield some strange discoveries. Archaeologist and professor Ruth travels below ground to a series of abandoned thoroughfares to investigate the age and provenance of some human remains just discovered in an area where a local architect hopes to build a very modern enclave of shops and restaurants.

At the same time, DCI Harry Nelson is looking into the mysterious disappearance of a homeless woman named Babs, and he hears a rumor that she may have gone underground. Then, two homeless men who knew her are found brutally murdered. Soon Ruth, Nelson and his detective team are pursuing separate investigations in the eerie, claustrophobic yet fascinating caverns beneath the streets where they uncover a trove of unsuspected life and activity.

Readers new to Griffith’s stellar mystery series will soon become familiar with Ruth and Nelson and their singular relationship, as well as with the unconventional, extended family of friends and acquaintances who’ve been with the series since its outset, from the meticulous Judy and Druid-inspired Cathbad to Clough and his love, Cassandra.

Griffiths’ understated, dry humor invests her characters with a special humanity that’s a cut above the ordinary. Behind each character’s façade, their thoughts can be very funny indeed—mostly not too far off from emotions we’ve felt ourselves. Conversely, when the author wants to move you to tears, she can also do that very well indeed.

The novel wraps with a zinger of a final sentence (containing a suspicion that a few skeptical readers may have had earlier in the story), and it's one that guarantees the allure of the next Ruth Galloway book that is sure to follow.

In her outstanding new Ruth Galloway novel, The Chalk Pit, author Elly Griffiths as usual has drawn on her extensive knowledge of archaeology and history, enticing readers beneath the streets of Norwich, England, on a dark journey that will yield some strange discoveries. Archaeologist and professor Ruth travels below ground to a series of abandoned thoroughfares to investigate the age and provenance of some human remains just discovered in an area where a local architect hopes to build a very modern enclave of shops and restaurants.

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