October 20, 2023
This time of year brings out some of my favorite produce, including watermelon radishes. We went to the farmers' market last week on a quest to find these. I found some amazing long fat radishes, but I was told that the watermelon ones are a week or so away. But at least I know which farmer is going to have them. I bought some fat carrots and am thinking of what to do with them. I also bought some sinfully rich cinnamon raisin bread that is beyond decadent. I love the smell of eucalyptus and how it looks dried out around the house. I held off on buying bunches last week as I did not have time to get them arranged, but this is a project on the list for the next few weeks. I do love the stunning purple color of the mums (pictured above) that come out first this time of year.
Editorial Content for 23 1/2 Lies
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
The prolific and tireless James Patterson is at it again, and this time he has brought along a few friends for the ride. 23 ½ LIES consists of three stories featuring the Women’s Murder Club and other Patterson characters. Let’s take a look at each one. Read More
Teaser
Enjoy three heart-racing thrillers from the New York Times bestselling master of suspense. In "23 ½ Lies" (with Maxine Paetro), Lindsay Boxer's estranged father is gunned down execution-style, and her investigation uncovers life-altering truths. To Rory Yates, being a Texas Ranger means absolute loyalty to the badge. But he’s put through the ultimate test when an armored car robbery suspect might be an ex-Ranger gone rogue in "Fallen Ranger" (with Andrew Bourelle). When a starving artist is paid to expose his client's cheating wife, can he paint the picture that will save his own life? Find out in "Watch Your Back" (with Loren D. Estleman).
Promo
Enjoy three heart-racing thrillers from the New York Times bestselling master of suspense. In "23 ½ Lies" (with Maxine Paetro), Lindsay Boxer's estranged father is gunned down execution-style, and her investigation uncovers life-altering truths. To Rory Yates, being a Texas Ranger means absolute loyalty to the badge. But he’s put through the ultimate test when an armored car robbery suspect might be an ex-Ranger gone rogue in "Fallen Ranger" (with Andrew Bourelle). When a starving artist is paid to expose his client's cheating wife, can he paint the picture that will save his own life? Find out in "Watch Your Back" (with Loren D. Estleman).
About the Book
Enjoy three heart-racing thrillers from the New York Times bestselling master of suspense.
"23 ½ Lies": Lindsay Boxer's estranged father is gunned down execution-style, and her investigation uncovers life-altering truths. (with Maxine Paetro)
"Fallen Ranger": To Rory Yates, being a Texas Ranger means absolute loyalty to the badge. But he’s put through the ultimate test when an armored car robbery suspect might be an ex-Ranger gone rogue. (with Andrew Bourelle)
"Watch Your Back": When a starving artist is paid to expose his client's cheating wife, can he paint the picture that will save his own life? (with Loren D. Estleman)
Audiobook available; read by January LaVoy, Christopher Ryan Grant and Kenneth Fuentes
Editorial Content for A Haunting on the Hill
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
In 1959, Shirley Jackson penned THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, a horror novel that was instantly hailed a classic. The book’s reach was so vast that it spawned two feature films, each called The Haunting, as well as the terrific Netflix miniseries “The Haunting of Hill House,” directed by modern-day horror maven Mike Flanagan. Read More
Teaser
Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she finally may be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play. Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known. All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself.
Promo
Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she finally may be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play. Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known. All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself.
About the Book
From award-winning author Elizabeth Hand comes the first-ever novel authorized to return to the world of Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE --- an "eerily beautiful, strangely seductive, and genuinely upsetting" (Alix E. Harrow) new story of isolation and longing perfect for our present time.
Open the door...
Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s enormous, old and ever-so eerie --- the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.
Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and time itself seems to shift. All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it no longer intends to walk alone.
Audiobook available, read by Carol Monda
Editorial Content for The Christmas Guest
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
This wonderful new novella from Peter Swanson meets the needs of both Halloween and Christmas. Despite the holiday setting, THE CHRISTMAS GUEST involves much darker subject matter and is purely a psychological thriller from start to finish. Read More
Teaser
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone. But a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, the country residence of the Chapman family. Ashley is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother. But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Over 30 years later, the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time.
Promo
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone. But a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, the country residence of the Chapman family. Ashley is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother. But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Over 30 years later, the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time.
About the Book
New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson pens a spectacularly spine-chilling novella in which an American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family’s Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village’s grim history.
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother.
But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she’d ever imagined?
Over 30 years later, the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.
Audiobook available, read by Esther Wane
Editorial Content for A Traitor in Whitehall: An Evelyne Redfern Mystery
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Julia Kelly is known to those who have read her previous books as someone who not only does meticulous research, but also writes compelling historical fiction about fascinating moments in time with a style that is both engaging and thrilling, and always thoughtful. Read More
Teaser
1940, England: Evelyne Redfern, known as “The Parisian Orphan” as a child, is working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne on a night out, Evelyne finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms. However, shortly after she settles into her new role as a secretary, one of the girls at work is murdered, and Evelyne must use all of her amateur sleuthing expertise to find the killer. But doing so puts her right in the path of David Poole, a cagey minister’s aide who seems determined to thwart her investigations. That is, until Evelyne finds out that David’s real mission is to root out a mole selling government secrets to Britain’s enemies, and the pair begrudgingly team up.
Promo
1940, England: Evelyne Redfern, known as “The Parisian Orphan” as a child, is working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne on a night out, Evelyne finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms. However, shortly after she settles into her new role as a secretary, one of the girls at work is murdered, and Evelyne must use all of her amateur sleuthing expertise to find the killer. But doing so puts her right in the path of David Poole, a cagey minister’s aide who seems determined to thwart her investigations. That is, until Evelyne finds out that David’s real mission is to root out a mole selling government secrets to Britain’s enemies, and the pair begrudgingly team up.
About the Book
From Julia Kelly, internationally bestselling author of THE LAST DANCE OF THE DEBUTANTE, comes the first in the mysterious and immersive Evelyne Redfern series, A TRAITOR IN WHITEHALL.
1940, England: Evelyne Redfern, known as “The Parisian Orphan” as a child, is working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne on a night out, Evelyne finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms.
However, shortly after she settles into her new role as a secretary, one of the girls at work is murdered, and Evelyne must use all of her amateur sleuthing expertise to find the killer. But doing so puts her right in the path of David Poole, a cagey minister’s aide who seems determined to thwart her investigations. That is, until Evelyne finds out that David’s real mission is to root out a mole selling government secrets to Britain’s enemies, and the pair begrudgingly team up.
With her quick wit, sharp eyes and determination, will Evelyne be able to find out who’s been selling England’s secrets and catch a killer, all while battling her growing attraction to David?
Audiobook available, read by Marisa Calin
Editorial Content for Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
According to the National Geographic Society, there are no fewer than 50 bodies of salt water on Earth that are currently named as seas. Some are landlocked, but most are connected, encircling all the continents of our planet.
While each sea has its differences of size, depth, subterranean geology and climatic features, Hannah Stowe, in her captivating memoir, seems to engage with the sea as a vast singular entity with infinitely varied yet connected moods, textures and challenges --- a borderless experience that literally does move through her psyche like water. Read More
Teaser
As a young girl, Hannah Stowe was raised at the tide’s edge on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales, falling asleep to the sweep of the lighthouse beam. Now in her mid-20s, working as a marine biologist and sailor, Stowe draws on her professional experiences sailing tens of thousands of miles in the North Sea, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Celtic Sea and the Caribbean to explore the human relationship with wild waters. Why is it, she asks, that she and so many others have been drawn to life at sea --- and what might the water around us be able to teach us? In MOVE LIKE WATER, Stowe invites readers to fall in love, as she has, with the sea and those that call it home, and to discover the majesty, wonder and vulnerability of the underwater world.
Promo
As a young girl, Hannah Stowe was raised at the tide’s edge on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales, falling asleep to the sweep of the lighthouse beam. Now in her mid-20s, working as a marine biologist and sailor, Stowe draws on her professional experiences sailing tens of thousands of miles in the North Sea, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Celtic Sea and the Caribbean to explore the human relationship with wild waters. Why is it, she asks, that she and so many others have been drawn to life at sea --- and what might the water around us be able to teach us? In MOVE LIKE WATER, Stowe invites readers to fall in love, as she has, with the sea and those that call it home, and to discover the majesty, wonder and vulnerability of the underwater world.
About the Book
A book to sweep you away from the shore, into a wild world of water, whale, storm and starlight --- to experience what it’s like to sail for weeks at a time with life set to a new rhythm.
As a young girl, Hannah Stowe was raised at the tide’s edge on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales, falling asleep to the sweep of the lighthouse beam. Now in her mid-20s, working as a marine biologist and sailor, Stowe draws on her professional experiences sailing tens of thousands of miles in the North Sea, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Celtic Sea and the Caribbean to explore the human relationship with wild waters. Why is it, she asks, that she and so many others have been drawn to life at sea --- and what might the water around us be able to teach us?
Braiding her powerful and deeply personal narrative and illustrations with stories of six keystone marine creatures --- the fire crow, sperm whale, wandering albatross, humpback whale, shearwater and the barnacle --- Stowe invites readers to fall in love, as she has, with the sea and those that call it home, and to discover the majesty, wonder and vulnerability of the underwater world.
For fans of Rachel Carson and Annie Dillard, MOVE LIKE WATER is an inspiring, heartfelt hymn to the sea, a testament to finding and following a dream, and an unforgettable introduction to a deeply gifted nature writer of a new generation.
Audiobook available, read by Anna Rust
Editorial Content for Last to Leave the Room
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Some works of horror defy easy categorization, and that is certainly the case with LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM. Caitlin Starling doesn’t simply rehash old horror tropes and gags but plays with the genre. She creates something more akin to a simmering speculative thriller with a creeping sense of dread and rooted in some expected but compelling doppelgänger themes. Read More
Teaser
The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence, is sinking faster. As Tamsin grows obsessed with the distorting dimensions of the room at the bottom of the stairs, she finds a door that didn’t exist before --- and one night, it opens to reveal an exact physical copy of her. This doppelgänger appears fully, terribly human, passing every test Tamsin can devise. But the longer the double exists, the more Tamsin begins to forget pieces of her life, lose track of time and grow terrified of the outside world. As her employer grows increasingly suspicious, Tamsin must try to hold herself together long enough to figure out what her double wants from her, and just where the mysterious door leads.
Promo
The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence, is sinking faster. As Tamsin grows obsessed with the distorting dimensions of the room at the bottom of the stairs, she finds a door that didn’t exist before --- and one night, it opens to reveal an exact physical copy of her. This doppelgänger appears fully, terribly human, passing every test Tamsin can devise. But the longer the double exists, the more Tamsin begins to forget pieces of her life, lose track of time and grow terrified of the outside world. With her employer growing increasingly suspicious, Tamsin must try to hold herself together long enough to figure out what her double wants from her, and just where the mysterious door leads.
About the Book
LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM is a new novel of genre-busting speculative horror from Caitlin Starling, the acclaimed author of THE DEATH OF JANE LAWRENCE.
The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence, is sinking faster.
As Tamsin grows obsessed with the distorting dimensions of the room at the bottom of the stairs, she finds a door that didn’t exist before --- and one night, it opens to reveal an exact physical copy of her. This doppelgänger is sweet and biddable where Tamsin is calculating and cruel. It appears fully, terribly human, passing every test Tamsin can devise. But the longer the double exists, the more Tamsin begins to forget pieces of her life, to lose track of time, to grow terrified of the outside world.
With her employer growing increasingly suspicious, Tamsin must try to hold herself together long enough to figure out what her double wants from her, and just where the mysterious door leads.
Audiobook available, read by Xe Sands
Editorial Content for A Lonesome Blood-Red Sun: A Bone Detective Novel
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
A LONESOME BLOOD-RED SUN, the second entry in the Bone Detective series, follows 2022’s A FEARSOME MOONLIGHT BLACK and once again features Detective Dave Beckett. The author, David Putnam, may be best known for his Bruno Johnson novels. At first glance, this book appears to be somewhat in the vein of Carol O’Connell’s BONE BY BONE, but there are more thriller overtones than psychological suspense.
"Overused terms like ratchet, rollercoaster, gripping and action-packed all fail to adequately describe this phenomenal thriller."
Teaser
Dave Beckett, a homicide detective who doesn't color within the lines, is regulated to the lowest job in the division and is known by his peers as The Bone Dick. He handles all "bag of bone" cases found in San Bernardino County's 20,000 square miles, at present count 256 pending unsolved. It's a boring, mundane job...until it isn't. In A LONESOME BLOOD-RED SUN, Beckett is called to a house far out in the desert where a dog has brought a bone to the back door. Beckett investigates and discovers that the victim, two years dead, is someone he knows. With his usual verve and colorful methods, Beckett tracks the killer. The trail leads through a warren of dead ends until he discovers a most unlikely suspect hiding in plain sight.
Promo
Dave Beckett, a homicide detective who doesn't color within the lines, is regulated to the lowest job in the division and is known by his peers as The Bone Dick. He handles all "bag of bone" cases found in San Bernardino County's 20,000 square miles, at present count 256 pending unsolved. It's a boring, mundane job...until it isn't. In A LONESOME BLOOD-RED SUN, Beckett is called to a house far out in the desert where a dog has brought a bone to the back door. Beckett investigates and discovers that the victim, two years dead, is someone he knows. With his usual verve and colorful methods, Beckett tracks the killer. The trail leads through a warren of dead ends until he discovers a most unlikely suspect hiding in plain sight.
About the Book
Dave Beckett, a homicide detective who doesn't color within the lines, is regulated to the lowest job in the division and is known by his peers as The Bone Dick. He handles all "bag of bone" cases found in San Bernardino County's 20,000 square miles, at present count 256 pending unsolved. It's a boring, mundane job...until it isn't.
In A LONESOME BLOOD-RED SUN, Beckett is called to a house far out in the desert where a dog has brought a bone to the back door. Beckett investigates and discovers that the victim, two years dead, is someone he knows. With his usual verve and colorful methods, Beckett tracks the killer. The trail leads through a warren of dead ends until he discovers a most unlikely suspect hiding in plain sight.
A LONESOME BLOOD-RED SUN is fiction melded with true-life incidents that makes for a non-stop thriller of the first order.
Editorial Content for At What Cost, Silence?: The Texian Trilogy, Book 1
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Set in pre-Civil War Texas and featuring a large cast of dynamic characters, AT WHAT COST, SILENCE? is the first entry in Karen Lynne Klink’s Texian Trilogy. History and mystery pervade this fascinating saga, leading to the division of a nation and the separation of friends and lovers. Read More
Teaser
Adrien Villere suspects he is not like other boys. For years, he desperately locks away his feelings and fears --- but eventually, tragedy and loss drive him to seek solace from his mentor, young neighbor Jacob Hart. However, Jacob’s betrayal of Adrien’s trust results in secret abuse, setting off a chain of actions from which neither Adrien’s wise sister, Bernadette, nor his closest friend, Isaac, can turn him. AT WHAT COST, SILENCE? presents two contrasting plantation families in a society where strict rules of belief and behavior are clear, and public opinion can shape an entire life.
Promo
Adrien Villere suspects he is not like other boys. For years, he desperately locks away his feelings and fears --- but eventually, tragedy and loss drive him to seek solace from his mentor, young neighbor Jacob Hart. However, Jacob’s betrayal of Adrien’s trust results in secret abuse, setting off a chain of actions from which neither Adrien’s wise sister, Bernadette, nor his closest friend, Isaac, can turn him. AT WHAT COST, SILENCE? presents two contrasting plantation families in a society where strict rules of belief and behavior are clear, and public opinion can shape an entire life.
About the Book
Adrien Villere suspects he is not like other boys. For years, he desperately locks away his feelings and fears --- but eventually, tragedy and loss drive him to seek solace from his mentor, young neighbor Jacob Hart. However, Jacob’s betrayal of Adrien’s trust results in secret abuse, setting off a chain of actions from which neither Adrien’s wise sister, Bernadette, nor his closest friend, Isaac, can turn him.
AT WHAT COST, SILENCE? presents two contrasting plantation families in a society where strict rules of belief and behavior are clear, and public opinion can shape an entire life. Centerstage are the Villeres, a family less brutal than the Harts, but no less divisive. Often-absent Papa Paien Villere guards several secrets he has kept from everyone --- including one that could destroy his entire family. Years after Jacob’s betrayal, Adrien falls hopelessly in love with his former mentor’s erotically precocious and beautiful young sister, Lily --- whose father has affianced her to a wealthy older man.
What will happen if Lily’s violent brother learns of Adrien and Lily’s clandestine affair? Will Adrien aid in freeing Isaac --- an enslaved Black man --- as promised? Will Bernadette find the unconventional life she seeks? Or will their entire world end as states secede and war creeps ever closer?