Skip to main content

Editorial Content for The Last Remains: A Ruth Galloway Mystery

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

“Nothing in this world is hidden forever.” – Wilkie Collins, NO NAME

The above quote is so appropriate for a mystery series where the lead character is an archaeologist. Elly Griffiths’ books featuring Ruth Galloway are always engaging and provide a different look at the forensics of murder, specifically cold cases. Her latest, THE LAST REMAINS, is no exception. Read More

Teaser

When builders discover a human skeleton during a renovation of a café, they call in archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway, who is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with DCI Nelson. The bones turn out to be the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in 2002. Suspicion soon falls on Emily’s Cambridge tutor and on another archaeology enthusiast who was part of the group gathered the weekend before she disappeared --- Ruth’s friend, Cathbad. As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the archaeology group and look for a link between them and the café where Emily’s bones were found. Then, just when the team seems to be making progress, Cathbad disappears.

Promo

When builders discover a human skeleton during a renovation of a café, they call in archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway, who is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with DCI Nelson. The bones turn out to be the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in 2002. Suspicion soon falls on Emily’s Cambridge tutor and on another archaeology enthusiast who was part of the group gathered the weekend before she disappeared --- Ruth’s friend, Cathbad. As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the archaeology group and look for a link between them and the café where Emily’s bones were found. Then, just when the team seems to be making progress, Cathbad disappears.

About the Book

The discovery of a missing woman’s bones force Ruth and Nelson to finally confront their feelings for each other as they desperately work to exonerate one of their own in this not-to-be-missed Ruth Galloway mystery from USA Today bestselling author Elly Griffiths.

When builders discover a human skeleton during a renovation of a café, they call in archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway, who is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with DCI Nelson. The bones turn out to be modern --- the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in 2002. Suspicion soon falls on Emily’s Cambridge tutor and also on another archaeology enthusiast who was part of the group gathered the weekend before she disappeared --- Ruth’s friend Cathbad.

As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the archeology group and look for a link between them and the café where Emily’s bones were found. Then, just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears. The trail leads Ruth a to the Neolithic flint mines in Grimes Graves. The race is on, first to find Cathbad and then to exonerate him, but will Ruth and Nelson uncover the truth in time to save their friend?

Audiobook available, read by Jane McDowell

Editorial Content for Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Eileen Zimmerman Nicol

MONSTERS is that rare breed --- an important and timely book that is a joy to read. How should we respond to great art made by not-so-great humans? Perhaps even by humans whose actions off the page or canvas are morally reprehensible? And the more subtle question: How do we respond? Can we separate our emotional response to the art, even if we feel that we should? Does it even matter if we withdraw our consumption of the art because we abhor the sins of the artist? Read More

Teaser

Can we love the work of artists such as Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Miles Davis, Polanski or Picasso? Should we? In this unflinching, deeply personal book, Claire Dederer explores the audience's relationship with artists from Michael Jackson to Virginia Woolf, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? And if an artist is also a mother, does one's identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. Does genius deserve special dispensation? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss?

Promo

Can we love the work of artists such as Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Miles Davis, Polanski or Picasso? Should we? In this unflinching, deeply personal book, Claire Dederer explores the audience's relationship with artists from Michael Jackson to Virginia Woolf, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? And if an artist is also a mother, does one's identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. Does genius deserve special dispensation? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss?

About the Book

A timely, passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of cancel culture, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. Can we love the work of controversial classic and contemporary artists but dislike the artist?

From the author of the New York Times bestseller POSER and the acclaimed memoir LOVE AND TROUBLE, MONSTERS is “part memoir, part treatise, and all treat” (The New York Times). This unflinching, deeply personal book expands on Claire Dederer’s instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?" 
 
Can we love the work of artists such as Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Miles Davis, Polanski, or Picasso? Should we? Dederer explores the audience's relationship with artists from Michael Jackson to Virginia Woolf, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? And if an artist is also a mother, does one's identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. Does genius deserve special dispensation? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss?

Highly topical, morally wise and honest to the core, MONSTERS is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.

Audiobook available, read by Claire Dederer

Editorial Content for The Last Animal

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Jana Siciliano

I am always in the mood for a good story about worthy, hardworking women coming out on top of a bad situation. And THE LAST ANIMAL scratches that itch fully and perfectly. Although Ramona Ausubel has had her fair share of successes, this book surely will put her on the map for a new deluge of readers. It is a fanciful tale grounded in reality but reaching into the heart of a reader with relatable storytelling about the relationships between two sisters, and between mothers and daughters. Read More

Teaser

Teenage sisters Eve and Vera never imagined their summer vacation would be spent in the Arctic, tagging along on their mother’s scientific expedition. But there’s a lot about their lives lately that hasn’t been going as planned, and their single mother might not be so happy either. Now in Siberia with a bunch of serious biologists, Eve and Vera are just bored enough to cause trouble. Fooling around in the permafrost, they accidentally discover a perfectly preserved, 4,000-year-old baby mammoth. This sets off a surprising chain of events, leading mother and daughters to go rogue, pinging from the slopes of Siberia to the shores of Iceland to an exotic animal farm in Italy, and resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the world --- or at least this family.

Promo

Teenage sisters Eve and Vera never imagined their summer vacation would be spent in the Arctic, tagging along on their mother’s scientific expedition. But there’s a lot about their lives lately that hasn’t been going as planned, and their single mother might not be so happy either. Now in Siberia with a bunch of serious biologists, Eve and Vera are just bored enough to cause trouble. Fooling around in the permafrost, they accidentally discover a perfectly preserved, 4,000-year-old baby mammoth. This sets off a surprising chain of events, leading mother and daughters to go rogue, pinging from the slopes of Siberia to the shores of Iceland to an exotic animal farm in Italy, and resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the world --- or at least this family.

About the Book

A playful, witty and resonant novel in which a single mother and her two teen daughters engage in a wild scientific experiment and discover themselves in the process, from the award-winning writer of SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF EASE AND PLENTY.

Teenage sisters Eve and Vera never imagined their summer vacation would be spent in the Arctic, tagging along on their mother’s scientific expedition. But there’s a lot about their lives lately that hasn’t been going as planned, and truth be told, their single mother might not be so happy either.

Now in Siberia with a bunch of serious biologists, Eve and Vera are just bored enough to cause trouble. Fooling around in the permafrost, they accidentally discover a perfectly preserved, 4,000-year-old baby mammoth, and things finally start to get interesting. The discovery sets off a surprising chain of events, leading mother and daughters to go rogue, pinging from the slopes of Siberia to the shores of Iceland to an exotic animal farm in Italy, and resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the world --- or at least this family.

THE LAST ANIMAL takes readers on a wild, entertaining and refreshingly different kind of journey, one that explores the possibilities and perils of the human imagination on a changing planet, what it’s like to be a woman in a field dominated by men, and how a wondrous discovery can best be enjoyed with family. Even teenagers.

Audiobook available, read by Natasha Soudek

Editorial Content for Going Zero

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

In his latest novel, GOING ZERO, Anthony McCarten goes to great lengths to scare the dickens out of us by exploring the issue of privacy --- and the fact that any notion that it still exists is archaic --- in this brave new world of technology that surrounds us almost everywhere we go. Read More

Teaser

Ten Americans have been carefully selected to Beta test a groundbreaking piece of spyware. FUSION can track anyone on earth. But does it work? For one contestant, an unassuming Boston librarian named Kaitlyn Day, the stakes are far higher than money, and her reasons for entering the test more personal than anyone imagines. When the timer hits zero, there will be only one winner.

Promo

Ten Americans have been carefully selected to Beta test a groundbreaking piece of spyware. FUSION can track anyone on earth. But does it work? For one contestant, an unassuming Boston librarian named Kaitlyn Day, the stakes are far higher than money, and her reasons for entering the test more personal than anyone imagines. When the timer hits zero, there will be only one winner.

About the Book

TWO HOURS TO VANISH.

ONE CHANCE TO ESCAPE.

ZERO ALTERNATIVES.

Ten Americans have been carefully selected to Beta test a groundbreaking piece of spyware. FUSION can track anyone on earth. But does it work?

For one contestant, an unassuming Boston librarian named Kaitlyn Day, the stakes are far higher than money, and her reasons for entering the test more personal than anyone imagines. When the timer hits zero, there will be only one winner.

From four-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten comes a breakneck, wickedly entertaining thriller for our times, a twisty, action-packed novel reminiscent of the best Michael Crichton technothrillers.

Audiobook available, read by Marin Ireland

Editorial Content for The Eden Test

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

According to the creation myths of the Bible, Adam and Eve gave into curiosity and temptation and thus were cast out of the paradise they were meant to steward. Their lives outside the bounty of Eden were difficult, even painful, but their free will remained intact and essential. With this as a reference, Adam Sternbergh examines marriage, partnership, temptation, truth and lies in his latest novel, THE EDEN TEST.

"THE EDEN TEST is an entertaining domestic thriller with some neat surprises and an easy narrative style."

Teaser

Daisy and Craig’s marriage is in serious trouble. That’s why Daisy has signed up for the Eden Test, a week-long getaway for couples in need of a fresh start. Yet even as she’s struggling to salvage her marriage, it seems Craig has plans to leave her for another woman. In fact, his bags are already packed --- long before he arrives to meet Daisy in this remote cabin in the woods of upstate New York. At first, their week away is marked by solitude, connection and natural beauty --- and only a few hostile locals. But what Craig doesn’t know is that Daisy, a slyly talented actress, has her own secrets, including a burner phone she’s been using for mysterious texts. Not to mention the Eden Test itself, which poses a searing new question to the couple every day, each more explosive than the last.

Promo

Daisy and Craig’s marriage is in serious trouble. That’s why Daisy has signed up for the Eden Test, a week-long getaway for couples in need of a fresh start. Yet even as she’s struggling to salvage her marriage, it seems Craig has plans to leave her for another woman. In fact, his bags are already packed --- long before he arrives to meet Daisy in this remote cabin in the woods of upstate New York. At first, their week away is marked by solitude, connection and natural beauty --- and only a few hostile locals. But what Craig doesn’t know is that Daisy, a slyly talented actress, has her own secrets, including a burner phone she’s been using for mysterious texts. Not to mention the Eden Test itself, which poses a searing new question to the couple every day, each more explosive than the last.

About the Book

From Edgar Award-finalist Adam Sternbergh, an electrifying domestic suspense novel for fans of THE PERFECT MARRIAGE and ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, about a couple who are forced to the ultimate extremes to save their marriage --- and themselves.

Seven Days. Seven Questions. Forever Changed.

Daisy and Craig’s marriage is in serious trouble. That’s why Daisy has signed up for the Eden Test, a week-long getaway for couples in need of a fresh start. Yet even as she’s struggling to salvage her marriage, it seems Craig has plans to leave her for another woman. In fact, his bags are already packed --- long before he arrives to meet Daisy in this remote cabin in the woods of upstate New York.

At first, their week away is marked by solitude, connection and natural beauty --- and only a few hostile locals. But what Craig doesn’t know is that Daisy, a slyly talented actress, has her own secrets, including a burner phone she’s been using for mysterious texts. Not to mention the Eden Test itself, which poses a searing new question to the couple every day, each more explosive than the last. Their marriage was never perfect, but now the lies and revelations are piling up, as the week becomes much more than they bargained for...How far are they willing to go?

Adam Sternbergh brings his wit, originality and a Hitchcockian sense of dread to this chilling, surprising and wholly entertaining portrait of a marriage on the brink.

Audiobook available, read by Carlotta Brentan

April 28, 2023

Yesterday, as I interviewed Kate Morton in Australia via Zoom after interviewing Kristin Hannah in Seattle via Zoom on Wednesday night, I thought of how much the life of authors and our relationships with them have changed over the last two decades. And I am not sure if we just take it for granted. Let’s flash back to when you snail-mailed an author via the publisher and typically did not hear back. Or when you had to go to a bookstore or library event to maybe meet an author, and they only traveled to big cities. I could go on and on, but I think every once in a while we want to step back and take a moment to see how our relationships with those who write the books that we love have changed --- and be grateful for that!

Edgar Allan Poe Awards 2023

The Mystery Writers of America has announced the winners for the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced in 2022.

Los Angeles Times Book Prizes 2022

The 43rd annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were awarded on April 21st. The best books of 2022 were recognized in 12 categories, along with the winners of the Robert Kirsch and Innovator’s awards.

Homecoming by Kate Morton

April 2023

It’s been five years since Kate Morton’s last book, so I was thrilled to receive an early copy of HOMECOMING. During the early days of the pandemic in 2020, Kate and her family decided to head to Australia from their house in London, pushing up their planned spring break timing. Now it’s 2023, and they’re still there. Kate was working on another book before they left, but her enthusiasm for that one faded as they found themselves living on a small farm in southern Australia in the Adelaide Hills.

Is there an independent bookstore near your home?

April 28, 2023, 445 voters