BIOGRAPHY

Searching for Charmian by Suzanne Chick

It must be 30 years since I first read this memoir about a middle-aged woman from Jervis Bay discovering that her birth mother was the famed Australian writer, Charmian Clift. This third edition has a foreword by the author’s daughter, Gina Chick, herself an author and something of a celebrity after surviving 67 days alone in the Tasmanian wilderness. That lyrical foreword shows the love for her mother, and the closeness she feels to her wild, talented grandmother after visiting the Greek island on which Charmian had lived with her husband, fellow writer George Johnston, and their three children. Born on Christmas Day, 1942, Suzanne Chick had been adopted as a baby from Crown Street Women’s Hospital in Sydney, living first in Orange and then Sydney. It was only when the adoption laws changed in Australia in 1990 that she applied for her original birth certificate … and discovered that Charmian Clift, aged 19, had been her birth mother. Suzanne Chick embarked on an extraordinary journey to try to find out everything she could about her mother, who had been a writer, essayist and humanist, Australia’s first female newspaper columnist writing weekly for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and who had died by suicide in 1969. The first edition of this book in 1994 embraced the people who had known her mother, and saw her likeness in Suzanne, as well as suggestions about who might have been her father. This edition includes an afterword by Suzanne, tracing her own journey to the Greek island of Hydra, where her beautiful, talented, sad, mysterious mother had caroused with Leonard Cohen and other creative expats, living a bohemian life. It’s even better reading, the second time around. Good Reading Magazine, May 2025.

Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent

When Hannah Kent was 17 and had just completed secondary school, she was awarded a Rotary exchange scholarship. She applied for the program knowing that she could be sent anywhere in the world, but she could not have known her placement in a remote fishing village in northern Iceland would change her life as dramatically as it did. Without that exchange, she would not have been captivated, or perhaps even haunted, by Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman executed in Iceland, and her award-winning, bestselling debut novel Burial Rites would likely never have been written. It does seem certain, however, that Kent could not have avoided being a writer. Always Home, Always Homesick is Kent’s memoir of her time in Iceland. It transports the reader to another time and place, to a culture that reveres stories and storytelling, and into the inner world of a born writer. After a slightly rocky start when nobody arrives to collect her from the airport, the exchange unfolds with varying degrees of success at the homes of different host families amid Kent’s culture shock, which will eventually transform and grow into a deep appreciation and love of the people, the landscape and the language. Kent’s understanding of herself grows in parallel, revealing a latent sense of vocation. Having forged lifelong connections and feeling fundamentally changed, Kent returns to Adelaide at the conclusion of her trip but is drawn back to Iceland time and again, in ways she can’t always explain. In examining her evolution as a writer, Kent offers resonant insights into the value of creative endeavour and a portrait of a country actively committed to its language and storytelling. Exquisite and self-aware, Always Home, Always Homesick is a luminous reflection on love, writing, and the importance of stories. Readings, April 2025.

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CLASSICS

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COOKING

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GENERAL FICTION

My Name is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende

This memorable, historical novel is set in California and Chile, two places that literary legend Isabel Allende knows well. Allende follows her adventurous, courageous, ambitious protagonist Emilia Del Valle, from 1873 at seven years old, to 1892. Emilia’s mother, Molly, was a dedicated novice nun in San Francisco. But a young Chilean aristocrat Gonzale Del Valle seduced her and abandoned her. Molly gives birth and marries Mexican Pancho Claro, and Emilia is christened with this loving stepfather’s name. Emilia develops two passions – to write, especially for the freedom and spirit of women, and to discover the truth about her biological father. Firstly, she writes under a male pen name, necessary in the 1880s. Her research with women gives her unique insights on crime. Some of these columns are included in the chapters. They have a contemporary feel dealing with issues of impunity for the wealthy, and manipulation of truth and justice. Emilia becomes a civil war correspondent in Chile. Eric, another journalist become her mentor and lover, but they are separated as Eric works with the rebels and Emilia with the government. She exposes the terrible conditions the miners of the ‘white gold’ of nitrate have to tolerate. Now writing under her own name, fighting for recognition as a female journalist, she vividly describes the horrific atrocities in the war. The name Del Valle opens doors for her, eventually leading to her father, Gonzale. Emilia cannot accept resentment and revenge, including the inhumane brutality by the victors after the war, and Molly’s hatred whenever she mention’s Emilia’s biological father. When Molly, hoarding resentment, gives Emilia a damning letter for Gonzales, Emilia’s compassion struggles to deliver it. Allende immersed me in this sensuous, alluring landscape, as she unfolded the politics and economics of Chilean society. Magical realism helps dramatically when Emilia is alone and vulnerable. My Name is Emilia del Valle, a captivating, inspiring novel of love and redemption struggling to survive in the insanity of war. Good Reading Magazine, May 2025.

The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton

Clayton (The Last Train to London) expertly renders the story of a courageous American woman’s role in the French Resistance during WWII. In 1938, Naneé Gold lives in the company of Parisian writers and artists. When the Germans invade France, Naneé flees Paris with T, the wife of her “French brother,” Danny Bénédite, whom she had lived with while studying at the Sorbonne, and the Bénédites’ young son, Peterkin. Determined to help thwart the Nazi occupation, Naneé begins working with Varian Fry, who provides aid to refugees while secretly helping artists escape, and she later embarks on a mission to free photographer and artist Edouard Moss from an internment camp. As the war rages on, Naneé takes up residence at a villa in Marseilles with Danny, T, and Peterkin following Danny’s French military service. Naneé helps Edouard search for his daughter Luki, whom he sent to Paris before his internment. As Naneé and Edouard become lovers, the intensity of their romance is heightened by the ever-present dangers from the Germans. Clayton’s lyrical, thought-provoking prose breathes life into her characters. This sterling portrait of a complex woman stands head and shoulders above most contemporary WWII fiction. Publisher’s Weekly, July 2021.

We Do Not Part by Han Kang

Han (The Vegetarian) delivers an indelible exploration of Korea’s historical traumas through the story of a writer who discovers how her friend’s family was impacted by the 1948–1949 Jeju Massacre, in which U.S.-backed Korean forces killed over 30,000 Jeju Island residents suspected of aiding insurgents. Kyungha spends her days alone in her apartment outside Seoul, where she suffers from migraines and nausea and is plagued by nightmares of a snowy hill where upright tree trunks resembling bodies are submerged by an advancing tide. One morning, she’s unexpectedly contacted by her friend Inseon, who has been hospitalized in Seoul and begs Kyungha to fly to her home on Jeju to care for her bird, Ama, who will not survive long without food. Kyungha travels to Jeju during a fierce snowstorm, and upon her arrival is met by Inseon’s apparition, who tells her about the torture of Inseon’s father after his home was burned by the Korean military, and how Inseon’s mother came home from a cousin’s house to find her entire village executed—except for her brother, whose uncertain fate haunted her for years. In dreamy yet devastating prose, Han details Inseon’s evolving relationship with her late mother, whom Inseon cared for during her final years as she struggled with dementia and memories of the massacre. The result is a meticulously rendered portrait of friendship, mother-daughter love, and hope in the face of profound loss. Han is at the top of her game. Publisher’s Weekly, August 2024.

The Names by Florence Knapp

An imaginative exploration of the long-term unfolding of an abusive marriage. Knapp’s debut is a kind of thought experiment focusing on the family of a British couple named Cora and Gordon, beginning with the birth of their second child, a boy who is nine years younger than his sister, Maia. In the prologue, it is 1987, and Cora and little Maia are off to the registrar to officially name the baby. Gordon—a respected doctor in the community, though a terrifying, violent tyrant at home—wants him named Gordon. But on the way to town, little Maia suggests he be named Bear, which “sounds all soft and cuddly and kind.” The opening chapter shows Cora making three different decisions: In the first section, in a rare act of defiance, she follows Maia’s suggestion. Next, she selects the name she herself most wants: Julian. Then she follows directions: The baby is Gordon. Each of the subsequent chapters—which are all divided into three sections—jumps ahead by seven years, tracking the consequences and implications of Cora’s naming decision until the boy is a 35-year-old man. If the intention and construction of the book are a bit didactic, expressly designed to illustrate and explore the dynamics of domestic abuse, the boldness and thoughtfulness of Knapp’s plotting add complexity and a welcome unpredictability. As supporting characters are added to each storyline, some appearing in just one, others in two or three, and as the main characters develop in different ways in each scenario, the novel’s structure pays off as Knapp intended it to, inviting the reader to think about not just the ripple effects of a single decision and the workings of an abusive family but also about a profound and classic concern of fiction: How things we can predict and/or control in life interact with things we could never have seen coming. This noteworthy debut explores a sobering topic with creativity, cleverness, and care. Kirkus Reviews, February 2025.

Lonely Mouth by Jacqueline Maley

We all try, don’t we? To understand who we are despite the trials and tribulations of childhood or our great loves, or even through the work we do. We understand that family binds us in ways that cannot be replicated in other relationships. We know we cannot escape our pasts. Our minds and bodies just do not let us get away with it. Jacqueline Maley’s very considered second novel is the story of two half-sisters, Lara and Matilda. Placed as they are, on opposite sides of the world with different careers, Maley explores the hidden ramifications of trauma. Lara is a model, 10 years younger than Matilda, carefree and living in France. Matilda, Sydney based, works in an upscale restaurant and is wedded to her role there but remains contained and alone. She hides a secret. However, the sisters are close, speaking often and sharing tales of their days. Then a visit home by Lara and the return of her wayward, apologetic father blows everything apart. It is said that all stories have only two plots: that of us leaving home, or that of us arriving home. Here, we have both sides: each sister battling out their own journey and returning, of course, to a new self-perception. This compassionate, feminist story unveils cause and effect and explores the true definition of self-love. The title is a clue here, referring to a Japanese expression that addresses that particular state in which you want to eat, but you are just not sure what you are wanting. You are searching for the right thing to do. Despite the heaviness of this novel, there is laughter to be found. There are insights into the modelling world, restaurants, art and even book clubs. Readers of the early works of Margaret Atwood or Kate Grenville will rejoice here. Those who read Maley’s first, excellent novel, The Truth About Her, or indeed read her journalism, already know you are in very safe hands. Readings, April 2025.

Signs of Damage by Diana Reid

As one of Australia’s youngest and most successful authors, Diana Reid is not to be underestimated. Reid considers exactly what message she wants to send. Each of her novels is a parcel of activism with an issue at the core to be discussed. Reid writes to illustrate heartbreak, or misused power, or trauma. Her work has an anthropological element to it in that if we understand this particular action, then we will get this particular result. I believe this is what draws so many of us to Reid’s type of writing: it seems evidence based, it seems real. Sally Rooney’s writing, as an example, has a similar impulse. In her third novel, Reid is focused on childhood trauma and the long-term effect this can have on one’s body. It is a clever story that begins when Cass, a 13-year-old girl, travels to the south of France with her friend’s family. At the end of the holiday, Cass is missing and found several hours later, locked in an underground space. As she’s discovered with no visible signs of injury, the incident is seemingly dismissed. Years later, at a reunion of sorts (a funeral), Cass collapses and everything begins to unravel right back to that moment, or to put it another way, to that beginning. On the one hand, this is a fast-paced book reminiscent of a crime novel, centred on a family that hides secrets from one another. Don’t all families? On the other hand, throughout the tale, questions are raised and every action has a corollary story. Every butterfly wing reverberates through the universe. Does it help if we understand specific incidents or do we pay anyway with our bodies, our hearts – our lives, even? Signs of Damage expects us to consider these questions, and like all compelling novels, answers none of them, but rather holds up a mirror for us to examine the scene. Readings, February 2025.

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HISTORICAL FICTION

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

A lightly historical novel about two friends and a quixotic theatrical project. Lampo is 30, unemployed, living with his mom, hanging with his best friend, Gelon, and frequently torn between self-pity and self-indulgence. He’d work well in a buddy film, except that Lampo lives in the town of Syracuse on the island of Sicily some 400 years before the dawn of the Christian Era. For his debut, Dublin-born Lennon taps a few lines from The History of the Peloponnesian War, in which Thucydides writes of how defeated Athenian soldiers were imprisoned in Syracuse’s quarries. As Lampo narrates the tale, Gelon, who’s “mad for Euripides,” proposes to stage his Medea in one of the quarries, using the prisoners as actors. The obstacles aren’t small. The Athenians are purposely underfed and close to starvation. Lampo and Gelon are low on drachmae for costumes and backdrops, not to mention food and drink to keep their cast from that final exit. And attendance is doubtful since most Syracusans hate the invaders from Athens. Lennon initially dwells on the humor in these production struggles (Lampo’s squandering of food money on clothes, coiffure, and general showing off is a delightful episode). He traces Lampo’s growth in self-awareness while moving what seems at first to be a frivolous tale into ever darker waters. He’s economical with period detail and doesn’t shy from anachronisms, like “wreck the buzz.” His subplots bring pointed complications, including Lampo’s love for a barmaid and the usefulness of a wealthy trader. Exploring themes of friendship, loyalty, and the toll of war, Lennon evokes a time when it was common to relish and revere the art of Homer’s poetry and Euripides’ drama. Those with that appetite today are fortunate to have Madeline Miller, Emily Wilson, Pat Barker, and recently James Hynes’ Sparrow. And Lennon. An entertaining and impressive debut. Kirkus Reviews, January 2024.

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MYSTERY

The Labyrinth House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Like Nordic Noir around 15 years ago, translated Japanese crime fiction is now having a bit of a moment, globally. The Land of the Rising Sun has a rich history of puzzling mysteries, dating back over a century (the country’s main ‘best mystery novel’ prize also predates either of its major British and American equivalents by a few years). Thankfully, the recent translation boom has opened up Japanese tales new and old for English-speaking readers. A great example is The Labyrinth House Murders, a fascinating new-to-Anglophones locked room mystery originally published in Japan in 1988. The third of nine books in legendary mystery and horror writer Yukito Ayatsuji’s ‘Bizarre House’ mystery series, it involves ingenious sleuth Shimada Kiyoshi investigating a deadly game at the house of famed author Miyagaki Yotaro. Four young crime authors are invited along with select others to celebrate Yotaro’s 60th birthday party, only to be trapped in the labyrinth as part of a deadly competition for a grand inheritance. Ayatsuji crafts an intricate, clever mystery that leans into its Theseus and the Minotaur maze mythology, as well as serving as a near love letter to the classic mystery genre. It’s easy to see why Ayatsuji has achieved legendary status in his homeland. The Labyrinth House Murders is a pleasantly puzzling read, and hopefully we’ll see more of his stories translated in future. Good Reading Magazine, March 2025.

Carved in Blood by Michael Bennett

Bennett’s solid third outing for Māori ex-detective Hana Westerman (after Return to Blood) finds her returning to the force as a temporary constable and assisting with an investigation that involves her ex-husband, Det. Insp. Jaye Hamilton. While purchasing champagne in an Auckland liquor store to celebrate his daughter’s engagement, Jaye confronts a balaclava-clad robber and is shot. With Jaye on life support, the investigation falls to Hana, who leads a team that combs through thousands of CCTV feeds across the city. After they identify the weapon and the getaway vehicle, Hana’s team zeroes in on a suspect: Toa Davis, a young Māori man and suspected courier for a local crime syndicate. Soon, Hana starts to suspect that the confrontation was not a random robbery but a targeted attack on Jaye, tied to his covert operations from the past. Bennett smoothly weaves depictions of Māori customs and ingrained racism in New Zealand society into a propulsive and intriguing whodunit. After a bumpy second installment, this series is back on track. Publisher’s Weekly, April 2025.

Buried in a Good Book by Tamara Berry

A mystery writer finds solace and murder in rural Oregon. Mystery writer Tess Harrow is worried about her daughter, Gertrude. The usually resilient 14-year-old is stung by her father’s utter silence since his divorce from Tess. Fortunately, Tess has just the answer: She’ll take the feisty teen to an isolated cabin in the woods, far from Seattle coffee shops, the internet, or running water. Gertie’s reaction is predictable, but nothing else is. Shortly after their arrival, they hear a sudden boom, and water, fish, and body parts rain down from the sky. When he finally answers their distress call, Sheriff Victor Boyd tells them it’s probably “the Peabody boys.” Sure enough, Adam and Zach have been blast fishing with dynamite again, only this time, somebody stashed a corpse in the lake before their first kaboom. Boyd’s deputy Carl, who’s detailed to keep watch on Tess’ cabin, disappears, but Ivy, his female counterpart, is unfazed. What she wants most of all is for Tess to read the 1,000-page science-fiction adventure she’s written and shop it to her agent. In the meantime, Tess is fascinated with Boyd, a dead ringer for her own franchise hero, Detective Gonzales. If she can only tag along after Boyd while he’s trying to crack the case, she figures that her next novel, Fury in the Forest, will practically write itself. Boyd wants Tess dogging him about as much as he wants eczema, but eventually the two make their peace with the help of hipster librarian Nicki Nickerson, the third Peabody triplet, a man in a Bigfoot costume, and a roving flock of toucans. Whimsy meets woodsy. Kirkus Reviews, March 2022.

Murder at La Villette by Cara Black

A detective’s struggle to raise her daughter in Paris meets an unexpectedly grim obstacle. Despite the dangers and demands of life as a private investigator, Aimée Leduc has always been attentive to the needs of her 3-year-old daughter, Chloé. Reliable child care and the help of her friends have allowed Aimée to resist the attempts of Chloé’s father, police detective Jérome Melac, to remove the child to his farm in rural Brittany. But now Aimée’s desire to have Melac out of her life for good has succeeded in the worst possible way. His body is found beneath an arched bridge that spans a canal in La Villette, and Aimée is found on the scene with his blood all over her hands. With the help of her godfather, Commissaire Morbier, she’s released from custody, but she knows that her chances of keeping her daughter, as well as her freedom, rest with her ability to find Melac’s killer. It had been a voicemail from Melac that brought Aimée to the scene of his death—”Aimée…I’ve just seen a ghost”—and now she begins searching for whomever, or whatever, he’d been talking about. Like many of her investigations, Aimée’s search leads back to an older crime, this time the serial murders committed by le Balafré, a shadowy figure who terrorized La Villette in the 1980s and ’90s. Her investigation features the requisite host of colorful characters who spill out of the biker bars and tattoo parlors of the 19th arrondissement, a bevy of chic disguises, and a few slick car chases. But as usual, the star of the show is the city Aimée loves. Vintage Black for fans of women’s empowerment and life in Paris. Kirkus Reviews, January 2024.

Silent as the Grave by Rhys Bowen & Clare Broyles

Getting involved with moviemaking turns out to be a bad idea for a part-time detective in 1909. Although NYPD Captain Daniel Sullivan acknowledges the talents of his wife, former private detective Molly Murphy, he prefers her to stick to mothering. While Daniel’s away in Washington, though, Molly—whose friendship with her feminist neighbors Sid and Gus often gets her in trouble—lets herself be talked into allowing her clever, beautiful adopted daughter, Bridie, to visit a movie studio where her old friend Ryan O’Hare, a playwright, is acting in a new film. Bridie’s excitement peaks when she’s offered a part originally given to a young girl who can’t remember her lines. With a young son, Liam, and baby Mary Kate at home, Molly is less thrilled because she’s not sure she can trust her friends to chaperone. Acceding to Bridie’s pleas anyway, she spends as much time at the studio as she can and meets director DW Griffith, actress Mary Pickford, and Harry and Arthur Martin, twin brothers who are heavily invested in the studio’s success. They’re constantly battling Thomas Edison, who routinely sues anyone he sees as a competitor. Molly, originally fascinated with filming, comes to realize that some odd occurrences have put the project in jeopardy. Bridie is almost run over by a train, someone is nearly electrocuted in the studio pool, and things keep going wrong. So, Molly dredges up her detective skills and helps Daniel identify a clever killer. Adventure, real-life characters, and plenty of moviemaking lore combine in this tiptop cozy. Kirkus Reviews, March 2025.

Vanish by Shelley Burr

Since Michael Brissenden’s Smoke was released, there’s been a real push by crime fiction authors to show the impacts of climate change, but also to embrace sustainability, including alternative energy and modes of food production. Shelley Burr’s latest novel, featuring erstwhile prisoner Lane Holland, incorporates these issues neatly, no doubt drawing on her own experiences of establishing a permaculture farm in the face of bushfire threats. Poor Lane, though. He killed his infanticidal father and got locked up for doing everyone the favour! Unluckily for him, that means his career as a private eye is down the gurgler. Luckily for him, he’s a fairly decent, intelligent sort of bloke willing to help solve cold cases of missing persons while learning about agribusiness. Initially asked to help find the prison governor’s missing daughter, Matilda Carver, Lane discovers that other people have vanished, too – all from a rural farming community led by Samuel Karpathy, the heir to the community’s charismatic founder. This ‘community’ feels a bit too alternative and altogether too cult-y for Lane’s liking. There are weird vibes. Burr’s writing, as in her other books, is sharp, but there’s a lovely nuance to Lane. As a reader, you can’t help but feel for the bloke and his plight. This novel feels especially real – like a story you would expect to read about in the news. It’s propulsive, it’s downright creepy, and a great read for these cooler nights. Readings, April 2025.

The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs

Canadian TV producer Hincenbergs delivers a sure-footed and deeply funny debut that revolves around a group of friends in their 60s. Five years before the start of the novel, couples Pam and Hank, Shalisa and Andre, Nancy and Larry, and Marlene and Dave lost their life savings in the same misguided investment. In the aftermath, each partner’s seldom voiced resentments have put major strains on their marriages. When Dave dies in an apparent accident, his friends are distraught—particularly the husbands. For the last four years, they’ve been siphoning money from the casino where two of them work with the intention of replacing the money they lost. To them, Dave’s death could only be a murder orchestrated by the casino’s new boss, who has ties to organized crime in India. The wives, meanwhile, are inspired by the million-dollar life insurance payout Dave’s widow, Marlene, receives, and launch a scheme of their own. Readers will turn the pages with glee as the interests of the desperate husbands and determined wives collide with a pack of Mumbai gangsters and a dog-loving private investigator. Hincenbergs knocks it out of the park on her first time at bat. Publisher’s Weekly, February 2025.

Ward D by Freida McFadden

A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next. Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about? A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre. Kirkus Reviews, December 2024.

The Unquiet Grave by Dervla McTiernan

Crime readers rejoice! After a five-year hiatus, Dervla McTiernan’s much-loved Irish detective Cormac Reilly is back. In The Unquiet Grave, Cormac – still dealing with the personal and professional fallout from the events that took place in 2020’s The Good Turn – is called to investigate the case of a body in a bog that has turned out to be considerably less historical than anticipated. The victim, an assistant school principal who went missing several years earlier, was seemingly killed and surrendered to the bog in the same manner as the 2,000-year-old Croghan Man. But who could possibly have hated him enough to subject him to such ritualised violence? Meanwhile, Cormac’s ex, Emma, has called on him to help her find her missing husband, and an unscrupulous software programmer has concocted a scheme to cheat the National Lottery. That McTiernan can weave these three completely different threads together into a seamless whole is evidence of her remarkable skill as a storyteller. The Unquiet Grave is a finely-wrought police procedural that relies more on impeccable characterisation and evocative landscapes than blood and gore. The result is a compelling, fast-paced and thoughtful crime read from one of the genre’s masters. Readings, April 2025.

The Maid’s Secret by Nita Prose

Prose’s wonderful third full-length adventure for Molly Gray, head maid of the Regency Grand Hotel (after The Mystery Guest), combines an art heist plot with a juicy love story full of class conflict and family drama. When the Regency Grand hosts a taping of the antiques TV show Hidden Treasures and offers staff a free appraisal session, Molly is shocked to discover that the gold-colored display egg owned by her late grandmother Flora is an authentic Fabergé worth millions. After the piece disappears from the hotel, however, Molly becomes the target of several threats and investigations. Answers come from Flora’s diary, which was kept safe by the hotel’s doorman—whom Molly recently learned is her grandfather—and is unlocked with a key entrusted to Molly before her grandmother’s death. Prose divides the tale between flashbacks to a young Flora’s budding romance with the doorman and the details of Molly’s investigation in the present. The perfectly timed reveals in each story line complement each other, and Prose seamlessly integrates the tones of 1950s melodrama and zany contemporary caper. Energetic and full of heart, this proves that Prose’s series deserves a long run. Publisher’s Weekly, February 2025.

Ghost Island by Max Seeck

Seeck follows up The Witch Hunter with an exceptional combination of hardboiled Scandi-noir and eerie ghost story. Reeling from a breakup and plagued by strange hallucinations, Helsinki homicide detective Jessica Niemi is convinced her life has no meaning. After vomiting in the street one night and assaulting an onlooker who accuses her of being a drug addict, Jessica is suspended from her police duties indefinitely. She takes refuge at an old inn on a remote island in Finland’s Aland archipelago, where she becomes enmeshed in a mystery when one of three other guests—all elderly friends who grew up in a long-demolished nearby orphanage—drowns in the same spot where two others died years earlier. The deaths all have roots in a local legend about an orphan named Maija, who disappeared decades ago and supposedly haunts the pier near the drowning spot. While Jessica initially tries to keep her distance, she’s gradually drawn into the investigation and sets out to determine whether the island has a vengeful spirit—or a flesh-and-blood killer­. Seeck marries breathtaking suspense with an expertly drawn heroine. This is guaranteed to send shivers up even the most unshakable readers’ spines. Publisher’s Weekly, February 2024.

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NON FICTION

Ocean by David Attenborough and Colin Butfield

Naturalist Attenborough (A Life on Our Planet) joins forces with Butfield (Earthshot)—cofounder of the environmental documentary production company Studio Silverback—to provide an awe-inspiring exploration of the open ocean, kelp forests, and six other marine biomes. Examining the ecological interactions that structure each habitat, the authors explain how coral reefs depend on the fish that live inside their many “nooks, holes, and crevices” and eat seaweed that might otherwise block out the sunlight coral need to survive. The authors highlight the remarkable ways animals have adapted to their environment, noting, for instance, how the cock-eyed squid evolved asymmetrical eyes—the larger of which looks upward to “spot prey against the very dim light from the surface” while the smaller one searches for bioluminescent creatures below—to survive in the deep ocean. Such trivia intrigues, and the authors balance alarming overviews of how humans are disrupting ocean ecosystems with uplifting stories of people working to prevent such harms. For instance, the authors lament how excessive trawling off England’s southern coast since the 1980s has hollowed out the kelp forests that once flourished there and recount how free diver Eric Smith teamed up with wildlife documentarian Sarah Cunliffe in a successful effort to persuade U.K. officials to ban trawling near the shore in 2021. Attenborough’s admirers will savor this. Publisher’s Weekly, March 2025.

The Genetic Book of the Dead by Richard Dawkins

The famous evolutionist meditates on his favorite topic. Dawkins, bestselling author of The Selfish Gene, The God Delusion, and numerous other landmark books, argues persuasively that every living creature’s body and behavior can be read as a book. Confronted with a hitherto unknown animal, a future biologist could decipher its entire evolutionary history. Today’s scientists lack the technology and fossil record to deliver a detailed account, but few are more qualified than Dawkins to make the effort. Demonstrating more good sense than many of his colleagues, he makes generous use of photographs and Lenzová’s expert illustrations. The author emphasizes that every individual’s genes came to be the way they are over many generations through random drift and mutation guided by natural selection. Sexual recombination ensures that the gene pool is stirred and shaken, while mutation sees to it that new variants enter the pool. Natural and sexual selection determine the shape of the average genome changes in constructive directions. Individuals, species, and the physical DNA die, but the information in the DNA can last indefinitely. Having laid the groundwork, Dawkins proceeds with several dozen mind-bogglingly fascinating anecdotes describing animals, often wildly disparate, dipping into the ancient history of their DNA to solve problems in similar ways. A mole is a mammal, and a mole cricket is a bug. Adapted to life underground, they have evolved to look nearly identical. The same applies to marsupial and modern placental mammals, who have evolved separately for more than 150 million years. The cuckoo learns nothing from its parents, whom it never encounters, yet its DNA provides everything it needs to know from the species’ long history, including its song and its eggs, the design of which invariably changes to resemble eggs in the nest it parasitizes. Ingenious stories in the service of deep natural history. Kirkus Reviews, June 2024.

The Last Dynasty by Toby Wilkinson

Seven Cleopatras and 15 Ptolemies who ruled until the Romans took over. Egyptologist Wilkinson, author of 13 books on his specialty, begins his latest with Alexander the Great’s 323 B.C.E. death, after which three of his generals made themselves kings of Macedonia, the Seleucid Empire (the Middle East and west Asia), and Egypt. There follows a compelling three-century history of the colorful Hellenistic period. Of the generals, Egypt’s Ptolemy I was probably the most competent. Sensibly, he adopted Egyptian religious and bureaucratic customs, cultivated the priesthood, and portrayed himself as a legitimate heir to the pharaohs. His son and grandson (Ptolemy II and III) extended the kingdom’s borders, secured its prosperity, and fostered scholars, establishing it as a great power with its capital, Alexandria, rivaling Athens as a center of learning. One problem is that Greeks followed them to Egypt in great numbers, forming a privileged minority that provoked increasing resentment. Another is that Rome had grown powerful by Ptolemy III’s 222 B.C.E. death, and his successors did not measure up. The arrival of the first Cleopatra in 194 B.C.E. did not improve matters. Although she exerted considerable power (Egypt, unlike Greece, had no objection to female rulers), the nation was wracked by murderous dynastic quarrels, rebellions, unsuccessful wars, and increasing pressure from Rome. The seventh and best-known Cleopatra ruled 51 to 30 B.C.E. and dealt successfully with powerful Romans (Pompey, Caesar, Marc Anthony) before choosing the wrong side in Rome’s civil war. Ancient histories emphasize rulers, wars, and gods because that’s the evidence that survives in inscriptions, monuments, and artifacts. With its tomb obsession and desert climate that preserves organic materials, ancient Egypt is a glorious exception, with mountains of surviving papyri from rubbish dumps and necropolises. Wilkinson takes advantage to deliver a detailed account of its bureaucracy, culture, and daily life. Hellenistic Egypt in expert hands. Kirkus Reviews, February 2025.

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POETRY

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ROMANCE

Eat your heart out by Victoria Brownlee

If you’re in the mood for a full-flavoured degustation of romance, intrigue, fabulous French cuisine and lashings of champagne, look no further than the fun and frothy Eat Your Heart Out, a cheeky foodie rom-com by local-born international food critic and author Victoria Brownlee. Tassie girl Chloe is loving single life in the City of Love. She may hate her day job writing copy for a luxury hotel, but by night, she’s having a wonderful time feasting on fabulous food and getting even better reader feedback on her food blog. When her heroine – celebrity chef Carla Duris, daughter of the late, great, chef Jean Duris – invites her to a mysterious dinner, Chloe can’t say no. Chloe’s fellow diners are all successful foodies in their own right, including uptight, tweed-wearing travel writer Christopher, bubbly Californian FoodTuber Belle, poison-pen-wielding Balthazar, judgemental Juliette and the handsome, privileged, and frustrating Henri de la Fontaine. Guided by Carla’s cryptic assistant Max, this motley crew of diners enjoys a fabulous meal of Carla’s classic French fare, paired with an intriguing side dish: an offer to spend a weekend at Carla’s family villa on the Côte d’Azur, duking it out for a well-paid but mysterious writing job. Will Chloe’s chance to work with her hero override her family’s pleas that she return home? Will she find allies or enemies in her fellow competitors? And where exactly is their magnanimous but mysterious hostess? Packed with lavish descriptions of tasty morsels (of food and the occasional shirtless Frenchman), this is a sweet and speedy PG-rated read with a hint of danger. Great for fans of Emily in Paris, but with a little sprinkling of The Menu for flavour and all the competitive drama of a season of Top Chef. Best served on the beach, but make sure you’ve got snacks on hand – this one will have you reaching for the fromage! Readings, February 2025.

Wildfire by Hannah Grace

The second new adult romance in bestseller Grace’s Maple Hill series (after Icebreaker) moves out of the hockey rink and into the sunshine for an intoxicating love story between two summer camp counselors. The notorious University of California, Maple Hills hockey team throws an end-of-year party where students Russ Callaghan and Aurora Roberts meet and take part in a raunchy drinking game, leading to a steamy one-night stand. Aurora, who’s skeptical of both love and men, leaves in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye kiss. To their surprise, the two are soon reunited at their summer job at Honey Acres camp, where their intense chemistry reignites. There’s just one problem: the strict rule against staffers “fraternizing” with one another. Can this combustible duo really keep things strictly professional? Grace writes charmingly flirtatious dialogue for the couple, making their connection palpable, and gives their romance a perfect balance of heat, emotion, and fun. Both characters are further rounded out by family issues that they’re using their summer jobs to avoid. Russ and Aurora are a hard couple not to root for. Publisher’s Weekly, October 2023.

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SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French

French’s adrenaline-fueled adventure fantasy, which features badass gangs of tattooed half-orcs on the backs of giant war hogs thundering across a lawless wasteland, is an unapologetically brutal thrill ride—like Mad Max set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.The Lot Lands are sprawling badlands that separate the realm of humans (frails) from the orcs (thicks). Seen as abominations from both sides, the half-orcs exist in loose outlaw clans that patrol the Lot Lands, keeping the frails safe from orc attack, as has been their sole duty for generations. Jackal is a member of the Grey Bastards, and although he loves his home in the Kiln—a seemingly impenetrable fortress that can heat its outsides like a blast furnace when attacked—he believes the leader of the Bastards, an old half-orc twisted with disease called the Claymaster, should be overthrown. The arrival of a half-orc wizard has increased the Claymaster’s strange behavior. Jackal’s childhood friend Oats—a giant thrice-blood (the product of a half-orc breeding with an orc)—backs his decision to attempt to head the Bastards, but when the group puts it to a vote, a tough female half-orc who Jackal thought had his back chooses the Claymaster, effectively exiling him into the Lot Lands. With the future of the Bastards in jeopardy, Jackal embarks on an epic adventure that includes saving an elven girl imprisoned by a demon that lives in a massive swath of bogland saturated with dark magic, becoming a folk hero to a community of halflings after battling crazed centaurs, and, most important, discovering the true history of the Lot Lands and the reason for the half-orc patrols. Powered by unparalleled worldbuilding, polished storytelling, and relentless pacing, French’s novel is a cool fusion of classic adventure fantasy and 21st-century pop-culture sensibilities with nonstop action; a cast of unforgettable and brilliantly authentic characters; vulgar but witty dialogue; and strong female characters who overturn old sexist conventions. This is a dirty, blood-soaked gem of a novel. An addictively readable—and undeniably cool—fantasy masterwork. Kirkus Reviews, April 2018.

The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner

Penner (The London Seance Society) weaves a rousing story of witches, deep sea diving, and family secrets on the Amalfi Coast. In 1821 Positano, Mari DeLuca belongs to a coven who cast spells on the water to protect the town from pirates. Yearning for a new life, she makes plans to flee with a sailor from Boston. Before she can, though, a shipping magnate attempts to kidnap her, hoping to force Mari into using her powers to help his fleet, and she drowns him. In a parallel narrative set two centuries later, nautical archaeologist Haven Ambrose studies shipwrecks on the Amalfi coast while secretly searching for a trove of precious gems her father found before dying of a stroke. When Conrad, another researcher, shows up to take her place, Haven suspects he knows about the treasure. She hires Enzo Rossi, a local dive shop owner, to take her out on the water, and the pair race against Conrad to find the gems. A romantic subplot involving Enzo and Haven feels rushed, especially because it also serves a vehicle for Haven to learn about Mari’s fate and the village’s history of witches, but for the most part Penner keeps the pages turning with cliffhangers and complex characters. The author’s fans will enjoy this adventure.

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New additions to eBooks at SMSA

eBooks & Audiobooks help

EBOOKS

Butter by Asako Yuzuki

Yuzuki draws on the real-life crimes of the Konkatsu Killer in early-aughts Japan for her delectable English-language debut. Journalist Rika Machida conducts a series of prison interviews with convicted serial killer Manako Kajii, a former food blogger who used her exquisite cooking to seduce lonely men. Manako, who maintains her innocence, is a coveted and elusive subject, whom Rika has managed to land through flattery, having requested the prisoner’s recipe for her famous beef stew. As the two talk about food, Rika falls under a similar spell as Manako’s victims, neglecting her work, friends, and figure as she seeks out more delicious flavors under Manako’s tutelage. As Rika gains weight, her misogynistic colleagues shun her, claiming she doesn’t respect herself and therefore isn’t deserving of their respect. Her weight gain also draws ire from her boyfriend. Yuzuki takes a thrilling look into female relationships, revealing the complex nature of modern-day social conventions pertaining to a woman’s appearance and her place in the home, and enriching the proceedings with mouthwatering descriptions of food. Like the meals Yuzuki describes, this leaves the reader satiated. Publisher’s Weekly, February 2024.

Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood

Thorogood follows up 2021’s The Marlow Murder Club with another brisk and breezy cozy featuring 78-year-old Judith Potts, who creates crosswords for national newspapers, and her friends Suzie and Becks. Judith is surprised when Sir Peter Bailey—the head of one of the town’s most preeminent families—asks her to attend a garden party at his home the day before his wedding to his live-in nurse. There, the champagne-sipping guests suddenly hear a tremendous crash and, rushing into the house, find Sir Peter crushed beneath a fallen bookcase. As the only key to the room is in the dead man’s pocket, the police are quick to assume the death was accidental. Judith does not agree. But how will she and her friends prove that someone had committed murder inside a locked room? With quiet help from a police sergeant and their own wits, the women start parsing clues to home in on the killer. Thorogood’s characters are vivid and companionable, the dialogue sparkles with wit, and the plot gives armchair detectives a fighting chance to solve the mystery. This is good, fast-moving fun. Publisher’s Weekly, April 2023.

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AUDIOBOOKS

A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke

Ruby’s new Boston apartment comes with all sorts of “”amenities””: used furniture, plants (that she’s bound to kill), noisy neighbors, and the ghost of the previous tenant. Cordelia does not remember her own death, so she continues to “live” as if it never happened. When Ruby moves in, Cordelia tries everything to scare her away, but when Ruby’s next-door neighbor, Jake, is found murdered in front of the building, Cordelia decides to stop terrorizing her new roommate and team up with her to try and solve the murder instead. This series starter from Blacke (Rhythm and Clues, 2024) offers a creative take on the typical cozy mystery, with an enjoyable amount of laughs sprinkled amongst all the paranormal world building. Ruby is immature yet relatable and quirky, while Cordelia is earnest and snarky. This pair of amateur detectives just works, and readers will root for them and the friendship they’re building. The satisfying conclusion offers the promise of a sequel. Recommended for readers who enjoy their cozies with a paranormal twist. Booklist, September 2024.

Smoke by Michael Brissenden

Journalist Michael Brissenden has covered the impact huge fires have on communities in his work for the ABC. This knowledge is apparent in his latest novel; an atmospheric dive into how a fire-ravaged town deals with the trauma of losing homes, lives, and livelihoods. Set in an imagined place in California, Detective Alex Markov returns to her hometown, Jasper, to work. When a fire hits the area, she becomes convinced that a family friend has been killed; left alone to burn in a locked room. To find the answers, she needs to question people she has known since her youth. It would be easier to overlook the crime, but, of course, she does not. As the consequences of her investigation begin to emerge, the townspeople’s reactions become frightening. However, thankfully, Alex knows exactly how power works. It is Brissenden’s experience as a journalist that makes this plot so believable. As a reader, you are thrust immediately into the smoky landscape and the homes of the survivors. You become privy to conversations held and learn that this is a story about more than a murder. It is a story of corruption, small-town pettiness and history. It is a portrait of what happens when isolation, grief, and racism are allowed to prosper. You could also say, on one level, that this is simply a fast-paced, good old-fashioned detective story, and fans of rural crime reading will relish the setting. Readers of Don Winslow and Chris Hammer will delight that there is a new detective on the scene, and she is harder on herself than anyone else. Most of all though, this is a novel that is a warning to us all. Smoke is an examination of what happens if we do not speak up. It is a story that endorses truth-telling. Readings, May 2024.

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