Katie Holt

Katie Holt is a New York City resident but a Tennessee native. She studied English with a concentration in creative writing at NYU and fought with every professor to prove that romance novels were worthy of their time. She’s a Nora Ephron fanatic, Swiftie, and warm chocolate chip cookie enthusiast.

Holt is also the author of her highly-acclaimed debut Not in My Book.

Her new novel is The Last Page.

Recently I asked Holt about what she was reading. Holt's reply:

I’ve just finished two books that had me hooked. I read a physical copy of If Not for My Baby by Kate Golden. It’s been on my list for a while, and it’s awakened something in me. I’m obsessed with Hozier because of it and developing a bit of a parasocial relationship…The romance is so tender, tense, and hits all the right emotional beats. I read it in two sittings and was still craving more.

On audio, I just finished The Favorites by Layne Fargo. I usually only read romance, but I’m trying to read books outside of the genre on audiobook. I went into this one blind and was delighted that it was a Wuthering Heights retelling. I had no idea and Wuthering Heights is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s so twisty and dramatically romantic. I was gasping at so many scenes and chapters. I’m excited to read more from both of these authors!

Visit Katie Holt's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

John Katzenbach

John Katzenbach is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as the Edgar Award-nominated In the Heat of the Summer, which was adapted for the screen as The Mean Season; The Traveler; Day of Reckoning; Just Cause and Hart's War, which were also made into movies; The Shadow Man, another Edgar nominee; State of Mind; The Analyst; and The Madman's Tale. Katzenbach has been a criminal court reporter for the Miami Herald and Miami News and a featured writer for the Herald's Tropic magazine.

His new novel is The Architect.

Recently I asked Katzenbach about what he was reading. His reply:

Fact is, I like to read my friends. After them if I have any spare energy, re-read some classics. And then, from time to time, I try to work in something that my wife – a far more accomplished and ardent reader than I am – recommends.

Very rarely do I read anything in my own genre of “psychological thrillers.” This is because even after many writing decades and publishing many books in many languages, I still possess the lurking fear that all those other thriller writing men and women lurking out there are... well... better? Cleverer? More adept with words and phrases? Smarter when it comes to plots and twists? Or maybe just luckier?

I just don’t want to prove the accuracy of this paranoia to myself. I am very happy in my ignorance.

That said, on my desk now are two collections of short stories.

The first Wandering Souls is by Phil Caputo – who passed away a few short weeks ago, so this is his last work in an extraordinarily distinguished writing career. Bestsellers, Pulitzers and respect. What more could one ask for? The stories in this collection often return to the themes of war and emotional conflict and the impact experienced by men after battle that characterizes much of Phil’s output. The writing is brisk, intense and always spot-on. Each character and every setting in each story is painted with his typical prose vibrancy. As I said, Phil was a great friend – forty plus years with only a couple of life-threatening activities – and his voice, so strong and often elegant on these pages, is one that will be sorely missed and is not easily forgotten.

Beside Phil’s work, is Don Winslow’s The Final Score.

Just started, and, as with everything Don writes, it is edgy, direct and evocative. There are few writers today who can command a simple declarative sentence with the style and skill that Don owns. Here is a personal aside: there are stacks of writers around today with claims on various bestseller lists – but very few who rival Don for narrative control and explosive plot. He is the writer I direct my “literary” friends towards, because his stories are never indulgent. They are hard-edged without losing psychological depth. Doubt my word? Read the first two chapters of The Kings of Cool or Savages. Simplicity, yet profundity. My jealous imagination knows no limits.

Two other books that bear mentioning:

In the classic realm, I’ve been re-reading for the one millionth time Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It. And every time I am immersed in his tale of brothers, fly fishing, religion and Montana, I see something new. And, as a slight, parenthetical addition, I consider the initial sentence of A River and the opening page of Maclean’s Young Men and Fire to be two of the finest beginnings to any work. Right up there with “Call me Ishmael...” and “It was the best of times, the worst of times...” and “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday. I can’t be sure...” among my other favorites.

And finally, the book I’m currently writing is set in a part of the world I am curiously very fond of: Miami and South Florida. The curious part of my affection is the recognition that Miami is a place of mixed cultures, mingled madness and subterranean angers, bizarre conflicts and far too damn much traffic beneath skies that are perfect in February and threatening in August. Regardless, what I’m writing is – as is often the case – admittedly dark. So, to lighten up, I’ve got a copy of my old friend Dave Barry’s Best. State. Ever. This is his paean to the wonderfully bizarre nature of Florida – where truth so often outstrips anything another of my old friends, Carl Hiaasen, imagines even on his most fevered and wonderfully productive days. Carl would likely agree with that observation.

Visit John Katzenbach's website.

My Book, The Movie: Red 1-2-3.

Writers Read: John Katzenbach (January 2014).

The Page 69 Test: Red 1-2-3.

--Marshal Zeringue

Carmela Dutra

Carmela Dutra is a Bay Area–based author who writes cozy mysteries with sharp banter, strong sibling bonds, and the vibrant food culture of Northern California’s most eclectic region. Her Food Truck Mystery Series blends culinary competition, small-town secrets, and humor-forward sleuthing, all rooted in the distinctly diverse rhythms of the Bay Area.

Dutra's debut novel, A Murder Most Fowl, received praise from Kirkus Reviews for its “serious set of crimes leavened by plenty of amusing moments,” and from Criminal Element for the “juicy reasoning behind the sabotage [that] was almost as shocking as the murder itself.” New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams called it “the perfect escapist read, brimming with banter and an extra helping of fun.” Dutra has also been featured in CrimeReads.

The second installment in the series, Hot Wings and Homicide, earned additional praise from Kirkus Reviews, which said, “Winner, winner, murder for dinner ... An entertaining mystery with amusing characters—including a pet chicken.” Further cementing the author’s voice in the cozy mystery space.

A frequent podcast guest and live-event panelist, Dutra has appeared on Bookish Flights, The Fiction Lounge, Cozy Crime Reads, and Bookshelf Odyssey, and has spoken at bookstores including Kepler’s Books & Magazines. She is known for her warm, engaging presence and her ability to connect with readers through humor, craft, and community.

Dutra lives in the Bay Area with her husband, two dinosaur-obsessed sons, and an assortment of over-cuddled pets. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found at a bookstore, a farmers’ market, or chasing the perfect chicken wing.

Recently I asked the author about what she was rearding. Dutra's reply:

Lately I’ve been listening to the Nosey Parker cozy mystery series by Fiona Leitch through my Libby app. I’m extremely picky about audiobooks, so borrowing through the library has become my favorite way to discover new series and narrators without pressure. The Nosey Parker books have completely transported me to the English countryside with their charming village settings, food, humor, and murder mysteries. They’re also shorter books, which makes them perfect for listening to while running errands, folding laundry, or tackling the endless cycle of household chores. I’ve just borrowed A Cornish Christmas Murder, the fourth book in the series, and I’m already looking forward to diving back into that world.

Physically, I’m currently reading An Impossible Impostor from the Veronica Speedwell series by Deanna Raybourn. I absolutely love the balance of mystery, adventure, and character development in those books. Veronica is such a sharp, unconventional protagonist, and even though I write contemporary cozy mysteries rather than historical ones, I often find myself inspired by the way the series develops its relationships and long-running character arcs. They’re the kind of books that make me excited both as a reader and as a writer.

Since summer break has officially started in my house, reading has also become more of a family event because my boys and I started a family book club. My youngest, who’s six, and I have been reading the Pug Diaries books together, while my oldest recently discovered the re-release of the Animorphs series. That one has been especially fun for me because I absolutely loved Animorphs when I was his age. Now, I get to experience those books all over again through his eyes, which has been surprisingly emotional in the best possible way. Watching him react to moments I still remember decades later feels a little like sharing a piece of my childhood with him one chapter at a time.

Visit Carmela Dutra's website.

Q&A with Carmela Dutra.

--Marshal Zeringue

D.W. Buffa

The Dark Backward is among D.W. Buffa's more recent novels to be released. The story revolves around not just the strangest case William Darnell had ever tried;

it was the strangest case ever tried by any lawyer anywhere. It was impossible to explain; or rather, impossible to believe. The defendant, who did not speak English or any other language anyone could identify, had been found on an island no one knew existed, and charged with murder, rape and incest. He was given the name Adam, and Adam, as Darnell comes to learn, is more intelligent, quicker to learn, than anyone he has ever met. Adam, he learns to his astonishment, is a member of an ancient civilization that has remained undiscovered for more than three thousand years.

Buffa is also the author of ten legal thrillers involving the defense attorney Joseph Antonelli. He has also published a series that attempts to trace the movement of western thought from ancient Athens, in Helen; the end of the Roman Empire, in Julian's Laughter; the Renaissance, in The Autobiography of Niccolo Machiavelli; and America in the twentieth century, in Neumann's Last Concert.

Here is Buffa's take on Duff Cooper’s Talleyrand:

No one now remembers Duff Cooper, but in Great Britain in the l930s, and in the years of the Second World War, everyone who paid attention to what Winston Churchill was trying to do knew Duff Cooper’s name. Alfred Duff Cooper was part of the English aristocracy that in 1890 when he was born still considered itself to have not just the right to rule, but the duty to prepare itself for the task. Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, attended Eton and Oxford, and was elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1924. He became First Lord of the Admiralty in 1938, but resigned when Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler. When the war broke out, and Churchill replaced Chamberlain as Prime Minister, he asked Cooper to become Minister of Information, a position he retained until 1944 when he became England’s ambassador to France. Cooper knew more about France than many of the public officials with whom he was to deal, and, more importantly, understood the precise relationship that needed to exist between England and France if the peace of Europe was to be maintained. He had written about it before the war, in l932, in his remarkable biography of one of the greatest, and most misunderstood, statesmen the world has ever seen.

Born in 1754 into the French aristocracy, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord was treated like most of the children of his class: he was ignored by his parents and sent at the age of eight to boarding school, to college, where he spent most of his time in the library, “reading works of history and biographies of statesmen, feeding his hopes for the future upon the record of the past.” Trading one monastic life for another, he was ordained a priest in 1779. This then was not really a monastic life at all. If Talleyrand ever prayed, it was for the swift departure of anyone who failed to keep up their end of a dinner table conversation. Talleyrand could talk, and to “talk well was then considered the highest attribute that any person could possess,” and the “great ladies were the leaders of talk as well as of fashion.” Though not especially attractive, women, even those who thought they would hate him, fell easily, sometimes too easily, under his spell.

In 1788 Talleyrand became the Bishop of Autun, and at the age of thirty-five was one of the most important men in Paris. He soon had a reputation for seduction so great that in “an age of universal latitude and easily condoned license,” he “acquired notoriety even before he acquired fame.” Cooper sums it up: “Noble birth, influential connections, and a powerful intelligence, supported by high ambition and unburdened by scruples,” he seemed destined to become “a worthy successor to the great ecclesiastical statesmen who in the past had controlled the destiny of France.” He had already made one important contribution to the destiny of France: he was the father, the unacknowledged father, of the great French painter Delacroix.

History has a way of changing its meaning. July 14th, Bastille Day, is celebrated in France the way July 4, Independence Day, is celebrated in the United States, the beginning of self-government, freedom from the oppressive rule of monarchs and aristocracies. No one who lived through the French Revolution would have been quite so convinced that the Revolution, and the Terror which followed, had been something worth celebrating. When it happened, when the Revolution suddenly erupted, Talleyrand had two choices: leave France — emigrate, as most of the nobility did — or give his wholehearted support to what the Revolution was trying to accomplish. Talleyrand refused to leave, and such were his powers of persuasion, such was the force of his mere presence, that in February 1790, he was elected President of the Assembly. Like nearly everyone else who played a prominent part in the early days of the Revolution, Talleyrand was soon under threat of the guillotine for not going as far as the Jacobins demanded. He had nowhere to turn, “ruined in pocket, tarnished in reputation, with nothing to hope for from the victorious Revolutionaries, and even less from the defeated Bourbons.” He sailed to America, where he spent the next two years and became friends with Alexander Hamilton.

Cooper says every little about this relationship, but it tells us more than anything else could about what made Talleyrand so often seem irreplaceable. Talleyrand, as has already been noted, could carry on a conversation better than anyone else. Even on first meeting, he seemed to those who met him more intelligent, more deeply instructed, than anyone they had known before. It is not difficult to understand. Listen to all the music you like, when you hear for the first time something by Mozart or Beethoven, you begin to have an idea what a revelation it must have been for someone who suddenly found himself in the presence of a master of the spoken word. And Talleyrand, it should be mentioned, had something like the same impression of Hamilton. Years later, when he was the French Foreign Minister under Napoleon, he kept a portrait of Hamilton on the wall behind his desk. When Aaron Burr, who had killed Hamilton in a duel, came to visit him in Paris, Talleyrand refused to see him.

After the Terror had run its course, after the guillotine had finished with its gruesome work, the Directory took control of France, and from November of 1795 to November of 1799 did everything it could to protect those who had profited from the Revolution, those who feared, on the one hand, that the Bourbons might return, and, on the other, that a new revolution would bring about a redistribution of property “and the submersion of those particular revolutionaries whom chance, and no other conceivable agency, had recently thrown to the top of the melting pot.” Talleyrand came back to Paris in September of 1797; eight months later he was Minister for Foreign Affairs. He quickly made his fortune. There had been a reaction from the “gloom and misery” produced by the Revolution, “an outburst of enjoyment which took the form of almost frenzied revels and unbridled license.” It was an “age of corruption,” in which every transaction came with a cost, an expense, in other words, a bribe. Because Talleyrand took millions, while others took thousands, he “became an object of obloquy.” He did not mind; there were so many other things he had to do. The government, for example, was, as he quickly realized, too weak to survive. Something had to be done. He began a regular correspondence with the army general whose success in Italy had begun to attract attention; he became friends with Napoleon, and the Directory, unable to govern, was easily dismissed.

Cooper’s explanation of why this happened is an unusually insightful diagnosis, not just of what happened then, but what has often happened since: “as is usually the case when democratic institutions are failing, the general demand among all classes and in all parties was for one strong man who would sweep away all the politicians, who would not pander to the ephemeral powers that were, but would give good government to the majority, who wanted it, and impose firm government upon the few, who did not. Talleyrand, ever sensitive to popular opinion, and gifted with a power of perception that could penetrate the future further than most, was aware of this widespread desire, and was determined to satisfy it.”

Napoleon, only thirty years of age, was “ignorant, anxious to learn, and not ashamed to be taught. The wisest and best liked of his tutors was Talleyrand.” The four years of the Consulate were, in Cooper’s judgment, one of the two most “glorious periods of French history, the reign of Henry IV being the other.” Napoleon’s work was “the reconstruction of France and the pacification of Europe.” The pinnacle of his achievement was the Treaty of Amiens of 1801 which brought peace with England. “If Napoleon had at this moment been capable of moderating his thirst for dominance the history of the world would have been altered.” Talleyrand understood this and tried in vain to change the way Napoleon thought about the future. Napoleon, Talleyrand learned, allowed nothing “but the adversity of fortune to limit the scope of his ambition.” Two years later, the war with England began again. Convinced that Napoleon was a danger to both France and Europe, Talleyrand began to work for his downfall. That meant treason, but not treason to France. With rare intelligence, and rare courage, Talleyrand understood the difference and was willing to act on what he knew.

When Czar Alexander and Napoleon met at the conference of Erfurt to discuss whether Russia would support Napoleon in a war against Austria, Talleyrand did not hesitate to tell Alexander that it was not in his interest to do so. “Sire,” he told him in private, “it is in your power to save Europe, and you will only do so by refusing to give way to Napoleon. The French people,” he insisted, “are civilized, their sovereign is not. The sovereign of Russia is civilized and his people are not: the sovereign of Russia should therefore be the ally of the French people.” The Czar took advantage of advice from the French Foreign Minister and gave him information about the proposals Napoleon had made each day. “This was treachery,” Cooper acknowledges, “but it was treachery upon a magnificent scale. Of the two Emperors, upon whose words the fate of Europe depended, Talleyrand had made one his dupe and the other his informant.”

Talleyrand knew exactly what had to be done. The future of France, and more even than that, the future of Europe, depended upon the continued independence of England. He was convinced that “the liberalizing anti-autocratic spirit of England was necessary in order to maintain the mental equilibrium of the Continent, and prevent the violence of reaction, provoked by the violence of revolution, from going too far in the opposite direction. ‘Get this through your head,’ he once exclaimed to Madame de Remusat, ‘if the English Constitution is destroyed, the civilization of the world will be shaken to its foundations.’”

Talleyrand’s loyalty was to France; Napoleon’s loyalty was to himself. On January 23, 1808, at a special meeting of the privy council, Napoleon began with a few remarks to the effect that “his ministers had no right even to think for themselves, far less to give their thoughts expression. To doubt was for them the beginning of treason, to differ from him was the crime itself.” He then turned to Talleyrand and for “one solid half-hour, without interruption” attacked him for every crime imaginable. Shaking his fist at him, he told him he “was nothing but so much dung in a silk stocking.” Talleyrand never so much as changed expression; never so much as indicated an awareness he was being addressed. When it was over, when the meeting broke up, he turned to one of those who had witnessed this unprecedented torrent of abuse and remarked drily, “What a pity such a great man should be so ill-bred!” The next day, it was as if it had never happened. Napoleon had come to hate him, distrust him, but still could not do without him.

The Czar would not help with Austria, and with an army of half a million men, Napoleon invaded Russia. Talleyrand knew this was the beginning of the end. When Napoleon was banished and the monarchy restored, it was a government that, thanks to Talleyrand, was government on the English model. He was convinced, and for a while convinced the country, that the world had changed, that supreme power could only be exercised with the “consent of bodies drawn from the heart of the country that it governs.” Legitimacy, the Divine Right of Kings, had been based on, and received its support from, religion, but religion had lost its power.

France was free of Napoleon, but it was a conquered country. The four victorious Powers — England, Russia, Prussia and Austria — met at the Congress of Vienna to decide what France would have to pay. Instead, representing a vanquished nation, Talleyrand, “by the charm of his mind and the ascendancy of his genius,” dominated the proceedings. From “being the representative of the one Power which Europe had united to conquer he became at a turn of the wheel the determining factor in the future settlement.” He did more than that. He negotiated a secret treaty in which England, Austria and France agreed to maintain the peace and the existing borders. France was safe.

Talleyrand, sixty years of age, retired from active pubic life and lived with his niece by marriage, a beautiful young woman of twenty-four. In l820, his niece had a “somewhat ostentatious reconciliation” with her husband and bore him a third child, Pauline. The “true parentage was generally attributed to Talleyrand.” A year later, in 1821, Napoleon died. “What an event!” someone declared. Talleyrand rejoined, “It is only a piece of news.” He later explained his real feelings about Napoleon. “I served him so long as I could believe that he himself was completely devoted to France. But when I saw the beginning of those revolutionary enterprises which ruined him I left the ministry, for which he never forgave me.” Nine years later, in 1830, Talleyrand, who was now seventy-seven, became the French ambassador to England, the country whose government he always thought the best model for France. He had no illusions about what the world thought of him, and no doubt about what he thought of himself. “I am thought immoral and machiavellian, I am only calm and disdainful….I have braved the stupidity of public opinion all my life….”

It is hard to find fault with Duff Cooper’s judgment that Talleyrand “was a true patriot and a wise statesman, to whom neither contemporaries nor posterity has done him justice.” Duff Cooper’s biography goes far to right the balance.

Visit D.W. Buffa's website.

Buffa's previous third reading essays: The Great Gatsby; Brave New World; Lord Jim; Death in the Afternoon; Parade's End; The Idiot; The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; The Scarlet Letter; Justine; Patriotic Gore; Anna Karenina; The Charterhouse of Parma; Emile; War and Peace; The Sorrows of Young Werther; Bread and Wine; “The Crisis of the Mind” and A Man Without Qualities; Eugene Onegin; The Collected Works of Thomas Babington Macaulay; The Europeans; The House of Mirth and The Writing of Fiction; Doctor Faustus; the reading list of John F. Kennedy; Jorge Luis Borges; History of the Peloponnesian War; Mansfield Park; To Each His Own; A Passage To India; Seven Pillars of Wisdom; The Letters of T.E. Lawrence; All The King’s Men; The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus; Naguib Mahfouz’s novels of ancient Egypt; Main Street; Theodore H. White's The Making of the President series, part I; Theodore H. White's The Making of the President series, part II; Thus Spoke Zarathustra; Fiction's Failure; Hermann Hesse's Demian; Frederick Douglass, Slavery, and The Fourth of July; Caesar’s Ghost; The American Constitution; A Tale of Two Cities; The Leopard; Madame Bovary; The Sheltering Sky; Tocqueville’s America and Ours; American Statesmen; Ancient and Modern Writers Reconsidered; Père Goriot; The Remarkable Edmund Burke; The Novels of W.H. Hudson; America Revised; The City And Man; "The Use And Abuse Of History"; I, Claudius; The Closing of The American Mind; History of Rome; Before The Deluge; Herodotus's Histories; The Education of Henry Adams.

--Marshal Zeringue

Cynthia Swanson

Cynthia Swanson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the psychological suspense novels The Bookseller, The Glass Forest, and Anyone But Her, and the new short story collection This Isn’t New: Women’s Historical Stories. Swanson was named 2025 Indie Author of the Year by the Indie Author Project, has received the Colorado Book Award (twice) and the WILLA Literary Award, won the Indie Author Project contest, and been a finalist for the High Plains Book Award, the WILLA Literary Award, and the CAL Award. She is also the editor of the award-winning anthology Denver Noir. She lives with her family in Denver.

Recently I asked Swanson about what she was reading. The author's reply:

My latest read is Circe by Madeline Miller. I’ve been in a book club for 25 years, and one of the things I love most about book club is that we read books that either I hadn’t heard of before or hadn’t gotten around to reading. Circe falls into the second category: it was on my radar but hadn’t risen to the top of my To-Read list until another book club member selected it for her month hosting. I loved this novel, which is both an alternative take on The Odyssey and a fleshed-out relating of the goddess Circe’s own story. Much mythology focuses on men’s adventures but doesn’t go into depth about what women (and goddesses) were doing, other than seducing men and leading them down dangerous paths. I love how Miller turns that on its head and portrays Circe as a sympathetic character with her own dreams and desires, irrespective of what Odysseus or any other male wants. At the same time, she experiences growth; when she’s young, she makes mistakes that she has to live with for the rest of her (endless) life. As the novel goes on, Circe tries to overcome her personal demons. Will she succeed? Read the book to find out.

Visit Cynthia Swanson's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bookseller.

The Page 69 Test: The Glass Forest.

Writers Read: Cynthia Swanson (February 2018).

Q&A with Cynthia Swanson.

The Page 69 Test: Anyone But Her.

My Book, The Movie: This Isn't New.

--Marshal Zeringue

Emma Garman

Emma Garman, a Brighton-based writer and critic, has been a columnist for The Paris Review and a contributor to Literary Review, The Daily Beast, Lapham’s Quarterly, and History News Network. She has an MA in creative writing from the City College of New York and an MA in literature from Queen Mary University of London.

Garman's debut novel is The Kindness of Strangers.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Garman's reply:

Although I mostly read novels, at the moment I happen to be reading and immensely enjoying two nonfiction books.

Like a Cat Loves a Bird is a new biographical study of Muriel Spark by the literary scholar James Bailey. Spark, in my opinion, is one of the greatest novelists of all time (I’d say she influenced me, but such is her genius it sounds presumptuous!), and Bailey is such a perceptive, witty, and clever writer. If you think you don’t need to read another book on Spark, I promise that you do. Here’s Bailey on her habit of compiling lists of character traits:

To encounter one of these pages is like stumbling upon the dossier of a murky private investigator, or overhearing the musings of a mind reader. The protagonist of her second novel, Robinson, even spots a newspaper ad for: ‘MURIEL THE MARVEL with her X-ray eyes. Can read your very soul. Scores of satisfied clients.’ A self-congratulatory cameo this early on? The nerve.

The second book I’m reading is old and sadly out-of-print. First published in 1973, Percy Hoskins’ The Sound of Murder describes a series of notorious murders and their investigations. Hoskins, who became a Fleet Street crime reporter at age 21, writes with a seasoned journalist’s knack for telling details and a novelist’s style and verve. His first case, in 1925, saw a young man hanged: a miscarriage of justice, he suggests. His final chapter is about a serial killer in mid-1960s London—“the Thameside Terror”—pursued by a 600-person murder squad. Suffice it to say that for writers of 20th century-set crime fiction, this book is a research goldmine.

Visit Emma Garman's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Kindness of Strangers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Andrew Welsh-Huggins, a son of the Finger Lakes, a Kenyon College graduate, and now a longtime Ohio resident, is the author of more than a dozen crime novels and multiple short stories.

Welsh-Huggins’s new book in the Mercury Carter thriller series, The Delivery, was selected by CrimeReads as one of the most anticipated thrillers, mysteries, and crime novels of 2026, while the first book in the series, The Mailman, was named one of the best mysteries of 2025 by Library Journal.

Welsh-Huggins's 2023 stand-alone crime novel, The End of the Road, was named one of the best thrillers of the first half of 2023 by Library Journal. Kirkus called it “A crackerjack crime yarn chockablock with miscreants and a supersonic pace.”

Welsh-Huggins is also the author of the Shamus Award-nominated Andy Hayes private eye series featuring a former Ohio State and Cleveland Browns quarterback turned private eye, including the most recent book, Sick to Death, which Deadly Pleasures Magazine called, " … a solid p.i. novel with likeable characters, realistic situations and good detection."

Recently I asked Welsh-Huggins about what he was reading. The author's reply:

Though I read widely, including the genres of memoir, horror, literary fiction, true crime, short fiction, and narrative nonfiction (among others), as a mystery writer, I definitely consume a lot of crime fiction. Several recent titles in that genre reflect my interests and also informed my own writing.

A Grave Deception, by Connie Berry. The sixth book in Berry’s traditional mystery Kate Hamilton series, featuring an American antiquities expert transplanted to England, where she feeds her professional passion while solving mysteries. The latest includes a several centuries-old murder that may be connected to a present-day killing. Berry masterfully layers fair play clues throughout, as well as creating original and realistic characters.

The Red Scare Murders, by Con Lehane. Lehane, a veteran crime novelist, introduces a new character, private eye Mick Mulligan, tasked in 1950 New York City with figuring out who really killed a despised cab company owner before the man wrongly arrested for the crime is executed. Set during the 1950s communist witch hunts, with a cast of brilliantly drawn characters, its themes—like Inherit the Wind—reflect on current times as well.

49 Miles Alone, by Natalie Richards. A propulsive YA thriller—and Edgar Award winner—follows two young women hiking on remote Utah trails as danger lurks around every corner. This was a master class in pacing and juggling multiple POVs.

Served Him Right, by Lisa Unger. When a misogynistic cad is found dead, police must deal with multiple potential suspects, including former girlfriends, among them one who is missing. Unger, perhaps the best current psychological suspense writer, skillfully kept me guessing right to the end.

The Last Hitman, by Robin Yocum. Adapted from a 2019 short story by Yocum, this page-turning book follows aging Ohio River Valley mob hitman Angelo Cipriani as he wrestles with his legacy and whether he can survive much longer in the business. Yocum, an Ohio River Valley native, exhibits best practices for turning a community into a character of its own.

Visit Andrew Welsh-Huggins's website.

My Book, The Movie: An Empty Grave.

Q&A with Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

The Page 69 Test: An Empty Grave.

Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins (April 2023).

My Book, The Movie: The End of the Road.

The Page 69 Test: The End of the Road.

Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins (November 2024).

My Book, The Movie: Sick to Death.

The Page 69 Test: Sick to Death.

The Page 69 Test: The Mailman.

Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins (March 2025).

The Page 69 Test: The Delivery.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kayla Hardy

Kayla Hardy is a mythology expert and multi-hyphenate author and screenwriter of Louisiana Creole descent. She earned her PhD in creative writing and African American literature from SUNY Binghamton University. Hardy is an adjunct professor at SUNY Binghamton University and is an accomplished scholar of Black folklore, mythology, and Voodoo.

The Quarter Queen is her first novel.

Recently I asked Hardy about what she was reading. Her reply:

I recently reread Lindsey Stewart’s The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic which is such a seminal work of art that explores the essential contributions of black conjure women through American history in respect to spirituality and health. The book does an excellent job of tracing black wellness back to the southern plantation system where black women first practiced conjure magic to cure illnesses with herbal tinctures and mixtures, whose recipes have endured to this day. The book shows that these practices have lived on to shape positive counter narratives of power in the face of slavery and the Jim Crow era as well as influencing medicinal staples used for everyday purposes. Coming off of writing The Quarter Queen which centers African-American spirituality, it is a reminder to me that black magic does not simply live within the confines of a fantasy, but has lived within our world in a plethora of forms.

Visit Kayla Hardy's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Quarter Queen.

Q&A with Kayla Hardy.

My Book, The Movie: The Quarter Queen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Catriona McPherson

Catriona McPherson (she/her) was born in Scotland and immigrated to the US in 2010. A former linguistics professor, she is now a full-time fiction writer and has published: preposterous 1930s private-detective stories; realistic 1940s amateur-sleuth stories (The Edinburgh Murders is latest); and contemporary psychothriller standalones (The Dead Room is the brand-new one). These are all set in Scotland with a lot of Scottish weather. She also writes modern comic crime capers about a Scot-out-of- water in a “fictional” college town in Northern California sneezedavissneeze. Scot’s Eggs, No. 8 just won for best humorous novel at Left Coast Crime in San Francisco. Her other novels have won Agathas, Anthonys, Leftys and Macavitys and been finalists for an Edgar, a CWA Dagger and three Mary Higgins Clark awards.

McPherson is a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. McPherson's reply:

I’ve been having a fantastic run of reading just recently. Yes, my alphabetically-through-the-TBR policy has come good again. I’m in the Hs – Greg Herren, Mick Herron, Georgette Heyer – and these three I’m picking out today.

Edwin Hill is a pal and so I went to my local bookshop (Avid Reader, Davis) when I heard he had a new one out. Shamingly enough, though, I realised I was two books behind, rather than one, so it’s Edwin’s 2024 psychothriller Who to Believe that I’ve just devoured.

It’s a structural masterclass. I never mean that to suggest that the structure is what you’re going to notice – which sounds like no fun at all – but always that the structure is an advanced undertaking that disappears completely into an enjoyable read. That’s certainly true here. If I wrote a murder multiple times, once for each of the characters who was there at the metaphorical kill, I’d bore myself, my agent and possibly my editor. If my agent ever passed it on. I wouldn’t bore anyone else unless a burglar broke in and took it from the drawer where it belonged. But Edwin? Fantastic stuff. The murder, its lead-up and its aftermath get more fascinating with every new narrator. And, for once, even though each narrator is compelling, you’re never sorry when the change happens. I can’t recommend this highly enough. It’s a triumph.

A book I picked up because it was next on the list, but didn’t expect to gallop through with any great enthusiasm was Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. I know, I know. But doesn’t that ever happen to you? You miss the first explosion of hoopla and then you keep hearing about it and it gets on top 100 lists and then there’s an anniversary re-issue and somehow you end up thinking it’s going to feel very good for you and worthy. Like having the kale instead of the chips. In this case, the thought of a story set against the turbulent recent history of Afghanistan – understatement alert – didn’t suggest much in the way of actual pleasure either. And it was a debut. So maybe the writing would be ropey. (Mine was.) Well. If we needed more proof that I’m an idiot. The characters are beguiling, the story rips along, the twists cause gasps and the writing is so vivid I’m kind of glad I didn’t read it when I was just beginning. I’d have got disheartened and given up. So hardly breaking news, but there it is: The Kite Runner is wonderful.

And as if that wasn’t late enough to a literary party, I also recently read Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. From 1937. And this came with an introduction, an afterword, a reading guide and a wheelbarrow load of sociological and academic contextualisation. Did it promise fun? No. But was it short? Yes. (Am I a Philistine? Three guesses.)

First off, I’m not going to lie: Hurston depicts the vernacular of her characters with a lot of novel spellings and apostrophes and it takes a while to get your eye in. But once you do, their voices ring out in your head. And her voice – in the narration – rings out like cathedral bells. It’s amazing. That said, the novel is still a tough read. Much more like what I was expecting the Hosseini to be. I mean, it’s the Jim Crow South for a start and also she’s unflinching in her treatment of colourism in the Black community she’s creating. Besides that, there’s an acceptance of domestic abuse as an expression of love and commitment that makes you glad it’s now instead of then.

I’m back nearer then than now for the next read, mind you: Michael Innes’ A Private View, where Sir John Appleby has just been persuaded by his artist wife, Judith, to attend one (a private view) at a London gallery, whereupon a valuable painting is stolen from under everyone’s eye. I’m only two chapters in, but I’m remembering why I love Innes so much. He’s just said Appleby “fed his wife into a revolving door and met her outside”. Bliss.

Visit Catriona McPherson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Go to My Grave.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2018).

My Book, The Movie: The Turning Tide.

The Page 69 Test: The Turning Tide.

My Book, The Movie: A Gingerbread House.

The Page 69 Test: Hop Scot.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Beneath Us.

Q&A with Catriona McPherson.

The Page 69 Test: The Witching Hour.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (September 2024).

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (December 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Scotzilla.

My Book, The Movie: Scotzilla.

The Page 69 Test: Scot's Eggs.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2025).

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Room.

--Marshal Zeringue

Shay Kauwe

Shay Kauwe is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) author from Hawaiʻi. She grew up on the Homestead in Waimānalo but moved to Russia because she fell in love with a boy. They now live in Oʻahu. Kauwe holds an M.Ed in Education and was named an NCTE Early Educator of Color in 2021. In 2022, she was awarded an Empowering ʻŌiwi Leadership Award by the Hawaiian Council, for her work in storytelling and literacy.

Her debut urban fantasy The Killing Spell is the first traditionally published adult fantasy novel by a Hawaiian author.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Kauwe's reply:

I just finished The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, a historical horror set in the Jim Crow era, centered around the experiences of two siblings: Robbie, who’s been sentenced to a school for troubled boys, and his sister Gloria, who’s trying to get him out. The emotional intensity of this book left a lasting impact. I needed a little break from ghosts after this.

Lately, I've been drawn to Westerns, so The Great Work by Sheldon Costa was a peculiar romp through a wild American West, following a drunk alchemist and his teenage nephew as they hunt down a salamander whose blood may be the key to bringing the dead back to life. Dark and unsettling, it was a unique, new vision for the subgenre of “Weird Westerns.”

For non-fiction, I read, Who Gets to Be Indian? Ethnic Fraud, Disenrollment, and Other Difficult Conversations About Native American Identity by Dina Gilio-Whitaker which discusses the ethnic fraud of indigenous people using socio-historical analysis. Gilio-Whitaker’s deep dive on the slippery issue of “pretendians” is insightful and tracked down the historical roots of this modern phenomenon (California by the way).

And finally, Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World’s Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West by David Wolman and Julian Smith, which is the true story of the three Hawaiian paniolo (cowboys) who triumphed at the 1908 Cheyenne Rodeo. I picked this up expecting a dry historical account, but it surprised me. Fast-paced and written in a prose that jumps off the page, I thoroughly enjoyed this!

Visit Shay Kauwe's website.

Q&A with Shay Kauwe.

--Marshal Zeringue