Beck Kubrick

Beck Kubrick is an award-winning writer and cartoonist living in Manchester, UK. They like stories about terrible girls and thinking about the apocalypse. They have worked with Cartoon Network, Mad Cave Studios, Oni Press, and more.

Kubrick's new book is Dead Girls, their debut graphic novel as author-illustrator.

Recently I asked the author-illustrator about what they were reading. Kubrick's reply:

My reading this year has been very reactionary to a reading slump at the tail end of last year, I can sometimes find it difficult to ‘switch off’ and read for fun rather than critically. Audiobooks have helped; I still pause to take notes sometimes. This is a useful skill when beta reading, I most recently beta read for author friend, Wren James, on a book they have out on submission. I’ve been a fan of theirs since I was a teenager and even drew them fanart once. I love post- apocalyptic stories and the soft apocalypse of The Quiet At The End Of The World is so good.

Speaking of soft-apocalypses, I recently read Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, it’s about the end of the world and the dichotomy of the chaos of the cities versus the community of a rural, Anishinaabe reserve. It parallels the First Nations people's survival, persecution and traditions against a modern apocalypse. I need to read the sequel.

Most recently, I re-read Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory: Stories by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. It’s a collection of absurdist short stories from the creator of Bojack Horseman. It’s so sincere and bizarre and funny, many stories revolve around something mundane and then it spirals and you see how far the joke can go, whilst still maintaining heart.

I first read it after my unceremonious university ‘graduation’ during the pandemic. I had no idea what I was doing, whilst the world was quietly (sort-of) ending around me. Then I read the book and was like ‘This! This Is what I should be doing!”. I didn’t grow up around people who read much so whilst I inhaled books as a kid, being an author seemed so intangible; something only for old, wealthy men who died a while ago and were very, very serious. When I was really little I didn’t even realize they made new books! I thought we were done. There’s so many standouts in the collection, but ‘Rufus’ is always my first recommendations, it’s from the POV of a dog, Rufus, and his existential musings and love for his ‘man monster’. The audiobook is great, it’s a stacked cast but Colman Domingo is the standout.

I also read a friend's poetry book, Adaptive Strategies For A Sensitive Nervous System; it’s a poetry collection with illustrations and art about being a sensitive person in this world. I read it after I saw her play, Golden Time. I’m always amazed by the ways people can actually get their thoughts out of their heads and communicate them to others. I’m working on that.

This year I discovered both Grady Hendrix and Melissa Border and by ‘discovered’ I mean in the way Columbus ‘discovered’ America in that I am very late to the party. Hendrix’s ‘soft’ horror is so good, it’s gory and violent but also funny and so easy to read. I was hesitant to read him sooner because I don’t always trust male authors to write women and girls well. I read Witchcraft for Wayward Girls and was amazed at how real the characters felt. He seems to write from the groundbreaking perspective that I share, but many authors don’t; women and girls are people. I was worried it was a fluke and put off reading The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires as I feared he’d be reductive of a southern homemaker but once again, it’s terrible to say, but I was amazed with the depth and care with which the women were written. I put off one book, We Sold Our Souls, as I find books about music difficult sometimes but once again, it was great. I guess what I’m saying is; I’d trust Grady Hendrix with my life.

At risk of sounding like an edgy twelve year old; I often find that when books are talked about online as ‘So weird! So raw! So honest!’ that I don’t find them particularly surprising or that weird, I don’t know what that says about me. Reading Broder’s work I wasn’t shocked by the content, but I was shocked when I felt the flicker of recognition like ‘oh whatever’s wrong with me exists elsewhere too’.

I started with Milk Fed and worked backwards; it sounds silly but I just didn’t know you could write like this; especially essays! I thought I had to shroud my thoughts in layers of metaphor and removal and then here Border is; just laying it all out on the page. It’s really cool learning more about what’s out there, what can be done and how to market it. I think Death Valley is my favorite Broder novel and there’s several essays from So Sad Today I’m still thinking about months later.

The only Booktuber I follow is ‘frankie’s shelf’ and he never misses with his recommendations, my tastes very much align with his. I love books about strange people, especially women and girls, that combine the mundane with the extraordinary. Some of the most recent recommendations I’ve read and loved are: Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Howarth and Sky Daddy by Kate Folk. I thought I didn’t really like period, or gothic slow-burns but it’s just because I hadn’t read Howarth’s! Sky Daddy is nuts, I love it. The protagonist's obsession is so visceral and she’s so certain that despite my better judgement, I was rooting for her to get what she wants and the ending was so perfect and satisfying and poetic.

Finally, as a comic book artist, I’d be remiss not to mention at least one comic; I’ve apparently just been on a prose kick! Minor Arcana is currently my only standing order at my local shop. It’s by Jeff Lemire, whom I adore the work of- especially anything he writes and draws himself, once again, he plays with the mundane and hyperreality in such a fun way.

Follow Beck Kubrick on Instagram.

My Book, The Movie: Dead Girls.

The Page 69 Test: Dead Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

D.W. Buffa

D.W. Buffa was born in San Francisco and raised in the Bay Area. After graduation from Michigan State University, he studied under Leo Strauss, Joseph Cropsey and Hans J. Morgenthau at the University of Chicago where he earned both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in political science. He received his J.D. degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Buffa was a criminal defense attorney for 10 years and his seven Joseph Antonelli novels strive to reflect, from his own experience, what a courtroom lawyer does, the way he (or she) thinks, and the way he feels about what he does.

In Buffa's new novel, Immunity, the President of the United States has ordered the murder of his political opponents—and the Constitution seems powerless to stop him.

Here is Buffa's take on the Lost History of the American Constitution:

In February of 1941, J.P. Lippincott Co. published a limited edition of the five volumes of Elliot’s Debates, originally published under the sanction of Congress in 1830. This limited edition of 750 sets, entitled “The Debates of the several State Conventions on the adoption of the Federal Constitution, as recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787,” has never been republished. It is out of print, unavailable; the ratification debates have vanished from memory, no longer part of our history. Had they been available, had they been there for lawyers and judges, congressmen and senators, and every day citizens to read and study, we would have known, among other things, that the future Chief Justice, John Marshall, thought it a matter almost too obvious for comment that, unlike a British King, an American President could never have immunity for crimes or misconduct while he was in office, and that James Madison, who, more than anyone else, designed the American Constitution, insisted that a President could be removed from office, not after conviction in an impeachment trial, but the moment he was suspected of an impeachable offense.

The Constitutional Convention finished its work in September of 1787. Ratification, it was agreed, required the approval of nine of the thirteen states. When the Virginia Ratifying Convention met on June 2, 1788, eight states had already ratified. If Virginia ratified, America had a Constitution; if Virginia failed to ratify, the Union was almost certain to dissolve. There were 168 delegates to the convention, and, while each of them had a vote, most were content to listen. That, as it turned out, took some effort of its own. Patrick Henry’s first speech, given in opposition to ratification, was close to nine thousand words. The “public mind,” he insisted, “as well as my own, is extremely uneasy at the proposed change of government.” Governor John Randolph replied in a speech nearly as long. Unlike Henry, Randolph had been a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but, like Henry, he had opposed it.

“I refused to sign, and if the same were to return, I would still refuse; but as I think that those eight states which have adopted the Constitution will not recede, I am a friend of the Union.” If Virginia were now to reject the Constitution, it would produce disunion, and union, lost now, was lost forever. Without a union of the states, there would instead of peace be “licentiousness, insecurity, and oppression.”

Henry rejected this out of hand. The danger was not from the failure of union; the danger was from a new government that did not include a bill of rights. “I am not well versed in history, but I will submit to your recollection, whether liberty has been destroyed more often by the licentiousness of the people, or by the tyranny of rulers.”

James Madison was quick with a reply. The most frequent cause of despotism in republics, he reminded them, is a majority “trampling on the rights of the minority.”

In what became a pattern, Patrick Henry ignored what was said and launched a different attack. The government Madison and the others proponents of the Constitution want was not a republic at all. It “squints toward monarchy.” Enraged by his own accusations, he charged that, “Your President may easily become a king.” A President with ambition and ability can “render himself absolute! The army is in his hands….” If he violates the law, “will not the recollection of his crimes teach him to make one bold push for the American throne? Will not the immense difference between being master of everything, and being ignominiously tried and punished, powerfully excite him to make this bold push?”

At the end of this speech, Henry admitted, “I have, I fear, fatigued the committee.” But he had not fatigued himself. “I have not said one hundred thousandth part of what I have in my mind, and wish to impart.”

This, it is easy to imagine, was not a prospect anyone was likely to look forward to. Instead of proceeding in order, taking up one clause of the Constitution at a time, Henry, and a few others, talked about everything they could find to criticize. Some of those criticisms were deeply personal. Governor Randolph became incensed.

“I find myself attacked in the most illiberal manner by the honorable gentleman. I disdain his aspersions and insinuations. His asperity is warranted by no principle of parliamentary decency, nor compatible with the least shadow of friendship; and if our friendship must fall, let it fall, like Lucifer, never to rise again!”

Henry immediately got to his feet and insisted that he had not meant to “wound the feelings of any gentleman; and he was sorry if he offended the honorable gentleman without intending it.”

Randolph replied that he was relieved by what Henry had said, but then goes on to say, “I beg the honorable gentleman to pardon me for reminding him that his historical references and quotations are not accurate. If he errs so much with respect to his facts, as he has done in his history, we cannot depend on his information or assertions.”

This did not stop Henry from speaking, nothing ever could; but he was not taken as seriously as some of the others who argued against ratification. James Monroe, who would one day become President himself, was concerned that the President would have too much power. Like most educated men of his time, Monroe knew ancient history. After describing the governments of Athens, Sparta, and Thebes, he read several passages from Polybius to underscore the necessity of enforceable limitations on executive power.

“Our great unalienable rights ought to be secured from being destroyed by such unlimited power, either by a bill of rights, or by an express provision in the body of the Constitution.” The President, he observed, has a four year term, “and is not excluded from re-election. Suppose he violates the laws and Constitution, or commits high crimes. By whom is he to be tried?” Because he “commands the army of the United States till he is condemned,” there is little chance a trial would ever take place. And, without a limit on how long he can serve, “I presume that once he is elected, he may be elected forever.”

This was one of the few times the future President spoke. John Marshall, who would become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, spoke only a few times as well. Monroe thought the President had too much power; Marshall insisted that there was an essential difference between the American President under the proposed Constitution and the British monarch. It was a comparison that, had the ratifying debates been available, might have given the present Supreme Court a better understanding of the powers a President really has. “If your President was not accountable for his conduct, - if it were a constitutional maxim, that he could do no wrong, - would you be safer than you are now? If you can answer, yes, to these questions, then adopt the British constitution.” In other words, have a king.

The convention was basically divided over three issues: the power of the presidency, the status of the state militia, and whether amendments - a bill of rights - should be made before ratification. George Mason, who was one of George Washington’s closest friends, had been a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and, like Governor Randolph, had refused to sign. Unlike John Randolph, he was still opposed, but unlike Patrick Henry, he had a well-ordered mind and great respect for those with whom he disagreed. Precisely because he knew Washington so well, he understood that the kind of power Washington had been given during the Revolutionary War could never safely be given to anyone else. The Presidency, as proposed, was almost certain to become a monarchy. It would not happen at the beginning, because the first President would be that “one great man, who, he believed, would be unanimously elected,” but no one after Washington would be that selfless. That was the reason Mason could say, “I abominate and detest the idea of a government, when there is a standing army. The militia may be here destroyed by that method which has been practiced in other parts of the world before: that is, by rendering them useless - by disarming them.” By doing this, the national government will let the militia perish, “in order to have a pretense of establishing a standing army.”

The idea of a militia sounds quaint to those grown used to million man armies and billions spent on defense, but the militia then was considered one of the main bulwarks of freedom. In Virginia every male adult was liable for service. Under the present government, Mason pointed out, “all ranks of people,” rich and poor alike, “are subject to militia duty.” The problem was how to keep them properly armed. Attempts to have the militia completely armed had failed. Everyone was supposed to own a rifle; Jefferson had wanted the state to supply one to anyone could not afford one. All of this because the militia was seen as the sole alternative to a standing army. There could be no government without the means to enforce the law and defend against Indian attack and foreign invasion. Mason wanted, at a minimum, an express declaration that the state governments had authority to a arm and discipline the militia. Without that, there would be no protection from a national government, and, specifically, a President who wanted to become a king.

Mason did not get what he wanted, but, later, the Second Amendment guaranteed the right to bear arms to make certain that the federal government could not eliminate the state militias. The connection between the right to bear arms, and the purpose for which that right was guaranteed, has been quite lost on those who have never read the debate.

James Monroe insisted that the first President elected “may continue in office for life;” Mason explained exactly how it would happen. It would happen when a President was accused of treason. Impeachment proceedings are begun and the President is put on trial. But, because he “is not removed from his office during his trial…he has the command of the army and navy, and may surround the Senate with thirty thousand troops.” This, for Mason, is the reason that the President should be made ineligible for a second term, and that he should not have the power to pardon, “because he may frequently pardon crimes which were advised by himself.” Moreover, if he can grant pardons, “before indictment, or conviction, may he not stop inquiry and prevent detection?” As things stand, without changes the Presidency will become nothing more than an “elective monarchy.”

James Madison had an answer, and while it did not persuade George Mason to change his mind about the Constitution, it may well have given sufficient assurance to those still undecided to vote for ratification. Madison told Mason that he was wrong: the President would be removed from his office during his trial: “There is one security in this case to which gentlemen may not have adverted: if the President be connected in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him; they can remove him if found guilty; they can suspend him when suspected, and the power will devolve on the Vice-President. Should he be suspected, also, he may likewise be suspended till his impeachment and removal, and the legislature may make a temporary appointment. This is a great security.”

It was Madison’s specific genius that he could judge the strength of the arguments on both sides of a question, and then, with a rare generosity of mind, acknowledge when he had not, on a first examination, seen things as clearly as he should have. Eight months earlier, in the Constitutional Convention, he had opposed what he had now come to believe was an essential, an indispensable, protection against the abuse of Presidential power. He had thought suspension before conviction gave too much power to the House of Representatives, that a Congressional majority might, without proper cause, remove a President who had not done anything to warrant suspicion of impeachable crimes; but now, persuaded that the more serious danger was a President who, unlike the House of Representative, had command of the army, Madison made the argument that, it is not too much to say, saved the Constitution, and saved the Union.

There was only one argument Mason and the other opponents could make, and they made it over and over again: Nothing was safe without a bill of rights, an enumeration of all the things government could not do. Madison insisted it was not necessary; that, for example, the “best and only security for religious liberty” was not a written statement, but the “multiplicity of sects” that made a dominant religion impossible. More importantly, if there was a need for amendments, they could be added after ratification. The demand that they be added before ratification would cause every state, including those that had already ratified, to “think herself equally entitled to propose as many amendments” as Virginia, which had proposed not less than forty. The demand for previous amendments, Madison declared, “are but another name for rejection.”

Finally, after three full weeks of unending debate, the convention was ready for a vote; a vote, everyone understood, that would decide, not just whether Virginia would approve the Constitution, but whether there would be a Union, a United States. Madison reminded them of the example America had already set for the world.

Nothing “has excited more admiration in the world than the manner in which free governments have been established in America; for it was the first instance, from the creation of the world to the American revolution, that free inhabitants have been seen deliberating on a form of government, and selecting such of their citizens as possessed their confidence, to determine upon and give effect to it.”

The vote to ratify the Constitution, the vote that made Virginia the ninth state to ratify, the vote that brought the American Constitution into being, passed 89 to 79. It was a margin so narrow, that it is fair to say that every argument made by Jame Madison was essential, especially his assurance that a President suspected of impeachable offenses could be suspended from office before the impeachment trial began.

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; Talleyrand; The Golden Bowl; The Life of George Washington; Tacitus and the dangers of history.

--Marshal Zeringue

Susan Coll

USA Today bestselling author Susan Coll's novels include The Literati, Real Life & Other Fictions, and Bookish People. Her other books include The Stager, Acceptance, Rockville Pike, and Karlmarx.com.

Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, NPR.org, theatlantic.com, The Millions, and other publications. Her novel, Acceptance, was made into a television movie starring the hilarious Joan Cusack.

Coll is the recipient of multiple grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She works at Politics and Prose Bookstore and was the president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation for five years. She teaches occasional workshops at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Coll's new novel is Word Salad.

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

My book club has been reading novels that have either won or been short-listed for The Women’s Prize for Fiction, which has been a great way to engage – or sometimes reengage—with books that I intended to read but that in many cases slipped off my radar. Our most recent selection was Anne Enright’s The Forgotten Waltz. I’m embarrassed to say that I had not previously read Enright’s fiction and was very glad to have picked this up. It's a slim, elegant novel, written from the point of view of an unreliable and unlikeable narrator. Set in Dublin in 2009, the novel centers on an adulterous affair, which might sound reductive, but Enright manages to avoid the sorts of tropes one might expect with such a pat storyline. The writing is gorgeous and she throws a curveball by having a young child with health concerns bear witness to the badly behaving adults. There’s a delicious train wreck quality to the story that kept me turning the pages, as we watch the narrator deliberately blow up her own marriage and destroy another.

Visit Susan Coll's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Susan Coll & Zoe.

The Page 69 Test: Acceptance.

The Page 69 Test: Beach Week.

The Page 69 Test: The Stager.

The Page 69 Test: Real Life and Other Fictions.

The Page 69 Test: The Literati.

The Page 69 Test: Word Salad.

--Marshal Zeringue

Suzanne Redfearn

Suzanne Redfearn is the #1 Amazon and USA Today bestselling author of nine novels: The Wonder of One, Call of the Camino, Two Good Men, Where Butterflies Wander, Moment In Time, Hadley & Grace, In an Instant, No Ordinary Life, and Hush Little Baby. Her books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have been recognized by RT Reviews, Target Recommends, Goodreads, Publisher’s Marketplace, and Kirkus Reviews. She has been awarded Best New Fiction from Best Book Awards and has been a Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist.

Born and raised on the east coast, Redfearn moved to California when she was fifteen. Currently, she lives in Laguna Beach with her husband where they own Lumberyard Restaurant. In addition to being an author, Redfearn is an architect specializing in residential and commercial design. When not writing, she enjoys doing anything and everything with her family—skiing, golf, tennis, pickleball, hiking, board games, and watching reality TV. She is an avid baseball fan. Her team is the Angels.

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

Lately, I've gotten in the habit of having several books going at once. I usually have one on audible and several on Kindle.

Currently, on my Kindle, I’m reading:

Jojo Moyes, We All Live Here. Moyes is an auto read for me. I love her quirky characters and how genuinely she paints domestic life and everyday drama. This story is no exception. I’m about halfway through.

Another auto read is Elizabeth Strout, and I’m zipping through her short new novel The Things We Never Say, a compelling story about the heavy burdens each of us carries alone.

On a lighter note, I decided to jump into Carley Fortune’s latest, Our Perfect Storm, to see what all the buzz is about. Her sweet rom-com storytelling is worth the buzz.

Finally, for ten years my daughter has sworn by the lessons she learned in Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, and I finally decided to read it. The book was written in 1932, but Carnegie’s advice is timeless. Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks? Each day, I’m doing my best to put the priceless knowledge to work.

On Audible, I’m listening to the early release of the audio version of my own novel, The Wonder of One. One of my greatest joys is to

hear the narrators’ interpretations of my novel and how they use their incredible talent to transform the story into something else entirely.

My favorite novel so far this year was Whistler by Ann Patchett. The problem with reading Ann Patchett is she’s so good I usually end up paralyzed by her talent for weeks after I read her.

Visit Suzanne Redfearn's website, and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Coffee with a Canine: Suzanne Redfearn and Cooper.

My Book, The Movie: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: No Ordinary Life.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2016).

My Book, The Movie: No Ordinary Life.

My Book, The Movie: In an Instant.

The Page 69 Test: In an Instant.

Q&A with Suzanne Redfearn.

My Book, The Movie: Hadley and Grace.

The Page 69 Test: Hadley & Grace.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (March 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Moment in Time.

My Book, The Movie: Moment in Time.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2024).

Writers Read: S. E. Redfearn (October 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Two Good Men.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (October 2025).

My Book, The Movie: Call of the Camino.

The Page 69 Test: Call of the Camino.

My Book, The Movie: The Wonder of One.

The Page 69 Test: The Wonder of One.

--Marshal Zeringue

Robert Dugoni

Robert Dugoni is a critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author, reaching over 9 million readers worldwide. He is best known for his Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle. He is also the author of the Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, The World Played Chess, and Her Deadly Game. His novel The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell received Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award. The Washington Post named his nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary a Best Book of the Year.

Dugoni's new novel is One Split Second.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Dugoni's reply:

I’m reading several novels. I usually have a wide variety. I’m reading The Shadow Friends by Tess Gerritsen, the third book in

her series involving slightly older, but highly capable members of The Martini Club who solve mysteries and crimes. You can’t go wrong with Tess Gerritsen.

I’m also reading Lisa Gardner’s latest, You’ll be Sorry. I’m not sorry. It’s scary. A married couple with secrets in a secluded lodge of a small town. Gives you chills, doesn’t it?

I’m also reading Sawgrass Grave by Brooke Terpening. It’s the story of a mitigation investigator seeking information to be used at the trial of her client, a not so likeable man accused of a horrific crime.

And I’m reading a Cath Carson psychological mystery, Beneath the Carriage House. A divorced mom trying desperately to hang onto her child against a horrible husband – a doctor, and his shiny new wife, moves into a creepy carriage house on the property of a woman who she has never known, but learns is her aunt. What can go wrong seems to go wrong, and every page turn makes me wonder, what’s beneath the Carriage House?

Visit Robert Dugoni's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Wrongful Death.

The Page 69 Test: Bodily Harm.

My Book, The Movie: Bodily Harm.

The Page 69 Test: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: The Eighth Sister.

The Page 69 Test: The Eighth Sister.

My Book, The Movie: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Agent.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Agent.

Q&A with Robert Dugoni.

The Page 69 Test: In Her Tracks.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: A Killing on the Hill.

My Book, The Movie: A Killing on the Hill.

The Page 69 Test: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

My Book, The Movie: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (October 2024).

My Book, The Movie: Her Cold Justice.

The Page 69 Test: Her Cold Justice.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (February 2026).

--Marshal Zeringue

Helene Wecker

Helene Wecker’s first novel, The Golem and the Jinni, was awarded the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature, the VCU Cabell Award for First Novel, and the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, and was nominated for a Nebula Award and a World Fantasy Award. A Midwest native, Wecker holds a B.A. in English from Carleton College and an M.F.A. in Fiction Writing from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in literary journals such as Joyland and Catamaran, as well as the fantasy anthology The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories. She currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and children.

Wecker's new novel, The Gates of Midnight, is the much-anticipated conclusion to The Golem and the Jinni trilogy.

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

I've been in a weird reading space for the past month or so, the kind where I have a hard time settling. I'll pick up a book and then give it up as not quite right, when the truth is that it's perfectly fine and I'm the problem. I'm glad that I managed to read Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional before the malaise set in. Wood's protagonist is an unnamed Australian woman who, in the throes of burnout, decides to visit a shabby quasi-convent near the village where she grew up. The next thing the reader knows, she's left her husband and her job and moved in permanently. She's not a nun, or at all religious. She doesn't even believe in God. What she seems to want is refuge and solitude, so that she can do the work of examining her own life. And the convent provides that, for the most part -- though there are crises here and there, including a mouse infestation that begins as a nuisance and then turns horrifyingly Biblical. There's also an extended dilemma involving a celebrity nun and the remains of one of the convent's former sisters. The narrator describes these doings alongside her own childhood, excavating memories and regrets. The outcome is nothing so dramatic as a spiritual rebirth; instead Wood makes us feel the result as a series of slow, tectonic shifts, as the narrator adjusts towards a greater acceptance.

Visit Helene Wecker's website.

Writers Read: Helene Wecker (June 2013).

The Page 69 Test: The Golem and the Jinni.

--Marshal Zeringue

Laura Creedle

Laura Creedle is the author of The Deep Well, which Kirkus Reviews called “a fresh take on horror,” and The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily. When they’re not writing, Creedle can usually be found playing pinball or watching indie horror. They live in Austin, Texas, with their husband and a feral cat named Hellman who was found with her head stuck in a mayonnaise jar.

Creedle's new novel is The Girl in Green.

Recently I asked the author about what they were reading. Creedle's reply:

I’m reading a lot of indie horror right now. Last time I was in Louisville Ky, I went to Butcher Cabin Books. The co-owner of the store, Jenny Kiefer, wrote a book called This Wretched Valley, about a lost climbing expedition in the wilds of Kentucky. I’m a sucker for the idea of a lost expedition, Dyatlov Pass style, so it instantly piqued my interest. The author is a rock climber and it shows and all the details. There are paranormal aspects to the book but since I’m afraid of heights, I found the climbing scenes particularly nerve-wracking.

I just finished Silvia Moreno Garcia’s Velvet was the Night. I loved Mexican Gothic, and I was expecting something similar, but this book took me by surprise. It’s a noir set in the wake of Mexico’s 1971 Corpus Christi student massacre. I didn’t know this history and I found the book fascinating.

Visit Laura Creedle's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily.

My Book, The Movie: The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily.

Writers Read: Laura Creedle (January 2018).

--Marshal Zeringue

Claire Booth

Claire Booth spent more than a decade as a daily newspaper reporter, much of it covering crimes so convoluted and strange they seemed more like fiction than reality. Eventually, she had enough of the real world and decided to write novels instead. Her Sheriff Hank Worth mystery series takes place in Branson, Missouri, where small-town Ozark politics and big-city country music tourism clash in, yes, strange and convoluted ways. Her latest is the critically acclaimed Hidden Currents.

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

I usually have two books going at once--a novel and a non-fiction. Here are a few that I've enjoyed lately.

Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy. I just finished this and can’t stop thinking about it. It’s an absolutely beautiful book that manages to be haunting and exciting at the same time (an enormously difficult thing to pull off). The island of Shearwater, close to Antarctica, is disappearing into the ocean and with it the research station and seed bank that are located there. A woman washes up on the shore during a storm and is nursed back to health by the widower and his three children who are caretakers of the island. McConaghy brings everything to life—the island and its animal and plant inhabitants, as well as the mysterious woman and the caretaker’s family, all of whom are hiding secrets. It’s an examination of loss and love—how to survive the first and why to bother with the second. It’s also a dazzlingly entertaining read.

Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories, by Agatha Christie. I found this 1985 edition at a garage sale and I’ve dipping into it in between the novels I read. It’s been a real treat.

The Living and the Dead, by Christoffer Carlsson. I’ve recommended Carlsson’s books before, and he’s so good, I have to do it again. This is his latest, and the Swedish author keeps getting better. It’s a cold case in a small Swedish town, where twenty years of secrets are about to be uncovered. Carlsson’s characters are so rich and well-drawn, you feel like you’re living alongside them in rural Sweden. In his day job, he’s a criminologist, so he knows a thing or two about the human psyche. If you like this one (and you will), go back and read Blaze Me a Sun and Under the Storm.

The Electra McDonnell series, by Ashley Weaver. This is a five-book series that I desperately wanted to be longer. Living in London during the WWII Blitz, Electra earns her living as a thief and a safecracker. It’s the latter skill that brings her to the attention of British military intelligence, which needs her to break in and “liberate” things from Nazi sympathizers. These are darker than standard cozy mysteries (Weaver treats the Blitz with the solemnity and pain that it deserves), but there’s with and romance and danger and absolutely buckets of charm. I loved them. You’ll definitely want to read them in order. Then you can join my lobbying campaign to get her to write more of them.

1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West, by Roger Crowley. Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. This chronicles the history of the great Christian city that straddled Europe and Asia and was the ultimate prize for any conqueror. Crowley pulls off a major feat—the book is packed with history and facts and still manages to be fast-paced and smooth to the point of almost reading like a novel. It’s helped enormously by great use of primary sources that really let the voices of the eyewitnesses involved shine through. If you enjoy history, this is a great one for you.

A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, by Kevin Fedarko, with photos by Pete McBride. One day, in a spectacular feat of bad judgement, a writer and his photographer friend decide to hike the Grand Canyon. The whole Grand Canyon. With no preparation. (There’s a reason why only a few dozen people in history have accomplished this.) It takes a book to explain why they tried it, how they survived, and what they got out of it. Fedarko is a beautiful writer and paints a picture of the canyon with words so vivid, they’ll stay with you long after you’ve finished the book. He and McBride originally conceived the hike, which they did in sections, as an assignment for National Geographic. McBride’s gorgeous NatGeo-worthy photos are an added bonus to a phenomenal book.

Visit Claire Booth's website.

My Book, The Movie: Another Man's Ground.

The Page 69 Test: Another Man's Ground.

My Book, The Movie: A Deadly Turn.

The Page 69 Test: A Deadly Turn. 

Writers Read: Claire Booth (March 2019).

My Book, The Movie: Fatal Divisions.

The Page 69 Test: Fatal Divisions.

Q&A with Claire Booth.

--Marshal Zeringue

Linda Kass

Linda Kass began her career as a magazine journalist and correspondent for regional and national publications. Along with her new novel, World News from Waverley High, she is the author of three previous works of historical fiction: Tasa’s Song (2016), A Ritchie Boy (2020), and Bessie (2023). A longtime civic leader, she is the founder and owner of Gramercy Books, an independent bookstore in Central Ohio. Kass lives in Columbus with her husband, Frank; they have four children, six grandchildren, and a labradoodle named Wally.

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

I recently finished back-to-back readings of Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine, third in his crime trilogy set in New York. I was left with an impression that Whitehead’s Ray Carney had some aligned traits, or at least parallels, with Morrison’s Mason Dead II, both Black businessmen who make property, commerce, and respectability central to their identities. But this is something I need to contemplate further. To review each:

Song of Solomon was written in 1977 and Morrison’s third novel after The Bluest Eye and Sula. It’s a deep and sprawling story that blends magical realism, folklore, and poetic prose. It follows Macon "Milkman" Dead III (Macon Dead II’s son) on a coming-of- age journey from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins as it explores identity formation and evolution, intergenerational family trauma, and African American heritage. The characters are rich but flawed from Milkman and his self-absorbed youth to his estranged and mystical aunt Pilate and the complex women who carry the emotional weight of the narrative. I love Morrison’s attention to detail, especially in expressing tense emotion and speech. The novel covers nearly a century of American history—the early chapters are set in Michigan in the early 1930s—as it affects a single family. If the first half of the novel reveals how Milkman grows up into chaos and genuine danger, the second part is one of flight where he is flung out of his private maelstrom and forced to discover, explore, comprehend, and accept a world more dangerous than the ghetto neighborhood known as Blood Bank (filled with eccentrics, whores, bullies, and lunatics) which he visited as a boy. This latter section is both Milkman’s liberating escape from generational trauma and his dangerous abandonment of loved ones. Although it begins as a hungry hunt for a cache of gold that his father and Pilate left in a cave in Virginia, Milkman’s search is finally a search for family history.

In Cool Machine, Colson Whitehead concludes one of the richest portraits of New York — his entertaining trilogy of novels that opened in the late 1950s with Harlem Shuffle and chronicled a changing Harlem over a thirty-year span in the 20th century. This third volume is full of heists and cultural shifts while portraying 1980s New York during the exact years I lived in the city. We again meet up with protagonist Ray Carney, a furniture salesman who can’t help but be drawn into the criminal underworld despite his mainstream aspirations. Whitehead’s versatility as a writer is unmatched and this novel continues the author’s spirited, yarn-like quality that makes this story, as the first two, as fun to read as it is to think about. From a noir detective story to an auto fictional coming-of-age tale, from a zombie apocalypse novel to profound literary historical fiction based on true events, Whitehead’s voice remains distinctive and his prose is consistently precise, assured, and pitch perfect. Cool Machine follows this vital path.

Visit Linda Kass's website.

Writers Read: Linda Kass (June 2026).

Writers Read: Linda Kass (July 2026).

Writers Read: Linda Kass (August 2026).

My Book, The Movie: World News from Waverley High.

Q&A with Linda Kass.

--Marshal Zeringue

Vikki VanSickle

Vikki VanSickle has worked as a bookseller, a menstrual health educator, a creative writing instructor and publishing professional with Penguin Random House Canada. Currently, she lives and writes in Toronto and hosts a book segment on CTV Your Morning.

VanSickle's new novel is The Mystic and the Missing Girl.

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

I am a voracious reader and like to read across all sorts of genres. Here are some titles I have absolutely loved recently.

The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey is a compulsive, twisty piece of speculative fiction that reminded me at times of Never Let Me Go. Set it an alternate 1970s, three boys remain at one of the last remaining homes for boys who are susceptible to a mysterious, unnamed illness. They know very little about the world, much like Nancy, another child who lives with loving parents who never let her leave the house. But these children are connected in a stunning, horrifying twist. The world building in this novel complex but never confusing, like a gorgeous puzzle revealed in stunning pieces from multiple perspectives. It can be difficult to pull off a believable and satisfying child narrator in adult fiction, but Catherine Chidgey does it so well. She is an author who deserves a much bigger profile. This title and a previous title, Pet, are among the books I recommend the most.

I love it when an author can successfully blend genre elements, and Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett is a prime example of how this can be done well. Set in a magical version of 1920s Montreal where Magicians are maligned by society, it is both historical and fantastical. After her cat shelter is destroyed in a magical attack, Agnes needs a new place to house her many stray cats. She finds herself renting a location from Havelock, the infamous Witch King, a magician who is in hiding from his villainous sister and general society. At first Agnes and Havelock do not get along, but irritation turns to attraction, as it so often does in these cozy romances. Magical and historical elements, enemies-to-lovers romance trope, time travel—this book has it all yet never feels overly stuffed or uneven.

I love a thriller, but when you read a lot of them, the plot, rhythms and twists start to become predictable. This is not true of The Artful Anna Harris by Tracy Maton, in which one con artist meets her match and a deadly game of cat and mouse unfolds. Anna has created a new persona and life for herself in a charming English town, complete with the perfect fiancé, but one bad decision involving a handsome stranger (who is also not who he claims to be) puts everything (including her life) in jeopardy. Anna is very unlikable at first, but somehow, I found myself rooting for her. I admired author Tracy Maton’s ability to create flawed, compelling and surprising characters. If you love a thriller but feel a bit tired of them, this one feels like a shot of (very dark) espresso.

Visit Vikki VanSickle's website.

--Marshal Zeringue