Casey Doran

Casey Doran's second Jericho Sands book is The Art of Murder.

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

I recently finished Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke. I’ve actually read this book three or four times, but one of the things that I love about it is with every new pass, I find another element or device that I missed on previous reads. Choke features Palahniuk’s trademark style. No word is wasted. The story is minimalist and to the point, but still multilayered and complex. It also has one of my favorite opening lines:

“If you’re going to read this, don’t bother.”

How do you not keep reading after that?

Victor Mancini narrates this gem. His voice isn't for the squeamish or the easily shocked. But he draws you in immediately. Victor is dynamic, damaged and has relationship issues that would make a lot of the stuff on Jerry Springer look tame. A washed up med student, Victor hustles cash from unsuspecting diners by pretending to choke on his meal, counting on some unsuspecting good samaritan to rush to his aid. Victor then manages to get these ‘marks’ to send him money, which he then uses to help pay for his mother’s mounting medical bills. When he’s not coning altruistic diners, he’s cruising sex addiction meetings and getting laid in a church bathroom. A true ‘anti-hero’, Victor is nonetheless relatable. At his core he’s merely a lost person trying find himself in an ever changing landscape.

Learn more about The Art of Murder, and follow Casey Doran on Twitter.

My Book, The Movie: The Art of Murder.

The Page 69 Test: The Art of Murder.

--Marshal Zeringue

C. Courtney Joyner

C. Courtney Joyner is an award-winning writer of fiction, comics, and screenplays. He has more than 25 movies to his credit, including the cult films Prison, starring Viggo Mortensen; From a Whisper to a Scream, starring Vincent Price; and Class of 1999, directed by Mark Lester. A graduate of USC, Joyner's first produced screenplay was The Offspring, which also starred Vincent Price. Joyner's other scripts have included TV movies for CBS, USA, and Showtime.

Joyner's new novel is Nemo Rising.

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

I am, forever and happily, a genre fiction addict and do support the habit of returning to older works, while exploring the new. At least, that’s the intention. I loved Phoef Sutton’s Colorado Boulevard. I think his humor and plotting, are just extraordinary, and throws light into dark places. Very impressive.

On the epic scale, I have to admit to never having read Thomas Harris’ Black Sunday until now. The style, so very different than Silence or Red Dragon, and to see that shift, in word choices and the rest, really fascinating to explore. It’s also a great example of the important of the time and place that a book was written, as this is now a time capsule, after all that’s tragically occurred in the Middle East.

Reading Harris’ Sunday is a near-documentary experience, thanks to his own background in law enforcement. It’s much like the feeling I had with Robin Moore’s The French Connection, although that was much more evidence/document driven in its presentation, since it was a true case history, and Harris’ just damn close. And, you have the movie comparisons with both, with two great films, catching the essence from the pages, which is no easy task, as we know.

For westerns, just re-read Frank O’Rourke’s A Mule for the Marquesa (but the movie tie-in, The Professionals); I’ve been luxuriating in Deanne Stillman’s fascinating Blood Brothers, and always have Elmore Leonard within reach, especially Valdez is Coming, which I’ve read to tatters. Also, finally getting around to Road Dogs, not a western, but certainly Dutch.

And, my “classic to take me back,” I found the wonderful Science Fiction Book Club editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter series, in the three volumes with the Frank Frazetta covers and pen and ink interior illustrations, all stacked in the same box at a garage sale. Five dollars later, and I was transported to Mars, battling monsters and rescuing beautiful women.

There’s controversy surrounding Burroughs now, but there’s no escaping the fact that John Carter’s pre-Tarzan mix of genre-defining adventure and science-fiction is the template for a century of fantasy work to follow. I can’t think of a better way to spend a rainy night, than with Burroughs on Mars, illustrated by Frazetta.

Visit C. Courtney Joyner's website.

My Book, The Movie: Nemo Rising.

The Page 69 Test: Nemo Rising.

--Marshal Zeringue

David Moody

David Moody first self-published Hater in 2006, and without an agent, succeeded in selling the film rights for the novel to Mark Johnson (producer, Breaking Bad) and Guillermo Del Toro (director, The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth). His seminal zombie novel Autumn was made into an (admittedly terrible) movie starring Dexter Fletcher and David Carradine. Moody has a unhealthy fascination with the end of the world and likes to write books about ordinary folks going through absolute hell.

Moody's new novel is One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning.

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

I’ve just finished Josh Malerman’s excellent and thought-provoking Bird Box. I’m a sucker for all things apocalyptic. There’s such a glut of end of the world stories about right now (no coincidence, I believe, considering we’re living through such bizarre and unpredictable times), but it’s hard to find stories that bring something new to the genre. Bird Box is such a book. Malerman takes a relatively simple premise and gives it a whole new and completely unnerving spin: people are committing suicide as a result of seeing undefined creatures. The only way you can be sure of surviving this apocalyptic event is to only go outside blindfolded. It’s a simple twist, but it’s also a brilliant one, because in denying his protagonists (and readers) the security of sight, Malerman ramps up the horror a hundred fold.

The book’s currently in production as a movie starring Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich. I for one can’t wait to see how a book which hinges on its characters not being able to see translates to a visual medium.

Visit David Moody's website.

My Book, The Movie: One of Us Will Be Dead by Morning.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nicholas Montemarano

Nicholas Montemarano is the author of the novels The Book of Why (2013) and A Fine Place (2002) and the short story collection If the Sky Falls (2005).

His new novel is The Senator’s Children.

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

Here’s what I’ve been reading lately: plays, plays, plays, and more plays.

Several times a year I visit one of my favorite bookstores, The Drama Book Shop in New York City, and load up with plays. I see plays too—a recent favorite was Constellations by Nick Payne—but the truth is, I enjoy reading plays even more.

Novelists have much to learn from playwrights about creating and building scenes, showing rather than telling, and writing sharp, surprising dialogue. Some of the most innovative writers working today, in my opinion, are playwrights.

I’ve read many excellent plays recently, but let me mention one.

The play I just finished, which I loved, is This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan (who also wrote and directed the film Manchester by the Sea). Set in New York City in 1982, the play is about three college-age Upper West Siders who come from privileged but broken families. They’re fixated on drugs, sex, and their fading youth. They’re on the cusp of adulthood, but lost. The entire play is written in the poetry of the everyday, and it’s a thrill to read aloud. As one character says to his best friend: “Plus I’m like providing you with precious memories of your youth, for when you’re fuckin’ old…I’m like a one-man youth culture for you pathetic assholes. You’re gonna remember your youth as like a gray stoned haze punctuated by a series of beatings from your fuckin’ Dad, and like, my jokes. God damn!”

Visit Nicholas Montemarano's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Book of Why.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kathryn Erskine

Kathryn Erskine is the acclaimed author of many distinguished novels for young readers, including Mockingbird, winner of the National Book Award; The Absolute Value of Mike, an Amazon Best Book and ALA Notable Book; and Quaking, an ALA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.

Erskine's new book is The Incredible Magic of Being.

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

Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys

This is a masterpiece of a book about a little-known event near the end of World War Two. Refugees fleeing Soviet troops head to the sea, overcrowding the ships supposedly carrying them to safety. Apart from the incredibly well-researched history and storytelling, it’s worth reading simply to examine how Sepetys generates such strong characters and empathy for them (or perhaps, in the case of the Nazi youth, loathing) with such sparse language. It’s an all-nighter.

Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds

Powerful. Stunning. This verse novel will take you no time to read but much time to truly digest. The bulk of it takes place descending in an elevator as a teen considers a life changing decision on the heels of his brother’s murder. It says a lot about who we are as a society and begs the question, What would you do in such a situation?

Straw into Gold, Gary D. Schmidt

“What fills a hand fuller than a skein of gold?” is the question of the Rumpelstiltskin inspired fairy tale turned on its head and spun around like a Rubik’s cube. Like all of Gary Schmidt’s work, he doesn’t shy away from the gritty but his characters create hope in their perseverance, and you root for them on their journey, sometimes smiling, sometimes cringing, until the end, when you realize you’re left with a perfectly uplifting tale to fill your hand.

Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary, Martha Brockenbrough

I haven’t started this one yet but I can’t wait. It’s not just the subject matter but how much I love her writing, especially epic works like The Game of Love and Death. Martha Brockenbrough is an award winning, bestselling author but even having said that I think she’s underappreciated. She’s whip smart, funny, and has the social conscience we need today to help fight our current backsliding.

Life on Surtsey, Iceland’s Upstart Island, Loree Griffin Burns

I’m loving this research, told in such an appealing style, about a volcanic island born over 50 years ago and now supporting life. It’s as much about the scientists as the land – including where and how to deposit their bodily functions!

This is Just a Test, Wendy Wan-Long Shang and Madelyn Rosenberg

I’m always fascinated that authors can write books together so I’m curious to see how Wendy and Madelyn accomplish this feat. I just started but am engaged by these characters already!

Visit Kathryn Erskine's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Incredible Magic of Being.

--Marshal Zeringue

Claire Douglas

Claire Douglas has worked as a journalist for fifteen years, writing features for women’s magazines and newspapers, but she’s dreamed of being a novelist since the age of seven. She finally got her wish after winning Marie Claire’s Debut Novel Award for her first book, The Sisters, which became a bestseller. Her second novel, Local Girl Missing, is now available in the US.

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

I have just finished reading a gothic horror called The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. I picked the book up because the cover is absolutely stunning – one of the best I have seen – and I loved the sound of the story. It’s set in the 1800s and follows recently widowed Elsie as she heads to her dead husband’s isolated family home. While there, she finds in the attic some life-sized wooden cut-outs of different people; a young girl, a gypsy boy, a washer woman and a cook, called Silent Companions and a diary of a woman who lived in the same house two-hundred years before. As she reads the diary she learns more about these Silent Companions, and her suspicions of them grow. Soon people in the house are dying and Elsie doesn’t understand why. It’s so creepy, full of rich imagery, dark and so compelling. It genuinely is one of the scariest books that I have ever read.

I’m also reading Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce to my children. It’s one of my favourite children’s books. It was written in the 1950s but I think still holds up as one of the best children’s stories ever! It’s about a little boy called Tom who is sent to stay with his aunt and uncle when his brother, Peter gets measles. The aunt and uncle live in a small apartment in, what would have once been, a grand house. Tom is lonely and bored. There is no garden to play in, just a small back yard. But at night, when the grandfather clock in the entrance hall strikes thirteen, he gets up to investigate and finds a door to the most wonderful garden. There, he meets a little girl called Hatty, who is dressed in Victorian clothes. It’s a story about time travel, about loneliness and friendship. It’s such a beautiful book with such a poignant ending that never fails to bring a lump to my throat.

Learn more about Local Girl Missing.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jessica Brockmole

Jessica Brockmole is the author of At the Edge of Summer, the internationally bestselling Letters from Skye, which was named one of the best books of 2013 by Publishers Weekly, and Something Worth Landing For, a novella featured in Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War.

Brockmole's latest novel is Woman Enters Left.

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

This fall there’s been a lot of nonfiction on my reading stack, some for research, some for pleasure. One that fascinated me was Lizabeth Cohen’s A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption, about the changing role of the American consumer from the Great Depression to the postwar era, and Virginia Scharff’s Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age, which traces the relationship between women and automobiles in the early twentieth century. Although I didn’t read the latter until after my own Woman Enters Left was out there in the world, I recommend it if you want to learn more about intrepid women traveling across the largely unpaved United States, like my Ethel and Florrie in their unsprung Model T.

In fiction, I’ve recently read two by authors I know, Kristina Riggle’s Vivian in Red, about a feisty octogenarian who, after he thinks he sees a ghost, takes us back to his days as a young songwriter when he wrote his one hit Broadway song, and Clarissa Harwood’s Impossible Saints, set amid the fierceness of the suffragist movement in early twentieth-century England. I had the pleasure of doing an event with Kristina this past fall and have one coming up in January with Clarissa. One of the absolute best parts of writing books is getting to meet so many other amazing authors!

Up next: I have Ken Follett’s Column of Fire waiting to dig into on the first snowy day.

Visit Jessica Brockmole's website, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

The Page 69 Test: Letters from Skye.

My Book, The Movie: Letters from Skye.

My Book, The Movie: Woman Enters Left.

The Page 69 Test: Woman Enters Left.

--Marshal Zeringue

Steven Cooper

Steven Cooper is a former investigative reporter. His work has earned him multiple Emmy Awards and nominations, as well as a national Edward R. Murrow award, and numerous honors from the Associated Press. He taught for five years in the English department at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Cooper has lived a bit like a nomad, working TV gigs in New England, Arizona and Florida, and following stories around the globe.

Cooper's new novel, his fourth, is Desert Remains.

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

I’m currently reading James Ziskin’s Cast the First Stone, his latest in the Ellie Stone mystery series. It’s a gorgeous book. Ziskin eloquently evokes 1960’s Hollywood and the quiet scandals that run like fault lines beneath the surface of the movie town’s glitter. In Ziskin’s novel, grime eclipses glamour masterfully and the result is a beautiful exposé of the underbelly. A budding movie star disappears, a producer is murdered, and the hush-hush of it all is deafening. Crisp dialogue, rich characters, and an expert sense of place together make you smell the sultry rain of a Los Angeles night and the languid mist by the sea, while pulling you into the desperation of people whose motives are complex and deeply flawed. Ziskin’s fourth novel in the Ellie Stone series, Heart of Stone won both the 2017 Anthony and Macavity awards. Those accolades come as no surprise as I race toward the finish of Cast the First Stone.

Candice Millard’s River of Doubt had me savoring every page. With every chapter comes a new ripple in the adventure with tension so tight it felt like an elastic band stretching the length of the Amazon. Her characters come to life; they’re big and bold and their minds are almost too expansive for the story. But Millard expertly fits them on her palette as she explores their broad personalities. Also at the end of her paintbrush: detailed and exotic scenery, immersive and beckoning. I should probably mention here that River of Doubt is not a novel. It’s a work of non-fiction that chronicles Theodore Roosevelt’s ill-advised and nearly catastrophic exploration of an uncharted tributary in the Amazon. I don’t know if this a compliment to an expert researcher and storyteller like Millard, but River of Doubt is non-fiction that reads like a beautiful if not epic novel. The overwhelming arc in this story is an arc of doubt. Will they make it? Who will die? Who will survive? Are they heroes or fools? The reader is always reminded that, at a certain point, there will be no turning back. I was hooked. The stories within the stories of these robust characters are deeply layered. Their conflicts with each other and with the forces of nature around them make the adventure a physical and psychological tour de force.

Hank Phillippi Ryan’s Say No More made me want more, a lot more, of Jane Ryland. Ryland, Ryan’s series protagonist, is a television producer/reporter in Boston who ends up the reluctant witness to a brazen hit-and-run, the tentacles of which reach deeper into the city’s underworld than she imagines. She, meanwhile, must answer to her TV bosses who are waiting for her exposé on college campus sexual assaults, an investigation that takes her down a dangerous and shadowy road of its own. And then, of course, there’s the murder of a young college lecturer that Jane’s cop boyfriend is investigating. Jane zips from crime scene to courthouse to secret rendezvous with victims. You never quite know where she’s going. That’s the beauty of Ryan’s craft. She keeps you guessing. The pace is relentless. If you want to know how an Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, and Mary Higgins Clark award winner does it, this is a book for you. As a former television reporter, I can relate to the story. As a fellow crime writer, I enjoyed getting lost in this gripping novel.

Visit Steven Cooper's website.

My Book, The Movie: Desert Remains.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael Wiley

Michael Wiley’s most recent novel is Monument Road, about an exonerated death-row inmate investigating the crime that sent him to prison. He also writes the Daniel Turner Thriller series (Blue Avenue, Second Skin, Black Hammock) and the Shamus Award-winning Joe Kozmarski Private Detective series (A Bad Night’s Sleep, The Bad Kitty Lounge, Last Striptease).

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

Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress is as fresh and powerful today as when it first was published in 1990. Set in 1948 Los Angeles, it also speaks straight to our current American moment. I’ve just reread it for the fourth time.

The first of Mosley’s Easy Rawlins novels—and the winner of the 1990 Shamus Award for Best First P.I. novel—Devil at once operates within and upends the detective fiction genre. Mosley knows and loves his Raymond Chandler, but Easy Rawlins is no Philip Marlowe. He’s an African-American WWII vet, brutalized by the justice system where Marlowe gets his training. In the opening line of the novel, Easy says, “I was surprised to see a white man walk into Joppy’s bar,” and the book remains to the end a story of black and white ... and also of noir and California sunshine ... and sometimes of devilish blue and ruby red ... and, finally, of a conflicted color we might call blackwhite.

As for the story, it’s a blast. This is a classic missing-person novel—the missing person being the chameleon-like Daphne Monet—but, as in some of the best tales of this kind, the main person Easy seems to find in the closing pages is himself. There’s gunplay. There’s crackling dialogue. In the music of this book, not a note misses. Devil in a Blue Dress is among the great ones.

Learn more about the book and author at Michael Wiley's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Striptease.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Striptease.

The Page 69 Test: A Bad Night's Sleep.

--Marshal Zeringue

Shelley Tougas

Shelley Tougas is an award-winning writer of nonfiction for children, including Little Rock Girl 1957, and the author of the novels The Graham Cracker Plot, Finders Keepers, and A Patron Saint for Junior Bridesmaids.

Her latest novel is Laura Ingalls Is Ruining My Life.

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

Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin

Rose Howard loves her homonyms—so much that she names a dog found lost in a storm “Rain” (rein, reign). Rose, who has autism, is pushed to her limits when Rain disappears again, and she has to make the toughest decision of her life. This tugs at your heart but never goes over the top with sentimentality. Lovely.

Slider’s Son by Rebecca Fjelland Davis

I haven’t read a novel where the Depression era comes to life like this one. This is a middle-grade mystery set during the bone-cracking cold of a North Dakota winter, but the heart of the story is the boys’ friendship―a friendship so authentic you’ll want to bundle up, call your best friend and go sledding.

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (book one) by Rick Riordan

My daughter wouldn’t stop bugging me until I read the first Magnus Chase novel, and for once I’m grateful for her persistence. I’ve never had so much fun in the pages of a book. Riordan is obviously a master of mythology, but to me, he’s a master of humor. Just one question: Where’s the movie?

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I read this one nearly every year because it’s my favorite Laura book. The Long Winter is a nail-biting survival story. Researchers say Laura’s descriptions of the infamous winter match the historical record. It’s also the first time readers meet Laura’s husband Almanzo, who’s as dashing a hero as any in literature.

Big & Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd) by Julie Bowe

I met Julie a few years ago at a book event. When Wren Jo Byrd was released, I bought it before I saw all the great reviews. She nails the voice of a kid confused and frustrated by her parents’ split. This novel is utterly charming. I hope she’s celebrating the accolades.

Visit Shelley Tougas's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Irene Radford

Irene Radford, author of the Dragon Nimbus (The Glass Dragon, The Perfect Princess, The Loneliest Magician, The Wizard's Treasure) and the Dragon Nimbus History (The Dragon's Touchstone, The Last Battlemage, The Renegade Dragon) series, often appears at conventions in the Oregon-California area. She is the author of the Stargods and Merlin's Descendants series as well, and is also one of the founders of the Book View Cafe.

Radford's new novel is A Spoonful of Magic.

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

When I am writing Urban Fanatsy I cannot read Urban Fantasy. When I’m writing Historical Fantasy, after I’ve done the initial research, I cannot read a similar genre. My default popcorn books are cozy mysteries, with or without ghosts and paranormal elements as long as the mystery is the core of the story. Rhys Bowen and Carola Dunn are current favorites in historically set (early 20th C) cozies. Lea Wait, Joyce Tremel, and Lynn Cahoon are my current favorite authors. But I’ve been reading the genre for a long time and have devoured the entire lexicon of some older favorites like Jill Churchill, and Kaitlyn Dunnett, Susan M. Boyes. I will admit to being jaded. I cannot tolerate heroines who are whiney doormats, conned into doing what they know will be risky because the “owe” people they don’t like.

Visit Irene Radford's website and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: The Broken Dragon.

The Page 69 Test: The Broken Dragon.

My Book, The Movie: A Spoonful of Magic.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tara Goedjen

Tara Goedjen adores fairytales, mysteries, and ghost stories.

She wrote her first story at age eleven about children who disappeared at midnight, and she’s been writing ever since. Mostly raised in Alabama, she played college tennis in Iowa and then moved to Alaska and Australia before heading back to the continental US.

While completing grad school, Goedjen worked as a tennis coach, a yoga instructor, a university writing teacher, and as an editor for a publishing house. These days, when she’s not making up stories, she's probably going for a hike, staring at a to-do list, reading a novel, or eating all of California’s seasonal fruit.

Goedjen's new novel is The Breathless.

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

I’ve been touring for The Breathless and have just gotten the chance to pick up a book by a writer friend, Amanda Searcy, called The Truth Beneath the Lies. Since I write within the mystery/thriller genre, I tend to reach for those books first, and the cover of Searcy’s novel makes me want to read it: the jagged streaks of color hint at the darkness and danger within. Karen McManus, another writer I admire, described it as “A smart, suspenseful, and unpredictable thriller that will keep readers turning pages until every last lie is revealed.” These are the sorts of books I love: full of twists and turns that keep me guessing, which brings me to…

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova, the first in the Brooklyn Brujas series about bruja Alejandra (“Alex”) Mortiz, a teenager who belongs to a powerful family of witches. I recently finished reading this one and loved how Córdova portrayed the relationships between her characters, which both surprised and delighted me. In the same way that Córdova’s plot points kept me guessing what was to come, I also wondered how Alex would grow on her journey, and which direction her heart would take her. It’s no wonder that Labyrinth Lost was named Tor.com’s Best YA SFF of 2016—and I can’t wait to read the sequel.

Visit Tara Goedjen's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Breathless.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jeff Wheeler

Jeff Wheeler's new novel is The Forsaken Throne, the latest installment of The Kingfountain Series, which began with The Queen's Poisoner.

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

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

I was recently given a copy of this book while visiting its publisher in New York. My friend, and previous editor, said it was the book he was looking forward to most. City of Brass is story of djinn and ancient magic set in Napoleonic Egypt. I’m not done yet but it’s reminded me a bit of the Bartimaeus novels by Jonathan Stroud, which I loved. Interested to see where it is going.

Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill

It’s not unlike Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis but with a more deliberate focus. This manuscript was unpublished for seventy years because it was deemed to be too controversial for its time and was finally released (posthumously) recently. Imagine someone interviewing the devil and finding out how he controls society today in subtle, malicious ways. No institution is safe from scrutiny. This book certainly challenges your thinking. In fact, its purpose is to make you think hard about yourself and your assumptions. Even better, imagine learning how to avoid the traps that have been set in motion for decades to control our thinking. As a student of history and a fan of Hill’s previous works, I thought it was worth a second read. It was.

Visit Jeff Wheeler's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Queen's Poisoner.

My Book, The Movie: The Queen's Poisoner.

--Marshal Zeringue

A.J. Cross

A.J. Cross, like her heroine Kate Hanson, is a Forensic Psychologist with over twenty years' experience in the field. She lives in Birmingham with her jazz-musician husband.

Cross's latest novel is Something Evil Comes.

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

Crime fiction has been one of my joys over many years. However, since I began writing it myself I read much less of it. The reason? I appear to have acquired a possibly irrational fear that I might subconsciously purloin another author’s plot, theme or twist as my own. Consequently, I tend to read biographies or, in this case a diary: Alan Bennett’s Keeping On Keeping On. It is very heavy but only in terms of its seven hundred-plus pages. It is exactly what one might expect of Bennett but there’s another aspect which I found completely unexpected.

What was anticipated of course  was the humour: consider this, the single entry for 18th October, 2005 where Bennett quotes a critic remarking that  he can have too much of Alan Bennett to which Bennett adds: ‘I wonder how he thinks I feel.’ Economical, modest and understated. I’m willing to bet that response wasn’t worked for but arrived as quick, clean truth. There’s a precision about his observations of people, creatures and things which is a delight. He describes the inside of a bean pod, ‘shaped to the bean and furred like the inside of a violin case.’ It’s not necessary to have seen the pod. Thanks to Bennett, we know it. We can picture it.

Despite his enormous success as a playwright and commentator on ‘ordinary’ people’s lives, the diary describes Bennett’s own modest way of living. He and his partner, Rupert spend a lot of their leisure time visiting National Trust buildings. On these jaunts they take sandwich lunches with them. The overall impression is of a modest, unpretentious man who takes pleasure in simple things. I have searched the index and the 700-odd pages of the diary and failed to locate his description of attending what I believe was a premiere of his in America, but I wanted to include it because it fits with my impression of that modesty and honesty. Picture a hotel corridor of several doors, beyond which the famous and the feted are being interviewed. Bennett describes being taken along that corridor as a potential interviewee, each door being opened and the question asked of whoever is inside: ‘Do you want him?’ at which the reply is invariably, ‘No.’ and on, eventually to a door at the very end of the corridor which opens and Bennett finds himself outside the building in the rain. I can’t imagine any situation in which the words ‘Do you know who I am?’ would ever be said by him.

So, what was so unexpected? It was the anger. Having been drawn in and beguiled by Bennett’s writing to expect someone who is avoidant of unseemly fuss about almost anything, in Keeping On he fires off some furious broadsides at the UK’s political parties. It seems to be the political right which earns much of his vitriol. Which is hardly surprising, given his expressed appreciation of his own state-provided education and his fury at the injustice of dismantling of the welfare state. He likens the closure of libraries to child abuse.

Keeping On Keeping On is a gentle read but it has very sharp teeth.

Learn more about Something Evil Comes.

My Book, The Movie: Something Evil Comes.

The Page 69 Test: Something Evil Comes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Hilary Bonner

Hilary Bonner is the author of many crime novels and five non-fiction books. A past Chair of the Crime Writers' Association, she was previously the showbusiness editor of the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mirror.

Her latest novel, Deadly Dance, is the first in an intriguing new series featuring Bristol detective, DI David Vogel.

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

As is so often the case I am reading Agatha Christie, this time re-reading a first edition of a great favourite - given me by my partner, who scours markets and car boot sales looking for early Christies to add to my collection.

It’s the famous one with the unreliable narrator. I will not name it, it because for any new reader unaware of the premise of this novel, it would then be ruined. Those who know, know!

Christie only used an unreliable narrator once in her 66 novels. Indeed, it is probably a ploy that even the prolific queen of crime would not dare repeat.

Partly inspired by Agatha, I too chose an unreliable narrator for one of my 13 novels, and again everything would be given away if I revealed which one. It’s a fascinating concept, and technically very challenging for an author.

Agatha’s book caused quite a stir when it was published. The great dame was even accused of cheating.

One Amazon reviewer accused me of producing an ending which was quite impossible, and another said the ending was obvious and she’d guessed it on page two.

So, I reckon I probably got it about right. And there’s no doubt at all in my mind that Agatha Christie produced a bit of a masterpiece.

I also particularly like to read books written by friends. I have two on the go at the moment. Handsome Brute is true life crime; the story of notorious British serial killer Neville Heath, written by Sean O’Connor who is also an acclaimed UK based producer and director working in film, TV and theatre. It’s a masterful piece of work, not for the squeamish!

North Facing is a haunting journey back in time to 1962 South Africa, in the days of apartheid, seen through the eyes of a central character now in his sixties and living abroad, who returns to the country of his youth, and finds himself confronted with the disturbing consequences of his own childhood behaviour. Written by South African born Tony Peake, my agent for nearly 25 years, and a most accomplished novelist, this is probably his finest yet.

Visit Hilary Bonner's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

David Walton

David Walton is a science fiction and fantasy author with a growing number of novels in publication. His first, Terminal Mind, won the 2008 Philip K. Dick award for best paperback original novel.

Walton's latest novel is The Genius Plague.

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

The books I'm currently reading are Infomocracy, by Malka Older, and Noumenon, by Marina Lostetter.  I had wanted to read Infomocracy for some time, because I liked the idea of exploring a new political concept.  The book explores the idea of "micro-democracy", where every group of 100,000 people around the world gets to vote on which one of a set of available governments they want, once every ten years.  I'm most of the way through the book now, and enjoying it -- great mystery, great characters, and interesting political concepts to consider.  Noumenon I just started, but it hooked me right from the beginning, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me.

Other books I've enjoyed recently are N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy; Version Control, by Dexter Palmer; and The Boy on the Bridge, by M.R. Carey, which was every bit as good as The Girl With All The Gifts.  The Broken Earth trilogy raises a lot of difficult issues about groups of people who are mistreated by people in power, and what happens, or what should happen, when the power dynamic shifts the other way.  Version Control covers a lot of interesting ground, including the impacts of Internet technology on social interactions and dating websites, but it's ultimately a time travel novel.  Unlike most such novels, however, the time traveler--just like everyone else--has no memory of the previous timeline once a new one is made.  We as readers therefore get to see several possible versions of the characters' lives, even though the characters themselves don't--and can't--know that there has been more than one.

Visit David Walton's website.

The Page 69 Test: Quintessence.

My Book, The Movie: Quintessence.

--Marshal Zeringue

Julie E. Czerneda

For twenty years, Canadian author/ former biologist Julie E. Czerneda has shared her curiosity about living things through her science fiction. She’s also written fantasy, the first installments of her Night’s Edge series A Turn of Light and A Play of Shadow, winning consecutive Aurora Awards (Canada’s Hugo) for Best English Novel. Czerneda has edited/co-edited sixteen anthologies of SF/F, two Aurora winners. Her latest is SFWA’s 2017 Nebula Award Showcase, and her next will be an anthology set in her Clan Chronicles series: Tales from Plexis. Her new SF novel, finale to that series, is To Guard Against the Dark.

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

In 2008, I bought a story for my anthology, Misspelled. The story was by a friend, someone I knew would write something remarkable. Editors will tell you. We know a great storyteller when we hear one; the wordcraft shines even when they’re just telling you about their day. The harder part, the discipline to put that craft in action, to put it out there, to write yet another story and another?

That’s the difference-maker.

The story I bought? Brilliant indeed, and I’ve been a devoted fan of Lesley D. Livingston’s work ever since. My reward has been that she’s gone on, doing the hard things, and is publishing novel after novel after novel. Check out her list—or my bookcase. From time travel to realms of the fae—in New York City--to saving a drive-in theatre from aliens* (*co-authored with the talented Jonathan Llyr)--every one has her signature voice and bright spirit.

And each? Better than the last. That’s the other thing. Lesley keeps upping her game, to readers’ delight, especially mine. When her latest arrived on my shelf, The Valiant, I plunged in, to be blown away yet again.

Lesley has two significant strengths as a writer, in my opinion. Her characters live and breathe—they’re unforgettable. Real. So are her worlds. Much of her work is set in historical times and she does her research. The Valiant begins a series where a Celtic princess, in training to be a warrior for her people, is captured and sold into slavery to become a female gladiator for Julius Caesar.

In the hands of another writer, I wouldn’t have been interested. My taste runs to science fiction and fantasy, with a side order of science, and I’ve little time to read outside. Such is my trust in Lesley’s work, I leapt in without hesitation. And yes, it is her best book yet. It reminds me of one of my favourites from high school, The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff, the first I read where an unknown past came so vividly to life and made me care, deeply. Yet The Valiant is more. The perspective of a woman—women--in this culture, the attention to detail bringing all aspects to life, the heart-pounding battle scenes—did I mention an upcoming TV series--

Oh, go get your copy. Start your Livingston collection. Let discovering this wonderful author be my gift, to you.

Visit Julie E. Czerneda's website.

The Page 69 Test: To Guard Against the Dark.

--Marshal Zeringue