Alex Kenna

Alex Kenna is a prosecutor, writer, and amateur painter. Before law school, Kenna studied painting and art history at Penn. She also worked as a freelance art critic and culture writer. Originally from Washington DC, Kenna lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and giant schnauzer, Zelda. When she’s not writing Kenna can be found nerding out in art museums, exploring flea markets, and playing string instruments badly. Her debut novel, What Meets the Eye, was nominated for a Shamus Award for best first PI novel.

Kenna’s new novel is Burn this Night.

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

I just finished No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder, which is an in-depth exploration of domestic violence and familicide in our culture. As a crime fiction writer, I explore themes of good and evil, and how people are affected by tragedy and despicable acts. Right now, I’m working on a project that involves domestic violence, so I’ve been doing my homework.

This book is incredibly thorough and insightful. When writing about victims, Snyder treats them with the respect they deserve. She delves into the profoundly complex emotional and physical landscape that victims and survivors navigate – both before and after abuse. Most importantly, she explains how the question ‘why doesn’t she leave,’ greatly oversimplifies the situation that many women face.

Snyder also interviews and spends time with convicted batterers. Without skirting around or minimizing the horrifying acts they committed, she explores the psychological and sociological factors that can make men violent.

I highly recommend this book, which is extremely heartfelt and informative.

Lately, I was also treated to early previews of work by a couple of talented writers. I just finished reading a draft of the third book in James Queally’s Russell Avery series, which is a banger. It’s not out yet, so there’s plenty of time to catch up on the first two books. I’m also reading a not yet published novella by Terrence McCauley, which is terrific.

Visit Alex Kenna's website.

Q&A with Alex Kenna.

My Book, The Movie: What Meets the Eye.

--Marshal Zeringue

Andrew Welsh-Huggins

Andrew Welsh-Huggins is the Shamus, Derringer, and International Thriller Writers-award-nominated author of the Andy Hayes Private Eye series, featuring a former Ohio State and Cleveland Browns quarterback turned investigator, and editor of Columbus Noir. His stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Magazine, the 2022 anthology Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, and other magazines and anthologies.

Welsh-Huggins's newest novel, the eighth Andy Hayes mystery, is Sick to Death.

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

I read widely, from narrative nonfiction to celebrity memoirs, but most regularly crime fiction from a continuing ed standpoint.

My first selection is This is Why We Lied by Karin Slaughter, one of my favorite writers. Slaughter rotates between stand-alone novels and her series books about Georgia medical examiner Dr. Sara Linton and her now-husband, Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent. Slaughter’s books are often dark, often with themes involving violence against women and children, to the point I’ve likened her style to Stephen King without the supernatural element. She also writes the most honest portrayals of policing, good, bad, and ugly, that I’ve encountered outside of Michael Connelly. Finally, she can be laugh-out-loud funny. All those traits are present in this new book, her version of a locked-room mystery as Linton and Trent interrupt their honeymoon at an isolated luxury tourist camp to solve a vicious murder and uncover horrific family secrets.

My second selection is The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley. I picked up this 1978 private eye classic mainly because I’d read the first line so often in collections of the best crime fiction openings: "When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon." For me, the book bridged old and new gumshoe fiction in its dark tour of the American West, with twists I didn’t see coming. His protagonist, private eye C.W. Sughrue, is morally challenged to say the least, a conceit that doesn’t usually work for me but in this case kept me reading.

My third selection is Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke, in which Locke introduces ethically compromised Texas Ranger Darren Mathews. Mathews’ unorthodox investigation of the seemingly unrelated deaths of a poor white woman and a well-off male Black attorney rips the lid off simmering issues of racism, class, and injustice in East Texas. Locke writes beautifully and movingly of the landscape and the dilemmas faced by Mathews, who is Black. Sadly, Locke is sticking to a trilogy; I thought the second book, Heaven, My Home, was good if not better, and am eagerly awaiting the conclusion, Guide Me Home.

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.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nikki May

Born in Bristol and raised in Lagos, Nikki May is Anglo-Nigerian. Her critically acclaimed debut novel Wahala won the Comedy Women In Print New Voice Prize, was longlisted for the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award and the Diverse Books Award, and is being turned into a major BBC TV drama series. May lives in Dorset with her husband, two standard Schnauzers and way too many books. She should be working on her next book but is probably reading.

May's new novel is This Motherless Land.

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

I’ve just finished Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson. One of the best things about being a published author is you get to read books before they come out. So you’ll have to wait until January 2025 to enjoy this multi-generational epic tale that examines how the past informs our present. Charmaine is a master at the stories we inherit and in this one, she explores grief and the deep scars of slavery.

I inhaled The Wedding People by Alison Espach over two nights. I’m a sucker for books that feature beautiful people in beautiful locations and this million-dollar wedding delivers both in spades. It’s riotously funny but there’s surprising depth too. Phoebe’s candidness and vulnerability pulled me in, this is a story of hope and how chance encounters can change lives.

Liane Moriarty is an auto-buy author for me and I can’t wait to start her new one – Here One Moment. But I’m forcing myself to wait, this is a holiday book, I want no distractions, no emails and ideally I want to be reading this under a blue sky with my toes in warm blue water. Might be a long wait!

Visit Nikki May's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Nikki May & Fela and Lola.

The Page 69 Test: This Motherless Land.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sung J. Woo

Sung J. Woo's short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, PEN/Guernica, and Vox. He has written five novels, Lines (2024), Deep Roots (2023), Skin Deep (2020), Love Love (2015), and Everything Asian (2009), which won the 2010 Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Literature Award. In 2022, his Modern Love essay from The New York Times was adapted by Amazon Studios for episodic television. A graduate of Cornell University with an MFA from New York University, he lives in Washington, New Jersey.

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

Right now I'm more than halfway through the writing of my sixth novel, and it's been a bit of a bear. More than the usual bear, that is -- the creation of fiction has never been easy for me, but this one has had additional unexpected difficulty. I knew going in that I would be writing about a pair of unpleasant men (one is way worse than the other, but neither are boy scouts), but I did not expect to feel so unpleasant myself while doing so! Naive, I suppose -- it should've been obvious that stepping into the shoes of unsavory characters would bring me down, but it's too late now. I'm in it and that's all there's to it.

So what am I reading now to make myself feel better? Don't laugh, but I'm very much into two novels related to Bret Easton Ellis. One is his most infamous, American Psycho, starring Patrick Bateman -- the most well-dressed serial murderer in literary history. Contrary to what you might believe, I'm not a glutton for punishment. I'm genuinely curious how Ellis writes his evil protagonist. The other novel is one recommended by Ellis, We're So Famous, written by Jaime Clarke, about three fame-obsessed teenage girls who form a rock band but then become suspects in a pair of murders, which of course catapults them to fame.

I may be reading these books as a form of empathy, too. I imagine both Ellis and Clarke went through what I'm going through now. Misery loves company?

Visit Sung J. Woo's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Sung J. Woo & Koda.

The Page 69 Test: Everything Asian.

My Book, The Movie: Skin Deep.

Q&A with Sung J. Woo.

The Page 69 Test: Skin Deep.

My Book, The Movie: Deep Roots.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Roots.

Writers Read: Sung J. Woo (September 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Lines.

My Book, The Movie: Lines.

--Marshal Zeringue