Q&A with Anthony Peckham

From my Q&A with Anthony Peckham, author of The Law of Solitude:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I love titles; they’re random attractors and can do a lot of work for you, especially if you’re not a household name. Finding a title that “clicks” is a wonderful feeling. After all, they’re the name of the book and names penetrate deep into the subconscious. When I browse in a bookstore, titles and cover art definitely influence what I reach for.

There should be a clear and dynamic relationship between title and book; in my opinion, you should never reach the end of a book and ask “Why was it called that?”

For my trilogy, I started with a simple descriptive title, Children of the Black Glass, then an evocative title, Winter’s Fire, then, hopefully, a slightly mysterious and alluring title in The Law of Solitude. Each introduces its book and each book justifies its title upon reading.

What's in a name?

A name is your first and best chance to give a character color and...[read on]

Visit Anthony Peckham's website.

Q&A with Anthony Peckham.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five mysteries set in the cut-throat world of literary gatherings

Carol Goodman’s rich and prolific career includes novels such as The Widow’s House and The Night Visitor, winners of the 2018 and 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in the Hudson Valley, NY.

Goodman’s new novel is Our Marriage Is Murder.

At CrimeReads the author tagged five mysteries set at literary events, conferences, and retreats. One title on the list:

Laura Zigman, The Author Weekend

Frenemies play a prominent role in Laura Zigman’s The Author Weekend, envy apparently being the besetting sin of writers in many of these books. Bestselling mystery writer Faye Wader is inspired to throw her own Author Weekend to compete with her nemesis Abby Schuss. Zigman captures that special rivalry that exists when two writers debut together and continue to chart their successes against each another.

Faye’s assistant Jade, an aspiring writer herself, stirs the pot (and the plot) by suggesting they also invite Abby to the weekend. Complications ensue when Faye’s Number One Fan discovers a discrepancy in Faye’s origin backstory and things go precipitously downhill from there. The meta-commentary on the publishing world is at times brutal. “Nobody loves anyone in this business!” Faye’s agent exclaims. “This is publishing!”

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Patrick Sullivan's "Stay Tuned"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Stay Tuned: Listening to the Network Era by Patrick Sullivan.

About the book, from the publisher:

Since the 1950s, television flooded the American soundscape with not just pictures but sounds, a constant aural stream infiltrating domestic life. In Stay Tuned, Patrick Sullivan treats network-era television sound not as background noise or auxiliary signal but as a formative texture of aesthetic life in postwar America. He theorizes how television’s sonic forms―asynchronous audiovisuals, noises, affective rhythms, what he collectively terms “network aurality”―trouble traditional aesthetic theory. Stay Tuned takes up critiques of television sound and repurposes them as evidence of a deeper philosophical discomfort: Namely, that television sound does something to aesthetic categories that they weren’t built to handle. From the laugh track to the cartoon “boinks,” from noises to the jingle, Sullivan reads television sounds not as cultural detritus but as formal interventions―forcing a redefinition of what aesthetics means when form is mass-produced, commercial, and built for syndication. What emerges is not just a new theory and history of television sound but a reimagined account of aesthetic experience itself―expanded, recalibrated, and a little wacky.

Learn more about Stay Tuned at the Rutgers University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Stay Tuned.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rachel Peterson's "Killing Sadie," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Killing Sadie by Rachel Peterson.

The entry begins:

As a Midwestern kid who spent her early days dreaming of becoming an actor or author, my mind is constantly buzzing with who would play my characters!

We have quite a few characters to cover for Killing Sadie, so let’s focus on our twins, Sadie and Jayne Cooper. Sadie is our Midwestern golden girl with the personality to match, while Jayne is far edgier. But like most twins, they share an unspoken bond and are two sides of the same coin.

My mind jumps instantly to Isabel Gravitt (Tori Cooper in Your Friends and Neighbors), or Sadie Sink to play our twins! These two actresses have range for days, and can flip from polite to sinister in a second. And who are we kidding, every character in Killing Sadie needs to have this attribute! For their parents,...[read on]

Visit Rachel Peterson's website.

My Book, The Movie: Killing Sadie.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jon St. Denis's "Killer Art"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Killer Art: A Novel by Jon St. Denis.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A pair of newbie academics find themselves reluctant sleuths and even more reluctant targets when a fellow professor turns up dead.

When art professor Vika Chen discovers the strangled body of Professor McGuire in a campus art studio, she becomes the prime suspect in a murder connected to an exhibition exposing AI-generated art.

Since local law enforcement fails to find any optional leads, Vika and her partner, journalism professor Sam Worthing, take the investigation into their own hands. Vika, who until recently worked as a curator at MoMA, and Sam, a former crime reporter for the New York Times, find themselves uniquely suited for the job.

Much to the chagrin of the police chief, the pair’s investigation pinpoints multiple suspects who might have felt threatened by the exhibition. But the stakes become deadly when someone tries to run Vika off the road.

As more bodies pile up, Vika and Sam uncover a collage of secrets that someone would kill to keep buried.

Visit Jon St. Denis's website.

The Page 69 Test: Killer Art.

--Marshal Zeringue

Three must-read titles about colonialism

Edna Bonhomme is a critic, journalist, and historian of science. She is the author of A History of the World in Six Plagues (shortlisted for Best Science Book in Austria) and co-editor of After Sex. Her latest book is Tending To Our Wounds: A Diasporic Memoir. Bonhomme is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, from the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Camargo Foundation, the Max Planck Institute, the Robert Silvers Foundation, and more. Most recently, she was a 2026 finalist for the 2026 Nona Balakian Award from the National Book Critics Circle. Her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique, London Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic, Scientific American, and elsewhere. She has been based in Berlin since 2017.

At Book Riot Bonhomme tagged three books on colonialism that "are not only case studies of the psychological cost of colonialism but also testaments that the colonized are not passive victims." One title on the list:

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

Fanon’s text is a revolutionary pamphlet and a psychiatrist’s diagnosis of French colonialism in Algeria, and it also makes a firm case that colonialism can psychologically impair the minds of colonizers. Wretched of the Earth has inspired anti-colonial movements, largely for its thorough analysis of imperial violence and for the ways that class is produced in the colonial context. This is a polemical text precisely because of imperialism’s attempts to degrade and discredit the colonized. Nevertheless, Fanon shows that freedom is possible when people resist through collective struggle and socialism.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Arvind Ethan David reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Arvind Ethan David, author of The Great Game: A Thriller.

His entry begins:

I tend to read three or four things at once, a mix of fiction and non-fiction, and consume some as audiobooks and others as print.

At the moment, like everybody else, I’m reading The Odyssey, but I’m simultaneously inhaling two different translations. I’m reading the print edition of Emily Wilson’s version whilst listening to Daniel Mendelsohn’s. The combination is so instructive. Wilson’s iambic pentameter is urgent, terse, resonant, modern, powerful, and really drives the story forward. Mendelsohn’s more prosaic rendition lacks music (unusually for him, as he is a usually graceful writer), but he makes up for it with enormous precision and detail that gives you the full context and meaning of every line. The fact that I’m reading both means...[read on]

About The Great Game, from the publisher:

An outsider in London investigates a series of brutal murders targeting English aristocrats in a timely and provocative historical novel brimming with intrigue, wit, and rage.

London, 1905: Law student and military veteran Balvinder dev Singh has found an extralegal way to fund his studies. As friend and accomplice to the infamous gentleman thief AJ Raffles, he rubs shoulders with the upper crust―and steals their valuables. That is, until their next mark, an imperialist general, is grotesquely murdered in the library of his Mayfair mansion. Bal and Raffles find themselves implicated in a series of killings that soon attracts the attention of Scotland Yard―and the aging Sherlock Holmes himself.

As Bal works to clear his name, he must hide his checkered past from a new acquaintance, the beautiful Irish violinist Maud Adler. Her fiery views lead Bal to question his own place in the world. But when he comes face-to-face with a plot to strike at the very heart of the British government, he must decide how much he’s willing to risk for his adopted city.

Visit Arvind Ethan David's website.

Visit Arvind Ethan David's website.

Q&A with Arvind Ethan David.

Writers Read: Arvind Ethan David.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Emma Taylor's "An Elite Education"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: An Elite Education: How Privilege Is Produced in a Private School by Emma Taylor.

About the book, from the publisher:

An examination of the making of privilege at one of Britain’s top boys’ schools

Alumni of Britain’s elite schools are consistently overrepresented in positions of power and influence. It is no surprise, then, that elite schools play a pivotal role in reproducing inequality. In An Elite Education, Emma Taylor draws on years of immersive ethnographic research and teaching experience at one of Britain’s leading private boys’ schools to highlight how these institutions cultivate the dispositions that propel students into elite universities and professions.

Taylor finds that elite schools provide a forgiving, flexible and exclusive training ground, enabling students to push boundaries, bend rules and negotiate with those in authority. She argues that this ability to navigate elite spaces with confidence—which she conceptualises as “audacity”—is a carefully cultivated form of privilege that is frequently mistaken for merit. Behind the formal façade of architecture, traditions and rituals lies a messy web of everyday interactions through which students learn to assert themselves without fear of consequence.

An Elite Education ultimately calls for a deeper interrogation of the taken-for-granted dispositions that continue to shape access to opportunity in Britain.

Visit Emma Taylor's website.

The Page 99 Test: An Elite Education.

--Marshal Zeringue

Fifteen of the best books for "Black Mirror" fans

One title on Tertulia's list of fifteen books "for every Black Mirror fan to satisfy their techno-dystopian cravings:"

Infomocracy: Book One of the Centenal Cycle by Malka Older

In a world where an influential search engine monopoly has pushed humanity to transition away from large warring states to a global network of micro-democracies, an upcoming election sparks a battle for power and exposes the dark underbelly of this alluring new system.

Read about another entry on the list.

Infomocracy is among Book Riot's best science fiction books of the century (so far), Rob Hart's five top books about humans making a mess of things, Jeff Somers's eighteen SFF novels that get serious about economics and fifty science fiction essentials written by women, Emily Wenstrom's eight science fiction novels that explore the human dilemma, Joel Cunningham's twelve science fiction & fantasy books for the post-truth era, and Sam Reader's six most intriguing political systems in fantasy and science fiction.

The Page 69 Test: Infomocracy.

Also see Addison Rizer's six top thrillers for fans of Black Mirror.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Arvind Ethan David

From my Q&A with Arvind Ethan David, author of The Great Game: A Thriller:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Titles are hard, man, really hard. The title was literally the last thing that got done on this book, and it is not the title I started with. The book starts as a historical murder mystery. It escalates into a conspiracy thriller and then gradually evolves into a rather pointed examination of empire and imperialism.

Oh, and amongst its major characters are an aging Sherlock Holmes and a young Winston Churchill. It was a challenge to get all of that in a title.

Other contenders included The Dread and the Envy, which I thought he had a certain Imperial cadence, but was dismissed for being too niche. For a while, I was very keen on The Good Colonial, which felt reminiscent of Graham Greene and John le Carré, in whose tradition I would be delighted to sit. Ultimately, The Great Game won because it conjures a certain Sherlockian tone whilst also explicitly referencing the historical spy craft and statecraft between the great imperial powers in the 19th century (while also paying tribute to Rudyard Kipling and his book about another spy caught between two cultures, Kim).

Now that we have it, it feels like...[read on]

Visit Arvind Ethan David's website.

Q&A with Arvind Ethan David.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jason Baehr's "Inquiry and Agency"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Inquiry and Agency: A Theory of Intellectual Virtues and Vices by Jason Baehr.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Inquiry and Agency, Jason Baehr develops a systematic account of the nature, structure, and evaluative status of intellectual virtues and vices. Drawing on a theory of moral virtue by Robert Adams (2006), Baehr argues that intellectual virtues like curiosity, open-mindedness, and intellectual courage are ways of "excellently being for epistemic goods" that reflect favorably on who we are as persons, and that intellectual vices like dogmatism, narrow-mindedness, and intellectual arrogance are ways of falling short of this standard that contribute negatively to our personal worth. Inquiry and Agency is the most in-depth and systematic treatment of intellectual virtues and vices since Linda Zagzebski's pioneering work Virtues of the Mind (1996). While advancing several debates in virtue epistemology, it proposes a model of intellectual virtues and vices that will be accessible to non-experts and useful to researchers in other disciplines. Inquiry and Agency is the product of decades of reflection by a leading virtue epistemologist. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the characterological dimensions of the life of the mind.

Visit Jason Baehr's website.

The Page 99 Test: Inquiry and Agency.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten books for fans of "The Odyssey"

At People magazine Janey Wetzel and Lizz Schumer tagged ten Greek mythology retellings and other books to read after seeing The Odyssey. One title on the list:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Miller’s blockbuster Trojan War retelling is “a story that will stick with you even after you’ve put the book down.”

Read about another book on the list.

The Song of Achilles is among Book Riot's best historical fiction books of the century so far, Charley Burlock and Bethanne Patrick's 25 best historical fiction books of all time, Tobias Madden's seven top books that take you places, Costa B. Pappas's eleven books that are contemporary retellings of classic titles, Bethanne Patrick's twenty-five best historical fiction books of all time, Mark Skinner's nineteen top Greek myth retellings, Alexia Casale's top eight titles sparked by the authors' work life, Allison Epstein's eight queer historical fiction books set around the world, Phong Nguyen's seven titles that live halfway between history & myth, The Center for Fiction's 200 books that shaped two centuries of literature, Sara Stewart's six best books and Nicole Hill's fourteen characters who should have lived.

My Book, The Movie: The Song of Achilles.

Also see Tanaz Bhathena's nine feminist myth and fairytale retellings to read after watching Christopher Nolan’s big screen adaptation of The Odyssey, Paula Munier's eight top works informed by The Odyssey, and Andrew Welsh-Huggins's five novels drawing inspiration from the Odyssey.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: David Wellington's "Erebus 13"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Erebus 13 (Red Space, 3) by David Wellington.

About the book, from the publisher:

The crew of the Artemis has escaped the nightmare of Paradise-1, but at great cost.

Parker is gone. Petrova’s past continues to haunt her. Worst of all, Erebus—a timeless entity of pure darkness—has been released from its prison.

Now it’s headed for Earth.

Petrova must rally her crew for one final mission. Somehow, they must find a way to unite the disparate factions of the solar system—the United Earth Government, the Lunar colonies, and the outer planets—and find a way to stop Erebus.

The fate of humanity—and the galaxy—is in their hands.

Visit David Wellington's website.

The Page 69 Test: Chimera.

The Page 69 Test: The Hydra Protocol.

The Page 69 Test: Positive.

My Book, The Movie: The Cyclops Initiative.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Astronaut.

Q&A with David Wellington.

The Page 69 Test: Erebus 13.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top romantic mysteries with "Happily Ever After" endings

Cara Tanamachi is the USA Today bestselling author of the Emma-Award Winning, The Takeover, and the Diverse Writers and Readers International romance book literary award winner, The Second You’re Single. She also writes under the name Cara Lockwood, and has written 38 books and counting, including I Do (But I Don’t), which became an original Lifetime Movie. She wrote the novelization of The Dater’s Handbook, a Hallmark movie starring Meghan Markle. She lives near Chicago with her spouse and blended family. Her new book is a rom-com murder mystery called Kiss, Marry, Kill.

[Q&A with Cara Tanamachi]

At CrimeReads the author tagged five romantic mysteries with "Happily Ever After" endings. One entry on the list:

Shay Kauwe, The Killing Spell

Hundreds of years in the future, a catastrophic flood destroys the Hawaiian Islands and unleashes magic in the world. Displaced to Los Angeles, a young Hawaiian woman named Kea must fight to clear her name when a Filipino activist is killed by a specific Hawaiian death spell. She needs to catch a killer, though she winds up catching feelings for Sora, whose ability to read minds comes in handy when investigating a murder.

This is the urban fantasy/mystery/paranormal romance steeped in Hawaiian lore that you never knew you needed until now.

Read about another title on the list.

Q&A with Shay Kauwe.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Susannah Crockford's "A Perturbed System"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: A Perturbed System: Religion and Climate Change from the End of a World by Susannah Crockford.

About the book, from the publisher:

A moving study of how religion shapes Western climate discourse.

Our ecological system is disturbed, and with it, every other system we’ve built to inhabit it. We do not face inevitable destruction, yet many of us cannot conceive of climate change as anything but the end of the world, an apocalypse with all its biblical trappings. Why?

In A Perturbed System, anthropologist Susannah Crockford argues that we must understand the climate emergency as a spiritual crisis, a result of Christian colonialism that we (religious or not) still struggle to describe without religious language. Climate discourse in the United States and northern Europe, Crockford shows, is framed by the same theological motifs that drove extraction, including ideas about prophecy, mediation, sacrifice, original sin, cult, messiah, and apocalypse. By listening to people on the edge of the crisis, A Perturbed System reveals a world in transition, what happens when worlds end—ecologically, socially, politically, and personally—and how we might live through these endings together.

Learn more about A Perturbed System at the University of Chicago Press website.

The Page 99 Test: A Perturbed System.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Allison Montclair / Alan Gordon reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Allison Montclair (AKA Alan Gordon), author of Fire Must Burn (A Sparks and Bainbridge Mystery, 8).

The entry begins:

I had the honor and privilege of conducting the Guest of Honor interview at the recent Malice Domestic Conference with Jim Huang, who has been involved in just about every aspect of the mystery world as a publisher, reviewer, bookstore owner, and conference organizer. I had used to prepare two of the compilations he had put together, drawing upon the collected knowledge of America's mystery bookstore owners, and am now actually going through them in their entirety.

100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century is a fantastically useful list of the classics, starting with Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles and finishing with Reginald Hill's On Beulah Height. Like all lists, it reminds me of...[read on]

About Fire Must Burn, from the publisher:

The owners of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau are back, and more determined than ever to bring love matches to the residents of Post-WWII London . . . so something as trivial as being dragged into a spy mission isn’t going to stop them!

Sparks fly when an old friend comes to town...

London, 1947. After recent events have left the normally steadfast Iris Sparks thoroughly shaken, she’s looking forward to some peace. With The Right Sort doing well, she and business partner Gwen Bainbridge are due a holiday. Until Iris’s former boss enlists their help for a secret mission.

Iris, who left British intelligence after the war, is being recruited for her Cambridge connection to one Anthony Danforth. She hasn’t seen Tony in almost ten years, yet she and Gwen must manipulate him into hiring their marriage service.

Tony’s suspected of being a Soviet operative, and an undercover agent posing as his perfect match could discover the truth. Despite her reluctance at being dragged back into the world of espionage, Iris agrees. After all, Tony was once a very good friend. If he’s innocent, she’ll happily prove it. If not? Well, no one ever said being a spy was easy...

Those who enjoy reading Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher Mysteries and Dorothy Sayers will adore this warm and witty historical mystery!

Visit Alan Gordon's website.

The Page 69 Test: An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

Q&A with Allison Montclair.

My Book, The Movie: An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

The Page 69 Test: Fire Must Burn.

Writers Read: Allison Montclair.

--Marshal Zeringue

D. E. Carr's "When Squirrels Fly," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: When Squirrels Fly: A Novel by D. E. Carr.

The entry begins:

When Mel Caldwell makes an animated, middle of the night phone call to her niece, Allie, but hangs up before explaining herself, Allie initially shrugs it off. Her aunt has always been a little eccentric. But when Aunt Mel disappears from her home less than 24 hours later, Allie drops everything and travels to Michigan to search for her. Shortly after her arrival in Ann Arbor, Allie meets her aunt’s enigmatic next-door neighbor, George Bennet. She reluctantly accepts help from George unaware he hides a dangerous secret that will complicate the search. The duo becomes a trio when Allie’s affable, but annoyingly irreverent younger brother, Nick, arrives to help. To find Aunt Mel, they’ll need to work together to determine how a neighborhood trellis, virtual reality goggles, migraine research, and an itinerant chihuahua, are all connected to the case.

When Squirrels Fly blends the popular genres of Cozy Mystery and light Science Fiction, both of which transition well to the screen. Although Ann Arbor, Michigan is a bit bigger than the typical small town cozy mystery setting, the action is mostly contained in a two-mile radius encompassing the historic Old West Side. The movie could be filmed on location in Ann Arbor where the somewhat quirky ambience allows the characters an easy backdrop for comic relief. There will be no shortage of extras with a wonderfully diverse population to choose from.

To imagine this cozy mystery-sci fi movie, think...[read on]

Visit D. E. Carr's website.

My Book, The Movie: When Squirrels Fly.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five great SFF novels centering older characters

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged five marvelous SFF books with older characters. One entry on the list:

The Wanderers by Meg Howrey

The three main characters of Howrey’s third novel are training to be the crew of the first-ever mission to Mars. But first, they must spend seventeen months in a simulation of their mission, which puts a strain on them all. And if they start cracking under the pressure of a replication of the long journey, how will they ever take the actual trip?

Read about another title on the list.

The Wanderers is among Una McCormack’s five heroines over the age of forty and Michelle Anne Schingler's five books centered on women in space.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Mengqi Wang's "Anxious Homes"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Anxious Homes: Inflexible Demand and China's Housing Market by Mengqi Wang.

About the book, from the publisher:

Anxious Homes is a study of the power that shapes the forms of the homes Chinese citizens strive for and the possible paths they may take to realize their home ownership dreams. Mengqi Wang discusses how the Chinese real estate industry functions in the everyday, welding aspirational middle-class families, especially migrant families, to the property-owning class and the urban growth machine. Urban housing was a socialist benefit in China until the market reforms and privatization in the 1990s. Today, most Chinese citizens consider homeownership a necessity rather than an economic privilege. Wang analyzes the making of homeownership ideologies through "inflexible demand" (gangxu)―a concept that real estate brokers, developers, homebuyers, and the government in China use to craft homeownership as indispensable for fulfilling dreams of urban citizenship. The ethnography shows that gangxu helps to articulate diverse attempts to accumulate value through housing at China's urbanizing city periphery, while giving shape to a housing-based, postsocialist right to the city. Anxious Homes argues that homeownership does not necessarily engender independence but suggests further inclusion of citizens within the dominant regime of accumulation.

Learn more about Anxious Homes at the Cornell University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Anxious Homes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Allison Montclair's "Fire Must Burn"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Fire Must Burn (A Sparks and Bainbridge Mystery, 8) by Allison Montclair.

About the novel, from the publisher:

The owners of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau are back, and more determined than ever to bring love matches to the residents of Post-WWII London . . . so something as trivial as being dragged into a spy mission isn’t going to stop them!

Sparks fly when an old friend comes to town...

London, 1947. After recent events have left the normally steadfast Iris Sparks thoroughly shaken, she’s looking forward to some peace. With The Right Sort doing well, she and business partner Gwen Bainbridge are due a holiday. Until Iris’s former boss enlists their help for a secret mission.

Iris, who left British intelligence after the war, is being recruited for her Cambridge connection to one Anthony Danforth. She hasn’t seen Tony in almost ten years, yet she and Gwen must manipulate him into hiring their marriage service.

Tony’s suspected of being a Soviet operative, and an undercover agent posing as his perfect match could discover the truth. Despite her reluctance at being dragged back into the world of espionage, Iris agrees. After all, Tony was once a very good friend. If he’s innocent, she’ll happily prove it. If not? Well, no one ever said being a spy was easy...

Those who enjoy reading Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher Mysteries and Dorothy Sayers will adore this warm and witty historical mystery!

Visit Alan Gordon's website.

The Page 69 Test: An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

Q&A with Allison Montclair.

My Book, The Movie: An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

The Page 69 Test: Fire Must Burn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six thriller books for "Reacher" fans

Dhruv Sharma is a Lead Writer in Screen Rant's New TV division.

He tagged six "standalone crime thriller novels and book series from the genre [that] are as good as Jack Reacher, if not better." One entry on the list:

Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly

The Bosch franchise has almost become synonymous with Titus Welliver because of how brilliantly he played Harry Bosch in the long-running series. However, even before Welliver played the detective character, the original Michael Connelly book series earned immense acclaim for their procedural drama and gritty realism.

Unlike the Jack Reacher books, the Harry Bosch books and the show benefit from the fact that they do not keep changing their primary location. For the most part of their run, they unfold in the sun-soaked landscapes of LA, almost making a character out of the City of Angels. The franchise also keeps evolving and reinventing its formula, instead of merely portraying the titular detective as an invincible force of vigilante justice.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Black Echo begins the saga of Harry Hieronymous Bosch; it is among David Gordon's twelve best LA books. Harry Bosch is among Alan Parks's top ten cops in fiction and Jeff Somers's six fictional cops who do things according to their own set of rules.

--Marshal Zeringue