Twelve gothic novels that explore the intense space between siblings

Elizabeth Brooks’ debut novel, The Orphan of Salt Winds, was hailed by BuzzFeed as “evocative, gothic, and utterly transportive.” She grew up in Chester, England, graduated from Cambridge University, and resides on the Isle of Man with her husband and two children.

Brooks’ new novel is The Whispering House.

At CrimeReads she tagged twelve gothic novels that explore the deepest darkest possibilities of sibling relationships, including:

Sister, by Rosamund Lupton (2010)

This wintry novel is a mystery in the traditional sense, as Beatrice searches for the killer of her sister, Tess. Even more compellingly, however, it is the elder sister’s quest to find out who her younger sister really was, and a coming to terms with the fact that Tess was a stranger, as well as a sibling. The novel takes the form of a letter to Tess, composed in Beatrice’s mind as she awaits her own death at the hands of her sister’s murderer. The letter is haunted by the presumptuous nature of the sibling bond. Just because we were born into the same family, it seems to say, you don’t necessarily know me, any more than I know you.

Read about another entry on the list.

Sister is among Louise Jensen's six thrillers centered around family relationships, Marybeth Mayhew Whalen's seven top stories about the darker side of small towns & suburbia, Alafair Burke's top ten thrillers about siblings, Laura Jarratt's top ten YA thrillers with sisters, and Sophie McKenzie's top ten teen thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Melissa Ginsburg

From my Q&A with Melissa Ginsburg, author of The House Uptown:

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

The House Uptown takes place in Uptown New Orleans in a house that has been in Lane's family for generations. It's not just the setting of the novel; it's also a physical embodiment of family history, memory, and past mistakes that circle back to affect Lane and her granddaughter Ava in the present. Fourteen-year-old Ava has recently lost her mother, and searches for her mother's presence in the house where she grew up. The past is alive here, and the living, in their grief, haunt the place like ghosts. We decided on The House Uptown because it is the focus of the characters' obsessions and the site of all the drama driving the book.

I wanted to highlight New Orleans in the title--another potential idea that we ended up discarding was Crescent, after one of New Orleans's many nicknames, Crescent City. We also considered Survived By, which...[read on]

Visit Melissa Ginsburg's website.

Q&A with Melissa Ginsburg.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven of the best mystery novels set by the sea

Emma Stonex is a novelist and The Lamplighters is her debut under her own name; she is the author of several books written under a pseudonym. Before becoming a writer, she worked as an editor at a major publishing house. She lives in Bristol with her husband and two young daughters.

[Q&A with Emma Stonex]

At Electric Lit Stonex tagged her "top seven mysteries set by the sea, in which the seascape plays as important a role as any in the story." One title on the list:

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Both a survival story and a modern fable, this is the unforgettable tale of Piscine, a young boy stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger. Martel employs the sea to devastating effect: under his pen it becomes a magical, illusory, all-seeing pool from which miracles surface and truths become fluid.

Read about another entry on the list.

Life of Pi is on Lucy Clarke's top ten list of books about castaways, Katy Yocom's list of the ten best tigers in fiction, Jodi Picoult's recommended list, Martyn Ford's top ten list of fantastical pets in children's literature, Off the Shelf's list of eight great books told by child narrators, Janis MacKay's top ten list of books set on the ocean, Kathryn Williams's list of six notable novels set in just one place, Scott Greenstone's list of seven top allegorical novels, Sara Gruen's six favorite books list, the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five top books on castaways, and John Mullan's list of ten of the best zoos in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Raksha Pande's "Learning to Love"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Learning to Love: Arranged Marriages and the British Indian Diaspora by Raksha Pande.

About the book, from the publisher:

Learning to Love moves beyond the media and policy stereotypes that conflate arranged marriages with forced marriages. Using in-depth interviews and participant observations, this book assembles a rich and diverse array of everyday marriage narratives and trajectories and highlights how considerations of romantic love are woven into traditional arranged marriage practices. It shows that far from being a homogeneous tradition, arranged marriages involve a variety of different matchmaking practices where each family tailors its own cut-and-paste version of British-Indian arranged marriages to suit modern identities and ambitions. Pande argues that instead of being wedded to traditions, people in the British-Indian diaspora have skillfully adapted and negotiated arranged marriage cultural norms to carve out an identity narrative that portrays them as "modern and progressive migrants"–ones who are changing with the times and cultivating transnational forms of belonging.

Discover more about Learning to Love at the Rutgers University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Learning to Love.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top obsessive female relationships in literature

Forsyth Harmon is the illustrator of The Art of the Affair by Catherine Lacey, and has collaborated with writers Alexander Chee, Hermione Hoby, Sanaë Lemoine, and Leslie Jamison. She is also the illustrator of the essay collection, Girlhood, by Melissa Febos. Forsyth’s work has been featured in The Believer, Tin House, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Awl. She received an MFA from Columbia University and currently lives in New York.

Harmon's new novel is Justine.

At Lit Hub she tagged five favorite obsessive female relationships in literature, including:

Raven Leilani, Luster

Edie is a 23-year-old assistant book editor who joylessly sleeps with her coworkers. She becomes infatuated with a man exactly double her age, and it’s complicated—beyond just the age difference. Eric is white; Edie is Black. And Eric is in an open marriage, but it has a perimeter set by his wife, the eerily poised Rebecca. Edie blows this perimeter by entering their family’s home. When Rebecca catches Edie there, rather than kicking her out, she invites Edie to her and Eric’s anniversary party. And when Edie loses her job and is evicted from her apartment, Rebecca asks her to move in, based at least in part on the assumption that she can guide Rebecca and Eric’s Black adoptive daughter. Living side-by-side, Edie and Rebecca become partners—“two magnets of identical charge”—and Edie’s attention pivots from Eric to Rebecca, who is “sexy in the way a triangle can be sexy, the clean pivot from point A to B to C.”

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jess Montgomery's "The Stills"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Stills: A Novel by Jess Montgomery.

About the book, from the publisher:

With compassion and insight, Jess Montgomery weaves a gripping mystery and portrait of community in The Stills, the powerful third novel in the Kinship series.

Ohio, 1927: Moonshining is a way of life in rural Bronwyn County, and even the otherwise upstanding Sheriff Lily Ross has been known to turn a blind eye when it comes to stills in the area. But when thirteen-year-old Jebediah Ranklin almost dies after drinking tainted moonshine, Lily knows that someone has gone too far, and—with the help of organizer and moonshiner Marvena Whitcomb—is determined to find out who.

But then, Lily’s nemesis, the businessman George Vogel, reappears in town with his new wife, Fiona. Along with them is also her former brother-in-law Luther Ross, now an agent for the newly formed Bureau of Prohibition. To Lily, it seems too much of a coincidence that they should arrive now.

As fall turns to winter, a blizzard closes in. Lily starts to peel back the layers of deception shrouding the town of Kinship, but soon she discovers that many around her seem to be betraying those they hold dear—and that Fiona too may have an agenda of her own.

Visit Jess Montgomery's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Widows.

The Page 69 Test: The Hollows.

The Page 69 Test: The Stills.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top coming-of-age thrillers

Debbie Babitt left her career as the Copy Chief for a major publishing company to focus on writing fiction. A former actress, playwright, and drama critic, she now divides her time between Manhattan and Florida. Saving Grace is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads Babitt tagged eight favorite coming-of-age thrillers, including:

Megan Abbott’s novel Dare Me, set in the world of high school cheerleading, explores how devious, ruthless, and vicious girls can be when they’re training and competing against each other. Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy’s BFF and loyal lieutenant…until the team’s new coach, Colette French, comes between them. A chilling examination of the dark side of the teenage psyche, this is an unforgettable story about rivalry, ambition, the battle for power, and growing up.

Read about another entry on the list.

Dare Me is among Avery Bishop's top five novels that explore "mean girl" culture, Kelly Simmons's six books to buddy-read with your teen or twentyish daughter, Katie Lowe's top eight crime novels for angry women in an angry world, Kate Hamer's top ten teenage friendships in fiction, S.R. Masters's seven thrillers that capture some of the darker aspects of tight-knit friendship groups, Jessica Knoll's top ten thrillers, Brian Boone's fifty most essential high school stories, Julie Buntin's twelve books that totally get female friendship, L.S. Hilton's top ten female-fronted thrillers, Megan Reynolds's top ten books you must read if you loved Gone Girl, Anna Fitzpatrick's four top horror stories set in the real universe of girlhood and Adam Sternbergh's six notable crime novels that double as great literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Matthew Gavin Frank's "Flight of the Diamond Smugglers"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa by Matthew Gavin Frank.

About the book, from the publisher:

For nearly eighty years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed “overmined” and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling?particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air.

Entering Die Sperrgebiet (“The Forbidden Zone”) is like entering an eerie ghost town, but Frank is surprised by the number of people willing—even eager—to talk with him. Soon he meets Msizi, a young diamond digger, and his pigeon, Bartholomew, who helps him steal diamonds. It’s a deadly game: pigeons are shot on sight by mine security, and Msizi knows of smugglers who have disappeared because of their crimes. For this, Msizi blames “Mr. Lester,” an evil tall-tale figure of mythic proportions.

From the mining towns of Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth, through the “halfway” desert, to Kleinzee’s shores littered with shipwrecks, Frank investigates a long overlooked story. Weaving interviews with local diamond miners who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, Frank reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town.

Interwoven throughout this obsessive quest are epic legends in which pigeons and diamonds intersect, such as that of Krishna’s famed diamond Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, and that of the Cherokee serpent Uktena. In these strange connections, where truth forever tangles with the lore of centuries past, Frank is able to contextualize the personal grief that sent him, with his wife Louisa in the passenger seat, on this enlightening journey across parched lands.

Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa. With his sovereign prose and insatiable curiosity, Matthew Gavin Frank “reminds us that the world is a place of wonder if only we look” (Toby Muse).

Visit Matthew Gavin Frank's website.

The Page 99 Test: Flight of the Diamond Smugglers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Mark Edward Langley

From my Q&A with  Mark Edward Langley, author of Death Waits in the Dark:

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

I like the titles of my novels to be something that catches the prospective readers eye and gives them a glimpse into what the story is about. For example, Path of the Dead; Death Waits in the Dark, When Silence Screams. All are tell-tale as to the story’s direction. They help grab the readers attention and put them in the frame of mind to understand the story before they even read the inside flap.

What's in a name?

The protagonists name in my series is Arthur Nakai. I wanted it to be a strong name befitting a man with his background. And there was....[read on]

Visit Mark Edward Langley's website.

My Book, The Movie: Death Waits in the Dark.

Coffee with a Canine: Mark Edward Langley & Lady Cora.

The Page 69 Test: Death Waits in the Dark.

Q&A with Mark Edward Langley.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten matriarchs in fiction

A. K. Blakemore is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Humbert Summer (2015) and Fondue (2018), which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. She has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo (My Tenantless Body, Poetry Translation Centre, 2019). Her poetry and prose writing has been widely published and anthologized, appearing in the The London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review and The White Review, among others.

Blakemore's new book is The Manningtree Witches.

At the Guardian she tagged ten favorite matriarchs in fiction, including:

Livia Drusilla in I, Claudius by Robert Graves

The sort of woman for whom the word matriarch was coined, Livia Drusilla was wife to Augustus Caesar, mother to Tiberius, grandmother of Claudius, great-grandmother of Caligula and great-great grandmother of Nero. In I, Claudius, she is depicted as the red right hand of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Working within the proscriptions of “virtuous” Roman womanhood, Livia plays her family members off against each other, and does far worse to anyone inhibiting their collective advancement. Despite the title, I, Claudius is a fascinating portrait of a mother whose delicately exerted influence changed the course of history. As Claudius himself puts it: “Augustus ruled the world, but Livia ruled Augustus.” Cersei Lannister could never.

Read about another entry on the list.

I, Claudius also appears on Isaac Mizrahi's ten favorite books list, Tessa Arlen’s top five list of historical novels, Christopher Wilson's top ten list of books about tyrants, Sarah Dunant's six favorite books list, Daniel Godfrey's top five list of books about ancient Rome, Jeff Somers's lists of eight books that make great party themes and six historical fiction novels that are almost fantasy, Tracy-Ann Oberman's six best books list, the Telegraph's lists of the 21 greatest television adaptations of novels and the twenty best British and Irish novels of all time, Daisy Goodwin's list of six favorite historical fiction books, a list of the eleven best political books of all time, David Chase's six favorite books list, Andrew Miller's top ten list of historical novels, Mark Malloch-Brown's list of his six favorite novels of empire, Annabel Lyon's top ten list of books on the ancient world, Lindsey Davis' top ten list of Roman books, and John Mullan's lists of ten of the best emperors in literature and ten of the best poisonings in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Lesley Newson & Peter Richerson's "A Story of Us"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: A Story of Us: A New Look at Human Evolution by Lesley Newson and Peter Richerson.

About the book, from the publisher:

It's time for a story of human evolution that goes beyond describing "ape-men" and talks about what women and children were doing.

In a few decades, a torrent of new evidence and ideas about human evolution has allowed scientists to piece together a more detailed understanding of what went on thousands and even millions of years ago. We now know much more about the problems our ancestors faced, the solutions they found, and the trade-offs they made. The drama of their experiences led to the humans we are today: an animal that relies on a complex culture. We are a species that can — and does — rapidly evolve cultural solutions as we face new problems, but the intricacies of our cultures mean that this often creates new challenges.

Our species' unique capacity for culture began to evolve millions of years ago, but it only really took off in the last few hundred thousand years. This capacity allowed our ancestors to survive and raise their difficult children during times of extreme climate chaos. Understanding how this has evolved can help us understand the cultural change and diversity that we experience today.

Lesley Newson and Peter Richerson, a husband-and-wife team based at the University of California, Davis, began their careers with training in biology. The two have spent years — together and individually — researching and collaborating with scholars from a wide range of disciplines to produce a deep history of humankind. In A Story of Us, they present this rich narrative and explain how the evolution of our genes relates to the evolution of our cultures. Newson and Richerson take readers through seven stages of human evolution, beginning seven million years ago with the apes that were the ancestors of humans and today's chimps and bonobos. The story ends in the present day and offers a glimpse into the future.

Learn more about A Story of Us at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: A Story of Us.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Aliya Whiteley's "Skyward Inn"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley.

About the book, from the publisher:

Drink down the brew and dream of a better Earth.

Skyward Inn, within the high walls of the Western Protectorate, is a place of safety, where people come together to tell stories of the time before the war with Qita.

But safety from what? Qita surrendered without complaint when Earth invaded; Innkeepers Jem and Isley, veterans from either side, have regrets but few scars.

Their peace is disturbed when a visitor known to Isley comes to the Inn asking for help, bringing reminders of an unnerving past and triggering an uncertain future.

Did humanity really win the war?

This is Jamaica Inn by way of Jeff Vandermeer, Ursula Le Guin, Angela Carter and Michel Faber, a beautiful story of belonging, identity and regret.

Visit Aliya Whiteley's website.

The Page 69 Test: Skyward Inn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six books on unrequited love and unmet obsession

Megan Nolan lives in London and was born in 1990 in Waterford, Ireland. Her essays, fiction and reviews have been published in The New York Times, The White Review, The Sunday Times, The Village Voice, The Guardian and in the literary anthology, Winter Papers. She writes a fortnightly column for the New Statesman.

Nolan's newly released debut novel is Acts of Desperation.

At Lit Hub she tagged six titles on unrequited love and unmet obsession, including:

Oyinkan Braithwaite, My Sister, The Serial Killer

In this pleasingly ghastly, and very funny, sharp shock of a novel, Korede is a nurse, and the long suffering sister to willful, beguiling, beautiful influencer Ayoola who has also recently achieved serial killer status by doing away with the third of her boyfriends. Korede is called upon each time to help do away with the evidence and keeps an anguished eye on her sister’s giveaway glib behavior on social media, advertising her breezy recovery improperly soon after the deaths of her beaus. Their dynamic is disrupted when Ayoola sets her sights on a doctor at Korede’s hospital, Dr Tate Otumu, for whom Korede has been harboring a private passion. Will she finally stand up to Ayoola’s careless propensity for violence or sacrifice her benevolent doctor for familial duty? Her shy, reverent admiration is painful and touching, particularly one scene in which she wistfully watches him charm a crying toddler. And I love Braithwaite’s portrayal of the plain unfairness of unrequited love. Korede and Dr. Otumu have a genuine and long-established bond but it’s Ayoola’s physical beauty which finally makes the impact on him. Ayoola knows this—it’s part of why she can so ruthlessly make quick work of men: “All he wants is a pretty face. That’s all they ever want.”

Read about another entry on the list.

My Sister the Serial Killer is among Sarah Pinborough's top ten titles where the setting is a character, Tiffany Tsao's top five novels about murder all in the family, Victoria Helen Stone's eight top crime books of deep, dark family lore, and Kristen Roupenian's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Hsiao-Hung Pai's "Ciao Ousmane"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Ciao Ousmane: The Hidden Exploitation of Italy's Migrant Workers by Hsiao-Hung Pai.

About the book, from the publisher:

In 2013 Ousmane Diallo, a 26-year-old Senegalese olive harvester, lost his life when a gas canister exploded in a Sicilian field. As an African migrant, he was little mourned. But though they've been deliberately forgotten, neither the events of Ousmane's life nor his tragic death are uncommon. Across Italy today, African workers toil in the fields that make it one of Europe's largest exporters of fruit and vegetables. Having fled home countries devastated by colonialism and global capitalism, those who survive the journey across the Mediterranean arrive on European shores only to find themselves systematically segregated and exploited. They have been subject to anti-migrant policies over decades, from administrations across the political spectrum. Trapped in a chokehold of subhuman living and working conditions, they are the dehumanised Other, invisible by design--the people hidden behind foods and goods branded 'Made in Italy'. Ciao Ousmane is the story of this subordinated class. Through the lives and stories of Italy's migrant workers, Hsiao-Hung Pai exposes the open secret of how state and society create "necessary outcasts." This is a bitter, frank and moving tale of racial capitalism, against which workers constantly find new ways to organise and fight back.

Visit Hsiao-Hung Pai's website.

The Page 99 Test: Ciao Ousmane.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six riveting tales of ultra-competitive parents

Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman have been great friends for over 20 years. Their friendship has sustained them through the ups and downs of motherhood, careers, and life’s many curveballs. Their debut novel, Girls with Bright Futures, is a dark, suspenseful journey into the cutthroat world of college admissions. Between the two of them, they have undergraduate degrees from Princeton University and the University of Michigan, a law degree from UC Berkeley, careers in marketing, non-profit leadership and biotechnology law, two husbands, and four kids (three of whom have survived the college admissions process without a single parent landing in jail).

At CrimeReads they tagged six "books featuring parents who claim to want the best for their children, but who somehow convince themselves that their lies, schemes, or worse, are justified in the service of their kids’ bright futures." One title on the list:

The Party by Robyn Harding

A sweet sixteen sleepover in a tony San Francisco home takes a dreadful turn when one party guest is gravely injured. As the truth unspools about what really happened that night, the birthday girl’s parents seek to cover up their own misdeeds in an attempt to protect their seemingly perfect life. But nothing is ever as perfect as it seems.

Read about another entry on the list.

Coffee with a Canine: Robyn Harding & Ozzie.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Emma Stonex

From my Q&A with Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters: A Novel:

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

I hit on The Lamplighters while writing the first draft, and knew I’d fight to keep it if it was ever up for debate (my publishers liked it too, so that was lucky!). Traditionally, lamplighters were employed to tend streetlights, not lighthouses, but my reason for choosing the word was twofold. First, ‘The Lamplighter’ is the title of a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, who belonged to the Stevenson family of lighthouse engineers. (You can imagine how out of place a fiction writer might have felt in a clan of straight-talking builders.) This felt like a perfect fit. Second, I just love the word ‘lamplight’ – it has an evocative, inviting feel, a soft rhythm brimming with warmth and hope, but also mystery. The Lamplighters is based on the real-life disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from a remote Scottish island in 1900, whose fates to this day are still unknown. I wanted to convey to the reader a sense of the romance and allure of lighthouses, but also their potential for...[read on]

Follow Emma Stonex on Twitter.

Q&A with Emma Stonex.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: John D. Ciorciari's "Sovereignty Sharing in Fragile States"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Sovereignty Sharing in Fragile States by John D. Ciorciari.

About the book, from the publisher:

In fragile states, domestic and international actors sometimes take the momentous step of sharing sovereign authority to provide basic public services and build the rule of law. While sovereignty sharing can help address gaps in governance, it is inherently difficult, risking redundancy, confusion over roles, and feuds between partners when their interests diverge.

In Sovereignty Sharing in Fragile States, John D. Ciorciari sheds light on how and why these extraordinary joint ventures are created, designed, and implemented. Based on extensive field research in several countries and more than 150 interviews with senior figures from governments, the UN, donor states, and civil society, Ciorciari discusses when sovereignty sharing may be justified and when it is most likely to achieve its aims. The two, he argues, are closely related: perceived legitimacy and continued political and popular support are keys to success.

This book examines a diverse range of sovereignty-sharing arrangements, including hybrid criminal tribunals, joint policing arrangements, and anti-corruption initiatives, in Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Lebanon, Timor-Leste, Guatemala, and Liberia. Ciorciari provides the first comparative assessment of these remarkable attempts to repair ruptures in the rule of law—the heart of a well-governed state.

Learn more about Sovereignty Sharing in Fragile States at the Stanford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Sovereignty Sharing in Fragile States.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine novels about women who reject expectations

Laurie Elizabeth Flynn is a former model who lives in London, Ontario, with her husband and three children. She is the author of three young adult novels: Firsts, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults pick, along with Last Girl Lied To and All Eyes on Her, under the name L.E. Flynn.

Her adult debut, The Girls Are All So Nice Here, has sold in nine territories and has been optioned for television by AMC.

At Electric Lit Flynn tagged nine novels about women who reject expectations. One title on the list:

Precious You by Helen Monks Takhar

This piercingly sharp story focuses on women at two different stages of life: Katherine, in her early 40s, is a magazine editor, and Lily, in her early 20s, is an intern. Katherine is drawn to Lily at the same time as she calls her a “snowflake,” an entitled millennial. The twisted events that ensue speak not only to competition between coworkers, but how women are saddled with generational expectations and stereotypes depending on our ages.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Mark Edward Langley's "Death Waits in the Dark"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Death Waits in the Dark by Mark Edward Langley.

About the book, from the publisher:

It took all of thirty seconds for two shots to bring the world of Margaret Tabaaha crashing down around her. After losing her husband in Afghanistan during the first year of Operation Enduring Freedom, her two sons were all she had left. Now they had been taken from her violently, deliberately, plunging her into a whiskey bottle and stripping away her reason for living.

When Arthur Nakai receives a call from his first love, Margaret, her voice pleading for his help, it comes as he is attending a wake for one of the men he considered a brother from his days in the Marines 6th LAR Wolf Pack Battalion. Feeling a deep and responsible obligation to help her, Arthur soon finds himself involved in the multi-billion-dollar world of the oil and gas industry and coming face-to-face with an old adversary, Elias Dayton. Their paths had crossed when Arthur was a member of the Shadow Wolves, an elite tactical unit within US Customs and Border Protection. Now Dayton runs Patriot Security, a Blackwater-type firm that keeps the oil rigs, gas wells, and man camps secure from the Water Protectors, protesters pushing to stop the fracking and poisoning of Native lands.

As Arthur works through the case from his end, Navajo police chief Jake Bilagody tackles it from another angle, looking into the strained relationship between the oil company and the Navajo people, all while searching for a missing Navajo man that may have become an unwilling piece on the reservation checkerboard. But when Arthur learns the identity of the boys’ killer, he struggles to make sense of it. Because if the clues are right, he will be forced to make a decision that will haunt him for the rest of his life....[read on]

Visit Mark Edward Langley's website.

My Book, The Movie: Death Waits in the Dark.

Coffee with a Canine: Mark Edward Langley & Lady Cora.

The Page 69 Test: Death Waits in the Dark.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best kid narrators in literature

Chris Whitaker lives in the United Kingdom with his wife and three young children. When not writing he works part-time at a local library, where he gets to surround himself with books.

Whitaker's new novel is We Begin at the End.

At Lit Hub he tagged six of the best kid narrators in literature. One title on the list:

Johnny
John Hart, The Last Child

This book will always hold a special place in my heart; after reading John Hart’s brooding thriller, I quit my city job and gave writing a shot. I was totally inspired by the fact that John had left a successful law career behind in order to pursue his dream of being an author.

The story follows Johnny Merrimon as he stalks the bad men of Raven County in an attempt to track down his missing twin sister, Alyssa. Johnny is a badass; he’s fearless and, despite his tender years, won’t let anything or anyone get in his way. Also look out for his endearing relationship with best friend, Jack. If I wasn’t such a badass myself, I would’ve teared up reading those last lines.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue