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

Pg. 99: Carlton F. W. Larson's "One Nation Under Law"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: One Nation Under Law: The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence by Carlton F. W. Larson.

About the book, from the publisher:

This groundbreaking volume shatters many longstanding myths about the Declaration of Independence. Although states-rights advocates have long claimed that the Declaration created thirteen independent nations, Carlton F. W. Larson shows that the Declaration announced the birth of a new nation: the United States of America, a nation governed by an unwritten constitution in which the states were confederated and subject to national authority from the very beginning. Larson counters libertarian claims that the Declaration views government as a necessary evil, demonstrating instead how it embraces constitutionalism, active government, and the rule of law as positive goods. Along the way, Larson debunks other myths, such as the notion that the Declaration is the parchment text enshrined in the National Archives and that it was authored by Thomas Jefferson. By exploring the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence, One Nation Under Law helps us better understand America itself.

Visit Carlton F. W. Larson's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Trials of Allegiance.

The Page 99 Test: One Nation Under Law.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Rosanne Limoncelli reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Rosanne Limoncelli, author of Death at King's Cross: A Four Queens of Crime Mystery.

Her entry begins:

When I’m writing a new project, I usually keep my reading to books that will inspire me or keep me in the mood for what I am writing. But I will also take a break and read something completely different. Here are four books I recently read.

The Anatomy of Exile by Zeeva Bukai is a gorgeously written book about a young man and woman from two very different immigrant families growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970’s. It’s told from the mother’s point of view and focuses on her struggle to keep her family together. The beauty of this book is in the writing and the way that the mother’s understanding of the world grows through the love she has for her daughter as she learns what is...[read on]

About Death at King's Cross, from the publisher:

DCI Lilian Wyles is confronted by a troubling case, one that only the four queens of crime can help solve—even amidst the ongoing war efforts.

Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Ngaio Marsh are back in the follow-up novel to The Four Queens of Crime.

1941, London. When DCI Lilian Wyles finds a young woman murdered at King's Cross Station, she needs the help of someone she can trust, but Richard Davidson, her former Scotland Yard partner, has joined MI5 and is busy tracking black market routes outside of London, so for now, she is on her own.

After having met the four queens of crime during a murder investigation two years earlier, DCI Wyles has kept in touch. But Agatha, Dorothy, Margery, and Ngaio are all involved in the war effort and have problems of their own.

Agatha is volunteering at the University Hospital Pharmacy, where a dangerous anesthetic has been stolen. Dorothy has heard unsettling information from her connections at the BBC regarding members of the Royal Navy. Margery, who has been in the countryside helping families escape the city from the bombing, is worried about one of her charges whose older sister has gone missing. And Ngaio, who has relocated to New Zealand and is volunteering as an ambulance driver, has begun gathering secret intelligence from wounded soldiers and sailors that may put her in danger.

When the four queens contact DCI Wyles for help, the information they share makes the final pieces of the puzzle fall into place. DCI Wyles once again finds herself collaborating with her old partners in crime to solve the mystery and close the case in this thrilling sequel, perfect for fans of Nicola Upson and Anna Lee Huber.

Visit Rosanne Limoncelli's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Four Queens of Crime.

The Page 69 Test: The Four Queens of Crime.

Q&A with Rosanne Limoncelli.

Writers Read: Rosanne Limoncelli.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine top feminist mythological reimaginings

Tanaz Bhathena is an award-winning Zoroastrian author of contemporary and fantasy fiction. Her young adult books include Hunted by the Sky, which won the White Pine Award and the Bapsi Sidhwa Literary Prize, and The Beauty of the Moment, which won the Nautilus Gold Award for Young Adult Fiction. Her acclaimed debut, A Girl Like That, was named a Best Book of the Year by numerous outlets including The Globe and Mail, Seventeen, and The Times of India. Her debut adult fantasy, Witch Daughter, will be published in fall 2026 by Grand Central.

At Lit Hub Bhathena tagged nine feminist myth and fairytale retellings to read after watching Christopher Nolan’s big screen adaptation of The Odyssey. One title on the list:

Natalie Haynes, A Thousand Ships

Framed by the narrative of Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, Haynes’s novel is told in 43 chapters, exploring the perspectives of multiple women on both sides of the Trojan war. We hear from Penelope who pens letters to Odysseus, not knowing if he has survived the war, and from Clytemnestra who loses her daughter in her husband’s quest for Troy. But some of the most poignant narratives come from Trojan women like Creusa, wife of Aeneas who escapes Troy and becomes a founding father for Rome, and Hector’s wife, Andromache, who is taken as a war captive by Achilles’s son.

Read about another entry on the list.

A Thousand Ships is among Book Riot's best historical fiction books of the century so far, Megan Barnard's top eleven books about misunderstood women in history and mythology, the B&N Reads editors' twenty-four best mythological retellings, Susan Stokes-Chapman's top ten novels inspired by Greek myths, Jennifer Saint's ten essential books inspired by Greek myth, Deanna Raybourn's six top novels based on historical scandals, and Alyssa Vaughn's forty-two books to help you get through the rest of quarantine.

The Page 69 Test: A Thousand Ships.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Elizabeth H. Winthrop's "Conviction"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Conviction by Elizabeth H. Winthrop.

About the novel, from the publisher:

The story of a young, American woman’s misguided journey to join ISIS and the grief of the mother she leaves behind—a gripping and thought-provoking exploration of loss, empathy, and hope from the acclaimed author of The Mercy Seat

Maggie is gone. And her mother, Ann, is reeling.

In the aftermath of 9/11, eleven-year-old Maggie’s first instinct was rage. But when her parents took her to an open house at a mosque, she glimpsed a faith of beauty and peace—and over time came to embrace Islam as her own.

A decade later, Maggie has left Maine for the life in New York she always dreamed of. Yet her joy is shadowed by images from Syria: civilians starving, children buried under rubble. She feels powerless to help. Then she meets Ahmet, the handsome and headstrong son of a neighborhood baker. Ahmet is enraged by all the same things she is—so much that he leaves his life behind to join a new rebel group emerging in Syria, electrified by its sweeping vision to fight Assad and create a Muslim utopia. The group is ISIS.

Driven by love, Maggie follows him into territory from which she can’t return. Trapped without her passport and cut off from home, she slowly gleans the brutal nature of the group she has joined, one that does not share her vision of Islam.

Back in Maine, Ann is left with silence and half-truths, with the hope that one day her daughter will realize her mistake and come home. As ISIS explodes into global infamy, Ann becomes consumed by questions of what she did not see in her daughter and how belief—whether religious, political, or maternal—can turn to conviction, and conviction to ruin.

Told in counterpoint between mother and daughter, America and Syria, Conviction is both intimate and global in scope: a portrait of love during war, and a nuanced dive into the horrors of the modern world and the conditions that beget violence.

Visit Elizabeth H. Winthrop's website.

My Book, The Movie: Conviction.

Writers Read: Elizabeth H. Winthrop.

The Page 69 Test: Conviction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that books center platonic friendship

Rebecca Chace is the author of five books: Talking to the Wolf (novel), Leaving Rock Harbor (novel), Capture the Flag (novel), Chautauqua Summer (memoir), and June Sparrow and the Million Dollar Penny (children's book). Her third play, Obit, will premiere in September 2026 at Theater for the New City (NYC). A regular contributor to The New York Times, her nonfiction essays have appeared in The Yale Review, New England Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. Her fellowships include Civitella Ranieri, MacDowell, Yaddo, Dora Maar House, American Academy of Rome (Visiting Artist), among others. She is a Faculty Associate at Bard College Institute for Writing and Thinking.

At Electric Lit Chace tagged seven books that "explore the complicated, private heartbreak of losing a friend ." One title on the list:

The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine

The Grammarians is a word lovers’ book. In it, a pair of identical twin sisters not only have their own language—they share an obsession with language itself. Precocious American children of the late 20th century, the dictionary is their favorite toy. The novel explores the tensions, envy, and loyalties that hold these two together, just as it splits them apart. The semiotics of words shape both of their lives, becoming the lens through which they see the world and each other. A tale of two sisters.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Michael W. Childers's "The Mountains are Calling"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Mountains Are Calling: Tourists and the Unmaking of Yosemite National Park by Michael W. Childers.

About the book, from the publisher:

Yosemite National Park hosts more than four million visitors annually, a number that underscores both the national park’s immense popularity and its limits. Large numbers of visitors means air pollution from car emissions, noise pollution that drowns out the sounds of nature, and destroyed habitat―especially near campgrounds and crowded hiking trails. From the first party of tourists in 1855 to the millions who visit today, Yosemite’s visitors have played a primary role in shaping the park’s history. Visitors drove Yosemite’s development and, ultimately, its popularity, but in doing so, they have turned out to be the greatest threat to the very experiences they seek.

In seeking to understand how visitors’ perceptions and experiences have shaped their understanding of the purpose of national parks, and nature more broadly, The Mountains Are Calling places visitors at the center of Yosemite’s story. In histories of the national parks, environmental historians traditionally focus on either a conflict between preservation or exploitation, or a celebration of its founders, but such approaches often overlook the millions of visitors or depict them as backdrops in a larger morality play over the preservation of nature. Michael W. Childers instead addresses the lived experiences of visitors and their role in creating national parks, within the context of national park policy shifts and broader American cultural history. Foregrounding the stories of Indigenous people, tourists, innkeepers, soldiers, rangers, climbers, concessioners, and administrators, The Mountains Are Calling tells a more complete story of the park’s past to make sense of tourism’s environmental costs.

Visit Michael W. Childers's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Mountains Are Calling.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top literary novels by Southern writers

Suzanne Van Atten is a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She tagged five "summer novels more substantive than your typical beach read," including:

The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline

Christina Baker Kline spins a fictional account of the lives of real-life conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker, who were sold to a circus by their mother when they were young and went on to become successful plantation owners in 19th century North Carolina. Kline’s story is told from the perspective of Sarah Yates, one of two sisters who marry the brothers and bear 21 children between them. Beyond the peculiarities of their situation and the day-to-day challenges the foursome endure, the novel explores tensions surrounding race, class and gender as the country teeters on the brink of the Civil War.

Read about another book on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Foursome.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Linda Kass reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Linda Kass, author of the forthcoming World News from Waverley High: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

A Pair of Aces is one of those rare novels that is co-authored, and seamlessly so. Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray have come together for the third time (The Personal Librarian and The First Ladies) to write this tale of two trailblazing women on opposite sides of the law—a prosecutor and a madam—who team up to bring down notorious mob boss Lucky Luciano in 1930s New York. Eunice Carter is the assistant district attorney for the City of New York and Manhattan’s first Black female prosecutor. Polly Adler, a Russian Jewish immigrant, has worked long and hard to build up her high- class brothel business, her client list filled with well-known names. As Lucky infiltrates the prostitution network and puts Polly’s girls in danger, an unlikely alliance develops between two women that launches the most sensational trial New York has ever seen. While these women are...[read on]

About World News from Waverley High, from the publisher:

A tale of identity, activism, and finding your voice in a world on fire, this coming-of-age novel set at an urban high school captures a singular moment in American history—through the eyes of one unforgettable girl.

1969. Lena Rosen is an intelligent, observant teenager torn between spontaneity and self-consciousness. During her junior year, she becomes attuned to the pulse of her times in her first-period Current History class, where rebellion, social change, and musical innovation of the 1960s dominate discussion. When Lena becomes the associate editor of the school newspaper The Beacon, she is drawn into the swirling discourse surrounding the Vietnam War, civil rights, environmental disasters, and campus protests—while also grappling with her growing attraction to Jack Stone, the paper’s editor.

As the year progresses and the antiwar movement gains momentum, the unrest builds at Waverley High. Lena wrestles with her own cultural and religious identity as a Jewish teen while she and her fellow students struggle to cope with racial discord, a bomb threat, and the emotional toll of a world that seems to be unraveling. When tragedy collapses the distance between headlines and Lena’s own life, she must decide what it means to stand for peace—and to hope for a better world.

Set during one school year against the backdrop of an America on the brink of change, World News from Waverley High reveals the crossroads of personal growth and national unrest.

Visit Linda Kass's website.

Writers Read: Linda Kass (June 2026).

Writers Read: Linda Kass.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best science fiction books of the century

The experts at Book Riot tagged the best science fiction books of the century (so far). One title on the list:

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older

This multi-award-nominated sapphic, Holmes-esque mystery manages to create a gaseous world that feels lived in. A man goes missing on a Jupiter colony, and Investigator Mossa tracks clues all the way back to the university where her ex-girlfriend, Pleiti, researches how to return to Earth. Together, the two investigate the disappearance, which leads them to larger questions concerning humanity's place on Earth—and their place with each other.
- Erica Ezeifedi

Read about another title on the list.

The Page 69 Test: The Mimicking of Known Successes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jackie McMahon's "The Cloak and Dagger Club"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Cloak and Dagger Club by Jackie McMahon.

About The Cloak and Dagger Club, from the publisher:

Inspired by Agatha Christie's real-life Detection Club, a murder among a group of golden age mystery writers meets a second chance romance in this debut novel from author Jackie McMahon.

London, 1930. Lucy Hubbard is on the cusp of achieving her dreams. With her first mystery novel debuting with strong sales and glowing reviews, she's been invited by Horace Hazelmoor, the king of crime fiction, to join his elite group of writers—the Cloak and Dagger Club.

Thrilled at the opportunity, Lucy finds herself swept up into Horace's glamorous world at the Ritz hotel. She's even willing to put up with the inconvenient presence of her former fiancé, Frank Murray, the club's rising star who is on track to eclipse Horace as Britain's most popular crime writer.

But when Horace is found with a knife in his back, Frank is the police's prime suspect. Despite their complicated history, Lucy knows he's not capable of murder. With suspects galore and the danger rising, these two mystery writers must race to solve the crime—and fight their lingering feelings for each other—before the murderer strikes again.

Visit Jackie McMahon's website.

Writers Read: Jackie McMahon.

The Page 69 Test: The Cloak and Dagger Club.

--Marshal Zeringue

Karin Slaughter’s favorite dark & twisty books

Karin Slaughter is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including the Edgar nominated Cop Town and standalone novels Pretty Girls and False Witness. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her, based on her novel, debuted at #1 worldwide on Netflix as an original series in 2022. Her bestselling thriller series, Will Trent, is now a television and streaming sensation in its 4th season. The Good Daughter will soon be a limited series starring Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy, and further projects are currently in development for film/TV.

Slaughter's newest novel is The Secrets We Hide.

At Oprah Daily she tagged the seven thrillers she considers essential reading. One title on the list:

Jar of Hearts, by Jennifer Hillier

One of my go-to recommendations in the “bone-chilling” category, this novel tells the story of three high school friends: one who was murdered, one who went to prison, and one who’s been searching for the truth for decades. When the remains of the missing friend turn up 14 years later, the long-buried truth comes along with it.

Love a story about revenge? This book has huge twists that hinge on the bonds of friendship, and they are all kinds of messed up.

Read about another book on the list.

Jar of Hearts is among Jamie Canavés's most surprising thrillers ever written, Tessa Wegert's five crime novels about troubled teens, Emily Smith's five top thrillers featuring the dead/surviving girl trope, B. R. Myers's top ten quietly effective suspense novels, and Alice Blanchard's ten chilling thrillers to get you through the winter storms.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Ben Jones's "Protecting Life"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Protecting Life: The Ethics of Police Deadly Force by Ben Jones.

About the book, from the publisher:

The idea that police should prioritize protecting life seems obvious. Many use-of-force policies already endorse the principle. But despite general support for this principle in and out of policing, figuring out what exactly it means in practice proves far more challenging.

In Protecting Life, Ben Jones takes up that challenge and provides strategies for navigating it. High-profile, controversial killings in recent years remind us that too often police fall short in their obligations to protect life. The problem goes deeper than a few bad apples. Law, policy, and training entrench practices that result in avoidable killings, which hit marginalized groups the hardest. Importantly, how police use deadly force is intertwined with questions of distributive justice. That insight differentiates Protecting Life in its approach to the ethics of police deadly force. It develops a framework to evaluate police deadly force at the individual and institutional level, with close attention to concerns voiced by Black Lives Matter on how policing contributes to structural injustices in society. The book's extensive engagement with social science research reveals ways to translate bedrock moral principles into policy. Ultimately, its conclusions push readers to rethink the state's obligations to those most vulnerable to police violence--particularly, disadvantaged racial groups and persons with mental illness.

Visit Ben Jones's Penn State webpage.

Coffee with a Canine: Ben Jones & Sloopy.

The Page 99 Test: Apocalypse without God.

The Page 99 Test: Protecting Life.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven sad, messy love stories

Alicia Upano was born and raised in Hawai‘i. She is the recipient of the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award Hawai‘i, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and a Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Scholarship. Her short fiction has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, The Southern Review, The Best Peace Fiction: A Social Justice Anthology, and more. After living in Asia and both U.S. continental coasts, she now resides on O‘ahu with her family.

Upano's debut novel is Everything to the Sea.

At Lit Hub the author tagged seven books that are "interested in romantic love as a process of transformation, not a terminus." One title on the list:

Ann Napolitano, Dear Edward

Dear Edward is a book that is so much larger than its premise: protagonist 12-year-old Edward is the sole survivor of a plane crash in which he loses his parents and brother. How, we ask, will he go on after such monumental loss? How will he rebuild his family? Restore his heart?

This is a big-hearted book that makes me cry even on re-reads. While the novel beautifully weaves in the lives of other passengers, I am most touched by the community of people who surround Edward as he comes-of-age with his surviving aunt and uncle and befriends the girl next door. Unlike other books on this list, it is not a dive into adult romance, but into the many types of love that make our lives meaningful. As Edward navigates his new life, he’s prompted to lift weights to escape the overwhelm of his high school gym. “You’re tougher than I thought,” his gym teacher tells Edward after a few months. “And you’re getting stronger.” In this novel, the heart is a muscle.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Elizabeth H. Winthrop reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Elizabeth H. Winthrop, author of Conviction.

The entry begins:

I always have two books going at one, one of which I read, and one of which I listen to while running or driving. Right now I am listening to John of John, by Douglas Stuart, although I plan to get a hard copy as soon as can; it is one of those books that I know I will come back to over and over again in an attempt to savor and understand the artistry and architecture. If I were reading it in hardcover, I can imagine making all sorts of notes in the margins, marking gorgeous or strikingly original turns of phrase, noting the lengthy passages of dialogue Stuart is able to sustain, tracing the trajectories of characters and relationships. The novel is a quiet, intimate, and ultimately stunning study of personality and place, driven propulsively forward by...[read on]

About Conviction, from the publisher:

The story of a young, American woman’s misguided journey to join ISIS and the grief of the mother she leaves behind—a gripping and thought-provoking exploration of loss, empathy, and hope from the acclaimed author of The Mercy Seat

Maggie is gone. And her mother, Ann, is reeling.

In the aftermath of 9/11, eleven-year-old Maggie’s first instinct was rage. But when her parents took her to an open house at a mosque, she glimpsed a faith of beauty and peace—and over time came to embrace Islam as her own.

A decade later, Maggie has left Maine for the life in New York she always dreamed of. Yet her joy is shadowed by images from Syria: civilians starving, children buried under rubble. She feels powerless to help. Then she meets Ahmet, the handsome and headstrong son of a neighborhood baker. Ahmet is enraged by all the same things she is—so much that he leaves his life behind to join a new rebel group emerging in Syria, electrified by its sweeping vision to fight Assad and create a Muslim utopia. The group is ISIS.

Driven by love, Maggie follows him into territory from which she can’t return. Trapped without her passport and cut off from home, she slowly gleans the brutal nature of the group she has joined, one that does not share her vision of Islam.

Back in Maine, Ann is left with silence and half-truths, with the hope that one day her daughter will realize her mistake and come home. As ISIS explodes into global infamy, Ann becomes consumed by questions of what she did not see in her daughter and how belief—whether religious, political, or maternal—can turn to conviction, and conviction to ruin.

Told in counterpoint between mother and daughter, America and Syria, Conviction is both intimate and global in scope: a portrait of love during war, and a nuanced dive into the horrors of the modern world and the conditions that beget violence.

Visit Elizabeth H. Winthrop's website.

My Book, The Movie: Conviction.

Writers Read: Elizabeth H. Winthrop.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine must-read Southern Gothic novels

Lo Patrick is a former lawyer and current novelist living in the suburbs of Atlanta.

Her debut, The Floating Girls, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, was a finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and was a Reader's Digest Editor's Pick.

Patrick's newest novel is The Sins of Summer Daughters.

At People magazine the author tagged nine top Southern Gothic novels. One title on the list:

Sing Down the Moon by Robert Gwaltney

Gwaltney’s second book is a masterclass in the Southern Gothic fever dream. A steamy, blurred reality propels protagonist Leontyne Skye into adolescence and on her quest to both embrace and escape her family legacy. There are haints, fantastical characters and magic potions, all entangled in a bleak but romantic reality. The atmosphere and setting are so immersive that one has to shake oneself back into reality after putting the book down.

Read about the other novels on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Sing Down the Moon.

--Marshal Zeringue