Pg. 69: Michael O'Donnell's "Concert Black"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Concert Black by Michael O'Donnell.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the acclaimed author of Above the Fire comes Concert Black, a hauntingly elegant novel that unspools a tale of music, obsession, and the fragile architecture of legacy.

Ellen Wroe, a celebrated biographer known for her piercing insight, sets her sights on Cecil Woodbridge, the legendary conductor whose name reverberates through concert halls and conservatories. But Woodbridge, imperious and elusive, rebuffs her approach and conspires to thwart her efforts. Undeterred, Wroe embarks on a relentless pursuit, trailing the maestro across continents—through the archives of his correspondence, into the confidences of his colleagues, and deeper still into the long shadow of his past.

Maestro, cellist, king of the baton—Woodbridge is a man enshrined in myth and bristling with contradictions. Beneath the grandeur lies a hidden lattice of ambition, betrayal, and sorrow. As Wroe attempts to chart his ascent, she uncovers not only the cost of genius but the wreckage it often leaves behind.

With lyrical precision and atmospheric sweep, Concert Black echoes the psychological depth of Ian McEwan’s Atonement and the philosophical resonance of Julian Barnes’s The Noise of Time. From the frostbitten avenues of postwar London to the symphonic stages of Boston and Chicago, biographer and subject circle each other in an elegiac dance—until they collide in a reckoning neither can escape.

A novel of ambition and artistry, Concert Black is a symphony of human complexity: piercing, poised, and unforgettable.

Visit Michael O'Donnell's website.

Q&A with Michael O'Donnell.

The Page 69 Test: Above the Fire.

Writers Read: Michael O'Donnell (December 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Concert Black.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books about characters seeking community & connection

Wendy J. Fox is the author of five books of fiction, including What If We Were Somewhere Else, which won the Colorado Book Award; If the Ice Had Held, a top pick in audio from LitHub; and the newly released The Last Supper. She has written for many national publications including Self, Business Insider, BuzzFeed, and Ms. She authors a column in Electric Literature focusing on the big works of traditional small presses. A lifelong resident of the American West, she currently lives outside of Phoenix.

At Electric Lit Fox tagged eight books that "illustrate the complexity of finding our place in the world, all while showing that it really is possible." One title on the list:

Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen

This is a book that could have just as easily been called a speculative memoir as a novel. Jen writes toward an understanding of a fraught relationship with the narrator’s mother, who speaks from beyond the grave; and the narrator begins to understand how her mother was trapped between cultures, carried deep trauma, and was often misunderstood. It’s intimate and compulsively readable. Jen takes a complex family dynamic, transforms it into an intergenerational saga, distills it back into a love letter, and in doing so, forges a new bond.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Carl P. Borick's "Backcountry Resistance"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Backcountry Resistance: South Carolina's Militia and the Fight for American Independence by Carl P. Borick.

About the book, from the publisher:

The extraordinary story of a war fought by ordinary people

In Backcountry Resistance, Carl P. Borick delivers a groundbreaking account of the citizen militias that defied British forces in South Carolina's volatile Backcountry during the pivotal Southern campaign of the Revolutionary War.

Focusing on rank-and-file militiamen, Borick explores how these ordinary men were recruited, armed, fed, and motivated. Drawing on underused pension records and state claims, he reconstructs their everyday realities and their battlefield experiences. He also examines the war's devastating effects on civilians, including enslaved people and women, who played crucial roles in the struggle.

Richly detailed and grounded in the human experience of warfare, Backcountry Resistance offers the most comprehensive portrait to date of South Carolina's militia during the decisive years of the American War of Independence.

Learn more about Backcountry Resistance at the University of South Carolina Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Backcountry Resistance.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Alex Ritany reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Alex Ritany, author of Maybe Tomorrow I'll Know: A Novel.

One title the author tagged:

Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

I’m working away at the Murderbot series whenever my library has copies for me. At the moment I have just finished the first one, and it absolutely lived up to the hype. I love “robot” fiction and this take on consciousness and duty was absolutely fascinating. Plus Murderbot’s sense of humour is just awesome. I’ve had this recommended to me countless times, and honestly put off reading for so long only because I knew I’d be completely obsessed whenever I did pick it up (and I was right!), and I can’t wait to explore...[read on]

About Maybe Tomorrow I'll Know, from the publisher:

A boy is trapped in a time loop―and in a girl’s body―in this heartfelt and wryly humorous love story.

Laurie wakes up in a girl’s body with no memories, driving down an unknown highway, and promptly crashes the car. Thankfully, a handsome stranger named Gideon comes to his rescue. It’s awkward for Laurie to pretend that he’s a girl, but at least this is the scariest thing he’ll ever have to deal with.

Except the next morning―and every morning after―Laurie wakes up barreling down that same highway. He re-meets Gideon every day, with no idea who this girl whose body he’s inhabiting even is. Only one thing is clear: he’s on a countdown. Laurie has been given only one hundred days to get back in the right body, break the time loop, and not fall for Gideon while he does it.

Maybe Tomorrow I’ll Know is a funny, deeply felt exploration of love, identity, and what it means to move through the world in a body that is truly yours.

Visit Alex Ritany's website.

Q&A with Alex Ritany.

The Page 69 Test: Maybe Tomorrow I'll Know.

Writers Read: Alex Ritany.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine books about ordinary & everyday heroes

At Book Riot Megan Mabee tagged nine titles about ordinary and everyday heroes, including:

The Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon

While we’re on the topic of Italy, Christine Simon’s charming book set in the tiny Italian village of Prometto shines a spotlight on the power of a small-town hero. With a water crisis growing dire in Prometto, charismatic vacuum repairman Signor Speranza gets caught up in an elaborate scheme to raise the money for the town’s pipe repairs.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Leslie Karst's "Murder, Local Style"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Murder, Local Style (An Orchid Isle Mystery, 3) by Leslie Karst.

About the book, from the publisher:

Retired caterer Valerie Corbin investigates a suspicious poisoning in this Orchid Isle cozy culinary mystery, featuring a feisty queer couple who swap surfing lessons for sleuthing sessions in tropical Hilo, Hawai‘i.

A dinner to die for!

It’s been an eventful transition, but retired caterer Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen are finally settling into life on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Val’s even joined the neighborhood orchid society to make some new friends. So when she’s asked to step in to cater their latest social event, as the newbie of the group she can’t exactly say no.

But what should have been a straightforward gig is soon a dining disaster when the food from the event poisons and kills the society president. As Val herself becomes a suspect in the murder investigation, she’s determined to uncover the truth. Who would want to kill the mild-mannered president of the orchid society?

Turns out the list is longer than a celebrity chef's tasting menu. Apparently some of the residents did not "love thy neighbor." Can she reveal the killer’s identity before they strike again?

This mouthwatering cozy mystery is perfect for fans of Ellen Byron, Jennifer J Chow, Lucy Burdette, and Raquel V Reyes, and includes a selection of delicious Hawaiian recipes to cook at home.

Visit Leslie Karst’s website.

Coffee with a Canine: Leslie Karst & Ziggy.

My Book, The Movie: The Fragrance of Death.

Q&A with Leslie Karst.

The Page 69 Test: Waters of Destruction.

My Book, The Movie: Waters of Destruction.

Writers Read: Leslie Karst (April 2025).

The Page 69 Test: Murder, Local Style.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Jennifer N. Brown

From my Q&A with Jennifer N. Brown, author of The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton: A Novel:

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

This wasn’t the title I was working with when I wrote the book, that title was Remember Death, which is the English translation of Memento Mori, a medieval concept that recurs several times in my novel. However, my editor rightly felt that it doesn’t fully reflect what’s going on in the novel, so it was changed. It was hard to land on a title that referenced both timelines of my book — the Tudor English timeline of Elizabeth Barton and the modern day timeline of Dr. Alison Sage who finds Elizabeth’s book. When we landed on The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton, I was pleased that we had something that gestured towards ...[read on]

Visit Jennifer N. Brown's website.

Q&A with Jennifer N. Brown.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Anna O. Law's "Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, and Immigrants by Anna O. Law.

About the book, from the publisher:

Since the late nineteenth century, the US federal government has enjoyed exclusive authority to decide whether someone has the ability to enter and stay in US territory. But freedom of movement was not guaranteed in the British colonies or early US. By contrast, voluntary migrants were met with strict laws and policies created by colonies and states, which denied free mobility and settlement in their territories to unwanted populations.

Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship presents a story of constitutional development that traces the confluence of the logics of slavery and settler colonialism in early legal rulings and public policy about migration and citizenship. The book examines the division of labor between the national and state governments that endured for over a century, reasons why that arrangement changed in the late nineteenth century, and what the transformation meant for people subject to those regimes of control. Drawing into one study the migration policy histories of groups of people that are usually studied separately, and combining the methodologies of political science, history, and law, Anna O. Law reveals the unmistakable effects of slavery and Native American dispossession in modern US immigration policy.

Visit Anna O. Law's website.

The Page 99 Test: Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels that showcase queer domesticity

Like Family is Erin O. White's debut novel.

White is also the author of the memoir, Given Up For You, and essays that have appeared in the New York Times, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Minneapolis with her wife and two daughters.

At Lit Hub White tagged "five novels I love that tell the story of queer domestic life." One title on the list:

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other isn’t entirely a domestic novel because it isn’t entirely any kind of novel. The book is a tree, a mural, a tapestry woven with the threads of twelve British women’s public and private lives that cross through time and circumstance. There’s Dominique, a lesbian actor struggling to keep pace with trans liberation, Bummi, a Nigerian immigrant burdened by shame, and Morgan, a young nonbinary person offered a surprising legacy by their grandmother. Even though just a few of the book’s many characters are lesbian or nonbinary, I would say that they are all queer, in the sense that their true selves—and their true joys—exist outside the confines of convention.

Read about another title on the list.

Girl, Woman, Other is among Emma Specter's thirteen notable feminist books, Sarah Davis-Goff's six top books about women working together, Ore Agbaje-Williams's seven books featuring very, very complicated friendships, Cecile Pin's seven novels featuring displacement in multicultural London, and Kasim Ali's nine top books about interracial relationships.

--Marshal Zeringue

Helen Benedict's "The Soldier's House," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Soldier's House: A Novel by Helen Benedict.

The entry begins:

I've always imagined The Soldier's House as a play or a movie, set, as it is, in a house and community in upstate New York, with flashbacks to Iraq. The three main characters in the novel are Naema, an Iraqi widow; Khalil, her husband, who appears in flashbacks before he is killed; and Jimmy, an American soldier.

Even though Riz Ahmed isn't Iraqi, or even an Arab, he would be a perfect Khalil: handsome, charismatic, deeply kind and yet determined. I would also love to see the Irish actor Paul Macal play Jimmy Donnell, if he can do a good American accent. But most important of all would be who play Naema. My choice is...[read on]

Visit Helen Benedict's website.

My Book, The Movie: Sand Queen.

The Page 69 Test: Sand Queen.

The Page 69 Test: Wolf Season.

Q&A with Helen Benedict.

The Page 69 Test: The Good Deed.

My Book, The Movie: The Soldier's House.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten horror stories featuring twins

Dana Mele is a Pushcart-nominated writer based in upstate New York. A graduate of Wellesley College, Mele holds degrees in theatre, education, and law. Her debut, People Like Us, was shortlisted for the 2019 ITW Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel and is an ALA Rainbow List Selection. Their sophomore novel, Summer's Edge, was a Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Selection and a New York Public Library Best Books for Teens title.

Mele's new novel is The Beast You Let In.

[Q&A with Dana Mele]

At CrimeReads the author tagged ten memorable horror stories from film and fiction that feature twins, including:

The Grady Sisters
Stephen King, The Shining

Once again, in Stephen King’s novel The Shining, former caretaker Delbert Grady’s daughters are not twins. But the movie’s image of the ghostly twin girls holding hands and staring vacantly at Danny is seared into the cultural consciousness.

They may not be main characters, but in one single line of dialogue and a couple of brief appearances, they forever made long, empty hotel hallways terrifying.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Shining is among Claire Douglas's five top psychological thrillers set in isolated places, Leslie Jamison's five best books to understand drinking, Jeff Somers's ten all-time scariest haunted house books and five books totally unlike their adaptations, Laura Purcell's five top gothic novels, Sam Riedel's six eeriest SFF stories inspired by true events, Joel Cunningham's top seven books featuring long winters, Ashley Brooke Roberts's seven best haunted house books, Jake Kerridge's top ten Stephen King books, Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders's top ten horror novels that are scarier than most movies, Charlie Higson's top ten horror books, and Monica Ali's best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Chris Nickson's "The Faces of the Dead"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Faces of the Dead by Chris Nickson.

About The Faces of the Dead, from the publisher:

Sergeant Cathy Marsden investigates the death of a local gangster in WWII Leeds.

Leeds, 1944. Cathy Marsden’s happiness at her boyfriend Tom’s brief leave from the army and marriage proposal is short-lived as she embarks on a new case in the Special Investigation Branch.

Eric Carr, a local gangster, is dead after crashing his car on the outskirts of Leeds. Not only that, but an alarming discovery is made in the boot: weapons, including guns, stolen from a US military base, to be sold on the black market.

Was the crash simply an accident, or something more sinister? One thing’s for sure – Eric’s death has set a chain of murder and gangland chaos in motion. As the number of people disappearing increases, and men start dying, Cathy must work out who is pulling the strings, and why.

This fast-paced and twisty World War II thriller is perfect for fans of Kate Quinn, Rhys Bowen and Kelly Rimmer.

Visit Chris Nickson's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Constant Lovers.

The Page 69 Test: The Constant Lovers.

The Page 69 Test: The Iron Water.

The Page 69 Test: The Hanging Psalm.

Q&A with Chris Nickson.

The Page 69 Test: The Molten City.

My Book, The Movie: Molten City.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (August 2021).

The Page 69 Test: Brass Lives.

The Page 69 Test: The Blood Covenant.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Will Rise.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (March 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Rusted Souls.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (September 2023).

The Page 69 Test: The Scream of Sins.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Them Without Pain.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (September 2024).

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (March 2025).

The Page 69 Test: No Precious Truth.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson.

The Page 69 Test: The Faces of the Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Anica Mrose Rissi reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Anica Mrose Rissi, author of Girl Reflected in Knife:

Her entry begins:

Back in my editor days, I acquired and edited an unforgettable debut YA novel, OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu. From the start, Corey has been a writer who is unafraid of letting her characters get messy—of allowing them to be fully, deeply, imperfectly human and fully, deeply, imperfectly themselves. Of letting them make big mistakes, feel big emotions, and step right into complicated situations with no easy solutions. And she does it all with gorgeous sentences, an insightful eye, and a generous heart. I went on to edit three more of Corey’s novels before I switched to the author side of the desk, and I’ve remained a huge fan of the many books she has published in the years since, from picture books to YA. This week, Little, Brown published Corey Ann Haydu’s adult debut, Mothers and Other Strangers. It’s a book about...[read on]

About Girl Reflected in Knife, from the publisher:

"A haunting, bold portrait of a young woman whose world has reached fever pitch, whose grief has taken on a life of its own. Unputdownable and exquisitely written, Girl Reflected in Knife is chilling yet beautiful, fantastical yet all too real, as we follow one girl through the looking glass. I will be thinking about this book for a very long time to come.” —Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be and The Way I Am Now

Destiny can’t count on anyone but herself. Her mother has struggled with addiction for all of Destiny’s life, moving them from town to town, bad boyfriend to bad boyfriend—including a particularly dark period in Texas, where Destiny ended up in a psychiatric hospital. But Destiny’s mother is newly sober and stable. And Destiny is falling in love.

Destiny never believed in happily ever after, but that doesn’t stop her confidence from fraying when the first guy she ever trusted casually shatters her heart. Spiraling hard, she tells a tiny, desperate lie to buy herself a moment of hope. But as the lie grows and the pressures tangle, she gets lost in her own deception, and the line between truth and fantasy starts to blur.

With time untethered and her perception in knots, Destiny must find a way to reclaim her story and weave a new ending—before its beginnings unravel.

"Be careful of the story you tell yourself. It might become the one you believe."

Visit Anica Mrose Rissi's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Anica Mrose Rissi & Arugula.

The Page 69 Test: Anna, Banana, and the Monkey in the Middle.

Q&A with Anica Mrose Rissi.

Writers Read: Anica Mrose Rissi.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Cisco Bradley's "I Hear Freedom"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: I Hear Freedom: The Great Migration, Free Jazz, and Black Power by Cisco Bradley.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the 1960s, a musical revolution took place in the industrial landscapes of Cleveland and Detroit. Disenchanted with the strictures of bebop, musicians forged a new style―free jazz―that took inspiration from a vast range of sources, including figures such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and John Coltrane; African and Middle Eastern music; avant-garde modernism; and the politics and aesthetics of Black Power. How did this radical movement come about, and what explains its creativity and vitality?

Based on interviews with dozens of musicians, I Hear Freedom tells the story of free jazz and its connection to the broader Black experience. Cisco Bradley demonstrates that although this part of the free jazz movement arose in the Midwest, it is deeply rooted in the musical traditions and aesthetics that the Great Migration brought from the South. As postwar urban renewal projects fractured Black communities, musicians drew on this heritage to create new forms of expression. Figures such as Albert Ayler, Donald Ayler, Charles Tyler, Frank Wright, Bobby Few, Charles Moore, and Faruq Z. Bey developed distinct artistic visions, often influenced by their involvement in Black liberation movements. I Hear Freedom chronicles the Cleveland and Detroit free jazz scenes, and it follows musicians to New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and beyond. A revelatory oral history, this book shows that free jazz is a uniquely Black style shaped by mobility, community, and the struggle for freedom.

Visit Cisco Bradley's website.

The Page 99 Test: I Hear Freedom.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books of immersive dark gothic fantasy for fans of horror

Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family. At Book Riot she tagged eight titles of immersive dark gothic fantasy for horror fans. One title on the list:

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

In 1348, a young girl and an orphan of the Black Death tells Thomas, a disgraced knight, that Lucifer is leading the fallen angels in a war on heaven. As he takes her to Avignon, the conflict unfolds around him, and Thomas finds himself in the middle of a war between angels and demons.

Read about another title on the list.

Between Two Fires is among Lyndsie Manusos’s six medieval horror books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Alex Ritany's "Maybe Tomorrow I'll Know"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Maybe Tomorrow I'll Know: A Novel by Alex Ritany.

About the book, from the publisher:

A boy is trapped in a time loop―and in a girl’s body―in this heartfelt and wryly humorous love story.

Laurie wakes up in a girl’s body with no memories, driving down an unknown highway, and promptly crashes the car. Thankfully, a handsome stranger named Gideon comes to his rescue. It’s awkward for Laurie to pretend that he’s a girl, but at least this is the scariest thing he’ll ever have to deal with.

Except the next morning―and every morning after―Laurie wakes up barreling down that same highway. He re-meets Gideon every day, with no idea who this girl whose body he’s inhabiting even is. Only one thing is clear: he’s on a countdown. Laurie has been given only one hundred days to get back in the right body, break the time loop, and not fall for Gideon while he does it.

Maybe Tomorrow I’ll Know is a funny, deeply felt exploration of love, identity, and what it means to move through the world in a body that is truly yours.

Visit Alex Ritany's website.

Q&A with Alex Ritany.

The Page 69 Test: Maybe Tomorrow I'll Know.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine books with short but rich interior journeys

Irena Smith is the author of the award-winning memoir, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays and Troika: Three Generations, Three Days, and a Very American Road Trip. Her obsession with how words work began early (as a child growing up in Soviet Russia, she was known to occasionally stand on furniture and recite Pushkin poems), and her writing focuses on migration, memory, motherhood, generational expectations, the petty indignities of middle age, and the importance of embracing a broader, more generous vision of what it means to succeed.

At Electric Lit Smith tagged nine books that take "circumscribed journeys: across a parlor, through a single unruly sentence, back into a childhood bedroom.... But even when hemmed in by economic exigency, physical disability, or cultural constraints, these protagonists show us that nothing is more heroic than a consciousness finding a way forward on its own terms." One title on the list:

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

Odysseus’s loyal wife, Penelope, spends most of The Odyssey weaving, waiting, and weeping. Now that she’s dead, she’s ready to drop some truth bombs from the underworld. She is no longer willing to bite her tongue, to keep the right doors closed and go to sleep during the rampages. She’s sardonic and angry. She regrets not standing up for the maids Odysseus and Telemachus slaughtered when Odysseus returned to Ithaca, but it’s too late; their voices haunt her story, for the maids understand better than anyone the steep cost of keeping the home fires burning.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Penelopiad among Paula Munier's eight top works informed by The Odyssey.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Scott Kurashige's "American Peril"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism by Scott Kurashige.

About the book, from the publisher:

This probing account shines a new light on the problem of anti-Asian violence and inspires us to build lasting solidarity.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, racist demagoguery fomented a campaign of terror against Asian Americans. But these attacks were part of a much longer pattern that made anti-Asian racism integral to the outbreak of white supremacist, misogynist, and colonial violence across 175 years of U.S. history. Written in the radical spirit of Howard Zinn, American Peril represents the culmination of thirty-five years of study and activism by award-winning scholar Scott Kurashige.

From the lynching of Asian immigrants during the exclusion era to the U.S. military's slaughter of Asian civilians, the book connects domestic and global events that have been erased from the official record. Going beyond victimhood, it traces the rise of Asian American community protest and activism in response to the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin and other overlooked tragedies. While many have worked to legislate and prosecute hate crimes, Kurashige argues that hope lies in grassroots activism for multiracial solidarity.

Visit Scott Kurashige's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Shifting Grounds of Race.

The Page 99 Test: American Peril.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Chris Nickson reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Chris Nickson, author of The Faces of the Dead (A Cathy Marsden Thriller).

His entry begins:

It seems I'm never reading just one book. There's my entertainment reading downstairs, currently November Road by Lou Berney, a crime novel set in the aftermath of the JFK assassination in 1963, around New Orleans and Texas. Too early to tell where it's going, but he's a good enough writer to keep my interested. Also going through several book on Todmorden, a small town on the border of Yorkshire and Lancashire, as research for a novel I've just begun to write. It's set in 1862, and...[read on]

About The Faces of the Dead, from the publisher:

Sergeant Cathy Marsden investigates the death of a local gangster in WWII Leeds.

Leeds, 1944. Cathy Marsden’s happiness at her boyfriend Tom’s brief leave from the army and marriage proposal is short-lived as she embarks on a new case in the Special Investigation Branch.

Eric Carr, a local gangster, is dead after crashing his car on the outskirts of Leeds. Not only that, but an alarming discovery is made in the boot: weapons, including guns, stolen from a US military base, to be sold on the black market.

Was the crash simply an accident, or something more sinister? One thing’s for sure – Eric’s death has set a chain of murder and gangland chaos in motion. As the number of people disappearing increases, and men start dying, Cathy must work out who is pulling the strings, and why.

This fast-paced and twisty World War II thriller is perfect for fans of Kate Quinn, Rhys Bowen and Kelly Rimmer.

Visit Chris Nickson's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Constant Lovers.

The Page 69 Test: The Constant Lovers.

The Page 69 Test: The Iron Water.

The Page 69 Test: The Hanging Psalm.

Q&A with Chris Nickson.

The Page 69 Test: The Molten City.

My Book, The Movie: Molten City.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (August 2021).

The Page 69 Test: Brass Lives.

The Page 69 Test: The Blood Covenant.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Will Rise.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (March 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Rusted Souls.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (September 2023).

The Page 69 Test: The Scream of Sins.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Them Without Pain.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (September 2024).

Writers Read: Chris Nickson (March 2025).

The Page 69 Test: No Precious Truth.

Writers Read: Chris Nickson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five expansive horror tales set in New York City

Vincent Tirado is a nonbinary Dominican born and raised in the Bronx. They are a Pura Belpré Award winner, Bram Stoker and Lambda Literary award finalist known for their books Burn Down, Rise Up (2022), We Don't Swim Here (2023), and We Came to Welcome You (2024). You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom (2026) is their sophomore adult novel. When they’re not writing new spine-chilling horrors, they can be found making another pot of coffee and harassing their cat, Bugsy.

At CrimeReads Tirado tagged "five Big Apple horror novels to get a taste of what expansive terrors you can find in just one city." One title on the list:

Zakiya Dalila Harris, The Other Black Girl

There are a number of high-end industries that New York City is so well-known for, there are endless stories about trying to “make it” in any particular one. The Devil Wears Prada deals with fashion, the Wolf of Wall Street is about finance. One specific industry that doesn’t quite get a lot of attention (in my opinion) is the publishing industry. Maybe that’s because it’s not quite as flashy as fashion or finance, but that doesn’t give it any less of a potential for drama.

Or horror.

In The Other Black Girl, we follow Nella, the only Black employee–and editorial assistant at Wagner Books, a publishing company in New York City. This is no small feat, as any publishing professional can tell you, and yet Nella is consistently overlooked and under-appreciated at her job.

She fields microaggressions daily and walks on eggshells so as not to rock the boat among her less-melanated coworkers. When white authors create racially-offensive archetypes within their stories, she tries to gently steer them away, only to be accosted for offending them.

So imagine how overjoyed Nella becomes when the company finally hires Hazel, another Black woman. It’s a chance for her to feel less alone in a homogenous office, a chance to find some camaraderie. At the very least, it’s a chance to have backup when it comes to white authors who take offense at the slightest criticism.

And yet…there’s something very off about Hazel. The stories she tells Nella doesn’t add up, her relationship with the founder of Wagner books is suspect at best and worst of all, Hazel begins to sabotage Nella professionally.

This horror satire paints a startling picture of what it means when not all skinfolk are kinfolk.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Other Black Girl is among L.S. Stratton's five mysteries and thrillers set in the workplace, Christina Dotson's five top books that feature toxic friendships, Mary Keliikoa's eight top workplace thrillers, Tania Malik's five unconventional office novels, Stephanie Feldman's seven novels featuring ambitious women, Caitlin Barasch’s seven novels set in the literary world, and Ashley Winstead's seven titles that explore collective guilt & individual complicity.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Ed Lin's "The Dead Can't Make a Living"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Dead Can't Make a Living by Ed Lin.

About the novel, from the publisher:

Ed Lin’s big-hearted, eye-opening fifth installment in the fan-favorite Taipei Night Market series

Jing-nan, the owner of the most popular food stand in Taipei’s world-famous Shilin night market, is hauling trash after a successful evening of hawking Taiwanese delicacies to tourists when he finds a corpse propped up against the dumpsters. The dead man turns out to be Juan Ramos, a Philippine national who came to Taiwan for a job at a massive ZHD food processing plant.

Jing-nan is haunted by Ramos’s story, and by the heartbreak of his family, who arrive in Taipei looking for answers. ZHD has a history of safety violations, and activists have a hunch Ramos’s death might be part of a cover-up. Meanwhile, Jingnan’s gangster uncle, Big Eye, has his own mysterious, probably illegal, reasons for being concerned about what’s going on in ZHD. He pressures Jing-nan into a daring and risky mission: going undercover as a migrant laborer to get a job at the food processing plant and reporting back about the conditions inside. Jing-nan hopes to find out the truth for the Ramos family, and to save other immigrant lives—but first he has to survive the spy operation.

This rollicking crime novel is a scorching, timely examination of our global dependence on undocumented immigrants.

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--Marshal Zeringue