Pg. 69: Laney Katz Becker's "In the Family Way"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: In the Family Way: A Novel by Laney Katz Becker.

About the book, from the publisher:

Set in the 1960s before Roe, a poignant and powerful novel in the vein of Lessons in Chemistry and Big Little Lies, about the friendship between a group of suburban housewives who help one another navigate through their personal challenges, marriages, and their pregnancies—both wanted and unwanted.

In 1965 America, women can’t have their own bank accounts, credit cards, or sign their own leases; divorce is scandalous and difficult; and abortion is illegal.

Every week, a group of suburban housewives meet for their Tuesday canasta game. As cards are drawn and discarded, the women share advice and confidences. When prim and proper Lily Berg, a doctor’s wife, discovers she’s pregnant with their second child, she follows her friend Becca’s suggestion and takes in Betsy, a pregnant teen from the local home for unwed mothers. Betsy, who’s never met anyone Jewish before, is to live with the Bergs for six months, help with babysitting and housekeeping, have her own baby, and agree never to contact the family again.

But things quickly get complicated. Lily, who’s opened her home to the teenager, never planned on opening her heart, yet that’s exactly what happens. Meanwhile, Becca is pregnant with her fourth, and comes up with a scheme to get a legal, therapeutic abortion, and Lily’s sister, Rose, discovers the man she married isn’t who he purported to be, and turns to Lily and her husband for help.

Moving and atmospheric, full of history and heart, In the Family Way is a timely novel that captures the experiences of women on the cusp of liberation as they struggle with their own complex feelings about being wives, mothers, and women with their own dreams and ambitions.

Visit Laney Katz Becker's website.

The Page 69 Test: In the Family Way.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Adam S. Hayes's "Irrational Together"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Irrational Together: The Social Forces That Invisibly Shape Our Economic Behavior by Adam S. Hayes.

About the book, from the publisher:

A must-read that reshapes how we think about the social underpinnings of our financial choices.

In Irrational Together, economic sociologist Adam S. Hayes takes readers on a fascinating journey to uncover the often-unseen social forces that shape our financial behavior. Drawing on original research and engaging real-world examples, Hayes challenges not only the notion that economic decisions are purely rational but also the prevailing behavioral economics view that irrational choices stem primarily from individual beliefs. Instead, he argues that our economic choices and actions are deeply embedded in our social and cultural contexts and that understanding these influences is crucial to fully grasp the complexities of financial decision-making.

From the impact of social class and cultural capital on risk-taking and the role of social networks and group identities in shaping consumer choices to the gendered dimensions of financial advice and literacy, this book weaves together insights from sociology, behavioral economics, and cultural studies to paint a nuanced picture of how we navigate the economic landscape as inherently social beings. Why, for example, would someone choose to continue paying 20% interest on a large credit card debt rather than taking out a low-interest mortgage on their home to pay off the card? As Hayes makes clear through rigorous analysis, cultural values—like those related to home ownership—hold as much or more sway over us than financial best practices.

Bridging the gap between behavioral economics and sociology, this groundbreaking work paves the way for a more holistic understanding of the social and cultural influences on economic behavior. Hayes also looks to the future and argues that to correct major disparities in our social understanding of wealth and money, we need to construct financial systems that consider a diversity of social backgrounds.

With its accessible language and thought-provoking insights, Irrational Together is an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand the intersection of money, society, and human behavior.

Visit Adam S. Hayes's website.

The Page 99 Test: Irrational Together.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books featuring disastrous party scenes

Jonathan Parks-Ramage is a Los Angeles based novelist, playwright, screenwriter and journalist. His critically acclaimed debut novel Yes, Daddy was named one of the best queer books of 2021 by Entertainment Weekly, NBC News, The Advocate, Lambda Literary, Bustle, Goodreads and more. Yes, Daddy was also optioned for television by Amazon Studios.

Parks-Ramage's new novel is It's Not the End of the World.

At Lit Hub the author tagged five "novels which feature some of the worst (but most entertaining) parties-gone-wrong." One title on the list:

Bret Easton Ellis, The Shards

If the horrific party scenes detailed in Bret Easton Ellis’s semi-auto fictional novel about his youth are even anywhere close to accurate, it will make you very glad you were not friends with him in the 1980’s. The Shards follows seventeen-year-old Bret in his senior year at Buckley, an elite Los Angeles prep school.

Over the course of the novel, Bret becomes increasingly obsessed with the Trawler, a serial killer stalking Los Angeles. Bret is convinced that this murderer is after him, taunting him, and torturing and killing people he knows.

The book takes place well before the term “nepo-baby” was ever conceived, but suffice to say that Bret’s social milieu is composed of some of the richest and most privileged kids in LA. The book is deeply evocative—Ellis transports us to the era of his youth with detailed descriptions of time and place and music and people.

There’s not just one party scene in this book—there are so many, and they each bring a greater sense of the wild world of privilege that Bret occupies. But these parties are not just the site of debauched fun—they are also settings where dark secrets are revealed, tensions boil over, and shocking violence occurs.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Allison King

From my Q&A with Allison King, author of The Phoenix Pencil Company: A Novel:

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

The Phoenix Pencil Company was pretty much always the title of the book. I think it does a good job of capturing the fantasy-aspect of the book, and of course the pencil part. It also gives a sense that this is going to follow a company, so potentially span a long period of time. Another idea I had was Pencil Hearts, which might've spoken to the emotional parts of the book more, though feels less distinctive.

What's in a name?

The name with the most significance in this book is that of Wong Yun, who is the grandmother and one of two main characters. Her name is my own grandmother's name, as a lot of the story is inspired by...[read on]

Visit Allison King's website.

Q&A with Allison King.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Neil Gregor's "The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany by Neil Gregor.

About the book, from the publisher:

A new history of how the musical worlds of German towns and cities were transformed during the Nazi era.

In the years after the Nazis came to power in January 1933 and through the war years all aspects of life in Germany changed. However, despite the social and political upheaval, gentile citizens were able to continue leisure activities such as attending concerts. In this book, historian Neil Gregor surveys the classical concert scene in Nazi Germany from the perspective of the audience, rather than institutions or performers. Gregor delves into the cultural lives of ordinary Germans under conditions of dictatorship. Did the ways in which Germans heard music in the period change? Did a Nazi way of listening emerge?

For audiences, Gregor shows, changes to the concert experience were small and often took place around the edges. This, combined with the preserved idea of the concert hall as a space of imagined civility and cultivation, led many concertgoers and music lovers to claim after the war that their field and their practice had been innocent—a place to retreat from the vicious violence and racism of the Nazi regime. Drawing on untapped archival sources, The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany reveals that the true history was one of disruption but also of near effortless adaptation. Through countless small acts, the symphony concert was reframed within the languages of strident nationalism, racism, and militarism to ensure its place inside the cultural cosmos of National Socialist Germany.

Learn more about The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany at the University of Chicago Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Symphony Concert in Nazi Germany.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five great sci-fi books about robots, AI, and cyborgs

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged five great robot sci-fi books, including:

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

And last but not least, a “humans learned nothing from Terminator” story. In this cautionary tale, in the future, the technology humans invented becomes self-aware and turns against them, nearly wiping out all of humanity. The survivors of the robot attacks tell the story of the robopocalypse, how the machines became the enemy, and how the humans fought back against the robots.

Read about another entry on the list.

Robopocalypse is among Emily Temple's fifty greatest apocalypse novels.

The Page 69 Test: Robopocalypse.

--Marshal Zeringue

Martine Bailey's "Isolation Ward," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Isolation Ward: The Nail-Biting Psychological Thriller by Martine Bailey.

Isolation Ward, is Bailey's second title about Lorraine Quick, a young psychological testing expert drawn into solving crimes. She pairs up with police Detective Diaz, whose obsession with FBI profiling sparks a fascination with Lorraine.

From Bailey's dreamcast for an adaptation of the novel:

Director – Sally Wainwright: I wrote the novel with Sally Wainwright in mind, the British writer and director of Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack. She is a brilliant explorer of working class life and tough, flawed and vulnerable women. Isolation Ward is set around Happy Valley’s location of Hebden Bridge, an alternative, edge-of-the-world town, where I also lived in the 1990s. I think Wainwright would appreciate that I drew my story from my own career in psychometrics, assessing staff in one of England’s top security hospitals. We have another connection: Wainwright learned her trade writing the British soap opera Coronation Street, a link to my composer dad, Derek Hilton, the pianist in the show’s nightclub.

Lorraine Quick – Florence Pugh: Pugh’s performances have a raw force on screen that keep viewers glued to her thoughts and moods. I’d love to see Lorraine played with...[read on]

Visit Martine Bailey's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: An Appetite for Violets.

The Page 69 Test: An Appetite for Violets.

My Book, The Movie: A Taste for Nightshade.

My Book, The Movie: The Almanack.

My Book, The Movie: The Prophet.

Q&A with Martine Bailey.

The Page 69 Test: Isolation Ward.

My Book, The Movie: Isolation Ward.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Steph Post's "Terra Incognita"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Terra Incognita by Steph Post.

About the book, from the publisher:

Set in 1889, Terra Incognita is an historical fantasy adventure that follows famed explorer Sir Ashmore Bedivere and his assembled companions on an epic quest around the globe to discover Alatyra, the fabled last lost city—perfect for fans of Caleb Carr's The Alienist and Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

New York City, 1889. With her neighborhood engulfed in flames over a turf war, professional pickpocket Lily Vane has nowhere to hide. Out of luck, she steals the wrong piece of jewelry from the wrong man—an ancient ring, owned by gentleman explorer Sir Ashmore Bedivere. He recognizes instantly that Lily's wily criminal talents could prove useful to him and grants her clemency in return for service. Thus Lily's fate is sealed: she finds herself embarking on Ashmore's quest to find Alatyra, the last lost city.

Joining her are Ashmore's cunning wife, Cristabel, and their three business partners. As the six journey from New York City—first to Tangier, then across the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and into the dark forests and mountains of Romania—Lily learns to trust her new companions. But as they draw closer to Alatyra, Ashmore's past sins threaten to swallow the entire expedition whole.

Told in a constellation of voices and forms, Terra Incognita is more than a thrilling historical adventure full of daring heists, stunning reveals, and near-captures; it is an immersive experience.

Visit Steph Post's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Steph Post & Juno.

My Book, The Movie: Lightwood.

The Page 69 Test: Lightwood.

My Book, The Movie: Walk in the Fire.

The Page 69 Test: Terra Incognita.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Sarah Gabbott & Jan Zalasiewicz's "Discarded"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Discarded: How Technofossils Will be Our Ultimate Legacy by Sarah Gabbott and Jan Zalasiewicz.

About the book, from the publisher:

What will remain of our plastic, cans, and other junk long after humans have vanished?

What kind of fossils will we leave, as relics into the far future? A blizzard of new objects has suddenly appeared on Earth: plastic bottles, ballpoint pens, concrete flyways, outsize chicken bones, aluminium cans, teabags, mobile phones, T-shirts. They're produced for our comfort and pleasure--then quickly discarded. The number of our constructions has exploded, to outweigh the whole living world. This new-made treasure chest underpins our lives. But it is also giving a completely new style of fossilization to our planet, as hyper-diverse and hyper-rapidly-evolving technofossils spin out of our industrialized economy. Designed to resist sun, wind, rain, corrosion and decay, and buried in soils, seafloor muds and the gigantic middens of our landfill sites, many will remain, petrified, as future geology.

What will these technofossils look like, in future rock? How long will they last and how will they change, as they lie underground for decades, then millennia, then millions of years? Discarded describes how they transform as they are attacked by bacteria, baked by the Earth's inner heat, squashed by overlying rock, permeated by subterranean fluids, crumpled by mountain-building movements--and what will be left of them. These new fossils also have meaning for our lives today. For we live on a world increasingly buried under our growing waste. As our discarded artefacts begin to change into fossils, they may be swallowed by birds, entangle fish, alter microbial communities and release toxins. Even deeply buried in rock, technofossils may break down into new-formed oil and gas, change the composition of groundwater, and attract new mineral growths. They will have a lasting impact.

It is a new planetary phenomenon, now unfolding around us. Scientists are only just beginning to grasp its scale, and get to grips with how it functions. This book describes, for the general reader, the kind of science that is emerging to show the far-future human footprint on Earth. It offers a different perspective upon fossils and fossilization, one that expands the idea of what people think of as fossils, and what they can tell us.

Learn more about Discarded at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Jan Zalasiewicz's The Earth After Us.

The Page 99 Test: Discarded.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top novels about the end of democracy

Otho Eskin burst onto the thriller scene in 2020 with The Reflecting Pool, to great reviews and much book club interest. The novel introduces readers to Marko Zorn, a Washington, DC homicide detective with a strong moral compass who isn’t afraid to bend the rules to get results. The second thriller, Head Shot, was released in 2021 and the third book, Firetrap, was released in 2024. The Reflecting Pool, Head Shot, and Firetrap were all named Amazon Editors Picks for Best Mystery, Thriller or Suspense. The fourth book in the Marko Zorn series, Black Sun Rising, is now available, and has received enthusiastic advance praise: “Another Otho Eskin thriller that delivers double the trouble, twice the action, and quadruple the enjoyment.” —Steve Berry, New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author.

At CrimeReads Eskin tagged five "novels that depict the end (or near-end) of democracy." One title on the list:

Attica Locke’s Guide Me Home (2024)

The third book in Attica Locke’s beloved Highway 59 series, Guide Me Home tells of retired Texas Ranger Darren Mathews, as he grapples with past traumas and the socio-political upheavals of America, following the 2016 election. When Mathews’ mother re-emerges in his life, she shares news of a Black college student gone missing from her white sorority. Finding the investigation half-hearted and her sorority sisters eerily unfazed by her absence, Mathews sets out to solve the case and bring the young woman home. In the process, he’s forced to confront his own past and the ghosts of slavery and Jim Crow—long embedded in his native Texas but coming to surface in the era of Trump. Guide Me Home is reminiscent of what the scholar Jeff Sharlet calls the “slow civil war.” It tells not of a single democracy-shattering event, but of the steady unraveling of our society, as a result of white Americans’ failure to reckon with the sins of their forebears.

Read about another novel on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sarah Landenwich's "The Fire Concerto"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Fire Concerto: A Novel by Sarah Landenwich.

About the book, from the publisher:

A beautifully written, evocative literary page-turner about a brilliant nineteenth-century female pianist from Poland lost to history and another woman’s quest to ensure she is not forgotten—with a shocking twist of a finale.

Clara Bishop hasn’t touched a piano since a concert hall fire nearly took her life a decade ago, ending her career as a rising star in the world of classical music. Significantly scarred and unable to play, she has turned away from everything and everyone associated with music, especially her ruthless mentor Madame, whom Clara blames for her injuries.

Her life is upended when Madame dies, leaving Clara an unexpected inheritance: an ornate nineteenth-century metronome with a cryptic message hidden inside. Convinced this is not a gift but a puzzle Madame wants her to solve, Clara comes to suspect that the unusual bequest is the long-lost metronome of the composer Aleksander Starza—a priceless object missing since 1885, when Starza was murdered by the brilliant female pianist Constantia Pleyel.

As Clara works to uncover the metronome’s haunted past and protect it—and herself—from those who wish to obtain it, she discovers that nothing about Starza and his murder are what they seem. History has remembered Constantia Pleyel as an unstable artist who killed Starza in a fit of madness. The truth could rewrite the history of music—and give Clara the second chance she has been longing for.

This moving tale is perfect for fans of Brendan Slocumb's The Violin Conspiracy.

Visit Sarah Landenwich's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Fire Concerto.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Ross Benes's "1999"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times by Ross Benes.

About the book, from the publisher:

From pro wrestling and Pokémon to Insane Clown Posse and Jerry Springer, this look at the low culture of the late ’90s reveals its profound impact and how it continues to affect our culture and society today.

The year 1999 was a high-water mark for popular culture. According to one measure, it was the “best movie year ever.” But as journalist Ross Benes shows, the end of the ’90s was also a banner year for low culture. This was the heyday of Jerry Springer, Jenna Jameson, and Vince McMahon, among many others. Low culture had come into its own and was poised for world domination. The reverberations of this takeover continue to shape American society.

During its New Year’s Eve countdown, MTV entered 1999 with Limp Bizkit covering Prince’s famous anthem to the new year. The highlights of the lowlights continued when WCW and WWE drew 35 million American viewers each week with sex appeal and stories about insurrections. Insane Clown Posse emerged from the underground with a Woodstock set and platinum records about magic and murder. Later that year, Dance Dance Revolution debuted in North America and Grand Theft Auto emerged as a major video game franchise. Beanie Babies and Pokémon so thoroughly seized the wallets and imagination of collectors that they created speculative investment bubbles that anticipated the faddish obsession over nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The trashy talk show Jerry Springer became daytime TV’s most-watched program and grew so mainstream that Austin Powers, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Wayans Bros., The Simpsons, and The X-Files incorporated Springer into their own plots during the late ’90s. Donald Trump even explored a potential presidential nomination with the Reform Party in 1999 and wanted his running mate to be Oprah Winfrey, whose own talk show would make Dr. Oz a household name.

Benes shows us how so many of the strangest features of culture in 1999 predicted and influenced American life today. This wild ride through pop culture uncovers the connections between the kayfabe of WWE and the theatrics of politics, between the faddish obsession with Beanie Babies and with NFTs, between faithful fans and political loyalists, between violent video games and society’s scapegoats, and much more. 1999 is not just a nostalgic look at the past. It is also a window into our contentious present.

Visit Ross Benes's website.

The Page 99 Test: 1999.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels to scratch that "Pride and Prejudice" itch

Brittany K. Allen is a writer and actor living in Brooklyn.

At Lit Hub she tagged seven novels "if you’re craving an Austen-y fix." One title on the list:

Emily Adrian, Seduction Theory

This forthcoming-this-summer novel is a gleefully constructed diagram of several affairs. Written in the form of an MFA thesis, the book offers a postmodern dissection of the ways power affects coupling partnerships. There’s an entanglement involving professors, graduate students, and department leaders that ends in a true Edwardian muddle. Extremely fun and incredibly itchy.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Liz Alterman reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Liz Alterman, author of Claire Casey's Had Enough.

Her entry begins:

This past month I’ve been focusing on non-fiction. I was very fortunate to receive an advance reader copy of Rebecca Bloom’s insightful When Women Get Sick: An Empowering Approach for Getting the Support You Need, which is a fantastic resource for anyone navigating the complexities of our healthcare system. Filled with practical strategies, hard-won wisdom, and eye-opening anecdotes, this is a must-read for those with an illness and anyone who...[read on]

About Claire Casey's Had Enough, from the publisher:

Back in the day, Claire had dreams. She was going to be somebody! Now a forty-something mom of three (four if you count her husband!), drowning in laundry and PTA chores, with a job she can’t stand, she's finally had enough . . . A hilarious, heartwarming mom-com, perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Fiona Gibson.

Claire Casey has reached her breaking point. For years, she’s juggled it all: kids, husband, career, and a never-ending list of responsibilities. But when the man who’s supposed to be her partner – who promised he wouldn’t let his phone die and would pick her up from the airport – completely forgets about her, Claire snaps.

It’s the final straw. Claire is done. And so are they.

Sort of . . . maybe. (It’s not easy saying goodbye to sixteen years of marriage, ok!)

Still, Claire’s determined to reclaim her life. She’s tired of being the overworked, worn-out mom in her forties. She wants to be hopeful, vivacious Claire again.

Attending her college reunion reconnects her with former flame, Alex. And while flirting with him over email is innocent, his invitation to meet for drinks at a swanky hotel is not!

As Claire begins to rediscover the woman she was, she’s forced to confront the harsh reality that recapturing her sense of self could blow up her marriage . . . Now Claire must decide: risk the unknown or rebuild the life she has, flaws and all?

Told over the course of a day in the life of this relatable heroine, Claire Casey’s Had Enough is a laugh-out-loud mom-com that readers will adore!

Visit Liz Alterman's website.

Q&A with Liz Alterman.

My Book, The Movie: The Perfect Neighborhood.

The Page 69 Test: The Perfect Neighborhood.

The Page 69 Test: The House on Cold Creek Lane.

My Book, The Movie: The House on Cold Creek Lane.

Writers Read: Liz Alterman (August 2024).

My Book, The Movie: Claire Casey's Had Enough.

The Page 69 Test: Claire Casey's Had Enough.

Writers Read: Liz Alterman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Deborah Mutnick's "No Race, No Country"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: No Race, No Country: The Politics and Poetics of Richard Wright by Deborah Mutnick.

About the book, from the publisher:

No Race, No Country presents a major reconsideration of the breakthrough African American author Richard Wright’s work and life. It challenges standard evaluations of his reputation as an autodidact, his late novels, his travel books, and his political commitments after he left the Communist Party USA. Deborah Mutnick engages a wide range of Wright’s work throughout his career, providing a nuanced perspective on his complicated gender politics and his serious engagement with Marx’s notions of historical materialism, alienation, and commodity fetishism. Adding to a small but growing number of studies of his ecological consciousness, it also examines both his closeness to nature, especially during his youth and late in life, and his early mapping of a racial geography of the “second nature” of the sociocultural world that overlaps with and transforms the natural world. Finally, it joins a recent surge in scholarship on Wright’s later nonfiction as a progenitor of Black radical internationalism in the 1960s and 1970s.

Learn more about No Race, No Country at the University of North Carolina Press website.

The Page 99 Test: No Race, No Country.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top unusual detectives

Jo Callaghan works full-time as a senior strategist, carrying out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce.

Her series featuring DCS Kat Frank and AIDE, the world's first AI detective, includes In the Blink of an Eye, Leave No Trace, and (not yet in the US) Human Remains.

A lot of reviewers have focussed on the fact that AIDE Lock is unusual because he is an AI detective," Callaghan writes at the Waterstones blog, "but Lock just provides a different way into exploring the age-old debate of logic vs instinct."

One of the author's five favorite unusual detectives:

Reggie Chase in When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson

This girl detective is a classic example of the ‘informal’ detective: just sixteen years old ‘with the body of a child, mind of an old woman’. She drives the narrative forward when she discovers her beloved Dr Jo Hunter is missing, badgering ex-detective Jackson Brodie to help find her. Although she is clearly smart and resourceful, Reggie’s unique ability is that she understands the heart of Dr Hunter, which allows her to spot the lies and mis-directions of those who do not. She is driven not by that old trope ‘a relentless quest for the truth’ but by her desperate need for love after the recent death of her mum. And despite the high body count and dark themes of vengeance and justice, the central theme of this wonderful novel is that in the end, all that matters is love.

Read about another detective on Callaghan's list.

When Will There Be Good News? is among Paula Munier's eight works informed by The Odyssey and the Christian Science Monitor's best novels of 2008.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Mark Stevens's "No Lie Lasts Forever"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: No Lie Lasts Forever: A Thriller by Mark Stevens.

About the book, from the publisher:

Zodiac with a terrifying twist, in a taut thriller from author Mark Stevens about a reformed serial killer and the disgraced journalist he coaxes into finding the imposter trading on his name.

When a reporter dies in a shockingly familiar way, the media rushes to announce the return of the PDQ Killer. The city of Denver reels, but no one more than Harry Kugel. After all, he is the PDQ Killer―or was fifteen years ago. And he didn’t do this.

Still working to reform his ways, Harry won’t let some amateur murderer ride his twisted coattails and risk drawing the police back his way. To protect his legacy and quiet new life, he’ll have to expose the copycat. Without exposing himself.

Disgraced TV journalist Flynn Martin holds the key. After a botched hostage situation, she’ll do anything to revive her dying career―even hunt down a monster who executed one of her own.

Harry must convince Flynn to follow him into the heady world of a killer. But with the law closing in and a rival at large, he starts to feel the familiar pull of old urges…

Visit Mark Stevens's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Fireballer.

Q&A with Mark Stevens.

My Book, The Movie: The Fireballer.

Writers Read: Mark Stevens.

The Page 69 Test: No Lie Lasts Forever.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with KD Aldyn

From my Q&A with KD Aldyn, author of Sister, Butcher, Sister: A Novel:

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

There are three sisters and one of them is a killer, so the title is perfect. I can say this without being boastful because the title was gifted to me by my editor and her team. It is so clever. My original title was She and when I first saw the cover I cried with joy because the publishers had incorporated that word into the Sister Butcher Sister graphic.

What's in a name?

The sisters’ names came to me in my sleep, and I built the characters from there. The name Kate suggests physicality and movement to me. Aurora sounds musical. Peggy has that kind of...[read on]

Visit KD Adlyn's website.

Q&A with KD Aldyn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Judith Weisenfeld's "Black Religion in the Madhouse"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake by Judith Weisenfeld.

About the book, from the publisher:

How white psychiatrists pathologized African American religions

In the decades after the end of slavery, African Americans were committed to southern state mental hospitals at higher rates as white psychiatrists listed “religious excitement” among the most frequent causes of insanity for Black patients. At the same time, American popular culture and political discourse framed African American modes of spiritual power as fetishism and superstition, cast embodied worship as excessive or fanatical, and labeled new religious movements “cults,” unworthy of respect.

As Judith Weisenfeld argues in Black Religion in the Madhouse, psychiatrists’ notions of race and religion became inextricably intertwined in the decades after the end of slavery and into the twentieth century, and had profound impacts on the diagnosis, care, and treatment of Black patients. This book charts how racialized medical understandings of mental normalcy pathologized a range of Black religious beliefs, spiritual sensibilities, practices, and social organizations and framed them as manifestations of innate racial traits. Importantly, these characterizations were marshaled to help to limit the possibilities for Black self-determination, with white psychiatrists’ theories about African American religion and mental health being used to promote claims of Black people’s unfitness for freedom.

Drawing on extensive archival research, Black Religion in the Madhouse is the first book to expose how racist views of Black religion in slavery’s wake shaped the rise of psychiatry as an established and powerful profession.

Visit Judith Weisenfeld's website.

The Page 99 Test: Black Religion in the Madhouse.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four top crime novels featuring characters' struggles

The son of two librarians, Mark Stevens was raised in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and has worked as a reporter, as a national television news producer, and in public relations. The Fireballer (2023) was named Best Baseball Novel by Twin Bill literary magazine and named a Best Baseball Book of the Year by Spitball Magazine. His novel Antler Dust was a Denver Post bestseller in 2007 and 2009. Buried by the Roan, Trapline, and Lake of Fire were all finalists for the Colorado Book Award (2012, 2015, and 2016, respectively), which Trapline won. Trapline also won the Colorado Authors League Award for Best Genre Fiction.

Stevens’s short stories have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, and Denver Noir. In both 2016 and 2023, Stevens was named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Writer of the Year. He hosts a regular podcast for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and has served as president of the Rocky Mountain chapter for Mystery Writers of America.

His new novel is No Lie Lasts Forever.

[The Page 69 Test: The Fireballer; Q&A with Mark Stevens; My Book, The Movie: The Fireballer; Writers Read: Mark Stevens (June 2025)]

At CrimeReads Stevens tagged four top crime novels featuring characters' struggles. One title on the list:

Hell is Empty by Craig Johnson

Hell is Empty is an existential journey that touches on good and evil, life and death, dedications and obligations, mountain peaks of insight, and the depths of misery. The journey is about confronting your monsters, taking on your enemies. It’s more character study than tale of suspense but the slow-motion pursuit up this snowy, rugged peak certainly has its hair-raising moments for Sheriff Walt Longmire—and for us. As Longmire chases an escaped prisoner up and up, it’s Longmire’s conversations with Virgil White Buffalo that make Hell is Empty sing. The climb continues, the peak draws closer, the end is nigh. Along the way, Longmire consults a battered paperback copy of Dante’s Inferno. Climbing higher as he probes the further depths of hell might be pushing the obvious button but not in Johnson’s capable, understated style. The cold closes in, the light plays tricks. “There were shadows ahead, indistinct and nebulous, writhing with the flying snow. I tried to concentrate on the shapes, but as soon as I looked, they would swirl away and dissolve in the dark air.” Sure, Longmire gets his guy but that’s the way I like my stories—open-ended and full of uncertainty.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Hell Is Empty.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: April Henry's "When We Go Missing"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: When We Go Missing by April Henry.

About the book, from the publisher:

New York Times bestselling author April Henry delivers a true-crime-style mystery featuring a teen determined to save a missing girl she sees in a disturbing photo.

What if you found evidence of a crime, but no one believed you?

Seventeen-year-old Willow always has a camera around her neck. She volunteers as a photographer at Finding Home, an animal shelter. When Willow stumbles upon a lost camera memory card, it’s filled with hundreds of photos of teenage girls. Some are smiling, others look unaware, and a few seem terrified.

The police tell her taking photos in public isn’t a crime. But Willow can’t seem to let it go, especially after she finds her own photo on the card. So Willow teams up with new volunteer Dare to figure out what happened to the girls. As their investigation heats up, so does the chemistry between them. But everyone around Willow seems to have a secret: Finding Home’s owner, her own mom, and even Dare. When Willow learns that some of the girls on the camera card have gone missing, she realizes the unknown photographer might be a serial killer. Can Willow find him before he finds her?

Learn more about the book and author at April Henry's website.

My Book, The Movie: Girl, Stolen.

The Page 69 Test: The Body in the Woods.

The Page 69 Test: Blood Will Tell.

The Page 69 Test: Run, Hide, Fight Back.

The Page 69 Test: The Girl in the White Van.

The Page 69 Test: Girl Forgotten.

The Page 69 Test: When We Go Missing.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four great sports books that go beyond the game

S.L. Price, a Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated from 1994-2019, has written five books—including the newly released The American Game: History and Hope in the Country of Lacrosse, a wide-ranging examination of the continent’s oldest and most representative sport.

At Lit Hub the author tagged four top "sports books that aren’t really about sports." One title on the list:

The Mosquito Bowl by Buzz Bissinger

Perhaps the biggest bait-and-switch in sports book history. Consider: This is the author of Friday Night Lights, the movie and TV series-spawning best-seller about Texas high school football. Title and cover copy says that it’s about a “bruising and bloody” football game on Guadalcanal on Christmas Eve, 1944, between two Marine regiments composed of 56 former college players, including three All-Americans and 22 starters from powers like Notre Dame and Purdue. Yet, Bissinger knows that focusing on a glorified pick-up game in such a context is absurd; months later, more than a dozen of the 65 men who played were killed on Okinawa. So, whether by choice or the fact that no broadcast or play-by-play on the game, exists, this is a “sports” book with almost no sport in it. The Mosquito Bowl itself, which ended with the score 0-0, takes up one paragraph in 337 pages.

Instead, Bissinger produced an impeccably researched and agonizingly compassionate record of the heroes’ lives and deaths, a relentless litany of the Pacific War’s gore, death and body-ravaging horrors, as well as an aging son’s tribute to his forever war-numbed father. In the end, it’s a reversal of a sports book, a story about being uprooted from whatever we believe is “civilized,” taken away from games and all they evoke of health, peace, youth and home, and forced to wield that wondrous athletic skill in a landscape resembling hell.

(See also: The Soccer War by Ryszard Kapuscinski, and The Real All-Americans by Sally Jenkins)

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jordan Thomas's "When It All Burns"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World by Jordan Thomas.

About the book, from the publisher:

A hotshot firefighter’s gripping firsthand account of a record-setting fire season

Eighteen of California’s largest wildfires on record have burned in the past two decades. Scientists recently invented the term “megafire” to describe wildfires that behave in ways that would have been nearly impossible just a generation ago, burning through winter, exploding in the night, and devastating landscapes historically impervious to incendiary destruction.

In When It All Burns, wildland firefighter and anthropologist Jordan Thomas recounts a single, brutal six-month fire season with the Los Padres Hotshots—the special forces of America’s firefighters. Being a hotshot is among the most difficult jobs on earth. Thomas viscerally renders his crew’s attempts to battle flames that are often too destructive to contain. He uncovers the hidden cultural history of megafires, revealing how humanity’s symbiotic relationship with wildfire became a war—and what can be done to change it back.

Thomas weaves ecology and the history of Indigenous peoples’ oppression, federal forestry, and the growth of the fire industrial complex into a riveting narrative about a new phase in the climate crisis. It’s an immersive story of community in the most perilous of circumstances, told with humor, humility, and affection.

Learn more about When It All Burns at the Riverhead Books website.

The Page 99 Test: When It All Burns.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kimberly Belle's "The Expat Affair," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Expat Affair: A Novel by Kimberly Belle.

The entry begins:

If The Expat Affair finds its way to the screen, in my mind the casting wouldn’t start with the heroine or the villain or even the diamonds at the heart of the plot. It would start with the setting—Amsterdam.

The novel stars two women, both American expats living in Amsterdam. Newly divorced Rayna comes looking for adventure. What she finds instead is a one-night stand that ends in disaster: a dead man in the shower and a missing cache of diamonds that puts her in someone’s crosshairs. Enter Willow, a woman who’s been in the city long enough to learn which rules can be bent. On the surface, she has it all—an old-money marriage, fluency in the language and culture—but she still feels like an outsider. When her path collides with Rayna’s, the cracks in her carefully curated life begin to split wide open.

From a director’s point of view, this book would be...[read on]

Visit Kimberly Belle's website and follow her on Facebook, Instagram & TikTok (@KimberlyBelleBooks).

The Page 69 Test: Dear Wife.

Q&A with Kimberly Belle.

The Page 69 Test: My Darling Husband.

Writers Read: Kimberly Belle (December 2021).

The Page 69 Test: The Paris Widow.

Writers Read: Kimberly Belle (June 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Expat Affair.

My Book, The Movie: The Expat Affair.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Martine Bailey's "Isolation Ward"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Isolation Ward: The Nail-Biting Psychological Thriller by Martine Bailey.

About the book, from the publisher:

Yorkshire, 1983. Thatcher is at Number 10, Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' is on the radio and Lorraine Quick is having to put plans to tour with her band on hold due to work. With her expertise in psychometric testing, she is being sent to the Yorkshire moors to build a PR-friendly team out of the ragtag staff of the infamous Windwell Asylum as it transitions into a modern, top-security unit housing some of the most dangerous criminals in the country.

And then Lorraine stumbles on a brutal murder that has taken place despite the fifteen-foot-high perimeter wall and heavy-duty locks. Between the asylum's lingering reputation for violence, the haunting underground tunnels of the old institution and the arrival of almost-old flame DS Diaz to investigate the murder, events are coming to a head for Lorraine.

Visit Martine Bailey's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: An Appetite for Violets.

The Page 69 Test: An Appetite for Violets.

My Book, The Movie: A Taste for Nightshade.

My Book, The Movie: The Almanack.

My Book, The Movie: The Prophet.

Q&A with Martine Bailey.

The Page 69 Test: Isolation Ward.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Mark Stevens reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Mark Stevens, author of No Lie Lasts Forever: A Thriller.

His entry begins:

Deep Fury by David Freed

The latest entry in the Cordell Logan series is smooth, witty, and a joy to read. Logan is a former government assassin turned flight instructor. He’s a wannabe Buddha. His student pilots learn in a Cessna 172 called the Ruptured Duck. He’s a burrito aficionado. He lives in a converted garage apartment in a seaside California town called Rancho Bonito. with his “orange blimp” of a cat named Kiddiot. The case here involves a dead guy who literally fell out of the sky. It’s Logan’s old wingman from his U.S. Air Force days. The plot moves from the obvious (drug cartels) into something more interesting and a tad more complex about government and military technology. What you get with Cordell Logan is a jaded but-still-willing-to-help worldview and, in Deep Fury, a story engine that purrs like the Ruptured Duck’s engine, thrumming along with...[read on]

About No Lie Lasts Forever, from the publisher:

Zodiac with a terrifying twist, in a taut thriller from author Mark Stevens about a reformed serial killer and the disgraced journalist he coaxes into finding the imposter trading on his name.

When a reporter dies in a shockingly familiar way, the media rushes to announce the return of the PDQ Killer. The city of Denver reels, but no one more than Harry Kugel. After all, he is the PDQ Killer―or was fifteen years ago. And he didn’t do this.

Still working to reform his ways, Harry won’t let some amateur murderer ride his twisted coattails and risk drawing the police back his way. To protect his legacy and quiet new life, he’ll have to expose the copycat. Without exposing himself.

Disgraced TV journalist Flynn Martin holds the key. After a botched hostage situation, she’ll do anything to revive her dying career―even hunt down a monster who executed one of her own.

Harry must convince Flynn to follow him into the heady world of a killer. But with the law closing in and a rival at large, he starts to feel the familiar pull of old urges…

Visit Mark Stevens's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Fireballer.

Q&A with Mark Stevens.

My Book, The Movie: The Fireballer.

Writers Read: Mark Stevens.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Liz Kalaugher's "The Elephant in the Room"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Elephant in the Room: How to Stop Making Ourselves and Other Animals Sick by Liz Kalaugher.

About the book, from the publisher:

A healthier future starts with seeing the human causes of wildlife diseases.

When new diseases spread, news reports often focus on wildlife culprits—rodents, monkeys and mpox; bats and COVID-19; waterfowl and avian flu; or mosquitoes and Zika. But, in this urgent and engaging book, we see it often works the other way around—humans have caused diseases in other animals countless times, through travel and transport, the changes we impose on our environment, and global warming. With science journalist Liz Kalaugher as our guide, we meet the wildlife we have harmed and the experts now studying the crosscurrents between humans, other animals, and health.

Herds of buffalo in Kenya, cloned ferrets in Colorado, and frogs shipped worldwide as living pregnancy tests for humans, all help Kalaugher dive into the murky backstories behind wildlife epidemics past and present. We learn that military conflict likely contributed to the spread of rinderpest, or cattle plague, throughout Africa, devastating pastoral communities. That crowded poultry farms may create virulent new forms of bird flu that spill back into the wild. And that West Nile virus—which affects not only birds and humans, but other animals, including horses, skunks, and squirrels—is spreading as global temperatures rise.

Expanding today’s discussions of environmental protection to include illness and its impact, Kalaugher both sounds the alarm and explores ways to stop the emergence and spread of wildlife diseases. These solutions start with a simple lesson: when we protect other animals, we protect ourselves.

Visit Liz Kalaugher's website.

The Page 99 Test: Furry Logic: The Physics of Animal Life by Matin Durrani and Liz Kalaugher.

The Page 99 Test: The Elephant in the Room.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top thrillers about murder in paradise

Katy Hays is the New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters. She is an art history adjunct professor and holds an MA in art history from Williams College and pursued her PhD at UC Berkeley. Having previously worked at major art institutions, including the Clark Art Institute and SFMOMA, she now lives with her husband and their dog in Olympic Valley, California.

Hays's new novel is Saltwater.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven thrillers about murder in holiday settings. One title on the list:

Greece:
The Destroyers by Christopher Bollen

Talk to me for five minutes about suspense fiction and I’ll try to get you to read Christopher Bollen. The Destroyers (my favorite of Bollen’s oeuvre) is set on the Greek island of Patmos where, legend has it, the Book of Revelation was written. Broke and desperate, Ian Bledsoe arrives on Patmos hoping to talk his childhood friend, Charlie, into offering him a financial lifeline. But when Charlie disappears, everyone on the island is a suspect. And I mean everyone. The Book of Revelation may have predicted the end times, but I guarantee this will be the beginning of your love affair with Bollen’s writing. (Bonus picks from Bollen include: A Beautiful Crime, set in Venice and Havoc, set along the Nile).

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Gurjinder Basran's "The Wedding"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Wedding: A Novel by Gurjinder Basran.

About the book, from the publisher:

You’re invited to The Wedding, an electrifying novel about the joining of two South Asian families, and the secrets, resentments, and unspoken truths boiling just beneath the surface.

Interweaving themes of identity, culture clashes, and the immigrant experience as found in The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri with the exuberance and sharp humour of Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians, Gurjinder Basran delivers a wide-ranging but intimate portrait of a vibrant, complex Sikh community.

Set in Vancouver, The Wedding exposes the inner lives of the wedding party, guests and event staff in the lead-up to a lavish wedding. This novel, centered around the impending marriage of Devi and Baby, illustrates the union of two people, two families and all the ways in which an entire community bears witness, ensnares and uplifts itself.

Like all great Bollywood films, The Wedding is rife with family drama, steeped in tradition and an ode to love in all its forms. With humor, nuance and honesty, The Wedding spills the chai—exploring desire and expectation, suffering and judgment, class and race—all in search of a happy enough ever after.

Visit Gurjinder Basran's website.

Q&A with Gurjinder Basran.

My Book, The Movie: The Wedding.

The Page 69 Test: The Wedding.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top novels set in hotels

Lucy Foley studied English literature at Durham University and University College London and worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry.

Her novels include The Paris Apartment, The Guest List, and The Midnight Feast. She lives in London.

All hotels are worlds unto themselves, [Foley writes at the Waterstones blog] tiny universes that follow their own rules and logic. In a murder mystery setting, practically speaking, a hotel ringfences the characters and provides a stage upon which the drama can play out, slightly elevated and separate from the ordinary world. Hotels also provide a modern formulation of the upstairs/ downstairs dynamic so beloved of the whodunnit, a forum in which class tensions can be put under the microscope. And yet they’re also, in another sense, oddly democratic: anyone can stay in a hotel (so long as they can afford the price of a stay!) and become a different or improved version of themselves, freed from the baggage of ordinary life.

One of Foley's five top novels set in a hotel:

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

In this gorgeously written book (to be honest I’d happily read Amor Towles’ shopping list), a hotel becomes a gilded cage for former aristocrat Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, who is sentenced to live out his days within the walls of the Metropol. It’s no easy ask, maintaining the reader’s interest in a plot set almost entirely within one building, but Towles creates a rich and absorbing world full of intrigue and life – and allows us to spend time in the company of one of modern fiction’s most charming characters.

Read about another title on Foley's list.

A Gentleman in Moscow is among Courtney Rodgers's best historical fiction of the 21st century so far and Suzanne Redfearn's six architecturally inspired novels.

--Marshal Zeringue