Pg. 99: Elizabeth Horodowich & Alexander Nagel's "Amerasia"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Amerasia by Elizabeth Horodowich and Alexander Nagel.

About the book, from the publisher:

America and Asia mingled in the geographical and cultural imagination of Europe for well over a century after 1492. Through an array of texts, maps, objects, and images produced between 1492 and 1700, this compelling and revelatory study immerses the reader in a vision of a world where Mexico really was India, North America was an extension of China, and South America was marked by a variety of biblical and Asian sites. It asks, further: What does it mean that the Amerasian worldview predominated at a time when Europe itself was coming into cultural self-definition? Each of the chapters focuses on a particular artifact, map, image, or book that illuminates aspects of Amerasia from specific European cultural milieus. Amerasia shows how it was possible to inhabit a world where America and Asia were connected either imaginatively when viewed from afar, or in reality when traveling through the newly encountered lands. Readers will learn why early modern maps regularly label Mexico as India, why the “Amazonas” region was named after a race of Asian female warriors, and why artifacts and manuscripts that we now identify as Indian and Chinese are entangled in European collections with what we now label Americana.

Elizabeth Horodowich and Alexander Nagel pose a dynamic model of the world and of Europe’s place in it that was eclipsed by the rise of Eurocentric colonialist narratives in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. To rediscover this history is an essential part of coming to terms with the emergent polyfocal global reality of our own time.

Learn more about Amerasia at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: Amerasia.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Meredith R. Lyons

From my Q&A with Meredith R. Lyons, author of Ghost Tamer:

About the book, from the publisher:

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

While I was writing it, the working title was The Train because the train crash is the inciting incident that changes Raely's life. When the el flies off the rails, only Raely survives. She loses her best friend and acquires an ability to see ghosts. One says he's been with her all her life, and one in particular is trying to take her soul. A lot of the action takes place on Chicago's el train. But not only was that not a very interesting title, the deeper story is Raely learning about who she is—both by taking a look at her past and embracing her new present—and accepting that new person, rather than wishing to be what she was. She has to move through a lot of grief and pain to become herself, which no one ever wants to do, but she is stronger for it. And with grief the only way out is through. She is the Ghost Tamer. And...[read on]

Visit Meredith R. Lyons's website.

Q&A with Meredith R. Lyons.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten notable books on climate change

At B&N Reads Brittany Bunzey tagged ten books to read to better understand climate change, including:

The Octopus in the Parking Garage: A Call for Climate Resilience by Rob Verchick

If you saw the viral image of the octopus that showed up in a parking garage in Miami, then Rob Verchick’s book is for you. As he seeks to help people learn how to manage and adapt to the risks that are already at our doorsteps, he emphasizes the importance of climate resilience as a major part of our roadmap in moving forward. An empowering and accessible book, The Octopus in the Parking Garage is a frank yet hopeful look at the climate crisis and how we can move forward.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jamie Lee Sogn's "Salthouse Place"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Salthouse Place: A Novel by Jamie Lee Sogn.

About the book, from the publisher:

From debut author Jamie Sogn comes a twisty thriller about the allure of the past and the danger of the truth as a young woman dives headlong into a cult in a desperate search for answers.

In the far reaches of the Pacific Northwest, three best friends spend a day at the lake…but only two come home.

Ten years later, Delia Albio is tormented by the mystery of what happened to fifteen-year-old Zee on the lake that day. When she receives an email from Cara, the remaining friend in the trio, she can’t resist the pull of the “life-changing” news in the message. Delia, hopeful for answers, travels home to see her old friend.

But Cara is gone by the time she gets there, setting off another mystery. When Delia hears about the women’s empowerment group that Cara joined, she sets out for the group’s retreat property on the Oregon coast to find her. Delia feels this could be her chance to reconnect with Cara and reckon with that fateful day at the lake.

Instead, Delia uncovers a possessive group with a dark agenda. As their leadership closes in, Delia hurtles ever closer to the truth―if only she can survive a cult that will protect its secrets at any cost.

Visit Jamie Lee Sogn's website.

Q&A with Jamie Lee Sogn.

My Book, The Movie: Salthouse Place.

The Page 69 Test: Salthouse Place.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Paul Robinson's "Russian Liberalism"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Russian Liberalism by Paul Robinson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Russian Liberalism charts the development of liberal ideas and political organizations in Russia as well as the implementation of liberal reforms by the Russian and Soviet governments at various points in time. Paul Robinson's comprehensive survey covers the entire period from the late eighteenth century to the present day.

Robinson demonstrates that liberalism has always lacked strong roots in the Russian population, being largely espoused by a narrow group of intellectuals whose culture it has reflected, and has tended toward a form of historical determinism that sees Russia as destined to become like the West.

Many see the current political struggle between Russia and the West as being in part a conflict between the liberal West and an illiberal Russia. By explaining the historical causes of liberalism's failure in that country, Russian Liberalism offers an understanding of a significant aspect of contemporary international affairs. After Putin's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, understanding Russian political thought is a matter of considerable importance.

Learn more about Russian Liberalism at the publisher's website.

The Page 99 Test: Russian Liberalism.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine top thrillers set in remote island locations

Anna Porter’s most recent book is Gull Island, a haunting psychological suspense novel. She is the author of five non-fiction books, including In Other Words: How I Fell in Love with Canada One Book at a Time, Buying a Better World: George Soros and Billionaire Philanthropy, The Ghosts of Europe, winner of the Shaughnessey Cohen Prize for Political Writing, Kasztner’s Train: The True Story of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero of the Holocaust, winner of the 2007 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Award and of the Jewish Book Award for Non-Fiction, and the The Storyteller: A Memoir of Secrets, Magic and Lies. She has also written five other novels: The Appraisal, Hidden Agenda, Mortal Sins, and Bookfair Murders, which was made into a feature film.

At CrimeReads Porter tagged nine "thrillers that take advantage of remote island settings to build suspense," including:

Rachel Howzell Hall, They All Fall Down

I loved this book from the first page. Miriam Macy’s unguarded observations, her self-serving reminiscences, her hilarious comments invited me to share her adventure. And it was some adventure! “The trip of a lifetime”, as it was first presented to Miriam and six other people she had just met, had it all: a private island off the coast of Mexico, a luxury villa, superb food and maybe a fortune in winnings. But that is not how this story unfolds. The invitation was a ruse. The host may be bent on retribution for past sins. In an homage to the still undisputed queen of crime, Agatha Christie, Howzell Hall has landed seven strangers in an isolated paradise where each one is tested and one by one “they all fall down”. Or, perhaps, not all.

Read about another entry on the list.

They All Fall Down is among Laura Griffin's seven suspense novels in which paradise is not what it seems, Nell Pattison's top ten crime novels with isolated settings, Karen Hamilton's twelve best thrillers in a vacation setting, Sandie Jones's six mysteries featuring large casts of characters, Andrea Bartz's seven thrillers about vacations gone wrong, Amy Suiter Clarke's seven great thrillers that play with form, Catriona McPherson's five top mystery novels set on islands, CrimeReads' ten best crime novels of 2019, Kristen Lepionka's seven favorite unlikable female characters.

The Page 69 Test: They All Fall Down.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jamie Lee Sogn's "Salthouse Place," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Salthouse Place: A Novel by Jamie Lee Sogn.

The entry begins:

In my novel, Salthouse Place, Delia and her friends, Zee and Cara are two carefree teenagers. One summer day, the three best friends go to the lake…but only two come home.

Ten years later, Delia is still tormented by the mystery of what happened to fifteen-year-old Zee on the lake that day. When she receives an email from Cara, the remaining friend in the trio, she can’t resist the pull of the “life-changing” news in the message. Delia, hopeful for answers, travels home to see her old friend. But Cara is gone by the time she gets there, setting off another mystery. When Delia hears about the women’s empowerment group that Cara joined, she sets out for the group’s retreat property on the Oregon coast to find her and meets the enigmatic and mysterious Sage, the leader of the company, Artemis Wellness.

As I wrote the book, the only character I had already “cast” in my head was Sage and it was Rosamund Pike. I think she can have an intense look about her, but at the same time have an ability to be both warm and trusting. With a blunt blond bob and some yoga leggings and prayer beads, she is Sage come to life.

For Delia, I would love...[read on]

Visit Jamie Lee Sogn's website.

Q&A with Jamie Lee Sogn.

My Book, The Movie: Salthouse Place.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine books about women’s loneliness

Cleo Qian (she/her) is a fiction writer and poet from California. She received her MFA from NYU. Her work has appeared in over 20 outlets; was a winner of the Zoetrope: All Story Short Fiction Competition; has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, twice longlisted for the DISQUIET Prize, and supported by Sundress Academy for the Arts. By day, she works at a nonprofit and reads self-help articles on how to be happy.

Her debut short story collection is Let's Go Let's Go Let's Go.

At Electric Lit Qian tagged nine books about women’s loneliness and the search for connection, including:

Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang

Jenny Zhang’s groundbreaking short story collection, primarily following Chinese American daughters in Queens, New York, is full of vulgarity, vomit, and wit. The girls and teenagers in the stories grapple with poverty and second languages, and inheritances from parents with failed dreams. They are often shipped off to Shanghai and come home to New York again. From the first piece we are handed painful self-awareness of feeling separate from others (“While I could still improve in either language, my parents could not, they were on a road to nowhere…it was up to me to shine and that scared me because I wanted to stay behind with them, I didn’t want to go any further than they could go.”) as well as brash disdain for others who might feel the same (“She was just a desperately lonely person who needed to be part of someone else’s world.”) Not far underneath the bravado is desperation—raw and unapologetic desperation to be seen, and to not be forgotten.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Naomi S. Baron's "Who Wrote This?"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Who Wrote This?: How AI and the Lure of Efficiency Threaten Human Writing by Naomi S. Baron.

About the book, from the publisher:

Would you read this book if a computer wrote it? Would you even know? And why would it matter?

Today's eerily impressive artificial intelligence writing tools present us with a crucial challenge: As writers, do we unthinkingly adopt AI's time-saving advantages or do we stop to weigh what we gain and lose when heeding its siren call? To understand how AI is redefining what it means to write and think, linguist and educator Naomi S. Baron leads us on a journey connecting the dots between human literacy and today's technology. From nineteenth-century lessons in composition, to mathematician Alan Turing's work creating a machine for deciphering war-time messages, to contemporary engines like ChatGPT, Baron gives readers a spirited overview of the emergence of both literacy and AI, and a glimpse of their possible future. As the technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and fluent, it's tempting to take the easy way out and let AI do the work for us. Baron cautions that such efficiency isn't always in our interest. As AI plies us with suggestions or full-blown text, we risk losing not just our technical skills but the power of writing as a springboard for personal reflection and unique expression.

Funny, informed, and conversational, Who Wrote This? urges us as individuals and as communities to make conscious choices about the extent to which we collaborate with AI. The technology is here to stay. Baron shows us how to work with AI and how to spot where it risks diminishing the valuable cognitive and social benefits of being literate.

Learn more about Who Wrote This? at the Stanford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Who Wrote This?.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Brooke Robinson's "The Interpreter"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Interpreter: A Novel by Brooke Robinson.

About the book, from the publisher:

With the taut psychological drama of The Silent Patient and the propulsive storytelling of The Club, a chilling debut thriller about a London-based interpreter with dark secrets—and the enemy determined to take her down.

Innocent or guilty: it all hinges on a single word...

Thanks to a nomadic childhood, Revelle Lee is fluent in ten languages, which she puts to use at crime scenes and in courtrooms across London. Being a court interpreter is a stressful job, one that makes her privy to the most personal and often dark details of others’ lives.

In the meantime, she’s close to adopting a six-year-old boy named Elliot from foster care. Revelle is determined to be the mother she never had, and to make up for a terrible mistake she made years ago. Though the sweet, loving little boy is learning to trust her, she’s begun receiving disturbing messages which she suspects are from his birth family.

When one of her cases involves a murder victim she knew slightly, Revelle fears she’s seeing a miscarriage of justice play out. Putting both the adoption and her career at risk, she deliberately mistranslates a Polish man’s alibi to put his accused friend behind bars, even though he insists he’s innocent.

Revelle thinks she’s gotten away with it free and clear. But someone seems to know what she’s done—and about her long-ago error and its terrible consequences. And they intend to destroy Revelle’s life, piece by piece.

Visit Brooke Robinson's website.

Q&A with Brooke Robinson.

The Page 69 Test: The Interpreter.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Clay McLeod Chapman reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother: A Novel.

His entry begins:

I just finished the one-two punch of Josh Malerman’s Spin a Black Yarn and Ronald Malfi’s They Lurk. I would wholeheartedly recommend a double bill of these books back-to-back.

First off, they’re both novella collections, so you’re getting bite-sized Malermans and Malfis.

Yum!

But most of all, I feel like you’re seeing these two authors—authors who I admire and aspire to emulate—at their most playful. These two are masters of modern horror. Let there be no doubt: They have...[read on]

About What Kind of Mother, from the publisher:

After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market.

It’s there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she’s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise. As she follows the thread of these visions, Madi discovers a terrifying nightmare waiting at the center of the labyrinth—and it’s coming for everyone she holds dear.

Combining supernatural horror with domestic suspense into a visceral exploration of parental grief, What Kind of Mother cements Clay McLeod Chapman’s reputation as a “star” (Vulture) and “the twenty-first century’s Richard Matheson” (Richard Chizmar, Chasing the Boogeyman.)

Visit Clay McLeod Chapman's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Remaking.

The Page 69 Test: The Remaking.

My Book, The Movie: Whisper Down the Lane.

Q&A with Clay McLeod Chapman.

The Page 69 Test: Whisper Down the Lane.

Writers Read: Clay McLeod Chapman (September 2022).

The Page 69 Test: What Kind of Mother.

Writers Read: Clay McLeod Chapman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thirteen top wilderness novels

At B&N Reads Brittany Bunzey tagged thirteen "gritty stories of survival and ambition [to] take you on sometimes harrowing — and often exhilarating — journeys," including:

Outlawed By Anna North

A provocative adventure story, Outlawed is a gripping tale of a fugitive girl and a mysterious gang trying to reshape the old West. A thrilling story that includes witchy nuns, queer cowgirls and a feminist gang trying to build a safe haven for outcast women, this novel is a scrappy and joyful romp you won’t want to put down.

Learn about another entry on the list.

Outlawed is among Claudia Cravens's eleven westerns that break the genre's rules, Robin McLean's eight top books about surviving in the wilderness and Christina Sweeney-Baird's seven books that imagine a world without men.

The Page 69 Test: Outlawed.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Christopher Michael Blakley's "Empire of Brutality"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Empire of Brutality: Enslaved People and Animals in the British Atlantic World by Christopher Michael Blakley.

About the book, from the publisher:

In the early modern British Atlantic world, the comparison of enslaved people to animals, particularly dogs, cattle, or horses, was a common device used by enslavers to dehumanize and otherwise reduce the existence of the enslaved. Letters, memoirs, and philosophical treatises of the enslaved and formerly enslaved bear testament to the methods used to dehumanize them. In Empire of Brutality, Christopher Michael Blakley explores how material relationships between enslaved people and animals bolstered the intellectual dehumanization of the enslaved. By reconsidering dehumanization in the light of human–animal relations, Blakley offers new insights into the horrific institution later challenged by Black intellectuals in multiple ways.

Using the correspondence of the Royal African Company, specimen catalogs and scientific papers of the Royal Society, plantation inventories and manuals, and diaries kept by slaveholders, Blakley describes human–animal networks spanning from Britain’s slave castles and outposts throughout western Africa to plantations in the Caribbean and American Southeast. They combine approaches from environmental history, history of science, and philosophy to examine slavery from the ground up and from the perspectives of the enslaved. Blakley’s work reveals how African captives who became commodified through exchanges of cowry sea snails between slavers in the Bight of Benin later went on to collect zoological specimens in Barbados and Virginia for institutions such as the Royal Society. On plantations, where enslaved people labored alongside cattle, donkeys, horses, and other animals to make the agricultural fortunes of slaveholders, Blakley shows how the enslaved resisted these human–animal pairings by stealing animals for their own purposes—such as fugitives who escaped their slaveholder’s grasp by riding stolen horses. Because of experiences like these, writers and thinkers of African descent who survived slavery later attacked the institution in public as fundamentally dehumanizing, one that corrupted the humanity of both slaveholders and the enslaved.

Learn more about Empire of Brutality at the LSU Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Empire of Brutality.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top international action thrillers

Tori Eldridge is the national bestselling author of the Lily Wong mystery thriller series including The Ninja Daughter, The Ninja's Blade, and The Ninja Betrayed.

[The Page 69 Test: The Ninja Daughter]

She is a two-time Anthony Award nominee, Lefty and Macavity Awards finalist, and winner of the 2021 Crimson Scribe Award for Best Book of the Year.

The latest Lily Wong thriller is The Ninja's Oath.

At CrimeReads Eldridge tagged five favorite international action thrillers, including:

Forgotten War by Don Bentley (Matt Drake, Book 4)

Don Bentley also pens the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan Jr. series. (I have Weapons Grade in my audiobook library right now.) I’ve read all of Bentley’s books, but Matt Drake, a Department of Intelligence Agency operative, impacts me the most. Trauma, humor, and steely determination go hand in hand with this protagonist in whatever clandestine mission he runs. Bentley’s experience as an Army Apache helicopter pilot and his connections to the U.S. Special Operations Community adds an additional punch. With Forgotten War, he was able to work through his own frustration and emotions concerning the U.S. exit from Afghanistan. This book won’t make you wish you were there, but it will definitely take you away from here.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Brooke Robinson

From my Q&A with Brooke Robinson, author of The Interpreter: A Novel:

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

I'm a big fan of titles that clearly and succinctly tell you what the work is about, particularly when we're talking about high concept stories. In the case of my book, The Interpreter, it does exactly what it says on the tin: it's about an interpreter in the criminal justice system who starts to deliberately mistranslate witness statements in order to help convict those who she believes are guilty.

What's in a name?

I must confess that...[read on]

Visit Brooke Robinson's website.

Q&A with Brooke Robinson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books about women committing acts of violence

A queer writer and Irish-American dual citizen, Francesca McDonnell Capossela grew up in New York City and holds an M. Phil from Trinity College Dublin. Her publication credits include the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Point Magazine, Banshee, Columbia Journal, Guesthouse (forthcoming), and two anthologies: Dark Matter Presents: Human Monsters (2022) and Teaching Nabokov’s Lolita in the #MeToo Era (2021).

Her first novel, Trouble the Living, is out now. She lives in Brooklyn with her dog, Lyra.

At Electric Lit she tagged seven books "in which women have twisted desires or commit acts of vengeance in the name of some greater cause. These are books that flip the paradigm we’ve learned—bad man, battered woman—on its head, and show women as devastatingly powerful and wonderfully, frighteningly violent." One title on the list:

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Set in sprawling, sweltering Lagos, My Sister the Serial Killer tells the story of two sisters: Ayoola, a beautiful fashion designer, and Korede, a nurse. Ayoola is—you guessed it!—a serial killer. Or, at least, she has a habit of killing her boyfriends. Against her will, Korede has again and again been put in charge of the post-murder cleanup, rescuing Ayoola from her own messes. After yet another murder, Korede begins to wonder why she is helping her sister and why Ayoola is killing her boyfriends in the first place. Maybe, we learn, it has something to do with the sisters’ shared trauma. Maybe Ayoola just needs the power rush. Maybe all the men are violent, as she claims and Korede doubts. Ultimately, the novel playfully suggests that killing—and getting away with it—might really be a woman’s game.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Sister the Serial Killer is among Tessa Wegert's five thrillers about killer relatives, Catherine Ryan Howard's five notable dangers-of-dating thrillers, Sally Hepworth's top five novels about twisted sisters, Megan Nolan's six books on unrequited love and unmet obsession, Sarah Pinborough's top ten titles where the setting is a character, Tiffany Tsao's top five novels about murder all in the family, Victoria Helen Stone's eight top crime books of deep, dark family lore, and Kristen Roupenian's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Bruce Dorsey's "Murder in a Mill Town"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Murder in a Mill Town: Sex, Faith, and the Crime That Captivated a Nation by Bruce Dorsey.

About the book, from the publisher:

A master storyteller presents a riveting drama of America's first "crime of the century"--from murder investigation to a church sex scandal to celebrity trial--and its aftermath.

In December 1832 a farmer found the body of a young, pregnant woman hanging near a haystack outside a New England mill town. When news spread that Methodist preacher Ephraim Avery was accused of murdering Sarah Maria Cornell, a factory worker, the case gave the public everything they found irresistible: sexually charged violence, adultery, the hypocrisy of a church leader, secrecy and mystery, and suspicions of insanity. Murder in a Mill Town tells the story of how a local crime quickly turned into a national scandal that became America's first "trial of the century."

After her death--after she became the country's most notorious "factory girl"--Cornell's choices about work, survival, and personal freedom became enmeshed in stories that Americans told themselves about their new world of industry and women's labor and the power of religion in the early republic. Writers penned seduction tales, true-crime narratives, detective stories, political screeds, songs, poems, and melodramatic plays about the lurid scandal. As trial witnesses, ordinary people gave testimony that revealed rapidly changing times. As the controversy of Cornell's murder spread beyond the courtroom, the public eagerly devoured narratives of moral deviance, abortion, suicide, mobs, "fake news," and conspiracy politics. Long after the jury's verdict, the nation refused to let the scandal go.

A meticulously reconstructed historical whodunit, Murder in a Mill Town exposes the troublesome workings of criminal justice in the young democracy and the rise of a sensational popular culture.

Visit Bruce Dorsey's website.

The Page 99 Test: Murder in a Mill Town.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Brian Carso's "Gideon's Revolution"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Gideon's Revolution: A Novel by Brian Carso.

About the book, from the publisher:

It's 1780, days after Benedict Arnold flees to the British when his treasonous plot to surrender the American fort at West Point is discovered and Gideon's Revolution is about to begin. General George Washington orders a secret mission for two Continental Army soldiers to go behind enemy lines, abduct Arnold, and return him to his countrymen to be tried and hanged.

Washington selects one of the soldiers, Gideon Wheatley, for the mission because Arnold would trust him. Wheatley fought under Arnold's command at Saratoga and tended to the gravely wounded general for several months at Albany's military hospital. After feigning desertion to the British Army to join Arnold's corps of loyalists, Wheatley and his comrade John Champe seek out Washington's spies in New York and develop a plan to seize the traitor. But when the abduction is foiled, the soldiers are trapped by their own deceit and forced to fight alongside Arnold's raiding army, as if they were traitors themselves.

Years after the war, pressed by memories that haunt him and seeking redemption, Wheatley must decide whether he alone can exact revenge on his former friend and commander, a decision that sends him across the Atlantic to London to find and confront Arnold.

Gideon's Revolution is an American origin story based on real historical events, an odyssey that reveals the profound human tensions between loyalty and betrayal, allegiance and treason, revenge and the possibility of forgiveness.

Visit Brian Carso's website.

Q&A with Brian Carso.

My Book, The Movie: Gideon's Revolution.

The Page 69 Test: Gideon's Revolution.

--Marshal Zeringue

12 Yoga Questions with Ronni Davis

Featured at 12 Yoga Questions: Ronni Davis. By day she edits everything from TV commercials to billboards, and by night she writes contemporary teen novels about brown girls falling in love.

Davis's debut novel, When the Stars Lead to You, was released by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in November 2019, and the anthology You Too?, in which she is a contributor, is available now from Inkyard Press. Her next book, This Night Is Ours, will be published in 2024 from Poppy/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

[My Book, The Movie: When the Stars Lead to You; The Page 69 Test: When the Stars Lead to You]

Learn more about Davis's yoga journey at 12 Yoga Questions and visit her website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven crime novels set in Sin City

Robert Swartwood is the USA Today bestselling author of The Serial Killer’s Wife, The Calling, Man of Wax, and several other novels. His work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review, The Daily Beast, ChiZine, Space and Time, Postscripts, and PANK. He created the term “hint fiction” and is the editor of Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer. He lives with his wife in Pennsylvania.

Swartwood's new novel is The Killing Room

[Q&A with Robert Swartwood; The Page 69 Test: The Killing Room]

At CrimeReads he tagged seven crime novels set in Las Vegas, including:

Void Moon by Michael Connelly

Cassie Black is a thief who served six years in prison due to manslaughter. Out on parole, she tries to keep her nose clean, but eventually agrees to rob a high roller in Las Vegas—a high roller who, it turns out, is a mob bagman, and before Cassie knows it, she’s on the run for her life.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue