Hawkins disturbs and terrifies with 13 tales of suburban horror in his chilling debut collection. Opening with an eerie narrative of a young girl and her sick mother who take a home remedy to the extreme and closing with an intense heart-wrenching lethal children’s birthday party, Hawkins’s bold premises and deft followthrough create gut-wrenching tension sure to thrill horror enthusiasts. A splatter of gore and heavy doses of suspense keep readers frightfully engaged while his array of memorable characters haunt the pages. Whether it’s the teenager obsessed with mannequins, an innocent boy with a suspicious rash, or a bullied kid whose shadow seems to have a mind of its own, this varied cast walks through darkness with only a sliver of hope that they’ll ever reach the light.

With crisp prose and brisk character work, Hawkins reminds readers that danger can lurk close to home by setting his stories in a variety of familiar suburban locations such as a comic book store, the local mall, an office building, and typical neighborhood homes with secrets lurking behind closed doors. Throughout, visceral imagery brings the terror to life: readers will hear the “wet gurgle” and see the “blossom of brownish red” liquid spreading out. Killer opening lines such as “It was the blood that changed everything” make the twisted and ominous worlds inviting.

A broad array of horror is presented within Suburban Monsters. “Storms of the Present” is an intense body horror piece featuring a woman desperate to be thin. “Green Eyes” and “Moonrise Over Water with Sargassum” toy with the elements of nature, and for those suffering from coulrophobia, beware the creepy clown. At times, Hawkins dares to go darker than readers might be eager to follow; “Candle for the Birthday Boy” is somewhat punishing in its depiction of an overweight kid. Whatever the subgenre preference, Hawkins delivers nightmare fuel to readers brave enough to dive into this hair-raising collection.

Takeaway: Spine-chilling horror stories set in familiar locations with relatable characters.

Great for fans of: Kealan Patrick Burke’s Secret Faces, Alan Baxter’s Served Cold.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Suburban Monsters

An amnesiac and an emotionally-troubled actor meet in the most violent of circumstances in Crocker’s thriller-romance debut. Former soldier and current actor Daizon is out fishing when he stumbles upon “a pale blue, fallen-angel type figure” on the brink of death whom he later discovers is named Amia. Amia wakes up in the hospital not remembering anything, including her name and who beat her so viciously that Daizon found her naked, bloody, and barely breathing. Daizon’s agent asks him to research a future role in the same two-month mental health rehabilitation program, Whole Me, as Amia’s doctors send her to to heal. When Amia meets the man who saved her life, she has the distinct feeling of “familiarity like the fog that she couldn’t quite grasp.” Either because of or despite those feelings, Amia finds herself falling for Daizon and Daizon falls right back.

The mystery behind Daizon and Amia’s meeting looms large within the context of their budding romance, and their story contains all the elements of a compelling thriller. Memories come back to Amia piece by piece with the help of Daizon, their fellow Whole Me program members, and clinical psychologist Dr. Wolf. As each tantalizing puzzle piece clicks back into place for Amia, readers will find it increasingly hard to put the story down. Characterization is strong, dialogue is engaging, the clues are surprising, and the pace is swift.

What Crocker provides to readers is a classic story of a guy and girl falling in love made a few layers deeper by a sensitively handled—and often suspenseful—throughline of trauma and healing. Crocker makes it a point to discuss the hard but realistic journey that sufferers of PTSD must take through Amia’s assault and Daizon’s past in the military and rough parts of childhood. Crocker’s refusal to shy away from the truth of facing trauma humanizes the thriller elements, resulting in a storyline that will keep readers guessing … but also feeling.

Takeaway: Crocker spices a classic thriller with romance and sensitive treatment of trauma.

Great for fans of: Pamela Q. Fernandes’s Find Me in the Snow, Anastasia Zadeik’s Blurred Fates.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Stars to Light the Sky

Riha (The Bounty Huntress) offers an exciting, high-stakes rescue thriller set in the forests of Oregon, alive with fascinating detail that fuels the suspense. The book’s heart is a daring, unconventional rescue of a father and his blind teenage daughter from a raging forest wildfire, though Riha is also interested in the logistics of how these fires are monitored and controlled, digging with a reporter’s eye into the command structure, practices, shoptalk, tech, and culture of the agencies and response teams—some staffed with prison inmates. The result is, in some ways, a tense wildfire procedural.

But it’s four characters who drive the story. Will and Kal Spencer, on a hike in the forest as a much-needed bonding activity, and firefighters Lucas Bowden and Corby Jones. Bowden is haunted by the death of a former crew member, while Jones is a go-getter who understands her status as a woman out in the field means she has to prove herself. When the hikers go missing, amid the “big timber and towering mountains” of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the firefighters are mobilized to find the missing hikers, though Jones senses that a drug problem may compromise Bowden.

Riha ramps up the tension when Kal and Will are separated and discover that the dangers they face aren’t all in nature, especially when a prisoner-firefighter proves not to have the hikers’ best interests at heart. The firefighters’ efforts at a rescue offer explosive, adrenaline-fueled action. A ground and air evacuation impossible because of the fire, and Bowden cleverly suggests they go by river, which proves another source of elemental danger—and white-knuckle adventure. The twists and obstacles keep coming, though the attention to detail, such as background information on wildfires and firefighting plus the backstories of a host of characters, means the story takes some time to heat up, but once this slow-burning thriller ignites it fully rages, and readers who love outdoor adventure will be caught up.

Takeaway: This white-knuckle rescue thriller offers a terrifying wildfire and rich procedural detail.

Great for fans of: Kurt Kamm, Andrew Pyper’s The Wildfire Season.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Incident 395

The striking second installment in Atrium's Tribal Wars series tackles exploitation and culture clashes on a newly discovered planet, with the rich intelligence, invention, and characterization that are the hallmarks of Atrium’s work. More than a decade has passed since Brianna Miller left the savannah in Dolvia, and in that time she built herself a successful life as a business woman and an escort in Paris. But when her aunt protests against the oppression under the tribal leaders’ rule by immolating herself in the plaza in front of the governor’s mansion in Cylay, she is forced to return. Though she has to leave behind her carefully constructed life for a place she's uncertain how she feels about, Brianna is determined not to lose control—and to push her people forward, whether they want to or not.

But no Atrium story is simple. Dolvia is a broiling cauldron of conflicts and interests, and Brianna's plans and actions send shock waves throughout worlds and lives. Among those are Kelly Osborn, who is of mixed blood and from a disgraced family, and Hershel Henry, an Australian journalist who is new to Dolvia, and gets to see more of Dolvia than he could have imagined. The different perspectives of these individuals who hop between worlds and don't quite feel at home anywhere accumulates into a panoramic view of Dolvia's intricate aspects and contradictions— a place of great blessing and misfortune, of abundance and scarcity, where telepathic lizards thrive and locally born people are ostracized.

Despite the wormholes, space travels, telepathic lizards, and the rest of its fascinating speculative elements, at its core The Body Politic is an anthropological story, committed to the illumination of culture and character. As is her wont, Atrium pays close attention, too, to women's lives. And though the abundance in the narrative can at times be overwhelming, just like a visit to Dolvia, it's also riveting.

Takeaway: Lovers of rich, thoughtful, culture-exploring SF will relish Atrium’s series.

Great for fans of: Ursula K. Le Guin, Sofia Samatar.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about The Body Politic (The Tribal Wars Book 2)

This bold psychological novel from Matluck (Notes for a Eulogy) gets under the skin of Mary Sorabi, a classical pianist and recent winner of the Graffman International Piano Competition. To all her friends, she seems like she’s about to be the next big thing in the music world. Instead of pondering her upcoming recital, though, Mary’s pondering the three faceless beings who appeared on her couch one evening. Calling themselves The Judges, they delve into Mary’s daily life decisions, big and small, weighing them out, complete with slide projector, all for some unknown grander purpose. Their faceless natures belie their thoughts on justice; “Justice shouldn’t be wearing a blindfold,” one intones, adding “ she should be wearing a mask, because justice is inscrutable.”

That’s the enticing setup of The Judges, a clever and incisive story that focuses heavily on Mary’s internal dialogue, inviting readers to come to know every little thought—and her own judgements on everything and everyone around her. From her deliberating the appropriate tip for a waiter who offers her free food to her considering how to handle her boundaries with a verbally abusive older brother, Matluck lays bare this engaging character’s complex everyday decision-making process, pointing the way for readers to ponder in their own lives.

Are the judges a manifestation of her inner doubts, some beyond-the-human tribunal, or something stranger still? Those questions fascinate, but Matluck’s interest is in Mary and her mind as she navigates the world. At times densely thoughtful, the novel probes why we make the decisions that we do, the storytelling laser-pointed focus on Mary’s inner turmoil, her rationalizations and running monologues when dealing with cashiers, family members, and even, to her astonishment, a young man who recognizes her for her artistry. Matluck explores rich questions but leaves many answers to readers to answer, guided by insights like “big decisions were nothing but a lot of small decisions piled on top of one another.”

Takeaway: A surprising novel of a pianist’s mind, a mysterious tribunal, and the ethics of everyday choices.

Great for fans of: Nicholson Baker, Michael Poore’s Reincarnation Blues.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B

Click here for more about The Judges

In this series-starter, down-on-his-luck PI Igg Downs, stuck in a grim section of Los Angeles, is trying to dig his way out of a pile of trouble: his landlady has died, leaving everything to her vicious dog, making Downs his caretaker. But the landlady's great-nephew is trying to evict him anyway, and he's up against brutal cop Jake, who has never forgiven Downs for sleeping with his wife. In the middle of all this, teenage Frankie, on parole from gang activities, tries to engage Downs to find her missing uncle. Her plight pierces his cynical attitude, and they form an uneasy partnership. Downs pulls himself together to help Frankie—and perhaps to achieve redemption.

Allen has a gift for characterizations, and best of all is Downs, who narrates the story in a sardonic first person, admits to clumsiness and knows when he’s outmatched. He's generally pessimistic, but he shows he's not as hard-bitten as he pretends: "People and their feelings were messy. That is why I avoided both religiously." Allen also does a wonderful job with the semi-adult Frankie. Downs sees this right away, and their relationship—prickly at first—comes across as warm and real. Even minor characters come to life in vibrant detail, such as Mamacita, for whom hot peppers solve all problems. The noirish, sometimes playful Raymond Chandler patter is often polished and memorable, though at times it comes on thick, and the plot gets convoluted, but the engaging cast and steady surprises nimbly carry the story.

Allen gets full marks for showing the part of Los Angeles that isn't Hollywood, where the gangs rule. We see Frankie's dilapidated neighborhood, whose downtrodden residents make attempts to beautify it: one owner was "either colorblind or spent way too much time and money at the local weed shop." In the end, Downs navigates through the neighborhood and its denizens to an ending that is both shocking and satisfying, leaving readers to hope for a sequel.

Takeaway: A down-on-his-luck PI finds that a scrappy teen may be his ticket to redemption.

Great for fans of: Robert B. Parker’s Night Passage, Benjamin Black’s The Silver Swan.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B+

Click here for more about Murder Can Be Fatal

For most kids, bathroom-related accidents are too embarrassing to discuss, but that’s not the case for 10-year-old Emma Easly. In Schlosberg’s entertaining, conversational book for middle-grade readers, Emma openly discusses her struggles with enuresis, which she helpfully defines as “pee accidents,” and encopresis, or “poop accidents,” to help other kids feel less ashamed of what are actually common problems. Along with her friends from school, Emma has created the E Club, which gives other young people with the same issues a place to feel like they belong. She also collects words that start with E, which are highlighted throughout and listed at the end along with a series of word games.

The best part of this surprisingly lighthearted tale is Emma’s sparkling personality, which makes reading this book feel like talking to a close friend. Emma may be the CEO of the E Club, but her medical conditions don’t define her—she’s smart, funny, and ambitious, declaring that she aspires to be “employed as an essayist.” She’s also capable, independent, and the best goalie on the soccer team, and she knows an impressive number of euphemisms for pooping, many of which she hilariously shares with her new doctor. Seeing that Emma is just a normal kid will help children with similar concerns look more closely at their own positive qualities.

The story is accompanied by Beech’s black-and-white illustrations, which are meant to look as though Emma could have sketched them herself. The pictures primarily show people and places from Emma’s life and imagination, such as Emma being carried on a palanquin and coining herself “the exalted empress of the enema empire” after she masters a new type of treatment for her constipation. Ultimately this book serves as a reminder that accidents are never a kid’s fault and that solutions do exist—but in the meantime, friendship and humor can help, too.

Takeaway: This entertaining, conversational story shows kids with enuresis and encopresis they’re not alone.

Great for fans of: Tracey J. Vessillo’s I Can’t, I Won’t, No Way!, Howard J. Bennett’s It Hurts When I Poop!.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Emma and the E Club

"WINX is a proven 8-step process that anyone, of any age, experience level, industry, or profession can learn and use,” Parone writes in this inviting, to-the-point guide to problem-solving and decision-making in business. WINX, which comes from the phrase “winning exponentially,” shares her original, adaptable framework for arriving at and implementing decisions, suited for both small businesses and larger companies. One key element setting Parone’s framework apart: her acknowledgement that decision-making is not an exact science, and that emotion always plays a part. She urges readers to recognize and account for that truth, and awareness of one’s feelings makes it easier “to more effectively control your choices and achieve better results.”

Better results, of course, is the point. Parone makes her case with telling examples from her own experience, case studies of companies making good and bad—and often emotional—decisions, plus persuasive data and research. WINX demonstrates the urgency of arriving at well-rounded decisions to achieve the “defined win”s crucial to growing and protecting successful businesses and building better business practices and cultures. Enter the eight steps of WINX, a practical tool that can be put into action as-is or amended to fit individual businesses' particular needs.

WINX breaks down the steps (“Craft Your problem Statement,” “Evaluate Alternatives,” and more) with clear, easy-to-grasp guidance and explanations, complete with worksheets. Parone lays bare how to look at a problem from different angles and—crucially—set a “powerful intention” that best serves “the customer, the company, and the employees.” Parone emphasizes that while there is no 100% guaranteed method to eliminate errors or bad decisions, the WINX method will help to ensure winning, rational decisions more times than not. This book is a helpful resource for entrepreneurs, business leaders, and anyone facing tough choices that will have an impact on a variety of stakeholders.

Takeaway: An inviting guide to a tried-and-true problem-solving method for making business decisions.

Great for fans of: J.C. Baker’s How to Make Good Business Decisions, Harvard Business Review’s On Making Smart Decisions.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about WINX

With a technologist’s understanding of how Silicon Valley works, a futurist’s vision of what’s coming next, and a novelist’s sense of irony and suspense, Hodjat dramatizes, in this sharp-edged novella, a bleeding-edge breakthrough in storytelling: the development of the AI-driven Narrator app, from the Narration Company, which draws data from user’s phones and lives to tell original, individualized stories rooted in everyone’s every day. Hodjat’s own story likewise draws from real life, as The Narrator’s portrayal of behind-the-scenes life and love at TNC draws on hard-earned knowledge of how tech products get created and the pressures that can push companies to make those products addictive—and to take reckless risks with users’ lives.

Those tensions are exacerbated once Lida, a market researcher, discovers, in the data she works with, that “there’s something totally weird going on with our extreme users.” She shares her concern with Matt, a technical product manager she’s just started dating, and over texts, phone calls, and dinners the pair try to tease out what exactly seems off in her spreadsheets. The company’s privacy rules stymie their efforts, tempting Matt to ask a member of his team for a favor: to look into forbidden user data.

Hodjat spins this narrative from many perspectives, capturing TNC staffers’ competing agendas, from an executive eager to keep the numbers up to please the founders, to a conspiracy-minded coder trying to date a friend of Lida’s. The challenge of understanding a product’s impact on users while still protecting privacy is compellingly explored. Hodjat’s especially good at laying bare the personal motives of each character, including the twisted, self-preservational logic that inspires Matt to sabotage a promising relationship. This compact tale speeds by, perhaps too swiftly—it offers little dramatization of the user experience, what stories the app tells, and what users get from it. Still, the storytelling’s swift, the milieu convincing, and the final revelations jolting.

Takeaway: This compact speculative thriller will please readers fascinated by how the tech biz truly works.

Great for fans of: Cory Doctorow, Rob Reid’s After On.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Narrator

“Forgive me at this point for diverting, as all of our attentions have been diverted of late, to the brain eaters,” Nick Caraway pleads to readers early in this zombified version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s epochal novel of glitz and disillusionment. Inspired by the likes of 2009’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which kicked off a spate of prankish revisions of classic literature to include horror elements, Soini (author of Gloucester’s Sea Serpent) brings the conceit into the modernist era, on the occasion of Fitzgerald’s 1925 masterpiece entering the public domain. Significant portions of the original text still appear—the green light on Daisy’s dock continues to transfix, and the novel still peaks with that climactic glimpse of “a fresh, green breast of the new world.”

But it’s transmogrified by Soini’s inventions, chief among them what President Coolidge called the “disruptive interruption” period—a war with “Homo Zombiti” and its aftermath. A laugh-out-loud scene imagines a delegation of zombies signing a peace treaty; here, it’s this conflict that has shattered a generation, rather than the First World War. Soini’s prose can’t quite measure up to the jeweled romance of Fitzgerald’s, but it’s strong, and he’s more generous and successful in his additions than the authors of some works in this curious genre. An encounter with Groucho Marx at a Gatsby party is a delight, and jokes about the Cubs and talkies, plus cameos from luminaries like Maxwell Perkins all contribute to the sense of play.

Gatsby remains a tragedy, albeit one whose Jazz Age highs allow room for fun. Soini, thankfully, has thought through that tragedy, taking it seriously as he springs undead surprises. Whether this illuminates the original or is instead a sort of party trick is left to readers to work out, but it’s fair to say that Soini’s additions aren’t just clever—as Carraway likens that lonely ol’ sport Gatsby to “a sort of zombie outside of his horde,” they have weight.

Takeaway: The undead roam Fitzgerald’s classic, but the story still has weight.

Great for fans of: Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Sherri Browning Erwin’s Jane Slayre.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Great Gatsby and the Zombies

Quinton (author of The Spirit Hunter series) offers a high-stakes adventure following Milo Savage, an 11-year-old boy, as he learns about his destiny as a gargoyle hunter and finds himself forced to enter the gargoyle realm to rescue his trainer and great uncle, Horace. After being attacked on a school field trip by tentacled creatures, Milo is sent away to the Catskills to become an apprentice gargoyle hunter to Horace. When Horace is kidnapped by gargoyles, it is up to Milo, his three new friends—Sammy, Kat, and Suzy—and a talking dog to come to the rescue and to ensure the continued protection of humanity.

Engaging characterization grounds the adventure. Milo stands out as an authentic and sincere protagonist willing to try his best to be a hero, even if he isn’t yet sure precisely what that will look like. Sammy shines as an intelligent, caring, and kind person who looks out for his friends no matter the cost, while Kat stands out as a strong, inspirational girl tired of being underestimated and ready to blow expectations out of the park, although a softer and more loving side is shown as she grows closer to her friends. The camaraderie and brisk dialogue make this group of children engaging to follow, and readers will be sure to cheer them on as they pass through the gargoyle mists to face dangers and solve riddles together.

Quinton springs welcome surprises, too, like the Snarlok gargoyles (“the ugliest things that’s ever been dreamed of by man”), a garden gnome named Grimlo, and much ado about Moonstones. The magic and puzzles are unpredictable, the gargoyle realm continually inventive, and the story well thought-through and engaging, both rewarding and upending expectations. At times, the pacing could be more brisk, but Milo Savage and the Gargoyle Hunters will keep young readers invested throughout. This middle-grade fantasy is captivating until the very last page.

Takeaway: This middle-grade fantasy adventure will entice young lovers of adventure, riddles, and surprises.

Great for fans of: Karuna Riazi’s The Gauntlet, Kazu Kibuishi’s The Stonekeeper.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Milo Savage and the Gargoyle Hunters

Mikheyev’s (This Time Next Summer) warmhearted middle-grade debut details the transformative journey of 12-year-old Olivia, who not only views the wonders of the cosmos with an otherworldly companion, but alters how she sees herself. Ordinary Olivia lives on a Kansas farm with her dad, whose lung cancer hasn’t weakened his resolute optimism. On a quiet July night, she watches in astonishment as a spaceship crashes into their wheat field, and jumps into action only when she realizes her beloved German Shepherd is hurt. So the first, momentous meeting of Olivia Fierce and the intergalactic traveler Galax (formally known as Milky Way, Prince of the Galaxy) is a frantic plea to save her dog. This unnerving encounter doesn’t shock her as much as what the boyish alien calls her: Madam Olivia, Princess of Blue Earth.

Olivia readily accepts the impossible, including Galax’s power to heal, a prophecy, and a treasure map. Guiding him to the Black Ruby, which will restore his waning strength. But no way could she ever be a princess. Mikheyev charts Olivia’s excitement and confusion with a first-person narration that captures both her impulsive nature and underlying compassion. He deftly uses color as an indicator of physical and emotional well-being. When Olivia and Galax enter the Invisible Ocean, a magnificent body of water floating in space, the riotous hues astound them, but as they steer toward danger, the environment becomes monochromatic, and Galax’s blue skin glows and dims with his energy levels.

Olivia & the Gentleman from Outer Space reverberates with echoes from classic fantasies of displacement, but the effect is more personal than derivative. Mikheyev uses genre conventions to present young readers with a positive vision of the jarring changes ahead: it’s only when Olivia becomes untethered from her identity as a restless, precocious kid that she can embrace her abilities. Olivia discovers that observation is a gift that opens up new worlds.

Takeaway: An introspective alien and gutsy girl team up for a mind-expanding adventure.

Great for fans of: Lee Bacon’s The Last Human, Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Jillian vs Parasite Planet, and Geoff Rodkey’s We’re Not from Here.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Olivia & the Gentleman from Outer Space

Azzole (Assignment: Normandy) shifts from the battlefields of WWII that served as the setting of his Tony Romella USN WWII Series to another arena of a great global conflict, the Cuban Missile Crisis. When Communications Technician Salvador Conte, a 27-year-old Navy linguist, is summoned to an unusual interview in the Naval Security Group Activity Operations Building, he assumes it's about his request to train to join the recently created Seals. But it's July 1962, and the thirst for insight into the Soviet’s plans demands focused intelligence collection on Cuba. Salvador’s recruited to go undercover, as he’s got a Cuban mother, language skills, and no classified knowledge that would be compromised if anything goes wrong. As the title suggests, his undercover mission, Operation Cymbal Beat, to go undercover on the island isn’t likely to go smoothly.

Azzole, a retired Navy officer, again demonstrates meticulous attention to detail, tradecraft, and the military mind, lending welcome realism to the story. Azzole persuasively ties his invented character to actual events, which he lays out with methodical and impressive precision. For all its ticking-clock suspense, Blown Clover bursts with technical information, supplemented by instructive photographs. Readers fascinated by the nuts-and-bolts of mid-century espionage and military planning and hardware will relish Azzole’s authoritative accounts, though the emphasis on detail comes at times at the expense of narrative momentum.

Azzole's life experience is also felt in the highly plausible mission he assigns to Salvador. Unlike many Cold War spy thrillers, Salvador isn't some slick secret agent on a glamorous mission. Instead, Azzole presents his readers with a realistic endeavor that captures such work’s nerve-racking mixture of plain grind and intense danger. Azzole shows the long waits and doubts that actual spying entails, and how things can go horribly wrong regardless of a person's skills or objectives. With its focus on realism and information Azzole's enthusiastic story is a true to life espionage novel.

Takeaway: This detailed, highly realistic spy story will thrill lovers of actual Cold War espionage.

Great for fans of: Stephen L. Carter’s Back Channel, Moisés Naím’s Two Spies in Caracas.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about BLOWN COVER

Easterbrook explores, with rare sensitivity and insight, grief, loss, and motherhood in this memoir crafted both to capture the “inner light” of her late daughter, Simone, and to share with readers what she’s learned about living on after bereavement. With a loving pen, Easterbrook offers an intimate portrait of daughter Simone, first exploring her “passionate, vibrant” eldest daughter with reflections on her personality, quirks, and virtues, but also delving into the challenges of parenting a child with ADHD, especially in a world that abhors “difference.” The insight into family dynamics connects readers to Easterbrook and her daughter, especially as Easterbrook acknowledges that “anxiety about Simone was my constant companion throughout her life.”

Simone died in a car accident at 21, a wrenching event that came at a fraught time for mother and daughter both. Easterbrook narrates the tensions in their relationships before the accident and the devastating aftermath with clear eyes, striking detail, and lots of heart, laying bare feelings of guilt, anger, shame—and “motherguilt.” Throughout, as she recounts navigating and managing incalculable loss, she invites readers to learn from what she’s faced, such as the hard-won comforts and insights she discovered in faith, support groups, and her reading. She explores her own past and parentage, and examines a violent relationship with a boy from her own teen years, noting the “footprint” trauma leaves on the soul—and taking relief that her own daughter avoided “similar bad choices.”

A delight for readers are the images of Simone’s artwork, and photographs of the family. Elsewhere, Easterbrook digs deeply into other losses, exploring how grief is always keyed to the specifics of individuals and their relationships, and her own tendency to push grief away. She writes with disarming openness about depression and anger, doubt and confusion, mining from her own experience and studies a wealth of practical advice (seek support, practice self-compassion) for readers experiencing their own journeys of loss.

Takeaway: This powerful memoir offers practical advice and insight for parents facing grief.

Great for fans of: September Vaudrey’s Colors of Goodbye, Megan Devine’s It’s OK that You’re Not OK.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about My daughter, myself

Harvey (author of Pandemonium, among other titles) continues his epic-scoped Agents of Cosmic Intelligence series with this globe-crossing thriller of expanded consciousness, centered on military officer Martin Williams—a man given to precognitive hunches—and the new U.S. Theta Force team, created by President Gomez as an answer to Russia’s “Psychotronic Division.” Williams, perhaps acting on a hunch, turns down an offer to run Theta Force, instead serving as its executive officer in charge of training and security. The story this time turns on a surprise transmission of uncertain origin received by all of Earth’s psychics: an androgynous voice saying, among other things, “Each of us is God.”

The bold novel that follows teases apart the spiritual, philosophical, and practical truths and implications of that message and its sender in a series of brisk yet thoughtful scenes among a diverse cast of characters. As before, Harvey is engaged with the everyday life of psychics in thriller scenarios, penning crisp, engaging dialogue and a host of surprising scenarios, including special attention paid to the role of sex and eroticism in intimate psychic connections. At the same time, Harvey takes wild narrative risks, introducing surprises it would be churlish to spoil—let’s just say that, after much talk of UFOs and alien intelligence, the startling giant figure who eventually confronts a tech billionaire is not something readers will see coming.

That scene’s a doozy, and Harvey’s inventiveness extends to cosmic alt-history, millennia-spanning conspiracies, futurology, untapped human potential, memorable tech-thriller action— a “plastic explosive bullet” shot from sunglasses!—and more. But it’s the ideas that drive this series. “Your species seems to have a death wish,” one mysterious personage tells a young Lama, which gets to the core of these books: Harvey spins a secret history of all of us, urging us to be more. (The novels are published out of narrative order and can be read independently of each other, though their connections are rewarding.)

Takeaway: This bold, brisk conspiratorial psychic thriller series imagines humanity’s secret history.

Great for fans of: Lindsay Ellis’s Axiom’s End, Michael Flynn’s Eifelheim.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about THE MESSAGE

This heart-wrenching young adult fiction from Rostirolla (author of the Cecilia series) faces an important, sometimes difficult topic head-on, as told through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy. Sam knows the adults in his small farm town in Australia are struggling; the drought has gone on too long. But after the death by suicide of one of his dad’s friends, Sam’s mom begins to worry about his dad, and tells Sam and his siblings to make sure he’s never alone—especially with the gun. Sam is also worried that the same “monster” that is consuming the adults may be trying to take his older brother, Ben. Ben has been increasingly angry and mean, and Sam is determined to keep the Monster away. The only way he can do that is by researching and observing the Monster, and intrepid Sam begins to take notes of what he sees in each family member as they start to crumble.

This is not a happy story, but it is vital and gripping. With insight and sensitivity, Making Friends with Monsters takes on upsetting adult topics, offering an unflinching look at how destructive and overpowering depression and many dark emotions can be, especially when people on the outside have no idea the depth and the destruction already done. Sam shares his observations but also his own experiences with the Monster, especially after a farming accident.

Through both the external and internal views of the Monster that Sam observes, readers discover just how sneaky the Monster can be, how hard it is to get rid of, and even, eventually, how safe Sam feels having it, because that meant he didn’t have to feel the fear and sadness he knew was there. The Monster turned it into anger for him instead. Rostirolla does memorable work dramatizing such incisive ideas, even finding some cause for hope, in the end, as characters bond over secrets and scars, the marks of survivors.

Takeaway: An urgent, unflinching YA novel about the “monsters” of depression and family dysfunction.

Great for fans of: Jasmine Warga’s My Heart and Other Black Holes, Adib Khorram’s Darius the Great Is Not Okay.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about Making Friends With Monsters