Indie Scouting Report: August 2020
In this roundup of the best-reviewed BookLife titles, we highlight a sci-fi mystery, a memoir of personal discovery, a Viking saga, and others.
April White
Synopsis: A security agent and a private investigator find love in White’s magnetic series opener.
PW’s Takeaway: White adds emotional weight to the story even as the slow-burn romance between the central characters becomes delicious torture.
Comparable Title: Sandra Brown’s Seeing Red
Sample Line: “I use the Black Widow analogy because of my Iron Man leg, but I grew up on a steady diet of Charlie’s Angels reruns.”
Stark Raving Zen: A Memoir of Coming Alive
Kristy Sweetland
Synopsis: This is a riveting true story of a road trip filled with benevolent ghosts and gods, angels, demons, monsters, mythology, and guiding voices.
PW’s Takeaway: Sweetland’s memoir will keep the reader glued to the page.
Comparable Title: Hope Edelman’s The Possibility of Everything
Sample Line: “I never talked about my fierce desire to know more about my possible native blood.”
Marjory Kaptanoglu
Synopsis: Kaptanoglu examines the choices of troubled heroines in a rousing sci-fi thriller.
PW’s Takeaway: Fans of sci-fi mysteries and strong female characters should snap up this psychological page-turner.
Comparable Title: Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars
Richard W. Wise
Synopsis: Wise highlights a predatory housing practice—redlining—in this taut thriller set in 1974 Boston.
PW’s Takeaway: Wise combines an accessible explanation of redlining with a page-turning narrative.
Comparable Title: John Grisham’s The Pelican Brief
Tim Slee
Synopsis: Slee fills his latest with mead-swilling Viking warriors, interpersonal struggles, and a thirst for conquest.
PW’s Takeaway: Fans of historical fiction will want to take a look.
Comparable Titles: Robert Low’s Oathsworn series
