Books

In the 1930s, with war clouds massing, many European Jews immigrated to Cuba, which welcomed them, gave them safe haven, and encouraged their businesses to thrive. Many did very well, reaching the upper middle class. In 1959, Fidel Castro’s communist revolution came and the US-backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista, fled. The Jews’ situation, like that of

The 2023 Hugo Award finalists have been announced. The Hugo Awards— started in 1953 and awarded annually since 1955—are recognized as science fiction’s most prestigious award. The members of Worldcon, The World Science Convention, determine the winners of the award and present it each year. This year’s finalists were chosen from 25,000 works of science

Concerned that your little grey cells may be in need of a tune up? Worried that nefarious criminals could be going unpunished? Plagued by ownership of an armchair from which no deductions have yet been made? Fortunately, you can now put your mind at rest – or to the test – as GT Karber has

Seven women. A man’s head. Who swung the axe that killed Jamie Spellman? Rose Wilding’s debut novel is about the anger of women who are not heard and what happens when they take justice into their own hands. It’s 31 December 1999, the eve of the new millennium. Seven women form a semi-circle around the

A moral dilemma lies at the heart of Conviction. Jack Jordan’s previous book featured a surgeon choosing between saving her family or her patient. And similarly, in this latest novel, a defence lawyer must make a difficult personal choice – throw her latest court case or place herself and her loved ones in jeopardy. There

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is starting its own publishing company: 8th Note Press. It’s already reached out to some authors, mostly self-published romance authors, looking to buy the rights to distribute their books. The appeal for authors looks to be less about the advance and more the marketing services ByteDance offers. One romance

Originally conceived by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö in the 1965 novel Rosanna, Martin Beck has evolved to become a detective for the 21st century. His character first migrated from the books to the small screen in 1997, and with season 10 we might see a Beck from the new generation come to the fore.

Two ways to sum up the experience of reading Polly Stewart’s mystery/thriller The Good Ones come immediately to mind. One is: ‘Everyone’s a hero of their own story,’ and narrator Nicola Bennett is fixated on what she sees as her own role in the disappearance – and possible murder – of her best friend Lauren

Retribution is the fifth in Robert McCaw’s series of police procedurals set on the Big Island of Hawai`i that feature Chief Detective Koa Kāne. If you’re in the mood for a visit to Hawai`i, get hold of these books! The atmosphere is thick with tropical sights, smells and sounds. Not for a minute can you

Former Reuters journalist Freya Berry made a big splash last year with her exceptional debut thriller, The Dictator’s Wife. Inspired by the lives of women married to powerful men, it became a Between The Covers pick on BBC Two and a critical and commercial success. This gothic story set in the 1930s is a surprising

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Okay, okay. Maybe I might be a wiseguy or a wazzock – you decide – but the transatlantic partnership between Scottish crime author Denise Mina and the legendary LA detective Philip Marlowe is as surprising as it is exciting. Historic too. The Second Murderer is our lead novel this week, followed by the latest from

Fans have been waiting a long time to hear news about the adaptation of a beloved queer YA novel and it’s finally here. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe will be released nationwide in theaters September 8, 2022. [embedded content][embedded content] Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin

Regular Crime Fiction Lover readers will recall that The Woman in the Library won Best Indie Novel in our 2022 awards. Now Australian publisher Ultimo Press has released After She Wrote him in the UK, a book that was initially published as Crossing the Lines in 2017. This was the author’s first crime novel to

An author never quite knows what we readers will take to and Olivia Kiernan‘s tough, compassionate protagonist DCI Frankie Sheehan of the Dublin Garda has garnered plenty of fans. With The End of Us, the author steps away from Frankie’s four novels of pain and triumph to produce something very different. This standalone feels like

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

We first met Sarah Hilary in 2014, with Someone Else’s Skin – her crime debut, which introduced us to London-based DI Marnie Rome and ended up winning Theakston’s 2015 Crime Novel of the Year. The series eventually ran to six books, but then Hilary turned her attention to standalones, with her first, Fragile, published in 2021. Now

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside

Chris Brookmyre and his wife Dr Marisa Haetzman took that old adage of ‘write what you know’ to heart when they came up with The Way of all Flesh, first in a series of historical crime novels set in Victorian Edinburgh. Brookmyre, after all, is a multi-award-winning crime fiction author, while Haetzman has been a

Ireland has an undeniable mystique, and Irish romance novels possess an extra special oomph. The gift of gab? The luck of the Irish? Whatever it is, it makes for good reading. Whether it’s the setting for a contemporary story or a historical saga, Ireland is a place that captures the imagination. I once had a

There are usually two types of people who take a workshop: people who want to improve their technique and people who want to learn a new thing altogether. As someone who enjoys being creative but isn’t exactly that good at creating art, I have discovered that workshops are a great way to find out that

From the Monkeewrench series to Millennium and on to today’s techno thrillers, we love it when new technologies quickly evolve into new kinds of crime and new ways of catching crooks. At the moment, this subgenre seems to be surging forward with crypto currency, the Dark Web and AI inspiring authors everywhere. This week our

Rainbow capitalism is a thing, and we know that this year more than any other, corporate Pride merchandise has experienced backlash thanks to right-wing provocateurs. While it’s disappointing that stores like Target and Kohls have pulled some of their Pride themed goods, they’re corporations. On the one hand, it’s powerful to see major retailers have

Canadian author Robyn Harding is known for her fast-paced domestic thrillers that focus on interpersonal relationships. The Drowning Woman explores the lives of two women who seem very different but who strike up a surprising friendship. It will get you thinking about how far you would go to help a friend, with themes of forgiveness,

Last week’s legislation in Illinois which aims to end book bans in schools and libraries requires those institutions receiving state aid to have the Library Bill of Rights as part of their policies and procedures. But what is the Library Bill of Rights? It is a document celebrating its 70th year of existence in 2023,

Nilima Rao’s debut novel, A Disappearance in Fiji, is a historical mystery that sheds light on the devastating consequences of a British colonial policy that is little discussed today. In so doing, she presents a very different image of Fiji from the tropical paradise and exotic holiday destination the country is now perceived as. Fiji’s

J. R. R. Tolkien’s epic high fantasy The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular and influential book series of the 20th century. A few The Lord of the Rings facts you already know: Peter Jackson’s LOTR film trilogy is one of the most awarded and highest-grossing film series ever. The Lord

Canadian author Christopher Huang’s new crime caper might not have the brutal one-liners of Succession, but it does have an unscrupulous patriarch who takes pleasure in manipulating and pitting his three children against one another – even after his death. April 1921: Sir Lawrence Linwood has been violently bludgeoned to death in his study, presumably

We know that LGBTQ+ books are under fire across the country and they have been specifically targeted by right-wing conspiracy theorists in a very organized fashion now for several years. In addition, we have seen public education and teachers come under fire by these same conspiracists who believe that by having LGBTQ+ books in the

Last month, RA Cramblitt released Like Printing Money, a technological crime novel set in Baltimore. It follows his debut novel Probably Lives in Tahiti, described as a rock ’n roll romance, the latter has earned a 4.8-star rating on Goodreads and Amazon. Cramblitt uses the fast-paced crime plot of Like Printing Money as the engine for an exploration of