‘Welcome to Cooper’ is the new debut thriller by Tariq Ashkanani. Photo: amazon
Tariq Ashkanani is a solicitor based in Edinburgh, where he also runs WriteGear, a Kickstarter company that sells high-quality notebooks for writers, and WriteGear’s podcast Page One. He had no formal writing training or consultation prior to writing “Welcome to Cooper.” He is currently working on a follow-up thriller. In his new book “Welcome to Cooper,” an explosive thriller of bad choices and dark crimes, Detective Levine knew his transfer was a punishment―but he had no idea just how bad it would get. (amazon, 2021)
“Welcome to Cooper” – Cooper, Nebraska, is forgettable and forgotten, a town you would only stumble into if you had taken a seriously wrong turn. Like Detective Thomas Levine’s career has. But when a young woman is found lying in the snow, choked to death, her eyes gouged out, the disgraced detective is Cooper’s only hope for restoring peace and justice. For Levine, still grieving and guilt-ridden over the death of his girlfriend, his so-called “transfer” from the big city to this grubby backwater has always felt like a punishment. And when his cantankerous new partner shoots their prime suspect using Levine’s gun, all hope of redemption is shattered. With the case in chaos, and both extortion and a violent drug cartel to contend with, he finds himself in a world of trouble. It gets worse. The real killer is still out there, and he has plans for Detective Levine. And Cooper may just be the perfect place to get away with murder.
“Head Shot” is the second book in the Marko Zorn Series by Otho Eskin. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
Otho Eskin is a lawyer and former member of the U.S. Foreign Service. He is a playwright whose work has appeared in New York, Washington, D.C. and Europe, and is active in the Washington theater scene. He published his first thriller, “The Reflecting Pool,” to great reviews and book club interest in 2020. It was selected as an Amazon Editors’ Pick for Best Mystery, Thriller and Suspense. “The Reflecting Pool” follows Marko Zorn- a Washington D.C. homicide detective who has a strong ethical compass but refuses to play by the rules. The sequel, “Head Shot,” also featuring Marko Zorn will be released on December 7, 2021. It features the most elusive assassin in the world against D.C. Homicide Detective Marko Zorn. (Otho Eskin, 2021)
“Head Shot” – Old loves die hard in Otho Eskin’s second Marko Zorn novel, “Head Shot” (Oceanview Publishing). D.C. homicide detective Marko Zorn is leading the investigation of the onstage murder of an actress he once loved when he is assigned to protect Nina Voychek, the visiting prime minister of Montenegro. Zorn discovers a surprising additional target while he is shielding Voychek from her political enemies—himself. As he foils attempts on his life, he pulls out all stops and deploys his nefarious resources to hunt whoever is targeting him and prevent an international tragedy on American soil.
It is a pulse-pounding race to find his attacker as Zorn and his tentative young partner, Lucy Tanaka, contend with decoded messages, Supermax prisoner interviews, mafia lawyers and an ancient Black Mountain curse. And as they navigate D.C. and confront growing danger, they must solve the deadliest puzzle of all—are they facing multiple hired guns with diverging agendas, or just the world’s most lethal and elusive contract killer?
‘The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts’ by Mary Wellesley. Photo: amazon
A new month means new books on the horizon. These are some notable new releases for the month of October in my favorite categories: Fiction, Young Adult, History & Biography, Mystery & Thriller, Science fiction, Fantasy, and Historical fiction. My pick for this month is “The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts” by Mary Wellesley because I would love to read more about Medieval Manuscripts. (amazon, Goodreads, 2021)
Fiction “The Book of Magic” by Alice Hoffman Releasedate: October 12, 2021 Master storyteller Alice Hoffman brings us the conclusion of the Practical Magic series in a spellbinding and enchanting final Owens novel brimming with lyric beauty and vivid characters. The Owens family has been cursed in matters of love for over three-hundred years but all of that is about to change. The novel begins in a library, the best place for a story to be conjured, when beloved aunt Jet Owens hears the deathwatch beetle and knows she has only seven days to live. Jet is not the only one in danger—the curse is already at work.
A frantic attempt to save a young man’s life spurs three generations of the Owens women, and one long-lost brother, to use their unusual gifts to break the curse as they travel from Paris to London to the English countryside where their ancestor Maria Owens first practiced the Unnamed Art. The younger generation discovers secrets that have been hidden from them in matters of both magic and love by Sally, their fiercely protective mother. As Kylie Owens uncovers the truth about who she is and what her own dark powers are, her aunt Franny comes to understand that she is ready to sacrifice everything for her family, and Sally Owens realizes that she is willing to give up everything for love.
Young Adult “Kingdom of the Cursed” by Kerri Maniscalco Release date: October 5, 2021 From #1 New York Times bestselling author of “Stalking Jack the Ripper,” Kerri Maniscalco, comes the sizzling, sweepingly romantic sequel to “Kingdom of the Wicked.” One sister. Two sinful princes. Infinite deception with a side of revenge. Welcome to Hell.
After selling her soul to become Queen of the Wicked, Emilia travels to the Seven Circles with the enigmatic Prince of Wrath, where she is introduced to a seductive world of vice. She vows to do whatever it takes to avenge her beloved sister, Vittoria even if that means accepting the hand of the Prince of Pride, the king of demons. The first rule in the court of the Wicked? Trust no one. With back-stabbing princes, luxurious palaces, mysterious party invitations, and conflicting clues about who really killed her twin, Emilia finds herself more alone than ever before. Can she even trust Wrath, her one-time ally in the mortal world, or is he keeping dangerous secrets about his true nature?
History and Biography “The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts” by Mary Wellesley Release date: October 12, 2021 A breathtaking journey into the hidden history of medieval manuscripts, from the Lindisfarne Gospels to the ornate Psalter of Henry VIII. Medieval manuscripts can tell us much about power and art, knowledge and beauty. Many have survived because of an author’s status. Part of the reason we have so much of Chaucer’s writings, for example, is because he was a London-based government official first and a poet second. Other works by the less influential have narrowly avoided ruin, like the book of illiterate Margery Kempe, found in a country house closet, the cover nibbled on by mice. Scholar Mary Wellesley recounts the amazing origins of these remarkable manuscripts, surfacing the important roles played by women and ordinary people—the grinders, binders, and scribes—in their creation and survival.
Mystery and Thriller “These Silent Woods” by Kimi Cunningham Grant Release date: October 26, 2021 A father and daughter living in the remote Appalachian mountains must reckon with the ghosts of their past. No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world. For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that is exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he has a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she is starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her—and he is still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.
The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named Scotland, and Cooper’s old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake does not show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding or finally face the sins of his past.
Science Fiction “Perhaps the Stars” by Ada Palmer Release date: October 19, 2021 The final instalment in Ada Palmer’s award-winning, critically acclaimed Terra Ignota series. The long years of near-utopia have end abruptly. Peace and order are now figments of the past. Corruption, deception, and insurgency hum within the once steadfast leadership of the Hives, nations without fixed location.
The heartbreaking truth is that for decades, even centuries, the leaders of the great Hives bought the world’s stability with a trickle of secret murders, mathematically planned. So that no faction could ever dominate. So that the balance held. The Hives’ facade of solidity is the only hope they have for maintaining a semblance of order, for preventing the public from succumbing to the savagery and bloodlust of wars past. But as the great secret becomes more and more widely known, that facade is slipping away. Just days earlier, the world was a pinnacle of human civilization. Hives and hiveless, Utopians and sensayers, emperors and the downtrodden, warriors and saints scramble to prepare for the seemingly inevitable war.
Fantasy “The Lighthouse Witches” by C.J. Cooke Release date: October 5, 2021 Two sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found–but she is still the same age as when she disappeared. The secrets of witches have reached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller. When single mother Liv is commissioned to paint a mural in a 100-year-old lighthouse on a remote Scottish island, it is an opportunity to start over with her three daughters–Luna, Sapphire, and Clover. When two of her daughters go missing, she is frantic. She learns that the cave beneath the lighthouse was once a prison for women accused of witchcraft. The locals warn her about wildlings, supernatural beings who mimic human children, created by witches for revenge. Liv is told wildlings are dangerous and must be killed.
Twenty-two years later, Luna has been searching for her missing sisters and mother. When she receives a call about her youngest sister, Clover, she is initially ecstatic. Clover is the sister she remembers–except she is still seven years old, the age she was when she vanished. Luna is worried Clover is a wildling. Luna has few memories of her time on the island, but she will have to return to find the truth of what happened to her family. But she does not realize just how much the truth will change her.
Historical fiction “Small Pleasures” by Clare Chambers Release date: October 5, 2021 In the best tradition of Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Ann Patchett—an astonishing, keenly observed period piece about an ordinary British woman in the 1950s whose dutiful life takes a sudden turn into a pitched battle between propriety and unexpected passion.
1957: Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper in the southeast suburbs of London. Clever but with limited career opportunities and on the brink of forty, Jean lives a dreary existence that includes caring for her demanding widowed mother, who rarely leaves the house. It is a small life with little joy and no likelihood of escape.
That all changes when a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth. Jean seizes onto the bizarre story and sets out to discover whether Gretchen is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely intertwined with that of the Tilburys, including Gretchen’s gentle and thoughtful husband Howard, who mostly believes his wife, and their quirky and charming daughter Margaret, who becomes a sort of surrogate child for Jean. Gretchen, too, becomes a much-needed friend in an otherwise empty social life. Jean cannot bring herself to discard what seems like her one chance at happiness, even as the story that she is researching starts to send dark ripples across all their lives with unimaginable consequences.
Releasing this October 12, ‘A Tomato Grows in Brooklyn’ features irresistible family Italian dishes, all delivered with a brazen Brooklyn accent. Photo: amazon
David Ruggerio is a well-known celebrity chef and restaurant owner in New York City. He was honored in 1995 by noted vintner Robert Mondavi as one of the thirteen best young chefs in America. He went on to star in his own popular PBS cooking series, Little Italy with David Ruggerio, and later starred in his own iconic series on Food Network, Ruggerio to Go. David has written two acclaimed cookbooks, both published by Artisan Books, “Little Italy with David Ruggerio” and “David Ruggerio’s Italian Kitchen.” He returns with a new cookbook, “A Tomato Grows in Brooklyn,” to release be October 12. The book is a mouth-watering invitation to all gourmet food-lovers to enter his Brooklyn kitchen and explore the Italian-American cuisine he knows, grew up with, and adores. (David Ruggerio, 2021)
“A Tomato Grows in Brooklyn” includes 135 delicious recipes, illustrated with of luscious pictures that will inspire and help the readers to awaken the Super Chef within. With a bite of Involtini of Eggplant, a taste of Octopus in Warm Vinaigrette, a forkful of Carbonara of Artichoke, a morsel of Gnocchi all’Amatriciana, or a mouthful of Panna Cotta of Orange, Caramel and Figs, they will discover what makes the Italian-American fare of Brooklyn unique and delicious. This humble cuisine reflects a beautiful story of triumph and hardship, one forever rich in humanity and heritage.
Ruggerio’s new cookbook has already received praise from food critics. The New York Times’ Bryan Miller says, “David Ruggiero has crafted an outstanding book: an evocatively written memoir of a special time and place that nurtured his rise to culinary fame, and a compilation of irresistible family Italian dishes, many with a brazen Brooklyn accent.”
After 35 years of cooking, David Ruggerio’s passion for creating dishes and improving his culinary craft has only grown. “A Tomato Grows in Brooklyn” is available in hardcover, and is a must-have on the shelves of those who love cooking.
“A Tomato Grows in Brooklyn” is available for pre-order on amazon.
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1949534207 Hardcover Price: $18.95 Length: 252 pages Publisher: Black Rose Writing
‘Callous’ is the new thriller by Ken Bruen. Photo: amazon
Ken Bruen is one of the most prominent Irish crime writers of the last two decades. Born in Galway, he spent twenty-five years traveling the world before he began writing in the mid-1990s. As an English teacher, Bruen worked in South Africa, Japan, and South America, where he once spent a short time in a Brazilian jail. He has two long-running series: one starring a disgraced former police officer named Jack Taylor, the other a London police detective named Inspector Brant. Praised for their sharp insight into the darker side of today’s prosperous Ireland, Bruen’s novels are marked by grim atmosphere and clipped prose. Among the best known are his White Trilogy (1998–2000) and The Guards (2001), the Shamus award-winning first novel in the Jack Taylor series. In his new novel “Callous,” inheriting a Galway cottage may change a trouble young woman’s life, but not the way she hopes. (amazon, 2021)
“Callous” – Kate Mitchell’s in the process of kicking her heroin addiction—with the help of alcohol—when a letter arrives informing her that her aunt in Ireland has passed away and bequeathed her a home near the ocean. This could be the start of a new and better life for Kate, far away from Brooklyn, where she and her surviving brothers are each struggling with their own dark pasts. But Aunt Mary did not die peacefully—quite the opposite. The men responsible for her murder had plans for her house: namely, turning it into a lovely seaside meth lab. One of Mary’s killers, however, finds his focus shifting when he spots a photo of the dead woman’s American niece, who bears a striking resemblance to the late opera singer Maria Callas, the beloved object of his obsession. When Kate and her brothers arrive to claim her inheritance, they are going to find something other than a piece of paradise.
‘Daggers Drawn’ includes short stories by Ian Rankin, Jeffery Deaver, John Connolly, Denise Mina, John Harvey, and more. Photo: amazon
Maxim Jakubowski is a noted anthology editor with over seventy volumes to his credit, including “Invisible Blood,” the thirteen annual volumes of The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries, and titles on Professor Moriarty, Jack the Ripper, Future Crime, and Vintage whodunits. A publisher for over 20 years, he was also the co-owner of London’s Murder One bookstore and the crime columnist for Time Out and then The Guardian for 22 years. Stories from his anthologies have won most of the awards in the field on numerous occasions. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and a Sunday Times bestselling novelist in another genre. He is the editor of a new collection of short stories, “Daggers Drawn.” Edgy, twisted and disturbing, “Daggers Drawn” is the first Crime Writers’ Association Daggers Award retrospective, a visceral and thrilling collection featuring bestselling authors Ian Rankin, Jeffery Deaver, John Connolly, Denise Mina, and John Harvey. (amazon, 2021)
“Daggers Drawn” includes nineteen CWA Dagger-Award winning short stories from the best of the best in crime fiction. The first retrospective of the CWA’s Dagger Award winners, it brings together some of the greatest names in crime fiction to deliver a cutthroat collection of serial killers, grizzled detectives, drug dealers, and expert forgers. Observe as a Senior Curator at the Tate Gallery constructs the perfect crime in Ian Rankin’s “Herbert in Motion.” Watch an unlikely romance sour into a deadly obsession in Stella Duffy’s “Martha Grace.” Face parents who discover their child has committed the unthinkable in Denise Mina’s “Nemo Me Impune Lacessit.” In Jeffery Deaver’s “The Weekender” an intense hostage situation hits its peak in the most unlikely conclusion. Keep your secrets close, and your daggers drawn
‘Light Chaser’ is the new novel by Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell. Photo: amazon
Peter F. Hamilton began writing in 1987, and sold his first short story to Fear magazine in 1988. He has written many bestselling novels, including the Greg Mandel series, the Night’s Dawn trilogy, the Commonwealth Saga and the Void trilogy, as well as several standalone novels including “Fallen Dragon” and “Great North Road.” Gareth L. Powell writes science fiction about extraordinary characters wrestling with the question of what it means to be human. He has won the BSFA Award twice, for Ack-Ack Macaque and Embers of War, and has also been a finalist for the Locus Award. In Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell’s new action-packed sci-fi adventure “Light Chaser,” a love powerful enough to transcend death can bring down an entire empire. (amazon, 2021)
“Light Chaser” – Amahle is a Light Chaser – one of a number of explorers, who travel the universe alone (except for their onboard AI), trading trinkets for life stories. But when she listens to the stories sent down through the ages she hears the same voice talking directly to her from different times and on different worlds. She comes to understand that something terrible is happening, and only she is in a position to do anything about it. And it will cost everything to put it right.
‘Followed Away’ is book three in the Exalls Attacks series. Photo: amazon
Andre Gonzalez is the international bestselling author of the Wealth of Time Series. He writes time-travel, thriller, and horror books after spending many years reading and studying the works of Stephen King and Dean Koontz. His goal is to keep readers up late and their hearts pumping a bit faster than normal when they crack open one of his books. Andre is the recipient of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers 2021 Independent Writer of the Year award. In his new novel, “Followed Away,” the third book in the Exalls Attacks series, life has spiraled out of control for Kyle Wells. Left with minimal means for survival, Kyle must band together with his squad as they sweep the country for any signs of life. (amazon, 2021)
“Followed Away” – Their mission is to save the world. But will they be able to save themselves? Upon returning to the outside world, they discover abyss. Hope and ambition quickly diminish as a disturbing reality settles in—they are all alone. Despite the prior catastrophic mission of cleansing the evil plaguing the land, the Crew find themselves once again facing their enemies for the soul of the future. Outnumbered and outsmarted, Kyle and his team must resort to desperate tactics if they want to survive.
“Followed Home” – Book One: At first, everyone thought it was a prank. Something malevolent is brewing in the Rocky Mountains. Kyle and his friends encounter the evil firsthand while on a hunting trip, oblivious to the danger that will soon follow them back to the city. As tragedy unfolds across the region, the four companions are plunged into a horrifying struggle for survival with an otherworldly threat and the forces that oppose it. With millions of lives suddenly at risk, Kyle finds his best chance at survival is buried within an old family secret.
“Followed East” – Book Two: The Exalls are back. And they are thirsty for revenge. Kyle Wells has spent the last four years piecing together his shattered life. After a meeting with the Pentagon, he agrees to fight the beings who have taken everything from him. Leaving behind the only life he has known, Kyle relocates across the country to embark on his new journey. Once in the nation’s capital, he learns an entire world has been kept classified for decades. More importantly, he discovers his grandmother’s true role in the organization known as The Crew. When random attacks begin sprouting around the country, a familiar disturbing pattern emerges. As the tragedies gradually inch closer toward the Pentagon, Kyle finds himself thrust into battle against his lethal enemies. With the ultimate showdown looming, he tumbles across a chilling revelation hidden in the depths of his father’s home. Will this discovery be the key to saving his life—and the country—as we know it?
“A Different Dawn” by Isabella Maldonado is book two in the Nina Guerrera series. Photo: amazon
Award-winning author Isabella Maldonado wore a gun and badge in real life before turning to crime writing. A graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico and the first Latina to attain the rank of captain in the Fairfax County Police Department just outside DC, she retired as the Commander of Special Investigations and Forensics. During more than two decades on the force, her assignments included hostage negotiator, department spokesperson, and precinct commander. She uses her law enforcement background to bring a realistic edge to her writing, which includes the Detective Cruz series and the Nina Guerrera series. The latter consists of “The Cipher” and now “A Different Dawn.” In her new book “A Different Dawn,” book two in the Nina Guerrera series, for nearly thirty years a serial killer has been hiding in plain sight. So has the key to an FBI agent’s dark past. (amazon, 2021)
“A Different Dawn” – A family is murdered as they sleep. FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera and her new team are tasked with determining whether there is any link between this attack and another triple homicide from four years earlier and more than two thousand miles away. In the process, they will discover a serial killer so cunning that his grisly trail of death spanning nearly three decades has gone undetected. Each crime scene reminds Nina of the ghostly Latin folktale of La Llorona, which terrified her when she was an abandoned and vulnerable child. Now it is back to haunt her. Nina has known evil, but these macabre reenactments are as disturbing as they are baffling. Now she must uncover the meaning behind the rituals as the evidence leads her in an unexpected direction―far closer to home than anyone could have imagined. As the team narrows in on a suspect, the present collides with Nina’s past in a twist of fate that forces her to make the ultimate sacrifice.
‘Plague of Flies: Revolt of the Spirits, 1846’ is Laurel Anne Hill’s new Young Adult novel. Photo: amazon
Laurel Anne Hill is an author and former underground storage tank operator. She grew up in San Francisco with more dreams of adventure than good sense or money. Her close brushes with death, love of family, respect for honor and belief in a higher power continue to influence her writing and her life. Laurel has written over thirty published short stories and two award-winning YA novels, including “The Engine Woman’s Light,” the gripping spirits-meet-steampunk, coming-of-age heroic journey of a young Latina in an alternate 19th century California. “The Engine Woman’s Light” has won a total of thirteen honors and awards, including a Kirkus Star. Sand Hill Review Press is set to release Laurel’s next Young Adult novel, “Plague of Flies: Revolt of the Spirits, 1846” on October 16, 2021. It tells the story of a young Mexican girl whose country is in turmoil. (Laurel Anne Hill, 2021)
“Plague of Flies: Revolt of the Spirits, 1846” – This Young Adult historical fantasy tells the story of a 16-year-old Mexican girl, Catalina, and her fight for her country after American invaders declare war on Mexico. Circumstances compel Catalina to protect all those she holds dear when American invaders, called the Bear Flaggers, declare that Mexican California belongs to the United States. Faced with the imprisonment and murders of her friends, Catalina relies on guidance from people and places more powerful than herself. Catalina risks her reputation, future with the man she loves, and, ultimately, her soul to prevent the calamity she fears. Experience mid-19th century Mexican Alta California with Catalina and the spirits she encounters along the way.
Laurel says about her newest book, “My Mexican great-grandmother, as a teen in US California during the 1860s, recruited Mexican ex-patriots to return to their country of birth and rid Mexico of French soldiers. Her dedication, and that of my great-great-grandmother and many others, helped restore the Mexican Republic. How could this bit of family history not inspire me to create a character such as Catalina? A brave young woman in the 1840s who learns to believe the unbelievable and accomplish what only she is meant to do?”
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