Q&A with Laura Jensen Walker

From my Q&A with Laura Jensen Walker, author of The Alphabet Sleuths:

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

I always have to have a title before I begin writing a book. The title tells me what the book’s about, and tells readers the same. When I decided to write a cozy mystery about senior sleuths set in a retirement community (well before The Thursday Murder Club released) I didn’t want to copy Richard Osman’s international bestseller, but I did want the title to have a similar feel. I also wanted to make readers curious: why are they called the Alphabet Sleuths? Who are these sleuths? Happily my publisher liked the title and did a fabulous job illustrating the story with the cover.

What's in a name?

Since my title is The Alphabet Sleuths, I had to...[read on]

Visit Laura Jensen Walker's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Alphabet Sleuths.

Q&A with Laura Jensen Walker.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best time-travel books

Michelle Maryk graduated from Cornell University with a degree in English and attended the Yale Writer’s Workshop. For the better part of twenty-five years, she’s been a successful voiceover, on-camera commercial, and comedic actor, and she is a dual Swedish and US citizen.

The Found Object Society is her debut novel.

At Oprah Daily Maryk tagged six of the best time-travel books. One entry on the list:

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, by Andrew Sean Greer

Andrew Sean Greer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Less, had me ugly crying on a beach in Mexico, so I’ll read anything he writes. There’s an elegant simplicity to his prose that cuts to the quick of human frailty, and this very different story of his was no exception.

The novel centers on a woman in the mid-1980s who is grieving the death of her twin brother to AIDS while suffering through a terrible breakup. Feeling helpless, she agrees to undergo electroshock therapy. With each session, she is involuntarily transported to a version of her life in either 1918, 1941, or present-day 1985. Each rendition of Greta has a different career and personality, yet the principal characters in her life—her ex-lover and her twin brother—are always there, showing up as different iterations of themselves. Gorgeously rendered, this book lends hope to the idea that whatever path we’re on, it’s worth living.

Read about another novel on Maryk's list.

The Page 69 Test: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells.

My Book, The Movie: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Karen M. Morin's "Cattle Trails and Animal Lives"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Cattle Trails and Animal Lives: The Founding of an American Carceral Archipelago by Karen M. Morin.

About the book, from the publisher:

Cattle Trails and Animal Lives remaps the historical and empirical geography of the emergent cattle industry as a series of carceral sites and nodes in the American West, focusing on the experiences of animals living and eventually dying under intense carceral structures, practices, technologies, and tools. This work shifts the narratives of the Old West cattle kingdoms from cowboys, ranchers, and cattle barons to the lived experiences of cattle caught within the rural “carceral archipelago” of the emergent U.S. beef industry. The work focuses on these animals’ forced movement over land and sea—their experiences, lives, and agency as formerly free—roaming animals who were captured, enclosed, moved, and eventually shipped by railroad to slaughterhouses in Chicago and beyond. The spatial nodes and sites of the carceral archipelago include the open range, the ranch, the cattle trail, and the cattle town and the intense human carceral controls enacted within them. The work further interprets how these animal lives are culturally renarrated to contemporary audiences through living history sites, other touristic and artistic re—creations of historic cattle drives, Hollywood westerns, and museum exhibits featuring material carceral artefacts. Together these not only perpetuate heroic myths of the Old West but normalize and even celebrate the carceral experiences of animals.

Learn more about Cattle Trails and Animal Lives at the University of Georgia Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Cattle Trails and Animal Lives.

--Marshal Zeringue

Megan Chance's "The Vermilion Sea," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Vermilion Sea: A Novel by Megan Chance.

The entry begins:

The Vermilion Sea was lot of fun to write. It’s not only historical fiction, but it’s also got a bit of paranormal and some horror thrown in for good measure. Given that it all takes place on a specimen-collecting luxury cruise on the Gulf of California, and there’s nowhere for the guests or the scientists to go once things begin to go horribly wrong, it’s a locked-door story as well.

Since we’re dealing with the realms of the fantastic here, and weird creatures and big weird atmosphere energy, for a director, I’m going to pick Guillermo Del Toro, though honestly it would have been fun to see what Alfred Hitchcock would have done with the tension in the book as well.

When I was writing, I had distinct actors in mind. For the main female protagonist, marine biologist Billie McKennan, I pictured British actor Emily Beecham, who starred in the Netflix series 1899 (RIP 1899. I loved you with my whole heart). For the character of James Holloway, the rich benefactor and owner of the cruise ship Eurybia, I pictured...[read on]

Visit Megan Chance's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Splendid Ruin.

The Page 69 Test: A Splendid Ruin.

Q&A with Megan Chance.

The Page 69 Test: A Dangerous Education.

My Book, The Movie: A Dangerous Education.

Writers Read: Megan Chance (February 2023).

Writers Read: Megan Chance (January 2025).

My Book, The Movie: Glamorous Notions.

The Page 69 Test: Glamorous Notions.

My Book, The Movie: The Vermilion Sea.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six novels featuring the most unhinged women

Marisa Walz is a psychological suspense author who lives outside Chicago with her husband and two young children.

Good Intentions is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads the author tagged "six novels featuring gloriously unwell female protagonists—women I would absolutely invite to brunch, after I hid the knives." One title on the list:

Oyinkan Braithwaite, My Sister, the Serial Killer

Protectiveness taken to homicidal extremes. Korede is a dutiful nurse whose beautiful younger sister Ayoola has a habit of killing her boyfriends—and calling Korede to clean up the mess (literally). When Ayoola sets her sights on the doctor Korede secretly loves, the sisters’ long-standing dynamic of loyalty, resentment, and shared culpability reaches a dangerous breaking point.

The novel explores what loyalty really costs—and how far one “good” sister will go to protect family, even when family is a monster.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Sister the Serial Killer is among Amy K. Green's five novels about living near serial killers, Anna Barrington's six social thrillers that will make you question who you can trust, Kate Alice Marshall's six great thrillers featuring sisters (and murder), Margot Douaihy's four novels that show the power of siblings in mysteries & thrillers, Francesca McDonnell Capossela's seven books about women committing acts of violence, 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

What is Robert Dugoni reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Robert Dugoni, author of Her Cold Justice.

His entry begins:

I’m often asked what I’m reading.

Can I be honest? When I’m writing, I’m writing 8 hours a day. I write my first draft like I’m running a marathon. I just keep going and going and going. The goal is to reach the end, figure out what the book is about and then rolls up my sleeves, dig in and edit like crazy. Because of this, at the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is read. Sounds terrible for a writer, doesn’t it?

When I’m on vacation, I like something light, good fun and enjoyable. Harry Potter. The Lord of the Rings. But...[read on]

About Her Cold Justice, from the publisher:

To save a client accused of murder, defense attorney Keera Duggan must fight a complex web of corruption in a riveting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

In a quiet South Seattle neighborhood, a suspected drug smuggler and his girlfriend are murdered in their home. When a young man named Michael Westbrook is accused of the brutal double homicide, his uncle JP Harrison turns to Keera Duggan to defend him. JP is Keera’s trusted investigator, and he desperately needs Keera to save his nephew against escalating odds.

The evidence is circumstantial—Michael worked with one of the victims, drugs were found in his possession, and he bolted from authorities. Ruthless star prosecutor Anh Tran has gotten convictions on much less. With the testimony of two prison informants, the case looks grave. But Keera never concedes defeat. To free her client, she must dig deep before Tran crushes both of them.

As the investigation gets more twisted with each new find, Keera is swept up in a mystery with far—reaching consequences. This case isn’t just murder. It’s looking like a conspiracy. And getting justice for Michael could be the most dangerous promise Keera has ever made.

Visit Robert Dugoni's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Wrongful Death.

The Page 69 Test: Bodily Harm.

My Book, The Movie: Bodily Harm.

The Page 69 Test: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: The Eighth Sister.

The Page 69 Test: The Eighth Sister.

My Book, The Movie: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Agent.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Agent.

Q&A with Robert Dugoni.

The Page 69 Test: In Her Tracks.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: A Killing on the Hill.

My Book, The Movie: A Killing on the Hill.

The Page 69 Test: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

My Book, The Movie: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (October 2024).

My Book, The Movie: Her Cold Justice.

The Page 69 Test: Her Cold Justice.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Will Shindler's "The Bone Queen"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Bone Queen: A Novel by Will Shindler.

About the book, from the publisher:

A chilling horror-thriller debut where a mother's search for her missing daughter battles against the shadows of a historic, dangerous legend.

Single mother Jenna arrives on the tranquil shores of Athelsea fueled by the desperate hope to find Chloe, her teenage daughter who’s disappeared from their London home. She has no idea why–all she knows is that Chloe had changed in the previous two weeks, haunted by something, or someone, and the ferry ticket here is the only clue she has.

As she explores the village and interacts with the locals, Jenna soon realizes a macabre secret is being hidden in plain sight. A dark legend of a vengeful woman called the Bone Queen is spoken of in hushed tones amongst the villagers, some of whom are frantically trying to suppress the tale that has long terrorized their lives.

As Jenna starts to learn more about the Bone Queen and her previous victims, the village’s grip on reality begins to loosen and no one can say for sure who, or what, is responsible for the deaths and disappearances on Athelsea. Suffering from what she can no longer distinguish between paranoid hallucinations or real manifestations, Jenna must act quickly before Chloe is next…

The Bone Queen has left her mark, and one day she’ll collect.

Follow Will Shindler on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

My Book, The Movie: The Bone Queen.

Q&A with Will Shindler.

The Page 69 Test: The Bone Queen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books about the expense of burial

Becky Robison (she/her) is a writer living in Louisville, Kentucky. A graduate of UNLV's Creative Writing MFA program, her work has appeared in Salon, Slate, Business Insider, and elsewhere. She’s also the mind behind My Parents Are Dead: What Now?—a project that aims to help people navigate the dizzying labyrinth of post-death bureaucracy based on her own experience.

Robison's new book is My Parents Are Dead: What Now? A Panic-Free Guide to the Practicalities of Death.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven "books that show how the invisible hand of the market reaches far beyond the grave." One title on the list:

Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins by Amy Shea

Forget about a funeral—what happens when a bereaved family can’t even afford to bury their dead? And what about deceased people who have no family to claim them? Through a combination of reporting and personal essays, Amy Shea—author and cofounder of the Equitable Disposition Alliance—uncovers the patchwork system U.S. municipalities have cobbled together to lay the indigent dead to rest. Some cities bury the unclaimed dead, while others cremate them. Some cities hold mass memorial services, while others dispose of the bodies without ceremony. By weaving her own experiences of death and working with unhoused populations into the narrative, Shea forces us to consider not only how we plan (or don’t plan) for our own demise, despite our comparative privileges, but also what we owe others in our community—during and after their lives. No spoilers, but you shouldn’t skip the index.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jordan B. Smith's "The Invention of Rum"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity by Jordan B. Smith.

About the book, from the publsher:

A complex history of rum, from its production to its consumption, and from its origins in the Caribbean to its impact on the Atlantic world

It was strong. It was cheap. It was ubiquitous. Fermented and distilled from the refuse of sugar production, rum emerged in the seventeenth-century Caribbean as a new commodity. To conjure something desirable from waste, the makers, movers, and drinkers of rum arrived at its essential qualities through cross-cultural experimentation and exchange. Those profiting most from the sale of rum also relied on plantation slavery, devoured natural resources, and overlooked the physiological effects of overconsumption in their pursuit of profit. Focusing on the lived experiences of British colonists, Indigenous people, and enslaved Africans, The Invention of Rum shows how people engaged in making and consuming this commodity created a new means of profit that transformed the Atlantic world.

Jordan B. Smith guides readers from the fledgling sugar plantations and urban distilleries where new types of alcohol sprung forth to the ships, garrisons, trading posts, and refined tables where denizens of the Atlantic world devoured it. He depicts the enslaved laborers in the Caribbean as they experimented with fermentation, the Londoners caught up in the Gin Craze, the colonial distillers in North America, and the imperial officials and sailors connecting these places. This was a world flooded by rum.

Based on extensive archival research in the Caribbean, North America, and Britain, The Invention of Rum narrates the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century history of one of the Atlantic world’s most ubiquitous products. Smith casts this everyday item as both a crucial example of negotiation between Europeans, Africans, and Americans and a harbinger of modernity, connecting rum’s early history to the current global market. The book reveals how individuals throughout the Atlantic world encountered―and helped to build―rapidly shifting societies and economies.

Learn more about The Invention of Rum at the University of Pennsylvania Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Invention of Rum.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Will Shindler

From my Q&A with Will Shindler, author of The Bone Queen: A Novel:

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

The book’s title is critical because it needs to work on a number of levels. It needs to accurately represent your story, it needs to work as a marketing tool – and it needs to be pithy. I learnt the latter the hard way, when I tried to give a novel quite a long title once. My publishers were quick to point out the problems. Too many words mean the cover image will get masked by words (not good) and font will also have to be squeezed (also not good) – so a short, sharp title is everything. The Bone Queen was one of the easier titles to come up with because the book really could only be called that. I hope it...[read on]

Follow Will Shindler on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

My Book, The Movie: The Bone Queen.

Q&A with Will Shindler.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Maria Tureaud reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Maria Tureaud, author of This House Will Feed.

Her entry begins:

Since Gothic horror is having a “moment,” I’m delighted to have so many amazing titles to choose from. My current read is The Hunger We Pass Down, by Jen Sookfong Lee. It’s a vivid, raw, and emotional Gothic that weaves the lives of three generations together in a tale bathed in horror — both historical, and supernatural — to create a scathing narrative that deals with the pressure we place on our children, and the generational trauma we pass down. It’s a...[read on]

About This House Will Feed, from the publisher:

Amidst the devastation of Ireland’s Great Famine, a young woman is salvaged from certain death when offered a mysterious position at a remote manor house haunted by a strange power and the horror of her own memories in this chillingly evocative historical novel braided with gothic horror and supernatural suspense for readers of Katherine Arden’s The Warm Hands of Ghosts and The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins.

County Clare, 1848: In the scant few years since the potato blight first cast its foul shadow over Ireland, Maggie O’Shaughnessy has lost everything—her entire family and the man she trusted with her heart. Toiling in the Ennis Workhouse for paltry rations, she can see no future either within or outside its walls—until the mysterious Lady Catherine arrives to whisk her away to an old mansion in the stark limestone landscape of the Burren.

Lady Catherine wants Maggie to impersonate her late daughter, Wilhelmina, and hoodwink solicitors into releasing Wilhelmina’s widow pension so that Lady Catherine can continue to provide for the villagers in her care. In exchange, Maggie will receive freedom from the workhouse, land of her own, and the one thing she wants more than either: a chance to fulfill the promise she made to her brother on his deathbed—to live to spite them all.

Launching herself into the daunting task, Maggie plays the role of Wilhelmina as best she can while ignoring the villagers’ tales of ghostly figures and curses. But more worrying are the whispers that come from within. Something in Lady Catherine’s house is reawakening long-buried memories in Maggie—of a foe more terrifying than hunger or greed, of a power that calls for blood and vengeance, and of her own role in a nightmare that demands the darkest sacrifice...

Visit Maria Tureaud's website.

Writers Read: Maria Tureaud.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books about work

Daniel Poppick is a poet and novelist. His debut novel is The Copywriter (2026). He is also the author of the poetry collections Fear of Description (2019), selected for the National Poetry Series, and The Police (2017). His work appears in The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, The Drift, Harper's, BOMB, The New Republic, Chicago Review, and other journals.

At Lit Hub Poppick tagged seven books about work. One title on the author's list:

Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

Unlike Bartleby, Ishmael would not prefer not to: a hard worker who keeps his head down, he holds a second job as a recording angel for the reader. At one point our narrator overhears Stubb telling Flask that he dreamed that Ahab, their doomed CEO, was a pyramid. In some sense the mystery of Moby-Dick lies not in the whiteness of the whale but in how Ishmael manages to overhear so much on the Pequod, that paradigmatic floating office of American literature. Who is surveilling whom? Stubb’s dream is a little on the nose, but Ahab does serve as a monument to the rapacious pursuit of profit on this intimate vessel as it sails across the watery void.

Read about another book on the list.

Moby-Dick appears among GQ's green flag books, Eiren Caffall's ten titles on maritime disasters and ecological collapse, Emily Temple's ten notorious literary slogs that are worth the effort, Aidan Cottrell-Boyce's top ten novels & stories about prophets, James Stavridis's five best books to know the sea, Robert McCrum's top ten Shakespearean books, Bridget Collins's top ten Quakers in fiction, John Boyne's six best books, Kate Christensen's best food scenes in fiction, Emily Temple's ten literary classics we're supposed to like...but don't, Sara Flannery Murphy ten top stories of obsession, Harold Bloom's six favorite books that helped shape "the American Sublime,"  Charlotte Seager's five well-known literary monomaniacs who take things too far, Ann Leary's top ten books set in New England, Martin Seay's ten best long books, Ian McGuire's ten best adventure novels, Jeff Somers's five top books that will expand your vocabulary and entertain, Four books that changed Mary Norris, Tim Dee's ten best nature books, the Telegraph's fifteen best North American novels of all time, Nicole Hill's top ten best names in literature to give your dog, Horatio Clare's five favorite maritime novels, the Telegraph's ten great meals in literature, Brenda Wineapple's six favorite books, Scott Greenstone's top seven allegorical novels, Paul Wilson's top ten books about disability, Lynn Shepherd's ten top fictional drownings, Peter Murphy's top ten literary preachers, Penn Jillette's six favorite books, Peter F. Stevens's top ten nautical books, Katharine Quarmby's top ten disability stories, Jonathan Evison's six favorite books, Bella Bathurst's top 10 books on the sea, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best nightmares in literature and ten of the best tattoos in literature, Susan Cheever's five best books about obsession, Christopher Buckley's best books, Jane Yolen's five most important books, Chris Dodd's best books, Augusten Burroughs' five most important books, Norman Mailer's top ten works of literature, David Wroblewski's five most important books, Russell Banks' five most important books, and Philip Hoare's top ten books about whales.

--Marshal Zeringue

Laura Jensen Walker's "The Alphabet Sleuths," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Alphabet Sleuths by Laura Jensen Walker.

The entry begins:

“Claire Reynolds hadn’t planned to kill a man that day, but stuff happens.”

In the opening of my mystery featuring four women of a certain age, you meet main character Claire, the C-member of the self-proclaimed Alphabet Girls: Atsuko, Barbara, Claire, and Daphne. When Claire accidentally kills a man who was strangling retired cop Daphne, the gal pals must get rid of the body—a member of the local crime family—without anyone knowing. Especially the police. After Claire discovers another dead body in their California retirement community, the Alphabet Girls become the Alphabet Sleuths to track down the killer.

While writing this story about four women in a retirement community, naturally, TV’s The Golden Girls came to mind. Widowed Claire in her innocence and naïveté, reminded me of Rose, played so wonderfully by Betty White. Except Claire has a silver pixie cut ala Jamie Lee Curtis.

But Jamie Lee is such a badass I’d cast her in the role of retired cop Daphne.

Claire, I see more as a cross between Annie Potts and Mary Steenburgen.

Barbara, the tucked and plucked beautiful blonde beauty queen and retired actress (and the oldest member of the Alphabet Girls) is...[read on]

Visit Laura Jensen Walker's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Alphabet Sleuths.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Alice Echols's "Black Power, White Heat"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic by Alice Echols.

About the book, from the publisher:

A rich history of cross-racial coalitions and alliances of the Sixties' freedom movement, acclaimed historian Alice Echols's Black Power, White Heat reshapes our understanding of the entire era.

One of the most divisive issues in recent progressive politics has been what role, if any, allies might legitimately play in other people's movements. Despite the significance of this debate, it has taken place in a historical vacuum.

In Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic, the Sixties historian Alice Echols explores what happened some sixty years ago when whites and Blacks came together in the fight against racism. She tells this story by focusing on two Black-led organizations that bookend the Sixties: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party. In SNCC, whites were, in part, meant to generate a "white heat" so searing it would accelerate change. Results were mixed, and white activists formed new movements, from women's liberation to draft resistance.

By 1967, the Black Panther Party was advancing its own unique brand of "revolutionary nationalism", and seeking out white supporters. Partnering with whites brought the group visibility and resources, but it also put the Panthers at odds with other Black radicals, with unfortunate consequences.

Black Power, White Heat explains how solidarity lost credibility, and not just from within the movement. Here, the FBI played a key role, and so did the discourse of "radical chic", advanced most effectively by the journalist Tom Wolfe. Still, even as Black-white solidarity lost steam, it was not entirely played out. In some of the era's most important political trials, even courtrooms became sites of solidarity as predominantly white juries returned verdicts that suggested they trusted Black Panther defendants more than the District Attorneys prosecuting them. Clear-eyed about the difficulties of solidarity, Black Power, White Heat nonetheless emphasizes the achievements and considerable promise of uniting across difference, and in ways that will inform and deepen current debates roiling progressive politics.

Learn more about Black Power, White Heat at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Black Power, White Heat.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top contemporary nonfiction titles for Black History Month

At People magazine senior books editor Lizz Schumer tagged ten inspiring and educational nonfiction books to read this Black History Month. One title on the list:

The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs

History is too often taught as a series of actions undertaken by men. In this biography, the author reveals the importance of three extraordinary mothers in shaping the Civil Rights movement. Without the strength and vision of these three African American mothers, the book asks, would we even have known the leadership of King, the vision of Malcolm or the clarity of James Baldwin's words?

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Jeffrey Siger's "A Study in Secrets"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: A Study in Secrets by Jeffrey Siger.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A retired gentleman with a complicated past. A missing priceless treasure. A young woman in trouble. The first in the brand—new Redacted Man mystery series set in NYC introduces a Sherlock Holmes—worthy sleuth, and is a great choice for fans of Anthony Horowitz, Robert Galbraith, and Ann Cleeves.

Michael A— lives a quiet, comfortable life since his retirement from the intelligence services. Practically a recluse, he spends his days imagining the lives of the anonymous people he watches in the park beneath the window of his elegant New York townhouse—number 221—his every need tended to by his housekeeper, Mrs. Baker.

For weeks, a girl has sat in the park every morning at dawn. Always alone. Always watchful. And when the sun rises, she vanishes, as if she was never there.

But one day her routine changes—and Michael realizes that she faces terrible danger. He makes an uncharacteristic decision to abandon his solitude and help her. Soon, Michael finds himself plunged into the New York underworld, and he’ll have to use all the tricks of his former trade if he’s to keep not just himself, but his new friend, alive.

A Study in Secrets is the first in a new amateur sleuth mystery series from Jeffrey Siger, author of the critically acclaimed Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mysteries set in Greece.

Visit Jeffrey Siger's website.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in Mykonos.

The Page 69 Test: Prey on Patmos.

The Page 69 Test: Target Tinos.

The Page 69 Test: Mykonos After Midnight.

The Page 69 Test: A Deadly Twist.

Q&A with Jeffrey Siger.

The Page 69 Test: At Any Cost.

The Page 69 Test: Not Dead Yet.

The Page 69 Test: A Study in Secrets.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: David A. Crockett's "Winning It Back"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Winning It Back: Restoration Presidents and the Cycle of American Politics by David A. Crockett.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Winning It Back, David A. Crockett explores why presidents who promise to set things aright―to "restore"―so often usher in the opposite.

Since the earliest days of the United States, presidencies have seemingly unfolded in a cyclical manner, with features from prior eras recurring in later ones. Building on the idea of "political time"―that presidential terms fall within particular regime cycles―Crockett shows that presidents often fall into one of two roles: opposition presidents and restoration presidents. Opposition presidents belong to the political party not representing the dominant governing philosophy of a specific political era―for example, Republican presidents during the New Deal era (e.g., Eisenhower, Nixon) and Democratic presidents during the Reagan era (e.g., Clinton, Obama). Restoration presidents, conversely, belong to the dominant party, come to power after opposition presidents and, as such, face the task of "restoring" the dominant party's governing agenda.

But that return is rarely smooth. Restoration presidents―like Kennedy after Eisenhower, or George W. Bush after Clinton―inherit both the hope of a comeback and the burden of pent-up expectations. Crockett argues that these leaders often overreach in their urgency to restore what was, inadvertently setting the stage for backlash and, eventually, the unraveling of their own political order.

With sharp historical analysis and a wide-angle view of presidential politics from Jackson to today, Winning It Back offers timely insights on leadership legacies and the risks of nostalgia―and a clarion call for what (and who) may come next.

Learn more about Winning It Back at the Cornell University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Winning It Back.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six historical fiction titles based on true stories

Katie Moench is a librarian, runner, and lover of baked goods. A school librarian in the Upper Midwest, Moench lives with her husband and dog and spends her free time drinking coffee, trying new recipes, and adding to her TBR list.

At Book Riot she tagged six historical fiction titles based on real people and events, including:

The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami

The Moor’s Account is a novel that imagines the life of Estebanico, an enslaved man who is briefly mentioned in historical accounts of the Narváez expedition as one of four survivors of the ill-fated trip to explore and conquer Spanish Florida. Lalami builds on Estebanico’s story, narrating the expedition through his eyes. Mustafa ibn Muhammad ibn Abdussalam al-Zamori, known to his Spanish master Andrés de Dorantes as Estebanico, is brought from Morocco to Cuba and then to what is now Tampa Bay in a quest for gold. As the party journeys inland, they encounter disease, wildlife, and dwindling supplies. A year after setting out, only the four survivors remain. Lalami’s book is structured as a travelogue and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2015.

Read about another novel on the list.

The Moor’s Account is among Stacey Abrams's recommended reading and Adam Johnson's six powerful books about characters in impossible situations.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Wendy Walker reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Wendy Walker, author of Blade.

Her entry begins:

I love reading outside the thriller genre whenever I can. While I adore suspense and psychological thrillers, reading within my own genre can sometimes feel like work I’m always analyzing structure, pacing, and technique. Reading outside of it, by contrast, is pure pleasure.

Right now, I’m listening to the audiobook of Wreck by Catherine Newman, the follow-up to her runaway bestseller Sandwich. Wreck follows a family as they navigate a series of quiet and not-so-quiet crises, told through the voice of a fifty-something wife and mother confronting middle age, empty nesting, and a recent family loss. The writing is witty and sharp, yet deeply emotional - almost every sentence makes me smile yet lands with meaning. I also...[read on]

About Blade, from the publisher:

From USA Today bestselling author―and former competitive skater―Wendy Walker comes a chilling psychological thriller set in the cutthroat world of elite figure skating.

Ana Robbins was an Olympic star in the making―until tragedy forced her to leave that world behind. At the age of sixteen, she gave up her dream and never looked back. Fourteen years later, she’s a successful defense attorney, revered for her work with minors. But when her former coach turns up dead, Ana lands right back where it all began, and abruptly ended: The Palace, a world-renowned skating facility nestled high in the mountains of Colorado.

Ana returns to The Palace to defend the young skater accused of the brutal crime―Grace Montgomery. Despite her claims of innocence, all evidence points squarely at Grace’s guilt, and she’s days away from facing charges of first-degree murder.

But Ana’s investigation dredges up childhood memories of her own, triggering the fear that permeates this place where she once lived and trained far from home as an “Orphan.” With a blizzard raging outside, and time running out for Grace, Ana is determined to uncover the truth―even if it means exposing her own secrets that she buried here long ago.

Visit Wendy Walker's website.

The Page 69 Test: Four Wives.

The Page 99 Test: Social Lives.

The Page 69 Test: Don't Look for Me.

Q&A with Wendy Walker.

Writers Read: Wendy Walker.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Aaron Coy Moulton's "Caribbean Blood Pacts"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Caribbean Blood Pacts: Guatemala and the Cold War Struggle for Freedom by Aaron Coy Moulton.

About the book, from the publisher:

In Caribbean Blood Pacts, Aaron Coy Moulton argues that the CIA's Operations PBFORTUNE and PBSUCCESS derived from the longstanding efforts of dictators, reactionaries, the United Fruit Company, and British intelligence to silence calls for antifascism and anticolonialism springing from the Guatemalan Revolution. In 1952, a coalition of dictators and reactionaries in the Caribbean Basin convinced the Truman administration to support a conspiracy that became the CIA's Operation PBFORTUNE, the first US government–backed plot against Guatemala's government. As Moulton demonstrates, this operation failed because US officials did not understand the network of forces involved.

In 1953, the Eisenhower administration approved Operation PBSUCCESS. This time, the CIA better understood Caribbean dynamics. The resulting destruction of Guatemalan democracy was the product of the US government applying its resources and the efforts of myriad reactionary forces.

Caribbean Blood Pacts shows how the transnational counterrevolution against the Guatemalan Revolution became a lesson for those who spent the next decades fighting the region's dictatorships in the shadow of the Cold War, from the Cuban Revolution to the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua.

Learn more about Caribbean Blood Pacts at the Cornell University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Caribbean Blood Pacts.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five great thrillers by Black writers

Leodora Darlington is a writer from London with Ghanaian heritage. She received a distinction for her Masters in Creative Writing from Brunel University, where she studied under authors like Benjamin Zepheniah and Will Self.

A Bookseller Rising Star in 2021, Darlington is also an editor and has published a range of bestselling fiction. The Exes is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads Darlington tagged "five thrillers by Black authors that I simply couldn’t put down." One title on the list:

Dorothy Koomson, Give Him to Me

Dorothy Koomson has long been hailed as the “Queen of the Big Reveal,” and in Give Him to Me, she reminds us exactly why she wears the crown. The premise hooked me instantly. Robyn witnessed her father murder her mother when she was twelve. Now in her twenties, with her father hidden away in witness protection, Robyn decides it’s time for a family reunion.

Her method? Killing people connected to his case and leaving a chilling note on the bodies: GIVE HIM TO ME.

What I love about this book is the cat-and-mouse dynamic. It’s not just a revenge thriller; it’s a psychological deep dive, especially with the return of profiler Dr. Kez Lanyon (fans of Every Smile You Fake will be thrilled, though this absolutely works as a standalone). Koomson balances a dark streak of feminist rage with a plot that is clever, complex, and utterly compulsive.

Read about another novel on Darlington's list.

--Marshal Zeringue