Quick Review: MY NAME WAS GERRY SASS by Tiffany Hanssen (Atlantic Crime)

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A hitman’s daughter seeks answers and revenge following the death of her father

Gerry Sass is not who he appears to be. On the surface, he is the proud owner of a local country music station outside of Mystic, Iowa. Beneath it, he’s a mob-connected hitman-for-hire who launders money through the station WIOA.

One morning in 1986, his life of crime catches up to him when two men march him out into the woods and shoot him in the back of the head. Plunged into purgatory, he’s doomed to a painful examination of his life. Unbeknownst to the assassins, Gerry’s closest friend, a Catholic priest named Father Dan, witnesses his execution yet does nothing to stop it.

Meanwhile, Gerry’s daughter, Early, jumps into his prized Mustang with a thirst for revenge. On her adrenaline-fueled hunt, she comes to realize that she’s more like Gerry than she ever chose to admit.

In Hanssen’s debut novel, readers will meet three engaging and compelling primary characters: Gerry and Early Sass, and Father Dan. The story opens with Gerry’s death, and unfolds across each of their perspectives, and dips into different timelines as well. The author’s prose quickly pulled me into the story, and I blitzed through it in just a couple of sittings. Continue reading →

Excerpt: IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS by Ada Hoffmann (Tachyon)

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In May, Tachyon Publications will release the latest novel by Ada Hoffmann: Ignore All Previous Instructions. It’s already generating a bit of advance, online buzz, and so the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with our readers! First, check out the synopsis:

A script supervisor for an AI media conglomerate is caught between her intense need for an orderly life and her deeper, darker queer desires. From the creator of the Outside trilogy, a heartfelt interplanetary epic of identity, longing… and space pirates who smuggle inappropriate stories.

Kelli Reynolds loves creating stories more than anything in the world. But on Callisto, a generative AI company called Inspiration owns everything, including all the media, and only Inspiration determines which stories can be told.

Kelli has a rare and coveted job in which her autism is to her advantage: she precisely edits AI output into “appropriate” stories for Inspiration’s massive TV audience. Her proudest creation is the pirate Orlando—a dashing do-gooder based on stories she used to tell friends.

Re-enter Kelli’s ex-boyfriend Rowan, the person Kelli based Orlando on. Back when they were teenagers, their relationship was a secret. Kelli had thought that Rowan, a trans man, was her schoolmate Am, a girl.

Rowan is tangled up in the black market after he needed to get money for gender reassignment surgery. He needs Kelli’s help with something… illegal. So now Kelli has to decide: will she risk the safe, tidy story of her life now for the world she once wished for? What would Orlando do?

Passionate, dangerous, and tender, Ignore All Previous Instructions is a sweeping, poignant novel about forbidden love, growing up, and fighting against censorship.

Continue reading →

Upcoming: WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND FEARLESS by Jonathan Abrams (Harper)

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This November, Harper are due to publish When We Were Young and Fearless, the latest book by Jonathan Abrams, award-winning sports journalist who has covered the NBA for multiple outlets (including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Grantland). Abrams is also the author of The Come Up and All the Pieces Matter.

In his latest book, Abrams will offer readers a deep dive into the lives and careers of three of the NBA’s current superstars: Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. All three of these players would go on to win League MVPs, and KD went on to win two championships with the Golden State Warriors, and their careers have done a lot to change the League along the way — something Abrams aims to show in this book. I’m really looking forward to reading this. (If you wanted to get a bit of a jump on KD’s and Harden’s story, you could also check out Matt Sullivan’s Can’t Knock the Hustle, which covers those two players’ short-lived, not-entirely-successful move to the Nets in 2019.)

Here’s the synopsis:

It’s one of the greatest “what ifs” in sports – what if the Thunder had kept Durant, Westbrook, and Harden, three of the league’s young, exciting stars and future MVPs, together? Their departure from Oklahoma City begins two decades of repercussions for basketball and the formation of the modern NBA.

When We Were Young and Fearless is The Social Network for basketball. As he touches on universal themes of loyalty, money, power, friendship, class and lost innocence, Abrams ponders the central irony of athletic greatness: how much is an individual willing to sacrifice to win in a team sport?

Jonathan Abrams’s When We Were Young and Fearless is due to be published by Harper in North America and in the UK, on November 3rd.

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram

Quick Review: LAKE EFFECT by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (Ecco)

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A story of two families navigating scandal

It’s 1977 and an air of restlessness has settled on the residents of Cambridge Road in Rochester, New York, a place long fueled by the booming fortunes of Kodak and Xerox and, for some, the mores of the Catholic church. When Nina Larkin is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friend, she can no longer dismiss the nearly nonexistent intimacy of her marriage. Just as her oldest child, Clara, is falling in love for the first time, Nina finds herself longing for the forbidden: a midlife awakening. An intoxicating fling with a prominent neighbor brings Nina a freedom she never thought possible—but also risks the reputations of both families and unravels Clara’s world, just as she stands on the threshold of adulthood.

Years later, Clara, now a successful food stylist in New York City, has never been able to move past the long-ago scandal. Drawn back home by the pull of a family wedding and wrestling with her own demons, she makes a pivotal decision that turns her life upside down. Written with Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s signature humor and insight, Lake Effect is a wise and probing look at love and desire, mothers and daughters, loss and grief, and what we owe the people we love most. 

I’ve been a fan of Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s novels since her debut, The Nest, and she has been a Must Read author ever since. In the author’s excellent third novel, we get another engaging and moving portrait of a complicated family. Absolutely met my high expectations. I really enjoyed this. Continue reading →

Excerpt: STAN ON GUARD by K. R. Wilson (Guernica Editions)

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In March, Guernica Editions are due to publish Stan on Guard by K. R. Wilson: a “tragical-comical-historical novel” and follow-up to Call Me Stan. To mark the upcoming release, we have an excerpt to share with our readers. First, of course, here’s the synopsis:

Ishtanu (call him Stan) is a Hittite immortal keeping his head down in Toronto and recounting some of his experiences. Tróán is an immortal Trojan princess who thought she’d killed Stan in post-war Berlin but who now knows he survived. Yes, technically Stan can die. He has just managed not to for 3200 years.

As their stories braid together toward a final reckoning they take us through, among other things, a subversive retelling of the Odysseus story, the resistance of pagan Lithuania against Papal crusaders, the decline of Friedrich Nietzsche in a German clinic, the arts scene in belle epoque Paris, and the descent of Europe into the horrors of the Great War.

Strap in.

Continue reading →

Music Recommendation: SILENT DESCENT

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Back in 2012, when I was still reviewing music on the regular, I received an advance copy of Mind Games, the second album by British metallers Silent Descent. I was immediately taken by their “trance-metal”: brash, heavy, immediate, high-energy, melodic, and bombastic. “Coke Stars” and “Brick” became favourite tracks, and have been on my everyday playlist ever since. Their sound is huge and seemed perfect for huge venues, but I have no idea how popular they actually are.

During a peripatetic few years post-college, I lost track of many things, including what many of my favourite bands were up to. The band’s latest album, Turn to Grey was released in 2017, and I was only made aware of it after YouTube recommended the video for “Vortex” — probably because it features Björn Strid of Soilwork, one of my all-time favourite bands. I hit play immediately, and then promptly bought the album. It’s been on heavy rotation ever since. Turn to Grey sounds immediately like Silent Descent, but also shows a band that has continued to grow and improve their songwriting and musicianship. Just all-round a fantastic level-up. The song “Rob Rodda” is an absolute banger.

So, really, today I’m just recommending that all CR readers who are also fans of metal give Silent Descent a listen. If you’re a fan of bands like Soilwork, In Flames, The Halo Effect, then I’d definitely recommend you check them out. 🤘 Continue reading →

Aldis Hodge Returns in CROSS Season 2 Next Week!

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Next week, Amazon Prime will start “airing” the second seasons of their excellent Cross series. The latest adaptation of James Patterson’s mega-selling Alex Cross series of novels, it’s also probably the best. I’ll always have a soft-spot for the Morgan Freeman-starring movie adaptations of Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider, but this latest version works much better. Continue reading →

Excerpt: RABBIT TEST AND OTHER STORIES by Samantha Mills (Tachyon)

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Today, we have an excerpt from the Rabbit Test and Other Stories, a highly-anticipated debut short story collection by Samantha Mills. Specifically, the (substantial) excerpt is from the story “Anchorage”.

The book is due to be published by Tachyon Publications in April. Here’s the synopsis:

A subversive debut short-fiction collection from one of the hottest talents in speculative fiction: 2025 Compton Crook Award winner and Pushcart Prize nominee Samantha Mills (The Wings Upon Her Back).  These riveting stories range effortlessly from fantasy and science fiction to literary fiction, from the here and now all the way into the farthest reaches of space. The central tale of this collection is Mills’ pivotal Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon award-winning story “Rabbit Test,” which interrogates the past, present, and future of abortion rights.

Introduction by Meg Elison

A time-traveling fisherwoman keeps landing on the right shore, but at the wrong time. A pair of witches fight over the gate between life and death. A new consciousness, intent upon seeing all the wonders of the universe, visits a floating library. A rock-and-roll legend squares off against a town full of devils. Humanity makes first contact, but falters when put in charge of selecting the world’s representatives.

In her strange and emotional worlds, with stakes ranging from the epic to the personal, Mills creates ample room for humor and hope amidst tragedy and struggle.

Continue reading →

Quick Review: MASTERS OF THE GAME by Sam Smith & Phil Jackson (Penguin Press)

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A conversational history of the NBA, by an an acclaimed journalist and an 11-time champion player/coach…

The legendary sportswriter and the Hall of Fame, eleven-time NBA champion coach separate the music from the noise in the stories of the greatest who ever played and their impact on the game

Sam Smith and Phil Jackson grew to know and respect each other in the late 1980s, when Smith was a Chicago Tribune sportswriter and Jackson was an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls. Forty years later, the two remain close friends. In 2021, Smith helped the NBA arrive at a list of the seventy-five greatest players of all time in celebration of its seventy-fifth anniversary. Phil Jackson was asked to participate too, but he’s not a big fan of ranking greatness. They’ve been enjoying the argument ever since.

In Masters of the Game, Smith and Jackson chop it up about the basketball life, the sport, and the genius and the shadow side of the all-time greats: Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, Magic, Bill Russell, Wilt, Jerry West, Bird, LeBron, KD, Steph Curry, Bill Walton, and more. In a conversation full of high-grade analysis and high-grade gossip, we meet the stars of long-ago eras of basketball and see the mark race left on players and the business of the game — and we get a master class on character and the alchemy of a good team. And of course, inevitably, these two old heads get into the GOAT debate.

There are so many huge characters here, and Smith and Jackson can hold their own with any of them. Their spirit — sharp, wise, irreverent, honest, respectful of the lore and legacy of the game but never pious — and the clash of their different perspectives combine to make this book a joyous ride, a short course in greatness open to all students.

Masters of the Game is a different kind of NBA book. It’s a collaboration between Sam Smith, the best-selling chronicler of the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, and Phil Jackson, the coach who helped take Jordan to all six of his championships and Kobe Bryant’s five. When I first learned of the book, it was a very enticing proposition. I’m glad to report that it mostly lived up to my expectations, and offers a fresh perspective on the League and some of its brightest stars. Continue reading →