Upcoming: ORPHEUS by M. R. Carey (Orbit)

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Like many people, I discovered M. R. Carey‘s books with the excellent, best-selling The Girl With All the Gifts. I remember devouring that novel in two sittings, each time well into the night. He’s become an author who I’ll always look out for. Recently, he’s been writing a lot more science fiction, and while I have fallen quite far behind (curse the linear nature of time and limited number of books one can read while also having to work!),* each of his SF novels has looked fantastic — Outlaw Planet, in particular. Next year, Orbit are due to publish his latest, Orpheus, which sounds particularly interesting:

On a planet where one half is forever in sunlight and the other in endless night, a young colonist must venture into the deadly Nightside to uncover the truth about the disappearance of his mother…

HUMANITY CAN’T SURVIVE THE NIGHTSIDE

On the distant colony world of Tessix, the sun never moves in the sky. One side of the planet burns under endless noon, whilst the other is a frozen wasteland in perpetual darkness. Human life is only possible in a narrow strip of land where the terraforming project almost worked.

Growing up on the borderland between light and dark, under the fading sun globes of Tanner’s Hook, fifteen-year-old Bead Plessey clings to his friends and his fantasies. Bead dreams of one day escaping the grim realities of life on Tessix – the declining population, the ruthless autocracy of the Noonday government, and the monstrous Daspa that come out of the nightside to feed on human blood.

When a stranger turns up at Bead’s home asking for lodgings, he brings the possibility of change. But who is Jud Valery, and where has he come from? Is his interest in Bead benign or sinister? And how is he connected to the disappearance of Bead’s mother, Omrid, eight years before? Looking for answers, Bead assembles an ill-assorted band of allies – but their investigation takes them far beyond Tanner’s Hook, into the nightside and into the long-buried secrets that shaped their world.

M. R. Carey’s Orpheus is due to be published by Orbit Books in North America and in the UK, on February 16th, 2027.

Also on CR: Guest Post “On Writing Strong Women”; Review of The Girl With All the Gifts

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads

* This is basically a given, now. So maybe I should stop writing it into my posts…

Excerpt: RIVER OF DREAMS by Robin Blackburn McBride (Guernica Editions)

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Today, we have an excerpt from River of Dreams, the latest novel by Robin Blackburn McBride. The novel, which blends elements of metaphysical fiction, feminism, historical settings, and elements of the supernatural, is out now, published by Guernica Editions. The excerpt (chapter 3), follows after the synopsis.

A near-tragic accident. A life-changing phenomenon. A calling she couldn’t foresee.

Toronto, 1914. Avery Conlon’s world turns upside down in an instant. Overhearing a comment that casts doubt on her blood ties with the mother raising her, the despairing twelve-year-old runs away―but ends up falling through a river of ice. Dragged out and on the edge of death, she awakens with secret, heightened powers of perception… and a vision of a strange woman.

Learning to navigate her new abilities to sense what others cannot, and dreaming repeatedly of a mysterious silvery boy, Avery vows to track down the truth of her past. As a young adult in the 1920s, she becomes a nurse at a hospital for the insane where her gift for healing leads to possible answers about her mother, Avery’s second sight, and whether her uncertain future can include real love.

Will Avery step into her greatest destiny?

In this enthralling narrative of one woman’s journey, author Robin Blackburn McBride explores the power of intuition and giving voice to the silenced. And as the character grows from a vulnerable young girl to a strong person seeking to take charge of her fate, readers will delight in this suspenseful tale of self-discovery and romance.

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Excerpt: MOTHER MAY I by Harry Hunsicker (Oceanview)

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Next month, Oceanview Publishing will publish Mother May I by Harry Hunsicker. The novel is a thriller that follows former CIA operative Meg Dalton, who uncovers evidence that the daughter she lost 15 years ago may still be alive.

To mark the upcoming release, we have a short excerpt to share with our readers. Here’s what it’s about:

She lost everything. Except the will to fight.

When former CIA operative Meg Dalton finds a shocking clue that suggests her long-missing daughter might still be alive, she’s forced into a desperate, high-stakes search for the truth. Fifteen years after little Ivy vanished without a trace at a Texas fair, Meg has built a career as a covert “operator”―a soldier-for-hire who takes on dangerous black ops missions for the government.

But during a botched assignment in Los Angeles, Meg encounters a woman wearing her daughter’s distinctive butterfly necklace, and everything she believes unravels. As Meg defies her handlers and goes rogue to chase the lead, she’s thrust into a deadly conspiracy linking global espionage, human trafficking, and her own past sins.

Hunted by both her employers and foreign agents, Meg must decide how far she’s willing to go―and what lines she’ll cross―to uncover the truth and reclaim her child.

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Excerpt: GROTESQUE by Elliott Dunstan (Wolsak & Wynn)

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Next week, Wolsak & Wynn will publish Grotesque, the latest book by Elliott Dunstan , the Ottawa-based “poet, historian, author, cook, proud anarchist, drag performer, and otherwise man of many hats.” To mark the occasion, we have an excerpt to share with our readers. The novel is a “darkly erotic fairy tale of death and redemption. Here’s the full synopsis:

Bedhyndann is a small seaside town in Cornwall. A town that travellers feel uncomfortable in. A town where sailors often choose to stay on their ships rather than coming into port. A town where the golem Denvyth has lived for nearly two hundred years and where he has been waiting for his master, the sorcerer Arderne, to return for one hundred and fifty of those. To pass the time he amuses himself at the siren Victoire’s private club, helping the humans around him fulfill their most dangerous desires. Until he crosses paths with Summers, a client who wants more from Denvyth than he should and who has the clues to unlock the secret of Arderne’s disappearance.

But Arderne sought to release an old god and once Denvyth follows his master’s last instructions and finishes the sorcerer’s spell, what he unleashes could make him the monster he’s always feared being and destroy the world.

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Excerpt: FIND ME WHERE IT ENDS by Cassandra Khaw (Tor Nightfire)

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Next week, Tor Nightfire will publish the latest horror novella from the always-excellent Cassandra Khaw: Find Me Where it Ends! Every new book by Khaw is something to celebrate, so we’re very happy to be able to share an advance excerpt with our readers. Before we get to the excerpt, here’s the synopsis:

A woman wakes up to find the black hound of Death at her front door in this hauntingly beautiful tale…

Antigone is no stranger to death.

For the women of her family, death always comes in the form of a black dog.

When Antigone’s own black dog arrives, she isn’t afraid. She invites it inside, where it soon becomes a daily source of companionship and comfort. It also forces her to reflect on the life she’s led — the parts of herself she’s hollowed out for the sake of others, and the bone-deep exhaustion that’s hounded her every step.

Her Death’s arrival must be a sign, permission to finally let go. To rest. Because while mortality is inevitable, living is a choice.

But a good death comes at a price.

And now, on with the excerpt…!

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Upcoming: RULES OF PREY TV Adaptation

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Deadline recently announced that Amazon MGM Studios have greenly an adaption of the first novel in John Sandford‘s Lucas Davenport/Prey series: Rules of Prey. The show will star Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, The Boys, etc.) in the lead role. The eight-episode first season will stream on MGM+. (Not sure if that’s available in Canada, but hopefully it’ll be available on Prime at least…)

Here’s how Nellie Andreeva describes the show’s premise, in the Deadline piece:

“Created by Bruce Terris (DTF St. Louis), who serves as showrunner and executive producer, Rules of Prey follows Lucas Davenport (Ackles), formerly a detective in the Minneapolis Police Department, drawn out of seclusion back into law enforcement to investigate a series of confounding murders designed to send a message specifically to him. When an ingenious serial killer begins murdering Minneapolis citizens, Davenport, a brilliant polymath and unconventional investigator, takes the case, sparking an intense psychological duel with an equally intelligent adversary. As Davenport deciphers the killer’s twisted moral code and personal vendetta, he must match wits with a predator operating by his own rules of justice, risking everything to stop a killer who sees their conflict as the ultimate game.”

The novel, first published in 1989, is available in North America via G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Based on that description above, there is a slight deviation from the novel, in which Davenport was very much “still” a lieutenant in the Minneapolis PD. Here’s the novel’s official synopsis:

The killer was mad but brilliant.

He left notes with every woman he killed. Rules of murder: Never have a motive. Never follow a discernible pattern. Never carry a weapon after it has been used… So many rules to his sick, violent games of death.

But Lucas Davenport, the cop who’s out to get him, isn’t playing by the rules.

With any luck, the adaptation will follow a similar approach to Prime’s Bosch, Cross, and Reacher shows; each of which has taken a highly-popular, well-established crime series, brought earlier stories up-to-date, and breathed fresh life into them, while retaining what made the books stand out and so popular. Continue reading →

Excerpt: LONDON GOTHIC by Edward Seaward (DarkWinter)

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A few days ago, DarkWinter Press published London Gothic by Ed Seaward. It is a haunting, ‘Southern Ontario gothic’ tale set in 1970s/80s London, Ontario. To celebrate the release, we have a short excerpt to share with our readers. Here’s the synopsis:

In 1975, John Caine and his nineteen-year-old son Ricky bury a woman near a clump of trees in an open field on the rural outskirts of London, Ontario. In 1984, seventeen-year-old Bethany Caine is haunted by the disappearance of her mother nine years previous. Her father and brother insist Thelma Caine abandoned them one night, evidenced by her brief goodbye note. Having already escaped the house dominated by her brutish father to live with her lover, university student Angela, Bethany presses much older brother Ricky to reveal what actually happened to their mother.

Structured along alternating timelines, with chapters exploring the Caine family in the 1970s interspersed with chapters set around the Victoria Day long weekend in 1984, London Gothic unfolds a story of violence and incest as those who truly love and support Bethany attempt to uncover the mystery of Thelma Caine’s disappearance.

And now, here’s the excerpt…

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Excerpt: THE AUNT by Courtney Psak (Hodder & Stoughton)

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The Aunt, the latest novel from Courtney Psak, is out today in the UK. A twisty tale of sibling rivalry, it is published by Hodder & Stoughton. To mark the release, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with our readers. First, here’s the synopsis:

Standing outside of my sister’s mansion, with its prime ocean views and floor to ceiling windows, I look at my baby niece and realize just how little I knew about Lexi’s new life. And how easy it was for her to keep secrets from me…

The day that Amy gets the call, her whole world falls apart. Her younger sister Lexi has been killed in a tragic boating accident, along with her husband. Despite being estranged for the last ten years, Amy never stopped loving Lexi, and the news crushes her.

But Amy is shocked when she discovers she is set to inherit Lexi’s beautiful mansion on Palm Beach, all her fortune… and her newborn daughter.

Amy is stunned — how did she not know her own sister had a baby? And when the police reveal that they are treating the accident as suspicious, Amy starts to question everything.

Did she ever really know her sister? What secrets has Lexi been hiding? Can Amy protect her baby niece, or will the truth cost her everything?

And now, on with the excerpt…!

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Excerpt: THE COMEDIAN’S BOOK OF THE DEAD by Gary Barwin (Book*hug Press)

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Tomorrow, Book*hug Press are due to publish The Comedian’s Book of the Dead by Gary Barwin. An imaginative “underworld quest”, it’s the latest amusing page-turner from the acclaimed Canadian storyteller. To mark the occasion, the publisher has provided an excerpt to share with our readers. First, here’s the synopsis:

Death is a comedian and devoted family man, but everything falls apart when the Fates choose him to guide departed souls to the Beneath. Having to perform this new role erodes his humanity and causes him to do some perhaps unforgivable things, and when his only son dies by suicide, Death realizes he’s likely the one to blame.

Attempting the impossible, Death goes into the Beneath to beg the Fates to allow him to bring back his son. Naturally, things are not what they seem, and Death is forced to reevaluate everything he knows― everything except the deep love he has for his child. Blending Barwin’s celebrated wit with deeply moving scenes of empathy and compassion, The Comedian’s Book of the Dead is a heartbreaking and humorous journey into the joy and pain of parenthood, and a thoughtful exploration of choice and agency, sacrifice and love.

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