Upcoming: ANATOMY OF A BETRAYAL by Grace D. Li (Tiny Reparations)

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Four years ago, Tiny Reparations Books published Grace D. Li‘s excellent debut novel, Portrait of a Thief. I was lucky enough to read an early review copy, and very much enjoyed it. It was a gripping heist novel that also examined what it means to be part of a diaspora, cultural history, and also ennui. After enjoying Portrait…, I knew I was going to read the author’s next novel, and that book is fast approaching: next summer, the publisher is due to publish Anatomy of a Betrayal. It is “a campus spy novel… following two rival graduate students who find themselves on opposite sides of an FBI investigation.” In other words, it straddles two of my favourite genres: campus novels and espionage fiction. (The story is apparently inspired by true events, too, so I’ll have to into that at some point.)

Here’s the official synopsis:

In science, nothing stays secret for long.

Fall quarter, Stanford University: This is the year Rosalind Song will get everything she’s ever wanted. She’s nearly three years into her PhD, and soon enough, she’ll publish her research. But it’s a dangerous time to be doing science, especially as a foreigner, and when the FBI begins asking pointed questions about the lab and the professor she works for, she knows her carefully constructed life is at risk — unless she can discover what they’re really after.

As Rosalind begins her own private investigation into the Gao lab and her supervisor’s shadowy past, she keeps running into the same obstacle: Peter Sun. She and Peter have spent years competing against each other, and at first, Rosalind thinks this is just another contest.

Peter, though, knows it isn’t. Because when the FBI arrived, they offered him a deal. And unbeknownst to anyone — his family, his friends, Rosalind — he said yes.

Thinking about it, aside from stories inspired by the Cambridge Five, are there many other campus/espionage novels out there? I’d certainly be interested in reading more.

Grace D. Li’s Anatomy of a Betrayal is due to be published by Tiny Reparations Books in North America (June 1st, 2027) and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK (June 3rd).

Also on CR: Review of Portrait of a Thief

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

Very Quick Review: 138 MAIN by Gavin Bell (Gallery/Scout)

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A killer targeting a specific address across America…

AN ADDRESS TO DIE FOR…

There’s a killer on the loose. And he’s targeting one specific address — 138 Main Street. The problem? There are over 7,000 Main Streets in the USA. And the police and FBI have no clue which one will be next.

For FBI Special Agent Ben Walker and his rookie colleague, Officer Zoe Hill, the pressure to solve the case is unimaginable. There aren’t enough police officers to cover every house, and vigilante residents are attacking anyone who rings their doorbell. Main Street might be one of America’s most popular addresses, but for those living at number 138, it comes down to fight or flight.

Then a manuscript is sent to the New York Times, purporting to be the manifesto of the “Main Street Killer” and demanding radical social change. As the effect of the terror campaign takes hold across the nation, Walker and Hill find themselves in a race against time to stop the killer. But with their target always several steps ahead, and almost 3,800,000 square miles of ground to cover, they’ll have to find him first…

The premise for 138 Main was the first thing that caught my attention: it’s an original take on the serial killer manhunt, which presents law enforcement with a near-impossible task. Later, I learned that “Gavin Bell” is the real name of the author Mason Cross, whose books I have been a big fan of for quite some time — I highly recommend his Carter Blake series. I was lucky enough to get an early review copy (though clearly forgot to write the review in a timely fashion), and I’m happy to report that this is another excellent thriller. Continue reading →

Excerpt: THE LONELINESS OF GLASS by Kathleen Furin (Cornerstone Press)

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Today, we have an excerpt from The Loneliness of Glass, a short story collection by prolific short fiction writer and editor Kathleen Furin. Publish today by Cornerstone Press, the collection explores “themes of racial and socioeconomic divides, intergenerational trauma, and women’s bodily autonomy, and how they connect”. Here’s the official synopsis:

A young woman who has lost her half-sister in a tragic murder makes a decision that will doom a dog; a woman becomes obsessed with a cookie jar at an Airbnb; a woman in an interracial marriage returns to her hometown for the first time since she married and must confront what she was taught about race; a woman with unusual powers embeds pieces of dead creatures in the jewelry she creates.

Featuring women on the borders, Kathleen Furin’s stories show how a deepening understanding of inner truths can challenge one’s social belonging, and how this tension between inner and outer selves serves or destroys.

Grappling with complicity, the characters in The Loneliness of Glass struggle as they learn how an intent to “save” others is often fraught with hypocrisy and can lead to self-destruction.

Continue reading →

New Books (October-November)

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Some more, recently-acquired books; and quite a nice mix, too. It really has been a very busy few weeks. Nine of these aren’t out until 2027 — one not until August — but, while I may read them very soon, I’ll (try) to hold off publishing reviews until closer to their release dates. As usual, I’ll have some initial thoughts/observations on Instagram, when I do start reading them.

Featuring: Joe Biden, Michael Connelly, Thomas Elrod, Louise Erdrich, Toby Harnden, Alma Katsu, Shanley Jane Kearney, Daniel Kehlmann, Stephen Markley, Ben Markovits, Giles Milton, Jude Reid

Continue reading →

Very Quick Review: THE LAST KINGS OF SHANGHAI by John Kaufman (Penguin / Little, Brown)

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The story of two Jewish families and how they helped shape China in the 19th Century

An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era…

Shanghai, 1936. The Cathay Hotel, located on the city’s famous waterfront, is one of the most glamorous in the world. Built by Victor Sassoon—billionaire playboy and scion of the Sassoon dynasty—the hotel hosts a who’s who of global celebrities: Noel Coward has written a draft of Private Lives in his suite and Charlie Chaplin has entertained his wife-to-be. And a few miles away, Mao and the nascent Communist Party have been plotting revolution.

By the 1930s, the Sassoons had been doing business in China for a century, rivaled in wealth and influence by only one other dynasty—the Kadoories. These two Jewish families, both originally from Baghdad, stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than 175 years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and losing nearly everything as the Communists swept into power. In The Last Kings of Shanghai, Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families participated in an economic boom that opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country’s deep inequality and to the political turmoil at their doorsteps. In a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, Kaufman enters the lives and minds of these ambitious men and women to forge a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue, and survival.

The book lays bare the moral compromises of the Kadoories and the Sassoons—and their exceptional foresight, success, and generosity. At the height of World War II, they joined together to rescue and protect eighteen thousand Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism. Though their stay in China started out as a business opportunity, the country became a home they were reluctant to leave, even on the eve of revolution. The lavish buildings they built and the booming businesses they nurtured continue to define Shanghai and Hong Kong to this day. As the United States confronts China’s rise, and China grapples with the pressures of breakneck modernization and global power, the long-hidden odysseys of the Sassoons and the Kadoories hold a key to understanding the present moment.

I read Jonathan Kaufman’s excellent The Last Kings of Shanghai back in February. I’ve been recommending it to pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to since then, so I decided to also put together a very quick review for CR. If you are interested in China, East Asian history, and also international trade, then I would highly recommend this book. Continue reading →

Quick Review: THE OPERATOR by Mike Lawson (Atlantic Crime)

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Joe DeMarco returns, facing off against a ruthless lawyer working for an unscrupulous billionaire

It’s fixer versus fixer, and only one can win

Joe DeMarco is a capable man. He works as a fixer for John Mahoney, the former Speaker of the House (though DeMarco prefers the term “troubleshooter”). He’s the one Mahoney calls upon when there’s a situation that requires creative problem solving.

Carla Andretti — a cutthroat lawyer at one of the world’s top firms — is a fixer too. On behalf of the ultra-wealthy tech-mogul Leo Cage, Carla helps her boss conquer whatever he desires, even if she too must bend the law to make it happen.

When one of Leo’s schemes begins to crumble, it threatens to expose them both on a massive scale, forcing Carla to do what she does best: fix the situation. In order to keep her and Leo’s names clean, she’ll have to go after the people responsible for the unraveling. The only problem? Joe DeMarco’s onto her — and he knows all too well the tricks of the trade.

In Mike Lawson’s 20th novel starring Washington fixer Joe DeMarco, the protagonist finds himself facing off against another fixer, one who is far more ruthless, and working for a tech billionaire. It’s a fast-moving, gripping thriller, and delivered everything I have come to expect from Lawson’s long-running, excellent series. Continue reading →

Excerpt: THE FIST OF MEMORY by Wole Talabi (DAW)

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Tomorrow, DAW Books are due to publish the latest novel by Wole Talabi: The Fist of Memory — a first-contact novel sure to appeal to fans of Arrival, Contact and sci-fi in general. To mark the occasion, CR has a short excerpt from the novel to share with our readers! Here’s the synopsis:

A strange alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky in this electrifying, action-packed first contact novel set in near-future Nigeria from award-winning author Wole Talabi

When a non-communicative alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky, global powers are thrown into turmoil. 

But for Tope, a principled Nigerian assassin with a talent for lethality in the employ of the mysterious witchdoctor known as “Baba,” it’s all just business as usual. At least until a job goes wrong, and Tope is caught in the scramble—a high stakes game of power and politics for the future that is to come. Joined by Itumeleng, a South African astronomer plagued by mysterious dreams, they must find a way to survive, navigate their complicated pasts, and come to understand how they, and all of humanity, are connected to the alien craft before it lands and the world changes forever. But it won’t be easy. There are sinister forces marshalled against them, including a strange assassin obsessed with a single memory.

The Fist Of Memory is a first contact thriller unlike any other; a meditation on the nature of reality, memory and connectedness.

Continue reading →

New Books (September-October)

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Seems to be a pretty busy biblio-time of the year, so not only do I have another one of these posts so soon after the last, but I have yet another almost finished. Looks like the next 12 months or so are going to be great for readers of all genres and stripes. A little bit for everyone, and plenty of opportunities to try something new and unusual.

Featuring: RJ Barker, Laurie Blake, Adrian Daub, Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan, Arlan Ettinger, John Grisham, Michael Lewis, Ben Macintyre, Val McDermid & Jo Sharp, Richard Swan, Evan Calder Williams, Emily Wilson

Continue reading →

Upcoming: VERSIONS OF A MURDER by Paula Daly (Minotaur/Wildfire)

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I’ve been a fan of time-loop stories—in which a character cycles through the same moment, day, or event—ever since I watched Groundhog Day (like, I’m sure, many people my age). Another favourite example, if not my actual favourite, is The First Fifteen lives of Harry August by Claire North—seriously, if you haven’t read it, yet, go give it a try. In May, Minotaur Books are due to publish the new novel by Paula Daly, Versions of a Murder, which looks like a very interesting take on the idea:

Versions of a Murder takes the idea of restarting at the same moment in time over and over, and spins it into a compelling suspense novel about a young woman who tries to catch a serial killer across numerous lifetimes.

What if you had to relive the day of your murder over and over?

Opening on one ordinary morning in 1974, junior doctor Heidi Quick awakens from a quick nap to find herself rushing about her day on a busy hospital ward. When a snowstorm closes in, she accepts a ride home from her senior colleague Dr Fred Preston, only for her night to turn shockingly fatal when Preston murders her in her apartment. Even more shocking is when Heidi wakes and relives that day again.

Heidi becomes locked in a time loop—one that resets not with the sunrise, but with her death. Each time she dies, she wakes again in 1974, memories intact, and haunted by a single unchanging truth: someone she trusts wants her dead. But that someone is a respected colleague, Fred Preston, whose charm and authority mask a darkness rooted in a real-life UK serial killer case.

The repercussions of this reverberate through the following years as Heidi relives versions of her life—sometimes days, sometimes decades—as well as versions of her murder. Soon, Heidi realizes that due to a twist of time and fate, she has a singular chance to both work out why she is being murdered and also determine how she can save future victims and lead a meaningful life. With each iteration, the lines between destiny and choice, victim and perpetrator, past and future blur, as Heidi tries to stop Preston once and for all.

Versions of a Murder is an utterly page-turning, inventive, absorbing and often moving novel, part gripping suspense, part quest for survival and justice, that considers the choices we make in life while also drawing out a cat and mouse story, as we root for Heidi from the start—and again and again and again.

Really looking forward to reading this.

Paula Daly’s Versions of a Murder is due to be published by Minotaur Books in North America (May 4th, 2027) and Wildfire in the UK (May 6th).

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram

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…