Another bumper crop of books (review copies and purchased). Many of these I hadn’t heard about before receiving review copies, but others are books that I’ve been really looking forward to for a while.

Featuring: Jeff Boyd, Sebastien de Castell, Jena Friedman, Alex Finlay, Candice Fox, Jena Friedman, Nick Fuller Googins, Jenny Jackson, Rebecca F. Kuang, Ward Larsen, Josie Long, Ben McKenzie (w. Jacob Silverman), Denise Mina, Bill Peel, Matthew Quirk, Theresa Runstedtler, R. A. Sinn, Alec Worley

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Jeff Boyd, THE WEIGHT (Simon & Schuster)

A powerful coming-of-age novel about a twenty-something Black musician living in predominantly white Portland, Oregon, playing in a rock band on the verge of success while struggling with racism, romance, and the legacy of his strict religious upbringing.

Julian Strickland is seemingly the lone Black man in the hipster dreamland of Portland, Oregon. To his friends, he’s the coolest member of the scene: the soulful drummer from Chicago in an indie rock band that’s just about to break through. But to himself, he’s a sheltered Christian homeschool kid who used to write book reports on Leviticus. A virgin until the night of his marriage, divorced at twenty-four, he’s still in disarray two years later — pretending to fit in, wondering if any of his relationships are real, estranged from his family, and struggling to reconcile his relationship with God.

Then he meets Ida Blair, a Black painter at the start of a promising career. They begin a tentative relationship, and Ida seems to offer Julian relief from his confusion. But suddenly she stops responding to his texts. Things only get worse when Julian’s best friend mysteriously turns on him, his house burns down, and the band considers breaking up on the eve of their most important show yet. It seems the only thing Julian has left — the only thing he’s ever had, really — is the weight he is carrying.

Jeff Boyd’s beguiling first novel is a piercing exploration of faith, racial identity, love, and friendship—woven of acid humor, disarming vulnerability, and unforgettable poignance.

Hadn’t heard of this before the publisher reached out about it, but the premise caught my attention, and I thought I’d give it a try. The Weight is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America and in the UK, on April 11th.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Sebastien de Castell, THE MALEVOLENT SEVEN (Mobius)

“Seven powerful mages want to make the world a better place. We’re going to kill them first.”

Picture a wizard. Go ahead, close your eyes. There he is, see? Skinny old guy with a long straggly beard. No doubt he’s wearing iridescent silk robes that couldn’t protect his frail body from a light breeze. That hat’s a must, too, right? Big, floppy thing, covered in esoteric symbols that would instantly show every other mage where this one gets his magic? Wouldn’t want a simple steel helmet or something that might, you know, protect the part of him most needed for conjuring magical forces from being bashed in with a mace (or pretty much any household object).

Now open your eyes and let me show you what a real war mage looks like…but be warned: you’re probably not going to like it, because we’re violent, angry, dangerously broken people who sell our skills to the highest bidder and be damned to any moral or ethical considerations.

At least, until such irritating concepts as friendship and the end of the world get in the way.

My name is Cade Ombra, and though I currently make my living as a mercenary wonderist, I used to have a far more noble-sounding job title – until I discovered the people I worked for weren’t quite as noble as I’d believed. Now I’m on the run and my only friend, a homicidal thunder mage, has invited me to join him on a suicide mission against the seven deadliest mages on the continent. Time to rescue some very bad people to help us on this job…

This is a novel I’ve been very much looking forward to: it’s a fun premise, from an author whose work I’ve very much enjoyed in the past. I hope to get to this very soon. I have also unfortunately allowed myself to fall behind on de Castell’s other books, despite very much enjoying the first two Greatcoats novels — I’ll have to add this series to the (ever-growing) List of Series That Must Be Finished… The Malevolent Seven is due to be published by Mobius in North America and Jo Fletcher Books in the UK, on May 11th.

Also on CR: Interviews with Sebastien de Castell — 2014 and 2017; Guest Post on “Where Writers Get Their Groove”; Reviews of Traitor’s Blade and Knight’s Shadow

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Alex Finlay, WHAT HAVE WE DONE (Minotaur)

A stay-at-home mom with a past.
A has-been rock star with a habit.
A reality TV producer with a debt.
Three disparate lives.
One deadly secret.

Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down — after the disappearance of several kids — the three were split up.

Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live accomplished — if troubled — lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them.

To survive, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their shared past — a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.

It’s a reunion none of them asked for… or wanted. But it may be the only way to save all their lives.

I’ve only read three of Finlay’s novels (including his debut, which was published under the pen-name Anthony Franze), but each has been a fast-paced and gripping thriller. So, naturally, this went on my TBR list right away. What Have We Done is out now, published by Minotaur Books (North America) and Aries/Head of Zeus (UK).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Candice Fox, FIRE WITH FIRE (Forge Books)

A pair of desperate parents. A man on the run. A rookie cop.
Four people with everything on the line.
What will be left in the ashes of the next 24 hours?

Following their daughter’s mysterious disappearance, Ryan and Elsie Delaney have taken the LAPD forensic lab hostage, and have given law enforcement an ultimatum: Find their daughter, Tilly, or they will destroy all the evidence they can find to other cold cases.

Detective Charlie Hoskins has been undercover in a deadly motorcycle gang for five years. With his cover blown, he has no choice but to find Tilly himself, or lose everything he’s worked for as the lab burns.

Lynette Lamb was a police officer — until yesterday, when she was fired before her first beat. Figuring out what happened to Tilly is her one and only chance at rejoining the career she’s prepared her whole life for.

Hoskins and Lamb will have to team up to solve this cold case, and will have to move fast — before the situation explodes.

I’ve only read a couple of novels by Fox, but I’ve enjoyed them both. This latest book has an intriguing premise, and given how fast-paced the author’s other work has been, I have high hopes that this will be another excellent, gripping thriller. Fire With Fire is due to be published by Forge Books in North America, on May 9th. (At the time of writing, I couldn’t find any UK publication information.)

Also on CR: Review of Gathering Dark

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Jena Friedman, NOT FUNNY (Atria/One Signal)

Academy Award–nominated and acclaimed stand-up comedian Jena Friedman presents a witty and insightful collection of essays on the cultural flashpoints of today.

Growing up, Jena Friedman didn’t care about being likable. And she never wanted to be a comedian, either. A child of the 90s, she wouldn’t discover her knack for the funny business until research for her college thesis led her to take an improv class in Chicago.

That anthropology paper, written on race, class, and gender in the city’s comedy scene, was, in Jena’s own words, “just as funny as it sounds.” But it did lay the groundwork for a career that has seen her write and produce for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the Late Show with David Letterman, and the Oscar nominated Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.

Friedman’s debut collection, Not Funny, takes on the third rails of modern life in Jena’s bold and subversive style, with essays that explore cancel culture, sexism, work, celebrity worship, and…dead baby jokes.

In a moment where women’s rights are being rolled back, fascism is on the rise, and so many of us could use a breather as we struggle to get by, Jena applies her unique gifts to pull a laugh from things deemed too raw, too precious, and too scary to joke about. She shares her stories of taking on those who told her she was too brash, too edgy, and too “unlikable” to make it. She deftly dissects how we get coerced into silence on the issues that matter most, until they’ve gone too far afield to be turned back around again. And she shares her struggles to make it(-ish) in a world that, more often than not, would rather tune out than listen to a woman confronting the indignities we’ve been told to bear

Thought this sounded funny — turns out, Friedman has worked on a fair number of shows that I am familiar with and enjoy, so I assumed I’d probably like her new book, too. Will read very soon. Not Funny is due to be published by Atria/One Signal in North America and in the UK, on April 18th.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Nick Fuller Googins, THE GREAT TRANSITIONS (Atria)

Emi Vargas, whose parents helped save the world, is tired of being told how lucky she is to have been born after the climate crisis. But following the public assassination of a dozen climate criminals, Emi’s mother, Kristina, disappears as a possible suspect, and Emi’s illusions of utopia are shattered. A determined Emi and her father, Larch, journey from their home in Nuuk, Greenland to New York City, now a lightly populated storm-surge outpost built from the ruins of the former metropolis. But they aren’t the only ones looking for Kristina.

Thirty years earlier, Larch first came to New York with a team of volunteers to save the city from rising waters and torrential storms. Kristina was on the frontlines of a different battle, fighting massive wildfires that ravaged the western United States. They became part of a movement that changed the world­—The Great Transition—forging a new society and finding each other in process.

Alternating between Emi’s desperate search for her mother and a meticulously rendered, heart-stopping account of her parents’ experiences during The Great Transition, this novel beautifully shows how our actions today determine our fate tomorrow. A triumphant debut, The Great Transition is a breathtaking rendering of our near future, told through the story of one family trying to protect each other and the place we all call home.

I hadn’t heard of this novel before I was sent it for review, but it’s pitched as “For fans of Station Eleven and The Ministry for the Future”, a group in which I consider myself to belong. Looking forward to giving it a try. The Great Transition is due to be published by Atria Books in North America and in the UK, on August 15th.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Jenny Jackson, PINEAPPLE STREET (Pamela Dorman Books)

Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected old money Stockton family, followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood but giving up far too much in the process; Sasha, a middle-class New England girl, has married into the Brooklyn Heights family, and finds herself cast as the arriviste outsider; and Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can’t have, and must decide what kind of person she wants to be. 

Rife with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York’s one-percenters, Pineapple Street is a smart, escapist novel that sparkles with wit. Full of recognizable, loveable—if fallible—characters, it’s about the peculiar unknowability of someone else’s family, the miles between the haves and have-nots, and the insanity of first love—all wrapped in a story that is a sheer delight.

I can’t remember where I first heard about Jackson’s debut novel (probably on Edelweiss or in a publisher’s catalogue), but it caught my attention and I popped it on my TBR list. Pineapple Street is out now, published by Pamela Dorman Books in North America and Hutchinson Heinemann in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Rebecca F. Kuang, YELLOWFACE (Borough Press)

Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody.

White lies
When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song.

Dark humour
But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Deadly consequences…
What happens next is entirely everyone else’s fault.

Don’t think this book needs much of an introduction — it’s getting so much attention online. An intriguing premise, from a very good writer. Looking forward to giving it a try. (It also reminds me that I really should finish the Poppy War series and read Babel…) Yellowface is due to be published by The Borough Press in the UK (May 25th) and William Morrow in North America (May 16th).

Also on CR: Interview with R. F. Kuang (2018)

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Ward Larsen, DEEP FAKE (Forge)

The Cold War is back — but for some it never ended.

Sarah Ridgeway is living the life she’s always envisioned. She has a devoted husband, a loving daughter, and a comfortable home. The path to reach it, however, has not always been smooth. For twelve years her husband, Bryce, served in the Army, deployed to some of the world’s worst trouble spots. After his service ended with a combat injury, the future had seemed precarious, but with Sarah’s support and that of his wealthy family, combined with his exemplary service record, he is elected to congress.

Then, in a moment, everything changes: at a drab Washington fundraiser, the junior congressman intervenes in a terrorist attack, and narrowly escapes with his life. When videos of his bravery go viral, he quickly becomes a national hero. The timing could not be more fortuitous. The presidential primaries are heating up, and Bryce’s party is desperate for a fresh candidate to challenge the vulnerable incumbent.

Amid the whirlwind, Sarah senses something amiss. Since the attack, Bryce has been forgetful and acting strangely. Could it be the stress? she wonders. Might the recent explosion have aggravated his combat trauma? For the first time ever, she finds herself doubting a man she has always trusted. Confessing her fears to her closest friend, together they quietly search for answers. What they uncover is stunning: the man who might soon be president has a deeply held secret. A secret that will likely destroy Sarah’s life — and certainly lead the nation to ruin.

Larsen’s latest, a standalone, has been described as “Absolute Power meets The Manchurian Candidate“, which I thought was an excellent pitch (I’m a big fan of Absolute Power). It’s been a while, it seems, since last I read a US politics-related thriller so it’ll be nice to get back into that sub-genre (along with Matthew Quirk’s next novel, which I also have for review — see below). Deep Fake is out now, published by Forge Books in North America and in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Josie Long, BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN AND WHAT YOU DON’T (Canongate)

From a comic mastermind comes this brilliant collection of stories

Three teenagers believe they are witches.
A woman defaces a local billboard.
A bored landlord tries to influence his son’s best friend.
A cul-de-sac WhatsApp group discusses eggs at length.
A heavily pregnant woman finds a way to time travel and a girl discovers joy on a stolen bicycle…

Each tale paints a life in miniature and offers an escape chute from the mayhem of modern life.

Didn’t know anything about this book before I spotted it on NetGalley. Also not sure I know who the author is (a comedian), but the brief synopsis caught my attention. Hope to get to it very soon. Because I Don’t Know What You Mean and What You Don’t is due to be published by Canongate in the UK, on May 25th.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Ben McKenzie w. Jacob Silverman, EASY MONEY (Abrams)

From a famous actor and an experienced journalist, a wildly entertaining debunking of cryptocurrency, one of the greatest frauds in history and on course for a spectacular crash

At the height of the pandemic, TV star Ben McKenzie (The O.C., Gotham) was the perfect mark for cryptocurrency: a dad stuck at home with some cash in his pocket, worried about his family, armed with only the vague notion that people were making heaps of money on something he — despite a degree in economics — didn’t entirely understand. Lured in by the promise of taking power from banks, possibly improving democracy, and sure, a touch of FOMO, McKenzie dove deep into blockchain, Bitcoin, and the various other coins and exchanges on which they are traded.

But after scratching the surface, he had to ask, “Am I crazy, or is this all a total scam?” In Easy Money, McKenzie enlists the help of journalist Jacob Silverman for a caper and exposé that points in shock to the climactic final days of cryptocurrency now upon us. Weaving together stories of average traders and victims, colorful crypto “visionaries,” Hollywood’s biggest true believers, anti-crypto whistleblowers, and government agents searching for solutions at the precipice of a major crash, Easy Money is an on-the-ground look at a perfect storm of 2008 Housing Bubble-level irresponsibility and criminal fraud potentially ten times more devastating than Bernie Madoff.

This book has been getting a fair amount of buzz — it’s certainly not something I would have expected. Easy Money is about a subject I’m very interested in: crypto and the endless possibilities it offers for people to con others (NFTs are especially daft, in my humble opinion). I’ll be reading this very soon. Easy Money is due to be published by Abrams Press in North America and in the UK, on July 18th.

Follow the Author (McKenzie): Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Follow the Author (Silverman): Website, Goodreads, Twitter
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Denise Mina, THE SECOND MURDERER (Mulholland)

It’s early fall when a heatwave descends on Los Angeles. Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery is missing. Young, naïve, and set to inherit an enormous fortune, she’s a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend want her found before that happens. To make sure, they’ve got Anne Riordan — now head of her own all-female detective agency — on the case, too.

The search for Chrissie takes the two investigators from the Montgomery mansion to the roughest neighborhoods of LA, through dive bars and boarding houses and out to Skid Row. And that’s all before they find the body at The Brody Hotel. Who will get to Chrissie first? And what happens when a woman doesn’t want to be found?

In The Second Murderer, Denise Mina delivers a clever and timely new take on Philip Marlowe, as well as a propulsive, dark, and witty mystery all its own.

A new novel starring Philip Marlowe. Mina’s a great author, so I have very high hopes for this. It’s interesting that this follows Joe Ide’s The Goodbye Coast, which brought Marlowe into the present day, and is also published by Mulholland in North America (I haven’t dipped into Mina’s novel, yet, so I don’t actually know if this is a contemporary novel or set in the original Marlowe era). The Second Murderer is due to be published by Mulholland Books in North America (August 1st) and Harvill Secker in the UK (July 13th).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Bill Peel, TONIGHT IT’S A WORLD WE BURY (Repeater)

Tonight It’s a World We Bury explores a range of tendencies central to black metal and uncovers their potential as critiques of capitalism.

Tonight It’s a World We Bury is a radical re-writing of the history and politics of black metal music.

Challenging the commonly-held perception that black metal is a genre of the right — full of wannabe Vikings, Nazis, skinheads and other unsavoury characters — Tonight It’s a World We Bury looks at an array of black metal artists to re-affirm the genre as radically anticapitalist, revolutionary and left-wing.

Utilizing an eclectic range of black metal bands, including Darkthrone, Burzum, Liturgy and Deathspell Omega, and taking in the works of Marx, Nietzsche, Deleuze and more, Tonight It’s a World We Bury is a book on black metal like no other.

This sounds really interesting. Black Metal has never really been my jam (I’m much more of a Scandinavian Melodic Death Metal fan), but I have long been fascinated by it as a subject. When I was taking my first steps into the world of metal, I distinctly remember reading about the Norwegian Black Metal church burnings and also the murder of Euronymous by Varg Vikernes — see Lords of Chaos for the full story — and Peel’s book promises to point to another interpretation of some of Black Metal’s messages, and I’m really interested in reading this book. Tonight It’s A World We Bury is due to be published by Repeater Books in North America and in the UK, on April 11th.

Review copy received via NetGalley

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Matthew Quirk, INSIDE THREAT (William Morrow)

An attack on the White House sends the President and his top aides to take shelter in a top secret government facility buried deep underground — but they soon discover the threat is locked inside with them.

Assume the worst. Code Black.

The day that every secret service agent trains for has arrived. The White House has been breached; the President forced to flee to a massive doomsday bunker outside DC to defend against whatever comes next. Only the most trusted agents and officials are allowed in with him—those dedicated to keeping the government intact at all costs.

Among these is Erik Hill, who has given his life to the Secret Service. They are his purpose and his family, and his impressive record has made him a hero among them. Despite his growing disillusionment from seeing Washington corruption up close, Erik can’t ignore years of instincts honed on the job. The government is under attack, and no one is better equipped to face down the threat than he is.

The evidence leads him to a conspiracy at the highest levels of power, with the attack orchestrated by some of the very individuals now locked in with him. As the killers strike inside the bunker, it will take everything Erik Hill has to save his people, himself, and his country.

The latest thriller from an author who has a real gift for writing gripping and propulsive plots. I started reading this very soon after I received the DRC. Inside Threat is due to be published by William Morrow in North America on June 13th. (At the time of writing, I couldn’t find a UK edition, but Head of Zeus have published the author’s previous two books in the UK: Hour of the Assassin and The Night Agent — both of which are recommended.)

Also on CR: Reviews of The 500, The Directive, The Night Agent, and Red Warning

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Twitter
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Theresa Runstedtler, BLACK BALL (Bold Type Books)

A vital narrative history of 1970s pro basketball, and the Black players who shaped the NBA

Against a backdrop of ongoing resistance to racial desegregation and strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation’s imagined descent into disorder. A new generation of Black players entered the league then, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Spencer Haywood, and the press and public were quick to blame this cohort for the supposed decline of pro basketball, citing drugs, violence, and greed. Basketball became a symbol for post-civil rights America: the rules had changed, allowing more Black people onto the playing field, and now they were ruining everything.

Enter Black Ball, a gripping history and corrective in which scholar Theresa Runstedtler expertly rewrites basketball’s “Dark Ages.” Weaving together a deep knowledge of the game with incisive social analysis, Runstedtler argues that this much-maligned period was pivotal to the rise of the modern-day NBA. Black players introduced an improvisational style derived from the playground courts of their neighborhoods. They also challenged the team owners’ autocratic power, garnering higher salaries and increased agency. Their skills, style, and savvy laid the foundation for the global popularity and profitability of the league we know today.

I first learned about Rustedtler’s book via Larry Wilmore’s Black on the Air podcast (March 4th episode), which is one of my favourites. Wilmore and Runstedtler had a really interesting, thoughtful and entertaining conversation about basketball, growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, and how basketball has changed over the years. There were plenty of intriguing tidbits mentioned from the book, so I immediately went out and bought it. Hope to read it very soon. (Alternatively, I may wait until after the current NBA season has ended, and read it during the months of basketball drought…) Black Ball is out now, published by Bold Type Books in North America and in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter

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Maureen Ryan, BURN IT DOWN (Mariner Books)

An exposé of patterns of harassment and bias in Hollywood, the grassroots reforms under way, and the labor and activist revolutions that recent scandals have ignited.

It is never just One Bad Man.

Abuse and exploitation of workers is baked into the very foundations of the entertainment industry. To break the cycle and make change that sticks, it’s important to stop looking at headline-making stories as individual events. Instead, one must look closely at the bigger picture, to see how abusers are created, fed, rewarded, allowed to persist, and, with the right tools, how they can be excised.

In Burn It Down, veteran reporter Maureen Ryan does just that. She draws on decades of experience to connect the dots and illuminate the deeper forces sustaining Hollywood’s corrosive culture. Fresh reporting sheds light on problematic situations at companies like Lucasfilm and shows like Saturday Night Live, The Goldbergs, Lost, Sleepy Hollow, Curb Your Enthusiasm and more. Interviews with actors and famous creatives like Evan Rachel Wood, Harold Perrineau, Damon Lindelof, and Orlando Jones abound. Ryan dismantles, one by one, the myths that the entertainment industry promotes about itself, which have allowed abusers to thrive and the industry to avoid accountability — myths about Hollywood as a meritocracy, what it takes to be creative, the value of human dignity, and more.

Weaving together insights from industry insiders, historical context, and pop-culture analysis, Burn It Down paints a groundbreaking and urgently necessary portrait of what’s gone wrong in the entertainment world — and how we can fix it.

Thought this sounded interesting, so requested a review copy. It’s been quite a while, now, since the Weinstein revelations and the #MeToo movement began, so I’m hoping that this book has managed to dig up a lot more information and provide a broader picture of the darker side of Hollywood/entertainment. Hope to read this very soon. Burn it Down is due to be published by Mariner Books in North America and in the UK, on June 6th.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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R. A. Sinn, A SECOND CHANCE FOR YESTERDAY (Solaris)

Nev Bourne is a hotshot programmer for the latest and greatest tech invention out there: SavePoint, the brain implant that rewinds the seconds of all our most embarrassing moments. She’s been working non-stop on the next rollout, even blowing off her boyfriend, her best friend and her family to make SavePoint 2.0. But when she hits go on the test-run, she wakes up the next day only to discover it’s yesterday. She’s falling backwards in time, one day at a time.

As things spiral out of control, a long-lost friend from college reappears in her life claiming they know how to save her. Airin is charming and mysterious, and somehow knows Nev intimately well. Desperate and intrigued, Nev takes a leap of faith. A friendship born of fear slowly becomes a bond of deepest trust, and possibly love. With time running out, and the whole world of SavePoint users at stake, Nev must learn what it will take to set things right, and what it will cost.

Another book I hadn’t been aware of before the publisher reached out. Sounds like it could be interesting. Looking forward to giving it a try as soon as I can. A Second Chance is due to be published by Solaris Books in North America and in the UK, on August 31st.

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Twitter
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Alec Worley, THE WRAITHBONE PHOENIX (Black Library)

A ratling and an ogryn aren’t the best-matched pair, but in the crime-ridden heart of Varangantua, anything goes – at least, when there’s a big score to be had.

Baggit is the fast-talking ratling with an eye for the big score. Clodde is the ogryn with a heart of gold and a head full of dreams. These abhuman deserters-turned-criminals operating in the city of Varangantua have crossed the wrong man for the last time – and now they’re on the run…

At least, that is, until Baggit learns of a score that could pay their debts and save their skins – the Wraithbone Phoenix, a fabled treasure rumoured to be hidden aboard a voidship recently scheduled for decommission. But Baggit and Clodde aren’t the only ones with eyes on the prize. When word gets out, every thief in the Dredge is going to be gunning for the Phoenix. Does Baggit have the cunning to find the treasure and get out alive, or will someone finally cash in the bounty on his head?

This is the first novel featuring Baggit & Clodde (whose previous outing, Dredge Runners, was released as an audiodrama). Looking forward to giving it a try. The Wraithbone Phoenix is out now, published by Black Library in North America and in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via NetGalley