An insanely busy first quarter (well, first third really), this year. This means I’ve fallen behind (again) on my New Books posts, so I’ll be posting another next week in an attempt to get caught up. A great selection came in. Any on your radar? Read any already?

Featuring: Charles Beaumont, Nicholas Binge, Amran Gowani, Gareth Hanrahan, Christina Kovac, Mark A. Latham, Winnie M. Li, Jessa Maxwell, Leigh Radford, John Sandford, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ben Weissenbach

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Charles Beaumont, A SPY AT WAR (Canelo)

Russia is struggling to defeat Ukraine on the battlefield. But can it win the war for influence?

August 2022. Simon Sharman is out for revenge, pursuing the assassin of his former colleague across war-torn Ukraine. Back in London, a Russian spy ring at the heart of the British Establishment remains active, attempting to sabotage the West’s support for Ukraine.

In the fiercely contested Donbas region, Simon finds himself sucked into a terrifying shadow conflict between Russia and the West. Can a lone spy make a difference to the course of a conflict?

From the ruins of Bakhmut to the corridors of Whitehall, A Spy at Warreveals the secret struggle for Ukraine, on the frontlines and in the arena of global public opinion.

I still haven’t had a chance to read Beaumont’s debut, A Spy Alone, which was very highly praised when it came out. I hope to get caught up as soon as I can. It seems that we are living in an ongoing rich spy fiction moment, and I am very much looking forward to reading as many of these new series and standalone as I can. A Spy at War is out now, published by Canelo Action in North America and in the UK

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

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Nicholas Binge, EXTREMITY (TorDotCom)

A time-traveling, end-of-the-world police procedural…

When once-renowned police detective Julia Torgrimsen is brought out of forced retirement to investigate the murder of Bruno Donaldson, a billionaire she worked with whilst undercover, she doesn’t expect to find two bodies. Both are Bruno — identical down to the fingerprints — and both have been shot.

As the investigation sucks her back into the macabre world of London’s rich elite, she finds herself on the hunt for a mysterious assassin who has been taking out the wealthy one by one. But when she finally catches up with her quarry, she unveils an entire world of secrets: impossible documents about future stock market crashes, photographs of dead clones, and a clandestine time-travelling conspiracy so insidious it might just mean the extinction of the entire human race.

If Julia is to have any chance of preventing this terrible future, she’ll have to revisit her own past, the terrible choices she made undercover, and the brutal act that destroyed her once legendary career.

This has a great premise. I still haven’t yet had a chance to read the novel that put Binge on the SFF map — Ascension (even though I’ve had it for some time). Looking forward to this. Extremity is due to be published by TorDotCom in North America and in the UK, on September 16th.

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

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Amran Gowani, LEVERAGE (Atria)

A hotshot hedge fund employee must risk everything to save his job — and his life — in this timely and darkly funny thriller about race, power, and the corrupting influence of the almighty dollar.

Ali “Al” Jafar is a rising star at notorious hedge fund Prism Capital, but fortunes change fast on Wall Street. When his biggest investment goes up in smoke, Al loses $300 million — and his fragile sense of self-worth — in a single afternoon. He’s certain he’ll be fired, but Prism’s obscenely rich and politically connected founder isn’t that merciful. Instead, he gives Al an impossible ultimatum: recover the lost money in three months or become the fall guy for the government’s insider-trading investigation into the firm.

Depressed and desperate, Al turns to high finance’s dark side, where he battles back-stabbing coworkers and cutthroat competitors and digs himself into an even deeper hole. As the clock winds down, and the pressure mounts, Al’s mental health deteriorates. To survive, he’ll have to outfox one of the world’s most powerful men and decide if he values the dearest asset of all: himself.

Thought this sounded interesting: it’s pitched as “For readers of Percival Everett and viewers of Industry“, and I’ve always rather enjoyed novels/mysteries set in and around the finance world and its denizens behaving badly. Leverage is due to be published by Atria Books in North America and in the UK, on August 19th.

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

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Gareth Hanrahan, THE SWORD TRIUMPHANT (Orbit)

“Tell the Lammergeier that Blaise has need of him for one last service. Tell him to bring his sword.”

In his youth, Aelfric slew the Dark Lord and saved the world, only to find out, many years later that his heroic deeds had served only to preserve the corrupt rule of the Erlking. As keeper of the dread sword Spellbreaker, Aelfric was drawn into a desperate rebellion against the immortal elf who had been secretly manipulating humanity since the dawn of time.

When it was done, he left the sword and the title of hero behind and went home. His tale should have been over.

Decades have passed. But when a figure from his past brings a cryptic message from one of the Nine, it seems the Lammergier is needed again. Does the old hero have one last quest left in him? Can his broken sword be reforged – and at what cost?

I enjoyed The Sword Defiant, the first book in Hanrahan’s Lands of the Firstborn series. He is great at world-building, and the novel played around a bit with structure in a way I appreciated. Planning to get caught up on the series over the summer, as I do really want to know how the story turns out. The Sword Triumphant is due to be published by Orbit Books in North America and in the UK, on May 27th.

Also on CR: Interview with Gareth Hanrahan (2019); Excerpt from The Sword Defiant; Reviews of The Sword Defiant and The Gutter Prayer

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

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Christina Kovac, WATCH US FALL (Simon & Schuster)

Lucy and her three best friends share a glamorous but decaying house in the heart of Georgetown. They call themselves “the Sweeties” and live an idyllic post-grad lifestyle complete with exciting jobs, dramatic love lives, and, most importantly, each other.

But when Addie, the group’s queen bee, discovers that her ex-boyfriend Josh has gone missing, the Sweeties’ worlds are turned upside down. In the days leading up to his disappearance, Josh, a star investigative journalist from a prominent political family, was behaving erratically — and Lucy is determined to find out why. All four friends upend their lives to search for him, but detectives begin to suspect that the Sweeties might know more than they’re letting on.

As the investigation unfolds, Lucy’s obsession with the case reaches a boiling point, and with it, her own troubling secrets begin bubbling to the surface of her carefully curated life. A thrilling account of the lies and delusions that lurk beneath cloistered groups of female friends and the sinister realities of celebrity, Watch Us Fall is a gripping mystery and an examination of the things we tell ourselves when we can’t face the truth.

I read an ARC of Kovac’s debut novel, The Cutaway, and quite enjoyed it. It’s been a while since it came out, though, so it had slipped my memory until I looked up this upcoming novel. The premise caught my attention (before I remembered that I’d read the author’s first book). I’m actually starting it tonight, so I’ll post a review soon-ish. Watch Us Fall is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America and in the UK, on December 2nd.

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

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Mark A. Latham, THE LAST VIGILANT (Orbit)

In a world where magic is forgotten, monsters lurk in the dark woods, and honorable soldiers are few, this utterly gripping epic fantasy tells the story of an out-of-practice wizard and a hot-headed sargent who are thrust into the heart of a mystery that threatens to unravel their kingdom’s fragile peace.

Shunned by the soldiers he commands, haunted by past tragedies, Sargent Holt Hawley is a broken man. But the child of a powerful ally has gone missing, and war between once peaceful nations is on the horizon. So, he and his squad have been sent to find a myth: a Vigilant. They are a rumored last survivor of an ancient and powerful order capable of performing acts of magic and finding the lost. But the Vigilants disappeared decades ago. No one truly expects Hawley to succeed.

When he is forced to abandon his men, he stumbles upon a woman who claims to be the Last Vigilant. Enelda Drake is wizened and out of practice, and she seems a far cry from the heroes of legend. But they will need her powers, and each other, to survive. For nothing in the town of Scarfell is as it seems. Corrupt soldiers and calculating politicians thwart their efforts at every turn.

And there are dark whispers on the wind threatening the arrival of an ancient and powerful enemy. The Last Vigilant is not the only myth returning from the dead.

This is the first novel in a new epic fantasy series, the Kingdom of Oak and Steel. Not sure what to expect, but some early readers have been quite impressed. Hopefully I will be, too. The Last Vigilant is due to be published by Orbit Books in North America and in the UK, on June 24th.

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

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Winnie M. Li, WHAT WE LEFT UNSAID (Atria/Emily Bestler)

On an unexpected road trip, three estranged siblings uncover a startling family secret and larger truths about being Asian American in a post-COVID world…

The Chu siblings haven’t seen each other in years but when they’re told that their ailing mother is scheduled for an operation next month, they agree to visit her together. Then their mother makes an odd request: before seeing her, they must go on a road trip together to the Grand Canyon.

Thirty years ago, a strange incident had aborted a previous family road trip there. No one’s ever really spoken about it, but during this journey, the middle-aged Chu siblings have no choice but to confront their childhood experience.

Together, Bonnie, Kevin, and Alex travel along Route 66 — but as the trip continues, they realize the Great American Road Trip may not be what they expected. Facing their own prejudices and those of others, they somehow learn to bridge the distances between them, the present-day, and their past.

The second novel from the author of Complicit, and one I’m very much looking forward to read. What We Left Unsaid is due to be published by Atria/Emily Bestler in North America (August 19th) and Orion Books in the UK (August 7th)

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

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Jessa Maxwell, DEAD OF SUMMER (Atria Books)

Years after her best friend mysteriously disappeared from a remote New England island, a young woman returns in search of answers…

Orla O’Connor hasn’t been to the isolated New England enclave of Hadley Island since she graduated from high school a decade ago. As a teenager, her best friend Alice disappeared from its shores without a trace — but with plenty of rumors.

Now, Orla returns to her family’s beachfront home to clean it out before her parents sell it. The island and her best friend’s house next door, abandoned after her family left in grief, are stirring up memories she would like to avoid. Then there are the locals, always gossiping and watching Orla’s every move. Worst of all, David, Orla’s childhood crush and son of a wealthy Manhattan family, is back for the summer with his new, impossibly pretty girlfriend, Faith.

Faith suspects that David is going to propose but as soon as she settles into his family’s sprawling Hadley Island estate, she feels out of place. She anticipated a luxurious summer of fun and romance, but David is never around — lured into business conversations with his entrepreneur father from dawn to dusk. With nothing else to do, Faith begins to investigate the island’s dark past, curious about what really happened to Alice all those years ago.

Meanwhile, local Henry hasn’t left his house since the young girl went missing, in an attempt to let the accusations against him die down. Except they never have. For years, Henry has had an endless supply of time to pursue his only hobby, watching the island from his telescope and recording the activities of its inhabitants. But Orla’s return has shaken him and lately he’s been seeing strange things: shadowy figures walking on the beach in the middle of the night and a light on in the upstairs window of the long-abandoned house of the missing girl.

When there’s another disappearance on the island, all three find themselves pulled into an eerie and twisty mystery that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

This is Maxwell’s third novel. I’m not sure if I’d heard of the author’s novels before the publisher offered this for review, but I thought the premise was interesting and decided to give it a chance. Hoping to read this during the summer. Dead of Summer is due to be published by Atria Books in North America, on July 22nd.

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

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Leigh Radford, ONE YELLOW EYE (Gallery)

In this heart-wrenching and unique spin on the zombie mythos, a brilliant scientist desperately searches for a cure after a devastating epidemic while also hiding a monumental secret — her undead husband.

How far would you go to save your marriage? For British scientist Kesta Shelley, there is no limit.

Having always preferred the company of microbes, Kesta has spent her life looking down the barrel of a microscope rather than cultivating personal relationships. But that changed when Kesta met Tim — her cheerleader, her best friend, her absolute everything. So, when he was one of the last people in London to be infected with a perplexing virus that left the city ravaged, Kesta went into triage mode.

Though the government has rounded up and disposed of all the infected, Kesta is able to keep her husband (un)alive — and hidden — with resources from the hospital where she works. She spends her days reviewing biopsy slides and her evenings caring for him, but he’s clearly declining. The sedatives aren’t working like they used to, and his violent outbursts are becoming more frequent. As Kesta races against the clock, her colleagues start noticing changes in her behavior and appearance. She is withering away, self-medicating with alcohol, and has stopped attending her mandated ZARG (Zombie Apocalypse Recovery Group) meetings. Her care for Tim has spiraled into absolute obsession.

There are whispers of a top-secret lab working on a cure, and Kesta clings to the possibility of being recruited like a lifeline. But can she save her husband before he is discovered? Or worse… will they trigger another outbreak?

I can’t remember where or when I first heard about this novel, but I’ve seen a few people mention it, and also a couple of early positive responses. The premise is intriguing, and I think it will suit when I’m feeling like reading something a bit different. One Yellow Eye is due to be published by Gallery Books in North America and Tor Nightfire in the UK, on July 15th.

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

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John Sandford, LETHAL PREY (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers join forces to track down a ruthless killer who will do whatever it takes to keep the past buried…

Doris Grandfelt, an employee at an accounting firm, was brutally stabbed to death… but nobody knew exactly where the crime took place. Her body was found the next night, dumped among a dense thicket of trees along the edge of an urban park, eight miles east of St. Paul, Minnesota. Despite her twin sister Lara Grandfelt’s persistent calls to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the killer was never found.

Twenty years later, Lara has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Confronted with the possibility of her own death, she’s determined to find Doris’s killer once and for all. Finally taking matters into her own hands, she dumps the entire investigative file on every true crime site in the world and offers a $5 million reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest. Dozens of true crime bloggers show up looking for both new evidence and “clicks,” and Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in to review anything that might be a new lead.

When one of the bloggers locates the murder weapon, Lucas and Virgil begin to uncover vital details about the killer’s identity. But what they don’t know is the killer lurks in plain sight, and with the true crime bloggers blasting every clue online, the killer can keep one step ahead. As the nation maneuvers the detectives closer to the truth, Lucas and Virgil will find that digging up Doris’s harrowing past might just get them buried instead

Readers of CR will no doubt know by now that John Sandford is one of my favourite authors, and every new novel by him is an instant must-read. Lethal Prey continues his main series, bringing Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers back together (which seems to be the norm, now), for another interesting and engaging mystery. Characters and writing remain very strong, and I read this in just a couple of sittings. Fans of the author will find everything they’ve come to expect and love from his work. If you haven’t read any Sandford, yet, I’d recommend his books to any fan of crime/mystery fiction. Lethal Prey is out now, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in North America. (No information about UK publisher at the time of writing.)

Also on CR: Reviews of Phantom Prey, Wicked Prey, Storm Prey, Buried Prey, Stolen Prey, Silken Prey, Field of Prey, Golden Prey, Neon Prey, Masked Prey, Righteous Prey Judgement Prey, Toxic Prey, Lethal Prey, Dark of the Moon, The Investigator, and Dark Angel

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

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Adrian Tchaikovsky, SHROUD (Orbit)

On a planet shrouded in darkness, a stranded crew must fight for survival. But, the darkness may have plans of its own…

They looked into the darkness and the darkness looked back…

New planets are fair game to asset strippers and interplanetary opportunists – and a commercial mission to a distant star system discovers a moon that is pitch black, but alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is anathema to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.

Under no circumstances should a human end up on Shroud’s inhospitable surface. Except a catastrophic accident sees Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne doing just that. Forced to stage an emergency landing, in a small, barely adequate vehicle, they are unable to contact their ship and are running out of time. What follows is a gruelling journey across land, sea and air. During this time, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud’s dominant species. It also begins to understand them.

Tchaikovsky is, in my humble opinion, one of the best SFF authors today. Not only are his novels excellent, varied, and often surprising, but he writes a ton of books every year. It’s nigh impossible to keep up! I’ve fallen quite far behind, but his two latest novels — Shroud and Alien Clay — sound particularly interesting, and I hope to get to them as soon as I can. If you haven’t read any Tchaikovsky, yet, I’d really recommend you give his stuff a try — there’s something for everyone. Shroud is out now, published by Orbit Books (North America) and Tor Books (UK).

Also on CR: Interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky (2012); Guest Posts on “Nine Books, Six Years, One Stenwold Maker”, “The Art of Gunsmithing — Writing Guns of the Dawn”, “Looking for God in Melnibone Places: Fantasy and Religion”, and “Eye of the Spider”; Excerpt from Guns of the Dawn; Reviews of Empire of Black & Gold, Guns of the Dawn, Children of Ruin, Spiderlight, Ironclads, Made Things, and One Day All This Will Be Yours, Shards of Earth, and Ogres

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

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Ben Weissenbach, NORTH TO THE FUTURE (Grand Central)

Ben Weissenbach — an digital native with little prior wilderness experience — embarks on a series of scientific adventures across the wilds of Alaska with some of the state’s most distinguished and audacious researchers.

At the age of twenty, college student Ben Weissenbach went north to Arctic Alaska armed with little more than inspiration from his literary heroes and a growing interest in climate change. What met him there was a world utterly unlike the 21st century Los Angeles in which he grew up — a land of ice, rock, and grizzlies seen by few outside a small contingent of scientists with big personalities.

There’s Roman Dial, the larger-than-life ecologist with whom Ben walks and rafts a thousand miles across Alaska’s Brooks Range. There’s Kenji Yoshikawa, the reindeer-herding permafrost expert who leaves Ben alone for eleven days to care for his off-grid homestead, where temperatures drop to -49 degrees Fahrenheit. And there’s Matt Nolan, the independent glaciologist who flies him to the largest glaciers in the American Arctic.

As these scientists teach Ben to read Alaska’s warming landscape, he confronts the limits of digital life and the complexity of the world beyond his screens. He emerges from each adventure with a new perspective on our modern relationship to technology and a growing wonder for our fast-changing — ever-changing — natural world.

This is an account of the author’s “offline adventure through the changing wilds of Alaska”. I spotted it on NetGalley around the time I was deep into a writing project, feeling chained to my desk and desperate to get out of there. So, it caught my attention. Hope to read it over the summer. North to the Future is due to be published by Grand Central Publishing in North America and in the UK, on July 15th.

Follow the Author: Goodreads
Review copy received via NetGalley

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