Featuring: Maurice Africh, Mike Brooks, Michael Crichton, Michael Dobbs, James Holland, Noami Kritzer, Mike Lawson, Karen Mack & Jennifer Kaufman, Hettie O’Brien, Robert L. O’Connell, Anna Pitoniak, Kevin Wade
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Maurice Africh, CELLO’S GATE (Saga Press)
One crew of sky pirates. Seven mythological stones. A race to find them all.
Captain Grey and his crew of sky pirates have a reputation for doing the impossible. From breaking into high-security military research facilities to conning the iCity elite — there isn’t a lock they can’t pick, a safe they can’t break, or a hidden treasure they can’t find. Until now.
Returning from a harrowing heist involving a neon battery and a trash chute, Grey and his crew are approached by Dalia, the immortal daughter of the infamous ArchGovernor — and she has an offer.
The job? Locate and steal the Stones of Indigo — seven fabled rocks invested with godlike power. The search for the first stone is a bona fide treasure hunt, guided by an ancient map to a deadly, uncharted island that’s protected by a mysterious guardian. The score? One million credits per crew member, per stone. The catch? Well, that’s where things get a little complicated.
The stones don’t exist. They’re a myth. A bedtime story told to little pirates to make them believe that power and wealth are attainable if you just work hard enough.
And to make matters infinitely worse, Grey’s never trusted immortals, and Dalia’s definitely hiding something. Something bad. And if they don’t figure out what it is, it might cost them their lives.
This novel was a self-published success, and is now making the jump to traditional publishing. Premise sounds like a lot of fun, too — maybe Firefly and Wooding’s Ketty Jay series vibes? It feels like a long time since I read a non-tie-in sci-fi novel, so I’m looking forward to reading it soon. Cello’s Gate is due to be published by Saga Press in North America and Hodder in the UK, on November 3rd.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Mike Brooks, GHOST LEGION (Black Library)
Solomon Akurra dreams of empire.
As Harrowmaster, he has united feuding forces within the Alpha Legion under his command and conquered entire star systems. Wielding what he claims to be the Pale Spear, his primarch’s weapon, Solomon is carving a new future. Many renegade warlords seek to enslave humanity, but the Ghost wants more. He seeks to shatter the Imperium and rebuild humanity anew.
However, ambition attracts enemies, and the Imperium rises in force to destroy Solomon’s Ghost Legion and his burgeoning new world. To defend what’s his, the Harrowmaster must test his martial prowess and ingenuity to the limit. He is prepared to play the long game, but as Imperial assassins lurk in the shadows and fury and dissent fester within the ranks of his Legion, will the terrible price of Solomon’s vision prove too high a cost?
This is the sequel to Brooks’s previous Alpha Legion novel, Harrowmaster (which I have, but have yet to read — I’m falling so far behind…). Big fan of Brooks’s writing for Black Library, so I’m very much looking forward to getting caught up with the series. (After I also read his Huron Blackheart novel, which I’ve also managed to leave unread for too long!) Ghost Legion is out now, published by Black Library in North America and in the UK.
Also on CR: Interview with Mike Brooks (2015)
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
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Michael Crichton, A MURDER IN HOLLYWOOD (Blackstone)
In the glitz and decadence of 1970s Hollywood, an era when sex and drugs were readily available on any movie set, the writer of the next Western blockbuster, Bloodrock, has just been found dead in his motel bathtub. Now publicist Harvey Jason is desperately trying to keep the project on track while the famed Harlow Perkins, a brilliant and ruthless investigator, begins to unravel the mystery and hunt the killer down.
From scorching-hot desert locations to sleazy motel bars, the members of the cast and crew-each one with a very dark secret of their own-will send this case deeper and deeper into a maze of confusion and shadows until the shocking truth is revealed.
Will the murderer be found?
Or will the true identity of the killer turn out to be just another Hollywood illusion?
It has been a long time since I last read a novel by Michael Crichton. Like many, I was a fan of his thrillers when I was younger, and remember fondly reading Jurassic Park , Timeline, and others. Many of his pseudonymous novels and unpublished works have been published since his passing in 2008, but I haven’t got around to reading any of them. Until now, I guess — this one sounds very interesting, and I’m hoping to get to it as soon as possible. A Murder in Hollywood is due to be published by Blackstone Publishing in North America and in the UK, on May 5th.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Michael Dobbs, THE SIX MINUTE WAR (Simon & Schuster)
The thrilling inside story of the climactic nuclear crisis of the Cold War, revealing the tension between “the human in the loop” and the algorithms that could trigger World War III.
The year is 1983. Ronald Reagan is obsessed by biblical prophecies of Armageddon. A computer revolution is changing everything — from the way we track incoming ballistic missiles to how we share and consume information. And then, over just three months, a series of dramatic events encapsulates the president’s worst nightmares.
In rapid succession, a South Korean airliner is shot down over the Soviet Union after straying off course because of pilot-computer miscommunication. A glitchy Soviet early warning system mistakenly reports an incoming US missile attack. The Kremlin puts its nuclear forces on high alert in response to a routine NATO nuclear release exercise. Reagan deploys missiles capable of destroying the Kremlin in six minutes from their launch positions in West Germany. Soviet nuclear submarines are stationed off Cape Hatteras, ready to obliterate the White House in the same amount of time.
“Six minutes to decide how to respond to a blip on a radar scope and decide whether to unleash Armageddon!” Reagan recalled many years later, in a little-noticed passage in his memoirs. “How could anyone apply reason at a time like that?”
In The Six Minute War, the former Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post explores the challenge confronting fallible human leaders responding to ever-shrinking warning times of a nuclear attack. A nail-biting narrative of the Cold War crisis that heralded the fall of the Soviet Union, The Six Minute War poses an existential question: can we trust the machines at such life-or-death moments — or will we be destroyed by our own technological hubris?
Always interested in checking out a new book by Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight and Six Months in 1945. He’s one of the better popular-history authors covering the Cold War (an era that has become something of a professional interest of mine). Looking forward to reading this. The Six Minute War is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America on October 20th. (I couldn’t find a UK publisher at the time of writing, but the author’s most recent non-fiction has been published by Arrow.)
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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James Holland, THE VISIONARIES (Atlantic Monthly Press)
A chronicle of the unprecedented US postwar decision to aid its enemies as well as its allies via the Marshall Plan, which led to eight decades of peace and prosperity in the West that could be upended in an “America First” environment.
On March 12, 1947, less than two years after the end of World War II, President Harry S. Truman gave a seminal speech before Congress, in response to a European crisis: Greece was facing economic collapse and encroaching Soviet ambition, and Truman felt the US had to give financial aid to a free people resisting attempted subjugation, which, he emphasized, would promote “economic stability and orderly political processes.”
The US was the richest nation in the world, but Truman believed that shared prosperity among the democracies would make them politically more stable and long-term peace much more likely. His momentous proposition that the US bail out Greece led in turn to the unprecedented and radical Marshall Plan itself: the decision to aid not only US allies but — for the first time in history — our former enemies as they all rebuilt from the ruins of the calamitous war. Indeed, with this aid Germany became an economic powerhouse and, with most of Europe, a staunch ally of the US — and almost eighty years on the benefits of this extraordinary decision are still being felt.
In this book, Holland examines the genesis of the Marshall Plan, include its “prelude” policies and statements under FDR; it then puts the Marshall Plan and its ideology into conversation with contemporary politics. After so many years of students believing the Marshall Plan was a conspiracy/plot (baffling, because they will also shrug at Iran-Contra), I’m interested in finding more to read about the period. Very much looking forward to reading this very soon. The Visionaries is due to be published by Atlantic Monthly Press in North America (May 26th) and Bantam in the UK (May 7th).
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via NetGalley
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Naomi Kritzer, OBSTETRIX (TorDotCom)
O Lord, deliver us.
Doctor Liz has just been acquitted for performing the last abortion in North Dakota when she’s kidnapped.
They’re not just any kidnappers, but a fundamentalist cult, deep in the rural west, without respect for law or decency, and in desperate need of an OB/GYN.
Guarded, isolated, without access to the outside world, Liz nevertheless is treated with respect as the only doctor on the compound, but she is very aware of what happened to the last obstetrician they kidnapped.
She must escape, and bring help to the girls trapped at the compound, if it’s the last thing she does.
I haven’t read as many of Kritzer’s books/stories as I think I would like. When I saw this short novel available for review, based on the synopsis, I really wanted to read it. Looking forward to doing so very soon. (Maybe next.) Obstetrix is due to be published by TorDotCom in North America and in the UK, on June 9th.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky
Review copy received via NetGalley
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Mike Lawson, McKENNA’S GUY (Blackstone)
When an intruder with murderous intent breaks into Roger Smith’s modest home one night, the big brute gets more than he bargained for, ending up a bloody corpse staining Roger’s carpet.
Washington, DC, Detective Grace Lillinthal is summoned to the crime scene and marvels at the outcome. Why would anyone want to kill gray-haired Roger Smith? He’s the picture of respectability-a widower devoted to his family, an amateur painter, and a civil servant who works at the Government Publishing Office. When asked why he’d be a target, a clearly shaken Roger claims to be baffled.
But instinct tells Grace there’s more to Roger’s story, and when she learns that Roger-after killing his home invader and before calling the police-phoned John McKenna, she knows she’s onto something. John McKenna is a disreputable character of the first order. He’s the gregarious, larger-than-life owner of a local bar that’s a notorious den of thieves.
After one hired assassin fails, another’s bound to show up. The clock is ticking for Roger and McKenna to find out who wants Roger dead and why-and suspects abound. Stubborn Grace is as determined to dig up Roger’s secrets as he is to keep them hidden, and soon the investigation becomes a relentless game of cat and mouse. Even if Roger doesn’t consider himself a criminal, as chaos takes hold of his world, survival requires that he think like one.
The first in (maybe) a new series by Lawson, one of my long-time thriller favourites — he’s the author of the long-running Joe DeMarco series, which I would highly recommend. Really looking forward to reading this novel. Review soon. McKenna’s Guy is due to be published by Blackstone Publishing in North America, on July 7th.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via NetGalley
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Karen Mack & Jennifer Kaufman, THE KINGS OF VEGAS (William Morrow)
The prodigal daughter of a Las Vegas casino empire returns to take over her family business, only to discover that she’s up against the Mob, the Feds, and her own brothers.
When Josie King left Las Vegas in the 90s, she never looked back. The daughter of gambling mogul Roy King, spirited math whiz Josie grew up on the casino floor but deliberately turned away from the family business. She’s been living a quiet life in LA as an accountant and a single mom when she finds herself summoned back to Sin City. Now, fifteen years later, her father has died unexpectedly, and Josie’s siblings are already gathered for the reading of his will…only to discover that in order to inherit they must spend three years working together at the notorious family casino, The Jackpot.
Josie’s pride won’t let her walk away from the family empire again, so she agrees to take charge of the casino’s finances. She quickly discovers that while Roy King was once the most powerful man in Vegas, times have changed. These days, everyone has a piece of the action: Josie’s brothers, the FBI, the local mobsters, even the sexy rival casino owner who’s more than a friend. Las Vegas is more dangerous than ever, but Josie knows that to save the family business she’ll have to wade in deeper…
This has been pitched as “Succession in Las Vegas” by the producers who have optioned it for the screen. And that’s a pretty intriguing premise. I hadn’t heard of this novel before I was offered it for review, but it sounds interesting, and I look forward to reading it soon. The Kings of Vegas is due to be published by William Morrow in North America and in the UK, on June 30th.
Follow the Author: Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Hettie O’Brien, THE ASSET CLASS (Grand Central)
A thrilling, eye opening investigation into private equity, a secretive wing of the finance industry that is so relentlessly destructive, it could potentially undermine our way of life.
For decades, private equity firms have infiltrated every corner of modern life. Wielding debt as a weapon, they push vital services into crisis. Their cover story: that this is merely the “creative destruction” essential to growth. Old-school capitalists say they’re dismantling everything that made our economies work. The name itself, “private equity,” is its own kind of camouflage, giving no suggestion of the debt involved in its deals, nor of the controversial techniques it uses to generate profits.
The new owners think they can hide in the shadows. But the owned are fighting back. In The Asset Class, Hettie O’Brien penetrates a hidden empire of billion-dollar deals and covert financial warfare. From Copenhagen to San Francisco, Barcelona to the Yorkshire Dales, she follow the money, the trail of destruction, and the industry’s murky ideological roots from 1970s trips to Moscow to the present day.
What she find is chilling: private equity isn’t just reshaping the economy — it’s selling out the foundations of Western society.
I have been interested in the “hidden” parts of global economics for quite some time. Not necessarily the seedy or illegal parts (although those are also fascinating), but the ways in which “legitimate” organizations and actors manipulate the system for their own personal gain. (See, for example, most of Michael Lewis’s books, but also Atossa Araxia Abrahamian’s The Hidden Globe — to name but two examples from a growing and very good body of literature.) So, when I saw this book in the publisher’s catalogue, it went immediately on my must-read list. Really looking forward to reading this. The Asset Class is due to be published by Grand Central Publishing in North America (June 23rd) and W&N in the UK (April 9th).
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via NetGalley
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Robert L. O’Connell, BAND ON THE RUN (Simon & Schuster)
A retelling of one of the great adventure stories of antiquity — when Greek philosopher-warrior Xenophon led a stranded band of the “Ten Thousand” mercenary soldiers on a treacherous escape from the Persians.
400 BC. The Persian prince Cyrus the Younger hires an army of Greek soldiers to oust his brother from the Persian throne. But when Cyrus dies in battle during the army’s trek through the middle east, the army is stranded deep in enemy territory.
Led by Xenophon, a young Athenian philosopher turned solider, the Ten Thousand fought their way home through deserts and mountains, snowstorms, starvation, and relentless attacks, evolving into one of the most fearsome forces of the ancient world. Their journey, chronicled in Xenophon’s Anabasis, is one of history’s greatest military stories.
In Band on the Run, Robert O’Connell not only gives us an exciting and witty retelling of this story, but he has done so with a wise contemporary spin. For in his estimation, this was the battle that established the use of powerful mercenary forces. The attempted conquest of the Ten Thousand begins a historical line through Western history of the use of mercenary armies that has lasted up to our present day. And, as O’Connell shows, much misery and tragedy in human history has been due to this trajectory. This is a brilliant revisionist history with important lessons for our time.
Thought this sounded like it might be interesting, and quite different to a lot of what I typically read in history. So, when it was offered to me for review, I thought I’d give it a try. Band on the Run is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America, on July 28th.
Follow the Author: Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Anna Pitoniak, THE SWISS AGENT (Simon & Schuster)
CIA officials Amanda Cole and Kath Frost must work together to untangle a global bribery scheme involving murder, wealthy oligarchs, and high-level Swiss bankers — unless Kath’s mysterious past tears them apart first…
Amanda Cole’s posting as the CIA station chief in Rome is normally too quiet for her liking. But when a chef’s body washes ashore on Capri, and Amanda learns he worked for a Russian oligarch with deep Kremlin ties, her alarm bells start ringing. Even more suspicious is the fact that the oligarch had hosted a private dinner with NATO’s deputy secretary general the night the chef died.
To get answers, Amanda calls on her former partner Kath Frost, a semi-retired CIA legend who is as brilliant as she is unpredictable. As they dig deeper, they discover a web of corruption that stretches from Moscow to Geneva to Washington, eventually uncovering a Kremlin-backed scheme to bribe NATO officials and tip the global balance of power.
But when a suave Swiss banker named Julian Schmidt emerges at the center of the scheme, it becomes clear that Kath shares an intimate history with him and that she may know more than she’s letting on. It turns out that Kath’s past is full of shadows, and the choices she made decades ago, in the gray borderlands of the Soviet collapse, are resurfacing now with devastating consequences. Amanda must uncover the truth about Kath — and whether she can really be trusted at all — before it’s too late.
The sequel to The Helsinki Affair, which was Pitoniak’s first spy novel. I’ve been a long-time fan of the author’s work (I started with a very early ARC of her debut), and I’ve enjoyed this pivot to espionage. Really looking forward to reading this very soon. The Swiss Agent is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America on December 1st. (At the time of writing, I couldn’t find information about a UK edition, but the first in the series was published by No Exit Press.)
Also on CR: Reviews of The Futures, Our American Friend, and The Helsinki Affair
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Kevin Wade, JOHNNY CARELESS (Celadon)
Police Chief Jeep Mullane has been bounced back home to Long Island’s North Shore by a heartbreaking case that both earned him his NYPD detective’s shield and burned him out of the Job. Now heading up a small local police department, he finds himself navigating the same geography he did growing up there as the son of an NYPD cop. Jeep is a “have-not” among the glittering “haves,” a sharp-witted, down-to-earth man in a territory defined and ruled by multigenerational wealth and power and the daunting tribal codes and customs that come with it.
When the corpse of Jeep’s childhood friend Johnny Chambliss — born into privilege and known as “Johnny Careless” for his reckless, golden-boy antics — surfaces in the Bayville waters, past collides with present, and Jeep is pulled into a treacherous web. He is challenged by Johnny’s wealthy and secretive family and his beautiful, enigmatic ex-wife as he untangles a knotted mystery fraught with theft, corrupt local moguls, and decades-old secrets, all while grappling with his own deep-seated grief for his lost pal.
This is Wade’s debut novel and (now) the first novel in the Jeep Mullane series. Published last year, it took me longer than I’d intended to get around to getting it and reading it — which I did in two sittings. It’s a great story of a community very much split between the wealthy and those who, functionally, serve them. Jeep, the Chief of Police, grew up on the North Shore and was best friends with the son of one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in the area. Wade’s writing is excellent, and hooked me very quickly; and the plot and pacing is superb throughout. Very much looking forward to the sequel, One Good Eye, which is due out in August. Johnny Careless is out now, published by Celadon Books.
Civilian Reader 