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
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RJ Barker, BEASTS OF THE WILD BACK (Podium)
The Wild Black wants to kill you…
Years ago, Deep Strike cadet Min Law was left behind during what was meant to be a routine operation. Though he survived, the resulting trauma almost ended his career. Now, as captain of the DST Thunberg, he is preparing to take his crew on a similar journey to a seemingly quiet world following a garbled distress signal. The mission is simple on paper: find the source of the call, offer aid, return home.
But nothing is simple in the Wild Black at the edges of the unexplored universe. As the crew of the Thunberg searches for the signal’s source, they find strange ships and corpses that shouldn’t be there. The mysteries begin to pile up. What happened out here? And why does some of the technology look horribly familiar?
Fortunately, Min’s team of animal counterparts is prepared for anything. The bear, Sitka Pete, is eight hundred pounds of loyal muscle. The rooks are quick and coordinated, perfect for reconnaissance. And the cats, Oz and Hinder, well, they’re just cats. But together they’re more than up for whatever the Wild Black can throw at them—even if this region isn’t quite so unexplored after all…
I read this right away, and it’s fantastic. The first in a trilogy of sci-fi novellas, released a month apart (and collected in January 2027), it’s a must-read for anyone who enjoys space exploration and stories about overcoming adversity, closely bonded crews of explorers. This deserves to be huge. Beasts of the Wild Black is out now, published by Podium in North America and in the UK.
Also on CR: Interviews with RJ Barker — 2017 and 2020; Annotated Excerpt from The Bone Ships; Reviews of Age of Assassins, Blood of Assassins, and King of Assassins
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
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Laurie Blake, THIS JURY IS GUILTY (Sourcebooks Landmark)
Sequestered together until the Hollywood trial is closed, a jury must decide the fate of an actor accused of attempted murder, but this jury has explosive secrets, and one of them is about to get away with a murder of their own.
No one here is innocent.
Hollywood’s biggest movie star, Danny Scott, stands accused of trying to murder his wife, starlet Hope Harrison, in a case that has taken the world by storm. Everyone is asking: What led to the events of that night, and what darker truths simmer beneath the surface of Danny and Hope’s marriage? As the world watches, twelve sequestered jurors must decide Danny’s fate. But even a jury has its secrets…
Juror 6 is risking everything for this trial. Even her life.
Juror 2 is playing games. But can he keep one step ahead of his own lies?
Juror 13, the alternate, will do anything to be on that jury. Anything.
Juror 7 is hardly noticed by anyone. Just as she planned.
As each juror vies for the verdict they want, secrets, obsessions, and plots for revenge will come to light in the stands. Because everyone is lying. Everyone is guilty. And one of them might be planning a murder of their own.
“Everyone is Watching meets Twelve Angry Men” is a pretty intriguing pitch. Like many, I still find legal thrillers highly engaging and addictive (ever since I picked up a Grisham novel when I was a young teenager). I’ve noticed a few new and upcoming novels that focus on the juries in legal trials, too. This Jury is Guilty is due to be published by Sourcebooks Landmark in North America and Headline in the UK, on November 3rd.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Adrian Daub, FASCISM 1933 (Astra)
An urgent and rigorous comparison of our current political climate to that of Germany’s during Hitler’s first year in power.
Since a new wave of far right-wing sentiment entered American political life a decade ago, political scientists and pundits have chided people for what they see as overly facile comparisons between today’s Republican leadership and Nazism. Are these comparisons just scare-mongering? Or could they tell us something useful about the state of American democracy?
Using the writings of German thinkers like Thomas Mann, Victor Klemperer, Hannah Arendt, and other meticulous diarists of the era, Project 1933 retells the story of the first year of the Third Reich month-by-month, pausing to draw connections between Germany’s past and America’s present. Adrian Daub deftly explores the truths of living under fascism—the grim uncertainty (and even grimmer certainty) of early days, the existential scramble to cleave to institutions that define us even as they are bent to the will of a despot, the creation of bystanders and collaborators, the shifting cultural conversations, and the day-to-day banalities.
While some parallels are downright terrifying, Project 1933 aims to remind readers of the choices that are available to us, and that fascism’s key magic trick is to convince us of its own inevitability. Project 1933shows readers a path toward a more hopeful, moral imagination and the possibility of radical change.
Ah, more books about fascism. I’ve been reading a lot about this subject, and while I am getting a bit burned out on it (so many books, so depressing to read in conjunction with various classic dystopian novels and… well, the news in general), but this one looks like an interesting examination of the subject. I’d hesitate to say I’m “looking forward” to reading it, but I also am because it’s an important subject for everyone to be at least a little informed about today. Fascism 1933 is due to be published by Astra House in North America and in the UK, on April 27th, 2027.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via NetGalley
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Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan, THE BOY IN THE BOX (Saga Press)
A group of mercenaries on an unsanctioned mission survives a plane crash in whiteout conditions in the Tian Shan mountains. The men are accustomed to danger. Now they’re growing accustomed to fear.
Team leader Liev and his band of survivors are stranded in the bitter winds with little hope of rescue — or outlasting the wolves that have scented blood. In the distance is the apparent sanctuary of an abandoned stone fortress. That an ancient bulwark even exists on this forsaken summit is beyond comprehension. So is what lies on the other side of its walls.
This is the latest collaboration between del Toro and Hogan — who also collaborated on The Strain series and The Hollow Ones. It was first published by Amazon as a six-part serialized story (still available). It’s the story of “an ancient secret that was never meant to be unleashed.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, it will soon be adapted into a Netflix movie, with a pretty great cast. I’ll be reading this very soon (it’s quite short, so I’d maybe call this a “novella” before “novel”). The Boy in the Box is due to be published by S&S/Saga Press in North America, on January 5th, 2027.
Follow the Author (del Toro): Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Follow the Author (Hogan): Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Arlan Ettinger, THE ART OF THE UNUSUAL (Sourcebooks)
Every object has a story to tell…
Fine art. Priceless jewels. Museum-worthy masterpieces. In 1970s New York, the auction world was a velvet-rope affair — until Arlan Ettinger crashed the party.
With his wife, Barbara, Arlan launched Guernsey’s, a scrappy, anything-goes auction house that turned the industry on its head. Forget Old Masters — Guernsey’s sold the unexpected, the irresistible, the downright bizarre. Doors from the legendary Chelsea Hotel. The entire contents of the SS United States. Personal treasures from JFK. If it had a story, Guernsey’s could sell it—and suddenly, everyone wanted in.
Part business adventure, part cultural time capsule, this is the story of the auction house that proved you don’t need millions to own a piece of history — you just need curiosity, a sense of humor, and a willingness to see value where others don’t. Because the real magic isn’t just in what things are worth — it’s in what they mean. A door, a suitcase, a scrap of paper: objects carry the lives, legends, and moments that shaped us. This book is a celebration of that invisible thread between people and things — and the surprising, often joyful ways our stories live on through what we leave behind.
When I was offered this for review, I had never heard of Ettinger, nor the Guernsey auction house. It was sufficiently different to what I usually request or get offered for review, though, that my interest was piqued. Even though I have my favourite genres of fiction and non-fiction, there is a special pleasure when finding an engaging book that’s outside of your usual wheelhouse. Maybe this will be one of those books for me? Very much looking forward to giving this a try. The Art of the Unusual is due to be published by Sourcebooks in North America and in the UK, on April 13th, 2027.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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John Grisham, THE FRENCH ILLUSION (Doubleday)
A Paris honeymoon gone horribly wrong — and the nightmare that follows.
After Paul and Chelsea Tanner’s fairytale wedding, their future is full of promise. But their honeymoon to Paris takes a dark, shocking turn when they are kidnapped while on a day trip to the French countryside. Who would target them, and why? It turns out this is not the first crime of its kind. The search for clues soon stretches across borders, with the FBI, CIA, and French Intelligence trying to work together to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Struggling to find answers, a young lawyer is recruited to be the bait in an elaborate CIA operation.
It has been quite some time since I read one of Grisham’s novels, despite being a fan for a very long time: I bought The Brethren in 2000 in New York, and that kicked off a bit of a binge-read that lasted for about six months. No idea why I fell behind, but I remember a period of time when his books alternated between very good and… less so. Whatever the reason he fell out of my usual rotation, the synopsis for The French Illusion caught my attention, and I’m looking forward to reading his take on the espionage(ish) genre. I have also picked up the prequel short story, The Law Student. The French Illusion is out now, published by Doubleday in North America and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
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Michael Lewis, BLOCKERS (W.W. Norton)
An inside look at the early days of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, as told by the public servants it targeted and one of America’s best storytellers.
Blockers. It wasn’t a compliment. In the new Washington, it was the worst thing you could be — especially if you worked in the federal government and wanted to keep your job. A Blocker was a holdover, an impediment, someone who didn’t get the message — and, most of all, someone who didn’t belong.
Michael Lewis found six of them.
Blockers is the story of people who believed they had a calling, who were convinced they were doing something the country couldn’t do without, and then discovered they were no longer wanted. One kept Americans’ most sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands and another made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules. One figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighborhoods, another helped uncover the mysteries of cystic fibrosis.
There was also a security guard.
It should come as no surprise that the writer who made subprime mortgages gripping (The Big Short) and who turned baseball statistics into poetry (Moneyball) could transform the first two years of the second Trump administration into a thriller about federal employees. But he does.
And he does something else. He puts before us a clear question: If these public servants can’t survive in government today, then what does that say about us?
I read this as soon as I got it, and it’s superb. Not as good as The Fifth Risk, for which it could be seen as a kind of sequel. Lewis is one of my favourite authors, and despite a slightly less-well-done couple of chapters, this remains one of my best reads of the year. His recent books have been, effectively, the best argument for government that I’ve ever read. Highly recommended. Blockers is out now, published by W.W. Norton in North America (audiobook via Pushkin) and Allen Lane in the UK.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
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Ben Macintryre, REDWOOD (Signal)
In 1981, KGB Major Vladimir Kuzichkin, codenamed “Redwood,” was the best Soviet officer in Iran, running spies in the wake of the Islamic revolution and working with a hidden network of Iranian communists to undermine the new regime. But Kuzichkin had a problem, a sexual secret that, if revealed, would humiliate him with his colleagues, cost him his job, and send him into exile. Desperate for a solution, he reached out to the only place he believed could help: Britain’s MI6.
So begins one of the most astounding true spy stories of the Cold War, set against the terrifying prospect of nuclear armageddon. Taking readers through shadowy back alleys of Tehran, across bloody streets and into cloistered intelligence offices, Ben Macintyre unfolds a world in turmoil, where no one’s motive is what it seems, and exposure means death. As Kuzichkin helps the Soviet leadership plot an overthrow of the Ayatollah’s fledgling regime—and the American government secretly contemplates a nuclear response if they do—it falls on MI6’s resourceful young undercover officer Ian McCredie to spirit Kuzichkin’s vital information back to the West. But when both Iranian intelligence and the KGB close in on the Russian double-agent, McCredie must design an improbable high-stakes escape plan for Kuzichkin, in which failure is almost certain and the direction of the Cold War hangs in the balance.
This is the gripping tale of one man’s courage, and its extraordinary unintended consequences that still shape our world today. It’s about a moving friendship between spies on opposite sides of the global conflict; about marriage, loyalty, and betrayal. Drawing on never-before-seen archival material and revealing interviews with the participants, Redwood plunges readers back into the world of The Spy and the Traitor, where the fate of millions turns on the split-second decisions of spies under pressure.
I started reading Macintyre’s work relatively recently, for someone with a keen interest in international relations, politics, and espionage. After reading A Spy Among Friends only a few years ago, he became a must-buy. I was lucky enough to get a signed copy of this latest book from Indigo in Toronto. Really looking forward to reading it as soon as possible. Redwood is out now, published by Signal/M&S in Canada, Crown in the U.S., and Viking in the UK.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
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Val McDermid & Jo Sharp, THIS DOOR OF THE SEAS (Atlantic Monthly Press)
A heart-wrenching novella about an ill-fated colonial scheme that bankrupted a country and forever altered the trajectory of history.
At the end of the seventeenth century, a brave group of Scots sail for a jungle-coastline on the other side of the world, the junction between North and South America. Their objective: to establish a trading colony that would assure their hard-strapped country’s future, as the East India Company had done for England. Their plan? To open a passage through Panama, a true “door of the seas and key to the universe.” Instead, what begins as a dream of prosperity quickly turns into a nightmare that bankrupts an already impoverished nation and propels it towards political union with England.
Written as a series of letters home from expedition scientist Dr. James Wallace to his wife Eliza and Sir Robert Sibbald, Scotland’s first Geographer Royal, This Door of the Seas offers a devastating account of the infamous Darien Scheme, the colonial misadventure that completely changed the history of Scotland.
An intriguing premise, and as it turns out an interesting and engaging read. I read this pretty soon after receiving the review copy. It’s about a little-known event in Scottish history, and the authors do a wonderful job of presenting the excitement, dangers, and prejudices of 17th century exploration, through a series of letters and journal entries. It’s part of the Darkland Tales series — published by Birlinn in the UK and a variety of publishers in North America — which I am going to continue reading soon. This Door of the Seas is due to be published by Atlantic Monthly Press in North America January 5th, 2027) and Polygon in the UK (out now).
Follow the Author (McDermid): Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Follow the Author (Sharp): Website, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Richard Swan, VOICE OF COMMAND (Black Library)
Saint Stanislava’s Adoration was once the Maelstrom Zone’s finest shrine-city, and the crowning jewel of the planet Nymea. Now, it’s a blasted, Chaos-infested ruin.
For two years Imperial forces have slowly unpicked the Archenemy’s grip on the world, finger by finger, and Adoration is all that stands between Humanity and victory.
For Colonel Gabriel ‘Venom’ Velterson, leader of the 2002nd Cadian Mechanised Regiment, the end cannot come quickly enough. When his troops are not bathed in the toxic light of a mysterious blue star, or enduring the endless heresy broadcast over the hijacked vox-network, they’re being quarantined by the Inquisition or squandered by capricious Nymean commanders. Indeed, on the eve of the final assault, the Archenemy may be the least of his problems.
Will Adoration be the end of the campaign, or will it be the end of the regiment?
I first discovered Richard Swan’s writing with The Justice of Kings, his first fantasy novel published by Orbit Books. Since then, he has been a must-watch author, and while I have fallen quite far behind, I have enjoyed or loved everything of his that I’ve read. (His new novellas set in the same world as his Empire of the Wolf series are particularly excellent.) This is his first full-length novel set in the WH40k universe, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he approaches the grim dark future. Voice of Command is out now, published by Black Library in North America and in the UK.
Also on CR: Interview with Richard Swan (2022); Reviews of The Justice of Kings, The Tyranny of Faith, and The Trials of Empire
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
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Evan Calder William, THE LOSING TEAM (Riverhead)
1867: Wash Loomis returns from the blazing West to the winter slush of Utica, New York, epicenter of his infamous family’s sprawling web of swindlers and counterfeiters. Here everyone — snake oil salesman or sex worker, journalist or preacher — has a hustle, but these days even the most audacious scam is dwarfed by the unchecked venality of the railroads and banks. As Wash and his mother, Rhoda, battle for control of their empire across a tumultuous decade, the lusty, contentious Loomises and their enemies, lovers, and conspirators find themselves at both the mercy and the cutting edge of a ruthless new capitalist order.
Freewheeling and sexy, suspenseful and intensely subversive, The Losing Team is a tragicomedy of small cons and big lies that introduces an unforgettable new voice with the power and range — by turns lyrical, absurd, furious, and elegiac — to make the past resound unforgettably into the present.
I believe I learned about this book via a post on Instagram from the publisher, but it was the synopsis and pitch — it’s a “novel about a crime family’s struggle for power in a rapacious new American era” — that properly caught my attention and made me want to read it. Not sure what to expect, but I’m very much looking forward to it. The Losing Team is due to be published by Riverhead Books in North America (March 16th, 2027) and Summit Books in the UK (May 6th).
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Emily Wilson, CROSSING THE WINE DARK SEA (Liveright)
A visionary exploration of how translation reshapes and enriches our understanding of the ancient world.
In this sharp and often entertaining tour through antiquity, Emily Wilson―whose renditions of Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad have captured a generation’s imagination―explores the complicated terrain of reading and writing about the ancient past. Drawing on twenty years of scholarship and teaching, Wilson explores the difficult choices that translators must make, the pleasures of finding new solutions to old problems, and the inevitable frustrations of never fully capturing what is in the original work.
Across chapters that range from the politics of Helen of Troy to the obscenities of Aristophanes, from Roman imitation of Greek models to contemporary debates over “foreignizing” and “domesticizing” styles, Wilson examines how modern norms of gender, sexuality, violence, humor, and power complicate our readings of ancient works, and how translation always risks denaturing what is unique and strange about the ancient world.
Brilliant, erudite, and yet accessible to readers with no classical background, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea is at once an introduction to the wonders of Greek and Roman literature, a manifesto for the value of translation in a rapidly changing world, and an invitation to encounter ancient cultures anew.
The latest book by the best-selling academic and translator of Iliad and Odyssey. Thought this sounded interesting, and given that 2026 was the Summer of Mythology, this looked especially interesting. (Also interested in reading the author’s soon to be re-released The Death of Socrates). Crossing the Wine Dark Sea is out now, published by Liveright in North America and Profile Books in the UK.
