Author: Civilian Reader

Excerpt: LAMB by Matt Hill (Dead Ink Books)

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HillM-LambToday we have an excerpt from Matt Hill‘s new “visceral… moss-coated horror” novel, Lamb, which is due out next month. Due to be published by Dead Ink Books, here’s the synopsis:

‘It’s inside every parent to want to carry their child’s terror. It’s the thing they never tell you about. Watching your child grow up, watching your child learn to suffer…’

When lorry driver Dougie Alport carries out a deadly attack on his employer’s head office, the reverberations of his actions unleash a grief in his wife Maureen that threatens to reveal the secret she has spent years hiding from their son, Boyd. Moving north to start again is Maureen’s best response. But as the walls begin to throb with mould and his mother slips from his grasp, Boyd decides to flee, finding solace with a new friend at the landfill site on the edge of town. Here, a startling discovery upends Boyd’s new life and forces him into a reckoning with his mother, her past, and his future.

A visceral story of collective memory and moss-coated horror, Lamb asks us how far we’d go to protect those we love, and how intensely we are bound to those who have come before us.

And now, on with the excerpt…!

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Upcoming: THE FURY by Alex Michaelides (Celadon / Michael Joseph)

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MichaelidesA-FuryUSHCThe Fury is the next novel from Alex Michaelides, the best-selling author of The Silent Patient and The Maidens. Strangely, I still haven’t had a chance to read the author’s first two novels, but the premise for his third book really caught my attention:

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time ― it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind… and a murder.

MichaelidesA-FuryUKHCWe found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.

I’m really looking forward to reading this, and hope to do so as soon as I can.

Alex Michaelides’s The Fury is due to be published by Celadon Books in North America (January 16th, 2024) and Michael Joseph in the UK (February 1st, 2024).

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Upcoming: THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Stuart Turton (Raven Books / Sourcebooks)

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TurtonS-LastMurderAtTheEndOfTheWorldUKHCThe cover and details for Stuart Turton‘s next novel, The Last Murder at the End of the World were released a few days ago, and I for one am very much looking forward to reading it! Not only is the cover eye-catching,* but the synopsis also grabbed my attention:

Solve the murder to save what’s left of the world.

Outside the island there is nothing: the world destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island: it is idyllic. 122 villagers and 3 scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And they learn the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay.

If the murder isn’t solved within 92 hours, the fog will smother the island – and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer – and they don’t even know it…

I really enjoyed Turton’s previous novels — The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and, especially, The Devil and the Dark Water — and I have very high hopes for this new book. I’ll be reading it as soon as I can.

Stuart Turton’s The Last Murder at the End of the World is due to be published by Bloomsbury’s Raven Books imprint in the UK (March 28th, 2024), and Sourcebooks Landmark in North America (May 21st, 2024).

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* I couldn’t find any information about who the artist is: anyone know?

Excerpt: THOSE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR by Kia Abdullah (HQ)

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AbdullahK-ThosePeopleNextDoorUKPBToday we have an excerpt from Those People Next Door by Kia Abdullah. A “gripping thriller about nightmare neighbours”, the novel has been selected as Waterstones Thriller of the Month. Out now, published by HQ in the UK, here’s the synopsis:

You can choose your house. Not your neighbours.

WELCOME TO YOUR DREAM HOME…
Salma Khatun is extremely hopeful about Blenheim, the safe suburban development to which she, her husband and their son have just moved. Their family is in desperate need of a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like the place to make that happen.

MEET YOUR NEW NEIGHBOURS…
Not long after they move in, Salma spots her neighbour, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner her son put in their front garden. She chooses not to confront Tom because she wants to fit in. It’s a small thing, really. No need to make a fuss. So Salma takes the banner inside and puts it in her window instead. But the next morning she wakes up to find her window smeared with paint.

AND PREPARE FOR THE NIGHTMARE TO BEGIN…
This time she does confront Tom, and the battle lines between the two families are drawn. As things begin to escalate and the stakes become higher, it’s clear that a reckoning is coming… And someone is going to get hurt.

A gripping thriller about nightmare neighbours, Those People Next Door explores the loss of innocence and how far we’re prepared to go to defend ourselves and the people we love.

Read on for this short excerpt, taken from Chapter 1, in which Salma meets her new neighbour for the first time…

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Very Quick Review: THE TUSKS OF EXTINCTION by Ray Nayler (Tor.com)

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NaylerR-TusksOfExtinctionUSHCAn intriguing, intelligent, and empathetic “eco-thriller”

When you bring back a long-extinct species, there’s more to success than the DNA.

Moscow has resurrected the mammoth, but someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out, again.

The late Dr. Damira Khismatullina, the world’s foremost expert in elephant behavior, is called in to help. While she was murdered a year ago, her digitized consciousness is uploaded into the brain of a mammoth.

Can she help the magnificent creatures fend off poachers long enough for their species to take hold?

And will she ever discover the real reason they were brought back?

Ray Nayler’s novel The Mountain in the Sea has been generating a lot of buzz since its publication, and racked up a number of award wins and nominations (most recently, the Locus Best First Novel Award). When The Tusks of Extinction popped up available for review, I thought it would be a good introduction to the author’s work, and I dove in as soon as I got it. I’m happy to report that I enjoyed it, and it’s a well-written and engaging eco-mystery. Continue reading →

Very Quick Review: STARTER VILLAIN by John Scalzi (Tor)

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ScalziJ-StarterVillainUSHCSo you suddenly find yourself in charge of an evil corporation…

Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place.

Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn’t all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they’re coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It’s up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world… be a cat.

An entertaining and unusual fish-out-of-water story about a man who inherits his uncle’s evil empire. Fast-paced, amusing, and starring some cats, I enjoyed this.
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Quick Review: THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE by Julie Schumacher (Doubleday)

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SchumacherJ-EnglishExperienceUSHCProfessor Jason Fitger returns for another academic misadventure

Jason Fitger may be the last faculty member the dean wants for the job, but he’s the only professor available to chaperone Payne University’s annual “Experience: Abroad” (he has long been on the record objecting to the absurd and gratuitous colon between the words) occurring during the three weeks of winter term. Among his charges are a claustrophobe with a juvenile detention record, a student who erroneously believes he is headed for the Caribbean, a pair of unreconciled lovers, a set of undifferentiated twins, and one young woman who has never been away from her cat before.

Through a sea of troubles — personal, institutional, and international — the gimlet-eyed, acid-tongued Fitger strives to navigate safe passage for all concerned, revealing much about the essential need for human connection and the sometimes surprising places in which it is found.

This is one of my most-anticipated novels of the year. The first two in the series — Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirement — are superb, and among my favourite reads of their respective release years, but also (in the case of the first) more generally. As I had no doubt that I would, I really enjoyed this. Continue reading →

Quick Review: A STROKE OF THE PEN by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday/Harper)

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PratchettT-AStrokeOfThePenUKHCAn interesting collection of early Pratchett pseudonymous stories

Far away and long ago, when dragons still existed and the only arcade game was ping-pong in black and white, a wizard cautiously entered a smoky tavern in the evil, ancient, foggy city of Morpork…

A truly unmissable, beautifully illustrated collection of unearthed stories from the pen of Sir Terry Pratchett: award-winning and bestselling author, and creator of the phenomenally successful Discworld series.

Twenty early short stories by one of the world’s best loved authors, each accompanied by exquisite original woodcut illustrations.

These are rediscovered tales that Pratchett wrote under a pseudonym for newspapers during the 1970s and 1980s. Whilst none are set in the Discworld, they hint towards the world he would go on to create, containing all of his trademark wit, satirical wisdom and fantastic imagination.

Meet Og the inventor, the first caveman to cultivate fire, as he discovers the highs and lows of progress; haunt the Ministry of Nuisances with the defiant evicted ghosts of Pilgarlic Towers; visit Blackbury, a small market town with weird weather and an otherworldly visitor; and go on a dangerous quest through time and space with hero Kron, which begins in the ancient city of Morpork…

This is an enjoyable collection of short stories by Pratchett, originally published while he was still working as a journalist, and before his published his first novels. They offer a fascinating glimpse at an author experimenting with his craft and voice. This is a must for Pratchett fans. Continue reading →

Upcoming: ALIEN CLAY by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK)

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TchaikovskyA-AlienClayUKHCI stumbled across Alien Clay while looking for a different book by Adrian Tchaikovsky, but it should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following CR for even a short while that I am a big fan of the author’s work, so it is always nice to learn of another upcoming book! This is obviously now on my Most Anticipated in 2024 list. Due to be published next year in the UK by Tor Books, here’s the synopsis for this “thrilling far-future adventure”:

The planet of Kiln is where the tyrannical Mandate keeps its prison colony, and for inmates the journey there is always a one-way trip. One such prisoner is Professor Arton Daghdev, xeno-ecologist and political dissident. Soon after arrival he discovers that Kiln has a secret. Humanity is not the first intelligent life to set foot there.

In the midst a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem are the ruins of a civilization, but who were the vanished builders and where did they go? If he can survive both the harsh rule of the camp commandant and the alien horrors of the world around him, then Arton has a chance at making a discovery that might just transform not only Kiln but distant Earth as well.

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Alien Clay is due to be published by Tor Books in the UK, on March 28th, 2024. No information about a North American publisher, at time of writing, but many of the author’s previous novels have been published across the Pond by Orbit Books.

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, Shards of Earth, One Day All This Will Be Yours, and Ogres

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Quick Review: MOTHER NATURE by Jamie Lee Curtis, Russell Goldman & Karl Stevens (Titan Comics)

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CurtisJL-MotherNatureHorror meets environmentalism, against a backdrop of personal & family struggle

After witnessing her engineer father die in mysterious circumstances on one of the Cobalt Corporation’s experimental oil extraction projects, Nova Terrell has grown up to hate the seemingly benevolent company that the town of Catch Creek, New Mexico, relies on for its livelihood and, thanks to the “Mother Nature” project, its clean water.

Haunted by her father’s death, the rebellious Nova wages a campaign of sabotage and vandalism on the oil giant’s facilities and equipment, until one night she accidentally makes a terrifying discovery about the true nature of the “Mother Nature” project and the malevolent, long-dormant horror it has awakened, and that threatens to destroy them all.

This is Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis’s first graphic novel, co-authored by Russell Goldman, and with artwork by Karl Stevens. Adapted from a screenplay Curtis wrote, it’s an intriguing mystery/horror story about family, environmentalism, exploitation, and more. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I rather enjoyed this. Continue reading →