Excerpt

Excerpt: THE PLINKO BOUNCE by Martin Clark (Rare Bird Books)

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ClarkM-PlinkoBounceUSHCToday, we have an excerpt from The Plinko Bounce, the latest legal thriller/mystery by Martin Clark. I’m a relative newcomer to Clark’s work, having only started reading him with 2019’s The Substitution Order. Since then, though, I have read and enjoyed a number of his novels, and am very much looking forward to reading this latest. Due to be published by Rare Bird Books on September 12th, here’s the synopsis:

For seventeen years, small-town public defender Andy Hughes has been underpaid to look after the poor, the addicted, and the unfortunate souls who constantly cycle through the courts, charged with petty crimes. Then, in the summer of 2020, he’s assigned to a grotesque murder case that brings national media focus to rural Patrick County, Virginia — Alicia Benson, the wife of a wealthy businessman, is murdered in her home. The accused killer, Damian Bullins, is a cunning felon with a long history of violence, and he confesses to the police. He even admits his guilt to Andy. But a simple typographical error and a shocking discovery begin to complicate the state’s case, making it possible Bullins might escape punishment. Duty-bound to give his client a thorough defense, Andy — despite his misgivings — agrees to fight for a not-guilty verdict, a decision that will ultimately force him to make profound, life-and-death choices, both inside and outside the courtroom.

And now, on with the excerpt…

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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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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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Excerpt: SANDYMANCER by David Edison (Tor)

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EdisonD-SandymancerUSHCToday, we have an excerpt taken from David Edison‘s second novel: the fantasy-science fiction mash-up Sandymancer. Due to be published next month by Tor Books, let’s first check out the synopsis:

A wild girl with sand magic in her bones and a mad god who is trying to fix the world he broke come together in SANDYMANCER, a genre-warping mashup of weird fantasy and hard science fiction.

All Caralee Vinnet has ever known is dust. Her whole world is made up of the stuff; water is the most precious thing in the cosmos. A privileged few control what elements remain. But the world was not always a dust bowl and the green is not all lost.

Caralee has a secret — she has magic in her bones and can draw up power from the sand beneath her feet to do her bidding. But when she does she winds up summoning a monster: the former god-king who broke the world 800 years ago and has stolen the body of her best friend.

Caralee will risk the whole world to take back what she’s lost. If her new companion doesn’t kill her first.

Intrigued? Read on for the first chapter of Sandymancer…

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Excerpt: THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE WORLD by Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)

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Tidhar-CircumferenceOfTheWorldUSHCNext month, Tachyon Publications will publish The Circumference of the World, the latest mind-bending novel from Lavie Tidhar, and they have provided CR with an excerpt to celebrate the upcoming release. An author whose name on the cover indicates a must-buy/-read, this latest book looks like it’ll be as intriguing and original as his others. Before we get to the excerpt, let’s first check out the synopsis:

Caught between realities, a mathematician, a book dealer, and a mobster desperately seek a notorious book that disappears upon being read. Only the author, a rakish sci-fi writer, knows whether his popular novel is truthful or a hoax…

Delia Welegtabit discovered two things during her childhood on a South Pacific island: her love for mathematics and a novel that isn’t supposed to exist. But the elusive book proves unexpectedly dangerous. Oskar Lens, a science fiction-obsessed mobster in the midst of an existential crisis, will stop at nothing to find the novel. After Delia’s husband Levi goes missing, she seeks help from Daniel Chase, a young, face-blind book dealer.

The infamous novel Lode Stars was written by the infamous Eugene Charles Hartley: legendary pulp science-fiction writer and founder of the Church of the All-Seeing Eyes. In Hartley’s novel, a doppelganger of Delia searches for her missing father in a strange star system. But is any of Lode Stars real? Was Hartley a cynical conman on a quest for wealth and immortality, creating a religion he did not believe in? Or was he a visionary who truly discovered the secrets of the universe?

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Excerpt: THINGS GET UGLY by Joe R. Lansdale (Tachyon)

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LansdaleJR-ThingsGetUglyUSHCToday we have an excerpt from Things Get Ugly, a collection of The Best Crime Stories by Joe R. Lansdale. Published this week by Tachyon Publications, this excerpt is from the story “The Projectionist”.

First, though, here’s the synopsis for the collection as a whole:

In the 1950s, a young small-town projectionist mixes it up with a violent gang. When Mr. Bear is not alerting us to the dangers of forest fires, he lives a life of debauchery and murder. A brother and sister travel to Oklahoma to recover the dead body of their uncle. Edgar Award winner and bestselling author Joe R. Lansdale (the Hap and Leonard series) returns to the piney, dangerous woods of East Texas to reveal the best of his award-winning crime fiction.

In this collection of nineteen unforgettable crime tales, Joe R. Lansdale brings his legendary mojo and witty grit to harrowing heists, revenge, homicide, and mayhem. No matter how they begin, things are bound to get ugly—and fast.

Now, read on for the excerpt…!

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Excerpt: STORMING HEAVEN by Miles Cameron (Mobius/Gollancz)

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CameronM-AoB2-StormingHeavenUSHCTo celebrate the release of Storming Heaven, the second novel in Miles Cameron‘s Age of Bronze series, Mobius Books has provided us with an excerpt to share with you all! The excerpt is comprised of the prologue and some other information to help readers get situated, and hopefully whet your appetite to read the rest of the novel. First, though, here’s the synopsis…

Before iron helmets and steel swords, when dragons roamed the world, was an age of bronze and stone, when the Gods walked the earth, and people lived in terror.

A scribe, a warlord, a dancer, a mute insect and a child should have no chance against the might of the bickering gods and their cruel games. But the gods themselves are old, addicted to their own games of power, and now their fates may lie in the hands of mere mortals . . .

By divine plan a plague of cannibals has been unleashed across the world, forming an armada which preys on all who cross their path. Meanwhile the people who allied against the gods have been divided, each taking their own path to attack the heavens — if they can survive the tide of war which has been sent against them.

All they need is the right distraction, and the right opportunity, to deal a blow against the gods themselves . . .

An original, visceral epic weaving together the mythologies of a dozen pantheons of gods and heroes to create something new and magical, this tale of the revolt against the tyranny which began in Against All Gods is a must read from a master of the fantasy genre.

Now, on with Storming Heaven…

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Excerpt: INANNA by Emily H. Wilson (Titan Books)

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WilsonEH-S1-InannaNext week Titan Books is due to publish Inanna, the debut novel from Emily H. Wilson. To mark he imminent publication, the publisher has provided us with this excerpt. It’s the first book in the author’s Sumerians trilogy. Check out the synopsis:

Stories are sly things… they can be hard to catch and kill.

Inanna is an impossibility. The first full Anunnaki born on Earth in Ancient Mesopotamia. Crowned the goddess of love by the twelve immortal Anunnaki who are worshipped across Sumer, she is destined for greatness.

But Inanna is born into a time of war. The Anunnaki have split into warring factions, threatening to tear the world apart. Forced into a marriage to negotiate a peace, she soon realises she has been placed in terrible danger.

Gilgamesh, a mortal human son of the Anunnaki, and notorious womaniser, finds himself captured and imprisoned. His captor, King Akka, seeks to distance himself and his people from the gods. Arrogant and selfish, Gilgamesh is given one final chance to prove himself.

Ninshubar, a powerful warrior woman, is cast out of her tribe after an act of kindness. Hunted by her own people, she escapes across the country, searching for acceptance and a new place in the world.

As their journeys push them closer together, and their fates intertwine, they come to realise that together, they may have the power to change to face of the world forever.

The first novel in the stunning Sumerians Trilogy, this is a gorgeous, epic retelling of one of the oldest surviving works of literature.

Now, on with the excerpt…!

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Excerpt: THE NIGHT FIELD by Donna Glee Williams (Jo Fletcher Books)

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WilliamsDG-NightFieldUKHCThe Night Field by Donna Glee Williams is published today by Jo Fletcher Books. To mark the occasion, the publisher has provided the first chapter for me to share here on CR.

Pyn-Poi’s mother Marak wants her to grow up to be the matriarch of the tribe, learning how to cook, to make medicines, how to care for everyone, but Pyn-Poi would rather be out among the trees like her father Sook-Sook, learning how persuade tree roots into bridges, to feel when shoots are too crowded, when drooping leaves need attention.

Then something starts going wrong in The Real: when the rains come, instead of nourishment, they bring a noxious stench that’s poisoning people and plants alike. Pyn-Poi is the treewoman now: it’s her job. Their only chance is for her to climb to the land beyond the Wall, where the Ancestors live, to plead for their intercession

Pyn-Poi never expected to find a whole new world up there, with people who are very different from her own family and friends – a land where they are killing nature, and that’s killing The Real.

The trees have a job for Pyn-Poi, and to succeed, she is going to have to be brave and strong and true – no matter what.

Now: on with the excerpt…!

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Excerpt: THE LEGEND OF CHARLIE FISH by Josh Rountree (Tachyon)

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RountreeJ-LegendOfCharlieFish“The Black Lagoon meets the Six Gun universe” is how Joe R. Lansdale has described Josh Rountree‘s new novel, The Legend of Charlie Fish; it’s also been described as “True Grit by way of The Shape of Water” — which are two pretty great pitches, in my opinion! To mark its upcoming release, Tachyon Publications have provided us with an excerpt to share with CR’s readers. Before we get to it, here’s the synopsis:

As an unlikely found-family flees toward Galveston, a psychic young girl bonds with Charlie Fish, an enigmatic gill-man. Meanwhile, they are pursued by bounty hunters determined to profit from the spectacle of Charlie. But the Great Storm—the worst natural disaster in U.S. history—is on its way.

As always, Floyd Betts rides into town alone. He arrives for his father’s funeral, but he is returning to Galveston, Texas, with two orphaned siblings he has rescued. Nellie, who is descended from a long line of witches, has visions from other people’s minds. Hank, her impulsive younger brother, just wants to break out his outsized revolver.

Along the way home, Floyd, Nellie, and Hank encounter a dubious traveling salesman, Professor Finn, and his henchman, Kentucky Jim. They are struggling to capture a fish-man in order to put him on cruel display. When Nellie taps into the peril of the gentle Charlie Fish, Floyd’s makeshift family expands to include the lost, two-legged amphibian.

With the circus charlatans in pursuit, ominous winds are picking up from an impending hurricane. Meanwhile, all Charlie Fish wants is to return to his home at sea.

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