Fiction

Excerpt: WHEN WE WERE ENEMIES by Emily Bleeker (Lake Union)

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BleekerE-WhenWeWereEnemiesUSHCToday, we have an excerpt from When We Were Enemies by Wall Street Journal best-selling author Emily Bleeker. A story about families, legacies, and the long impact of secrets, set in the present day and also during World War 2. Here’s the synopsis:

Two women, generations apart, in the spotlight. A powerful novel about family secrets, devastating choices, and hope for the future.

Camera-shy Elise Branson is different from the other women in her matriline. Her mother is an award-winning actress. Her late grandmother, Vivian Snow, is a beloved Hollywood icon. But when Elise’s upcoming wedding coincides with a documentary being made about Vivian, Elise can’t escape the camera’s gaze. And even in death, neither can her grandmother.

It’s 1943 when Vivian, a small-town Indiana girl, lends her home front support to the war effort. As a translator in the nearby Italian POW camp, she’s invaluable. As a celebrated singer for the USO, she lifts men’s spirits and falls in love with a soldier. But behind this all-American love story is a shocking secret — one vital to keep buried if Vivian is to achieve the fame and fortune, she covets.

For Elise and Vivian, what’s hidden — and what’s exposed — threatens to unravel their lives. The heart-wrenching choices they must make will change them both forever.

Read on for the excerpt: Chapter 5 of the novel…

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Quick Review: THE HELSINKI AFFAIR by Anna Pitoniak (Simon & Schuster)

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PitoniakA-HelsinkiAffairUSHCPitoniak’s engaging, gripping first foray into espionage fiction

IT’S THE CASE OF AMANDA’S LIFETIME, BUT SOLVING IT WILL REQUIRE HER TO BETRAY ANOTHER SPY — WHO JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE HER FATHER.

SPYING IS THE FAMILY BUSINESS. Amanda Cole is a brilliant young CIA officer following in the footsteps of her father, who was a spy during the Cold War. It takes grit to succeed in this male-dominated world — but one hot summer day, when a Russian defector walks into her post, Amanda is given the ultimate chance to prove herself.

The defector warns of the imminent assassination of a US senator. Though Amanda takes the warning seriously, her superiors don’t. Twenty-four hours later, the senator is dead. And the assassination is just the beginning.

Corporate blackmail, covert manipulation, corrupt oligarchs: the Kremlin has found a dangerous new way to wage war. Teaming up with Kath Frost, a fearless older woman and legendary spy, Amanda races from Rome to London, from St. Petersburg to Helsinki, unraveling the international conspiracy. But as she gets closer and closer to the truth, a central question haunts her: Why was her father’s name written down in the senator’s notes? What does Charlie Cole really know about the Kremlin plot?

I’ve been a fan of Anna Pitoniak’s writing for quite some time — I read an advance review copy of the author’s debut, The Futures, and have been a fan ever since. In The Helsinki Affair, the author offers her first espionage thriller. I really enjoyed this, and I hope it’s a sign of more to come. Continue reading →

Guest Post: THE CORSET & THE JELLYFISH by Nick Bantock (Tachyon)

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BantockN-CorsetAndTheJellyfishUSHCWhen the publishers and I were working out which of my drabbles to include in the upcoming, The Corset and the Jellyfish, there were a few stories that the editorial team felt had issues, or due to being unable to be squeezed down, was eventually deemed a reject.

Sometimes it’s virtually impossible to convey time and place (beginning, middle, end) of a 100-word story.

Now, liberated from constraint, you can find five of those drabbles available as a guest post at the Civilian Reader.

Please enjoy!

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Very Quick Review: SET FOR LIFE by Andrew Ewell (Simon & Schuster)

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EwellA-SetForLifeUSHCA well-written campus novel, but one that — despite early promise — doesn’t deviate much from the well-worn template

A creative writing professor at a third-tier college in upstate New York is on his way home from a summer fellowship in France, where he’s spent the last three months loafing around Bordeaux, tasting the many varieties of French wine at his disposal, and doing just about anything but actually working on his long overdue novel. A stopover in Brooklyn to see his and his wife’s closest friends — John, a jaded poet-turned-lawyer with a dubious moral compass, and Sophie, a once-promising fiction writer with a complicated past and a mysterious allure — causes further trouble when he and Sophie wind up sleeping together while John is out serenading Brooklyn coeds with poems instead of preparing legal briefs.

But instead of succumbing to his failures as a teacher, writer, and husband, an odd freedom begins to bubble up. Could a love affair be the answer he’s been searching for? Could it offer the escape he needs from the department chair, Chet Bland, who’s been breathing down his neck? Relief from the gossip of colleagues and generational tension with students? Respite from embarrassment over his wife, Debra Crawford, and her meteoric rise as a novelist? His escapades might even make the perfect raw material for an absolutely devastating novel, which would earn him tenure, wealth, and celebrity — everything he needs to be set for life. If only he could be the one to write it.

I’ve always been a fan of campus novels — ever since I read Richard Russo’s very good Straight Man (recently adapted into the limited series, Lucky Hank, starring Bob Odenkirk). Since then, Julie Schumacher has joined the ranks of my all-time favourite authors. My fond reading memories are populated by a good number of novels set on campuses. It is probably unsurprising, then, that when I had the chance to read and review Andrew Ewell’s Set For Life, I jumped at the chance. As it turned out, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Continue reading →

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: 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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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 →

Upcoming: THE LAST DAYS OF THE MIDNIGHT RAMBLERS by Sarah Tomlinson (Flatiron)

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TomlinsonS-LastDaysOfTheMidnightRamblersUSHCIt’s always interesting to see how a smash-hit book can spur the rise of a mini-genre, and there’s no denying that Taylor Jenkins-Reid’s Daisy Jones & the Six generated a lot of interest in music-related fiction. As a long-time music fan/obsessive, I naturally am very taken by the genre — not only is Daisy Jones… one of my recent favourites, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed many other novels that have popped up in the sub-genre (e.g., Emma Brodie’s Songs in Ursa Major). So, I’m always on the look-out for more music-related fiction.

In The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers, due out in February 2024, Sarah Tomlinson takes an intriguing new approach to the genre. Here’s the synopsis:

Three Rock & Roll icons. Two explosive tell-all memoirs. One ghostwriter caught in the middle.

Anke Berben is ready to tell all. A legendary model and style icon, she reveled in headline-grabbing romances with not one but three members of the hugely influential rock band the Midnight Ramblers. The band members were as famous for their backstage drama as for their music, and Anke is the only one who fully understands the tangled relationships, betrayals, and suspicions that have added to the Ramblers’ enduring appeal and mystique. That is most evident in the mystery around Anke’s role in the death of Mal, the band’s founder and Anke’s husband, in 1969.

When Mari Hawthorn accepts the job to work with Anke on her memoir, she is dead set on getting to the truth of Mal’s death. She has always been deft at navigating the fatal charms of celebrities, having grown up with a narcissistic, alcoholic father. As she ingratiates herself into the world of the band, she grows enchanted, against her better judgment, by these legendary rock stars. She knows she can’t get pulled in too deep, otherwise she’ll compromise her objectivity — and her integrity.

Love the premise, and am very much looking forward to reading this.

Sarah Tomlinson’s The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers is due to be published by Flatiron Books in North America and in the UK, on February 13th, 2024.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, Twitter

Very Quick Review: THE ROAD TO DALTON by Shannon Bowring (Europa Editions)

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BowringS-RoadToDaltonUSHCsmAn excellent novel about the lives, loves, and secrets that make up a small town community

It’s 1990, and the lives of the inhabitants of Dalton, Maine play on.

Rose goes to work at the diner every day, her bruises hidden from both the customers and her two young boys. At a table she waits, Dr. Richard Haskell looks back on the one choice that’s charted his entire life, before his thoughts wander back to his wife, Trudy, and her best friend.

Trudy and Bev have been friends for longer than they can count, and something more than lovers to each other for some time now — a fact both accepted and ignored by their husbands. Across town, new mother Bridget lives with her high school sweetheart Nate, and is struggling with postpartum after a traumatic birth. And nearer still is teenager Greg, trying to define the complicated feelings he has about himself and his two close friends.

In most small towns, the private is also public. When one of Dalton’s own makes an unthinkable decision, the community is left reeling. In the aftermath, their problems, both small and large, reveal a deeper understanding of the lives of their neighbors, and remind us that no one is exactly who you think they are.

The Road to Dalton offers valuable understandings of what it means to be alive in the world — of pain and joy, conflict and love, and the endurance that comes from living.

A very quick review, today, for Shannon Bowring’s debut novel, The Road to Dalton. It’s the story of a small town in Maine, told in linked chapters, each told from the perspective of a different town resident. I really enjoyed this. Continue reading →

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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