Hodder

Upcoming: A CITY DREAMING by Daniel Polansky (Hodder/Regan Arts)

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Well, this is certainly one of my most-anticipated novels of the year! I loved Daniel Polansky’s Low Town trilogy, and A City Dreaming looks equally fantastic. Here’s the synopsis:

M is an ageless drifter with a sharp tongue, few scruples, and the ability to bend reality to his will, ever so slightly. He’s come back to New York City after a long absence, and though he’d much rather spend his days drinking artisanal beer in his favorite local bar, his old friends — and his enemies — have other plans for him. One night M might find himself squaring off against the pirates who cruise the Gowanus Canal; another night sees him at a fashionable uptown charity auction where the waitstaff are all zombies. A subway ride through the inner circles of hell? In M’s world, that’s practically a pleasant diversion.

Before too long, M realizes he’s landed in the middle of a power struggle between Celise, the elegant White Queen of Manhattan, and Abilene, Brooklyn’s hip, free-spirited Red Queen, a rivalry that threatens to make New York go the way of Atlantis. To stop it, M will have to call in every favor, waste every charm, and blow every spell he’s ever acquired—he might even have to get out of bed before noon.

Enter a world of Wall Street wolves, slumming scenesters, desperate artists, drug-induced divinities, pocket steampunk universes, and demonic coffee shops. M’s New York, the infinite nexus of the universe, really is a city that never sleeps — but is always dreaming.

A City Dreaming is due to be published in October by Hodder (UK) and Regan Arts (US).

Quick Review: BEFORE THE FALL by Noah Hawley (Grand Central)

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HawleyN-BeforeTheFallUSAn excellent, gripping mystery

On a foggy summer night, eleven people — ten privileged, one down-on-his-luck painter — depart Martha’s Vineyard on a private jet headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: the plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott Burroughs, the painter, and a four-year-old boy, who is now the last remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul’s family.

With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers and crew members — including a Wall Street titan and his wife, a Texan-born party boy just in from London, a young woman questioning her path in life, and a career pilot — the mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens. As the passengers’ intrigues unravel, odd coincidences point to a conspiracy. Was it merely by dumb chance that so many influential people perished? Or was something far more sinister at work? Events soon threaten to spiral out of control in an escalating storm of media outrage and accusations. And while Scott struggles to cope with fame that borders on notoriety, the authorities scramble to salvage the truth from the wreckage.

This is a fantastic novel. I have very high hopes before reading Before the Fall, and I’m very happy to report that it exceeded my expectations. The story is told from a number of perspectives, each a passenger on the fateful flight. This is an excellent read, and certainly in my top five of the year (so far). Continue reading →

Interview with MATTHEW BLAKSTAD

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BlakstadM-AuthorPic2Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Matthew Blakstad?

Former child actor, then a director of fringe theatre, more recently a specialist on digital communications – and now, novelist. I’ve lived in South London most of my life. I’m married, no kids. No cats (allergic spouse). As you’ll guess if you’ve read my book I’m very much into tech culture but perversely I also love the natural world and wild places.

Your new novel, Sockpuppet, will be published by Hodder. It looks rather interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader?

It’s a thriller, set in the very near future. An online celebrity starts dishing dirt on a politician, but this online voice is nothing but a chatbot – an artificial persona created by software. So how is a fake personality causing mayhem in the real world? Two very different women – a middle-aged politician called Bethany Lehrer, and a young software developer called Dani Farr – need to find out fast who’s behind this malicious campaign before it takes their lives to pieces.

Along the way, the book asks questions about how our online life is changing us – at the erosion of our privacy, the trolling of women, and the shift of power away from governments and towards the big technology companies. Continue reading →

Interview with THOMAS OLDE HEUVELT

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HeuveltTO-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Thomas Olde Heuvelt?

I’m a Dutch guy who writes pretty scary novels. I started out pretty young, and even now, after five novels, I look younger than I am. So much that at signings, people always thought I was the minion helping with the book sale instead of the author. Two years ago — I was 30 then — I was having dinner with Peter Straub and Jeff VanderMeer and a bunch of other writers in Washington, and I was asked for ID when the waiters poured the wine. They thought I was their adopted child or something.

Oh, right, serious biography stuff. I also won a Hugo. And I have a novel out internationally in 2016 called HEX.

Your latest novel, Hex, will be published by Hodder in the UK. It looks rather fabulous: How would you introduce it to a potential reader?

Thanks — I’m totally in love with the cover. It’s so creepy! HEX is a creepy book about a modern day town, haunted day and night by a 17th century witch whose eyes are sewn shut. The town is virtually quarantined by its elders to prevent her curse from exploding. Frustrated with being kept in lock down, the town’s teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting, but in doing so, send the town spiraling into… well, into very dark times, to frame it nicely. Also, I’d say that with HEX, I set off to write the scariest book I could imagine. I took elements from classical horror and tried to turn them around in a modern, twisted way. The witch’s haunting is very rock ‘n’ roll. She’s always there. She walks the streets day and night. She enters your home. She stands next to your bed for nights in a row. The town is bugged with cameras and there’s this control centre that tries to hide her from sight all the time. But besides the supernatural power, it’s a book mostly about human evil. Continue reading →

Quick Review: ROGUE LAWYER by John Grisham (Doubleday/Hodder)

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GrishamJ-RogueLawyerUSAn interesting new character

On the right side of the law. Sort of.

Sebastian Rudd is not your typical street lawyer. He works out of a customized bulletproof van, complete with Wi-Fi, a bar, a small fridge, fine leather chairs, a hidden gun compartment, and a heavily armed driver. He has no firm, no partners, no associates, and only one employee, his driver, who’s also his bodyguard, law clerk, confidant, and golf caddy. He lives alone in a small but extremely safe penthouse apartment, and his primary piece of furniture is a vintage pool table. He drinks small-batch bourbon and carries a gun.

Sebastian defends people other lawyers won’t go near: a drug-addled, tattooed kid rumored to be in a satanic cult, who is accused of molesting and murdering two little girls; a vicious crime lord on death row; a homeowner arrested for shooting at a SWAT team that mistakenly invaded his house. Why these clients? Because he believes everyone is entitled to a fair trial, even if he, Sebastian, has to cheat to secure one. He hates injustice, doesn’t like insurance companies, banks, or big corporations; he distrusts all levels of government and laughs at the justice system’s notions of ethical behavior.

Rogue Lawyer is a pretty good novel. It’s not Grisham’s best, but he manages to cover a lot of ground. The author does this by writing a series of loosely-connected cases, each touching upon a hot-button topic in American law and politics: warrior cops, tort reform, MMA fights, child custody, prison policy, and a few others. It’s an interesting novel, but flawed and not as gripping as some of his previous work. Continue reading →

Upcoming: THE COUNTENANCE DIVINE by Michael Hughes (Hodder)

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HughesM-CountenanceDivineUKI stumbled across this on Hodder’s website yesterday, and my eye was caught by that stunning cover. There wasn’t a synopsis on the publisher’s page, but there was on Amazon. Here it is:

In 1999 a programmer is trying to fix the millennium bug, but can’t shake the sense he’s been chosen for something.

In 1888, five women are brutally murdered in the East End by a troubled young man in thrall to a mysterious master.

In 1777 an apprentice engraver called William Blake has a defining spiritual experience; thirteen years later this vision returns.

And in 1666, poet and revolutionary John Milton completes the epic for which he will be remembered centuries later.

But where does the feeling come from that the world is about to end?

That sounds pretty interesting, and has been described as “a brilliant cross between David Mitchell and Hilary Mantel,” which is certainly intriguing. The Countenance Divine is published in the UK by Hodder, on August 11th, 2016.

Upcoming: THE WHISTLER by John Grisham (Hodder/Doubleday)

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Grisham-WhistlerUKNew Grisham! I know a lot of people look down on Grisham and his popularity (the number of times I’ve heard people sneer his name… depressing), but I’m a big fan. His novels don’t always hit the mark, but aside from maybe three, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them. This next novel sounds really interesting, too. Here’s the synopsis:

We expect our judges to be honest and wise. Their integrity and impartiality are the bedrock of the entire judicial system. We trust them to ensure fair trials, to protect the rights of all litigants, to punish those who do wrong, and to oversee the orderly and efficient flow of justice.

But what happens when a judge steps out of bounds, breaks a law, compromises ethics, or even takes a bribe? It’s rare, but it happens.

Lacy Stolz is a lawyer working as an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. After ten years, only two of her cases have seen judges removed from office, and both of those were for incompetence.

That all changes when she is approached by a disbarred lawyer with a new name, a new identity, a new address. He goes by Rick, and Rick claims to know someone close to a Florida circuit court judge so corrupt that he (or she) has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined. And not just crooked judges in Florida. All judges, from all states, and throughout U.S. history.

The judge was responsible for the construction of a large casino on Native American land. A small but lethal gang of organized thugs financed the building of the casino and is now, like the judge, helping itself to a sizable cut of each month’s cash. It’s a sweet deal; everyone is making money.

The whistleblower stands to collect millions under Florida law. Rick files a complaint. Lacy Stolz is assigned the case. She immediately knows this one could be dangerous. Could, in fact, be deadly.

The Whistler is due to be published in the UK by Hodder, and in North America by Doubleday (no US cover at the time of writing, and they also haven’t updated his page to include the title or details).

Upcoming: MISTER MEMORY by Marcus Sedgwick (Hodder)

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SedgwickM-MisterMemoryUKI’m a fan of Marcus Sedgwick’s work — I thought his previous novel for adults, A Love Like Blood, was superb. Ever since finishing that, I’ve been eagerly awaiting his next novel. And, in July, Hodder will be publishing Mister Memory. Here’s the skinny:

In Paris, at the end of the nineteenth century, a man with a perfect memory murders his wife. But that is only the start of the story… A dazzling literary mystery from prizewinning author Marcus Sedgwick.

In Paris in the year 1899, Marcel Després is arrested for the murder of his wife and transferred to the famous Salpêtrière asylum. And there the story might have stopped.

But the doctor assigned to his care soon realises this is no ordinary patient: Marcel Després, Mister Memory, is a man who cannot forget. And the policeman assigned to his case soon realises that something else is at stake: for why else would the criminal have been hurried off to hospital, and why are his superiors so keen for the whole affair to be closed? 

This crime involves something bigger and stranger than a lovers’ fight — something with links to the highest and lowest establishments in France. The policeman and the doctor between them must unravel the mystery… but the answers lie inside Marcel’s head. And how can he tell what is significant when he remembers every detail of every moment of his entire life?

Mister Memory is due to be published in the UK by Hodder, on July 14th, 2016. For more, check out the author’s website, and follow him on Twitter and Goodreads.

Upcoming: A CLOSED AND COMMON ORBIT by Becky Chambers (Hodder)

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ChambersB-W2-AClosedAndCommonOrbitUKA Closed and Common Orbit is the stand-alone sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (which I have, but still need to read — hopefully soon). The series has been very well received by reviewers, and is often described as a perfect read for fans of Firefly, Joss Whedon’s various projects, and Star Wars. I think both novels sound great. Here’s the synopsis:

Lovelace was once merely a ship’s artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in an new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who’s determined to help her learn and grow.

Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet introduced readers to the incredible world of Rosemary Harper, a young woman with a restless soul and secrets to keep. When she joined the crew of the Wayfarer, an intergalactic ship, she got more than she bargained for — and learned to live with, and love, her rag-tag collection of crewmates.

Becky Chambers‘s A Closed and Common Orbit is due to be published by Hodder in the UK, on October 20th, 2016. Voyager is due to publish The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in May 2016, and A Closed and Common Orbit in October 2016, in the US.

For more on Becky Chambers’s writing and novels, be sure to check out the author’s website, and also follow her on Twitter and Goodreads.

Upcoming: POISON CITY by Paul Crilley (Hodder)

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CrilleyP-1-PoisonCityUKThis novel sounds like it could be quite fun. I still don’t read very much urban fantasy, which is strange to me — I love it as a genre of TV show and movie. This has been billed as “Rivers of London meets Zoo City… perfect for grown-up fans of Harry Potter” — that’s a pretty confident boast. If it’s true, though, this novel could be huge. Here’s the synopsis:

The name’s Gideon Tau, but everyone just calls me London. I work for the Delphic Division, the occult investigative unit of the South African Police Service. My life revolves around two things — finding out who killed my daughter and imagining what I’m going to do to the bastard when I catch him.

I have two friends. The first is my boss, Armitage, a fifty-something DCI from Yorkshire who looks more like someone’s mother than a cop. Don’t let that fool you. The second is the dog, my magical spirit guide. He talks, he watches TV all day, and he’s a mean drunk.

Life is pretty routine — I solve crimes, I search for my daughter’s killer. Wash, rinse, repeat. Until the day I’m called out to the murder of a ramanga — a low-key vampire — basically, the tabloid journalist of the vampire world. It looks like an open and shut case. There’s even CCTV footage of the killer.

Except… the face on the CCTV footage? It’s the face of the man who killed my daughter. I’m about to face a tough choice. Catch her killer or save the world? I can’t do both.

It’s not looking good for the world.

Paul Crilley‘s Poison City is due to be published by Hodder in the UK, on August 11th, 2016. For more on Paul’s writing and novels, be sure to check out the author’s website, and follow him on Twitter and Goodreads.