“Hack” by SGM Ashcroft – Redemption for a Newspaper Lunatic
SGM Ashcroft has spent a long time working as a journalist before finally making his debut novel, titled Hack.
The story follows an ambitious newspaper reporter in Portsmouth, England, Llew Sabler, who is always trying to break the big story, even after he has become the most reviled figure in town following a stunt gone wrong. Even more, the story he’s caught the scent of promises either death or glory, nothing in-between.
“Shakespeare for Squirrels” by Christopher Moore – Murder in the Fairy Kingdom
Christopher Moore possesses the special gift of having a unique sense of comedy, one he put on full display in his Fool Series.
In the third book, titled Shakespeare for Squirrels, we follow Pocket as he manages to anger a Greek Duke who orders his death. Upon his escape he meets the fairy king, who promises to save him from the Duke, on the condition he solves the murder of a mischievous sprite.
“Angels in the Moonlight” by Caimh McDonnell – The First Big Case
Caimh McDonnell is well on the way to turning Bunny McGarry into a household name with the Dublin Trilogy Series. The third entry, titled Angels in the Moonlight, takes on the guise of a prequel and transports us back to 1999, when things were no less complicated for the detective.
Finally given a chance to solve a real big case, Bunny opens perhaps the most important door of his life, the one which set him down on a path of infinite complications.
“The Brothers Cabal” by Jonathan L. Howard – Fraternal Slayers of the Occult
Jonathan L. Howard has never run short of demonic adventures to send his favourite necromancer on, and in The Brothers Cabal, Johannes has the distinction of once again partnering up with his brother Horst.
Recently resurrected by an occult conspiracy in hopes of making him the general of an undead army, Horst isn’t thrilled with the plans they have in store for him, instead deciding to seek out Johannes’ help to wage war on those who brought him back.
“No Sunscreen for the Dead” by Tim Dorsey – Predator of the Elderly
Tim Dorsey added a dose of clever and unique comedy to the world of literature when he began writing the Serge Storms series, always finding new and interesting scenarios for the mentally-disturbed vigilante to apply his moral code.
In No Sunscreen for the Dead we are treated to yet another one of his excursions as he decides to observe elderly people in a retirement community along with his buddy Coleman. However, he soon uncovers a mass fraud affair and sets out to hunt down the culprit for swindling all the poor residents of the community.
“Noir” by Christopher Moore – The Wild Forties of San Francisco
Christopher Moore is an author who has certainly set himself apart from his peers by virtue of the originality found in his stories. Time and time again he brings us tales from the outer reaches of ridiculousness, no subject off-limits or humour too distasteful.
In Noir he returns to the helm of his ship once again to take us on another crazy wild ride, this one taking place in 1947 San Francisco and populated with a wise-cracking bombshell, a bartender, mobsters, a general, the Roswell crash alien, a talking snake, and this is just for starters.
“The Puppeteer” by Brian O’Sullivan – White House of Marionettes
Brian O’Sullivan is the kind of person who isn’t afraid to speak his mind without mincing words, to draw the light to opinions we might want to ignore.
Writing has always been a prime method of expression for anyone willing to give themselves to it, and in a novel whose publication he expedited, titled The Puppeteer, he expresses with great vigor his distaste for the toxicity of the current political climate.
It’s all told through the story of Frank and Evie, two regular people who become embroiled in a plot by a menace aligned with the far-right to take over the country by seizing the true power: control over the president.
“Practical Demonkeeping” by Christopher Moore – An Immortality-Gifting Demon as a Pet
Christopher Moore regales us with a strange and very unusual story that takes us into the heart of a small-time American town in California.
Little do its idiosyncratic citizens suspect, their lives are about to be turned upside down and inside out with the arrival of a young man in his 20s, who 70 years ago made a pact with a demon to become an immortal… a demon that remains with him to this very day.
Though the reluctant master can sometimes control the demon, the latter becomes more erratic as he gets hungrier… and what better buffet for a demon than a town full of people?
“Sick to Death” by Greg Levin – Dying to Kill… Literally
Greg Levin has a true aptitude for coming up with unique and original premises to drive the stories of his books, and Sick to Death is a perfect example of his outside-the-box thinking.
In this book, we follow a trio of unusual vigilante superheroes: terminally-ill support group patients. They take to the streets and declare war on all the criminal scum, now blindly fleeing them in terror. However, when one of the trio takes their crime-fighting prowess to questionable lengths, hundreds of people are suddenly in mortal danger.