Joseph Horace Greasley is one of countless veterans from the Second World War who haven’t let their experience and memories go to waste, writing his autobiography shortly before his passing titled Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell?.
In this book, the brunt of the focus is placed on his time spent as a prisoner of war in a German camp, and his hundreds of successful attempts to sneak out and meet with his love interest, and then back in with anything to help his comrades.
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McGarry Stateside Series (Book 1)
Caimh McDonnell has introduced the world to Bunny McGarry in The Dublin Trilogy, and in his new series titled McGarry Stateside, he brings the hero to the United States of America.
The first novel, titled Disaster Inc, takes us to Manhattan where Bunny accidentally finds himself having to protect Amy Daniels, a woman who heard the confession of a hedge fund manager and is now targeted for assassination because of it.
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Renée Ballard & Harry Bosch
“The Night Fire” by Michael Connelly – The Investigator’s Flame
Michael Connelly may have traveled a long road with Harry Bosch, but he found a way to breathe a new life into him, partnering him up with detective Renee Ballard.
In the second book in their series, titled The Night Fire, the duo sets out to solve a case which haunted Harry’s mentor for over twenty years until his death, the unsolved murder of a troubled young man.
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The Queen of Rock & Roll
“Janis” by Holly George-Warren – God Save the Queen of Rock & Roll
Holly George-Warren is an authority like few others when it comes to the storied yet short history of Rock & Roll, having dedicated a large portion of her life to studying the phenomenon. As such, who better than to write a profoundly-researched and intimate biography of Janis Joplin, the Queen of Rock & Roll?
In Janis, George-Warren aims to show the legend not only as a counterculture icon filled with suffering, but also as a passionate artist and perfectionist musician who was, in the end, human like the rest of us.
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SciFi, Dystopian, Apocalypse
Chuck Wendig was never one to let a good and original idea go to waste, and in his novel Wanderers he presents a truly unique idea, something which happens less and less often in this world.
In essence, it tells the story of an ever-growing flock of sleepwalkers journeying across America, their friends and family protecting them along the way, and the society around them which begins to collapse, some even seeking their deaths.
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Renée Ballard & Harry Bosch
“Dark Sacred Night” by Michael Connelly – Fifteen Years of Darkness
Michael Connelly is rightfully known as a true modern master of murder mysteries and detective fiction, the Harry Bosch series being his most famous creation.
In Dark Night, he brings together Bosch and detective Renee Ballard to create a new series which sees his characters working together. In their first outing, the try and put to rest an old unsolved case, the murder of a runaway in Hollywood, the 15-year-old Daisy Clayton.
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Historical Mystery
“Where the Light Enters” by Sara Donati – The Shield of the Doctors Savard
Sara Donati may have truly started something remarkable with her Gilded Hour Series, presenting a portrayal of late 19th-century Manhattan from some unique perspectives.
In the second novel in the series, titled Where the Light Enters, Donati pursues the story of Sophie and Anna Savard, two cousins who are also doctors. This time around, as they are still trying to find a place for themselves in this world, they are also called upon by the police as consultants for a couple of curious cases which suggest a killer might be on the prowl.
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Explore
“The Grand Dark” by Richard Kadrey – Celebrating the Shadow of Euphoria
Richard Kadrey is one of the most unique and original authors out there, with nearly every single one of his stories being incomparable to anything else in the realm of literature.
One of his latest novels, The Grand Dark, bears once again testimony to his incredible abilities as an author, telling a rather complex story revolving around the city of Lower Proszawa, blinded by extreme hedonism and euphoria from winning the great war, despite a darkness looming ahead. In the middle of it, a drug-addled bike messenger from the slums has an ambitious dream he will stop at nothing to realize.
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“The Gilded Hour” by Sara Donati – Defiance in a Changing World
Sara Donati, the pen name used by Rosina Lippi, has authored quite a few remarkable historical novels, and out of them all none attracted the same kind of attention as The Gilded Hour, the first book in the series bearing the same name.
We begin our journey through 1883 New York as we follow the lives of two female doctors, both struggling in their own ways with the realities of the times, doing their best to bring whatever goodness they can to a suffering world.
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“Permanent Record” by Edward Snowden – The Electric Eye of Freedom
Edward Snowden is a name which comes up time and time again in news articles all around the world, but the truth is most people aren’t familiar with the importance of his whistleblowing below the surface level.
In September 2019 he published his first work as an author: Permanent Record. Autobiographical in its nature, Snowden details in his book how he helped to build the United States’ mass surveillance system, and how he came to be on the other side of the hill, trying to take it down.
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“Her Silent Cry” by Lisa Regan – Carousel of Sorrow
Lisa Regan has earned much of her renown through the exceptional Detective Josie Quinn series, and the heroine returns to do what she does best in Her Silent Cry.
This time around, the case revolves around a young girl, Lucy, who seems to have disappeared into thin air while riding the carousel at Denton city park. It doesn’t take long for a note from the kidnapper to be found in Lucy’s backpack… and soon after, her babysitter’s lifeless body.
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“Cold Storage” by David Koepp – One Night to Extinction
David Koepp has taken a long time to transpose his screenwriter’s talents into the form of a novel, but in 2019 he finally did so with his first published work of fiction, Cold Storage.
It tells the story of Roberto Diaz who once managed to contain an organism capable of causing a total extinction of humanity. Decades later, the organism has found its way out of containment, and the old Diaz has only the night to try and contain it, with his help being two unwitting security guards.
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“Chances Are …” by Richard Russo – The Friends Chained Together
Richard Russo has without a doubt earned his stripes in the world of literature, and he keeps on trudging forward trying to give his readers new and unpredictable literature, something he might have very well succeeded in with his latest novel, Chances Are ….
The novel tells a story of three very different and older friends who gather on a vineyard from their older days to reminisce, but most importantly, to try and solve the disappearance of the woman they all fell in love with.
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“The Only Plane in the Sky” by Garrett M. Graff – The Nation’s Perspectives
Garrett M. Graff has been exercising his journalistic talents for a long time now, and he certainly put his years of experience to good use in his latest non-fiction book, The Only Plane in the Sky.
In it, Graff aims to give the most detailed and comprehensive account possible of the tragedy which occurred on 9/11, examining the perspectives of virtually everyone related to the event, from the regular people on the streets to the generals in the bunker beneath the White House.
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“Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers” by Bryan Mark Rigg – The Thin Ancestral Line
Bryan Mark Rigg has dedicated his craft, so far at least, to the study of a very particular and interesting topic few are familiar with: the “Mischlinge” (“partial-Jews”), referring to the Jewish people who served in the Nazi army.
In Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers he delves deep into the topic, documenting the stories and fates of some 150,000 such men and how their lives unfolded while caught between two worlds.
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