Nine top art world mysteries

Patrice McDonough is a former educator who taught history for more than three decades. A member of the Historical Writers of America, the Mystery Writers of America, and the Historical Novel Society, she splits her time between New Jersey and the Florida Gulf Coast.

McDonough's new novel, A Slash of Emerald, is her second Dr. Julia Lewis mystery.

At CrimeReads the author tagged nine titles featuring "dastardly deeds in rarified settings." One title on the list:

Paula Hawkins, The Blue Hour

Does anyone do dread better than Paula Hawkins? The Blue Hour (2024), her fourth psychological thriller, is a quieter story than Hawkins’ sensational debut, The Girl on the Train. This novel’s macabre menace creeps insidiously, opening with a polite but unsettling letter from a forensic anthropologist to the Tate Modern. The exhibit label for a mixed-media sculpture by the late Vanessa Chapman is wrong: the bone in the piece is human, not animal. Ten years before her death, the artist’s philandering, parasitic husband disappeared without a trace. Could the fragment be his?

The story unfolds along two timelines and in three points of view. Art historian James Becker is searching for Chapman’s missing pieces and papers. Dr. Grace Haswell, the artist’s companion, stands in his way. Vanessa Chapman speaks to the reader in diary excerpts and letters curated by Grace. The Blue Hour is about obsession: Becker with the artist’s work, Grace with Vanessa, Vanessa with her art and secrets. Where it’s all heading seems clear enough: a confrontation on Eris, the isolated island battered by the “terrible chaos” of wind and waves where Chapman spent her final years. Still, what happens in the novel’s final moments—at the blue hour, before the stars appear, and color vanishes from sea and sky—jolts.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine titles that take you inside the entertainment industry

Daniel D’Addario is chief correspondent at Variety. He has won awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for profile writing and for political commentary and is among the moderators of Variety’s Actors on Actors video series. He was previously the television critic for Variety and for Time. A graduate of Columbia University, he lives with his husband and two daughters in Brooklyn.

D’Addario's new novel is The Talent.

At Electric Lit he tagged nine books that shed "light on what kind of temperament it takes to make art, and what pressures artists face as they try to express something genuine." One title on the list:

Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris

The greatest Hollywood biography of recent years tracks one prolific director through a long and varied career. Mike Nichols rose to prominence as a filmmaker with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate and went on to make Working Girl, Closer, and Charlie Wilson’s War. Intriguingly, he lacked a fundamental signature or style. He was competent and engaged enough to allow his career to go on, and he spent his life wearing a wig and false eyebrows (a side effect from a childhood medical treatment), which left him fundamentally relating to outsider characters, whether they were a young college alum driftless in Southern California or a Staten Island secretary looking for more. Harris marshals a fantastic set of interviewees to make Nichols’s life and work into a narrative that, itself, might make a great film.

Read about the other books on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top SFF books set in winter climates

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged five stellar sci-fi and fantasy books set in winter climates, including:

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

I am not one to recommend series out of order, but the Discworld books can be read in any order. Or you can read all the books in the series to get to this one, possibly the funniest of the bunch. It’s about the Hogfather, who goes out on Hogswatchnight in his sleigh pulled by eight hogs, to spread presents around Discworld. But when Hogfather goes missing, someone needs to take his place while they search for him. Who is a natural replacement for Hogfather? Death, of course! Death must take on the criminal elements of the world with the help of his granddaughter, Susan, if they want to keep Hogswatchnight from going to the hogs. Er, dogs.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thirteen top books about breakups

At Marie Claire Liz Doupnik tagged "some of the best books about breakups ... for whatever stage of relationship recovery you’re in." One title on the list:

Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn

In this upcoming sexy novel, Rachel is about a week into her life as a newly divorced mom when COVID-19 storms N.Y.C. where she lives, raises her children, and works as a UX designer. Now stuck at home and incredibly horny, Rachel immerses herself in the world of online dating, pushing her vibrator to its limits. After careful safety screenings, Rachel takes the sexting to the sheets, hooking up with random men for the first time in her life.

Though the wild nights are delicious, Rachel can’t shake a convo she had with her best friend about her ideal person. What attributes would she program into them? She has the chops to design those very characteristics into a chatbot—but will she?

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles about a prophecy that changes everything

Olufunke Grace Bankole is a Nigerian American writer and novelist. A graduate of Harvard Law School, and a recipient of a Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Glimmer Train Stories, AGNI, Michigan Quarterly Review, New Letters, The Antioch Review, Stand Magazine (UK), Writer's Digest, Portland Monthly Magazine, and elsewhere.

She won the first-place prize in the Glimmer Train Short-Story Award for New Writers, and was the Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Scholar in Fiction at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She has been awarded an Oregon Literary Fellowship in Fiction, a Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant, a residency-fellowship from the Anderson Center at Tower View, and has received a Pushcart Special Mention for her writing.

Bankole's debut novel, The Edge of Water, set between Nigeria and New Orleans, is the story of Amina, a young woman, who dreams of life in America, as the collision of traditional prophecy and individual longing tests the bonds of a family during a devastating storm.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven "works of fiction in which a life-altering prophecy is featured." One title on the list:

Efuru by Flora Nwapa

Another classic of African literature, this piercing novel tells the story of newly-married Efuru who is struggling with fertility. With her father, she visits the dibia, the Igbo healer and diviner who mediates between the human and spiritual worlds. In sharp detail, the dibia outlines the sacrificial steps Efuru must take in order to ensure that by the following year’s Owu festival, she would be pregnant. Efuru heeds the dibia’s guidance, and when the Owu festival arrives, her in-laws are delighted, as they detect the scent of pregnancy on her being. Indeed, Efuru soon gives birth. But the joy of the prophecy’s manifestation is short-lived when the dibia–after predicting, without providing details, that there will be an issue with Efuru’s child–dies suddenly, along with his unspoken pronouncements over Efuru’s future and the reassurance his foreknowing had once provided.

Read about the other entries on Bankole's list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five likable fictional scoundrels

Wes Browne lives within the Kentucky River Basin in Madison County, Kentucky. He has practiced law as a criminal defense attorney, prosecutor, and public defender in Appalachia for over 24 years. He also helps run his family's pizza shops.

His novel They All Fall the Same was a Goodreads Biggest Thriller or Mystery of 2025 and one of Book Riot Read or Dead's Most Anticipated Books of 2025.

At CrimeReads Browne tagged five "books featuring not-so-good folks in prominent roles that may tickle your fancy." One title on the list:

Frank Guidry in November Road

Lou Berney lets you know right out of the chute that Guidry is a ruthless man. Guidry is a foot soldier for a New Orleans organized crime boss so powerful, he upends the United States government and the history books all over a personal grudge.

This is a spoiler for sure, but it happens in the first chapter, so I’m going to spill it. When we look in on Guidry, he is immediately forced to choose between getting sideways with his boss or giving up the life of his mentor. He barely hesitates to sell his mentor out, rationalizing that if he doesn’t do it, someone else will. If he feels any guilt about it, he shakes it off quickly enough to bed a redhead he just met.

Trouble is, his mentor was a loose end, and it’s not long before Guidry realizes he is one too. And he faces the same fate. He goes on the run with a particularly lethal killer close on his tail and soon concludes his single-man-on-the-road profile is a giveaway. Dual storylines come together when Guidry encounters a wayward housewife from Oklahoma and her young daughters. He hatches a plan to join them as a cover and proceeds to derail their trip long enough to charm his way into their party, knowing all the while that linking up risks the family’s lives. Before long Berney deftly pits Guidry’s survival instincts against his late-developing affection for his traveling companions and his urge to preserve his soul.

Read about the other entries on the list.

November Road is among Frank Sennett's five crime novels that deepen our appreciation of collective trauma and Dwyer Murphy's eleven top modern classics of conspiracy noir.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six essential literary love stories

Jessica Soffer is the author of This Is a Love Story and Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots. She grew up in New York City, attended Connecticut College, and earned her MFA at Hunter College. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, Real Simple, Saveur, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, and on NPR’s Selected Shorts. She teaches creative writing to small groups and in the corporate space and lives in Sag Harbor, New York with her family.

[Writers Read: Jessica Soffer (April 2013); My Book, The Movie: Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots]

Soffer's new novel is This Is a Love Story.

At Lit Hub she tagged six essential literary love stories that "do not sugarcoat the inescapable fact that love is a heavy lift." One title on the list:

Emma Straub, Modern Lovers

Emma Straub is the most delightful writer and this novel is perhaps my favorite of hers. It follows a group of former punk rock bandmates who met at Oberlin College in 1980s to Brooklyn, present day where they have families and careers and the shared sadness of a friend’s death.

Though there is particular focus on time passing, secrets, trauma that hasn’t been worked through and parental love, what strikes me most is Straub’s masterful handling of shifting the love dynamics in a close-knit long-term friend group.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven stories about women coming of age in their 30s and 40s

Emily J. Smith is a writer based in Brooklyn.

Her debut novel is Nothing Serious.

Smith discovered writing in her thirties, after a career in tech and nonprofits. She holds a B.S in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell, and an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She also founded Chorus, the matchmaking app where friends swipe for friends.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven stories that celebrate "women in their thirties and forties who, rather than conforming to the traditional paths of marriage and motherhood, embark on transformative journeys of self-discovery while choosing a life without children." One title on the list:

Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth

Jenny McLaine is an anxious 35-year-old, eager to please and always over-analyzing. The first page starts with her agonizing over captioning the photo of her morning croissant (settling on “CROISSANT, WOO! #CROISSANT”). But Emma Jane Unsworth’s unwavering humor does not distract from the poignancy in this laugh-out-loud novel. Jenny’s journalism career is floundering, and her personal relationships begin to unravel after a breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Art. Prone to extreme self-criticism as a result of her mother’s judgmental eye, Jenny feels like a failure at the very point in her life when she imagined it would all be coming together. She takes solace in a parasocial relationship with an online influencer that only serves to heighten her insecurities and self-doubt. The book follow Jenny as she learns to face her issues-head on, build her sense of self, and define, then trust, her own version of success.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles that feature the uncanny suspense of a third character's arrival

Nick Newman is the adult pen-name of Nicholas Bowling, author of several children’s novels including Witchborn and In the Shadow of Heroes, which was shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award. He works as a bookseller at Daunt Books in London.

His new novel is The Garden.

At CrimeReads Newman tagged five books by "authors who have made masterpieces of tension through a triangulating a single relationship." One title on the list:

Embers, Sandor Marai

It’s a shame more people don’t know about this Hungarian novel – it is so exquisitely melancholy and offers a masterclass in the building of tension. In a gloomy castle at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, an elderly man awaits the arrival of a friend whom he has not seen for over 40 years. He invites him in. They have dinner. They talk. And that is the plot in its entirety. But over the course of that one night, their lives are excavated, the visitor’s character forensically examined, and they dig and dig until they reach the bedrock of their relationship: the thing or the person that caused their estrangement in the first place. The third character in this novel never actually appears, but drifts like a ghost through the recollections of these two old men – only when she is fully fleshed does the novel reach its shattering conclusion.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six titles that owe a debt to Jane Austen’s work

Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and the cofounder of Type Punch Matrix, a rare book company based in Washington, DC. She is the rare books specialist on the History Channel’s show Pawn Stars, and the cofounder of the Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize. She is a generalist rare book dealer, handling works in all fields, from first editions of Jane Austen to science fiction paperbacks. Romney is the author of Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History (with JP Romney) and The Romance Novel in English: A Survey in Rare Books, 1769–1999. Her work as a bookseller or writer has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Variety, The Paris Review, and more. In 2019, she was featured in the documentary on the rare book trade, The Booksellers. She is on the Board of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and the faculty of the Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS-Minnesota).

Romeny's new books is Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend .

At Lit Hub she tagged six books that "owe a debt to Austen’s work" by authors who "teased out threads from Austen in order to make something peculiarly their own." One title on the list:

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James

I could have created a list entirely of contemporary romance authors and it would have been a worthy homage to Austen’s influence, but the breadth of her reach is itself unusual. This murder mystery is an Austen pastiche, using the characters and setting of Austen’s novels, but with an entirely original story. It picks up a few years after Pride and Prejudice, when George Wickham is accused of murder.

James named Austen among the authors of whom she can “detect the influence […] in my own work.” James appreciated Austen’s lurking cynicism, which proved excellent inspiration for a murder mystery in James’s own style. James disliked Austen’s overly saccharine reputation, which she thought unmerited. As James recorded in her diary: “‘Her sweetness of temper never failed,’ wrote her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh. On the contrary, it failed frequently, and if it hadn’t we would not have had six great novels.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

Death Comes to Pemberley is among Erica Wright's eight classic retellings for crime fiction fans and Ronald Frame's top ten reimagined classics.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight contemporary novels with omniscient narrators

Olivia Wolfgang-Smith’s debut novel, Glassworks, was was longlisted for the Center for Fiction and VCU Cabell First Novel Prizes and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Apple, and Good Housekeeping. Her new novel isMutual Interest. She is a 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Fiction and lives in Brooklyn with her partner.

At Electric Lit Wolfgang-Smith tagged eight "contemporary novels that use omniscient narrators in a fascinating way." One title on the list:

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

It’s clear from the first page of Andrew Sean Greer’s Less that the omniscient voice is central to the novel. We hear the story from a teasing, cheeky, highly intrusive narrator—full of obvious affection for protagonist Arthur Less, but just as obviously maddened by Less’s flaws and foibles.

As the book progresses, though, the question of who, exactly, is talking becomes more and more impossible to ignore. Tossed-in first-person asides referencing in-universe interactions with Less feel at first like they’re in fizzy, startling conversation with those omniscient narrators of bygone centuries who might intermittently use the royal “we” and log their opinions on the characters’ decisions.

Over time, things develop in a different direction.

Reading Less for the first time, it begins to feel like Greer is engaged in a craft experiment, then a very unique type of mystery novel—and finally (at the risk of spoiling the surprise) what we realize to be a truly unique po-mo rom-com.

My reading and writing interests of the last several years have led me to see all omniscient narration as an expression of love, and for this case, Less may be Exhibit A.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Less is among Gnesis Villar's seven novels about the struggle of being a writer and Sarah Skilton's six novel novels about novelists.

--Marshal Zeringue

Fifteen top book couples

Staffers at People magazine tagged "some of their favorite literary romances, from books within the genre and beyond." One title on the list:

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark from the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

Sorry, Team Gale! With the hit young adult dystopian series making a strong comeback in 2025, what better time to revisit the ultimate enemies-to-lovers once again?

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Hunger Games also appears on Sarah A. Parker's five strong female leads in fiction, Robert Lee Brewer's list of ten of the best dystopian novels ever written, Patti Callahan's list of five SFF books featuring protective siblings, Off the Shelf's list of ten incredible literary parties, Chevy Stevens's list of the best survivalist thrillers, Amanda Craig's top ten list of the best-dressed characters in fiction, Sarah Driver's list of her five favorite fictional siblings, Meghan Ball's list of eight books or series for Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, Jeff Somers's lists of "five pairs of books that have nothing to do with each other—and yet have everything to do with each other," top five list of dystopian societies that might actually function, and top eight list of revolutionary SF/F novels, P.C. Cast’s top ten list of all-time favorite reads for fantasy fans, Keith Yatsuhashi's list of five gateway books that opened the door for him to specific genres, Catherine Doyle's top ten list of doomed romances in YA fiction, Ryan Britt's list of six of the best Scout Finches -- "headstrong, stalwart, and true" young characters -- from science fiction and fantasy, Natasha Carthew's top ten list of revenge reads, Anna Bradley ten best list of literary quotes in a crisis, Laura Jarratt's top ten list of YA thrillers with sisters, Tina Connolly's top five list of books where the girl saves the boy, Sarah Alderson's top ten list of feminist icons in children's and teen books, Jonathan Meres's top ten list of books that are so unfair, SF Said's top ten list of unlikely heroes, Rebecca Jane Stokes's top ten list of fictional families you could probably abide during holiday season and top eight list of books perfect for reality TV fiends, Chrissie Gruebel's list of favorite fictional fashion icons, Lucy Christopher's top ten list of literary woods, Robert McCrum's list of the ten best books with teenage narrators, Sophie McKenzie's top ten list of teen thrillers, Gregg Olsen's top ten list of deadly YA books, Annalee Newitz's list of ten great American dystopias, Philip Webb's top ten list of pulse-racing adventure books, Charlie Higson's top ten list of fantasy books for children, and Megan Wasson's list of five fantasy series geared towards teens that adults will love too.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels with flawed child prodigies

Jeff Macfee is a writer. The Contest, his latest crime novel, is about a former puzzle prodigy who returns to the contest of her youth.

He is also the author of the superhero noir Nine Tenths.

At CrimeReads Macfee tagged five favorite novels featuring flawed child prodigies "struggling with a talent that doesn’t always, or even often, make their lives easier." One title on the list:

Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game

A science fiction classic, Ender’s Game follows Ender Wiggin in a future where humans battle alien invaders in a fight so desperate even children are drafted into the struggle. Ender’s genius is clear at an early age, but intelligence complicates rather than simplifies his life. He’s thrown into the hyper-competitive Battle School and groomed to lead Earth to victory, his genius a tool to be used and a weapon to be feared. Without spoiling the ending, Ender’s pursuit of excellence has tragic results, and he must ask himself how much he is to blame. An action-packed novel that also serves as a warning for those who apply their genius without thought to consequences.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Ender's Game is among Elisabeth Delp's seven classic science fiction space odysseys, Andrew Liptak's twelve novels that deserve better adaptations than Hollywood produced and top eleven sci-fi reads that might tempt video gamers to put down the controller and try reading, Chris Kluwe's six favorite books, and Jennifer Griffith Delgado's 11 most mind-blowing surprise endings in science fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven thrilling titles about deadly games

Ande Pliego began writing stories when she discovered she could actually wield her overactive imagination for good. A lover of stories with teeth, she writes books involving mind games, dark humor, general murder and mayhem, and most importantly, finding the hope in the dark.

When not reading or writing, she can usually be found dabbling in art, scheming up her next trip, or making constant expeditions to the library. Born in Florida, raised in France, and having left footprints all over the globe, Pliego is settled in the Pacific Northwest, USA, with her craftsman husband and little son.

Her debut novel is You Are Fatally Invited.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven thrilling books set in a world where every move could be your last. One title on the list:

Look In The Mirror by Catherine Steadman
Game: escape room

After the passing of her beloved father, a young woman discovers that he owned a secret house in the Cayman Islands. Grappling with the realization that she might not truly know her father, the woman flies to the island to settle his estate… and discover what he was hiding in the luxury mansion overlooking the cliffs.

Completely unrelated, we also encounter an au-pair, Anna, who arrives ahead of her new employers at a certain mansion overlooking the cliffs. She can do as she likes while she waits for the family to arrive—except open the door with the blinking blue light.

Gee, what could be behind that door? It couldn’t be some sort of test, or… game, now, could it?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight of the worst fantasy worlds to live in

The son of a librarian, Chris M. Arnone's love of books was as inevitable as gravity. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. His cyberpunk series, The Jayu City Chronicles, is available everywhere books are sold. His work can also be found in Adelaide Literary Magazine and FEED Lit Mag. You can find him writing more books, poetry, and acting in Kansas City.

At Book Riot Arnone tagged "eight book series (yes, they’re all series) [featuring] fantasy worlds [that] are bloody, dangerous, destitute, and so much fun to read." One title on the list:

The Empyrean by Rebecca Yarros

I mean, we’ve all read the first two (or even three) in this series at this point, right? The Empyrean series is huge right now, almost as huge as the terrifying dragons and griffins ridden to battle. There’s a war raging, governments lying to their people, and magic is a very dangerous proposition, indeed. Even training to be a dragon rider is practically a death sentence.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten titles that explore South Africa’s identity

Lauren Francis-Sharma is the author of Book of the Little Axe, a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the critically acclaimed novel ’Til the Well Runs Dry. She was a MacDowell fellow and is the Assistant Director of Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College. She resides near Washington, DC, with her family.

Francis-Sharma's new novel is Casualties of Truth.

At Lit Hub she tagged ten books that offer a broad "glimpse into what makes this fascinating country [South Africa] so unique and so complex." One title on the list:

Deon Meyer, The Dark Flood

Dark Flood by Deon Meyer is a continuation of a series of books that tell the story of police officer Benny I was gifted my first Deon Meyer novel by a friend while visiting Johannesburg. He told me I was his favorite author “followed closely by Deon Meyer.”

My friend laughed because we both knew the secret truth! Deon Meyer, “gets it right” he told me. Meyer writes of Cape Town with the specificity of someone who has been to every crack and crevice. The descriptions are vivid and the cast of characters, the bad guys and the good guys, of different races and tribes, have the perfect dialectical precision.

It’s a crime novel, so there are guns and chases, but Griessel is a well-developed character with tremendous flaws who somehow happens to always be in the right and in the wrong. Meyer’s books are entertaining and there’s always something new to learn about South Africa in them.

Read about the other titles on the list at Lit Hub.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books where black women are doing the most

Neena Viel is a horror writer who lives in a cabin in the Washingtonian woods with her husband. She has a canine assistant who fundamentally disrespects the creative process.

Viel grew up between Newburgh, New York and Jonesboro, Arkansas. She holds a Master’s in Public Service from the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and a Bachelor’s in Communication Studies from Arkansas State University. Her passion for philanthropy (almost) rivals her love for ghost stories.

Listen To Your Sister is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads the author tagged "five books featuring...exhausted Black women who should leave everyone to deal with their own bullshit and take a nap." One title on the list:

Not So Perfect Strangers, L.S. Stratton

Tasha Jenkins has successfully escaped her abusive husband--except she’s forced to return when her teenage son opts to stay with his father, trapping her further in a cycle of control and violence. A chance encounter with a white woman who also wants out of her marriage kicks off a modern Strangers On A Train narrative. The relationship between Tasha and her son is gut-wrenching to read, especially as he undermines her efforts to protect him.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books about cousins that explore secrets, rivalries & kinship

Krystelle Bamford’s work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, bath magg, Under the Radar, The Scores, and numerous anthologies including the Best New British and Irish Poets 2019–2021.

She is a 2019 Primers poet and was awarded a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. Raised in the US, she now lives in Edinburgh with her partner and children.

Idle Grounds is Bamford’s first novel.

At Electric Lit she tagged eight books which "explore cousins as ghosts, rivals, allies, schemers, betrayers, and even lovers." One title on the list:

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Kambili is quiet, pious, and always comes first in her year at her exclusive private Catholic high school, except when she doesn’t and the countdown begins on her father’s wrath. Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s deeply moving debut, suspends Kambili between two worlds. The first is her father’s: affluent, devout, and ferociously punitive. The second, her Aunty Ifeoma’s: full of good-natured debate, laughter, and tolerance, including of the Igbo culture to which Kambili’s father has severed all ties. As the first world starts to come apart when her father takes a stand against a military coup, Kambili starts to spend more time in the second, blossoming in the sunlight of their three spirited, intellectual cousins and Father Amadi, a definite forerunner of Fleabag’s Hot Priest.

A nuanced portrait of a daughter’s devotion to her loving and monstrous father against a backdrop of political upheaval, Purple Hibiscus explores what it means to be torn—between your past and your future, your principles and your living, your obligations and your desires—and offers the faint hope that something worthwhile can grow from the split.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Purple Hibiscus is among Emily Temple's twelve top descriptions of flowers in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine literary works that radically reimagine Shakespeare

Grace Tiffany is a professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama at Western Michigan University, an editor of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a translator of Jorge Luís Borges’ writings on Shakespeare, and the author of seven novels, including Will (2004), My Father Had a Daughter (2003), Ariel (2005), The Turquoise Ring (2005), Paint (2013), Gunpowder Percy (2016), and The Owl Was a Baker's Daughter (2025).

At Lit Hub Tiffany tagged seven titles that are among the "most engaging and provocative fictional works inspired by Shakespeare’s plays, as well as a Shakespeare biography or two, and one incomparable short story." One entry on the list:

Best Book on the Question of Why People Keep Asking Whether Shakespeare was Shakespeare

James Shapiro, Contested Will

Last in my catalogue is a terrific book by noted Columbia Shakespearean James Shapiro, whose Contested Will deserves to be grouped with Borges’ microcuento “Everything and Nothing” as an answer to the question, not “Who was Shakespeare?” (as the title slyly suggests), but “Why can’t people just accept that Shakespeare was Shakespeare?”

Shapiro takes on the global urban legend that the Earl of Oxford, or Christopher Marlowe, or Francis Bacon, or Queen Elizabeth, or an intergalactic time traveler, or anyone but William Shakespeare himself, was the real author of Shakespeare’s plays. In an account which will fascinate those interested in literary and theater history, Shapiro shows that it wasn’t until a couple of hundred years after Shakespeare’s death that anyone thought to propose that the Bard wasn’t really the Stratford man.

And he shows why. Why, that is, it was two centuries before anyone thought to question Shakespeare’s identity. For, as Shapiro makes clear, the Bard was, indeed, the Stratford man. Get over it, Oxfordians. And, Shakespeare fans, enjoy!

Read about the other entries on the list.

Contested Will is among Janet Suzman's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven iconic fictional (anti)heroes who work alone

Andrew Welsh-Huggins is the Shamus, Derringer, and International Thriller Writers-award-nominated author of the Andy Hayes Private Eye series, featuring a former Ohio State and Cleveland Browns quarterback turned investigator, and editor of Columbus Noir. His stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mystery Magazine, the 2022 anthology Paranoia Blues: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Paul Simon, and other magazines and anthologies.

[My Book, The Movie: An Empty Grave; Q&A with Andrew Welsh-Huggins; The Page 69 Test: An Empty Grave; Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins (April 2023); My Book, The Movie: The End of the Road; The Page 69 Test: The End of the Road; Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins (November 2024); My Book, The Movie: Sick to Death; The Page 69 Test: Sick to Death]

Welsh-Huggins's newest thriller is The Mailman.

At CrimeReads the author tagged "seven lone-wolf protagonists whose adventures helped inspire The Mailman." One entry on the list:

Reed Farrel Coleman’s Nick Ryan

Ryan may be a sworn New York City police officer but he’s beholden to no one but himself and a few trusted associates. The beauty, and fun, of this series—2023’s Sleepless City and 2024’s Blind to Midnight— is the long leash Ryan is given to investigate sensitive crimes. That, and Ryan’s ability—and willingness—to operate outside the bounds of NYPD rules and regs. When Ryan comes across a gang of fellow officers beating up a man who threatened to file a complaint against one of them, one of the officers tells Ryan it’s not his concern.

Ryan’s reply: “When people tell me not to be concerned, it concerns me.”

Although this is far from a typical police procedural, it’s also hard not to love the series’ tagline: “When you’re in trouble, you call 911. When cops are in trouble, they call Nick Ryan.”

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

Q&A with Reed Farrel Coleman.

My Book, The Movie: Sleepless City.

The Page 69 Test: Sleepless City.

The Page 69 Test: Blind to Midnight.

My Book, The Movie: Blind to Midnight.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top mysteries about family secrets

At Book Riot Addison Rizer tagged eight top mysteries about family secrets. One title on the list:

The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok

Fleeing an abusive husband in China, Jasmine Yang winds up in New York with no money and nowhere to turn. But, she has a goal: to find the daughter that was taken from her. Her journey intersects with Rebecca, a wealthy woman with a professor husband and an adopted daughter navigating a workplace scandal. How will their paths intersect? Pick this up to find out!.

Read about the other entries on the list

The Leftover Woman is among K.T. Nguyen's eight thrillers about dysfunctional mother-daughter relationships.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine Catholic-haunted titles

William Boyle is the author of eight books set in and around the southern Brooklyn neighborhood of Gravesend, where he was born and raised. His most recent novel is Saint of the Narrows Street. His books have been nominated for the Hammett Prize, the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award in the UK, and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in France, and they have been included on best-of lists in the Washington Post, CrimeReads, and more. He currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

[My Book, The Movie: Gravesend and The Lonely Witness; The Page 69 Test: Gravesend and The Lonely Witness; The Page 69 Test: City of Margins; My Book, The Movie: City of Margins; Q&A with William Boyle; The Page 69 Test: Shoot the Moonlight Out; My Book, The Movie: Shoot the Moonlight Out; Writers Read: William Boyle (December 2021); The Page 69 Test: Saint of the Narrows Street]

At Electric Lit Boyle tagged nine "books that interact with Catholicism ... as a powerful force that hangs over everything in the worlds of these characters and authors." One title on the list:

Rush by Kim Wozencraft

I first read the book after seeing Lili Fini Zanuck’s 1991 adaptation starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jason Patric. Based on Wozencraft’s own experiences, it’s the story of Kristen Cates, “a nice Catholic girl who becomes an undercover narcotics officer and a junkie.” At the beginning of the book, as Kristen gets ready to face the Parole Commission, she thinks about leveraging her goody-goody Catholic background for some goodwill. The book is subsumed with an atmosphere derived from Kristen’s Catholic-shaped perceptions of the world. That strain is all but nonexistent in the film adaptation, but you can still feel it somehow. The pressure. The guilt. In an interview with Jill Eisenstadt for BOMB in 1992, discussing her initial naïve belief that drugs themselves are evil, Wozencraft said, “I grew up in a very conservative, traditional household, and I was a good Catholic girl. They teach you never to question authority. I didn’t question authority, and I bought the hype.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top thrillers with parents searching for missing children

Katie Garner was born in New York and grew up in New Jersey. She has a degree in Art History from Ramapo College and is certified to teach high school Art. She hoards paperbacks, coffee mugs, and dog toys and can be seen holding at least one of those things most of the time.

Garner lives in a New Jersey river town with her husband, little boy, and shih-poo where she writes books about women and their dark, secret selves. The Night It Ended is her debut novel and The Family Inside is her newest novel.

At CrimeReads Garner tagged five books that turn "that ‘ordinary’ fear—losing your child—into something extraordinary." One title on the list:

Rick Mofina’s SOMEONE SAW SOMETHING

Mofina shines telling the story of Corina, a journalist whose son disappears in the middle of Central Park. Add that to a plot bubbling with conspiracy theorists, hate mail, and an abundance of red-herrings, and this one is worth checking out if you’re interested in a realistic and twisty page-turner.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books featuring unconventional families

Tom Lamont is an award-winning journalist and one of the founding writers for the Guardian’s Long Reads.

He is the interviewer of choice for Adele and Harry Styles, having written in depth about both of these musicians since they first emerged to fame in the 2010s.

Lamont's debut novel is Going Home: A Novel of Boys, Mistakes, and Second Chances.

At Lit Hub the writer tagged five titles featuring unconventional families. One title on the list:

Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Spoiler avoidance will necessitate some vagueness here: but the core characters in Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel—Kathy H, Tommy D and Ruth C—were born in such a way that family was denied to them. Growing up in an institution together, they become each other’s support system, friends, rivals, lovers, carers.

The title (agonizing, in its fictional context) is a reference to a song that Kathy H, who cannot have children of her own, sings to herself while she imagines rocking a baby to sleep.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Never Let Me Go is on Lauren Ling Brown's list of five dark academia novels by BIPOC authors, Costanza Casati's list of five of the best titles about literary threesomes, Sadi Muktadir's seven novels that give you hope before devastating you, Scott Alexander Howard's list of eight titles from across the world about isolation, Kat Sarfas's list of thirteen top dark academia titles, Raul Palma's list of seven stories about falling into debt, Akemi C. Brodsky's list of five academic novels that won’t make you want to return to school, Claire Fuller's list of seven top dystopian mysteries, Elizabeth Brooks's list of ten great novels with unreliable narrators, Lincoln Michel's top ten list of strange sci-fi dystopias, Amelia Morris's lits of ten of the most captivating fictional frenemies, Edward Ashton's eight titles about what it means to be human, Bethany Ball's list of the seven weirdest high schools in literature, Zak Salih's eight books about childhood pals—and the adults they become, Rachel Donohue's list of seven coming-of-age novels with elements of mystery or the supernatural, Chris Mooney's list of six top intelligent, page-turning, genre-bending classics, James Scudamore's top ten list of books about boarding school, Caroline Zancan's list of eight novels about students and teachers behaving badly, LitHub's list of the ten books that defined the 2000s, Meg Wolitzer's ten favorite books list, Jeff Somers's lists of nine science fiction novels that imagine the future of healthcare and "five pairs of books that have nothing to do with each other—and yet have everything to do with each other" and eight tales of technology run amok and top seven speculative works for those who think they hate speculative fiction, a list of five books that shaped Jason Gurley's Eleanor, Anne Charnock's list of five favorite books with fictitious works of art, Esther Inglis-Arkell's list of nine great science fiction books for people who don't like science fiction, Sabrina Rojas Weiss's list of ten favorite boarding school novels, Allegra Frazier's top four list of great dystopian novels that made it to the big screen, James Browning's top ten list of boarding school books, Jason Allen Ashlock and Mink Choi's top ten list of tragic love stories, Allegra Frazier's list of seven characters whose jobs are worse than yours, Shani Boianjiu's list of five top novels about coming of age, Karen Thompson Walker's list of five top "What If?" books, Lloyd Shepherd's top ten list of weird histories, and John Mullan's lists of ten of the best men writing as women in literature and ten of the best sentences as titles.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven thrillers about the role of the witness

Jacqueline Faber is an author and freelance writer. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Emory University, where she was the recipient of a Woodruff Scholarship, and taught in the Expository Writing Program at New York University, where she received an award for excellence in teaching. She studied philosophy in Bologna, Italy, and received a dissertation grant from Freie University in Berlin, Germany. Faber writes across genres, including thrillers, rom-coms, and essays. Her work explores questions about memory, loss, language, and desire. Steeped in philosophical, psychological, and literary themes, her writing is grounded in studies of character. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.

Faber's debut novel is The Department.

[My Book, The Movie: The Department; Q&A with Jacqueline Faber]

At Electric Lit Faber tagged seven books in which bystanders must decide whether to speak out or stay silent. One title on the list:

In the Woods by Tana French

This gorgeous thriller was Tana French’s debut and introduced the world to her lush prose and rich characters. It’s included on the list because it circles around a character who is haunted by his own inability to become a veritable witness in a crime perpetrated against him. The novel opens with the disappearance of three children in the woods. Only one resurfaces, but he recalls nothing of the harrowing event, or the fates of his best friends. Twenty years later, they are still missing and he’s on the Dublin Murder Squad, investigating another crime in those same dark woods. The question is: can he quiet his own demons enough to solve it?

Read about the other entries on the list.

In the Woods is among Margot Harrison's six titles about the perils of memory manipulation, Peter Nichols's six novels whose crimes & mysteries grow out of place and manners, Amy Tintera's five top thrillers featuring amnesiacs, Emily Schultz's eight top novels about memory loss, Gabino Iglesias's fifty best mysteries of all time, Kate Robards's five thrillers unfolding in wooded seclusion, Paula Hawkins's five novels with criminal acts at their heart, Alafair Burke's top ten books about amnesia, Caz Frear's five top open-ended novels, Gabriel Bergmoser's top ten horror novels, Kate White's favorite thrillers with a main character who can’t remember what matters most, Kathleen Donohoe's ten top titles about missing persons, Jessica Knoll's ten top thrillers, Tara Sonin's twenty-five unhappy books for Valentine’s Day, Krysten Ritter's six favorite mysteries, Megan Reynolds's top ten books you must read if you loved Gone Girl, Emma Straub's ten top books that mimic the feeling of a summer vacation, the Barnes & Noble Review's five top books from Ireland's newer voices, and Judy Berman's ten fantastic novels with disappointing endings.

The Page 69 Test: In the Woods.

--Marshal Zeringue