Seven crime novels where vengeance is justified

T.R. Ragan (Theresa Ragan) is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Her exciting Lizzy Gardner series: Abducted, Dead Weight, A Dark Mind, Obsessed, Almost Dead, and Evil Never Dies, has received tremendous praise. In August 2015 Evil Never Dies hit #7 on the Wall Street Journal bestselling list. Since publishing in 2011, she has sold over three million books and has been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, the L.A. Times, PC Magazine, Huffington Post, and Publishers Weekly.

Ragan grew up in a family of five girls in Lafayette, California. An avid traveler, her wanderings have carried her to Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, China, Thailand, and Nepal, where she narrowly survived being chased by a killer elephant.

Her new novel is Don't Make a Sound.

At CrimeReads Ragan tagged seven "revenge stories about ordinary people who are thrown into extraordinary circumstances," including:

What She Gave Away by Catharine Riggs

An unusual thriller with a delightful amount of rage and revenge. This clever read is filled with twists and turns I did not see coming. Despite the many unlikeable characters, I loved this story. Crystal is manipulative and scheming, and even her horrible childhood does not make her sympathetic. But the plot sucked me in and demanded I read until the end, when all my questions were answered.

Read about the other entries on the list.

My Book, The Movie: What She Gave Away.

The Page 69 Test: What She Gave Away.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best books to transport you to other worlds

Tade Thompson lives and works in the south of England.

He is the author of the Rosewater trilogy (winner of the Nommo Award and John W. Campbell finalist), The Murders of Molly Southbourne (nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the Nommo Award), and Making Wolf (winner of the Golden Tentacle Award).

At the Guardian, Thompson tagged five of the best books to transport you to other worlds, including:

Unreliable narration is at the heart of Catriona Ward’s Little Eve, a beautifully rendered folk horror tale that is deeply unsettling. This story of nebulous cults, murders and obfuscation in the Scottish Highlands is all realised in language that is effective and affecting. The delirious, dreamlike prose is underpinned by a tight control of material with the details of early 20th-century life layered in like a foundation – unobtrusive, yet grounding the tale.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven novels that show the range & depth of gentrification fiction

Lisa Braxton is an essayist, short story writer, and novelist. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University, her Master of Science in Journalism Broadcasting from Northwestern University and her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Media from Hampton University.

Her debut novel is The Talking Drum.

At CrimeReads, Braxton tagged "seven books [that] tackle the theme of gentrification through different lenses: eerie plots, a whodunnit-mystery, family drama, and reimagining of a classic tale." One title on the list:

Halsey Steet, by Naima Coster

Gentrification is a metaphor for a family in crisis. Penelope Grand, an artist living in Pittsburgh, is called home to care for her ailing father, Ralph. She discovers that her Brooklyn neighborhood is not the same. In fact, it’s been completely transformed. Gentrification has cost Ralph everything—his record store, his passion, and his marriage. How do you repair relationships that are in so much disarray? And will “helping” actually fray things more?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top university-based novels

Kate Weinberg was born and lives in London. She studied English at Oxford and creative writing in East Anglia. She has worked as a slush pile reader, a bookshop assistant, a journalist and a ghost writer.

The Truants is her first novel.

At the Waterstones blog she tagged five favorite university-based novels, including:

Stoner by John Williams

There are two things about Stoner. One is the book itself. It’s the finest piece of character writing of any campus novel I’ve ever read. When you put it down, William Stoner never leaves you. But the other thing about it is the story of the book itself; it was a lost masterpiece, a novel that sold barely a couple of thousand copies on publication in 1965, then was ‘discovered’ nearly half a century later (hats off to Waterstones, who made it Book of the Year in 2014) and, since then, it has sold millions. For every campus student and wannabe novelist who thinks their genius is overlooked, John Williams’ Stoner is an unflinching account of the grinding disappointment of academic life – as well as an example of the world blowing the dust off a failed novel and discovering a masterpiece.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Stoner is among Andrew Hunter Murray's top five books to make you feel less alone, Thomas Maloney's ten best deaths in fiction, Simon Kernick's six best books, The Secret Teacher author's ten top books about teaching, Jamie Fewery's ten best fictional fathers, and Colum McCann's top ten novels featuring poets.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten terrific thrillers featuring missing persons

Lisa Regan is the USA Today & Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series as well as several other crime fiction titles. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Master of Education degree from Bloomsburg University. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, Crime Writers Association, and Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, daughter and Boston Terrier named Mr. Phillip.

Regan's latest Josie Quinn novel is Find Her Alive.

At The Strand Magazine Regan tagged ten favorite thrillers featuring missing persons, including:

The Body Reader by Anne Frasier

Detective Jude Fontaine was held captive for three years by a sadistic kidnapper. This haunting novel takes place after her escape, as she tries to put the pieces of her life back together and find out what really happened to her. Her unique insight into crime from the perspective of a survivor rather than an investigator comes into play when young women start dying. Frasier’s exquisite characters and insight into what it means to survive something truly horrific drive this story to its shocking conclusion.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top psychological thrillers featuring sibling rivalry

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing. She now lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons.

McKinnon's new novel is Sister Dear.

At CrimeReads she tagged ten favorite psychological thrillers with sibling rivalry at the heart of them, including:

He Started It by Samantha Downing

Downing’s stellar debut My Lovely Wife took the world by storm and in He Started It, sibling rivalry reaches new and downright despicable levels. Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan don’t see each other often and that’s a good thing, because when they do, bad. stuff. happens. Greed, lies and betrayal are all rolled into a crazy-ass road trip. Downing is one bold and fearless author, who doesn’t blink in the face of fictional mayhem.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top Scottish crime novels

Craig Robertson is the author of Random, Snapshot, Cold Grave, The Last Refuge, Witness The Dead, Murderabilia, The Photographer, and the new novel, Watch Him Die.

At the Guardian he tagged ten top "Scottish crime novels driven by issues of duality, redemption, the nature of good and evil, and a dark, dark, humour," including:

Two-Way Split by Allan Guthrie

If this book was a boxer it would be a classy welterweight. Lean and muscular, taut and fast-moving, and packing a big punch. What it lacks in tartan it more than makes up for in noir. It’s a hard-boiled nugget of a book with not one word wasted. Guthrie specialises in giving us antiheroes we care about, without ever draping them in false sentimentality. Here, we’re firmly on the side of a bank robber who is seeking the ultimate revenge on a fellow gang member.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top fictional divas in need of a reality check

Tracy Clark is a native Chicagoan who writes mysteries set in her hometown while working as an editor in the newspaper industry. She is a graduate of Mundelein College, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she earned her MA.

Her new novel is What You Don't See.

At CrimeReads, Clark tagged "eight books that feature either high priestesses of haughtiness you love to hate or stealthy stalkers who’ll have you sleeping with the lights on, checking your locks ten times a night and nailing your mailbox shut." One title on the list:

Your Heart Belongs to Me, Dean Koontz

No one’s creepier than Koontz (book wise, not personally. I don’t know the man). In this one, Ryan Perry, young guy, living his life, suddenly needs a heart transplant, which he soon gets. A while later, feeling better than he has in a long time, he begins to get weird gifts in the mail with a message on it “Your Heart Belongs to Me.” Creepy. Turns out the woman sending the messages and the gifts, is a full-on doppelganger for his heart donor. Creepy doubled. And this twisted sister, apparently, now wants the heart back. Mic drop. Well played, Koontz, well played.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top pandemic thrillers

Born, raised, and still residing in Vancouver, Daniel Kalla spends his days (and sometimes nights) working as an Emergency Room Physician in a major teaching hospital. In his ‘off’ time, he writes and manages a dual career. He is the author of numerous books, which have been translated into eleven languages to date, and his Shanghai trilogy has been optioned for feature films.

The idea for his first medical thriller, Pandemic, sprang from his clinical experience in facing the SARS crisis of 2003.

Kalla's new novel is The Last High.

At The Strand Magazine, he tagged eight favorite pandemic thrillers, including:

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton (1969)

I wonder if I would even be an author, at least a published one, were it not for the inspiration of my literary hero, Michael Crichton, who’s sadly no longer with us. I’ve always been awed by his ability to take huge scientific topics—from cloning dinosaurs to time travel—and deconstruct them in a non-condescending way, while still thrilling readers with original storylines and relatable characters. His skill of simultaneously educating and entertaining is on full display in his debut novel, The Andromeda Strain, which tells the story of an alien microorganism that inadvertently falls to earth and threatens to launch a pandemic.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Andromeda Strain is among Jim Al-Khalili's ten top end-of-the-world novels, Lydia Kang's nine great medical thrillers, Jeff Somer's' nine science fiction novels that imagine the future, Neil deGrasse Tyson's six favorite books, and Joel Cunningham's 11 fictional maladies that will keep you up at night.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five of the best books for sports fans

Nige Tassell's book Bottom Corner: Hope, Glory And Non-League Football was named among Waterstones’ top twelve sports books of 2016, while Three Weeks, Eight Seconds: Greg LeMond, Laurent Fignon And The Epic Tour de France Of 1989 was shortlisted in the Cycling Book of the Year category at the Sports Books Awards and has since been published in the Netherlands, Spain and the US.

His other books include Mr Gig: One Man’s Search For The Soul Of Live Music, Butch Wilkins And The Sundance Kid: A Teenage Obsession With TV Sport, and Boot Sale: Inside The Strange And Secret World Of Football’s Transfer Window.

At the Guardian, Tassell tagged five favorite sports books, including:

Even this kind of close observation [of Bissinger's Friday Night Lights] wasn’t enough for Adharanand Finn, who puts himself into the action in Running With the Kenyans. A fan of Kenya’s long-distance runners since childhood, Finn decides to uproot his family, swapping rain-lashed Britain for the scorched earth of east Africa. It is only by running alongside its future stars that he can understand how the country has dominated marathon-running in recent times. Coasting along in his slipstream is a fine place to be.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten of the best Australian novels

Susan Allott is from the UK but spent part of her twenties in Australia, desperately homesick but trying to make Sydney her home. She completed the Faber Academy course in 2017, during which she started writing her debut novel, The Silence. She now lives in south London with her two children and her very Australian husband.

At CrimeReads, Allott tagged ten favorite Australian titles, including:

Tim Winton, Dirt Music (2001)

Tim Winton is Australia’s literary God, and deservedly so. His writing is colloquial, fresh, sharp. He captures the landscape, wildlife and people of Australia with such precision and economy, his books can be savored for the language alone, although he tells a good yarn too. His novel Cloudstreet is considered by many to be the Great Australian Novel. I’ve picked Dirt Music because it’s such a great example of Winton’s ability to put a character through hell and pull her out again the other side, taking us with her. It’s also a romantic novel about an intense love affair that is moving and never sentimental. It was shortlisted for the Booker in 2002 and it won the Miles Franklin award in the same year. Probably his best in my opinion, but you can’t go wrong with anything by Tim Winton, including his non-fiction.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven post-apocalyptic sci-fi escapist titles

Paulette Jiles is a novelist, poet, and memoirist. She is the author of Cousins, a memoir, and the novels Enemy Women, Stormy Weather, The Color of Lightning, Lighthouse Island, and News of the World, which was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award.

Her new novel is Simon the Fiddler.

At Lit Hub, Jiles tagged seven titles "for respite in a time of pandemic--riveting stories of societal collapse, plagues, near-death experiences, distant futures on bald stone planets and other tales that will help you escape from this annoying and fretful news-cycle life into the worlds of pure imagination." One title on the list:

John C. Wright, Awake In The Night Land

This is almost impossible to describe but you will be unable to put it down to finish your cup of whatever. Add agave nectar. Anything is drinkable with agave nectar added to it. This is us several thousand years from now, a remnant of us, in a self-contained mountain on a bald Earth of stone with observers on the peak watching great masses of stone moving ever closer year by year and inch by inch. There are Things out there. Inside the Aristocrats have their entertainments and the main character is a princess changing into a warrior, inch by inch.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue