Books

Felix Powell isn’t like most 8-year-olds. When his Nan gives him $5 to spend on anything at a thrift shop, he is drawn toward an old blanket. Additionally, he can communicate with his dog, the phenomenally named Mary Puppins. After he and Puppins try everything they can think of to discover the blanket’s secret magic,

There’s always more, more, more hot summer crime fiction here on CFL and we can either cool you off with some Swedish crime fiction care of David Lagercrantz, or bring you some British heat with the Midsummer Mysteries collection from the Crime Writers Association. Plus, we have more UK mystery reads with Rebecca Tope, Ellie

Nathan Newman challenges readers to reckon with all the cruelties and joys of human interaction in their debut novel, How to Leave the House. Newman’s protagonist is a young man named Natwest, but he’s not the only central character: The novel intersperses Natwest’s interior narrative with the stories of the many people in his town

What could be more appealing than a murder mystery set in an elegant villa high on a hill overlooking the Tuscan countryside? Prolific crime novelist Simon McCleave’s Last Night at Villa Lucia feels like a vacation from the first page, as the villa’s English owner takes in her magnificent view. A few flies in the

What was supposed to be an incredibly romantic first date with her longtime crush, Akilah, instead nearly becomes Marlowe Wexler’s undoing, when the custom candle she ordered in Akilah’s favorite scent explodes, burning down a house belonging to Marlowe’s family friends. Is it any wonder that Akilah breaks things off rather than dating an accidental

Ashlie (she/her) is an educator, librarian, and writer. She is committed to diversifying the reading lives of her students and supporting fat acceptance as it intersects with other women’s issues. She’s also perpetually striving to learn more about how she can use her many privileges to support marginalized groups. Interests include learning how to roller

The new edition of Canadian author Craig Terlson’s Correction Line underscores how badly off track a person can get if they just keep doing what they’re doing. The ‘correction line’ of the title refers to the late-19th century project to survey and divide the Canadian prairies into equal sections to prepare the land for agriculture

Oliver Jeffers is one of the most recognizable and innovative creators in children’s literature today, and The Dictionary Story showcases his vivid imagination at work in yet another collaboration with the wildly inventive Sam Winston (following A Child of Books). An authors’ note explains this picture book as the product of a team of “so

New York Times bestselling author Erica Ridley returns to her Wild Wynchesters series with a heroine who has a penchant for finding trouble and a shy, brainy hero pretending to be his cousin. Combine that pairing with a castle siege and the mystery of a missing will, and you have a delightful Regency romance that

Trevor Wood gained a legion of followers with his Jimmy Mullen trilogy, which began with The Man on the Street. His homeless protagonist got readers thinking about the way society treats its poorest people and how their vulnerability places them at risk of crime and the a lack of support from the law when things

Bestselling Canadian author Linwood Barclay often writes about contemporary issues, exploring the things that trouble us through crime fiction. For example, in Look Both Ways he concocted a plot about self-driving cars, and in Find You First we meet a tech billionaire who has everything except the feeling that his life is worthwhile. I Will

Every year, the Yorkshire town of Harrogate hosts one of the UK’s biggest book events – the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. Whether you were there this year or followed proceedings from afar, it’s clear that books were the heroes. We try our best to keep you up to date with the best of

It’s great to see female protagonists front and centre in modern spy thrillers and British agent Emma Makepeace is a case in point. First appearing in The Chase in 2022, she literally hit the ground running while dodging bullets as she fought to keep herself and her charge alive long enough to expose the traitor

When criminals get on the move, that’s when things get wild, which is why we love nothing more than a road-trip novel and the Northern Irish author Stuart Neville has cooked up a doozy to get us rolling this week. Every book on the docket has some edge to it – there’s a reinvention of

Translated by Sam Bett — Even though strong female protagonists are nothing new in contemporary manga or animé, it’s not often we come across them in Japanese crime fiction novels. Yoriko Shindo is not only a memorable character, she also defies traditional gender roles in a spectacular way – not only through her choice of

International bestseller Jeffery Deaver has more than 40 novels to his name and he’s one of crime fiction’s big guns. Since Lincoln Rhyme first appeared in The Bone Collector, his debut, in 1997 the series has been a bestseller and the Colter Shaw quartet has cemented Deaver’s reputation as a master of dark twisty tales.

…but Aussie crime fiction remains as hot as ever. This week our new books report begins with the latest from Garry Disher – his standalone thriller about a nomadic thief hunted by some baddies in rural Australia. Plus, a new procedural from English author Rachel Abbott, a Dixie Mafia story from Snowden Wright, cosy Swedish

Eddie Flynn, the fictional conman turned lawyer, is back. Prizewinning author, Steve Cavanagh has added an eighth book to this popular series and, coincidence or not, the title is Witness 8. This time, Eddie agrees to defend John Jackson, a paediatric brain surgeon who has been charged with murder. John insists he’s innocent and Eddie

Kansas author Scott Phillips’s first novel, The Ice Harvest, was a critical and commercial hit in 2000. A movie adaptation, starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton, was released in 2005. It’s also by some distance his most conventional crime novel, and since then Phillips has pursued his own idiosyncratic path. More recent novels have

With Bibsy Cross and the Bad Apple, award-winning author Liz Garton Scanlon launches a new chapter book series starring a lovable protagonist “with a whole lot to say.” Eight-year-old Bibsy loves school and learning (especially about science), and she has adored all of her teachers—that is, until third grade, when her teacher is stern Mrs.

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Once upon a time, we didn’t have cell phones. Emergency Quarters, written by Carlos Matias and illustrated by Gracey Zhang, takes us back to those days, while coming with a perfectly worded note for those young enough to not remember technology-free days. Emergency Quarters follows Ernesto through his first week of going to and from

Born into a family of readers, P.N. gained a love reading as a sort of herd mentality. This love of reading has remained a life long passion, resulting in an English Degree from The University of Houston in Houston, Texas. She normally reads three to four books at any given time, in the futile Sisyphean

I’ve had this post idea on my list of things to write for many months now, and I’m not sure it makes sense to anyone other than me, but I need to exorcise it out of my brain, so here we are. While I feel good about my taste in books — eclectic, specific, queer

Elisa Shoenberger has been building a library since she was 13. She loves writing about all aspects of books from author interviews, antiquarian books, archives, and everything in between. She also writes regularly for Murder & Mayhem and Library Journal. She’s also written articles for Huffington Post, Boston Globe, WIRED, Slate, and many other publications.

Emily has a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS, and she has an MFA in Creative Writing from GCSU in Milledgeville, GA, home of Flannery O’Connor. She spends her free time reading, watching horror movies and musicals, cuddling cats, Instagramming pictures of cats, and blogging/podcasting about books with the ladies over

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Wednesday, Random House Publishing Group announced it had agreed to buy Boom! Studios, a comic and graphic novel publisher. Boom! Studios was founded in 2005, and is responsible for titles like Keanu Reeves’ BRZRKR and Lumberjanes. With Random House’s acquisition, Boom! Studios is expected to maintain its editorial independence, and Disney is selling its small stake

Welcome to Thursday! As we look toward the weekend, I’d love to know: what are you reading this week? If you’re in a rut, you might appreciate this look at how to restart your reading habits. And it’s always nice to have something to look forward to, so about how the freshly revealed cover of