John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

A stirring treasure hunt of puzzling clues and time-travel romance, One Day A Year by J. Lamont Jones is an ambitious and satisfying YA plunge into the past. Bestowed with a rare gift to travel back in time once a year, young Benny Jones has found love, but more than a century separates them, and messing with the past could radically shift the future. In an emotionally charged race to decode the secret to his own happiness, Benny will need all the help he can get, from his father and new allies in the 19th century to a beguiling woman […]

One woman on a desperate hunt for her vanished twin and a secretive police chief holding his small-town secrets close make Lost Hollow by Donna S. Frelick a sinister and supernatural thrill. A missing person’s case is anything but simple in Allenville, North Carolina, where outsiders are rare, and tampering with them is forbidden by the mysterious inhabitants of the deep forest. The unlikely connection between two determined investigators sends sparks flying, but distractions are dangerous when the rules binding bitter enemies are broken. Successfully mixing genres in a way that will appeal to fans of thrillers, romance, and science […]

A slow-burning mystery with a stellar lead sleuth, The Silent Pines by Curtis Myer is a pastoral thriller with an ominous edge. In a rural Oregon town plagued by a rash of violent murders, newly arrived Sienna Kelly is quickly pulled into the suspicions and intrigue of a community on the edge. Her seemingly perfect yet frequently absent husband, Vince, busy with his nascent newspaper business, leaves Sienna plenty of time to let her natural curiosity and investigative skills run wild, right into the suffocating crosshairs of a sociopathic killer. Transcending standard mystery tropes and elevating timely themes of small-town […]

A sensational collection of genre-defying stories, The Man Who by Thom Cree is a meticulously written work of prose, echoing Faulkner and Hemingway in each story’s poetry and ambition. Trauma begetting revenge, wartime espionage, vigilante justice in forgotten places, and the seething tension of cultural clashes make this striking collection a suspenseful thrill. Savagely intimate, these stories and the subsequent spycraft novella are unpredictable slices of layered emotion, violence, conspiracy, and closure, commanding readers’ attention with every acrobatic line.

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Drawing readers into one man’s decade of “senseless adventure,” Hayden Thompson paints a stunning European portrait of leisure and boundless curiosity in Marvelous Days. A newly retired expat in search of fresh purpose, Kevin embraces his wanderlust and embarks on a sunset chapter of travel and discovery. Rich in allusion and detailed explorations of the French countryside, Germany’s cities, and the Mediterranean coast, this reads like a travelogue, memoir, and cultural exposé rolled into one insightful narrative. For any aging wanderer who feels hesitant to make the leap into the wilds of travel, this contemporary novel is a sensitive, sensible, […]