John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

A gritty, hard-nosed, and expertly written thriller, A Cult of One by CH Morgan is the fractured family portrait of an investigator hunting monsters – in the shadows and in her own mind. Haunted by the past and driven by a fiery resolve, Genevieve Capa is trying to get through her probationary period as a police officer, but her house-arrested brother has a dangerous scheme to catapult her career to the next level, single-handedly capture a cannibalistic killer on the loose in Montreal. Combining a sinister police procedural with complex character drama and sharply captured dialogue, this is a fast, […]

When militarily advanced aliens make planetfall on Earth for the first time, the world has no choice but to respond with force in Nick Snape’s compelling new work of military sci-fi, Hostile Contact. The planet’s first visitors are far from pacifistic green men, but Snape still finds some philosophical nuance in this near-future war of the worlds. There tends to be heavy reliance on internal monologue – a workaround by the author to tell, rather than show – but the terse military dialogue balances well with informal personal interactions, allowing Snape’s characters to breathe on the page as fully-formed, […]

Charting a safe course through the uncertain economy, author Steve Amoia offers a valuable handbook of modern advice in his Post-Pandemic Financial Guide. While some of the knowledge in the first section may be familiar to financial professionals or those savvy to the dynamism of the stock market, the second section regarding retirement planning is imbued with new ideas shaped by recent world events. A timely, well-informed, and easy-to-understand refresher on details that have changed since the upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic, this guide is uniquely and effectively focused on financial planning based on contemporary challenges, for a timely and […]

An exploration of faith, independence, temptation, and purpose, He Should Know by Mike Greene is an affecting novel about growing up, showing up, and standing up for what you believe in. As Kevin moves through the world, he must balance his unique relationship with God and his desire to connect meaningfully with the people in his life. While the powerful messages of unity and personal fortitude behind the story are clear, the execution of the prose has a number of issues, including grammatical, syntactical, and spelling errors. Additionally, the writing style is flatly declarative and the heavy-handed dialogue lacks compelling […]

Tapping into the grim recesses of human nature and imagining what new shadows the future might hold, Computer Love: A Digital Anthology by Ricardo Pierre-Louis is an unsettling but deeply affecting collection of stories. In an age of increasing disconnection as humans face a global existential crisis, Pierre-Louis asks difficult questions about morality, progress, responsibility, resilience, and love through this collection of powerful tales. The stories are subtle and fearless, gritty and clever, ranging from flash fiction to character-driven drama, parodies of capitalism, and intimate portraits of sorrow. There is some room for technical improvement in the prose, or further […]