Murder at Spindle Manor by Morgan Stang – SPFBO #9 Finals Review
Jennie Ivins
Today we are reviewing Murder at Spindle Manor, which was Philip Chase’s pick for this year’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. You can read their review here. And you can see the…
mystery
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
A. A. Freeman
I never enjoy describing things with, “It’s like X meets Y!” since I always felt it was a rather lazy way to describe something. No one says, “Hamsters are like…
The Kingdom of Liars by Nick Martell
L. A. Young
2020 continues to present books by debut authors, which continues the expansion of speculative fiction canon. Several works by new authors remind readers the genre is influenced by more than…
Kalanon’s Rising by Darian Smith – SPFBO #5 Finals Review
Geoff Matthews
Solve the murder. Stop the war. Save the world. Sir Brannon Kesh spent years building a new life as a physician, leaving the name Bloodhawk and the war that spawned…
One Way by S. J. Morden
Jessica Juby
Frank Kittridge is a middle-aged convict, doing time for killing his son’s drug supplier. His wife has divorced him and moved away with their son; he hasn’t heard from either…
Quill by A. C. Cobble
Kartik Narayanan
Quill is the first book in a new series, The Cartographer, by A. C. Cobble (author of the Benjamin Ashwood series). It is a fantasy wrapped in steampunk, inside a…
European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss
Jo Niederhoff
When we last left our intrepid heroines, they had just received word from Mina Murray, Mary’s governess, that their help was urgently needed for one Lucinda van Helsing. That’s right.…
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
First, a disclaimer: This book draws heavily on various Victorian and pre-Victorian speculative fiction, as does its sequel (which I will review next month). I was a very precocious teen…
Black Man (a.k.a. Thirteen) by Richard Morgan
Toby Frost
Carl Marsalis is a Variant Thirteen, a genetically-engineered throwback to a strain of human that died out thousands of years ago. He is a tough, aggressive loner, instinctively cunning and…
Jordskott: Seasons 1 and 2 – TV Series Review
A. M. Justice
How far would you go to protect your child? Would you destroy a community? Commit genocide? Kill another’s child? On the Swedish urban fantasy crime drama Jordskott, the answer to…
Adam Roberts Interview – The Real-Town Murders
Jonathan Thornton
Adam Roberts is the BSFA Award winning author of Jack Glass (2012), a mixture of locked room murder mystery and golden age science fiction, Bete (2014), which imagines a world…
A God in the Shed by J-F. Dubeau
Charlie Hopkins
Saint-Ferdinand’s cemetery is far too large. It’s a quiet and idyllic village with a small police station, family owned diners and a grocery store but for the last twenty years…