“Don’t feel bad. A housewife can’t solve a murder,” he says gently. “Not even one like you.” I really expected to like Elizabeth Arnott’s The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives (Berkley 2026). The premise is fantastic: three former wives of serial killers work together to catch a killer that is terrorizing California in 1966. DespiteContinue reading “THE SECRET LIVES OF MURDERERS’s WIVES – Elizabeth Arnott”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
SAID THE DEAD – Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s Said the Dead (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 9/22/026 – a huge thanks to the publisher for the galley copy) is one of my top reads of the year. I have to assume it wasn’t submitted for Booker consideration, likely due to the genre-blurring elements that lean heavily into nonfiction, because I can’tContinue reading “SAID THE DEAD – Doireann Ní Ghríofa”
MAY WE FEED THE KING – Rebecca Perry
“In this way, my work has sustained me when people could not.” “My house had been holding its breath for a long time.” “No, he will not come when called. He is no dog.” Rebecca Perry’s May We Feed the King won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize before being longlisted for the Booker; there isContinue reading “MAY WE FEED THE KING – Rebecca Perry”
THE SHADOW OF THE OBJECT – Chloe Aridjis
“No more tricks, no more abracadabra, no more misdirection or uncertainty, no more seeing things one way when most people saw them another.” “My mother didn’t mention him, I didn’t mention him, but there he sat in the room with us.” “…she didn’t believe in blank pages…” Right now, Chloe Aridjis’s The Shadow of theContinue reading “THE SHADOW OF THE OBJECT – Chloe Aridjis”
THE END OF EVERYTHING – M. John Harrison
“Whole worlds… trapped in a few daisies, some grapes in a bowl.” “What would she remember about him in the end anyway that could be separated from everything else that happened?” Baffling and bizarre, M. John Harrison’s The End of Everything is a bit Seascraper meets Fringe. (You remember – the tv show where JoshuaContinue reading “THE END OF EVERYTHING – M. John Harrison”
THE RENOVATION – Kenan Orhan
“Better not to be making memories right now anyway,” he said. “In my father’s reality, my mother had never died and his country had never betrayed him.” “What is the weight of memory?” “Then she died and no one called me that anymore.” There is typically a novel of exile appearing on the Booker longlistContinue reading “THE RENOVATION – Kenan Orhan”
KINGFISHER – Rozie Kelly
“Human ashes look just how you’d imagine them to look – somewhere between the contents of an ashtray and the surface of the moon.” Rozie Kelly’s Kingfisher (Saraband 2025) is a beautifully heartbreaking novel where everything is messy, life hurts, but there are birds and poetry. You’ve likely read before how I typically don’t likeContinue reading “KINGFISHER – Rozie Kelly”
HELEN OF NOWHERE – Makenna Goodman
“Isn’t it a joke, how you can tell a story and other people hear a different story than the one you told?” “Reading became an intellectual pursuit, one of focus instead of escape.” In many ways, Makenna Goodman’s Helen of Nowhere and Missouri Williams’s Vivisectors are telling the same story – just recast with differentContinue reading “HELEN OF NOWHERE – Makenna Goodman”
CAT LOVE – Tomás Q. Morín
“Call me… call me whatever you like. I’ve had many names over the years. Did you think I was going to say Ishmael? Or actually tell you my real name? Not today. Maybe not tomorrow, either. I bet you’re wondering how a cat knows about Moby-Dick. Especially the tortoiseshell cat sealed in the box inContinue reading “CAT LOVE – Tomás Q. Morín”
BLACK BAG – Luke Kennard
“I’m sure this comes up somewhere in Revelation.” “You try not to become a full-blown alcoholic,” she says. “Fetishize small pleasures. A good water bottle. A first edition of a novel you like. A really good cup of coffee. The crack as a needle hits the record.” “I have measured out my life in coffeesContinue reading “BLACK BAG – Luke Kennard”
