A Wicked Magic by Sasha Laurens
Published by: Razorbill
Publication Date: July 28th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets The Craft when modern witches must save teens stolen by an ancient demon in this YA fantasy-thriller debut.
Dan and Liss are witches. The Black Book granted them that power. Harnessing that power feels good, especially when everything in their lives makes them feel powerless.
During a spell gone wrong, Liss's boyfriend is snatched away by an evil entity and presumed dead. Dan and Liss's friendship dies that night, too. How can they practice magic after the darkness that they conjured?
Months later, Liss discovers that her boyfriend is alive, trapped underground in the grips of an ancient force. She must save him, and she needs Dan and the power of The Black Book to do so. Dan is quickly sucked back into Liss's orbit and pushes away her best friend, Alexa. But Alexa has some big secrets she's hiding and her own unique magical disaster to deal with.
When another teenager disappears, the girls know it's no coincidence. What greedy magic have they awakened? And what does it want with these teens it has stolen?
Set in the atmospheric wilds of California's northern coast, Sasha Laurens's thrilling debut novel is about the complications of friendship, how to take back power, and how to embrace the darkness that lives within us all."
There's a cat on the cover. I was sold on this book before they even mentioned The Craft!
Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
Publication Date: July 28th, 2020
Format: Kindle, 139 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Return to the world of Rivers of London in this first short story collection from bestselling author, Ben Aaronovitch. Tales from the Folly is a carefully curated collection that gathers together previously published stories and brand new tales in the same place for the first time.
Each tale features a new introduction from the author, filled with insight and anecdote offering the reader a deeper exploration into this absorbing fictional world. This is a must read for any Rivers of London fan.
Join Peter, Nightingale, Abigail, Agent Reynolds and Tobias Winter for a series of perfectly portioned tales. Discover what’s haunting a lonely motorway service station, who still wanders the shelves of a popular London bookshop, and what exactly happened to the River Lugg...
With an introduction from internationally bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse series, Charlaine Harris."
Really excited about this, but I think, perhaps, the cover needed some more work...
Subterranean Tales of Dark Fantasy 3 edited by William Schafer
Published by: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: July 28th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Tales of darkness and inexplicable happenings have always been with us - and always will. In its contemporary form, this sort of story is not only alive and well, but flourishing, and it continues to speak to us in a variety of voices. Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 3 is the latest installment in an acclaimed anthology series, and it brings together ten voices - some familiar, some less so - that are at once distinctive, compelling, and irresistible. The volume opens with award-winning novelist Kat Howar's “An Ordinary Progression of Hearts,” an elegant meditation on the fragility of the human heart; and closes with acclaimed newcomer P. Djèlà Clark's “Skin Magic,” a stunning account of sorcery and dark magic set in an unnamed third world country. Elsewhere in the anthology, Caitlin R. KÃernan (“Cherry Street Tango, Sweat Box Waltz”) offers a piece of near-future noir in which a “blackstrap” (a hired assassin) contemplates the failure of her latest murderous assignment. “At the Threshold of Your Bedchamber on the Fifth Night” by Sarah Gailey is the tale of a courtship that leads to a most unusual consummation. In “Final Course,” a rare short story by rising star C.J. Tudor, the reunion of old school friends takes a savage and unexpected turn. In addition to these and other stellar tales by the likes of Bentley Little, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Gallagher and Ian R. MacLeod, Tales of Dark Fantasy 3 contains Robert R. McCammon's “Death Comes for the Rich Man,” a rare novella set in Colonial America and featuring McCammon's popular “problem solver,” Matthew Corbett."
I am here for literally any book Subterranean Press puts out!
Crossings by Alex Landragin
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: July 28th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Alex Landragin's Crossings is an unforgettable and explosive genre-bending debut - a novel in three parts, designed to be read in two different directions, spanning a hundred and fifty years and seven lifetimes.
On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence.
The first story in Crossings is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption, and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations.
With each new chapter, the stunning connections between these seemingly disparate people grow clearer and more extraordinary. Crossings is an unforgettable adventure full of love, longing and empathy."
I LOVE books that aren't easily quantifiable but come together in an epic way.
A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Murder by Dianne Freeman
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: July 28th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"In Dianne Freeman’s charming Victorian-era mystery series, Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, finds her sister’s wedding threatened by a vow of vengeance.
London is known for its bustle and intrigues, but the sedate English countryside can host - or hide - any number of secrets. Frances, the widowed Countess of Harleigh, needs a venue for her sister Lily’s imminent wedding, away from prying eyes. Risings, George Hazleton’s family estate in Hampshire, is a perfect choice, and soon Frances, her beloved George, and other guests have gathered to enjoy the usual country pursuits - shooting, horse riding, and romantic interludes in secluded gardens.
But the bucolic setting harbors a menace, and it’s not simply the arrival of Frances’s socially ambitious mother. Above and below stairs, mysterious accidents befall guests and staff alike. Before long, Frances suspects these “accidents” are deliberate, and fears that the intended victim is Lily’s fiancé, Leo. Frances’s mother is unimpressed by Lily’s groom-to-be and would much prefer that Lily find an aristocratic husband, just as Frances did. But now that Frances has found happiness with George - a man who loves her for much more than her dowry - she heartily approves of Lily’s choice. If she can just keep the couple safe from villains and meddling mamas.
As Frances and George search for the culprit among the assembled family, friends, and servants, more victims fall prey to the mayhem. Mishaps become full-blooded murder, and it seems that no one is safe. And unless Frances can quickly flush out the culprit, the peal of wedding bells may give way to another funeral toll...."
Now this is what I like, weddings with funerals built in!
The Fate of a Flapper by Susanna Calkins
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: July 28th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The Fate of a Flapper, the second mystery in this captivating new series, takes readers into the dark, dangerous, and glittering underworld of a 1920's Chicago speakeasy.
A 2019 Agatha Award Nominee for "Best Historical Mystery"!
After nine months as a cigarette girl at the Third Door, one of Chicago’s premier moonshine parlors, Gina Ricci feels like she's finally getting into the swing of things. The year is 1929, the Chicago Cubs are almost in the World Series, neighborhood gangs are all-powerful, and though Prohibition is the law of the land, the Third Door can't serve the cocktails fast enough.
Two women in particular are throwing drinks back with abandon while chatting up a couple of bankers, and Gina can't help but notice the levels of inebriation and the tension at their table. When the group stumbles out in the early morning, she tries to put them out of her head. But once at home that night, Gina's sleep is interrupted when her cousin Nancy, a police officer, calls—she's found a body. Gina hurries over to photograph the crime scene, but stops short when she recognizes the body: it’s one of the women from the night before.
Could the Third Door have served the woman bad liquor? Or, Gina wonders, could this be murder? As the gangs and bombings draw ever closer, all of Chicago starts to feel like a warzone, and Gina is determined to find out if this death was an unlucky accident, or a casualty of combat."
It's the 20s again, we ALL need to be flapping it up!
The Last of the Moon Girls by Barbara Davis
Published by: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: July 28th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A novel of secrets, memory, family, and forgiveness by the bestselling author of When Never Comes.
Lizzy Moon never wanted Moon Girl Farm. Eight years ago, she left the land that nine generations of gifted healers had tended, determined to distance herself from the whispers about her family's strange legacy. But when her beloved grandmother Althea dies, Lizzy must return and face the tragedy still hanging over the farm's withered lavender fields: the unsolved murders of two young girls, and the cruel accusations that followed Althea to her grave.
Lizzy wants nothing more than to sell the farm and return to her life in New York, until she discovers a journal Althea left for her - a Book of Remembrances meant to help Lizzy embrace her own special gifts. When she reconnects with Andrew Greyson, one of the few in town who believed in Althea's innocence, she resolves to clear her grandmother's name.
But to do so, she'll have to decide if she can accept her legacy and whether to follow in the footsteps of all the Moon women who came before her."
A legacy and unsolved murders? Yes please!
Until It's Over by Nicci French
Published by: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: July 28th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"From the internationally bestselling author of the Frieda Klein series, Nicci French, comes this steamy and suspenseful stand-alone thriller about a group of housemates who must determine the killer among them when a series of murders occur.
Be careful of the ones closest to you...
London cycle courier Astrid Bell has known most of her housemates for years, but while they have a tangled history together - romantic pairings, one-night stands, friendships - they each have secrets.
Astrid is on her way home one day when her neighbor accidentally knocks her off her bike. Suffering a few bruises, her roommates help her home. The next day, they learn that same neighbor was bludgeoned to death only hours after the accident. Each of them tells the police what little they know and are dismissed. Then a few days later, Astrid is asked to pick up a package from a wealthy woman called Ingrid de Soto. When she arrives, the client is lying in the hall of her luxurious home - and it’s apparent she’s also been murdered.
For the police, it’s more than bad luck. For Astrid and her six housemates, it's the beginning of a nightmare: suspicious glances, bitter accusations, and a growing fear that the worst is yet to come.
As the difference between friend and stranger grows harder to judge, the line between attraction and danger thins. The housemates - unsure if there’s a killer in their midst - guard themselves against becoming the next victim. Because if it’s true that bad luck comes in threes - who will be the next to die?"
Murderous roommates? In the age of Covid-19, it's a real concern!
Threadneedle by Cari Thomas
