Category: Book Recommendations
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Giant Steps – a Nick Crane Thriller
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Giant Steps is the closing chapter to Patrick Moore’s Nick Crane trilogy—and what a banger of a story and conclusion it is. And if you’re new to Nick Crane, don’t let it get in your way. Giant Steps is a kick ass novel that that reads like a top notch…
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Photograph by Brian Freeman
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Photograph (out October 7, 2025) by Brian Freeman, NYT Bestselling and award winning author, is a compelling, suspenseful tale that pulls you in and keeps you guessing—and—as the final pages barrel ever closer, the twists and reveals keep coming, long after you thought the dust had settled. Hidden in plain…
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On Fire and Under Water
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On Fire and Under Water: A Climate Change Crime Fiction Anthology, Edited by Anthony-Award-Winning Curtis Ippolito and published by Rock and a Hard Place Press. This collection of 15 stories is a must read for crime fiction, noir, and mystery lovers or anyone else who gives a damn about the…
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She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper
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A thrilling and poetic noir crime story that is one of my all time favorites. A tale of a young girl and her felon of a father and their struggle to survive a death sentence sent by some very rough people. A story that is as poignant and sensitive as…
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Picking Up The Pieces by JB Abbott
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On my TBR; A cozy mystery by friend and fellow agency sib. I know it’s a good one!
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About Book Recommendations
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I highlight mostly new books and new/emerging authors I’ve enjoyed for others to discover. On Goodreads, etc., my minimum rating is 4 stars; 5 stars for the very best. If I don’t connect with a book, I won’t recommend it – book likes are subjective. My taste is not your…
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LAST ONE SEEN a psychological thriller by Rebecca Kanner
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RLAST ONE SEEN by Rebecca Kanner. Published by CLB on September 23, 2025 G. A. Rivers, July 24, 2025 LAST ONE SEEN is an interesting and compelling psychological thriller that begins with a great opening hook. Hannah, the protagonist, is speeding away in a car with her boyfriend, Eli, and their…
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The Manipulator – a legal thriller debut by Dan Buzzetta
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Due out August 19, 2025. THE MANIPULATOR, the debut legal thriller by Dan Buzzetta, offers a fresh take on a well-established genre and proves that legal thrillers remain entertaining and as relevant to readers as ever. Buzzetta, no stranger to the law himself, has crafted an engaging story populated with…
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The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
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What a story. I don’t read a lot of horror – but I do like the best of the best and Stephen Graham Jones never disappoints. This might be his best work yet. The story of a ‘vampire’ who lived (and killed) when Native Americans and the buffalo were being…
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Turkeyfoot by Rick Childers
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TURKEYFOOT by Rick Childers is a story of lost souls and the innocents unable to escape their destructive orbit; a story set amidst the melancholic beauty of today’s Appalachia. A story to humanize the damage and destruction the opioid epidemic has dealt to rural communities across the country. Such a…
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Love You Till Tuesday by M.E. Proctor
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I loved this detective story by the extraordinary M.E. Proctor. If you occasionally feel the need to spend some quality time with a good detective story Love You Till Tuesday is for you. It’s a new, excellent detective story story that delivers all the intrigue and drama and real-to-life characters…
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The Last King of California by Jordan Harper
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One of the best books I’ve read over the past two years–ranks up there with SHE RIDES SHOTGUN, also by Jordan Harper. More details coming but don’t wait – check it out. Jordan Harper is one of our very best crime noir writers today.
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Good-Looking Ugly by Rob D. Smith
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This is one of my favorites for 2025; a down home rip of a yarn. An entertaining heist of a story that is pulled along by the strength of family ties and a man’s need to understand and better himself. Rob D. Smith is a highly accomplished short story writer…
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Burn This Night by Alex Kenna
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BURN THIS NIGHT, Alex Kenna’s terrific follow up to her recent debut brings us a new protagonist, Kate Myles, a self-described ‘pathologically messy ex-cop-turned-private-eye with flaming ADHD.’ Still reeling from a recent divorce, losing custody of her young daughter, and an unfortunate opioid addiction she’s managed to conquer, Kate is…
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Double Barrel Bluff by Lou Berney
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Lou Berney’s 2024 release, Double Barrel Bluff, brings the welcome return of his popular Shake Bouchon series in which the former wheelman for the Armenian mob, now settled into a quiet, domestic life in middle America, is confronted with an unwelcome face from the past. And it’s not just any…
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The Queen City Detective Agency by Snowden Wright
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The Queen City Detective Agency is the latest by Snowden Wright and his opening salvo in a superb new detective series. If a PI tale steeped in Southern Noir and the complex persona of a Black female detective trying to stay afloat in her hometown of Meridian Mississippi where the…
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You’ll Never Find Me by Allison Brennan
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Allison Brennan is a can’t-miss-author with dozens of books and numerous awards under her belt. YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME is her latest work and the first in a planned series featuring Angelhart Investigations, a Phoenix based, family owned PI firm that is willing to work outside the system when necessary…
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Folk Tales for Trauma Surgeons by Keith Rosson
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Of the several short story anthologies I’ve read over the past 2 years, my number one standout favorite is this compilation by emerging superstar Keith Rosson (author of Fever House and others); the stories are as varied and unique as they are epically powerful and written; the authorial voice in…
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Review: The Guest House by Bonnie Traymore
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Read my full review on The Big Thrill: www.thebigthrill.org/2024/03/the-big-thrill-recommends-the-guest-house-by-bonnie-traymore/ Allie’s arrival to Silicon Valley is not quite what she’d expected. Shortly after moving into a tiny guest house complete with an overly friendly landlord, she wakes in the night to observe him dragging a large duffle bag across the lawn.…
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Review: A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian
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Read my full review on The Big Thrill: www.thebigthrill.org/2024/03/a-midnight-puzzle-by-gigi-pandian/ USA Today bestseller and multiple award-winning author Gigi Pandian presents Tempest Raj and her gang of sleuths for another exciting Secret Staircase Mystery. Tempest, now living in her childhood bedroom after her career as a Las Vegas stage illusionist fell apart the previous…