Scott Carson delivers a book I just couldn’t put down with Lost Man’s Lane. Combining nostalgia for the end of the 20th century with a twist of supernatural thriller, the tale is a coming-of-age story that is by turns frightening and beautifully told. Marshall and his mom are living their lives in quiet Bloomington. When…
Tag: page turner
The Queen (2024) – Nick Cutter
Canadian author Nick Cutter (aka Craig Davidson) really knows to deliver a tale that gets under your skin, and horrifies you, and he does it again with The Queen. Combining a coming-of-age tale with explicitly detailed body horror, this one was a page-turner from the beginning and is completely engrossing. Cutter plunges readers right into…
The Return of Ellie Black (2024) – Emiko Jean
To call The Return of Ellie Black a jaw-dropping page-turner doesn’t do the book, the story, or the author, Emiko Jean, justice. It was nothing short of a compulsive read, one that I stayed up late to finish, something that doesn’t happen often for me. I had to know how the story played out, I…
The Mary Shelley Club (2021) – Goldy Moldavsky
So I have been reading a lot of science fiction of late, and wanted to shake it up a bit, and find something a little bit more from the horror/thriller genre, and a top horror novels of 2021 list returned the Young Adult (I hate that term) novel, The Mary Shelley Club. Well I put…
Six of Crows (2015) – Leigh Bardugo
I came across this title on a list of fantasy novels that are must reads, and though I hadn’t read the other books set in the same universe, the Shadow and Bone series, that help compose what has become known as the Grishaverse, I figured I would dig in and see what it was all…
Panic (2014) – Lauren Oliver
Lauren Oliver’s Panic is a page-turner on a monumental scale. I can’t remember the last time I was so swept up in the narrative of a story. I had to find out what happened next. As much as I have been enjoying my foray into the tales of Ian Fleming’s 007, and the writings of…
The Sniper (2021) – Chang Kuo-Li
Taiwanese author Chang Kou-Li delivers an action thriller this week. With its North American debut, The Sniper, is available now from House of Anansi Press, features a translation by Roddy Flagg and reads like the best of Hong Kong cinema. There are action beats, police investigations, involving characters and a weaving story that takes you…
The Ballad of Black Tom (2016) – Victor LaValle
H.P. Lovecraft gets a fantastic spin in this novella by Victor LaValle. Lovecraft is hard to admit you like, because his stories of cosmic horror and old ones are so good, and have become such a cornerstone of horror fiction, but he was just so racist and that permeated all of his writing. The Ballad…
Origin (2017) – Dan Brown
It’s been a while since I dove into a Dan Brown book. I do enjoy his Robert Langdon adventures, and I love how he takes elements from the real world, be it organizations, technology, art, architecture, religion, science and marry them into engaging popcorn thrill ride narratives. Origin is no different, but also includes a…
The Mind Reels 