Brittany Amara

Brittany Amara is an author, screenwriter, actress, and model with a passion for science fiction and fantasy that ventures beyond space and time. She loves writing about curious aliens, morally gray protagonists, other dimensions, rifts in reality, and all things playfully wicked. When she’s not working on something new, Amara can be found stargazing, collecting stuffed animals, and baking pumpkin bread. She grew up in Bronx, New York, and graduated summa cum laude from SUNY New Paltz in 2021 with a degree in digital media production, creative writing, and theater arts. In 2024 she furthered her storytelling journey at Queen’s University Belfast. Since then, her work in various genres has been recognized by film festivals and writing competitions across the globe.

Amara's new novel is The Bleeding Woods.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Amara's reply:

Reading is such a beautiful and inspiring part of my writing process. Not only does it illuminate unexplored parts of my own imagination, but it allows me to surf the seas of endless imagination and connect with creatives outside of space and time. It is through our work that we forge bonds that would have otherwise been impossible. In some strange, inexplicable way, I can meet with Mary Shelley as she unveils the tale of Frankenstein. Centuries sit between us, and yet, we speak. I’ve never met her in person, but Stephanie Garber’s Once Upon A Broken Heart pierced my soul in a way no series has before. We are complete strangers, but in her work, I felt found.

The stories I read always become worlds I settle into, so I tend to fill my bookshelf with books that ignite in my highest happiness. I read about places I’d like to explore, places currently unavailable on our Planet Earth. I read about people I’d like to meet, befriend or fall in love with, even if they haven’t taken physical form on this plane. By some intuitive, indescribable magic, the stories I end up reading are always the ones I need most, exactly when I need them most.

I'm a feral fiction reader, just as I am a feral fiction writer. Most often, I read sci-fi, fantasy, romance, or anything that blends the three. Currently, I’m reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. In it, we follow Violet Sorrengail as she strives to survive in a cutthroat academy for dragon riders, finding strength she never thought she had and love she never thought possible in the process. Before becoming an author, I worked at my local Barnes & Nobles, and witnessed the beautiful mayhem every time a new installment in her series was released. Still, back then, I never felt quite called to dive in myself. Then, on a random, dreary Autumn afternoon… my dog started pawing at the hardcover copy. I went outside, perched on a rock, and let myself fall into Yarros’s world right away. I am so grateful I did. The explosive joy she takes in building her beautiful, complex, expansive world is exactly the kind of joy I needed to reignite in my own writing. The sweeping, swoon-worthy romance is exactly the kind of love I needed to remind myself I deserve in my own life. Violet’s journey of self-acceptance, self-empowerment and self-discovery is exactly what I needed to embrace in my own heart.

As I continue to read, Rebecca Yarros’s work speaks directly to me. She may not know it, but from miles and miles away, the story she shared years ago is helping and healing me. That’s the magic of writing so that others may read, and reading so that I may find the courage to write.

Visit Brittany Amara's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Bleeding Woods.

--Marshal Zeringue

Catriona McPherson

Catriona McPherson was born in Scotland and lived there until 2010, then immigrated to California where she lives on Patwin ancestral land. A former academic linguist, she now writes full-time. Her multi-award-winning and national best-selling work includes: the Dandy Gilver historical detective stories, the Last Ditch mysteries, set in California, and a strand of contemporary standalone novels including Edgar-finalist The Day She Died and Mary Higgins Clark finalist Strangers at the Gate. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, The Crimewriters’ Association, The Society of Authors and Sisters in Crime, of which she is a former national president.

McPherson's new novel is Scot's Eggs.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. McPherson's reply:

I've been injured and dealing with immobility, surgery and physiotherapy the last few months, which had an effect on my reading. I retreated into comfort. Now, since I'm a crime writer, my idea of comfort is maybe not everyone's. I had read and adored about five of Linda Castillo's seventeen Chief Kate Burkholder, Amish country procedurals. Immediately I got back from the ER, I bought myself the other twelve. I've read eleven and am saving the most recent installment, Rage, for the Christmas holidays. Blimey, they're good. They're pretty violent and not at all cosy - don't let "Amish" or "country" mislead you, but Kate's team of officers at Painter's Mill PD are the best kind of found family. And the plots are brilliant.

In between the Castillos, I also gave myself the gift of Lisa Gardner's Frankie Elkin series, about a freelance cold-case missing-person investigator. She's a loner, a drifter, a bit of a lost soul herself but she's excellent company. There are only four of them so far, but they're an ideal gateway read into any of Gardner's longer series. These four are set in central Boston, remote Wyoming, the hardscrabble end of Tucson, and Hawaii. I opened that one, Still See You Everywhere, the day before my cancelled ten-day trip to Hawaii should have started. Oh, how I laughed.

And now I'm well on the mend and back to my usual habit of reading through the TBR in alphabetical order. (It cuts down on the agonising choice of what to read next.) I was at G for Gardner when I broke off, so I resumed with G for Guha: Puja Guha's nail biting Sirens of Memory, about a Kuwaiti refugee who has been living in Texas for twenty-five years and is about to slam hard into her own past. Both the 1990 sections in the refugee camps and the present-day Texas/DC sections are a masterclass in grinding tension.

Then came Jasmine Guillory's While We Were Dating, a delightful romance about a Hollywood actress, soooo close to A-list stardom, who enlists a fake boyfriend to tease the tabloids into a frenzy, raise her profile, and land the role of her life. Guess what happens! Yes, but watching it unfold is a joy. Don't you love what's going on with the Romance genre recently? I do.

Right now, I'm on page 143 of Tamron Hall's debut, As the Wicked Watch, about a television news reporter who becomes embroiled in the tragic case of a murdered Black child. It's a wonderful if sobering look at over-policing and under-protecting on Chicago's South Side, from one who knows. (I should say, I had no clue who Tamron Hall was when I picked the book up, but I did think her headshot looked extremely glam, for a crime writer!)"

Visit Catriona McPherson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Go to My Grave.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2018).

My Book, The Movie: The Turning Tide.

The Page 69 Test: The Turning Tide.

My Book, The Movie: A Gingerbread House.

The Page 69 Test: Hop Scot.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Beneath Us.

Q&A with Catriona McPherson.

The Page 69 Test: The Witching Hour.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (September 2024).

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (December 2024).

The Page 69 Test: Scotzilla.

My Book, The Movie: Scotzilla.

The Page 69 Test: Scot's Eggs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elizabeth Hobbs

Elizabeth Hobbs is a New Englander born and bred, who spent her childhood roaming the woods, making up stories about characters who live far more exciting lives than she. It wasn’t always so—long before she ever set pen to paper, Hobbs graduated from Hollins College with a BA in classics and art history, and then earned her MA in nautical archaeology from Texas A&M University. While she loved the life of an underwater archaeologist, she has found her true calling writing historical mysteries full of wit, wickedness, and adventure. Hobbs writes wherever she is and loves to travel from her home in Texas, where she lives with her husband, the Indispensable Mr. Hobbs, and her darling dogs, Ghillie and Brogue, in an empty nest of an old house filled to the brim with bicycles and books.

Her new novel is Murder Made Her Wicked: A Marigold Manners Mystery.

Recently I asked Hobbs about what she was reading. Her reply

For a writer, reading is not just a relaxing pleasure, but an essential tool for keeping my imagination full of new and different voices and ideas and vocabulary. I usually have a few different books going at once and usually a combination of fiction and non-fiction. But the common denominator is usually a strong female protagonist. This month, I’ve read:

The Wind in the Willows

This is an annual re-read for me. During my recent downsizing, I pulled this 1908 Kenneth Grahame book out of my children’s bookshelf to put in my ‘keeper’ pile, but ended up sitting down and re-immersing myself in the pastoral children’s tale of a group of anthropomorphized animals who band together to save a feckless friend. What once seemed a charming adventure tale, now strikes me quite differently— Mole, Ratty, Badger and Mr. Toad have stuck with me throughout my writing life as archetypes of the Fish Out of Water, The Loyal Stalwart Friend, the Wise Leader and the Feckless Ne’er-do-Well. I think that every protagonist I’ve ever written—male or female—is some version of Ratty, that rugged, persistent fellow who lives in the moment, packs an extravagant picnic basket, stands loyally by his many and varied friends and never, ever gives up. Beneath all that children’s charm lies a brilliant character study.

The Librarians

Sherry Thomas is one of my go-to authors in a number of different genres—mystery like this story (she also writes the Lady Sherlock historical mystery series), Young Adult Fantasy, English language versions of a Chinese Wuxia novels (with Thomas’s characteristic heroic female spin), Chinese language web novels, and several different romance genres (see below), most prominent among them historical romance. In this recently released who-done-it, four librarians working in an Austin branch library must solve the murders of two patrons of a mystery-themed game night. Like all Thomas novels, the characterizations are beautifully and insightfully drawn and the prose is measured yet propulsive. Always a great author.

Prima (After the End Collection)

Once I had read Sherry Thomas’s Librarians, I was eager to prolong my stay in her distinctive voice, so I read her most recent post-apocalyptic romance, Prima. In this novella that is part of the After the End collection, Thomas creates an evocative setting on the open ocean, where the romantic protagonists meet. The writing is lush and lyrical and the characters and romance is beautifully drawn. Honestly, I will read anything and everything Thomas writes.

A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge

After the romance, I needed the cozy reality of Kate Khavari’s most recent Saffron Everleigh mystery. This academic-set historical mystery series is set in 1920’s University College London and the English countryside. The protagonist, Saffron Everleigh, is a crime-solving botanist who uses her specialist knowledge and scientific process to solve a series of murders. A Botanist’s Guide to Rituals and Revenge, the fourth book of the series, is brilliant catnip for my mystery-solving soul.

Real Tigers

Once I was reading about historic London, I wanted a little more of the grit of the present-day metropolis, so I turned to Mick Herron’s third Slough House novel, Real Tigers. Now that the anti-heroic Slow Horses of Slough House are on our TV’s, the characters need no introduction. But if you’ve only watched the TV series, you’re missing a vast deal of the superb language and acerbic wit of Herron’s writing. In this story, one of the Slow Horses themselves is abducted and the team have to navigate a deep web of intrigue and betrayal within MI5 to ensure their cohort’s safety. Such gritty fun.

The Sway of the Grand Saloon

I do have to write myself, so my reading always includes a vast deal of research and non-fiction histories. At the moment, my reference book of choice is The Sway of the Grand Saloon: A Social History of the North Atlantic by John Malcolm Brinnin, which I hope will give readers a hint as to the setting of the next Marigold Manners Mystery.

Mythology

And last, but certainly not least, my constant companion during the writing of my Marigold Manners Mysteries has been Edith Hamilton’s classic Mythology. Concentrating on the classical myths of Ancient Greece and Rome, Hamilton was a classics scholar who, after an illustrious career in women’s education, retired to write her seminal works, which remain standard reading for all classical studies scholars—just like my Marigold Manners. I often recommend this book because the myths that Hamilton translated are repeat with archetypes and themes that every working author should know.

Visit Elizabeth Hobbs's website.

Q&A with Elizabeth Hobbs.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kim DeRose

Kim DeRose writes dark, magical stories about strong, magical girls for teens and former teens. She is the author of Hear Her Howl and For Girls Who Walk Through Fire, which was selected for ALA’s 2025 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List, received a starred review from School Library Journal, praise from Kirkus Reviews and Booklist, and was the recipient of the 2024 Millikin Medal for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction.

She grew up in Santa Barbara, California, earned her MFA in film directing from UCLA, and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY as a recovering Catholic and ex-good girl. When she’s not writing or reading, she can be found listening to endless podcasts, taking long walks through the woods (of Prospect Park), and teaching her children how to howl.

Hear Her Howl is her most recent book.

Recently I asked DeRose about what she was reading. Her reply:

I’m one of those people who has a giant TBR stack beside their bed and normally has 3-5 books I’m simultaneously reading at once (which never stops me from acquiring more books!). Here’s what I’m currently reading and enjoying:

Winter White by Annie Cardi

I loved Annie Cardi’s previous YA book, Red, (a retelling of The Scarlet Letter) and did several panels with Annie discussing the importance of accurately and sensitively representing sexual assault in YA fiction. So when she asked if I’d blurb Winter White I was thrilled. Once again she’s written another beautiful retelling (this time of Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale) that this time sensitively portrays a difficult dynamic within a family system. Her characters are always beautifully wrought and there’s a tenderness within her stories that I very much appreciate.

A Curious Kind of Magic by Mara Rutherford

If you’re looking for a cozy and delightful book this fall or winter, this is the one. Mara Rutherford is a writing friend and I had the privilege of hearing her read the first chapter of A Curious Kind of Magic at a writing retreat last fall (we’re in the same writer’s group, which Laini Taylor started). I was immediately hooked by this YA romantic fantasy and am so thrilled I finally have my own copy. It’s got witchy vibes, a magic curiosity shop, and a slow burn romance. All of which is to say, perfect for the season.

Beasts of Carnaval by Rosália Rodrigo

Rosália Rodrigo is another writer friend from Laini Taylor’s writing group, and this gorgeous book is her debut. It’s a Caribbean/Latino adult fantasy with themes of decolonization and reclamation, indigenous Taíno mythology, and an atmospheric island setting. Though the island in question is not exactly what it seems. I'm thoroughly enjoying this one and love both the strong characters and the lush writing.

An Amateur Witch’s Guide to Murder by K. Valentin

Yet another writing friend from Laini Taylor’s writing group (are you seeing a trend here?!). I just got my copy of K Valentin’s debut in the mail and already this queer YA romantic fantasy is laugh out loud funny. Even if she wasn’t a writing friend, I’d want to read this book stat - I mean, with a tagline like “Mateo Borrero has 99 problems - and all of them hinge on his missing bruja mother and the demon she trapped inside his body," how could I not?

Visit Kim DeRose's website.

Q&A with Kim DeRose.

The Page 69 Test: For Girls Who Walk through Fire.

My Book, The Movie: For Girls Who Walk through Fire.

The Page 69 Test: Hear Her Howl.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tessa Wegert

Tessa Wegert is the critically acclaimed author of the Shana Merchant mysteries, as well as the North Country series, beginning with In the Bones. Her books have received numerous starred reviews and have been featured on PBS and NPR Radio. A former journalist and copywriter, Tessa grew up in Quebec and now lives with her husband and children in Connecticut, where she co-founded Sisters in Crime CT and serves on the board of International Thriller Writers (ITW).

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Wegert's reply:

I always have three books on the go at once — one in print, one ebook or NetGalley arc, and one audiobook — so I’ll share a recent favorite from each bucket.

In print, I adored Jennifer Fawcett’s Keep This for Me, a stunning and atmospheric mystery set in Upstate New York. This re-imagining of the serial killer thriller examines the aftereffects of murder on both the victim’s daughter and the son of the convicted killer with prose that’s lyrical and lush.

I just finished reading an early copy of Darby Kane’s Such a Clever Girl, a domestic thriller set in Sleepy Hollow, New York. It’s about what happens when a member of the Tanner family, which disappeared more than a decade ago and is presumed dead, returns to confront the three local women with connections to the case. Inheritance games, exposed secrets, and twisted family dynamics make this upcoming novel a must-read.

My most recent audiobook was Wendy Walker’s The Room Next Door, which expertly juggles a vast cast of narrators along with music and special effects (think of it as a modern radio play). The dual timelines and multiple points of view make this a riveting, multi-layered mystery, and Wendy’s rendering of teenage girls and their complex inner lives was incredibly effective.

Visit Tessa Wegert's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Dead Season.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Season.

Q&A with Tessa Wegert.

The Page 69 Test: Dead Wind.

Writers Read: Tessa Wegert (April 2022).

Writers Read: Tessa Wegert (December 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Devils at the Door.

The Page 69 Test: The Coldest Case.

--Marshal Zeringue

R.T. Ester

Originally from Nigeria, R.T. Ester moved to the United States in 1998 and, catching the creative bug early on, studied art with a focus on design. While working full time as a graphic designer, he began to write speculative fiction in his spare time and, since then, has had stories published in Interzone and Clarkesworld.

Ester's new novel is The Ganymedan.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Ester's reply:

I started a novel recently called Extremophile by Ian Green. It's one whose very bold cover design I had been captivated by for months. So far, I've enjoyed the book's vision of a near-future London that sort of reminds me of the gritty, neon-streaked streets that make up much of the Night City setting of William Gibson's Neuromancer. It's also written in a prose style that doesn't use dialog markers and often has me feeling like a fly on a wall to the story's proceedings, which is something I generally enjoy when I read books in the cyberpunk genre. There are times when I prefer a 'guided tour' when I'm reading, but this book has such a familiar setting from so many other stories in the genre that it almost made no sense not to try something bold and maybe even new. I would say it delivers on both. It's also a very layered story about eco-terrorism and biohacking, and the central characters are as captivating as you would find in some of the genre's most memorable examples.

Visit R.T. Ester's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards has been described by Richard Osman as "a true master of British crime writing." His novels include the eight Lake District Mysteries and four books featuring Rachel Savernake, including the Dagger-nominated The Puzzle of Blackstone Lodge. He is also the author of two multi-award-winning histories of crime fiction, The Life of Crime and The Golden Age of Murder. He has received three Daggers, including the CWA Diamond Dagger (the highest honour in UK crime writing) and two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America. He has received four lifetime achievement awards: for his fiction, short fiction, non-fiction, and scholarship. He is consultant to the British Library’s Crime Classics and since 2015 has been President of the Detection Club.

Edwards's newest novel is Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. His reply:

I read all the time, and much of my reading is crime fiction, because that is what I love. I also need to research books for the British Library Crime Classics series of reprints, for which I’m the consultant. Because I’ve been heavily involved with writing and then promoting Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife for the past two years, I’ve read a huge number of detective stories with a puzzle element of one kind or another. Lately I’ve become rather obsessed with the books of a Scottish writer called D.M. Devine, who also wrote as Dominic Devine. He wrote in the 1960s and 1970s and he was very good at writing traditional mysteries with an ingenious puzzle to be solved. Agatha Christie was a fan of his work, but although his serial killer mystery The Fifth Cord was filmed, as an Italian giallo, he is now more or less forgotten. This is partly because he wrote standalone mysteries rather than a series, and also partly because the type of puzzle he specialised in was rather unfashionable in those days. I recently read another serial killer mystery of his, Three Green Bottles, and it was excellent – tense, clever, and well-characterised.

Learn more about the book and author at Martin Edwards’s website.

Writers Read: Martin Edwards (April 2013).

The Page 69 Test: The Frozen Shroud.

The Page 69 Test: Dancing for the Hangman.

The Page 99 Test: The Arsenic Labyrinth.

The Page 99 Test: Waterloo Sunset.

My Book, The Movie: Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife.

--Marshal Zeringue

Finley Turner

Finley Turner is a thriller writer. Initially convinced she wanted to be a professor, she got her master's in religious studies at Wake Forest University, focusing on new religious movements, cults, and religious violence. During her program, she applied for a student position in the university library and quickly realized she would rather be an academic librarian than be at the front of a classroom teaching. She worked as an archivist at Wake Forest University for six years after getting her master's in library and information science from UNC Greensboro. She now writes and parents full time.

Turner's new novel is The Tarot Reader.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

I'm currently reading The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano and listening to Ruth Ware's newest novel The Woman in Suite 11. In the fall months, especially as Halloween approaches, I always love to read something witchy. What I'm loving about The First Witch of Boston so far is its critique of misogyny in the late 1600s. The woman in question is a talented healer with a loose tongue and a passion for life. These factors, along with her success as a local healer make her an easy target for accusations of witchcraft. Social commentary makes a good story even better and although I'm only halfway through, I'm enjoying myself!

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a huge Ruth Ware fan. I buy all her books without even reading the description and as always, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. It feels fairly rare for thrillers to be a part of a series, so I'm always intrigued to see where authors take the story for a follow-up. For those that don't know, The Woman in Suite 11 is a sequel to The Woman in Cabin 10 and I’m loving seeing the character later in her life, married with children, yet still finding herself in the middle of a murder investigation. Some things never change!

Visit Finley Turner's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Engagement Party.

Q&A with Finley Turner.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ian Chorão

Ian Chorão is a writer and psychotherapist in private practice in Brooklyn, New York. He lives with his wife, who is a filmmaker and professor; they have two children.

Chorão's new novel, When We Talk to the Dead, is his first book of horror.

Like his main character, Chorão appreciates that the space between feeling and creation, reality and imagination is often ambiguous at best.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. His reply:

I'm reading three books at the moment.

The Shining by Stephen King. I know, strange that I've never read it. Usually my experience is seeing a movie of a book I love, but this is the reverse--I know the movie by heart, so I have to actively push it out of my head, so I can read the actual book. What is really great about it is how down to earth the characters and tone of the story are. Planting the supernatural in a very naturalistic setting makes the impact of the horror so much more intense. And I love how much he enjoys giving space to the inner lives of all his characters.

John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie. Being a Beatle fanatic, I promised myself I wouldn't read another book about the Beatles, but this one is different. For the fully indoctrinated, there might not be new factual revelations, but this book is about the emotional psychology between these two men and how it was not just their talent but their relationship and their intense connection that forged the greatest catalog of popular songs. The love they had for one another was on par with a dizzying romantic love. And as happens with love, there were all the other emotions, hurt, anger, envy, but always, always returning to a commitment and companionship and trust that worked like a fortress, protecting and bringing out each others' best parts.

The Unfolding by A.M. Homes. Like reading The Plague during Covid, reading Home's book, which follows the intense negative backlash to Obama's win, and watching like a fly on the wall, how that anger and fear organizes the right, might seem like a hard pill in these times. But actually it has the opposite effect. She nestles the macro planning of the powerful men looking to yank back the power they feel is theirs inside a family drama, where even the most powerful are shown to be painfully mortal. And how she writes dialogue, fast, economical, sharp, and her humor, and her delight in the dark absurd venture that is being a human, it just leaves you breathless.

Follow Ian Chorão on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Vicki Delany

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, the Catskill Resort mysteries for Penguin Random House, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane.

Delany is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards. She is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. Delany lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Delany's new novel is O, Deadly Night: A Year-Round Christmas Mystery.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Delany's reply:

I rarely read a book twice, even one I’ve enjoyed enormously. But somehow this fall I found myself returning to a couple of old favourites.

Keeping Watch by Laurie R King came out originally in 2003 and it had an enormous impact on me at the time. I decided to re-read it again and found it just as powerful as on first reading. King is best known for her Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes books, but she’s written quite a few others as well. This is now called Book 2 of a series, but it’s much more of a standalone. The protagonist is a Vietnam War vet, traumatised by an atrocity he took part in, and all these years later still trying to find redemption. It deals with the trauma of war, what survivors have to deal with, and how they try to rebuild shattered lives. Very moving and highly recommended.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron (translated from the Spanish). This is the first book in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, set in Barcelona in the 1920s to 50s. Moody and atmospheric, it’s about the power of books to transform lives. It’s also a powerful message about what it’s like for ordinary, genuinely good, people living under Fascism. The entire collection is highly recommended.

A new book pick was Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch. I’ve been reading the Rivers of London series from the beginning. They’re about a wizard police officer in London, his colleagues, and mentor. By this book he’s married to a River Goddess (yes). The books are fun and clever, as is the world of magic existing alongside ours created by Aaronovitch.

Visit Vicki Delany's website, and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

The Page 69 Test: Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen.

The Page 69 Test: A Scandal in Scarlet.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in a Teacup.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (September 2021).

The Page 69 Test: Deadly Summer Nights.

The Page 69 Test: The Game is a Footnote.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (January 2023).

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (January 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Sign of Four Spirits.

The Page 69 Test: A Slay Ride Together With You.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (December 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (July 2025).

The Page 69 Test: Tea with Jam & Dread.

--Marshal Zeringue