One Death at a Time
Twelve Stakes Volume 1
Paperback | Kindle
Written by Thomas M. Hewlett
Twelve Stakes Publishing
Release Date: August 5th, 2016

Jack Strayhorn has lived a long, long time, and has pretty much seen it all. He’s a vampire, turned in 1948 after a harrowing police case. No longer a cop (hard to explain), he’s currently a private investigator who can differentiate smells to tell him a story. Hired for a missing persons case, the result is death by Fae. Not wanting it to be his business, but getting dragged into this new case anyway, Jack soon finds that he is a target for following the “scent,” albeit a deadly and formidable one.

More below on One Death at a Time (Twelve Stakes, Volume 1) by Thomas M. Hewlett.

License to Quill
Paperback | Kindle Edition
by Jacopo della Quercia
St. Martin’s Griffin | Macmillan
Release date: December 15th, 2015

History says that Christopher Marlowe, a playwright who influenced William Shakespeare, was stabbed to death while embroiled in legal trouble, over words that may or may not have been his. But what if that was an act? What if this was the 16th Century version of the witness protection program? William Shakespeare takes over for that influential bard, and finds himself mixed up in The Gunpowder Plot (a group tried to assassinate King James, the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland). Guy Fawkes commissions him to write a play about “the abuse of power” set in Scotland, to rile things up a bit.

License to Quill by Jacopo della Quercia takes you through an exciting historical mystery – one in which you expect Shakespeare to utter, “Shaken… not stirred.”

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Lamp Black, Wolf Grey
Paperback | Kindle Edition | Audible
Written by Paula Brackston
St. Martin’s Griffin
Release Date: August 4, 2014
Cover Price: $14.99

In Lamp Black, Wolf Grey by Paula Brackston, Laura and Dan are finally moving to HER dream home in the lush countryside of Wales. Here is where she will make her greatest creations to place in her next art exhibit. Dan will stay in the city during the week and join her in their idyllic home on the weekends, when they will try to conceive. But something strange is happening to Laura during random times, moments where extreme flashes of feeling overcome her. Then she meets gorgeous neighbor Rhys, who is magnetic and appears whenever she needs rescue. (Why can’t I have one of those?) Eventually, Merlin — the famed Arthurian wizard — begins to appear to her as well.

While Laura’s story is being told in the present, there’s chapters flashing back in time to Megan and Merlin, who had lived in the Welsh countryside where Laura now resides. This story was the much better part, and could have been the book all by itself. Megan being victimized by the Lord of the land to get to her love, Merlin, is classic and always a good tale. The added touch of the youngest of the Lord’s sons being so attached to Megan, while being ignored by his father, heightens the tragedy even further.

World War Moo: An Apocalypse Cow Novel
Paperback | Kindle
Written by Michael Logan
St. Martin’s Griffin |
Release Date: June 9th, 2015
Cover Price: $15.99

“Where there’s war, there’s udder destruction…”

Now that is a quote.

World War Moo: An Apocalypse Cow Novel by Michael Logan is the follow-up to Apocalypse Cow, bringing back some favorite characters from the original, now that the zombie virus infecting the cows has spread to mankind. It IS contained in great Britain for now. What will the people of Britain do? What will the people of the world do? The infected are just like any other person – just with super-sized tempers. They are just normal, regular people who like a little brawl now and again, or every day. It is only when they get near the uninfected, that they really rage out. The leaders in the outside world want to nuke Britain to stamp out the spread of the virus. The people of Britain want to escape.

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection
Hardcover | Softcover | Kindle Edition
Edited by Gardner Dozois
St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: July 7, 2015
Cover Price: $22.99 (Softcover)

Have you ever tried to review an anthology? It’s a lot harder than you might think! Over six hundred pages from almost forty authors was not just an investment in time but it was also a chance to get to know some new writers and revisit some that I hadn’t read in a while.

I was, at first, a bit apprehensive about digging into this hefty tome, but once I started, I was amazed at how quickly I shot through the stories. In an era where many of our devices and gadgets were once thought of as science fiction, how much of what we read today will be available for purchase in the future? We look at science fiction as entertainment but much of it foreshadows our culture and what we can expect in days to come. This, my friends, is what The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection is all about.