John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

An extraordinary adventure into the darkest halls of power, Menace: An Agent Dean Cold Novel by Ray Keating is a confidently cool piece of Cold War sci-fi, coupled with top-secret action. To stop a clandestine takeover of the Soviet Union by mind-controlling tech, Agent Dean Cold must put aside his grief at the loss of his partner and face down a sinister cabal of Commanders bent on pushing the world towards nuclear war. Joined by a handful of Secret Service vets and a drum-playing chemist, this spy-game group of companions becomes the first and last line of defense against a […]

A gritty but tongue-in-cheek satire of hard-boiled gumshoe fiction, Sham Shamus by Charlotte Stuart is a creative twist on the private eye genre, where the lines between hunter and hunted disappear entirely. When P.I. Eric Henderson is hired to find a ruthless political climber and informant who’s wanted by the mob, the case hits shockingly close to his dangerous double life. Cleverly laced with witty dialogue, a razor-sharp protagonist, and slick but believable supporting characters, this multilayered work of detective fiction manages to be both amusing and suspenseful, expertly pillorying old-school detective novels while also showing abundant reverence for the […]

A stunning read that swelters with tension and sultry grit, The Devil Take the Blues by Ariel Slick is a macabre masterpiece of family, sacrifice, and the seductive charms of darkness. In a bid to save her sister’s life, Beatrice must make a deal with Old Scratch, who’s currently seeking desperate souls and top-shelf music in small-town Louisiana. As forbidden hearts entangle and time runs short on Beatrice’s hunt for the would-be killer, the full picture of this hellish web dramatically comes into focus. This immersive and sharply penned novel is marked by consistent linguistic flair and the author’s unflinching […]