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Portrait of a Daughter by Liz O’Toole Papazian is a short and poignant novel about how to find meaning in life and death. New York City in the 80s is the perfect nostalgic backdrop to this novel that deftly mixes tragic upbringing with personal triumph. Papazian does not coddle the reader as we follow Grace through the death of her mother to the hedonistic clubs of the Big Apple, and finally becoming a mother herself. While the story has some predictable dramatic plot points, the spirit of Grace’s character pierces through each scene so it’s impossible not to admire her, […]

Neil Turner’s latest Tony Valenti thriller, Plane in the Lake, pits the no-nonsense lawyer and his fiery partner against entrenched power in this classic Chicago crime story. Lawyers and liars go hand in hand in the pearly offices of the city’s underworld, as a well-to-do family’s desperate attempt to cover up the truth behind their daughter’s death spirals into something much more. As Valenti is faced with saving not only his firm but his family too, Turner skillfully wields an incisive pen that takes on the seemingly untouchable upper classes and shady crime families. With his trademark breezy style […]

A kaleidoscopic voyage through imagination, Presence, the Play is a deep dive into the writer’s psyche, in which a playwright monk suffers a tragic accident before his grand story can be revealed, triggering a visionary journey. William E. Jefferson has produced a tour de force blending different fictional forms while displaying a vast knowledge of drama, theology, history, and mysticism. As the reader travels to unknown lands in the Isle of Estillyen to battle the actors of evil, Jefferson’s narrative dynamism is on full display. While heavy on dialogue, as might be expected, distinct voices shine through with every innovative […]