Ben Winters’ Underground Airlines imagines a modern world where the U.S. Civil War never happened and without that war, slavery remained legal in South. The story follows a young black man named Victor (one of many aliases he uses), a former slave himself who had been given freedom in exchange for a position with the…
Resident information sponge Bill Bryson goes through his home, room-by-room, to present the history of private life and how many of the items we see and interact with on a daily basis came to find their way into our everyday lives. At Home feels like a handbook for making small talk at social gatherings. Let’s…
In 2011, the mysterious disappearance of Maura Murray caught the eye of freelance investigative journalist James Renner. But this wasn’t exactly new territory for Renner. Years before, he had dug into the disappearance of Amy Mihaljevic, a case that left Renner with PTSD. Why would he want to subject himself to this scenario again, you…
“The world was on fire and no one could save me but you..” A deadly plague dubbed “dragonscale” – a disease that causes its carriers to burst into flames shortly following the appearance of black and gold scale-like patterns on their skin – is sweeping the nation. Small town nurse Harper Grayson becomes infected following…
In 1997, three organizations battled for sports entertainment supremacy. You had the juggernaut WWF (World Wrestling Federation), who despite a massively successful 1980s, had entered a cooling off period as it struggled to find its footing amid a steady stream of superstar exits. You had Ted Turner’s WCW (World Championship Wrestling), a company filled with…
A unspecified world catastrophe forces the evacuation of a northern Canadian astronomical research station but disaffected scientist and perennial loner Augustine decides to stick around to finish his work. He doesn’t care what happened nor is he particularly bothered by the seriousness of the event – he just wants to be left alone to dither…
For a long time, this book was my “white whale”. Up to recently, I had three of Joe Hill’s novels (Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, NOS4A2) in hardcover and although 20th Century Ghosts was easily accessible in paperback or for download on my Kindle, I felt I needed to match my existing format and seek out the…
Patrick and Angie have led rough careers as private investigators and after the events in Sacred, they’ve decided to pull back a little. When we catch up with them in Gone Baby Gone, they’ve all but sworn off cases that could lead to violence, death and destruction. Unfortunately for them, when young Amanda McCready goes…
Every Read Thing 