Archives de catégorie : Fiction

THE POET EMPRESS de Shen X. Tao

In the declining Azalea Dynasty, where poetry magic is forbidden to women, rice farmer Wei tricks her way into being selected as imperial concubine to a cruel tyrant and must harden her heart and learn to wield literomancy in secret in order to change the fate of an empire.

THE POET EMPRESS
by Shen X. Tao
on submission
(via Mushens Entertainment)

In the waning years of the Azalea Dynasty, the emperor is dying, the land is consumed by a famine, and poetry magic is lost to all except the powerful. After the fifth death of a sibling, young rice farmer Wei Yin is determined to save her family from desperate hunger, a difficult feat when women are forbidden from education, and crucially, literacy.

Wei finds her chance to improve the conditions of her family and her village when Prince Terren, the cruel, unkillable heir to the throne, begins a search for concubines to bear him a son. Wei tricks her way into the inner court, but little does she know, life in the lush and enchanted Azalea Palace is rife with danger and brutality she wasn’t ready for. For one, there is a covert succession war; Terren’s influential eldest brother, the one who should have been heir, has long been eyeing the crown. For another, Terren’s thirty concubines are fighting a war of their own, for the position of future empress. They know to whisper sweet words and deliver pretty smiles in public, but when nobody is looking, they are not afraid to sabotage each other with rumours or poison.

But most terrifying of all is the prince himself. Terren turns out to be just as sadistic as the rumours, willing to torture even the most powerful of those who cross him, let alone a peasant girl with no status. To survive in court, Wei must harden her heart, rely on her wit, and become dangerous herself, even if it means learning the forbidden art of poetry magic and wielding the most powerful spell of all—a heart spirit poem that requires the wielder to love the target in order to kill them.

Chinese-Canadian author Sophia Tao (writing as Shen X. Tao) has dreamed of publishing fantasy stories since she was seven. Though her roots lie in Nanchang and Toronto, she later moved to Seattle to be closer to the mountains and the ocean, where she currently resides with her partner, her piano, and her menagerie of stuffed critters. When not working as an engineer, she can be spotted hiking, taking long walks in the city, or feeding the local park geese. Sophia is a finalist for the Mike Resnick Memorial Award for science fiction and a two-time finalist for the PNWA unpublished novel contest, and a graduate of the 2023 Taos Toolbox and Viable Paradise speculative fiction workshops.

THE LOST LETTERS FROM MARTHA’S VINEYARD de Michael Callahan

A tantalizing novel of two women bound by blood but divided by a long-buried secret, and the island that holds the key to the fateful summer that changed everything forever.

THE LOST LETTERS FROM MARTHA’S VINEYARD
by Michael Callahan
Mariner, May 2024
(via Dystel Goderich & Bourret)

In 1959, Hollywood ingenue Mercy Welles seems to have the world at her feet. Far removed from her Nebraska roots, she has crafted herself into a glamorous Oscar-nominated actress engaged to an up-and-coming director. Until she shockingly vanishes without a trace, just as her career is taking off.

Almost sixty years later, Kit O’Neill, a junior television producer in Manhattan, is packing up her recently deceased grandmother’s attic only to discover a long-lost box of souvenirs that reveal that the grandmother who raised her and her sister was, in fact, the mysterious Mercy Welles.

Putting her investigative skills to use, Kit is determined to solve the riddle of her grandmother’s missing life, and the trail eventually leads to Martha’s Vineyard.

Mercy retreats to the island nursing a broken heart, only to be drawn to the roguish Ren Sewards, who is not just the simple oysterman he appears to be but a scion of one of the island’s wealthy founding families. With her attraction to Ren quickly growing, Mercy soon finds herself entangled in the intrigues of the tightly knit community—and the secrets of the Sewards

Alternating between Mercy and Kit’s timelines, including excerpts from letters Mercy wrote the summer she disappeared, THE LOST LETTERS FROM MARTHA’S VINEYARD unfurls into a heart-stopping story of love, betrayal, and even murder.

A Publishers Marketplace 2024 Highly Anticipated Buzz Book

“Compelling and evocative, THE LOST LETTERS FROM MARTHA’S VINEYARD is a page turner of the highest order. Michael Callahan’s novel does what few books do; it glued me to my seat. It is a great mystery with great insight into the secrets everybody keeps. » — Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Resurrection Walk

“I was completely captivated by Michael Callahan’s THE LOST LETTERS FROM MARTHA’S VINEYARD. It’s a history mystery you won’t be able to put down, with strong female characters and plenty of secrets. Plus, it takes you behind the scenes in vintage Hollywood and Martha’s Vineyard. A perfect beach read!” — Lisa Scottoline, #1 bestselling author of Loyalty and The Truth About the Devlins

“Michael Callahan’s THE LOST LETTERS FROM MARTHA’S VINEYARD grabs from the first line and doesn’t let go until the last. This delicious mystery will be a particular treat for fans (guilty!) of vintage Hollywood and Nancy Drew.” — Louis Bayard, author of The Pale Blue Eye and The Wildes

« Callahan skillfully blends notes of mystery and romance in this layered story of family secrets. Readers will have a hard time putting it down. » — Publishers Weekly

“Callahan blends mid-century Hollywood glamour and family secrets in this fast-paced, dual-period novel. He captures the historical era in colorful detail, and both women are determined, appealing characters who struggle with their personal and professional lives. Readers who enjoy Beatriz Williams and Crystal Smith Paul will be enthralled.” — Booklist

« A breezy, atmospheric novel dripping with secrets… smooth and suspenseful—and hard to stop reading once you’ve begun. » — Kirkus Reviews

Michael Callahan is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Searching for Grace Kelly and The Night She Won Miss America, as well as a coffee-table history of the famed Musso & Frank Grill restaurant in Hollywood. A contributing editor at Vanity Fair, his work has been published in Esquire, Town & Country, and the New York Times, among others. He lives in Los Angeles.

DAUGHTERS OF CHAOS de Jen Fawkes

A spellbinding story about a renowned Nashville brothel during the Civil War, a centuries-old secret society, and the earth-shaking power of women—charged with suspense, mystery, and sapphic romance.

DAUGHTERS OF CHAOS
by Jen Fawkes
The Overlook Press, July 2024

The year is 1862, and the United States Civil War is in full force. After a harrowing tragedy at home, 19-year-old Sylvie Swift finds herself living in a brothel in Nashville, the Union headquarters, a river city overflowing with soldiers, commanders, politicians, and powerful men––and powerful women. Targeted by a Union colonel and trained to be a spy against suspected Confederate secret societies, Sylvie suddenly finds herself neck-deep in an underground world she never expected: Also at work in Nashville is a centuries-old feminist cult populated by the women Sylvie thought she knew, including Hannah, a revolutionary with whom Sylvie falls headfirst into a heart-wrenching romance. She soon becomes entwined in the lives of the Daughters of Chaos, steadfast in their centuries-long mission to confront and eradicate the injustices enacted by the men who think they’re in charge.

Inspired both by Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, about women who strategically withhold sex from their warring men, and by the true story of Nashville’s attempt to ban its “public women” during wartime, DAUGHTERS OF CHAOS journeys through Ancient Greece, the Renaissance, and American history as Sylvie navigates the complex mythology of this secret world of women against the backdrop of a transformative American conflict.

Jen Fawkes is the author of Mannequin and Wife, a 2020 Shirley Jackson Award Nominee, winner of the 2023 Phillip H. McMath Post-Publication Book Award, and Foreword INDIES gold medalist. Her collection Tales the Devil Told Me was a Foreword INDIES silver medal recipient, Largehearted Boy Favorite Collection of 2021, and finalist for the 2022 World Fantasy Award for Single-Author Story Collection. Her fiction won the 2021 Porter Fund Literary Prize and has appeared in One Story, Lit Hub, The Iowa Review, Crazyhorse, Best Small Fictions, and more. A two-time finalist for the Calvino Prize for fabulist fiction, Jen lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.

IN DARKNESS d’Andrew Reid

Fired on his first day at work, Ben Cross has hit rock bottom. Now, he’s trapped on a subway train with an anonymous killer sending messages to his phone, taunting him with pictures of the next person to die. The only way out is to confront his past, and the dark secret he fears binds them.

IN DARKNESS
by Andrew Reid
Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press, 2026
(via Mushens Entertainment)

Ben thought that he put his past behind him, but his new life in New York becomes a nightmare when a killer starts sending him pictures of their targets. Trapped on the subway, he is forced to play a deadly game of cat and mouse, with instructions to stop them from getting off the train or else they will be killed. But the clock is ticking, and the cops want a quick resolution to what they consider a PR nightmare. And as more and more of Ben’s past comes to light, it seems like he is the perfect suspect. As his options run out, Ben joins forces with a disgraced NYPD detective to try and find the killer and stop them before they can hurt anyone else.

Perfect for fans of claustrophobic, high concept thrillers such as Falling by TJ Newman, Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay and The Chain by Adrian McKinty.

Born in Scotland, Andrew Reid trained as a research chemist, working between the US and UK on projects including drug development and DNA testing. He currently teaches Science and Technology, and creates STEM education resources. He lives in Stockholm with his wife, three children, and two cats.

AKIKOS STILLES GLÜCK de Jan-Philipp Sendker

Where does your own personal story begin? A young woman searching for the truth about herself – a profoundly human and heartwarming story.

AKIKOS STILLES GLÜCK
(Akiko’s Quiet Happiness)
by Jan-Philipp Sendker
Blessing/PRH Verlagsgruppe, September 2024

Ever since her mother’s death, 29-year-old Akiko has led a modest and reclusive life in Tokyo. Her monotonous job as a bookkeeper offers little excitement, and she has no real friends or family. Then, one evening, she runs into an old face from her schooldays: Kento is an outsider, just like her, and even back then she always felt drawn to him. As if that wasn’t enough, Akiko is shocked to discover that the man she thought of as her dad was in fact only a hired actor, paid by her single mother to play a part. Akiko begins to wonder: is everything a lie? And, more profoundly: who is she, really?
And so Akiko embarks on a journey into her own history – a physical and emotional journey she never thought herself capable of…

The major new novel by one the most successful German-language authors. A touching Japan-based tale in a stunning, atmospheric setting.

Jan-Philipp Sendker, born in Hamburg, spent many years working as US and Asia correspondent for Stern magazine. After a further spell in the US, he returned to Germany, and has since published several books, including a collection of portraits entitled Risse in der Großen Mauer (« Cracks in the Great Wall »; Blessing, 2000). His bestselling novel Das Herzenhören (« Listening to heartbeats », 2002) was followed by Das Flüstern der Schatten (« Whispering shadows », 2007), Drachenspiele (« Dragon games », 2009), Herzenstimmen (« Speaking hearts », 2012), Am anderen Ende der Nacht (« At the far end of the night », 2016), Das Geheimnis des alten Mönches (« The old monk’s secret », 2017), Das Gedächtnis des Herzens (« Heart memories », 2019) and Die Rebellin und der Dieb (« The rebel and the thief », 2021). His books have been translated into more than 35 languages, and have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, making him one of the most successful German-language authors today.