Archives de catégorie : London 2024 Fiction

THE SPIRIT COLLECTION OF THORNE HALL de J. Ann Thomas

Jamie Thoma’s writing is whimsical, lyrical, and charming as Elegy’s romance blooms in the darkest and most ominous of places. THE SPIRIT COLLECTION OF THORNE HALL is ideal for fans of Jennifer McMahon,Wendy Webb, and Alix E. Harrow.

THE SPIRIT COLLECTION OF THORNE HALL
by J. Ann Thomas
Alcove Press, February 2025

For more than a hundred years, the Thorne family has lived in splendor and isolation in their New England manor, devoting their lives to pacifying the fourteen spirits cursed to dwell there. Now, with her father on his deathbed, 25-year-old Elegy Thorne is about to inherit the Spirit Collection despite her terrifying inability to control them.

Timid but headstrong, Elegy lives, speaks, and dresses one hundred years out of step with the world around her. She must keep the house and everything inside as near as possible to America’s Gilded Age when the spirits were summoned, lest they erupt in violence. She is resigned to live this way forever until for the first time in her life she falls in love with a young man who is helping restore a damaged part of the mansion.

Jamie Thomas’ debut YA novel Asperfell (Uproar Books, 2020) earned the gold medal for Fantasy at the INDIES Awards and was named among Booklist’s top ten debut speculative fiction novels of the year, among other accolades. She’s a high school English teacher in Washington state and a classically trained opera singer.

FOUR QUEENS de Rosanne Limoncelli

Comparable novels to FOUR QUEENS would include many titles from the Christie, Sayers, Marsh, and Allingham oeuvres, as well as such recent titles as Claudia Gray’s The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Susan Elia MacNeal’s Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, and Elly Griffiths’ The Locked Room.

FOUR QUEENS
by Rosanne Limoncelli
Crooked Lane, March 2025

In 1938 England, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham – the « Four Queens » of British crime fiction – host a gala dinner to raise money for the Women’s Volunteer Service to help Britain prepare for war as Nazi Germany begins its conquest of the Continent. Baronet Sir Henry Heathcote has graciously loaned his manor home, Hursley House, for the event, for which the London elite have shown up in fancy gowns and sharp tuxedos, dancing to a twenty-piece orchestra; it is a great success. Early the next morning as the house staff tidies up the rooms for its weekend guests, including the Four Queens, Sir Henry is found dead in the library, with his cigar still lit, his eyes open, and his face contorted in horror.

Scotland Yard is summoned and appears in the form of Detective Chief Inspector Lilian Wyles, who has distinguished herself in the Criminal Investigation Division as its first female officer, and Detective Chief Inspector Richard Davidson. Many of the guests have apparent motives, among them Sir Henry’s politically ambitious son, his sexually rebellious daughter, his left-leaning Spanish son-in-law, his recently jilted fiancee, a young Indian secretary to the Home Secretary, and even the Four Queens are not beneath suspicion. But DCI Wyles, for whom this is her first murder investigation, has a knack for gaining the trust of female suspects and witnesses, and she quietly recruits the Four Queens to use their exceptional puzzle-solving talents to help identify the murderer.

Rosanne Limoncelli’s debut locked-room murder mystery Four Queens centers on the concept that all four of these famous female crime authors could have come together in pre-war England and the fascination of seeing them work together using their respective unique detection skills gleaned from their work to solve an actual murder. DCI Wyles, who has a complex backstory, rises to the occasion and would be a returning character in subsequent mysteries featuring the four queens of crime.

Rosanne Limoncelli is a writer, filmmaker, and professor living in Brooklyn. She has written, directed and produced short narrative films, features, documentaries and educational films. Rosanne also writes poetry, short fiction, educational texts and novels. Her short fiction first appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and her most recent work can be seen in Suspense Magazine and Noir Nation. Currently, she is the Senior DIrector of Film Technologies at the Kanbar Institute and the Martin Scorsese Center of Virtual Production in Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where she teaches writing and filmmaking to students and professors and often serves as an education and technology consultant and as a speaker at conferences and universities. She received her BFA from the Department of Film & TV at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and her MA and PhD in Teaching Reading,Writing, and Media from NYU’s Steinhardt School.

THEY ALL FALL THE SAME de Wesley Browne

An organized crime boss in Kentucky believes money and power are everything until his enterprise collides with a family tragedy, in this gripping noir thriller perfect for fans of S.A. Cosby and Eli Cranor.

THEY ALL FALL THE SAME
by Wesley Browne
Crooked Lane, November 2024

Cannabis kingpin Burl Spoon has reigned over the Jackson County area for three decades, building a powerful backwoods empire. But behind a well-run organization, his personal life is crumbling – his daughter can’t stay clean; his son has hated him since coming out; and after enduring years of infidelity, his wife is straying too. The only person not on his payroll who still adores him is his six-year-old granddaughter, Chelsea.

When his daughter overdoses on heroin laced with fentanyl and one of his employees is murdered, Burl’s retaliation against Clovis Begley, the patriarch of the heroin-dealing family involved in both deaths, is inevitable. As Burl’s plan spirals into a firestorm of vengeance that threatens the safety of his granddaughter, his drive for revenge conflicts with his longing for redemption. On the brink of losing everything, Burl must find a path between retribution and protecting what’s left of his family.

Wesley Browne is the founder and host of Pages & Pints Reading Series at Apollo Pizza in Richmond, Kentucky. He lives with his wife and two sons in Madison County, Kentucky.

WE KEPT HER IN THE CELLAR de W. R. Gorman

This dark and twisted retelling of Cinderella will sink its teeth into you and keep you guessing from beginning to end, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher and Naomi Novik.

WE KEPT HER IN THE CELLAR
by W. R. Gorman
Crooked Lane, September 2024

Eunice lives her life by three simple rules: One, always refer to Cinderella as family. Two, never let Cinderella gain access to rats or mice. Three, never look upon Cinderella between the hours of twelve and three a.m.

Cinderella has dark and terrifying powers. As her stepsister, Eunice is expected to care for her and keep the family’s secret. For years, Euince has faithfully done so. Her childhood flew by in a blur of nightmares, tears, and near-misses with the monster living in the cellar. But when she befriends the handsome Prince Credence and secures an invitation to the ball, Eunice is determined to break free.

When her younger sister, Hortense, steps up to care for Cinderella, Eunice grabs her chance to dance the night away – until Cinderella escapes. With her eldritch powers, Cinderella attends the ball and sweeps Prince Credence off his feet, leaving behind a trail of carnage and destruction, as well as a single green glass slipper.

With Cinderella unleashed, Eunice must determine how much of herself she is willing to sacrifice in order to stop Cinderella. Unsettling and macabre at every turn, this page-turning horror will bewitch horror fans and leave its readers anxiously checking the locks on their cellar doors.

W.R. Gorman attended Macalester College and Hamline University, where she studied linguistics and Hispanic studies, and teaching Spanish, respectively. Her hobbies include cooking, snuggling cats, and reading absolutely everything she can get her hands on. She now resides in Saint Paul with her partner, child, and three extremely mischievous cats.

NOW COMES THE MIST de Julie C. Dao

A sexy, romantic, feminist retelling of Dracula from the point of view of Lucy Westenra.

NOW COMES THE MIST
by Julie C. Dao
Podium, October 2024
(via Context Literary Agency)

Lucy Westenra is beautiful, rich, and admired by men. But under her sparkling, flirtatious façade, Lucy is melancholy and obsessed with death after losing her beloved father; she both fears and is captivated by death and dreads leaving her loved ones behind, especially Mina Murray, for whom Lucy cherishes an unspoken romantic attraction.

Lucy balks against the rules of upper-class society. She longs for experiences that are considered inappropriate for a respectable young lady, from traveling to indulging in her sexual curiosity and enthusiasm as men do. When she meets the sexy, mysterious Vlad, she realizes she has the chance to get everything she ever wanted. Or lose it.

Julie C. Dao is the critically acclaimed author of many books for teens and children including Forest of a Thousand Lanterns and Broken Wish. Her novels have earned starred reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, won recognition as Junior Library Guild Selections and Kids’ Indie Next List picks, and landed on multiple best-ofyear lists including YALSA and the American Library Association. A proud Vietnamese- American who was born in upstate New York, she now lives in New England.