Marie Benedict creates an unlikely yet believable love story that provides what she imagines could be the explanation for Andrew Carnegie’s transformation from ruthless industrialist to generous philanthropist. The tale is told from the point of view of Clara Kelley, a poor farmer’s daughter who has immigrated from Ireland to America in hopes of
Store favorite J.T. Ellison, whose thrillers typically take place in Nashville, is back with another venture into domestic noir. Last year’s No One Knows, about a young woman coping with the apparent death of her husband after he disappears at the Opryland Hotel, was somewhat of a departure for Ellison, since her books are usually
Fen, a debut short story collection by Daisy Johnson, is captivating. While the characters and stories are not formally connected, meaning the characters from one story don’t know the characters from another, they are all set in the marshy Fenland region of eastern England. The local pub, the Fox and Hound, is visited by characters
Exes is a debut novel told in inter-connected stories all (mostly) set in Providence, RI. The first story introduces us to Clay Blackall, a man who is emotionally lost and directionless, seemingly unable to cope with the death of his brother. Each story has a new narrator, but in between these stories are sections that
The Redemption of Galen Pike is a collection of flawless short stories and flash fiction. Setting, character, and plot are of such a variety that the strongest similarity between the stories is that each is more surprising than the last. Davies deftly turns every situation, and the world, on its side. In surprisingly few pages, Davies
One of the Boys is a heartbreaking debut novel about two boys and their father, starting a new life in Albuquerque. At first, I thought maybe, just maybe, it was a good thing these boys were no longer with their mother, whom they all claim to hate. Their father, a dreamer (narcissist?), says they’ll have