Webster’s gonzo second romp for L.A. PIs Stan Stein and Bud Randolph (after American Nonsensical) is a rewarding ride. Bud, envious of Stan’s engagement to the pair’s assistant, Melanie, decides to seek his own wife through a service called Russian Brides Unlimited. Meanwhile, their detective agency gets a pair of new clients. Emelia Clark, who works in a bank’s fraud department, wants photos taken of anyone entering or leaving a particular house between the hours of 8 a.m. and noon. She won’t explain, but the request appears to have some connection to a shadowy federal investigation. Then reverend Clem Dudas, a snake-handler, hires Stan and Bud to retrieve two of his beloved rattlesnakes, Dobie and Maynard, whom he believes were kidnapped by his wife. Dudas shares Bud’s devotion to Donald Trump, and he asks Bud to mail a letter to an unknown recipient once he’s in Russia to meet women. Webster manages to fit each of the story’s outlandish pieces together, largely thanks to his mischievous sense of humor (at one point, Bud states he was at the Capitol on January 6, identifying himself as “the one in the red cap”). Carl Hiaasen fans will hope to see more of Stan and Bud soon. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

Reed (Free Spirits) delivers a heartwarming tale of second chances, focused on two middle-aged brothers and lifelong rivals. Stone Hunnicutt, a litigator in Madison, Wis., receives a letter from Harmony, the partner of his younger brother Ted, asking for $10,000 to renovate a historic home in her rural community, a hippie commune called Peace and Joy. Stone visits Ted, whom he hasn’t seen for 10 years, to determine if he should donate to the cause. There, Stone discovers that Ted, a former professor who has published one well-received novel and was their father’s favorite, is now living in poverty. While Ted is momentarily away, Stone finds a cache of his unpublished novels and steals the manuscripts. Moved by love for his brother and a desire to improve Ted’s life, Stone sets out to get the books published, drawing ire from Ted for invading his privacy. The feud escalates until Stone’s wife and Harmony try to get the brothers to make peace. The writing is a bit rough (a cherry placed on a napkin “bled brightly like fresh blood”), but Reed offers appealing insights on the relationship between art and life and generally sidesteps sentimentality in her portrayal of the brothers’ conflict. This has plenty of charm. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/30/2025 | Details & Permalink

A maiden falls in love with her captor in this sizzling romantasy from Hewitt (the Mage series). Fenna Terrigan believes that her brother, Dasos, died when his ship, the Polperro, sank. So when he appears unexpectedly in the middle of the night, she’s shocked—and even more so when she learns he’s being pursued by The Specter, aka Captain Devlin Cato, who’s cursed to helm the ghost ship Phantom Night and can only be freed by offering 50 souls to the sea god, Liddros. Dasos admits he’s in hot water: he owes Devlin 25 years of his life. Noble Fenna offers to take on his debt in exchange for his freedom. Aboard the ship, things heat up fast between Fenna and Devlin, who enter into a steamy affair almost immediately. Fenna finds herself increasingly drawn to Devlin as she learns the supernatural secrets that have kept him sailing the seas for over a century. The fairy tale–esque worldbuilding feels somewhat cramped, with many intriguing concepts mentioned but few fully fleshed out. Far more successful is the romance, which delivers both heat and heart. Readers who like their romantasies extra spicy will want to check this out. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

This smart debut guide from Bovee, a professor of information systems at California Baptist University, challenges Christians to swap the “superficial satisfaction” of a tech-obsessed life for a more fulfilling relationship with God and themselves. Unpacking the factors that fracture attention, he explains how the attention economy is dominated by platforms that utilize algorithms and addictive scroll features to maximize time spent on their sites, conditioning users to seek instant gratification and leaving them perpetually distracted and unfulfilled. To disconnect, the author writes, one should identify goals “that align with your passions and allow you to further the kingdom of God” and get into the habit of pursuing them via a deeply focused “flow state” (examples include writing, serving others, and worshiping). By practicing “monotasking,” one can cultivate a more sustained ability to focus and direct that renewed attention to practices like prayer. Drawing from research on the psychology of attention, his experience working in the tech world, and interviews with industry insiders, the author builds a lucid, evidence-based case for how technology is impacting faith, and cogently explains why willpower alone isn’t enough to cure the distracted mind. It’s a valuable resource. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/23/2025 | Details & Permalink

Shay debuts with a spine-tingling techno-thriller. When Lacey Green was a child, her nanny, Mia Liao, suggested she harness her intense curiosity to help others as a detective. As an adult, Lacey has become a popular TikTok PI with assistance from Mia, who helps design her elaborate disguises. Lacey draws on those skills when her father, Shawn, dies of a suspected suicide in Hong Kong, soon after sending Lacey a cryptic message warning her not to travel to his hometown because “there are demons here lurking in the shadows. And if they catch you, they’ll never let you go.” After a little digging, she comes to suspect that Shawn’s death is connected to a bizarre disease outbreak that causes those infected to devour their own body parts. The outbreak itself may be tied to technology Shawn was developing to treat severe mental illness, and the more Lacey investigates, the more she becomes convinced that Shawn’s work could spell doom for the entire world. Shay smoothly combines a chilling premise, exciting action, and a consistently captivating mystery. It’s an auspicious first outing. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/16/2025 | Details & Permalink

Former physician Rubin (the Liza Larkin series) impresses with this disquieting thriller about an unusual vigilante. Boston internist Hope Sullivan is jogging past an alley when she spots one of her elderly patients being mugged. She intervenes and sends the attacker fleeing, but the encounter convinces her that too many violent criminals walk free. Two years later, Hope is far from over the incident: despite insisting that “as a doctor, I don’t enjoy deliberately inflicting pain,” she’s become a self-appointed (and violent) guardian angel, even going so far as to kidnap and torture a patient’s abusive husband. Hope’s new “macabre pastime,” as she calls it, gets disrupted when she receives an anonymous email that insists “I know what ur doing.” That message is followed by several others, each with escalating threats. Hope realizes she’s met her match when another vigilante drugs and kidnaps her, seeking revenge on behalf of one of her victims. Rubin manages to make Hope an empathetic figure, despite her transgressions, and maintains taut suspense straight through to the devilish climax. This is a winner. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

Pryka debuts with a tart if uneven satire of Hollywood ambition and the craze for self-improvement. Nerdy and obese Craig Bunny, 34, lives with his mom outside Los Angeles and can only find acting work in commercials for an IBS treatment. He’s certain that he’s destined for more and hopes his increasingly complex plans for a film adaptation of a classic comic strip called Garfy (a thinly veiled Garfield) will be his big break. When Natasha, an attractive newcomer to his writing group, announces that she’s secured the rights for a film about Prince Michael of Sealand, Craig decides it’s time to make some changes. He hires a life coach named Chad, who puts him on an extreme diet and exercise regimen and encourages him to affect a husky voice. Under Chad’s guidance, Craig grows more confident, even as he goes broke from the coach’s exorbitant fees. He pressures his agent, Denise, into getting his script in front of industry folks, but as his behavior becomes erratic, he risks blowing his chances. Much of the novel’s intended humor is scatological, and it wears thin. Better are the caustic showbiz jokes, as when Denise, who told Craig she specializes in scouting for “normal people,” tells others that she’s actually in the business of “freak hunting.” This has its moments. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/09/2025 | Details & Permalink

Dallas interior decorator Madison Night exploits her remarkable resemblance to Doris Day in her frothy latest adventure (after Please Don’t Push Up the Daisies). Donna Nast, owner of Big Bro Security, has been hired by Texas Luxury Cruises to stop a spate of burglaries aboard their ships. Donna, however, isn’t sure that the cruise company is operating aboveboard, and hires Madison to help vet her suspicions. Madison and her boyfriend, police captain Tex Allen, are to board the next cruise, with Madison posing as a professional Doris Day impersonator and Tex as her manager, to see if they can dig up any dirt. The couple happily accepts the assignment, but soon after the New Nautilus has set sail from Galveston, purser Homer Manalo, the one crew number who knows why Madison is onboard, is stabbed to death. Once again, Madison is forced to draw on her sharp observational skills, both to ferret out Homer’s killer and to determine if the New Nautilus is home to a crime ring. The plot beats are familiar, but Vallere hits her marks, delivering a clever, fairly clued solution. This gets the job done. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/02/2025 | Details & Permalink

Hass debuts with a memorable tale of discrimination and hardship faced by a young Jewish man in pre-WWII eastern Poland. In 1933, teenager Wolchi lives with his parents, brother, and sister in a small town in Galicia, where his father works as a bookbinder and printer. Their financial stability is upended when wealthy neighbor Igor Goreki stops the government from using Wolchi’s father as its printer after Igor’s son, Nicholas, is injured while taking part in an antisemitic attack on Wolchi’s family. Determined to fight back against the escalating violence, Wolchi and his sister, Leja, speak out against the town’s antisemitic persecutors. Then, after rising tensions with the Gorekis end in more brutality, they’re forced to flee to Krakow. When the Germans take control of the city, Wolchi and Leja return to their now Russian-ruled town, where more tragedies ensue. As the plot unfolds, Hass documents the gradual erosion of Wolchi’s family’s rights in fine-grained detail, showing how they’re uprooted by the German and Russian occupations alike. Readers will be moved by this story of a never-ending struggle for survival. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 05/02/2025 | Details & Permalink

McFarlane’s crafty seventh cozy featuring Massachusetts beautician Valentine Beaumont (after Murder, Curlers & Kites) takes the amateur sleuth out of state and out of her comfort zone. Valentine runs a hair salon in Rueland, a Boston suburb, and is entangled in an intense romance with former NYPD detective Michael Romero. Hoping to improve her bottom line, she brings three of her employees along to a team-building camp in California. There, someone sabotages a human slingshot ride intended as a trust exercise, and Valentine once again leaps into the role of investigator. Then one of the women attending the camp is murdered, possibly with a pair of Valentine’s own thinning shears, and she becomes the prime suspect. To clear her name, she must draw on her detecting skills while keeping her rambunctious colleagues in check. McFarlane’s own cosmetology expertise adds welcome authenticity to the gleeful and goofy proceedings. Fans of Sarah Strohmeyer’s Bubbles Yablonsky series will eat this up. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 04/18/2025 | Details & Permalink