8 minute read
SCIENCE PICTURE BOOKS & FANTASY
FOUR THOUSAND DAYS
Trow, M.J. Severn House (224 pp.) $28.99 | Feb. 1, 2022 978-1-78029-134-5
Trow, who’s already featured Christopher Marlowe as a sleuth in Black Death (2019), introduces an appealing new detective based on turn-of-the-20thcentury archaeologist Margaret Murray. Although she’s seen plenty of ancient bones, the death of one of her students at University College London forces Dr. Murray to take an interest in a modern murder. There are very few women at UCL, but the public lectures given for free every Friday attract all sorts of people, including Helen Richardson and Constable Adam Crawford, who recognizes Helen from archaeology lectures when her naked body is found in a dingy apartment. People at the college believed Helen to be a telephonist, but apparently she had a sideline in prostitution. Crawford’s superior is quite sure she committed suicide, but Crawford, who thinks she may have been murdered, goes to Dr. Murray for help. His innocuous request sets off a chain of events that leads to several more deaths and the uncovering of secrets that members of the faculty and student body have been determined to hide. Some of the clever women attending the college, including Angela Friend, who’s developing a romantic relationship with Crawford, also call on Dr. Murray to investigate. After she gets nowhere with the local police, a chance meeting with retired Inspector Reid of Scotland Yard puts her on the trail of another female archaeologist who may have made an astonishing discovery before she turned up dead. All Dr. Murray needs is to discover the motive of a cleverly hidden killer.
Plenty of suspects, red herrings, and period detail make this a promising launch.
THE DAY HE LEFT
Weisel, Frederick Poisoned Pen (384 pp.) $16.99 paper | Feb. 8, 2022 978-1-4642-1421-9
After a schoolteacher walks out the door and vanishes, the Santa Rosa Violent Crime team finds his disappearance is related to several crimes. Paul Behrens is a dedicated English teacher whose relationship with his wife, Annie, has hit a new low. The two seldom spend time together or know what’s going on in the lives of their teenage children: Jesse is dealing pot, and Claire is being blackmailed by middle school mean girls. Annie’s work as a night nurse has led to her affair with a doctor. Meanwhile, the Violent Crime team is scattered, with Frames on loan to Narcotics and Eden Somers, a former FBI analyst, called back to the bureau to take a look at a series of killings she’d worked on before. Unit head Eddie Mahler is still struggling with migraines and trying dating apps, which aren’t working any better than you’d expect. When the team starts looking into Behrens’ disappearance, they learn that he took a disposable phone with him and that the phone he left behind contains Google searches for sexual assault, molestation, and Child Protective Services. There’s a letter of resignation on his laptop. The team members use their diverse skills to search for Behrens and figure out the reason for his disappearance. When they find him shot dead in his car, the big question is: suicide or murder? Behrens’ love of literature ruled his life, and his students adored him. The clues to his death will be found in his life and his relations with others.
An excellent police procedural raised to a higher level by the in-depth look at the lives of the people who work the crimes.
science fiction and fantasy
ENGINES OF EMPIRE
Ford, R.S. Orbit (624 pp.) $17.99 paper | Jan. 18, 2022 978-0-316-62956-0
The first installment of Ford’s Age of Uprising saga is unadulterated epic fantasy set in an aetherpunk realm where the mining and innovative utilization of magic-powered pyrestones have made the nation of Torwyn a virtual empire of
industry.
The guilds rule Torwyn—and have for generations. Although newly crowned Emperor Sullivar reigns over the realm, it’s the various guilds that are the lifeblood of the nation—controlling the military, transit, mining, farming, etc. But when an emissary from Malador—a country that has been enemies with Torwyn for thousands of years—attending Sullivar’s coronation and with a potential peace treaty in the balance is assassinated and Fulren, Sullivar’s young nephew, is falsely accused and essentially sentenced to death by being sent to Malador for punishment, Fulren’s mother, Rosomon Hawkspur, realizes treachery is afoot. As fanatics from the Draconate Ministry, Torwyn’s ecclesiastic power, begin a masterfully planned coup, Rosomon and her children—who are scattered throughout the realm— attempt to stop the rebellion. Conall, a captain in the military, is stationed at a remote outpost; Tyreta, Rosomon’s responsibility-shirking daughter, is visiting mining operations in the wild Sundered Isles; and Fulren, now a prisoner in an enemy land,
battle of the linguist mages
attempts to stay alive long enough to unravel the conspiratorial mystery. Narrated from multiple points of view, the novel fully displays Ford’s ability to create dynamic and emotionally connective characters. Additionally, his ability to write and twist together numerous plot threads and have each one feel like the primary narrative makes this grand-scale tale seem less bloated and unwieldy. Although some sequences early on feel a bit contrived, once this mammoth novel gains momentum, readers should disregard this minor flaw and find themselves fully immersed in a story that features a virtual toy chest full of fantasy delights, including magic-powered land- and airships, demon lords, sentient goat-headed beasts, war eagles, pirates, and deified wyrms.
Epic fantasy fans listen up: This is the good stuff. Highly recommended.
BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES
Moore, Scotto Tordotcom (448 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 11, 2022 978-1-250-76772-1
A champion virtual reality gamer gets tangled up in a real-life war between alien-powered magicians. Isobel is the Queen of Sparkle Dungeon. The video game’s best diva-caster— a player who uses her actual voice to sling spells—she wields the series’ four most powerful artifacts. But when the Queen combines the artifacts’ powers, she unwittingly rips a hole in the fabric of the game’s spacetime. Still, nothing seems amiss when SparkleCo’s ad agency reaches out to ask Isobel to test a new game. She is the Queen, after all, and no one can overtake her in the leaderboards. Working under the cover of a comprehensive nondisclosure agreement, Isobel learns that the ad agency is working on real-life magic: multilayered syllables that manipulate whomever hears them into feeling, thinking, or doing whatever the speaker wishes, thanks to the power of alien punctuation marks. Sparkle Dungeon’s best diva-caster turns out to be a natural with these “power morphemes,” but she begins to suspect that she isn’t working for the good guys after meeting a few of the firm’s other clients—including a Scientology-esque church and an “insidious” politician. Then there’s her predecessor, Maddy, who left the ad agency after crafting her own set of morphemes and now wants to kidnap Isobel to work as part of her resistance movement. Maddy’s explosive entrance cuts the novel’s brake lines, pitching readers into a madcap adventure of magic and mayhem. Moore has produced a frenetic romp that makes up for its lack of depth with a whole lot of fun. Although Isobel never entirely comes together as a three-dimensional character, her funk-infused narration does a good job of fleshing out her supporting cast.
Glitter-bombed popcorn fiction at its finest.
THE UNFAMILIAR GARDEN
Percy, Benjamin Mariner Books (224 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 4, 2022 978-0-358-33271-8
In this sequel to The Ninth Metal (2021), Percy explores a new effect that develops five years after Earth spun through a debris field left behind by a comet. Five years ago, during the meteor shower caused by the comet Cain, the sky seemed to fall. Jack Abernathy, a mushroom expert, took his daughter, Mia, into Olympic National Forest early one morning after watching the meteors so he could gather some new specimens. Within hours, Mia went missing without a trace. Now the effects of the meteors—the development of a new element, omnimetal, as well as severe weather and changes in environmental patterns—continue to transform the Earth. In the Northwest, there has been a tremendous drought that’s just begun to lift. Jack, now divorced from his wife, Nora, a homicide detective, is struggling to stay motivated in his research and his job when Darla, one of his graduate students, falls ill. Within hours, it becomes clear that whatever contagion has infected her is spreading throughout Seattle. In the years after Covid, no one is eager to establish another quarantine, but Nora is seeing people with symptoms similar to Darla’s that seem connected to a disturbing rash of murders with ritualistic overtones. Nora and Jack must come together to investigate the source of this new plague: something that lives, that has its own ability to communicate. Something that may also be the answer to the mystery of Mia’s disappearance. Percy is a master of horror, particularly when it comes to creating a sense of threat generated by nature itself. There’s a spattering of gore, a connection to a psychopathic serial killer, and a secret government agenda to introduce alien matter into human genes— in other words, a little something for everyone, science fiction fans and mystery fans alike.
Terrifying, entertaining, and thought-provoking.
DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS
Tan, Sue Lynn Harper Voyager (512 pp.) $23.49 | Jan. 11, 2022 978-0-06-303130-2
Set against a background of Chinese mythology, a young woman resolves to save her mother from magical imprisonment. Xingyin is the daughter of Chang’e, the Moon Goddess, imprisoned on the moon for offending the Celestial Emperor. Xingyin’s very existence is a secret—as part of her punishment, Chang’e is to have no unsanctioned visitors.
