Dissection of a Murder

by Jo Murray

"Yowza." Such is the reaction thriller writers probably hope readers will have when finishing their books. It's not easy to keep seasoned crime-fiction fans in the dark. Jo Murray, though? She succeeds in eliciting such a gasp with her cleverly twisty debut, Dissection of a Murder.

Leila Reynolds, a junior barrister in Durham, England, gets her first murder case when a respected judge is killed. The defendant is Jack Millman, a client whom Leila unsuccessfully represented years earlier in an assault case,

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Opioids and Organs

by Arizona O'Neill

Montreal-based Arizona O'Neill's superb graphic novel debut, Opioids & Organs, strikingly melds vulnerable memoir, illuminating explorations of historical and contemporary medical industry, investigative international travelogue, and razor-sharp literary references.

When Arizona receives a heartfelt letter from a stranger whose life was saved through organ donation--her father's heart beats in his chest--a friend responds, "This is great.... Something good came from his death." Arizona initially queries,

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Plastic, Prism, Void

by Violet Allen

Plastic, Prism, Void by Violet Allen is a bold, experimental novel--a riotous crossover of literary fiction meets romantasy. Acrasia is a fabulously messy writer and magickal Moth Queen. Opus is a hyper-masculine but secretly tender pilot for a tiger bodybuilder-shaped mech from another dimension. And their turbulent romance develops in bursts when their universes periodically overlap.

Acrasia's dramatic, over-the-top voice can't hide her vulnerability no matter how much she wants it to. It makes for laugh-out-loud

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Dad

by Christian Robinson

Dad by Caldecott Honor winner Christian Robinson (Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña; You Matter) is a perceptive picture book that presents fatherhood with tender, direct honesty. Through spare language, Robinson offers young readers a nuanced look at the many roles fathers play. Each spread pairs a brief declarative phrase with a different animal father and child: a gorilla with its infant, a fox family, an owl and owlets, a shark and pups. The pared-down text, never more than 10 words

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An Expanse of Blue

by Kauakanilehua Māhoe Adams

In her debut YA novel-in-verse, An Expanse of Blue, Kauakanilehua Māhoe Adams offers an intimate slice of life about grief, sisterhood, and the power of being seen.

Aouli Elizabeth Smith, a Kānaka (Indigenous Hawaiian) teen living in Hawk Valley, Wash., is unmoored. In Hawaiian, her name means "blue, sky, expanse," and she holds that meaning close to her heart. But lately, she feels lost in that great swathe--she is not pliant and perfect like her sister Kāia; not silent and godly like her mother; and is one

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