Catherynne M. Valente (Space Opera) delves into the commonalities between two archetypal stories in a dark, sumptuous thriller novella set in a frightening fairytale world.

Every morning, Sophia awakens to "the honeyed, liquid thought" that she was "made for him," her husband. Though frequently away on business, he provides all she could ever want. "It feels like getting away with something, to have so much," including a perfectly ordered community, kind neighbors and a beautiful home. She spends her identical days in a never-ending fog of housekeeping and polite socializing. Sophia wants for nothing, until she finds a brush with long black hair that isn't hers, followed by a bit of bone. Then she wants answers, including what her husband is really keeping in their locked, forbidden cellar. Unfortunately for Sophia, knowledge is a perilous commodity in her world, and her husband's secrets will command a high price.

In chapters titled after evocatively named apple varieties, Valente carefully grafts the fairytale Bluebeard with Judaic mythology for a slim slice of terror that holds up a mirror to the misogyny inherent in many well-known stories. Her decadent, luscious prose is laced with touches of whimsy playing in contrast to the air of creeping suspense. Interspersed excerpts from the community's homeowners association contract provide vaguely threatening reminders that punishment awaits anyone who breaks a rule or expectation. Comfort Me with Apples reminds readers that commonplace tales often hide erased women in their cellars, and the poison in some fruits is simply truth. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

Cherie Priest (The Toll; The Inexplicables) is a prolific author who has published across genres, including steampunk, horror and sci-fi. In Grave Reservations, a smart and sassy first cozy mystery, she dips into the paranormal, telling the story of a fledgling travel agent with often erratic psychic tendencies. 

Leda Foley of Seattle owns and operates her own travel agency--Foley's Far-Fetched Flights of Fancy--and is struggling to get it off the ground. Leda also experiences very "strong feelings" and vibes about things. For fun, she practices her supernatural skills at a local bar, where she clairvoyantly selects karaoke for customers. When Leda books a flight heading out of Orlando, Fla., for Seattle Police detective Grady Merritt, a widowed father of a 17-year-old daughter, she gets a flash of insight that he should not board the plane. It leads her to proactively change his flight plans, redirecting him into Atlanta.

Leda's hasty decision upsets Grady. However, when Leda's hunch spares the detective from a fatal plane accident, it creates a bond. When grateful Grady returns to Seattle, the two begin a secret partnership, where the detective enlists Leda's psychic ability to help solve a cold case. In the process, demons from Leda's and Grady's pasts resurface, forcing them both to tie up loose threads and reconcile respective losses.

Polished prose, steady pacing and quirky characters, including Leda's lovable and loyal, long-term best friend--along with a cast of eccentric bar patrons--add levity and wit to this suspenseful story that unravels darker themes. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

As Murder at Mallowan Hall begins, Phyllida Bright, the efficient housekeeper of Agatha Christie, aka Lady Mallowan, is astonished to discover the body of a man with a fountain pen sticking out of his neck. Mrs. Bright (whom the stodgy butler finds far too youthful to be a housekeeper) promptly calls the constabulary, and then informs the butler and the Mallowans. Both the police and the butler are miffed at the housekeeper's calm response, although Mrs. Mallowan's creative fancies are tickled. Inspired by the fictional detectives of her mistress, Mrs. Bright decides to use her position to her advantage, and begins to investigate the crime on her own, with a series of clever deductions.

The Mallowans have a house party going on, and the dead man was a last-minute arrival. Could one of the guests, or--horror of horrors--a member of the staff be responsible for the brutal attack? Mrs. Bright is determined to find out, and doesn't let the disapprobation of butlers or Scotland Yard inspectors dissuade her.

Charmingly told, with a full upstairs-downstairs cast of guests and servants, Murder at Mallowan Hall is a wonderful mystery by Colleen Cambridge (a pseudonym for a bestselling author). Readers are sure to keep guessing as they enjoy getting to know the servants and guests through the shrewd eyes of Mrs. Bright. Fans of Agatha Christie, historical fiction and fierce female leads are all sure to enjoy Murder at Mallowan Hall, the first in a planned historical mystery series. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.

Tamron Hall draws on the depth of her own experience as a broadcast journalist in As the Wicked Watch, in which a Black female reporter goes above and beyond the parameters of her job to help solve the gruesome murder of a Black teen in Chicago. Crime reporter Jordan Manning first covers the story of 15-year-old Masey James as a missing persons case--one that crawls under Jordan's skin, especially after her exclusive interview with Masey's mother. When Masey's body is eventually located in an abandoned playground, Jordan is the first on the scene: "I couldn't ignore what I recognized as a plea for help, for the police to care, for attention from the media, for answers."

Recognizing that her role in television gives her not only access, but the ability to put pressure on the people and groups that tend to ignore cases of missing--or murdered--Black girls, Jordan takes action: interviewing police leads, connecting with Masey's family, tracking down loose ends in Masey's case--and all in her signature stiletto heels. Throughout the case, Hall's experience in journalism is evident; Jordan's tracking of the clues makes for a compelling mystery, just as they offer a fascinating look behind the scenes of what it takes to get the perfect broadcast story--hours and hours of work often distilled down into minutes or seconds of television coverage. The first in a planned series featuring reporter Jordan Manning, As the Wicked Watch is a well-paced and thoughtful crime novel that probes questions of race, representation and community care. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Tade Thompson follows up his acclaimed Wormwood trilogy with a thrilling science fiction twist on the locked-room mystery. Thompson's vision of humanity expanding into the stars is distinct not only for its Afrofuturist bent but for its harshly grounded version of survival in space. The novel takes place in the Lagos system, home of the Lagos space station and the colony planet Bloodroot. First mate Michelle "Shell" Campion has arrived in the system on board the colony ship Ragtime; its mission to deliver hundreds of sleeping passengers to Bloodroot is interrupted by the horrific deaths of dozens on board. With the aid of a growing cast of characters, Campion must unravel the mystery of their deaths while dealing with the failure of the supposedly infallible AI running the ship and the grim encroachments of space.

The Afrofuturist origins of the Lagos system are crucial to the novel. Also crucial are the ravages of capitalism: the novel's mystery revolves around one of the deceased passengers, a ruthless titan of industry and "equal-opportunity exploiter" who, in a previous life, "would have owned and sold slaves." The novel's chief pleasures come in the way Thompson slowly reveals the layers of the central mystery--a mystery enlivened by the author's unusual spins on sci-fi tropes, introducing aliens that may have more in common with ghosts than Klingons, for example.

Far from the Light of Heaven harks back to the earliest days of space travel in its sense of space as a source of rapidly unfolding disasters that humans escape only by the skin of their teeth. --Hank Stephenson, manuscript reader, the Sun magazine

Bloodthirsty women are a minority. However, that fact only encouraged Jennifer Wright (We Came First; Get Well Soon) to magnify their existence in She Kills Me, a thoroughly researched--at times shocking--examination of the most notorious female killers ever to walk the face of the earth. Spanning centuries and the particular histories of 40 women predators--from the working class to the elite--Wright serves up detailed, often gruesome and harrowing accounts of women murderers, offering possible reasons how and why they led homicidal lives.

People kill for various reasons--love, money, power, anger, revenge, even for fun. Wright covers them all, cataloguing the featured murderesses as Psychos, Poisoners, Bad Family Members, Black Widows, Scorned Women, Mercenaries, Killer Queens, Badass Warriors and Avenging Angels. Notorious inbred sociopath Countess Elizabeth Báthory (16th century) grew up in a castle and was close with a sadomasochistic aunt and Satanist uncle. A demoralizing childhood led her later to abuse and torture her servants. She was also known to bathe in the blood of virgins because it worked wonders on her skin. Báthory is said to have murdered more than 650 people in her lifetime. "Jolly Jane" Toppan was a 19th-century nurse whose pathological lying endeared her to sick patients and their families. If someone annoyed her, however, she secretly killed them with overdoses of morphine.

Fans of macabre crime stories will be held rapt by Wright's conversationally styled catalogue of chilling, diabolic horrors, enhanced with apropos illustrations by Eva Bee that depict each female slayer in the glory of her murderous fame. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines

In his approachable and haunting Gothic: An Illustrated History, Roger Luckhurst, a professor of modern literature at University of London, presents the uncanny, unsettling and surprisingly political nature of the gothic aesthetic.

Luckhurst divides the book into four broad sections: "Architecture & Form," "The Lie of the Land," "The Gothic Compass" and "Monsters." It's a compelling structural choice, as readers are prompted to consider the gothic in a variety of contexts and settings instead of in a chronological sense. Though he covers what many readily associate with the word gothic--literature and cathedrals--Luckhurst's survey spans the globe and three centuries, exploring subjects including ruins, colonialism and tentacles.

As the author details each aspect of the gothic, he juxtaposes contemporary photos with historical imagery, adeptly connecting modern expressions of the gothic to buildings, literature and sensibilities of the past. When discussing the role of ruins in the gothic, for example, he includes images of ruins intentionally constructed by the super-wealthy in the early 1700s and contemporary "ruins porn"--images of buildings and spaces in cities like Detroit falling into disrepair.

When it comes to the lasting appeal of the gothic, Luckhurst takes a global view, connecting the gothic to prejudice throughout, reminiscent of Lovecraft Country or The Wicker Man. Monsters and haunted houses are still an immensely popular way to explore fear, especially fear of the Other, and the author gives readers a lot to think about when it comes to what they fear and why they choose to experience the gothic after all this time. --Suzanne Krohn, editor, Love in Panels

Known for her podcast Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, classicist and broadcaster Natalie Haynes (The Children of Jocasta; The Furies) reimagines the Trojan War from the viewpoints of the women, both mortal and immortal, caught up in it.

When the poet asks Calliope the muse to sing, she grants his request, but only shows him events as they affect the women, telling the reader, "They have waited long enough for their turn." In shifting chronological order and settings across the Mediterranean region, readers see the war's impact. Hecabe and the Trojan women face slavery and degradation at the hands of the Greeks. Sea-goddess Thetis grieves for her son Achilles, but also regrets the insult of having a mortal son. Abandoned in Ithaca, Penelope writes Odysseus increasingly wry letters about his unusual difficulty in escaping the beds of beautiful women. A host of wives, mothers, warriors and goddesses come forward with insightful comments on the true cost of war and who must pay it.

Haynes draws on Homer for material but also looks farther afield, to Euripedes, Ovid and others, even including a blink-and-miss-it exchange similar to a moment from the classic film The Clash of the Titans. Although the women perhaps focus overmuch on the actions and feelings of the men rather than their own lives, overall Haynes has created a fine addition to the body of fiction striving to give silent women characters a voice. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

A girl in 1920 rural Michigan seizes a rare opportunity in this plucky, big-hearted middle-grade debut from librarian and author Betsy Bird (The Great Santa Stakeout), vivaciously illustrated by Caldecott medalist David Small (Imogene Comes Back!).

Twelve-year-old Suzy Bowles of tiny Burr Oak, Mich., has a strong grip, a double helping of gumption and a secret dream to leave her "dull as dishwater" town. When prodigal Uncle Fred returns home, his pattern of early-morning disappearances attracts her curiosity. Suzy follows him and learns he's training a cantankerous ostrich named Gaucho for retired circus doyenne Madame Marantette, who wants to set a world record for driving a surrey pulled by a horse and the gangly bird. To make the plan work, Gaucho needs a rider. In a flash of inspiration, Suzy offers herself for the position, hoping Madame will teach her the secret to getting out of Burr Oak. The task turns out to be tougher than expected. Aside from Gaucho's attitude and needing to hide her exploits from her parents, Suzy must cope with Madame's insistence she ride the bird sidesaddle. After all, a "farm girl riding an ostrich is a novelty. A young lady... riding an ostrich is an event."

Suzy's wry, folksy first-person narration should elicit plenty of giggles, and Small's striking pen-and-ink illustrations perfectly echo the text's energy and sense of whimsy. Bird's lighthearted, earnest romp is based on real people and events and encourages readers to seize opportunity tightly, even if it comes in a strange, long-necked package. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth experience manager, Dayton Metro Library

The Falling Girls is a dark, raw thriller about the complexities of teenage female friendships.

It's not easy being best friends with Jadis Braff. Shade Meyer shares everything with Jadis, whether it's a toothpaste or a bed, and the high school juniors mark each other with "stick and poke" tattoos. But Shade wants to prove to Jadis (and herself) that she can do something on her own. She joins the cheerleading team (which Jadis finds "archaic") and befriends the "Three Chloes": "the in-your-face tight circle that heads the squad," whose own friendship is starting to fray. Shade brings Jadis and her new friends together at the Homecoming dance, but when the night is cut short by the mysterious death of one of the Chloes, Shade is left grappling with how far Jadis would go to keep Shade tethered to her.

In The Falling Girls, Hayley Krischer (Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf) thoughtfully scrutinizes the complex layers of teenage female friendships that can fuel intense, unhealthy bonds, revealing insecurity, resentment and jealousy at the core. Krischer expertly uses underlying tension from her characters' toxic friendships and broken mother-daughter relationships--in which the daughters feel abandoned by their self-absorbed moms--to create a feeling of unease that carries through the whole book. Perfectly paralleled with these codependent partnerships is the "manic spirit" and grueling practice of cheerleading, which exemplifies the beauty and ugliness of both the sport and these friendships. An absorbing, intimate exploration of teenage female relationships. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader