Fantasy, science fiction and horror mingle in Spontaneous Human Combustion, another collection of dark fiction from Richard Thomas (Tribulations).

The horrors in these 14 stories come in forms as diverse as aliens, demons and even mundanities such as disease. In "Nodus Tollens," a deal made to settle a poker debt comes back to haunt a man in more ways than he could imagine. A man feels that he has done something horrible but does not know what it could be in "Battle Not with Monsters." In "Open Waters," the protagonist becomes lost in a virtual reality. Repetition is often a feature of these stories, giving the sense of a simulation or a recurring nightmare. It also plays a role in "In His House," in which the narrator invites readers into a Lovecraftian ritual heralding an imminent apocalypse. Many of the main characters are in some way repulsive, such as the brutal, abusive cop at the center of "Repent." But through the twists and turns of these stories, they begin to pale in comparison, turning vulnerable as presented alongside more otherworldly horrors.

This chilling collection of short stories, with plenty of twists and turns, as well as echoes of Lovecraft and Bradbury, probes the dark corners between the horrors humans inflict on each other and those that haunt our nightmares. This volume will please Thomas's existing fans and will surely create new ones. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library

Prolific author J.D. Robb (Connections in Death) returns readers to the futuristic world of New York City and homicide detective Lieutenant Eve Dallas. A body has been dumped in Eve's best friend's neighborhood, the victim carefully prepared before being deposited. A killer with a very twisted mind is hunting hostages, and Eve vows to stop them before another woman is kidnapped. Finding the murderer, however, will require the assistance of her brilliant husband, Roarke, the full abilities of the metro police department and an investigation of events more than half a century old. Dark family secrets will be exposed while a deeply disturbed killer may be concealed much too close to Eve and her investigators. No stone goes unturned as the lieutenant and her team conduct a meticulous unraveling of what sometimes seems to be an impossibly complicated chain of dead ends. When a shocking clue leads them to identify the murderer, they can only hope they will find the latest victim still alive.

The world of 2061 New York City is a vivid backdrop to this excellent police procedural. Robb places the always fascinating Eve Dallas firmly center stage, yet the secondary cast is also compelling and features both favorite earlier characters plus a few intriguing newer faces. The well-conceived plot, both complex and surprising, will delight mystery fans. While this is the 54th entry in the long-running series, the novel can be thoroughly enjoyed by first time readers as well as longtime fans. --Lois Faye Dyer, writer and reviewer

Jane Pek's The Verifiers imagines a not-too-distant future in which romance is housed entirely within the world of online matchmaking sites, promising perfect matches in exchange for the inexpensive price of telling big tech companies every little detail about oneself. It's not a system Claudia Lin subscribes to--but her disinterest in matchmaking makes her a perfect verifier, working for a kind of "dating detective agency" that helps clients figure out whether their matches have been completely truthful--which, usually, is not the case. "People lie.... This means dating algorithms are predicting compatibility on the basis of faulty data and exposing users to potential deception by their matches. Enter the verifiers."

Claudia fancies herself something of a modern-day spy or 21st-century sleuth, "being paid to investigate romantic mysteries like some latter-day love child of Jane Austen and Sherlock Holmes." But when a client comes to her team with a stranger-than-fiction case, she gets caught up in an increasingly complicated--and potentially dangerous--whodunit of her own.

The Verifiers is as delightful as it is insightful, clipping along at a pace reminiscent of the mystery novels Claudia loves so much. As Claudia starts to make sense of the smudges of clues and details in her brain, readers are treated to the same process of figuring it all out. Pek poses deep and thoughtful questions about romance, privacy, family, data, corporate greed and big tech--to name just a few. It's a lot for a debut novelist, but Pek delivers, and The Verifiers is sure to leave readers looking for more from this new voice in the genre. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer

Two estranged sisters, whose fragile bonds broke after their mother died, are reunited when one joins a cult-like self-improvement retreat in This Might Hurt, the second superb psychological thriller from Stephanie Wrobel (Darling Rose Gold).  

Natalie and Kit Collins each have unresolved grief, guilt and anger over their mother's death, not to mention lingering grudges from childhood. An ambitious executive, Natalie takes a break from her job at a Boston branding agency after receiving a cryptic and threatening e-mail from the Wisewood Wellness & Therapy Center. The center, where Kit has been living for the past six months, is located on a remote island off the coast of Maine. Little is known about Wisewood, where people go to "maximize" themselves under the tutelage of the mysterious Teacher, who runs the center with ironclad rules. The chilling atmosphere on the island applies to more than just the weather (the wind "shrieks like a woman being stabbed over and over"). Dense, dark woods, an abandoned schoolhouse and each personal relationship adds to the frights. Natalie feels she is being watched, as she learns her relationship with Kit is even more frayed than she previously thought. This Might Hurt seamlessly switches points of view from current-day Natalie and Kit to the two girls enduring an emotionally abusive childhood in the hands of a cruel father.

Wrobel ramps up the terror by making the isolation of the island, accessible only by a 75-minute ferry ride, serve as a substitute for a haunted house, allowing This Might Hurt to be an unusual locked-room mystery. A clever denouement packs a blood-curdling punch. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer 

Beneath the Stairs, the first novel from playwright Jennifer Fawcett, is hard to categorize: Is it horror, a mystery or a literary thriller? It's all of those, with a psychological exploration of adolescent trauma.

Years after a teenage dare drew them to "the Octagon House," a crumbling dwelling in the woods, two women struggle with what happened in its dank dirt basement and the recurring terror it conjures. In this first-person narrative, Clare recalls, "I had no idea back then what had been started that night. None of us did." She's returning to the upstate village of Sumner's Mills, N.Y., where she and her friend Abby grew up. Abby's mother has requested the visit, telling Clare, "[Abby] said your name." Fawcett skillfully alternates Clare's haunting memories of 1998 with scenes from Abby's hospital room, where she lies in a coma after a suicide attempt in that very basement, and the chilling story of the ominous, mysterious house. Determined to "finally disentangle ourselves for good," Clare digs into the history of Sumner's Mills and the house, and a spooky ghost story twists into a very credible and terrifying mystery.

The years have not lessened the allure of the house, and Clare desperately hopes to help another adolescent girl struggling to resist its pull. Before returning to the sinister house, Abby had written to Clare: "Go back to the beginning to find the end." In a nail-biting climax, childhood secrets and forensic facts collide as hope emerges that the Octagon House will finally and forever free those it has controlled. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.

The Call of Cthulhu collects 10 of early 20th-century horror master H.P. Lovecraft's most indelible short stories, including the still-terrifying title story, along with annotations provided by editor Leslie S. Klinger. The book is essentially a slimmed-down, more accessible version of the gargantuan The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft: Beyond Arkham, also edited by Klinger, and serves as a better introduction for readers new to the author. The collection takes a diverse sampling of Lovecraft's works, including pieces that hew to science fiction ("The Colour Out of Space") and gothic horror ("The Rats in the Walls"), while some build upon his famous Cthulhu mythos ("Dagon," among others). Lovecraft's stories remain as harrowing and strange as they ever were, and their enduring influence makes them essential reads for horror fans.

Klinger's annotations provide valuable context about Lovecraft's influences and the time in which he wrote, but they are perhaps most fascinating in their focus on the recurring themes found in his work. Despite creating bizarre new mythologies, Lovecraft's writing was in many ways deeply personal. His obsession with and fear of madness is easily traceable to the fates of his parents--both were admitted to mental hospitals--and his fear of otherness is undeniably tied to his racist convictions. Klinger's annotations help to identify and track these thoughts, sometimes referencing Lovecraft's own notes and letters in helping readers unravel the author's complicated web of preoccupations. What emerges, alongside 10 excellent short stories, is a fuller understanding of Lovecraft's disturbing belief that humanity is an insignificant species when measured against the ancient, malign universe. --Hank Stephenson, the Sun magazine, manuscript reader

One fiercely independent mathematician plus one disciplined nobleman equals a perfect pair in the rollicking, feminist Victorian-era romance A Perfect Equation by Elizabeth Everett (the Secret Scientists of London series).

Preparing to compete for a prestigious mathematics prize, Letitia Fenley is appalled to find herself named acting president of Athena's Retreat, a secret club for London ladies who enjoy scientific experiments and research. Not only will Letty be responsible for containing "explosions... and general mayhem," but her assigned assistant is the gorgeous Viscount Greycliff, aka Grey. The straight-laced aristocrat's presence is a constant reminder of a past she'd rather forget, but she can't quite sustain her animosity for the man when he turns out to be kind, honorable and tremendous at kissing.

Grey has no desire to "fend off tarantulas and madwomen." Anti-women's rights protesters have taken to the streets of London, and supporting a women's science club could end his prospects for promotion within the Department, a quasi-governmental shadow organization. Worse, he's been thrown together with the most unsuitable woman imaginable, the scheming minx who tried to take advantage of his family. The more he comes to know Letty, though, the more Grey wonders if the brilliant, strong-willed mathematician is vixen or victim.

Humor, hedgehogs and an appropriate number of explosions make this sultry romance an ideal escapist experience. Everett's narrative also takes time to engage with misogyny and champion women's empowerment. Romance fans should consider these two likable leads and their powder keg's worth of chemistry the solution to what to read next. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads

The rags-to-riches story of the first Kennedys to set foot in the U.S. is depicted in sweeping style by author Neal Thompson in The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty. Thompson (Kickflip Boys) introduces readers to Bridget Murphy, a young woman who escaped the blighted fields of Ireland during the Great Irish Potato Famine to establish a new life in the U.S. in 1849. Finding work in Boston as a maid (a common lot for Irish immigrant women), she soon met and married another immigrant, the longshoreman Patrick Kennedy. Widowed after almost 10 years of marriage, Bridget pluckily worked her way up, from maid to hairdresser to owning her own grocery business. Her industrious son, P.J. Kennedy, followed in her footsteps. He established several lucrative liquor businesses and made enough contacts to become a prominent Democratic boss, active in Boston politics for many decades.

Thompson powerfully re-creates the experiences of Irish immigrants in the mid-to-late 19th century. Endemic to the "shanty Irish" were racism and discrimination, brutal working conditions and crushing poverty. With access to previously unpublished papers of P.J. Kennedy, Thompson ushers these lesser-known Kennedys into the stage lights: Bridget, the widowed self-made business owner, and P.J., civic leader and future grandfather of the first Irish-Catholic American president. They laid the foundations for the brilliant American Kennedy dynasty, a Camelot of glamour cursed with Shakespearean tragedy. This study of the earliest Kennedys, both thoroughly researched and vividly imagined, is an inspired addition to a mostly talked-out topic. --Peggy Kurkowski, book reviewer and copywriter in Denver, Colo.

52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time by Annabel Streets is a delightfully original love letter to an activity humans were designed to do throughout the course of each day. Modern life has rendered walking an optional pursuit, but Streets makes a compelling, evidence-based case for the benefits of a daily stroll.

Streets (The Age-Well Project), a nonfiction author in London, also writes fiction under the name Annabel Abbs (Miss Eliza's English Kitchen). Growing up without a car or reliable public transportation in England, Streets became accustomed to walking everywhere. She refers to her passion for walking as "the great adventure of my life," and offers charming descriptions of her strolls in the British countryside while exploring ancient pilgrim routes.

Each chapter of 52 Ways to Walk presents readers with an opportunity, arranged in a calendar year, to try a different mode of walking--with purpose, as once regularly demonstrated in Paris by the acclaimed music composer Erik Satie; in the rain (described as having "mind-boggling benefits"); and with the surprisingly pleasing additions of jumps and skips. Streets describes postural and foot-strike techniques to improve one's gait and shares entertaining anecdotes, including the astonishing story of a Texan who, in 1931, walked backward across multiple countries.

A gift for walking enthusiasts as well as those who need a little nudge to put on their walking shoes, 52 Ways to Walk will render redundant all of the usual excuses by presenting creative, weather-conscious options for every type of walker. --Shahina Piyarali, reviewer

Raised by deeply religious and survivalist parents on an Idaho mountain, Tara Westover's life was vastly different from most other children's. At age seven, she was laboring in her father's junkyard, salvaging scrap metal and operating dangerous machinery. Nobody in the Westover family visited a doctor, relying instead on prayer and herbal concoctions to remedy even the most horrific and life-threatening injuries. Instead of attending elementary school, Westover was "educated in the rhythms of the mountain," with lessons consisting of her father's doomsday lectures about the evils of the "Illuminati" and the impending "Days of Abomination."

Using old textbooks, Westover taught herself trigonometry and science, relating complicated theories to the equations of her life. "What I knew of physics I had learned in the junkyard, where the physical world often seemed unstable, capricious. But here was a principle through which the dimensions of life could be defined, captured. Perhaps reality was not wholly volatile. Perhaps it could be explained, predicted. Perhaps it could be made to make sense." Her determined quest would lead her to enter a classroom for the first time at age 17 and, eventually, earn a doctorate from Cambridge University.

An astonishingly raw and explosive memoir, the bestselling Educated is Westover's gritty account of how she exchanged an extreme world of faith, fear, abuse and obstacles for one defined by power, strength and resilience: "My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs." In Educated, Westover more than proves that theory. --Melissa Firman, writer, editor and blogger at melissafirman.com

A young mouse has every right to be worried when her father brings home a "squirrel" in this pitch-perfect picture book by the author of the equally charming Pokko and the Drum.

Mina is a dreamy but slightly anxious mouse who spends her days reading and drawing while her adventurous but imprudent father brings home "surprises from the outside world." She doesn't mind... until one day when he calls her outside to see his latest treasure, quite obviously a large, black-and-white cat. "It's a squirrel!" Mina's dad says with arm-flinging delight. "I don't think that's a squirrel," says Mina. The impassive-faced cat joins the mouse family's household, and an uneasy (for Mina) calm settles in. The addition of two more "surprises" to keep the first one company is the tipping point, however, especially when all three "squirrels" seem not to have any appetite for acorns. What follows may be the best line ever uttered by a literary mouse doctor: "Oh, I see the problem," says the doctor Mina's father has called in. "The problem is that these squirrels are definitely cats."

As with Pokko and the Drum, Matthew Forsythe brings to Mina a dry, droll humor and exquisite watercolor, gouache and colored-pencil illustrations. Patterns abound in the earth-toned pages: flower parasols, pack baskets, stylized butterflies, "antique art" (postage stamps). Mina's "obsessive reader" poses--on her belly on the floor, in a homemade tent, in bed, on her back, even on the back of the cat--will feel exactly right to every bookworm lucky enough to find this treasure. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor

Sweeping tales of heroism, sacrifice, familial love and queer romance fill this YA speculative fiction anthology featuring 17 extraordinary voices from the Latin American diaspora. Lyrical, captivating and powerful, Reclaim the Stars, edited by Zoraida Córdova (Incendiary; the Brooklyn Brujas series), will enthrall teens.

This collection is set across dystopian, post-apocalyptic and interstellar backdrops, as well as reimagined global locales, to depict various needs--for love, inclusivity, acceptance, a voice--as universal. Princesas who wield fire and ice fall in love, but tradition dictates they battle to the death. Prisoners exiled to a moon fight a racist justice system. The son of Death plots against his half-human heir sister, who feels out of place on Earth. A bruja rejects her lobizón-dominated world, challenging sexist expectations for her to "grow the pack."

The characters--queer, nonbinary, transgender, polyamorous--grapple with difficult advice, painful truths and overwhelming change in accessible ways. Magical beings--a captured sirena, an eavesdropping duende, family ghosts, a tree that walks, a talking river, a trapped goddess--enchant in unexpected roles. The authors also deliver fantastical settings (a marketplace for encantos) and lush prose ("I was born fully grown from the dreams of an invisible moon"). These teens aren't simply reclaiming the stars and their space, they are reclaiming themselves. Nearly every story ends with a new beginning, evidence that believing the impossible can create a beautiful future. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer