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Kissed the Girls
Anthony Silman’s Kissed the Girls dives deep into the sleek, poisonous world of power, privilege, and corruption. The novel weaves several storylines together, a pair of ruthless lawyers, a naïve designer lured into a predator’s den, a celebrity couple undone by scandal, and a grifter who thrives in the cracks of bureaucracy. The book opens with a cry of outrage from the press against a man “beyond the law,” setting the tone for what follows: a series of interconnected tales where greed, lust, and moral rot fester beneath elegant façades. It’s satire, thriller, and social commentary rolled into one.
Reading it, I found myself both fascinated and uneasy. Silman’s writing is crisp and confident, filled with sharp dialogue that makes his characters sound alive, even when you wish they weren’t. Inigo and Archie, the slick lawyers who bend law and ethics like soft metal, are drawn with wit and venom. Suzanne Pickwick’s story hit harder for me. Her innocence, her polite compliance, the quiet horror of what she endures, it all builds slowly until you’re holding your breath. I could almost feel the weight of the room she’s in, the polished menace of the people around her. There’s anger beneath the words too, a fury aimed at the smug invulnerability of men like Omar, and it bleeds through in the best way.
At times, the story feels like a moral fable hiding behind a crime drama. Silman’s world is full of people who think they can buy decency, and for a while, they almost do. But there’s a pulse of resistance running through the book. Suzanne’s defiance, the small flickers of conscience from unexpected places, they make the darkness sharper. The style isn’t smooth or sterile. It stings, it laughs at itself, it jumps from the wickedly funny to the deeply grim. That volatility made me enjoy it more. I felt irritated, amused, disgusted, and even oddly hopeful, often within a few pages.
In the end, Kissed the Girls left me rattled but satisfied. It’s not a pretty story, and it doesn’t try to be. It’s clever and brutal, and it doesn’t let you stand comfortably on the sidelines. I’d recommend it to readers who like their fiction bold, cynical, and grounded in the uncomfortable truths of modern power. If you enjoy stories that peel back the glossy surface of success to show the greed and cruelty underneath, this one’s for you.
Pages: 408 | ASIN : B0FHQFRBGN
Tokyo Juku
Tokyo Juku begins with a bang, literally and emotionally. A young student named Mana discovers her teacher dead in a cram school classroom, his body crumpled under the sterile glow of fluorescent lights. Detective Hiroshi Shimizu and his team step into a Tokyo dense with pressure, ambition, and secrets. What follows is a layered mystery that weaves together the cutthroat world of education, the hidden costs of success, and the loneliness tucked behind the city’s polished exterior. Author Michael Pronko takes what might seem like a simple murder case and turns it into a study of human drive, shame, and survival.
The writing pulled me in right away. Pronko’s style is sharp and cinematic. The scenes snap from one point of view to another like the cuts in a film, yet nothing feels rushed. The descriptions of Tokyo at night, its cram schools glowing like lanterns, its streets humming with ambition, feel both beautiful and sad. There’s something almost tender about how he writes the city, even when it’s cruel. What I liked most was how the story balanced the crime with emotion. The mystery kept me guessing, but it was the characters’ quiet struggles, the overworked teachers, the anxious students, the tired detectives, that stuck with me. They all felt painfully real, like people you might pass on a crowded train and never think twice about.
Pronko dives deep into conversations and inner thoughts, and sometimes I wanted the story to move faster. But even then, I couldn’t stop reading. I liked how he made me feel the weight of every decision, every word unsaid. The book doesn’t just show a crime; it shows what happens to people who live inside constant expectation. It’s not only about murder, it’s about burnout, ambition, and how easily a person can crack under the strain. The writing feels clean but heavy with meaning, and that balance hit me hard.
Tokyo Juku isn’t just a detective story; it’s a mirror held up to modern Tokyo and anyone chasing success at any cost. I’d recommend it to readers who love smart mysteries with heart, and to anyone who enjoys books that make you sit back and think after you close them. It’s perfect for fans of slow-burn suspense, city stories, and those who don’t mind a little soul-searching between the clues.
Pages: 314 | ASIN : B0FLW78XTZ
Washington
The book Washington tells a gripping, slow-burning story of Evan, a ninth-grader navigating the chaos of high school life while a darker tragedy brews beneath the surface. It’s a novel that moves between ordinary teenage moments like awkward conversations, new friendships, and lunchtime hierarchies, and shocking violence that tears through that fragile normalcy. The shifts in time and tone build a picture of youth that feels raw and real. It’s part coming-of-age story, part psychological drama, and part social warning. Through quiet, honest scenes, the author shows how loneliness, cruelty, and silence can twist into something explosive.
Reading this book hit me hard. The writing feels unfiltered and close, like you’re sitting in Evan’s head, watching him sink and resurface with every scene. Author Thomas J. Gebhardt III’s prose is simple but charged, almost cinematic. He writes with an eye for small, human details, the twitch of a hand, the blur of light across a hallway, the weight of a single choice. That’s what makes it so effective. You can almost feel the tightness in Evan’s chest, and remember what it was like to be young and lost. At times I wanted to shake the characters, to stop what I knew was coming, but the story keeps you trapped in its slow inevitability. It’s haunting. It’s frustrating. It’s heartbreakingly believable.
I found myself angry, sad, and quiet all at once after finishing it. The book doesn’t offer neat answers, and I respect that. Gebhardt doesn’t preach or dramatize; he just lays it all out and lets the horror of it unfold through real people. The tension builds so naturally that when the violence erupts, it feels both shocking and inevitable. It’s the kind of story that stays with you, not because of the event itself, but because of the way it makes you look at all the moments that led up to it like the ignored signs, and the missed chances for kindness.
Washington is not a light read, but it’s an important one. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a story that makes them feel something real and uncomfortable, especially teachers, parents, or anyone who’s ever felt out of place in their own life. It’s for readers who want truth over polish, emotion over perfection. It’s a book that reminds you that people are complicated, that pain hides in plain sight, and that silence can sometimes be the loudest sound of all.
Pages: 354 | ASIN : B09VN18DDF
Filaments
Filaments follows Thea, a professor drawn back to her small hometown in Minnesota after her mother’s strange behavior turns alarming. What begins as a reluctant homecoming spirals into a dark exploration of generational trauma, addiction, and the eerie pull of the bog that shaped her childhood. As Thea digs into the disappearances of two local men, she unearths a supernatural thread linking her family’s past to the town’s rot. It’s a haunting story about the way memory festers, how love curdles, and how the land itself can hold grudges.
The writing is sharp and intimate, full of slow-burn dread rather than cheap scares. KZK’s prose feels like wading into dark water, you never know how deep it goes. Thea’s voice hit me hard. She’s smart and cynical but full of raw edges that made her feel real. I loved how the story blurred science and folklore. The bog wasn’t just a setting, it was alive, patient, and almost tender in its cruelty. I’ll admit, the pacing slows in places, especially in the middle chapters where Thea’s memories crowd the page, but the atmosphere never lets go.
There’s also something very relatable here. The story isn’t really about missing people or haunted places, it’s about how women are shaped by the weight of other people’s expectations. Thea’s relationship with her mother broke me a little. There’s this aching honesty in how KZK writes about mental illness and survival, like the line between madness and resilience is thinner than anyone wants to admit. At times, the dialogue feels jagged, and that roughness worked for me. It gave the story an edge.
Filaments felt like a fever dream and a confession all at once. It’s part literary thriller, part horror fable, and all heartache. I’d recommend it to readers who like their stories weird and emotional, people who loved Sharp Objects or The Fisherman but wanted something quieter, more personal. It’s not for those who need clean endings or easy answers.
Pages: 215 | ASIN : B0FS4NDBH3
Give the World a Consciousness
Wasp Oil follows a haunted cop as she navigates a web of corruption and faces off with an otherworldly presence that feeds on fury. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
I’m a big Stephen King fan. In which some of his early novels had a messy direction and at times absurd riffing on certain subject matter. In the best way possible, of course. During the process of writing the first draft, I listened to the audiobook of his novel, Tommyknockers. It was strange, gripping, zig-zagged in theme and direction, basically, you had no idea where the story was gonna go, and there were so many moments where I paused and audibly said: WHAT? WHY STEPHEN, WHY?
Knowing he wrote the story while under the influence of drugs for the most part, I asked myself: What would a sober version of this story look like? Would it be tamer or in your face in such a stomach- clenching and suffocating way that the reader becomes swallowed by the atmosphere of the world and the character’s blood-curdling anger and anxiety?
In addition, when I was watching TV one day, totally spaced out from the program, becoming background noise while I was staring at my TV, I remembered the grossest injury I had. I was working at a zoo. Repurposing old shipping containers with lead-based paint and thinning rusty steel. I was cutting sections of a metal wall my co-worker and I had fabricated as a divider for the three black bears that were going to use these containers as a hibernating den. I had all my safety gear on and started cutting one of the center pieces with a grinder. Silly me forgot the blade spun in my direction and locked it on. Thinking I was safe. Well, a bur I couldn’t see snagged the disk, the grinder locked on it, then flew at my face. In a fraction of a second, I could’ve had my brain severed or my skull cracked. I swung out of the way as this red-hot tool flew at me, then bam!
The disk cut through my arm. Deep into my skin, fatty, and muscle tissue. I screamed my head off until I got paper towel to put pressure on my wound, then called for help while I was in shock. First aid came, giving me the courage to look at my gaping wound, which was surprisingly not bleeding, and then the rest was history. That moment of my life was so eye-opening and biologically invigorating, etched into my brain, that it inspired the brutality and ick factor in Wasp Oil.
What is it that draws you to the fantasy genre?
Fantasy allows me to embrace the level of imminent danger for mortal characters. While also creating questions of what the right circumstances are, I can impart on my characters and give the world a consciousness that could dictate what level of power and effectiveness it has on who or what drives the story forward. Fantasy also increases the reader’s interest, especially if I create characters with mortal limits. Furthermore, any characters with fantastical capabilities could either be seen as all-powerful or blind by the reasoning behind their otherworldly and even mortal agenda.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Anger was the most important theme. I spent so many years hating myself due to my belief that I had to behave a certain way to keep those closest to me happy. Give them a sense of trust in the version of me that makes them feel good in terms of what role I play in their life. Once I saw that my truer self didn’t bother anyone, and especially myself, I recognized how much toxic anger and energy I was wasting on destroying and even hiding from who I truly am. Even questioning if I ever was my true self. In my 20s I was actively dating and had friends come and go in my life. But none of those relationships were ever genuine because I was never kind to myself. I gave everyone I loved what I believed made them happy and feel safe. Hoping I’d get the same in return. Which I did in most cases, but the love and trust never felt real or steady.
Goods and evils of anger are what truly summarized all my thoughts as I was writing this book. I knew anger as the main theme, especially as an umbrella term for other themes such as anxiety, regret, and maddening drive, would rub people either the wrong way or be overwhelmed by the rawness of the extremes I put my characters through. Nevertheless, I fought my nerves that wanted me to stop writing and do it anyway. Even if some readers might be put off by how intense the story is.
Can readers look forward to seeing more releases from you soon?
I will be writing one more book taking place in Halburton. Making it third to Black Rose Cocoon and Wasp Oil. The book will be called: Dead Mirrors Follow. The theme being: How do we deal with the ghosts of our past? Be they people, our mistakes, and the moments in which we wished we reacted differently. As for the storyline, all I’ll say is that it won’t be as wonderfully messy as Wasp Oil, but it will surprise you, scare, and hold you in ways you might not know how to feel. Storytelling is not about making you feel, then move on with your life. It’s about giving you pause in the rhythm and pattern you created to reorient yourself and appreciate the good in your life.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Amazon
Omega Deception
Mike Howard’s Omega Deception opens with a punch and doesn’t slow down. It’s the kind of thriller that drops you straight into the action and then keeps twisting until you’re dizzy from the pace. The story follows Jack Trench, a former Marine turned CIA operative, whose stolen Omega watch becomes the thread that unravels an international conspiracy. The novel leaps between continents and decades, weaving tales of espionage, betrayal, and revenge. From the narrow alleys of Milan to the heat of African battlegrounds, it’s part spy story, part revenge tale, and part emotional reckoning for a man whose past refuses to stay buried.
Howard’s writing has grit and authenticity. The dialogue snaps, the military detail feels earned, and the characters, especially Trench, have that rough-edged humanity that makes them believable. I found myself grinning at the old-school spycraft and then wincing at the violence that comes with it. At times, the pacing gallops so fast that I had to catch my breath, but I kind of loved that. It reminded me why I read thrillers in the first place, to feel the pulse of danger, the smell of sweat, and the uncertainty of who’s really the good guy.
What stood out most wasn’t just the gunfights or the secret missions. It was the emotion underneath it all. Howard gives Jack Trench moments of reflection and regret that hit harder than any bullet. There’s loss here, and a kind of moral exhaustion that seeps through the pages. Some parts hit like a gut punch, especially when the past comes back around to demand its due. I could tell the author respects the people who live in the shadows, the operatives who do the dirty work no one ever hears about. That respect shows up in every sentence, and it’s what lifts the story beyond a standard shoot-’em-up spy novel.
Omega Deception is a fast, lean, no-nonsense thriller that would appeal to anyone who loves stories about spies, soldiers, and secrets. It’s perfect for readers who like Clancy’s precision but want something grittier and more relatable. If you want action that feels real, characters with scars that matter, and writing that moves like a heartbeat, then this book will hook you hard and keep you turning the pages until late at night.
Pages: 325 | ASIN : B0DTVWPTZQ
Fifty Shades of True Crime
Fifty Shades of True Crime is a wild ride through the strangest and darkest corners of human behavior. Author Douglas Fifer, a former Alaskan cop, strings together story after story of crimes soaked in sex, kink, and shocking perversity. From bestiality cases in small towns to necrophilia, from bizarre arrests involving vegetables to chilling encounters with killers, the book leans on real-life cases to show just how messy and twisted desire can be. It’s told with a mix of dark humor and blunt honesty, which makes it both grotesque and oddly entertaining.
At times, I laughed, mostly at Fifer’s cop-gallows humor and his no-nonsense storytelling. Then a few pages later, I felt queasy. The stories don’t hold back, and the details are unflinching. His style is raw, sometimes crude, yet always conversational. It felt less like I was reading a book and more like I was being told insane stories by a cop who had seen too much but knew how to keep you hooked. I appreciated how he threaded in questions about morality and kink, forcing me to reflect on where the line between fantasy and crime really lies.
I also found myself admiring his honesty. He doesn’t try to sanitize the brutality of human desire or the failures of the legal system. Instead, he puts it all out there, and whether you’re disgusted, amused, or both, you can’t look away. One story that stuck with me was the “Cool as a Cucumber” case. A drunk driver in Anchorage not only crashed his minivan but was also discovered with a massive cucumber, wrapped in plastic, stuck inside him. The image is outrageous and grotesque, yet Fifer tells it with such dark humor that I couldn’t help but laugh and cringe at the same time.
I’d recommend Fifty Shades of True Crime to readers who like their true crime with a heavy dose of shock and unfiltered storytelling. If you want a book that dares to blend the outrageous with the horrifying, and if you can handle humor in the middle of horror, this book will grip you from start to finish.
Pages: 229 | ASIN : B0D7X1SDFC
Full Circle – A Jack Trench Thriller
Full Circle by Mike Howard drops you headfirst into the shadowy world of espionage and never lets you climb back out. At the heart of the story is Jack Trench, a CIA case officer who has spent decades chasing terrorists across the globe. The novel opens in Manila, where Trench faces betrayal, blood, and the ruthless world of “Sparrow Units” bent on killing Americans. From there, the story stretches into the depths of Cobra One, the CIA’s hard-hitting counterterrorism arm, and carries Trench across continents and into retirement, where old ghosts and new dangers won’t leave him alone. The story mixes high-octane operations with the slower burn of regret and memory, building a character who is equal parts hardened operator and weary man looking for peace.
What stood out to me most was how straightforward the writing feels. It’s straight-shooting, clear, and doesn’t hide behind literary tricks. The action is described in sharp detail, and sometimes I felt like I was sitting in the backseat of that armored SUV with Trench, or crouching in the shadows with The Watchers. The violence is raw, often sudden, and always personal. At times, I caught myself holding my breath. Yet, there were also moments when the prose leaned into exposition. Background details sometimes came in thick slabs, slowing down the pace I’d gotten hooked on. Still, I admired the author’s dedication to grounding the story in real-world intelligence tradecraft, it gave the book a grit that felt convincing.
Emotionally, the book hit me harder than I expected. Jack Trench is no cardboard hero. He’s ruthless when he has to be, but the man carries loneliness and loss with him like extra baggage. Reading the quieter scenes, like his battle with caterpillars in his garden or the way he pours himself a bourbon while reflecting on old missions, I felt the weight of a life lived in shadows. The blend of action and emotion is what kept picking the book every night to finish the story.
I’d say Full Circle is a great pick for readers who love military thrillers, CIA spycraft, or stories about men who can’t quite escape the lives they built. If you’re someone who enjoys Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn, you’ll feel at home here. But it’s also a good choice for anyone curious about the toll that a lifetime of covert work takes on a person. This is a story with bullets flying and blood spilling, but it’s also a story about a man trying to come full circle in his life.
Pages: 204 | ASIN : B0BYTP2KFB
LITERARY TITAN 