Blog Archives
Through the Eyes of Everyday People
Abigail Trench follows a displaced schoolteacher in Revolutionary-era New York as she is drawn from daily survival into a dangerous world of espionage, political awakening, and self-invention. What drew you to tell a Revolutionary War spy story from the perspective of someone outside the usual circles of officers, generals, and famous patriots?
I’ve always been interested in history, especially the history of the American Revolution. I’ve read numerous books about the era, both fiction and nonfiction. What I’ve noticed about the best historical fiction authors, such as Ken Follett, is that they tell the story of the era through the eyes of everyday people, allowing readers to experience this period through the eyes of ordinary individuals. I chose a teacher as my protagonist in ABIGAIL in part because she gives readers someone to relate to. In my novel, readers do meet famous figures from the revolution, such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Nathan Hale. But the real heroes of my story are teachers and merchants and pickpockets.
Abigail begins the novel as a teacher rather than a trained operative. How did you approach making her transformation into a spy feel believable?
The truth is none of the members of the Culper Ring was a trained operative. With the exception of Benjamin Tallmadge, Washington’s Spymaster, who worked in the militia, none of the other members had military or any other kind of training. So, in the story, when the British strip Abigail of her profession, her home and her virtue, she resolves to fight back. When her position gives her the opportunity to overhear certain secrets of the British, she turns her resolve to strike back against the Redcoats into a weapon.
The novel pays close attention to class, labor, danger, and street-level survival. What kinds of research helped you build that texture of Revolutionary-era New York?
I’ve read quite a few books about this era and have gained insights from them, especially Gore Vidal’s historical novel, BURR. I also spent considerable time researching primary sources about some of the gritty details of life in colonial America in 1776. Some aspects of life in late 18th century have been documented, e.g., the 1776 fire in New York City, the unsanitary conditions of life in the city, and the execution of Thomas Hinkle. Other details had to be fleshed out with my imagination, and that’s half the fun.
How did you balance real historical figures like Nathan Hale and Robert Townsend with Abigail’s fictional emotional journey?
Overall, the historical record for most of what happened during this time is sparse. Of course, it has been 250 years. We have only few details and particulars on individuals like Nathan Hale and Robert Townsend. I was able to take some of those details—like the fact that Nathan Hale was also a teacher–and weave them into my tale of Abigail. In fact, the paucity of verified information gave me greater flexibility to develop my narrative of a woman who tutored officer’s children by day and carried intelligence to secret meetings at waterfront taverns at night.
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Evolving
Shadows in the Creek follows a disgraced journalist who returns to his picture-perfect town to investigate the murder of a young woman, only to uncover the lies the town has kept hidden.Was Edenvale inspired by a real place, or more of a symbolic landscape?
For me, Edenvale is more of a symbolic landscape, though the setting is somewhere familiar – a small, idyllic town somewhere between Hartford, Connecticut and New York. I live in Connecticut, and for my first novel, I needed the setting to hit close to home. But the place is symbolic in that Dante Villehart, the disgraced journalist, comes to this town he feels is quiet enough to allow him to escape into anonymity. Just as he is trying to settle, he learns of the demise of someone he knew very well. He is suddenly compelled to get back into investigative journalism, much against his initial will. He quickly learns in the process that this apparently quiet town is heavily laden with secrets the rich and powerful would literally kill to keep buried.
Dante feels both capable and compromised. How did you shape his moral center, and how important was his past failure in driving the present investigation?
Many people, including myself, have made mistakes in the past. However, not all of us get to correct them once they are acknowledged. That is, we don’t often get the redemption opportunities that would help to lighten the load of our past guilt. Dante has this opportunity, though he came by this reluctantly at first. He is compromised because he knows his mistakes directly led to consequences he wished never developed. But this compromise leads to his resilience. He now has an unwavering desire to not fail in his quests to unearth the truth. Sometimes his pursuit of the truth puts him in danger–another compromise that gives him the grit he needs to prove himself capable.
The book thrives on mood as much as mystery. How do you balance tension with introspection in a crime story?
Dante is actually coming to terms with the new person he is becoming. He is driven by his desire not to fail again but could still fail if he makes the rash decisions he once made under pressure in his past. Now, he is not trying to make deadlines with a story. He now has to solve a mystery that requires swift attention and also demands careful introspection as a guide to ensure his new path is not paved with the familiar failure he once knew. In other words, Dante is evolving while he solves the case. Part of this process necessarily requires that he reflects and looks inwards for strength and guidance.
Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out and what can your fans expect in the next story?
Shadows in the Creek is in fact the first book of the Dante Villehart Redemption series. The series has three books, the other two being Death in the Manor and Knight In Gale: Vengeance. The two latter books have been published recently, and I am hoping to use the momentum of Shadows in the Creek to propel them.
Fans can expect Dante to continue evolving. In the past, he would push people away, keep his guard up, and wouldn’t allow anyone to get too close. He lets himself become more vulnerable in letting others in but is still cautious as his association with people could put them in danger (and often does). Therefore, Dante starts to become the new redeemed man he has started to become – still with flaws, but less guarded and more balanced.
Fans can also expect to see Dante continue his journey solving cases in The Dante Villehart Files.
False Bay
False Bay is a literary novel with strong elements of magical realism, ghost story, family saga, and social history. Set around Cape Town’s False Bay, it moves through the lives and deaths of a wide cast: Ella, Veronica, Sebastian, Godfrey, Manuel, Mother Angels, Father Innocent, Mary, Liz, and others whose stories overlap through love, trauma, faith, race, sexuality, apartheid, memory, and the sea. The book is not built like a neat plot machine. It feels more like a chorus of voices calling across water, each one adding another piece to a strange, painful, often funny picture of a community marked by beauty and damage.
Dunn lets almost everyone speak, including the dead, the wounded, the guilty, animals, saints, ghosts, and people who have been ignored or pushed to the margins. That choice could have become messy, but mostly in a way that feels true to the book’s world. Life here is not tidy. Grief interrupts jokes. Violence sits beside gossip. A drowning can be tragic and absurd in the same breath. I found the shifts in voice especially effective when they revealed how differently people remember the same wound. No one owns the whole truth. Everyone carries a shard of it.
The writing has a plainspoken sharpness that I appreciated. It can be blunt, even shocking, but it rarely feels careless. Dunn writes about sex, abuse, disability, addiction, racism, queerness, Catholic guilt, and spiritual hunger without polishing the edges too much. That gave the novel force. At times, I did want a little more space to breathe between tragedies, because the book piles pain upon pain. Still, the humor saves it from becoming grim. Veronica’s theatrical wit, the recurring Bloody Marys, the cats, the braais, and the local Cape texture all keep the book alive and human. The genre blend also works well: as literary fiction, it is interested in memory and voice; as magical realism, it lets ghosts and visions feel as ordinary as weather; as a Cape Town social novel, it keeps asking who gets seen, who gets forgiven, and who is left outside.
I would recommend False Bay to readers who like layered, character-driven literary fiction that is strange, candid, and emotionally full. It will especially appeal to people interested in South African stories, queer histories, Catholic imagery, family secrets, and novels where place becomes almost a character of its own. For readers willing to sit with discomfort, contradiction, and dark humor, False Bay offers something memorable: a haunted, salty, bruised novel that keeps listening to the people history usually leaves underwater.
Pages: 204 | ASIN : B0FPN7VT82
Symphony Of Lies
Symphony of Lies by Maria Monday is a psychological thriller about Emma Mally, a flawed investigative journalist whose quiet retreat in the Swiss Alps is interrupted when she is named in the will of Nicole Wagner, a mysterious Monaco acquaintance with deep ties to Emma’s past. What begins as an inheritance story quickly becomes something darker: a trail of secrets, suspicious deaths, manipulation, and questions about whether truth can ever be clean when power and money are involved. The book openly frames itself as “a cerebral, high-stakes psychological thriller,” and that genre label fits its interest in suspicion, memory, control, and moral unease.
What pulled me in most was Emma herself. She isn’t presented as spotless, which I appreciated. She has crossed ethical lines in her career; she knows it, and the book lets that guilt sit beside her sharper instincts. That makes her more interesting than a simple truth-seeker. I also liked the contrast between the cold, intimate Swiss setting and the polished, sunlit danger of Monaco. The movement between those worlds gives the novel a strong sense of atmosphere. The prose leans into description, especially when introducing people, places, and luxury, but I can see what Monday is reaching for. She wants the glamour to feel almost too bright.
The author’s choices are boldest in the way Nicole is handled. She becomes a kind of mirror for Emma, forcing her to look at grief, loyalty, family history, and her own hunger for answers. I found that compelling. The book is generous with its emotional guidance, often making sure the reader understands the weight of each revelation and the depth of what Emma is feeling. That clarity gives the story an accessible, direct quality, especially in moments where grief, guilt, and suspicion overlap.
The central idea has weight: people can build entire lives out of stories, and the most dangerous lies are often the ones that feel protective. That’s where the thriller works best for me. Not only in the threat of violence, but in the quieter fear that you may have loved a version of someone that never fully existed.
I would recommend Symphony of Lies to readers who enjoy psychological thrillers with a polished international setting, morally complicated women, inheritance mysteries, and a slow uncovering of old corruption. It’s less of a stripped-down, fast-cut thriller and more of a layered, reflective one, interested in wealth, secrecy, friendship, and the cost of knowing too much. Readers who like their suspense mixed with family shadows and social critique will appreciate it most.
Pages: 362 | ASIN : B0GHT44LK4
Pedaling East
Pedaling East by E. A. Coe is an FBI thriller that begins with agents Marina Butnari and Doug Hill suspended after a clash involving ICE-linked local enforcers, the Iron Shields, and a human-trafficking operation. What starts as an enforced break becomes a cross-country bicycle-and-RV journey with their partners and friends, but the road trip soon gathers danger behind it: corrupt militia networks, cartel interests, old enemies, and unfinished justice all keep pace with the cyclists.
I enjoyed how the book refuses to be only one thing. It’s part procedural thriller, part travel adventure, part found-family story, and part love letter to the oddly practical logistics of survival, bicycles, motel stops, RV repairs, route planning, hospital visits, and all. Coe gives the trip an authentic feel. I could feel the miles accumulating, not as empty scenery but as pressure, respite, and companionship. The best scenes are not always the most explosive ones. Sometimes the book is strongest when six people are sharing food, teasing each other, worrying in private, or choosing, again and again, to keep moving.
The novel’s earnestness is also its signature. Its villains can be stark, and some exposition arrives with a firm hand, but the book’s emotional architecture is sturdy enough to carry that weight. I liked that the thriller machinery never entirely swallows the tenderness between Marina, Tati, Doug, Henri, Carrie, and Russ. The violence has consequences, but so does loyalty. By the end, the story has the unusual warmth of a suspense novel that wants to raise your pulse without curdling your faith in people.
The target audience is readers who enjoy thrillers, human-trafficking suspense, adventure fiction, found-family, and crime thrillers with heart. I would compare it to a softer, more road-worn David Baldacci novel, less sleek and cynical, more companionable, with room for coffee, bruises, jokes, and grace between the peril.
ASIN : B0GZ7CB48C
Lies to Forever
Lies to Forever by Marlene M. Bell is a romantic suspense mystery with a strong domestic thriller pulse. It follows April Manning, an interior designer whose life falls apart almost all at once: she is facing eviction, her savings vanish, her landlord disappears, and then she finds her former boss murdered in the snow. From there, the book pulls April into a web of lies, obsession, old wounds, and dangerous people who may know far more about her life than she does.
What I appreciated most was how quickly Bell drops the reader into trouble. April doesn’t ease into crisis. She is shoved into it, bruised, cold, broke, and scared, and that gives the story immediate energy. The writing is brisk and very visual, especially in the early scenes with the snow, the blood near the hot tub, the frozen bank account, and the uncomfortable feeling that April’s own home is no longer safe. Some moments are blunt in a way that worked for me. April thinks fast, panics honestly, and sometimes makes messy choices. That made her feel relatable.
The book keeps asking who April can rely on: the charming ex, the generous best friend, the strange handyman, the missing landlord, even her own memory of the past. As a mystery, it leans into suspicion from nearly every angle, and as romantic suspense, it keeps emotional tension close to physical danger. The plot is busy, and I occasionally wanted a little more breathing room between twists. Still, the momentum is part of the book’s design. It wants to keep the floor moving under April’s feet.
I would recommend Lies to Forever to readers who enjoy fast-paced romantic suspense, small-town mystery, and domestic thrillers where personal betrayal matters as much as the crime itself. It will especially appeal to readers who like heroines under pressure, tangled friendships, and stories where danger feels close to home. Lies to Forever is engaging, dramatic, and easy to keep turning pages.
Pages: 265 | ASIN : B0GS77DKMB
Margin of Death
The Margin of Death is a financial-crime thriller built around Detective Sarah Reeves, whose missing-person case becomes a murder investigation, then a much larger reckoning with wealth, power, old secrets, and institutional rot. The book opens with a clean hook: “Marcus Chen counted things when he was afraid.” From there, the author drops us into a Wall Street world where numbers aren’t abstract. They’re leverage, evidence, motive, and sometimes a death sentence.
Sarah is the center of the novel, and she’s a strong one. She’s methodical without feeling robotic, wounded without being reduced to her wounds, and believable as someone who notices small shifts in tone, posture, and silence. Her father’s watch, her history with James Harrington, and her partnership with Mike Chen give the procedural plot some emotional weight without slowing it down.
The book works best when it treats money as a crime scene. Apex Capital, Cross Industries, offshore accounts, insider trading, staged suicides, and dead-man switches all give the story a sharp, modern texture. Parke is especially good at showing how power protects itself through systems, not just villains. The line “He had forty-eight hours” captures the book’s sense of pressure nicely. It’s simple, but it tells you the clock is already running.
What gives the story more staying power is the way it keeps expanding. The first act feels like a corporate murder case, but the later sections widen into trials, ledgers, hidden histories, family power, and the long work of accountability. That structure makes the book feel less like a single-case thriller and more like the opening movement of a larger series. It’s interested in the cost of truth after the arrest, not just the chase before it.
The Margin of Death is a smart and serious thriller with a procedural backbone and a conscience. It’s about Sarah Reeves solving murders, but it’s also about records, memory, and the people powerful systems try to erase. The result is a confident first entry in a series that gives readers a complete case while clearly setting up bigger questions for Sarah to keep chasing.
Pages: 338 | ASIN : B0GTNDB7K8
