EXTRAVAGANTLY GAY, AUTHENTICALLY Latino memoir is witty, sophisticated, rawly candid, and wholly open-hearted. A fresh young perspective and energy mixes with deep insights about identity and belonging into an exhilarating cocktail of lush prose. A MINUS

HIGH-RISK HOMOSEXUAL
Soft Skull
2022

MIXING THE EVERYDAY AND THE MAGICAL, a novel about a family finding their way through personal upheavals in the middle of an environmental disaster raises the big questions with poetic beauty. B PLUS

UNLEASHED
Dutton
2022

ALTERNATE CIVIL WAR novel with an Irish twist starts with a Confederate victory at Gettysburg, a declaration of war by Great Britain, and canny Irish patriots bargaining for a free state. Well imagined and rich in plausible detail. B PLUS

CONFEDERACY OF FENIANS
Koehler Books
2022

SLEEK, CYNICAL NOIR comedy thriller with an unforgettable protagonist. If you were longing for a 2022 reboot of Kind Hearts and Coronets with a hilariously savage female touch, this is your book. Fun and incisive! B PLUS

HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY
The Overlook Press
2022

SCINTILLATING POLITICAL THRILLER is also a keenly observed tragicomedy of manners, sardonic but somehow warm-hearted as well about love and family and what we choose to believe in. B PLUS

LET'S NOT DO THAT AGAIN
Henry Holt and Co.
2022

HOMICIDE AT A CLOWN COLLEGE sets police detective Rock Cobbler on a hunt for a killer, and on a deep dive into clowndom’s deadly secrets. Great combo of quirky comedy and a tightly plotted mystery. B PLUS

MURDER IN GREASEPAINT: A ROCK COBBLER CASE
Whiskey Leavins
2022

AN EXTENDED KIOWA/COMANCHE/MEXICAN FAMILY finds ways to mend its rifts and build a future in this extraordinary, engrossing novel. Told in a chorus of unforgettable voices, it spins a powerful story of Indigenous life in Oklahoma. SOLID A

CALLING FOR A BLANKET DANCE
Algonquin Books
2022

POWERFUL NEAR-FUTURE NOIR thriller works both as a tightly paced mystery and an absorbing vision of a 2040s world where, after an inexplicable pandemic, a quarter of the population never sleeps. You won’t want to put this one down! A MINUS

THE SLEEPLESS
Erewhon
2022

A STRING OF MOB-RELATED MURDERS brings a private investigator and a police detective together to seek justice for the victims and untangle a web of violence and betrayal. Interesting premise, a bit unpolished. B MINUS

TREACHERY
Bernie Ziegner
2022

A WILDLY ORIGINAL, EPIC novel takes on the biggest questions—love and faith and science and art and technology and power—in an intricate blend of science fiction, magic realism, and psychological thriller. B PLUS

BROTHER ALIVE
Grove Press
2022