RECLUSIVE, ASCETIC DETECTIVE Charlie Waldo winds up once again in the middle of big-money Hollywood scandals and secrets. Will he lose track of his own unique redemption under the pressure? Distinctive, fresh mystery with LA flavor. B PLUS

PAY OR PLAY
Severn House
2021

CASUALTIES OF THE POST-HUMAN ECONOMY scratching out a living in West Virginia uncover some disturbing secrets about the recent past. Creepily believable worldbuilding, well realized characters. B PLUS

BUSTED SYNAPSES
Broken Eye Books
2020

THE POWER OF BLACK COMMUNITIES, and of Black families, are central to this memoir by the former mayor of Stockton, California, an educator elected to the city council while still a Stanford student. Thoughtful, visionary, frank. B PLUS

THE DEEPER THE ROOTS
Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book
2021

JAPANESE FOREST SPIRITS, dream magic, and an angry boar god crash into the life of a Black Canadian expatriate teacher. Hypnotic fairy tale alternates with a modern story of “foreignness” and alienation. B PLUS

YUME
Rare Machines
2021

A WILD DESERT PICARESQUE swirls a burly monk with Mafia connections and an anger problem into a vivid cocktail of stolen churches, UFO prophetesses, and vengeful cartels. B PLUS

FELONIOUS MONK
Blackstone Publishing
2021

INTERLOCKING STORIES EXPLORE the weight of history, and the many artifices and cruelties buried in the past. Fascinating novel moves from New York to Buenos Aires to Vienna, through time from the present to the 16th century. B PLUS

SIEGE OF COMEDIANS
Dzanc Books
2021

GODS CLASH WITH BUREAUCRATS in a regimented police state where local deities are “decommissioned” and replaced with government-friendly “abstractions”. Simple, beautiful fantasy is a touching parable of love amid repression. B PLUS

LAGOONFIRE
Annorlunda Books
2021

EVOCATIVE BOSTON MYSTERY with a marvelously flawed, unforgettably fierce protagonist centers on the bond between two women rock musicians—and the dangerous secrets they kept for decades. B PLUS

HOLD ME DOWN
Polis Books
2021

AFTER THE RAPTURE, PETS need care, right? Or so thinks small-time thief Larry, but his pet-sitting service grows unexpectedly as the world braces for more mystical events. Fun thriller with a touch of philosophy and wonderful characters. B PLUS

LARRY'S POST-RAPTURE PET-SITTING SERVICE
Undergrowth Publishing
2020

BLADE RUNNER MEETS 1984, with a touch of Le Carré thrown in. Brilliant, poignant future thriller set in a crumbling republic that fights off the introduction of Artificial Intelligence with a brutal state security apparatus. B PLUS

WHEN THE SPARROW FALLS
Tor Books
2021