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

WILDLY INVENTIVE THRILLER follows a young, brilliant, much-loved and closely protected Black woman into a complex tangle of mysterious threats and others’ dangerous memories. Stunning in so many ways. A MINUS

THESE TOXIC THINGS
Thomas & Mercer
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

THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB IS BACK, and this time the senior citizen sleuths are sorting out a mess of diamonds, spies, and drug runners. High-octane cozy with humor and heart! A MINUS

THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE
Pamela Dorman Books
2021

A GRITTY AUSTRALIAN NOIR thriller set in the mid-1960s sends a corrupt Sydney detective and his drug- and drink-addled colleague deep into the outback to solve a horrifying set of murders. Extravagantly bleak prose tells a grim story. SOLID B

THE DEVIL IN THE RED DIRT: THE TRAGIC TALE A NATION DIVIDED IN LIFE, UNIFIED IN MURDER
Michael P. Smith
2021

THE GHOSTS THAT HAUNTED MESOPOTAMIA: British Museum curator Irving Finkel’s latest is a delightful, revelatory survey of ancient Mesopotamian beliefs about ghosts and the afterlife. Beautiful, clear prose on a fascinating topic. SOLID A

THE FIRST GHOSTS
Hodder & Stoughton
2021