"Painless" is a difficult to put down, gory horror thriller with gut-wrenching twists and turns. Marty Thornley’s unsettling "Painless" is a medical thriller with a touch of horror in which desperate people turn to a mad scientist for... Read More

In the Foursquare Pentecostal Church in the 1960s, Kelly J. Beard’s mother saw demons, though those demons ended up being nothing like Beard’s childhood self imagined: “Instead, they will appear in fires and floods, in her... Read More

Mother Simorq—equal parts witness, healer, and wise woman—offers a visionary alternative for women who transcend painful histories. Azadeh Azad’s "Thus Speaks Mother Simorq" gives voice to a mythological Persian bird woman. In... Read More

A retiree-cum-international-spy finds himself zipping around the world in this wish-fulfillment thriller. David Halfpenny’s spy novel "48 Hours" crisscrosses the globe from England to continental Europe and Afghanistan. The narrative... Read More

Rocket Malone is not thrilled with the direction her life is taking. Her mom has just remarried, and they are moving from their hip cottage in Venice Beach to her stepfather’s home in Hollywood. Her best friend, Gillian, has a new... Read More

Kearns skillfully walks the tightrope between feminist polemic and literary experiment. "Kingdom of Women" turns the tables on patriarchy, creating an alternate world where bands of vigilante women strike back at transgressors. Rosalie... Read More