"The Void Dragon"

New from Orbit: The Void Dragon (The Shattered Lands, 2) by Annabel Campbell.

About the book, from the publisher:

The Void Dragon continues the epic fantasy tale that began with The Outcast Mage, following a young woman whose strange powers may destroy the world, and packed with intrigue, adventure and dragonfire.

Naila has escaped the chaos that engulfed her home city of Amoria, but at a terrible cost. Her allies have splintered and there’s a power growing inside of her that she doesn’t understand. It feels dangerous. It feels hungry.

Hunted by dragonriders, Naila must seek sanctuary at the great library of Awasef. Perhaps here she will find some answers―if they don’t kill her first.

But the land of Dahran is on a knife edge. The Queen’s advisor, the Wazira, is abducting mages and forcing them to join her cause. Worse still, Haelius Akana – Naila’s friend and the greatest wizard of his age―is among them.

As political conspiracies slide towards civil war, Naila’s power threatens to consume her and everyone she holds dear. Haelius may be the only person who can help her.

But only if he betrays his new master to stand at Naila’s side.

Visit Annabel Campbell's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"White Knuckling"

New from Cambridge University Press: White Knuckling: Holding On in America's Racialized Political Economy by Tess Wise.

About the book, from the publisher:

In White Knuckling, Tess Wise combines political economy, political development, and ethnography to develop a theory of systemic racism as a political process. Using a Racialized Political Economy (RPE) lens, she links institutions, material conditions, culture, and contestation to demonstrate how systemic racism both benefits and harms white middle-class families. Drawing on interviews with families and bankruptcy court records, she follows individuals under economic strain and experiencing 'white knuckling' as they work through debt to explore how financialization turns hardship into revenue. She reveals that the promised rehabilitation often fails, operating as hidden public-private welfare that can preserve some assets while entrenching precarity. Tracing scripts of deservingness and responsibility, Wise demonstrates how racism in political economy helps and hurts white middle-class Americans, blinding them to their racial privilege and undermining the mechanisms that would lead to race and class solidarity.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Spiral"

Coming October 27 from Crooked Lane Books: The Spiral: A Thriller (A Nina Esposito Mystery) by Rosanne Limoncelli.

About the novel, from the publisher:

When Nina finds the dead body of a woman who could easily be her twin, she must divide the men in her life into two groups: the ones she can trust and the ones who might be the killer.

A refreshing new take on the noir-thriller genre, The Spiral is perfect for fans of Tana French and Stieg Larsson.

It’s 1979, and nineteen-year-old Nina Esposito survives gritty Greenwich Village by tending bar with plenty of sarcasm and elbow grease. She can navigate the lewd customers, dirty streets, and danger-after-dark of NYC until a serial killer arrives on the scene targeting women who look exactly like her. Now survival for Nina means finding the killer before he finds her.

She has the constant feeling that she is prey surrounded by predators and every man she meets could be the killer: the guy following her on the subway, her leering acting coach, the restaurant owner pressuring her for a date. But is she really a target, or are the demons of her past clouding her judgment? Detective Frankie Lopez seems to be on her side—but she knows that trusting the wrong person could make her the next victim.

Set in crime-ridden New York City, when the subways were covered in graffiti and the burned-out buildings of the East Village were homes for squatters and punk rock teens, this psychological thriller is a dark murder mystery, one that will keep you guessing until the very end when the final twist is revealed.

Visit Rosanne Limoncelli's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Four Queens of Crime.

The Page 69 Test: The Four Queens of Crime.

Q&A with Rosanne Limoncelli.

Writers Read: Rosanne Limoncelli (July 2026).

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Medieval Art of Fear"

New from the University of Chicago Press: The Medieval Art of Fear by Ravinder S. Binning.

About the book, from the publisher:

A bold new approach to medieval art and architecture’s shaping of psychosomatic experience.

In the medieval world, experiences of fear attained a mystical significance: monks, urban publics, and even emperors pursued horror and grief to explore the limits of fantasy, sensation, and catharsis. In this book, Ravinder S. Binning examines an expansive archive ranging from poetry and scientific treatises to artistic works in ivory and crystal to recover an aesthetic tradition centered on optical tension, spatial suspense, and tactile experience.

Moving between early monastic spaces in Egypt and major urban centers like Constantinople from the fourth through the thirteenth centuries, The Medieval Art of Fear shows how the psychosomatic experience of fear became the deliberate object of mystical practices, meditation, and other embodied techniques across the medieval world. The result is a powerful exploration of the aesthetic effects behind some of the medieval world’s most ambitious works, whose influence extends well beyond the Middle Ages.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Rally"

New from Union Square & Co.: The Rally: A Novel by Carla Vass.

About the novel, from the publisher:

A young tech entrepreneur―ousted from her start-up and reeling―escapes to Europe for a glamorous car rally, where she must contend with the excesses of the über-rich, betrayal, and love. Perfect for fans of The Wedding People and The White Lotus.

Charlotte "Charlie" Walker has spent the last four years building the dating app Flutter. Despite her own lack of dating experience (!), Flutter is instantly successful. Perhaps too successful. After rejecting the romantic advances of her cofounder, Charlie finds herself unceremoniously ousted. Dispirited, she impulsively joins her BFF on the Rally―an extravagant European road trip featuring luxury cars, lavish parties, and breathtaking destinations.

Although she feels out of place, Charlie embraces her new freedom, indulging in the Rally’s hedonism. But just as she begins to regain her footing, Charlie realizes she can’t outdrive her past: Instead she must reckon with the fallout from her ouster, her company’s buried secrets, and an unexpected attraction that complicates everything.

Visit Carla Vass's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Old in the Game"

New from the University of California Press: Old in the Game: Aging in and with Hip-Hop by Murray Forman.

About the book, from the publisher:

The first study of hip-hop and aging, featuring insights from over twenty hip-hop pioneers and veterans.

Hip-hop is now in its sixth decade. How are the culture’s oldest innovators aging in, and with, hip-hop? In In Old in the Game, Murray Forman examines how hip-hop artists, audiences, and entrepreneurs negotiate the cultural process of aging.

Featuring commentary from hip-hop pioneers Grandmaster Caz, Grandwizzard Theodore, and Sha-Rock as well as veterans like Chuck D, LL Cool J, Ice-T, Pepa, and Yo-Yo, Forman reveals age as an essential component of identity and a mode of expression through which hip-hop–identified heads comprehend the world and present themselves. The book covers themes of generational difference and dissonance, ageism, memory and nostalgia, and retirement and death and offers a new way of understanding hip-hop as generations of hip-hop elders come of age, mature, and learn to grow old within the culture.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Fist of Memory"

Coming soon from DAW: The Fist of Memory by Wole Talabi.

About the book, from the publisher:

A strange alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky in this electrifying, action-packed first contact novel set in near-future Nigeria from award-winning author Wole Talabi

A hard science-fiction novel featuring an assassin-for-hire, a witchdoctor, and an astronomer, this fast-paced thriller is perfect for fans of Arrival

When a non-communicative alien spacecraft suddenly appears in the sky, global powers are thrown into turmoil.

But for Tope, a principled Nigerian assassin with a talent for lethality in the employ of the mysterious witchdoctor known as "Baba," it’s all just business as usual. At least until a job goes wrong, and Tope is caught in the scramble—a high stakes game of power and politics for the future that is to come. Joined by Itumeleng, a South African astronomer plagued by mysterious dreams, they must find a way to survive, navigate their complicated pasts, and come to understand how they, and all of humanity, are connected to the alien craft before it lands and the world changes forever. But it won’t be easy. There are sinister forces marshalled against them, including a strange assassin obsessed with a single memory.

The Fist Of Memory is a first contact thriller unlike any other; a meditation on the nature of reality, memory and connectedness.

Visit Wole Talabi's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Echoes of Brazil"

New from Oxford University Press: Echoes of Brazil: The Musical Experiences of Brazilian Ancestry in West Africa by Juan Diego Díaz.

About the book, from the publisher:

The stretch of coast between Accra and Lagos is home to four distinct national communities who identify as descendants of Brazilians: the Tabom in Ghana, the Brésiliens in Togo, the Agudas in Benin, and the Amaros in Nigeria. These communities were established by people who migrated from Brazil to West Africa in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, forming what is arguably Brazil's oldest diaspora. Despite their historical, cultural, and physical separation from Brazil, they maintain a strong sense of Brazilianness through music, dance, and religious practices. Echoes of Brazil explores how these communities use music and dance to preserve, celebrate, and negotiate their complex allegiances--to Brazil, to the ethnic groups they have integrated into, to their West African nations, and to the broader Black Atlantic community.

Juan Diego Díaz argues that music is an ideal medium for the emergence of experiences where sound, emotion, and discourse about Brazilian ancestry can coalesce and reinforce one another. The diasporic condition of Brazilian-descendant communities in West Africa is therefore primarily grounded in deeply embodied experiences, rather than solely in discourse. To support this argument, Díaz adopts a phenomenological approach, focusing on people's embodied experiences during both inter- and intra-community musical encounters. He documents how musicians from these communities deploy their signature genres--agbe, burrinha, and the characteristic combination of gbókùs and meboi--at home, during visits to each other, and even on trips to Brazil.

This is the first study to examine these four communities in tandem rather than separately. Echoes of Brazil underscores the importance of transnational connections within West Africa, Brazil, and the Black Atlantic, challenging conventional notions of home and diaspora.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Way We Become"

New from Margaret K. McElderry Books: The Way We Become (Part of The Way I Used to Be) by Amber Smith.

About the book, from the publisher:

Eden and her fellow survivors look to the future in this powerful story of justice, autonomy, and healing told in multiple points of view—the powerful conclusion to the Way I Used to Be trilogy from internationally bestselling author Amber Smith.

Eden struggled to find her voice for years after her brother’s friend Kevin raped her. It wasn’t until Kevin’s ex-girlfriend Gen and his sister, Amanda, came forward, that Eden knew she wasn’t alone. Determined to do everything in their power to pursue justice, Eden, Amanda, and Gen testified against Kevin in a trial that turned their lives inside out.

In the wake of the judge’s decision, they are now expected to move on—all while grappling with the hurt and grief that are never far behind. Amanda is adrift finishing high school, Eden is still learning what it means to be in a healthy relationship, and college dropout Gen is struggling to find direction at all. On three different paths toward healing, each girl has to chart her own course forward to discover the woman she’ll become.

Visit Amber Smith's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Country House at War"

New from Yale University Press: The Country House at War: A Story of Loss, Reinvention and the Birth of a New Britain by Judith S. Lewis.

About the book, from the publisher:

The story of how English country houses were repurposed during the Second World War, told through the lives of those who lived and worked in them

In the Second World War, country houses across England were requisitioned by the government for the war effort. These homes opened their doors to evacuated children, were transformed into hospitals, and played host to training camps for the armed forces. The care of the estates was often left to young women and the elderly, who had to completely change the running of their homes to accommodate essential wartime activities.

In this fascinating history, Judith S. Lewis explores the lives of country houses during the Second World War. Some homes were requisitioned for intelligence operations, like Audley End, which was used as the headquarters of the Polish Section of SOE, whereas others, like West Wycombe, were used to house artefacts of national importance. Examining the long legacy of the war, Lewis reveals why some houses survived, whether as family homes, museums, or public parks, while others simply disappeared altogether.

Follow Judith S. Lewis on Facebook.

--Marshal Zeringue