The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni

 

This novel portrays the life of Vincent Bianco during two times in his life, the summer of 1979 and the present.  In 1979, Vincent had just graduated high school as the valedictorian but growing up in a house of ten children meant that his first two years of college were going to be at the local community college.  He needed a summer job to even afford that and his big brother got him a job doing construction.  Vince had never done that but he was willing to learn anything and was a hard worker.  The crew was the boss, Vince and two older guys who had been in Vietnam but had served their time and were back home.

Vince could tell that the man he grew close to that summer, William, was haunted by his time in Vietnam.  He had a hard time handling his temper and when he lost it it was far more explosive than the average guy.  He was drinking a lot that summer as well.  But he mentored Vince both on the job and afterwards and helped him define what a man was and how to become the kind of man that people respected.  At the end of the summer the two knew they would probably never see each other again and William gave Vince his journal from Vietnam to explain what shaped him into the man he was.

Now, Vince is middle-aged with his own family and a son, Beau, who was the same age as Vince had been that summer.  Beau has always played sports and has a shot at playing at a big university.  But in his senior year he has to face a heartbreaking situation that changes his life and his outlook on what he wants.  Vince and his wife worry about Beau and if he is ready to take on the challenges of a man's life.

Robert Dugoni is best known for his mysteries but he has written several novels that explore life and this is one of them.  All the characters are well drawn and the journal is a real insight into what the young men of America faced during the Vietnam war, many of them still in their teens.  Vince serves as the fulcrum of the novel, standing between William and Beau, taking the lessons he has learned from William and using them to help his son during his own challenges.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.   

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

 

Out of nowhere, every structure on Earth collapsed.  It was part of an alien occupation.  Carl was outside trying to track down his ex-girlfriend's cat so he and Princess Donut were spared.  They find a place that offers sanctuary and with two million other survivors all over the world, enter. 

They soon find out that their sanctuary is a video game for aliens to watch.  It's like a Survivor show except losers aren't voted off; they are killed by the myriad types of monsters there.  The game has levels and Carl and Princess Donut are on the first.  The players have six days to find the staircase to the second level.  Players also have the opportunity to get followers and sponsors to help them survive.

Carl and Princess get to the second level making friends and enemies along the way.  Can they continue to progress in the game?  

Matt Dinniman is the author of the highly successful Dungeon Crawler Carl series both in novel and graphic novel forms.  He lives in Washington and is also an artist and a bass player.  There are currently eight novels in the series.  There are entire groups that are built around the series and that engage in community building activities and the series is considered one of the top five LitRPG series.  The action is fast and furious and the monsters and maneuvers are highly imaginative.  Carl shows his emotional side in helping others rather than just killing everyone he meets.  This book is recommended for funloving readers.  

Round Up The Usual Peacocks by Donna Andrews

 

Meg Langslow is hosting her brother's wedding at her farm.  But no one told her that the mothers of the bridal couple were planning the wedding of the century.  Half the country has been invited it seems and the backyard is being transformed into a summer bouquet.  In the meantime, Meg's nephew, Kevin, who lives with her comes to her with a real problem.  He and his friend have started a true crime podcast and someone doesn't like it.  Kevin's partner on the podcast was almost hit going home the other night.  Meg jumps at the chance to work on a mystery rather than wedding preparations.

The podcast focuses on Virginia cold cases and they have three recent ones that might have upset someone.  The first is the case of a man from the next county who served time for a murder that the pair suspect he did not commit.  The second case is at the university where Meg's husband works in the drama department.  It involves a cheating scandal at the business school twenty years ago.  Finally, the pair covered the disappearance of a woman singer in Charlottesville years ago.  No one has heard of her since and no body has been found.  

Meg starts investigating and soon meets new people she brings into her social circle.  She knows everyone in town and her life is a mix of doing and receiving favors.  There's the sheriff, the local vet and administrators at the university.  Add in a pair of folk singers, a history professor and a local farmer and Meg's life keeps getting bigger and bigger.  But can she solve the attempted murders?

This is the thirty-first Meg Langslow mystery so there are plenty of fans who will be interested in this latest one.  It was my first exposure to Meg and her world but there will be more.  The novel is written in a breezy fashion and everyone would love to be as connected as Meg is to her town.  I listened to this book and the narrator, Bernadette Dunne, is the long-time voice of the series and did a wonderful job.  Readers who enjoy a cozy mystery will be the best fit for this novel. 

The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell

 

DI Caius Beauchamp has more than enough cases.  There is a woman who has been found dead in the Thames, maybe an accident maybe a homicide.  She was involved decades ago in a pension scandal where the money disappeared along with her boss.  Then there is a twenty year old disappearance of a girl at a boarding school that he has been tasked to solve.  Finally, on the one night that Caius went to the theatre to relax, when the lights came up after the show, there is a dead man sitting in Caius' row.

But all wasn't a loss at the theater.  Caius meets Callie there.  Callie is a milliner and the two hit it off and start seeing each other.  As with most modern relationships there is a bit of come and go as each wants to not reveal their feelings too early and scare the other off.  Callie is extracting herself from a friendship where the other woman has turned into a Bridezilla even though she has known the woman from school days and she is one of her oldest friends.  

This is the second novel is the DI Caius Beauchamp series.  It came to my attention when it won Best Novel at the Edgars and I'm glad it did.  The plot and characters were witty and just so typically British.  I liked the interplay among the police team and the budding romance between Caius and Callie.  Charlotte Vassell is a newcomer in the mystery realm with this novel being her second book.  To win the Edgar Best Novel with a second book is pretty extraordinary and I found this book to be intriguing.  It is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Surface Of Earth by Reynolds Price

 

This is the story of the Mayfield family in the states of Virginia and North Carolina during the early 1900's.  There is one constant in as the generations come and go.  The men of the family don't raise their sons.  The first Mayfield we hear about leaves his wife and children and ends up in Richmond where he lives the rest of his life with a housekeeper.  His son convinces one of his female students to elope with him.  They live together until their son, Beau, is born and his wife and son go back to visit her family.  The family has a crisis while she is there and then the baby gets gravely ill and she stays and stays, never returning to her husband but devoting her life to her father.  When Beau grows up, he marries a woman who dies giving birth to their son.  He attempts to raise the boy himself but soon takes him to the home where he was raised and leaves his son with his grandmother and great aunt to raise.

Another similarity between the generations is how love is perceived.  The men almost regard their love as poison, regretting and asking forgiveness from the women who love them.  Most of the men make their living as teachers.  Another commonality is the interplay between the Caucasian Mayfields and the African American women around them.  Most of the men have affairs with various women resulting in unacknowledged sons.  

Reynolds Price is an American author who wrote about the American experience, mainly the life in the South and its border states.  He also taught at Duke University for over fifty years.  This book is the beginning of a trilogy about the Mayfield family and its' lives over the decades.  There are no happy stories or marriages in these pages; every love relationship is tortured and troublesome.  But it is an interesting look at life during the early 1900's until after the World Wars and I'll pick up the other two books in the trilogy and see what happens with the Mayfield family.  This book is recommended for historical and literary fiction readers.  

The Savage Garden by Mark Mills

 

Adam Bunting is not sure what to do with his summer off from Cambridge.  His tutor suggests that this might be a good time to do the research he will need for his thesis and has a suggestion.  He has an old friend in Italy who wants someone to document the story of her villa's garden which was created in the 1500's by the owner to honor his wife.

Adam agrees and soon he is in Italy and meeting the villa's owner, Madame Docci.  He views the garden full of statues, vales, fountains and benches.  It is fascinating as is the story behind it but Adam feels that he is missing something.  As he studies the garden over the coming days, he starts to see the hidden design behind the one clearly there to see.  He also starts to realize that the Docci family also has hidden secrets and starts to wonder if he was brought there to uncover them as well.

Mark Mills is a British author who writes in the historical and mystery genres.  This book is a mix of the two with items about the ancient secret and the one created during World War II when the villa was taken over by Germans.  Adam starts as a naive boy, crushed by his first heartache, but over his time in Tuscany at the villa, he comes into his own and becomes a man as he has to juggle what he knows and what should happen to his knowledge.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.  

All Them Dogs by Djamel White

 

Tony Ward has come home.  He went to England after killing the man who killed his best friend and has been there several years.  Now he is back in Dublin, wondering what's left for him.  He has a few friends but gangs change fast and many of the guys he knew have either moved on or died.  His mother and brother are still there, but he and his brother are enemies from way back.  He doesn't have work but his buddy Kenny says he can get him in with someone.

He lands right in the middle of a gang war.  His first assignment is to accompany Flute Walsh as an enforcer.  He went to school with Flute but back then no one talked to or messed with Flute.  He is a huge man, mostly silent.  He and Tony get along and soon are enmeshed in a relationship.

But there are no friends in gangs.  Every day is given only if you did well the day before.  Soon Tony is drawn into the fight between the two big men of Dublin and both want him to kill the other.  Who can he trust?  What will he do?

This is a debut novel from Djamel White who is a Irish author and has been longlisted for the Booker Prize of 2026.  The novel is fast paced and the frantic life of Tony who doesn't know what he'll be doing from one day to the next or who he can trust will bring the reader into his life.  There is lots of gang slang and the reader will need to be ready for that but it is all pretty understandable from the context.  Tony is a tortured man and it is unclear what his life will be going forward.  I devoured this novel and I'm looking forward to more from this talented author.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

The Cradle In The Grave by Sophie Hannah

 

In this fifth novel of the Zailer/Waterhouse series, someone is committing murders of a very specific group.  The victims are women who were convicted of killing their babies but were later exonerated as medical knowledge advanced.  One of the most well known television executives is making a documentary about the women's cases of wrongful conviction and has made one particular doctor the scapegoat of the entire issue.

Fliss Benson is a beginning producer, working for the man who is making the documentary.  She is shocked when he calls her in, tells her that he is leaving the company and that the documentary is now hers.  She is less excited when she starts to get the same cards with gridded numbers that are being left on each victim or sent to them in the mail.

Simon Waterhouse is sure that the focus of the police is wrong.  It turns out that their hated superior, known to them as The Snowman, was involved in the first case years ago, a woman who lost her two sons to cradle death but was convicted and served nine years before she was exonerated.  He never believed that the woman did anything wrong and he is determined that this case be used to further prove the innocence of the women who are now being targeted.

This is the fifth novel in the nine novel series that makes up this Sophie Hannah series.  As always, she delivers an intricate plot full of twists and turns that ends in the two detectives, Zailer and Waterhouse saving the day and solving the murders.  I am really enjoying this series and very glad that I found it.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Murder Through The English Post by Jessica Elliott

 

Things have been slow in the detecting business that Edwina and her best friend Beryl have started.  So when Edwina is drafted to become the village magistrate, she agrees although she isn't sure she is qualified.  On her first day, a case of two good friends who for some reason were involved in fisticuffs is her first case.  She learns that one of them has received an anonymous letter that stated his friend was maligning his character around the village, doubting his wartime heroics.  Once the man is convinced that the letter is false, the friends shake hands and go on their way.  A successful ending but Edwina is concerned.  She remembers a time in her childhood when anonymous letters went around the village and what trouble it caused.

Sure enough that letter is only the first.  Some seem accurate such as the one accusing the post mistress of being a terrible gossip and the one accusing a man of straying hands whenever he is around women.  But others are vicious and soon there is an attempted suicide and a death.  The village constable isn't sure she has all the resources she needs to solve the case so Beryl and Edwina agree to take on the case.  Can they find the letter writer before more damage is done?

Jessica Elliott writes in the cozy mystery genre under several pen names.  This is the sixth Beryl and Edwina mystery and it is delightful.  All the characters of a post World War I English village are there and the two women are resourceful and unafraid to ask anything that will move the case forward. Beryl is an American adventuress while Edwina is the typical reserved English lady.  Together they make a perfect pair of detectives.  I listened to this novel and Barbara Rosenblat did an excellent job as the narrator.  This book is recommended for mystery readers who don't want blatant violence in their mysteries.  

The Last Book Club by Joanne Rock

 

Jordyn has come to Sarasota Springs on a mission.  A year ago, the woman she regarded as a sister was killed there in a hit and run.  No one has been identified as the driver, the incident written off as an accident.  Jordyn is not so sure.  When she had talked with Tara before her death, Tara had seemed not herself, worried about both her business and her personal life.  Could the incident been more than an accident?

Jordyn manages to meet and befriend the clique of boogie women who make up the group that Tara was friends with and gets an invitation to join their group and their book club.  But the group seems full of secrets, double-dealings and adultery with each others' husbands.  Could one of them or their husbands been the person who killed Tara?

Joanne Rock is a popular author who mainly writes in the romance genre.  In this novel, she slowly uncovers all the various secrets that may have led to Tara's death.  Tara had fought off danger since she was adopted as a teenager and Jordyn was her only real friend.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

Others Were Emeralds by Lang Leav

 

A small Australian town named Whitlam now houses mainly immigrant families from the Far East.  The narrator of this novel and her family fled Cambodia due to Khmer Rouge.  Others came from Vietnam or Thailand.  Life is hard but easier than where they came from and everyone works hard to build a better life.

In the high school, a group of teenagers form a group.  Ai is the narrator and Brigette is her best friend.  Bowie is Ai's first boyfriend and Tin is his friend.  Sying can become obsessive and her latest obsession is politics and the way immigrants are treated.  There is prejudice against the immigrants mainly from the white population of Australia but day to day Whitlam is fairly safe as the majority of the town are all those who have fled other countries.

Then a horrific event changes the lives of these friends forever.  As high school ends, the individuals move on with their lives, each searching for a way to thrive in their country and to remain close to their individual families and cultures.

Lang Leav is an Australian author who was born in a refugee camp before her family came to Australia.  She began her career as a poet and has several books of poetry.  That comes through in her fiction writing as the language is evocative of the environment and what is happening around the characters.  Loyalty to family and friends is another keynote of the novel as is the ability to realize that everyone has their own life and not everything done is focused on oneself.  The novel is ultimately hopeful and lets those not living the life experience the life of an immigrant.  This novel is recommended for multicultural and literary fiction readers.  

The Graveyard Killings by Wes Markin

 

Yorkshire police are investigating two murder cases, one occurring in 1980, the other recent.  Both cases focus in a graveyard.  In the older case, the body of a young girl who was the victim of a hit-and-run is dug up and another body is put in her grave.  The recent case has two bodies, a young couple, both dead together in the graveyard.  

Two police officers handle the cases.  DCI Emma Gardner is in charge and works on the case of the teenage victims.  Her subordinate, DI Paul Riddick is assigned the other case.  Both have issues.  Emma is still grieving the loss of a subordinate and wondering if it is her fault.  Riddick is worried about a young man caught up in the vise of drug dealers who have taken over his house and Riddick wants to break the group and save the young man.  But he has an alcoholic background and every day is a constant battle to fight off the demons that make him drink.

As the cases progress, they eventually come together and the two police start to work together, giving Emma a firsthand ability to observe Riddick and his issues.  Both cases are eventually solved.

Wes Markin is a British author who writes crime novels.  He has four different series with this being one of the four.  His hallmarks are twisty plots, fast pacing and a look into the dark side of human nature.  This novel is the fourth of eight books in this series.  Markin is a new author for me but I'll be reading more by him.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Things We Never Day by Elizabeth Strout

 

This is the story of Artie Dam.  To most people, Artie is an average man.  He is a high school history teacher.  He's been married to his wife, Evie, for decades.  They have a grown son, Rob, who lives away.  Artie loves to sail and he loves his family.

But Artie is depressed.  He's not sure what life is about even after all these years and he thinks about ending it all.  Even though he's known for supporting his students and saying things that they will take with them for life, he can't do the same for himself.  But when he has a boating accident and almost dies, he realizes that he doesn't want to die after all.

Then life hands him another crushing blow, one that he's not sure if he will ever get over and that rearranges his whole life.  It redefines his relationship with his wife and son and his wife and makes Artie rethink everything he thought he knew.

Elizabeth Strout is a major American author who writes about family relationships and what is important in our lives.  It will be a long time before I forget Artie Dam, who has blows handed to him by life as we all do but manages to remember what is important is the love we share.  Artie doesn't hesitate to share his love with those around him.  The book is a bit political and I'm rarely fond of that as I think it really dates a book as politics change so quickly and hopefully books last for a long time.  But readers will take away hope from this book, especially those who are middle-aged and beyond and looking back at their lives to find meaning.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.  

A Red Dotted Line by Simon Gervais

 

Mike Watson and his wife Lisa are both operatives of the IMSI, International Market Stabilization Institute, which is a private organization developed to protect financial stability of the West.  The pair is sent to Russia for several reasons.  The first is that a scientist there is developing a weaponized chemical warfare virus to unleash on the West and that needs to be stopped.  Mike's father was the Canadian diplomat to the Middle East who was kidnapped two years ago and there have been recent sightings of him in Russia.  Finally, both of the first two reasons are there because of a shadowy underground figure called the Sheik.  He was the one who kidnapped Mike's father and he is helping the scientist developing the virus with money and security as she was his first wife.

The IMSI manages to turn the number two scientist and needs to get him out of Russia  That is Mike's mission and as he fights off various people who want to stop him from helping the man get to the West safely, Lisa is sent to another part of Russia to retrieve his wife.  Along the way, the Russian President's nephew, who works for their security organization, changes sides and starts to work with Mike when he realizes the Sheik has been lying to his uncle all along.  Can Mike, Lisa and the Institute save the world?

Simon Gervais knows about secret missions.  He was a Federal agent for several decades, specializing in counterterrorism.  The action in this novel is fast and furious and readers need to read carefully as individuals can change sides in an instant.  This is the second novel in The Thin Black Line series which features Mike Watson and his wife.  This novel is recommended for readers who like spy novels and thrillers.  

A Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz

 

One of Horowitz's books about a case he worked on with Hawthorne has been optioned to be made into a film.  Horowitz is less than excited.  He doesn't get to write the screenplay; Hawthorne is being paid more than him by a good amount and actors are lining up to play Hawthorne while casting his character is much more difficult.  Still, it's good exposure.  He meets with the woman who will be doing the screenplay and realizes that her focus is the environment and she doesn't want any suggestions from him as she turns his murder mystery into a screed for her favorite cause.  The casting has brought her and the two actors playing Hawthorne and Horowitz together from an earlier movie they did.

Then the actor playing Hawthorne is murdered; stabbed in his trailer between scenes.  Who could it be?  His co-star who still harbors resentment from their first film?  The screenwriter who lived with him for two years and had a child with him?  Those he treated horribly on the set and away from it?  His agent whom he just fired?  Suspects abound.

This is the sixth book in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series.  I love the satire and the fourth wall mentions of Horowitz's real life as a famous author whose works have successfully been made into television series and who is one of my favorite mystery writers.  Horowitz works with Hawthorne on the murder and is constantly surprised by Hawthorne's insights into events as always and the ending is satisfactory.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Amy Among The Serial Killers by Jincy Willett

 

Amy was a creative writing teacher and one of her favorite students over the years had been Carla Karolak.  Carla had been a child star with a pushy, horrible mother who tried to take all of Carla's money and bought a mansion near the ocean.  Now that Carla is on her own, she has turned half the house into a business.  She rents out rooms to hopeful writers where they can work in peace.  Carla is happy enough although she has few people in her life.  Her assistant is one, there's Amy and she interacts with other former students from Amy's classes.

Then a horrible event happens.  One of Carla's renters is found killed and dismembered in her writing cubicle, found by Carla.  The police tie the murder to some others which have occurred lately.  Who could be the serial killer?  There is the obnoxious former student who wants to be a true crime writers and who tries to take over Carla's business.  He is dating Carla's assistant along with a woman who works for the police and who feeds him inside information.  There is the homeless man who seems to be around and shows up in police searches.  How much does Carla really know about the other former students she has let into her life?  Is she a target as well?

Jincy Willett is an American author and writing teacher just like Amy.  This novel is the third in the series about Amy and I really enjoyed it.  Carla is an interesting character who only in her thirties is growing up and demanding her fair share of life and the relationship between her and Amy rings true.  The focus is more on the relationships the characters have than on the gruesome details of the murders and the mystery of the killer's identity is quite well hidden until the final reveal.  I listened to this novel and the narrator was wonderful.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

Universality by Natasha Brown

 

A gold bar is missing from a remote English farm.  The man who owns the farm doesn't live there as he prefers his London apartment.  But he left the bar there and when a group of back to the land commune members decide to squat there, the bar is found.  Before it is taken, it is used to hit a man in the head in a fight among commune members.

An ambitious woman journalist is told about the story and sees it as a real opportunity for her next story.  She interviews the man who owns the bar who is a venture capitalist, the head of the commune and several of his followers and even tracks down the man who did the assault and interviews him.  She tells a story of greed, both by the original owner and all those who interacted with the gold bar.

But that's not the end of the story.  The author gets a real career boost.  The capitalist is exposed as a venal opportunist.  The commune breaks up.  And there are more machinations behind the scenes.

I'm rapidly becoming a major Natasha Brown fan.  She is a British author and this novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2025.  I've also read her first book, Assembly, and was blown away by it.  Her writing is spare and every word is important.  This book has so many layers and secrets abound on each layer as it is revealed.  The entire article is full of machinations and hidden motivations and the author is amazing as she does this with what seems to be such a sparse tale.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers. 

The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis

 

During the last days of World War II, two women meet while entertaining the troops in a USO troupe.  Hazel Riley is known as the girl who never made the Broadway stage although constantly being hired as a backup to the star.  Maxine Mead is a gorgeous actress.  When the two women come home after the war, they both end up in New York and living in the Bohemian Chelsea Hotel.  Hazel decides there is more than acting in the world and starts writing a play while Maxine is soon cast as the star of Hazel's play.

But there are is an unannounced war heading for Broadway.  After having success ruining careers in Hollywood, McCarthy seems to be setting his bullseye on Broadway.  Years before the War when socialist and progressive groups were in vogue, Maxine had attended a protest.  Hazel, whose brother believed in the cause, had signed petitions he had given her almost without reading them.  But both of them are now in the crosshairs of the government's attempt to bring down Broadway.

Fiona Davis has written extensively in the historical fiction genre, focusing on the women of various times.  Both women characters are fascinating but Hazel will win hearts as she attempts to make a career for herself.  Those not familiar with the witch-hunts of the time will be taken by the unfairness of the McCarthy targets and how he ruined careers and got people blacklisted from their work rather than name their friends.  This book is recommended for historical and women's fiction readers.

The Disappearance Of Adele Bedeau by Graeme McCrae Burnet

 

In a small town in France, a waitress in the local bistro has gone missing.  The police, led by Inspector Gorski, investigate.  They talk to everyone but one man seems suspicious.  Manfred Baumann is the local banker and a creature of habit.  He takes his lunch and his dinner in the bistro although he rarely talks to anyone.  People looking back think he seemed interested in Adele.  He has lived in the same apartment for years and after dinner he goes to his apartment and does whatever.  Once a week he visits a brothel. 

Several people saw Adele leaving town on the back of a motorbike.  Manfred had walked from the bistro that night with Adele and had seen that also.  But when the police interviewed the bistro customers, he lied about seeing her for no real reason except that he constantly analyzed every conversation and its affect on the other person and believed if he told the truth he would be arrested.  

Inspector Gorski is determined to solve the disappearance.  His first case, years ago, had gone unsolved and he is adamant that this one will be solved.  He is suspicious of Baumann because he can tell he is lying and because he knows how Adele left town.  Why would Baumann lie?  He doesn't know but can sense that Baumann has secrets he is hiding.

Graeme McCrae Burnet is a Scottish writer who writes in the historical true crime genre.  His work has been both longlisted and shortlisted in various years for the Booker Prize and has won various awards around the world.  The reader will come to know Manfred as the book is mostly written from his point of view.  Manfred has dark secrets going back decades that still influence his everyday life and his belief that people are constantly talking about him.  This book is recommended for readers of historical literary fiction. 

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

 

There are five Mansfield girls and they have come to live with their grandfather in Little Nettlebed now that their parents have died.  Mr. Mansfield is the wealthiest man in the village but there is talk that he made his fortune on the backs of others, selling flour dearly during a time of little food.  The girls all look exactly alike, tall and slim, dark hair and piercing blue eyes.  They stick to themselves and ignore the villagers.  

There are also men in Little Nettlebed.  Robin is a gentle soul from another farm who has come to the Mansfield house to help with the harvest  Thomas is also a hired hand and he lives in the house as his home is too far to go back and forth.  Pete is the man who poles the ferry back and forth and is about to be married.  Each of the men have a different opinion of the girls.

Then a rumor starts, who knows where.  It's said that the girls turn themselves into hounds.  There are reports of hens killed and other animals.  Should the girls be forced out?

This is a debut novel for Xenobe Purvis.  It was chosen as a Notable Book by the New York Times and a Best Book Of The Year by NPR and Kirkus Reviews.  It has a haunting tone as the villagers and the girls interact and it is unclear exactly what will happen as the rumors multiply about the girls.  There is a lot of discussion about the proper relationship between men and women and who should be the most influential.  There is also a hint of horror that threads throughout the book.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.