With school over (as of the first week of May), I have more time to read. I occasionally binged a novel. I’ve had some down days as the chronic health issues flared and on one lovely day, I read two entire novels, something I hadn’t done since the damn dental surgeries of 2023. It was fun to read like that again. One of the novels I read that day would not have lent itself to a longer read. It would have been confusing.
Around Memorial Day, I read a novel that had been released the Tuesday before from a favorite Big Name Writer of mine. The novel was good enough to hold my interest, although I found myself scanning. I took an evening off to finish it…and wow, did I get mad. He skipped the validation entirely. Just ended it with Our Hero talking to a reporter, a scenario that would have worked in the 1990s, but in 2026, in the Dumpster Fire Era? No. Fake news abounds, and what would have been a career-ending scandal would be just a day in the office now. So I turned the page…and there was no more book. Extremely irritating, so badly irritating that it took me almost a day to recover. Yeah, sometimes I take the reading personally, especially when I don’t have as much time for it as I used to.
(Note: I wrote a post on the importance of endings on my Patreon page. That post became a chapter in my upcoming book, The Write Attitude.)
But, he’s an Old Reliable, for me anyway, and I’ll pick up the next book. It would take maybe half a dozen misses for me to let him go as a go-to author. This was unusually cursory and incomplete for him, which was weird. Probably something happening in his life that took focus away from the novel. Sigh.
I also binged the Best American Mystery and Suspense stories, but I wrote it up a month later. So I’m only letting you know which stories stuck with me. Let me say this: Titles are important, folks. If the title didn’t remind me, I had to look at the opening—and sometimes that didn’t remind me either. So, writers, make sure your titles fit your stories. I can’t say too much about the stories I liked because that will ruin them—which is actually a compliment.
As for my reading during the rest of the month, I’ve enjoyed what I’m seeing. I’ve shared what I like below.
May 2026
Aptaker, Ann, “Neon Women,” The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025, edited by Don Winslow, Mariner, 2025. Originally written for an anthology of crime stories set in the 1970s, this story captures a lost Times Square and a lost kind of personality. Vivid, startling, and well done.
Armstrong, Kelley, The Deepest of Secrets, Minotaur, 2022. This is the final book in the Rockton series, but not the final book in Kelley Armstrong Casey Duncan Series. Yes, it can be confusing. I wrote a post on my Patreon Page about excellent series, and discussed the courageous stuff that Kelley Armstrong is pulling off even though these books are traditionally published. I’m not going to tell you much about this book because it will spoil the series if I do. Just suffice to say I’m impressed as hell.
Armstrong, Kelley, A Stranger in Town, Minotaur, 2021. I’ve spent May plowing through Kelley Armstrong’s Rockton series. She’s pulling off an amazing reader trick, at least for me. She makes me read books in a setting I would never travel to and I can suspend my disbelief at some of the circumstances so quickly that I’m deep in the story before I even know what’s happening next. This particular tale focuses on the title–a stranger in a place that strangers can’t even find. And of course, there’s a murder and the overall plot is quite dicey and oh, my…if I say more I ruin it. Read this series, and start with City of the Lost.
Balogh, Mary, Remember That Day, Berkeley, 2026. Normally, I would put Mary Balogh’s cover here, but no. Nope. No. Not doing it. We actually made fun of the cover at Writer’s Lunch in February. The cover is so awful that it looks like it was designed by a beginning cover artist. And the “hero”‘s eyes are looking down her low-cut (for Regency) dress. Not kidding. So no cover picture. You can look it up yourself.
The book itself is wonderful and a masterful feat of storytelling. She brings two of her series together here, and her series always have dozens of characters. The romance is good and the story feels original. I wrote a longer piece about this on my Patreon Page. I started a series about writing series, and cited this book as a master work (with some analysis). So check it out!
Carter, Ally, Out of Sight, Out of Time, Little, Brown, 2016 edition of a 2012 book. This is book five of the Gallagher Girls series. It was unputdownable for me, but if you’re new to the series, start with book one. All of the tension here, at least at the beginning, comes from previous books. Then the book itself adds even more tension. Cammie, our heroine, has lost her memory over the summer, and since she is in the middle of a terrible crisis, the memory loss is a bigger deal than usual. Plus, someone important is in a coma, and the school has other problems and maybe we’re going to learn something about Dad and…Yeah. Just start the series and catch up. You’ll be happy you did.
Coates, Craig Francis, “Grendel,” The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025, edited by Don Winslow, Mariner, 2025. “Grendel” is probably the best story in the volume. You don’t even have to have read Beowulf to understand it, but it helps if you did. The ending made me gasp. The skill level here is high. The story is one I wish I’d thought of myself. Enough said.
Leder, Stephanie, “Not A Dinner Party Person,” The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025, edited by Don Winslow, Mariner, 2025. Great characterization here, great voice, and a wonderful ending that makes the story.
McElwain, Julie, Echoes in Time, Seshat Books, 2025. I know that Julie McElwain is self-publishing this series now, and I’m really glad she is. The books are hard to put down, the situation totally unbelievable and, as a reader, I don’t care. I’m loving the reading experience.
However, I worry about her (vaguely, since I don’t know her). She’s paying for covers and for someone to design the interior. That someone did not proof their work, and they’re just pouring the book into an online program without knowing how book interiors (for print) should look. I worry that McElwain is being horribly overcharged and that will make recouping her money difficult and at some point, she will stop writing the books for economic reasons. So…read this series. (It starts as a traditionally published series, then moved indie.) Encourage your friends. Let’s keep her sales up so that she can continue writing Kendra Donovan books, because they’re fun.
Pochoda, Ivy, “Jackrabbit Skin,” The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025, edited by Don Winslow, Mariner, 2025. This novella is set in a part of Nevada/California that scares the ever-loving’-crap out of me. So remote that it makes the Yukon seem populated, this part of the desert is empty and terrifying and filled with people who don’t want to be found. So, what does our LA protagonist do? She moves into one of those places where people go to get away from people. I know this, and I was tense from the first sentence. Pochoda’s writing is strong, the sense of place real, and the crimes believable. Even the ending, which I honestly did not see coming, is believable. One of the best novellas I’ve read in years.
Winslow, Don, The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025,Mariner, 2025. When I started reading this volume, I worried about recommending it. Heck, I worried about finishing it. Don Winslow likes gritty noir, and much of what’s here is just that. But the great things about gritty noir are the characters, the voice, and the setting. So most of the stories held me, even when I didn’t want them to. It was the most even reading experience I’ve had with a good anthology in years. (Bad ones are even in their mediocrity.) I found myself riveted by almost every story. I’m not sure this is bedtime reading, but it’s good reading nonetheless, and you should pick it up.
