Steadman had to come up with ways that modern technology could work in the story. There are only so many plots readers can tolerate where a cell phone happens to die at a crucial moment when the protagonist is separated from safety. The technology here is diverse. The most crucial element being a camera on a cat collar that unlocks the entire A-story about a woman in danger. This neighborhood is also filled with doorbell cameras, but a couple of blocks away where buildings are more in need of upgrades, there aren’t any cameras.
Catherine Steadman absolutely nails it with her 2026 thriller, Nine Lives! This book is page-to-page curiosity, suspense, action, and difficult decisions.
I read this in two sittings which is unheard of for my slow reading style! While this book is technically an eco-horror, there’s little gore and only a couple startling scares. I’m easily scared. This is a mystery, in my opinion. Zoje Stage has written an epitome of Man vs Nature theme.
I’ve never read her work before. In fact, credit to where it’s due, what grabbed my attention was the cover. Not shocking. It happens to a lot of people. In comics, every printing gets a new cover and then, there are issues that have several covers just so people can collect them. The cover here is a white-tailed deer apparently on paper with bloody shreds ripping the paper apart. I love our deer friends.
Humans destroying the natural world propelling wildlife to evolve and fight back is meant to have readers question who the villain of the story is. Is the villain the killer or the person who participates in a wide industrial complex that feeds on greed? Detective Andy Cooper is assigned one case in her jurisdiction. However, she’s the one who discovered a body in a lake in her jurisdiction which gets assigned to someone else. There’s something peculiar about them that makes Andy and the medical examiner feel they are loosely related.
In the acknowledgments and an interview with the YouTube channel podcast, Booked, Stage talks about having a small (one acre) empty lot behind her house in Pennsylvania. She started with feeding the birds and giving them water then noticed how other animals utilized her offering. She is emotional and vested in seeing the animals grow their families and how they behave. This is exactly what I do! If ever there was a book written to my heart, it’s this one.
From the brilliant Zoje Stage, Bram Stoker Award finalist and author of Baby Teeth, Something of a Calling is an unsettling look at a woman--and a world--on the brink of change. This gorgeous hardcover edition includes sprayed edges.
Detective Andy Cooper is about to retire. She isn't sure what's next ... perhaps traveling in the RV she has yet to buy, with a dog she doesn't currently own. Perhaps gardening near the ever-shrinking patch of woods behind her house--once the cable company's backhoe is removed.
She'll need to do something, if only to distract herself from how empty her life…
Kashiwai uses the same format and successful formula in A Serving of Hope (book four) as in previous installments. Each chapter is an independent story broken into two parts. The chapters are named for the assignment: the dish that a client wants recreated. These can be incredible simple, yet full of memories, like fried chicken that was served on a memorable day in someone’s life. In certain instances, clients show up at the Kamogawa Diner and tell Nagare and his daughter, Koishi, that they aren’t sure why they have the urge to find a particular meal. The message comes through as Koishi interviews them and when they finally taste what they’re after.
Since each chapter can be read independently as short stories, there are some repetitions including how Drowsy the cat got his name, the peculiar non-descript two-storey building of the restaurant, and the hallway filled with photos that goes back to Koishi’s office. They can make reading a section fly by quickly. It’s unlikely a reader would tire of Kashiwai’s details about Kyoto’s distinct culture, the food, what people are wearing, and the interesting way the Kamogawas run their business. They don’t have fees. After each client’s case is solved, Koishi hands them the banking information and instructs them to pay what they feel is reasonable when they can. It’s unclear if the diner also operates this way for regular customers who come only to eat and not for the detective agency.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives return in A Serving of Hope, translated from the Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood. This bestselling, heartwarming sleuthing series can be enjoyed separately, i any order, or binged all at once!
Perfect for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.
If I hadn't searched for the 'flavours' of my memories, I think I would have spent my life endlessly chasing the past . . .
Near Higashi Honganji Temple in Kyoto, the Kamogawa Diner continues to attract lost souls seeking meaning in their lives. From the morning miso soup before heading to Kyoto for the judicial examination,…
No one knew volkolaks lived among them. Certainly not Ursula Applegate, a social media volunteer for an animal rights group trying to end the New Jersey bear hunt. Ursula thought protests and social media would be the extent of her animal rights activism. Then she learns her friends are volkolaks, human-bear shapeshifters. Laws are broken, spells are attempted.
The story behind Bear Roots is about the true story of Pedals the Bear. Pedals walked upright and fooled a lot of people, myself included, who first believed it was a person in a bear suit. Pedals’ front limbs were most likely injured by a collision with a car, according to statements in the newspapers. This bear became a common sight in the Denville and Rockaway areas of New Jersey and garnered national news attention. People grew accustomed to the sight of the bipedal bear and were happy to coexist. Pedals was killed during one of the bear hunts. His murderer’s name will not be released by the state.
