Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
Dogged Pursuit
DETAILS: Series: Andy Carpenter, #32 Publisher: Minotaur Books Publication Date: July 1, 2025 Format: eARC Length: 288 pg. Read Date: July 3-4, 2025
What’s Dogged Pursuit About?
Andy Carpenter has recently left the Prosecutor’s Office to become a defense lawyer. He’s rented an office, helped one client, and…well, that’s it. His wife is leaning on him to take a job as a corporate lawyer (and her father can get him such a position), but his heart isn’t in it.
He has decided it’s past time for him to get a dog after years of wanting one—so he goes to a shelter, falls head over heels with one, and adopts her. The shelter tells him that his new dog (Carpenter fans know Tara very well at his point) has bonded with the dog she shared a run with. So he offers to adopt her, too. That can’t happen because her owner is in jail awaiting trial. They assure him that if he can get a release from the owner, he can take the dog.
Carpenter fans know at this point that this will be Andy’s first client. People new to the series will probably know this, too. Rosenfelt isn’t playing his cards close to his chest here.
And, hey, what do you know? That’s exactly what happens. The trick is that Andy’s new client is charged with multiple murders—that of his old friend and boss who fired him two weeks previously, and the two people he was giving a ride home to (so they wouldn’t drive after drinking at a corporate party).
The circumstantial case is pretty strong—almost too strong. No one that Andy talks to at his client’s old company could believe he’d be capable of such a thing. And he really seems to care about his dog. Which is enough for Andy to dive in.
He just needs evidence on his side, an investigator to do some work for him, and a clue about how to defend this particular client. But that’ll come, right?
The Prequel-ness
I was surprised when I saw this was a prequel. I don’t know that I ever stopped and wondered, “How did Andy get started in the business?” Particularly as early in his career that book one, Open and Shut, isn’t that far into his career and really serves just as well as an origin story.
That said…this is a really good novel, a solid prequel, and a treat for fans of the series. Let’s take a quick glance at some of the series regulars we meet here:
Tara. You don’t have an Andy Carpenter book without his best friend. Their meeting goes beyond a meet-cute, and watching their relationship blossom is great. Honestly, the rest of this list isn’t necessary, as long as Rosenfelt nailed this one, and it’s no surprise that he did.
Sam. Sam gets a little more “screen time” here than he typically does. This is a-ok with me, Sam’s great. We get some seeds planted for a lot of what we see from this accountant/hacker in the future. What we don’t get—and this is the biggest problem with this book—is the song talking. I get that he and Andy have grown out of it by later books (as odd as it is to think of Andy maturing). I miss it, but I can cope (as well as grumble about it). But they’re not there yet. Something that so characterizes their relationship in the first few books should be here now.
Laurie. Andy meets and hires Laurie here, a wonderful decision on his part. It’s totally platonic, Rosenfelt shows us that Andy is a stand-up guy on that front (as he continues to be). Given where their relationship ends up, I have to give Rosenfelt a lot of credit for keeping it professional. Laurie struggles some (as I think she continues to do for quite a bit) with working for the defense—not as much as say, Harry Bosch does (although she wasn’t working for the PD as long as Bosch did). And that’s good to see, but her adaptability and smarts are on full display.
Pete. Pete and Andy aren’t as friendly as they will one day be. It’s actually nice to see them approach bonding, and the beginning of Andy picking up Pete’s tab.
Nelson Carpenter. We don’t get to see a lot of Andy’s father before his death, so it was really nice to see the healthy relationship here. It’s hard not to like this guy, and you can see why he was such a legend in the legal community in the area.
Edna. Andy hasn’t hired—much less met—Edna at this point, but she’s mentioned to him a few times as someone he should hire. Reading what Andy is told about her, and what we know about her, is one of the best chuckle-generators of this novel.
Nicole. This has to be the trickiest one in the book—the relationship is doomed, we all know this. But neither Andy nor Nicole is ready for it to end. Rosenfelt has to show the crumbling, without showing the last straws—as those straws are still to come. And man…I liked Nicole. I enjoyed seeing her bond with Tara. I liked seeing her interact with Andy; she seems like a pretty good match for him.
Marcus
In a couple of the more recent books, I’ve wondered if Marcus is losing a bit of what made him such a fun character for the readers because we’ve learned more about him. Is the mystique gone? Is he on the verge of becoming just another member of Andy’s circle?
That question gets set on the back burner for a while—phew—because in this prequel, Marcus is all mystique. Nothing but mystique and mystery.
So, what did I think about Dogged Pursuit?
Okay, let’s set aside all the fun of the prequel stuff. How’s the mystery, the case, the resolution?
Those are just what you want. Andy’s not the cocky, flashy trial lawyer he will become. But you can see it on the horizon. He’s nervous—in and out of the courtroom. He’s not prepared to meet with some of the truly nasty characters he needs to—or the threat they can represent.
There are plenty of twists and a revelation or two at the end that are just satisfying.
There’s not a huge conspiracy with international implications afoot. There’s some criminal activity around the murders that Andy runs across—but it’s not at the heart of the book.
There are some truly good lines (particularly involving Andy’s cowardice and lack of ability to defend himself—always a good place for Rosenfelt to return to). The momentum carries you right along, right up to the surprises at the end.
Throw in Andy and Tara’s relationship? You’ve got a solid book.
I strongly recommend this book to people who’ve read Andy Carpenter in the past (even if you’ve taken a break for whatever reason). If people have seen my glowing posts in the back and haven’t wanted to dive into a series of 30 mid-stream, this is a great place to jump on board. If people have never seen a thing I’ve written about this series before—this is a great place to jump on board, too. Really, there’s no one that I wouldn’t recommend this book to. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I think you will, too.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley—thanks to both for this. I apologize for the tardiness.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
I’m about 1/3 of the way through the recently released Vol. 2 of this, so it’s obviously on my mind. In lieu of new content. How about a re-run (kids: this was a thing that used to happen to our TV shows during the summer, way back in the 20th Century).
Christ of the Consummation:
A New Testament Biblical Theology
Volume 1: The Testimony of
the Four Gospels
DETAILS:
Publisher: P & R Publishing
Publication Date: June 1, 2022
Format: Paperback
Length: 321 pg.
Read Date: August 7-28, 2022
In these new phases of redemptive history, the heart of the revelation does not change, but it broadens and deepens in the realities of the truth. Jesus Christ is the same, but his church, his precious bride, is being built by the addition of nations being born in a day as a consequence of Christ’s pouring out the gifts of his Spirit on all flesh. The kingdom of God has come and continues to come. The kingdom of God is yet to come. It will arrive in all its fullness on that day, the great judgment day, the day of resurrection and restoration of all things. To God be the glory for the things he has done, is doing, and yet will do.
What’s Christ of the Consummation, Volume 1 About?
At some point when reading Vos’ Biblical Theology most readers like me* start to wonder, “How is he doing to have time to cover the New Testament? While Vos doesn’t give his readers the same kind of insight into the history of revelation of the NT as he does the OT, he does set out some principles. Robert’s work is the first book-length attempt to apply Vos’ directions to apply his method to the NT (actually, the first of three book-length attempts).
That’d be people who didn’t know what was coming from pre-knowledge about the book or reading the Table of Contents.
He begins by stating the difference between the two works—there are centuries upon centuries of history of OT revelation, and a maximum of one from the announcement of Jesus’ birth to Mary to the end of John’s writing on Patmos. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no development, but how best to approach that? Robertson focuses on three distinctives in his approach:
- Retracing the Historical Progression across the Various Phases of New Covenant Revelation as the Organizing Principle
- The Foundational Role of the Old Covenant Scriptures
- Contemporary [to their writing] Application of New Testament Biblical Theology
With these distinctives in mind, Robertson looks at material concerning Jesus’ self-testimony; various phases of His life and work; the progressive revelation of the Kingdom during His life; His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension; and then he moves into closer looks at the various Gospels individually and corporately.
An Unexpected Bonus
A number of times throughout the text Robertson will hit pause on his exegetical work, the historical reflections, or the interpretative/theological conclusions from those, to offer application to the lives and hearts of the reader. Sometimes a broader or more general call and sometimes it’s a narrow focus. I really didn’t expect these at all, and I almost never saw them coming when he did pause for one. But I appreciated them all and found them to be a real enhancement to the work.
So, what did I think about Christ of the Consummation, Volume 1?
I’m clearly not qualified to evaluate Robertson’s application of Vos, but people like D.A. Carson and Richard Gaffin are, so I’ll take their word for it. Sure, they wrote the forward and a “further word” for this book, so it’s not like we’re talking about impartial evaluations.
Nor am I capable of—or willing to—give this a good and thorough review/evaluation. Although I do wish I could. So let me offer a few thoughts from my perspective as a lay reader. And I do think this is a book written with the layman in mind—it’s not a casual read by any means, but it is not a book solely for scholars.
I’m not sure I’ve read a Christian book this year that has made me think more, read slower/closer, and pushed my thinking more. It’s also been the most rewarding and I think it will prove the most fecund for my future reading, study, and devotion.
At the same time, the number of times that I read something I don’t think I’d ever been exposed to, or that was wholly novel to me is so small as to be negligible. This is not to say that it was all review or that he didn’t make me stop and think for a minute or ten to consider a point before moving on. But on the whole, it’s a reframing and refocusing of many things I’ve read in lay-friendly works or heard in sermons/lectures. It’s not “here’s a whole new way to read/think about the Gospels”—and Robertson would be the last to want something like that. Instead, this is a “here’s a way to profitably consider the way these things were revealed” and “here’s how the Gospels build upon one another and build up each other.”
I’m already trying to figure out when I can get in a re-read without ruining plans for next year—possibly in combination with a re-read of Vos’ Biblical Theology so I can more directly see for myself the connections between the two works and Vos’ influence.
This is the first in a trilogy—if the rest of the trilogy is as good as this one, the series will likely end up on shelves everywhere next to Vos. I know I’m already ready to dive into the next volume.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
Despite my furry companions’ certain conclusions, we survived the night/morning (who needs to set off celebratory explosions at 1:30 am??). Hope my fellow USA-ers did, too. And I envy the rest of you your sleep.
I hesitate to do this…it seems like a lousy time to bring this up. But we’ve launched a GoFundMe to raise money for travel expenses for my son’s impending kidney transplant (impending=hopefully anytime in the next 3 years).
Now, on with the miscellany.
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
The Top 10 Bestselling Books of 2025 (So Far)—from Publishers Weekly
The Emoji Tongue: If 😂 was a word, would that make emoji a language?
Sprayed Edges Are Everywhere and I Hate Them—Not sure I can co-sign this (he says looking at the edge of his copy of Five Broken Blades), but I get it
12 Must-Read WebToon Series
Urban Fantasy Starter Pack: 24 Must-Read Books That Bite Back—Because I need more UF to read? (actually, yeah, I do). Beth Tabler’s list combines stuff well-loved (or at least liked) here, and bunch of things I’d never heard of.
Yes that was six months of your reading year! Holiday Temptations Time!—Runalong the Shelves provides great TBR fodder for those looking to fill theirs out
Celebrating National Crime Reading Month – 30 days of crime recommendations!—a couple of weeks back, I’d pointed to Raven’s twitter thread listing their Crime Fiction Month reading recs. Well, here it is, nicely collected into one easy-to-reference list!
But Is It Marketable? Why I Gave Up on Traditional Publishing—one writer’s story
How do You Read so Many Books?—handier tips than mine. “Start with the first word, move on to the second, then the third, and so on.”
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Splintered by Jamie Schultz
Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond
Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich
And I mentioned the release of three books that I didn’t read, much less remember, but they looked pretty cool: The Dragons of Heaven by Alyc Helms, Ghost Fleet by P.W. Singer and August Cole, and Linesman by S. K. Dunstall
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Dogged Pursuit by David Rosenfelt—this prequel looks at Andy’s first big case as a defense lawyer is just great. I should be expanding on that soon.
The Grimdwarf, Vol. 1: Cursed by J.C.M. Berne—A “classic fantasy with a wisecracking cursed dwarf, a water witch, and a very good dog.” The short stories collected into one volume. And free for a week or two. Worth it at thrice the price!!!
Infinite Archive by Mur Lafferty—The physical embodiment of the Internet arrives on Station Eternity, bringing chaos and murder. I can’t wait to catch up with Mallory and the rest.
Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji by Keith Houston—there’s an excerpt above. This book “follows emoji from its birth in 1990s Japan, traces its Western explosion in the 2000s, and considers emoji’s ever-expanding lexicon.” I enjoyed Huston’s book on punctuation marks, this promises to be interesting, too,.
This year is speeding by, the way they do more and more…let’s take a quick look at the challenges and goals I set for the year
I’d hoped to keep charging ahead with Grandpappy’s Corner and Literary Locals, and while those haven’t completely died off, I haven’t done that much with them. I think the next couple of months should bear fruit along those lines, though. We’ll see. HC Chats are plugging around.
How’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own” goal going? I think I’m seeing what we’d report as “slippage” in some status reports at work. The next two months will really help with this if, and that’s a big if, I can keep my wallet in my pocket.
| Audio | E-book | Physical | Goodreads Want-to-Read |
NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| End of 2024 | 3 | 68 | 78 | 167 | 10 |
| End of 1st Quarter | 5 | 72 | 77 | 172 | 11 |
| End of 2nd Quarter | 5 | 76 | 92 | 175 | 9 |
| End of 3rd Quarter | – | – | – | – | – |
| End of 2025 | – | – | – | – | – |
2025 Book Challenges
Goodreads Challenge
No worries on that front.
Read Every Day in February for the American Cancer Society
Nailed it. Even better, we raised a couple of hundred dollars.
Reading with Wrigs
I could be doing better, but I’m still feeling bullish.
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- Religious theme: The Pilgrim’s Regress by C.S. Lewis
- Set in a confined space: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
- A book with a map: The Price of Power by Michael Michel (technically not completed during the first quarter, but…)
- About happiness or gratitude: Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (one of the cover blurbs called it a novel about gratitude, I can mostly see it, but I’m not sure yet. Consider this a placeholder in case something else doesn’t come along)
The 2025 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge
January–First steps: You have my permission to read the last book you added to the TBR pile: Sword & Thistle by S.L. Rowland
February: Short and Sweet: Read 28 short stories – they can be in magazine, anthology or collection form. You don’t even have to finish the books! Just 28 tales to read: Promise by Christi Nogle and Passageways edited by Rebecca Carey Lyles
March – Ready Steady Go!: Start a series, or the next book in a series that has been lingering on those shelves: Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames
April – Easter Eggs: Read a book about stories within stories: Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
May – The Random Factor: Pick the fifth book you spot in your pile/shelf/ebook library: Body Breaker by M.R. Craven
June – Use the daylight/long reading night: Read the longest book in the TBR pile: The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman (not technically finished in June, but close enough)
Further Up and Further In
I’m one book behind here, and I think the next two months may mess with it even more. But I’m not worried about the pacing. I am a little worried that I have to deal with A Grief Observed soon. That one just wrecks me…
25 in ’25
Ouch. This is really not good.
Auditing Challenges
I’m not sure that I want to commit to these, but I saw them on Bookforager’s page, and wanted to give them a shot–they look fun. So I’m going to track them, and if I happen to do well with them, great. If not…oh, well.
(yeah, that’s true with all of these, but I’m sort of calling my shot with the above)
Alphabet Reading Challenge
Not bad…
(yes, the fonts don’t all match. I couldn’t remember what I used last quarter–and undoubtedly, next quarter I’ll forget again. Let’s pretend it was intentional to make it clear what quarter I read what in. Yyyyyyeeeahhhh, that’s the ticket.)
Picture Prompt Book Bingo Challenge for 2025
| 1. A prehistoric flint knapped stone knife | 2. A lighthouse | 3. An apple on a leafy branch | 4. An archery target with three arrows in it |
| 5. A very large mechanical telescope Pushing Ice |
6. A human skull Silence of the Dead |
7. A stag | 8. The ruins of a temple-like structure |
| 9. A crab | 10. A sheaf of wheat | 11. An old mechanical typewriter Blood Over Bright Haven |
12. A cluster of four mushrooms |
| 13. A fringed umbrella/parasol | 14. A chemistry set-up of bottles and tubes A Drop of Corruption |
15. A stylized sun with a human face That Hideous Strength |
16. A Roman helmet The Bright Sword |
Not bad…and yes, again, I’m counting The Bright Sword even though I finished it in July.
I’m in decent shape, overall…
There we go…fairly timely and everything.
In June, I read 22 titles (1 down from last month, 2 down from last June), with an equivalent of 6,416 pages or the equivalent (302 down from last month), and gave them an average of 4.2 stars (.5 up from last month).
One note that means something only to me. I can’t quite see how this month’s selection for the Science Fiction Book Club counts as SF, so that’s why there’s a goose egg in the chart below (I put Station Eleven under “General Fiction.” Feel free to convince me I’m wrong in the comments).
So, here’s what happened here in June.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to
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Still Reading
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Ratings
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6 |  |
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| Average = | 4.18 |
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TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps
| Audio | E-book | Physical | Goodreads Want-to-Read |
NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| End of 2024 |
3 | 68 | 78 | 167 | 10 |
| 1st of the Month |
3 | 76 | 87 | 171 | 12 |
| Added | 2 | 1 | 11 | 4 | 2 |
| Read/ Listened |
0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 5 |
| Current Total | 5 | 76 | 92 | 175 | 9 |
Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 18
Self-/Independent Published: 4
| Genre | This Month | Year to Date |
|---|---|---|
| Children’s | 0 (0%) | 6 (4%) |
| Fantasy | 4 (18%) | 18 (16%) |
| General Fiction/ Literature | 5 (23%) | 18 (16%) |
| Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller | 6 (27%) | 26 (29%) |
| Non-Fiction | 2 (9%) | 23 (21%) |
| Science Fiction | 0 (0%) | 12 (13%) |
| Theology/ Christian Living | 2 (9%) | 12 (13%) |
| Urban Fantasy | 2 (9%) | 11 (10%) |
| “Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western) | 1 (0%) | 1 (1%) |
Review-ish Things Posted
- Dark Neon & Dirt by Thomas Trang: Pressure’s High Just to Stay Alive ‘Cause the Heat is On
- The Core of the Christian Faith by Michael W. Goheen: How (and why) to Be Salt and Light Today
- Return to Sender by Craig Johnson: The Misadventures of the World’s Worst Undercover Sheriff
- Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C. S. Lewis: A Portrait of a Reader/Thinker as a Young Man
- A Graveyard for Heroes by Michael Michel: The Canvas is Bigger, but the Intensity Remains.
- The Great Gatsby: Alphabetised Centennial Edition by F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Chris McVeigh: A Classic Reorganized
- The Amazing Twin Chicken Freedom Fighters by Zephaniah Sole: The Revolution Will Not Be Pasteurized
- I See You’ve Called in Dead (Audiobook) by John Kenny, Sean Patrick Hopkins: Friendship and Funerals
- The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis: Do you listen to the angels on the outskirts?
Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th), I also wrote:
- MUSIC MONDAY: “Ok, But This Is The Last Time” by The Offspring
- Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 standalone books I wished were series
- MUSIC MONDAY: “Be OK” by Ingrid Michaelson
- Book Blogger Hop: Engaging Readers Without Spoiling the Story
- LITERARY LOCALS: A Q&A About Writing in Idaho with Samuel Smith, AKA Joe IDAHO
- Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 series I wished were shorter
- MUSIC MONDAY: “Jesus Loves You, Brian Wilson” by Lost Dogs
- Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List (That Aren’t on My 20 Books Challenge)
- LITERARY LOCALS: Oldspeak Bar
- MUSIC MONDAY: “Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself” by Danny Michel
- LITERARY LOCALS: Author Story Time with Chad Otis
- Opening Lines: The Troubled Deep by Rob Parker
- 20 Books of Summer 2025: June Check-In
- MUSIC MONDAY: “Rattlesnake” by Anchor & Braille
- WWW Wednesday for June 4, June 11, June 18, and June 25, 2025.
Enough about me—how Was Your Month?
It’s July already. Can someone help me put the brakes on 2025? I saw this on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, so it must be true.
That’s the kind of thing that makes you want to run into the comforting distraction of a book, isn’t it?
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:
What are you currently reading?
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| The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman |
No One Leaves the Castle by Christopher Healy, read by Jessica Almasy |
I’ve been kicking myself for waiting so long on this new Arthurian tale, and I still am. But I’m cutting myself some slack because I actually am reading it. I just might finish it today, too. It’s so good folks, if you’ve slept on it like I have–quit it.
No One Leaves the Castle is just silly fun, and Almasy is a perfect narrator for this one. I needed something like this book this week.
What did you recently finish reading?
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| The Blue Horse by Bruce Borgos |
How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by (and read by) Ryan North |
Hopefully, you’ll see a full post on the Borgos book here tomorrow. But basically, it’ll make fans of Books One and/or Two very satisfied. And will likely convert anyone new to the series.
North’s book is the perfect combination of snark, information, and odd-as-all-get-out trivia. I don’t know how to explain it.
What do you think you’ll read next?
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| Dogged Pursuit by David Rosenfelt |
Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith |
An Andy Carpenter prequel, eh? Never thought I needed to know anything about the time before Open and Shut (yeah, no dog related puns–how odd!), but now that it’s here–I’m pretty curious.
Just in time for Rivers of London #10’s release next week, I’m tackling #9 on my revisit.
You doing anything to celebrate Friday night (in the U.S., anyway), or will you be cuddled up with a book and some headphones to block out the noise?
Promise
DETAILS:
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Publication Date: September 12, 2023
Format: Paperback
Length: 208 pg.
Read Date: February 1-10, 2025
What’s Promise?
This is a collection of 21 short stories. The cover calls them “weird Science Fiction” stories—this is true. When Nogle described herself in a Q&A here last year, she described herself as “focusing on horror and horror-adjacent work.” I’d say most of these qualified as Horror-adjacent; there’s just something unnerving about just about every one of these. Now, I grant you that my tolerance/acceptance of Horror is pretty low, so while I might call these Horror-adjacent, real Horror fans might roll their eyes. That’s fine, I get it. But some of these are really unnerving/creepifying.
When trying to come up with a good way to describe this collection, I saw the back of the cover blurb and decided that I couldn’t do better.
A young woman confronts her digital doppelganger at a creepy academy. A mother and daughter struggle underground, finishing robots the rich will use. A loving couple find that their mirrors are very different than mirrors used to be. You can order a headset to speak with your dog, and your devices sometimes connect not just to the web but to the afterlife.
Be prepared for strangeness here. We have several types of aliens, cults devoted to contacting alternate dimensions, virtual-reality writing retreats, time-travel games and timetravel tragedies, augmented consciousness, cosmic artforms and living paintings, haunted Zoom meetings, giant worms, and guesthouses for the dead. These stories reflect the weird and unknowable future. They are often bizarre and dreadful, but they also veer towards themes of hope, potential…and promise.
I Have So Many Questions…
A little over halfway through my notes, I wrote, “I have so many questions about her process.” I can’t tell you exactly what prompted that, but I’m pretty sure the question had been building. And I’d still like to ask a few now that I’ve been prompted.
Sure, there’s the old chestnut of “where do you get your ideas?” I know authors hate that question (and I get it), but…just how does someone come up with these? And beyond the generic planner v. pantser, I really wonder how much of these strange worlds she has worked out before she starts to tell a story in them, and how much she figures out along the way.
But also—what does the first draft look like compared to the final? Does she write everything and then pare it down to just the essentials? How does she choose the starting point for these? I know my reflex would be to start most of these stories about 8 paragraphs of story earlier than she does (and generally to give another few paragraphs at the end). How does she choose the twist/reveal/whatever it is that clues the reader into everything that’s going on?
I guess I’m just looking for a DVD commentary on each of these. Something about Nogle’s construction makes me more curious about her approach than I usually am.
So, what did I think about Promise?
So, two of these stories did nothing for me (2 out of 21 is a great number). Several I’d just qualify as “good,” but a handful wowed me. There are a couple I’m still thinking about all these months later (not steadily, mind you, but every now and then the mind will wander a bit—or I’ll see this cover, and…pow, I’m back in it).
I love Nogle’s prose and approach to storytelling. There’s some variation because no two stories have the same voice—but generally, I can say she gives you just enough to know what’s going on, but you have to use your imagination and think about it to really understand the story. There’s no spoon-feeding here, but nothing so cryptic or ambivalent as to be obscure or oblique.
Was I satisfied with the conclusion of every story? No—but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to be. Particularly the couple that really don’t conclude, but just end.
Creepy, mind-bendy, the kind of short story you can vanish into and leave the world behind. These stories will leave you feeling the way that the Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone episodes do. I rather enjoyed almost all of these and think you will, too. (and many of you will really get into the ones that left me cold, and won’t be wigged out by those that got me…we can compare lists later)
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
The topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesdays is a Freebie/Throwback, I started (and did most of the work) on this one back in April, but didn’t quite get around to finishing it, so here’s my chance to talk about the Top Ten Books by Authors Who Live In Idaho.
When I saw the prompt, “Authors (or books by authors) Who Live In My State/Country,” I figured this would be a piece of cake–I have a feature focused on authors from my state. Just pick the best 10 books from that list, and there you go. Of course, it wasn’t that easy. For one, I hadn’t updated my Literary Locals hub for a year (apparently)–so that wasn’t good. I’ve taken care of that now. But the list of books was a bit more daunting than I assumed that it’d be. This may not be a perfect list, but it’s one that I can live with. I thought about authors–but since I’ve met all of the authors in Idaho that I’ve talked about, it feels weird, like I’d be ranking them by personality. (Sure, I’ve done that, but I’m not telling anyone the ranking. How gauche!)
(alphabetically by author)
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 Bearded by Jeremy Billups I’ve talked about Bearded several times over the years, and I’ve commissioned a few images from Billups, too. So forgive me if this is too familiar. This is the story of a little girl traveling the world with her bearded bear, having all sorts of adventures and meeting a bunch of different animals who happen to have beards. The art is simple and arresting. As a bonus, the endorsements on the back cover are a lot of fun. Great art, cute story, fun rhymes–everything you want in a picture book. Even better–animals with beards are the best animals that aren’t dogs. This is a charming little book that’s sure to please. In case you’re curious about what I said about the book, click here. |
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 Conjured Defense by J.C. Jackson There are seven books in this series, and I had a hard time picking just one. But I think I have to go with this one by a nose. Everything gelled a little better in this one, the magic and the technology combined in just the right way to show just how far this world can take that combination, and the fight scenes were top-notch. Basically, the series follows an arcane researcher and her paladin partner as they look into crimes on behalf of a magical equivalent of the FBI in a world where Middle Earth went through the Industrial and Digital Revolutions. Action, magic, magical creatures, gun fights, and more. It’s so fun. In case you’re curious about what I said about the book, click here. |
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 Aether Powered by James T. Lambert This is not the best novel that Lambert has given us, but there’s something about the charm of it that endears it more to me than the others. A 21st Century college student coming into possession of Steampunk tech and letting loose with it is pure fun. Throw in an oddball bunch of wanna-be pirates, and you’ve got something to remember. In case you’re curious about what I said about the book, click here. |
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 Harvested by Troy Lambert A solid P.I. story involving a dog-napping ring? You know that’s going to get my attention. Troy Lambert has the chops, too and you see that on every page. Great characters–both primary and supporting. The PI’s backstory is sets up a wonderful arc that I’m sure will pay-off well. A good, twisty start to a series. In case you’re curious about what I said about the book, click here. |
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 Burnt by Lance Olsen This is goes back to 1996, far before I started doing this sort of thing. It’s a fantastic mix of academic satire, environmental fiction, and just general postmodern shenanigans. It’s funny, it’s strange, it’s touching, and more. |
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 However Long the Day by Justin Reed A The Prince and the Pauper-esque story set in New York in 1918, that’s so much more. You’ve got a nice little touch of crime thriller, a cute romance, some decent social commentary. But most importantly, it’s just a well-written and engaging read. While trying to think of what to put here to beef up this paragraph, I’ve really just convinced myself that I need to re-read it soon. In case you’re curious about what I said about the book, click here. |
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 Bard Tidings by Paul Regnier It bothers me greatly that I haven’t written a post about this book. It’s a stand-alone fantasy that just made me happy. The characters are wonderful. The story has just the right number of twists and the pacing is spot-on. I love Regnier’s take on werewolves, which is not to downplay his giants or the dragon. And the companion that our titular bard brings along for the adventure is a great twist. |
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 Cover of Fuzzwiggs: The Switcheroo by Amy Maren Rice This MG novel–definitely written for a young male audience (but not solely), features a silly kind of magic creature that activate their powers through flatulence (see what I meant about young males?). But there’s more than that, it’s a sweet family adventure, that’ll leave you demanding another book (we’re waiting, Amy). I can–and have–recommended this to readers young and old. In case you’re curious about what I said about the book, click here. |
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 Big Trouble in Little Italy by Nicole Sharp This is a book I will not recommend to the young (and I don’t think Sharp would mind that). This is a silly rom-com/mafia novel. It kicks off when she has to track down the “joke marriage” that came from a college weekend in Vegas, so she can get married. He reveals that he’s with the FBI and her fiancé is very involved with the mafia. Hilarity (frequently) and tension ensues. It’s fun, it’s foxy, it’s totally not my thing, but I had a blast with it. In case you’re curious about what I said about the book, click here. |
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 The Wizard’s Heir by Devri Walls This is Walls’ only non-YA book, and I really wish that wasn’t the case (not a complaint about her YA). This is a solid stand-alone fantasy that turned me into a fan. It’s been nine years since I read this, so my recollection on the details is pretty shot. I do remember being very engaged and entertained. There’s excitement, a dash of romance, some magic and a few good fight scenes–pretty much what you want from a fantasy In case you’re curious about what I said about the book, click here. |
The Medusa Protocol
by Rob Hart
DETAILS: Series: Assassins Anonymous, #2 Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Publication Date: June 24, 2025 Format: eARC Length: 320 Read Date: June 19-20, 2025
What’s The Medusa Protocol About?
I’d written about half of this section, and wasn’t quite satisfied with it, and took a quick glance at the Publisher’s Description and realized that 1. I was echoing it in an unnerving way, and 2. It was better than i could deliver. So, I’ll borrow it and save myself from plagiarism accusations:
When Astrid, known in her assassin days as Azrael, stopped showing up to Assassins Anonymous, the group assumed her past had caught up with her. Only her sponsor Mark, formerly the deadliest killer in the world, holds out hope that she’s okay. Then, during a meeting, the group gets a sign, or rather, a pizza delivery. Is there another psychopath out there who actually likes olives on their pizza, or is Astrid trying to send Mark a message?
Meanwhile, Astrid wakes up in the cell of a black site prison, on a remote island. A doctor subjects her to mysterious experiments, plumbing the depths of her memory and looking for a vital clue from her past. She’ll do anything to escape, except…killing anyone. Hmm. Turns out it’s not easy to blow this joint without blowing anything, or anyone up.
Looking for Astrid
The group at the meeting splits into two groups—some head for safety, just in case someone’s coming for someone in addition to Astrid. Mark and Booker take the sign of the disgusting pizza as a signal to go looking for Astrid.
This is where you get your thirst for adventure slaked. They take a globe-trekking route while hunting for clues, pick up an ally or two along the way, go up against some pretty lethal guys—and really lethal snakes.
They do this with aplomb, nerve, and some really bad jokes.
Astrid’s Story
Meanwhile, Astrid faces two challenges—figuring out where she is, why she’s there, and how to make the best of the situation until she can find a weakness to exploit and get out of there. None of that will be easy.
But also, whatever this doctor is doing to her causes her to relive some of the bigger moments in her life—things she’s never really put behind her, but she has to look at them anew, and maybe a bit more intensely than she usually does.
The stakes are high (higher than she realizes), and without support, she has to rely on what she’s picked up from the meetings and her own grit to make it through each day.
Sobriety
While Assassins Anonymous showed the meetings, Mark hitting rock bottom, and choices to pursue this group’s particular expression of sobriety, The Medusa Protocol focuses on taking responsibility for your actions, making amends, and maintaining one’s sobriety. While none of the 12 Steps seem particularly easy, these things seem like harder work to me—and it’s good to see that reflected honestly.
(There’s some other things along these lines, but we can talk about that after you’ve read this book.)
The decision to stay sober—especially in the circumstances these characters find themselves, fighting for their lives against people who don’t have any problem taking a life, when a lifetime of reflexes tells them to do something else—takes a monumental effort. It takes monumental effort for more “traditional” 12-Step program attendees, too. But this makes for more exciting reading—it should, however, remind the reader what their friends/acquaintances go through on a daily basis.
I really admire Hart for this focus in these books, and hope these keep coming if only for it.
So, what did I think about The Medusa Protocol?
There’s part of me that wants to copy and paste most of what I said about Assassins Anonymous last year here. There’s also part of me that wishes I’d re-read or listened to it before this—not because I need the refresher, I just had fun with it. Yet…I think this is a better novel. It’s not quite as fun—Astrid’s POV is too prevalent for that and her sense of humor isn’t what Mark’s is (this is a good thing)—but the story is more emotionally developed, Astrid’s trauma is deeper-seated, and that comes through in the flashbacks (obviously).
Also, the Big Bad of the first book is a pretty standard kind of bad guy for the genre. The person responsible for Astrid’s plight, on the other hand, is just evil. Like a gut-twisting, I don’t want to think there are people like this in the world, kind of evil—sadly, it’s probably the most realistic part of this book.
I’m afraid I might give the impression that this book is so heavy on the trauma, the emotions, the recovery struggles, and so on that it’s not a Thriller. Sorry if I did. This is a rollicking, rocking Thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat with the kind of action you expect in a Thriller about a group of former (and current) assassins. If you liked the action, the humor, the pacing, and all the thriller aspects of the last book, don’t fear—it’s still there. It’s just the percentages of the book devoted to each are a little different. Mark is still a prominent character, and you can’t get away from his sarcasm, his humor, and his efficiency in a fight scene. That goes for the other people in the program, too. And when Astrid gets to do her thing, either in the present or in flashback—I’m telling you, it’s good stuff.
I had a blast with this, enjoying the opportunity to reconnect with characters like Mark, Astrid, Valencia, Booker, and so on. The one new face (at least) that will recur? Oh, I’m looking forward to getting to know them a lot more. The new characters we meet that we definitely won’t be seeing again? They’re as good as you want them to be.
Oh, and the titular Medusa Protocol itself? That was really cool.
There’s no reason not to pick this up if you’re in the mood for a thriller that embraces and yet puts a twist on the conventions. Would it help to have read Assassins Anonymous first? Yeah, but you’ll get in the groove pretty quickly if you haven’t.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Putnam Books via NetGalley—thanks to both for this. Sorry that it’s up late.
This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.