I decided to end April with a raid on my TBR pile in search of some Speculative Fiction. I found three very different takes on the genre: one about the clone of a murdered woman investigating her own murder, one with a different take on time travel and a debut novel set in a dystopian future Arizona that seems to reprise ‘The Tempest’.
I’m hoping for originality, mystery, engaging characters and stimulating ideas to end the month with.
‘My Murder‘ (2023) by Katie Williams
The reviews for ‘My Murder‘ are very mixed. Most reviewers loved the idea and the writing. Some were unhappy with the ending. I’m happy to take a chance on the book. I’m as interested in the journey as the destination.
I’m hoping for more than a mystery. I’d like some thoughts on what being a clone does to your sense of identity, both in your own eyes and in the eyes of the people who knew the original you.
Katie Williams is the author of the novels My Murder (2023) and Tell the Machine Goodnight (2018) and the young adult novels Absent and The Space Between Trees.
Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Best American Fantasy, American Short Fiction, Prairie Schooner, Subtropics, and elsewhere.
Katie is an assistant professor in fiction writing at Emerson College in Boston.
photo credit: Athena Delene
‘Calico‘ (2023) by Lee Goldberg
I’ve yet to read a Lee Goldberg book I didn’t enjoy, so it was a no-brainer to pick up ‘Calico‘ when it came out. Still, I was surprised, when I read the synopsis, to find that Lee Goldberg had written a time travel book that was part Western and part Police Procedural. Then I saw his interview with CrimeReads and I knew I was in for something fun. Here’s part of what he said:
“I decided to do it by writing a gritty western set in 1883 in the Mojave desert mining town of Calico, which is now a cheesy roadside attraction off the I-15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It’s actually a notion I’ve had in the back of my mind for years…maybe even decades.
But there have been a thousand westerns. What could I bring to the genre that nobody else had? How could I make it my own?
The answer was obvious: I’d use the novel to reconcile my creative, split personality. And I’d do that by combining a seemingly traditional western with a present-day crime novel… a seemingly straight-forward police procedural set in the Mojave in 2019.
Notice the repetition of the word seemingly in the previous paragraph.
That’s because, to truly make it mine, I’d have to acknowledge the tropes of both genres…and then ruthlessly subvert them. That’s my brand, or so I am told, exemplified by my “Ian Ludlow” trilogy of spy novels (True Fiction, Killer Thriller, and Fake Truth).”
I’m looking forward to this one. I think it’s going to be a fun ride.
Lee Goldberg is an American author, screenwriter, publisher and producer.
He has published over forty books . He his best known for his two most recent series, the four Iain Ludlow thrillers that started with True Fiction, and the five Eve Ronin police procedurals that started with Lost Hills.
He co-wrote the Kate O’Hare & Nicolas Fox novels with Janet Evanovitch.
His TV crime series, include Monk, Diagnosis Murder, Spenser, Martial Law and The Glades
‘Deadlands’ (2023) by Victoria Miluch
I picked up this debut novel because: it was climate fiction, I liked the cover, the premise sounded as though the main character could have been Miranda from ‘The Tempest’ and it was free on Amazon.
The reviews I’ve read split fairly evenly between love it and hate it. The sample I read left me wanting to read the rest so here I am.
I’m hoping for something that makes the after-effects of climate change personal and compelling and shows me the world re-made through the eyes of someone who never saw the old world.
Victoria Miluch is a fiction writer and translator. She is the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship to Poland and has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mexico. Born in San Francisco and raised in Arizona, she currently lives outside of Washington, DC, with her family. Deadlands is her first novel
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