The protagonist of “Bonfire” is Abby Williams, an environmental lawyer in Chicago who returns to her modest hometown of fictional Barrens, Ind., to investigate a case against Optimal Plastics, a conglomerate intertwined in seemingly every aspect of the community. –New York Times It has been ten years since Abby Williams […]
Read MoreMystery
Code Blue, Marissa Slaven
Dystopian fiction comes and goes, and too many assume the trappings of formula productions; but the test of any superior story line lies in its ability to draw readers with powerful characterization and associations that lend to a reader’s emotional connections with events as they unfold. Code Blue holds a […]
Read MoreThe Erenwine Agenda, Maia Kumari Bree Chowdhury
Amalia Erenwine—an environmental activist working in New York City as an architectural intern—takes on the natural gas industry in this visionary eco-fiction book by Maia Kumari Gilman. Amalia rails against the underwriting of her employer’s work by a natural gas company involved with fracking. She clashes with the gas company’s […]
Read MoreThe Coyote Hunter of Aquidneck Island, James Conroy
James Conroy, a popular novelist, moved to Newport in the summer of 2010. The coyote issue was getting notice, sporadically, in the local press. This month, with the publication of “The Coyote Hunter of Aquidneck Island,” Conroy’s fictionalized account of Middletown’s solution to the dilemma may get some press attention […]
Read MoreOink. A Food for Thought Mystery, JL Newton
Thanks to the author, who told me that her new novel “engages with many environmental themes and tries to enlarge the meaning of ‘deep ecology.’” More from JL Newton My novel, Oink. A Food for Thought Mystery, is a sly send up of universities in general for their ever increasing […]
Read MoreThe Ice, Laline Paull
Her [Paull’s] second novel, The Ice, focuses on human intrigue in the warming Arctic: in its opening pages, a glacier calves to reveal a body, several years dead, and the novel plays out as an inquest into this death. By embedding a mystery in layers of melting Arctic ice, Paull […]
Read MoreThe Shark Club, Ann Kidd Taylor
A novel about love, loss, and sharks by the New York Times bestselling coauthor of the memoir Traveling with Pomegranates….Set against the intoxicating backdrop of palm trees, blood orange sunsets, calypso bands, and key lime pies, The Shark Club is a love story, an environmental mystery, and an exploration of […]
Read MoreFever Dream, Samanta Schweblin
Translated into English, January 2017–(originally Distancia de rescate), Fever Dream is shortlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. With virtuoso skill, well served in Megan McDowell’s finely textured translation, Ms Schweblin fuses a study in maternal anxiety with an ecological horror story. –The Economist Fever Dream is a nightmare […]
Read MoreAlaska Highway Two-Step, Caroline Woodward
I’m speaking with the author and part-time lighthouse keeper just after the re-publication of her book Alaska Highway Two-Step. First published in 1993, the unusual mystery novel is set in part along the legendary route and the release of its new edition coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Highway’s […]
Read MoreAll the Birds, Singing–Evie Wyld
From one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, a stunningly insightful, emotionally powerful new novel about an outsider haunted by an inescapable past: a story of loneliness and survival, guilt and loss, and the power of forgiveness. Goodreads Reviews Back to Goodreads
Read MoreBirder Murder Mystery Series, Steve Burrows
Steve Burrows has travelled the world on birdwatching adventures. He’s turned his passion into an award-winning crime series. His latest, A Shimmer of Hummingbirds, takes police inspector Domenic Jejeune on a birding trip to the rainforest, where he hopes to uncover clues about his fugitive brother’s manslaughter case. –CBC Books […]
Read MoreThe Risen, Ron Rash
During our conversation on the eve of Rash’s trip to France for an Eco-Literature convention, where the theme was “Enchantment,” he tells me that “One thing that’s important for me in my work is to remind people that there is a natural world. It’s very easy to think we are […]
Read MoreWho Pooped in Central Park, Gary D. Robson
Join four intrepid kids as they discover the surprising variety of wildlife that lives in New York City’s premier park. The animals themselves are sometimes hard to find, but their poop is everywhere! Follow Tony, Lily, Emma, and Jackson as they explore Central Park, investigating poop (scat) and footprints (tracks) […]
Read MoreMarrow Island, Alexis M. Smith
Twenty years ago Lucie Bowen left Marrow Island; along with her mother, she fled the aftermath of an earthquake that compromised the local refinery, killing her father and ravaging the island’s environment. Now, Lucie’s childhood friend Kate is living within a mysterious group called Marrow Colony—a community that claims to […]
Read MoreA Cast of Falcons, Steve Burrows
In the case of bird-loving Dominic Jejeune – formerly of Canada, now of Norfolk, Britain – it’s to more birding. There’s murder in this book, but it’s really about the illicit trade in birds of prey. Burrows introduces Jejeune’s brother, who is on the run from a felony charge; Jejeune’s […]
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