Felicity Carrol and the Perilous Pursuit

(Crooked Lane Books)

Felicity Carrol is interested in everything—except being a proper young matron of Victorian society. Brilliant and resourceful, Felicity took refuge in science and education after her mother died and her father abandoned her to servants. Now, all he wants is for her to marry into a family of status and money.

Felicity has other ambitions—but her plans shudder to a halt when her mentor is murdered at the British Museum and his priceless manuscript of King Arthur lore is stolen. Tapping into her photographic memory and the latest in the burgeoning field of forensic detection, Felicity launches an investigation. Handsome Scotland Yard Inspector Jackson Davies is also on the case, and finds Felicity as meddlesome as she is intelligent. But when more nobles are murdered and their King Arthur relics stolen, Felicity must journey on her own into the dark underworld of antiquity theft, where she uncovers a motive far more nefarious than simple profit.

As the killer sets his sights on a new victim—a charismatic duke who has captured Felicity’s imagination—the stakes rise to impossible heights. It’s a case that could shake the kingdom.

Praise for Felicity Carrol and the Perilous Pursuit:
“Readers who hunger for more portraits of independent women determined to make their ways in a stultifying society will take the heroine to heart.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“This new series is off to a good start with a strong, intelligent main character who struggles to overcome the cultural structures of her time. For fans of cozy Victorian mysteries and admirers of Robin Paige, Elizabeth Peters, and Deanna Raybourn.”
—Library Journal

“Marcantonio brings her characters to life through vivid storytelling [and] really does an excellent job of keeping her protagonist one step ahead of the reader.”
—New York Journal of Books

“[Felicity] is a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones…Recommended to those looking for a female superhero out to right wrongs and defy convention to do so.”
—Historical Novels Review

“A must read. It has it all, an intelligent heroine, a compelling plot and plenty of Victorian atmosphere to keep you entertained to the very last page.”
—Emily Brightwell, New York Times bestselling author of the Mrs. Jefferies mysteries

“A smart and likeable heroine, and a story that flies along at a cracking pace.”
—Stephen Gallagher, author of The Kingdom of Bones

VERDICT IN THE DESERT (Arte Público Press)

In the summer of 1959, everyone knows his place in Arizona. Michael Shaw is an alcoholic lawyer struggling with his reputation as the son of one of Mitchell County’s wealthiest, most successful attorneys. Toni Garcia, the first in her family to obtain a college degree, has returned to Borden, Arizona, because she’s worried about her father’s health. But as a Mexican American, she can’t get a teaching job in spite of her education and intellect. Their worlds collide when Michael is assigned to represent Maria Sanchez Curry in the bloody murder of her husband and Toni, desperate for work, accepts a job as the defendant s interpreter.

“A detail-rich novel about an Arizona murder trial, prejudice, and American culture in the late 1950s.” Kirkus Reviews

THE WEEPING WOMAN

An old tale. A new terror When children begin disappearing, San Antonio Detective Blue Rodriguez is assigned to investigate because the kidnappings took place in her old neighborhood. Beautiful and obsessed, Blue has an ability she hates, that is to see the last moments of the dying. After hitting dead ends, she finds the kidnappings echo an old Mexican ghost story, which leads her to a suspect who is evil and with powers of her own. Blue must confront her own troubled past and come to term with her visions of the dying to find the stolen children.

While horror of a specific sort, The Weeping Woman is also an entirely human–and humane–novel about rescue and redemption. Nearly everyone in the story is injured in some key way, either physically or psychically. The kidnapper has been traumatized in the past, although that fact does not alleviate the horror of the kidnappings. Blue, her mother, her sister, and her aunt–all have suffered and are deeply scarred, although they deal with their problems in far different ways. Even the clean-cut, Kennedy-looking Ryan conceals a secret, one that tinges his growing relationship with Blue.
But Blue is the true center of the story. Her path is dangerous and dark, regardless of which story we follow, but it is her only possibility of redemption.
 Recommended.
Michael R. Collings/ Collings Notes

Sueño Street

Art by Mike Youngman

On the walls of Sueño Street, a young Latino artist paints murals that come to life with tales of horror, suspense and nightmare.The stories include fresh telling of traditional Latino scares like La Llorona, the weeping woman, a doomed specter seeking her lost children in the night, and the Cucuy, the boogeyman who preys on children and fear. Other stories range in time and space. The real price of dead man’s shoes. New and ancient betrayals in a canyon of ancient petroglyphs. Space explorers discovering evil on an alien planet and in themselves. A wife beater who gets what he deserves. A woman willing to challenge a horrible evil for love. Differing in artistic style, the stories are weaved together by the consequences of actions, some deserved, others not. A graphic novel in homage to “Tales From The Crypt” and “Night Gallery” but with Latino flavor, culture and characters. Parental Discretion Is Advised

RED RIDIN’ IN THE HOOD AND OTHER CUENTOS (Farrar Straus & Giroux)

Eleven classic tales are retold with an injection of Latino culture, providing a twist on the traditional forms while sustaining a freshness all their own. The title story, “Red Ridin’ in the Hood,” moves the setting to the barrio, where Red decides to brave dangerous Forest Street in order to reach her abuelita and encounters the menacing wolf in a thumping Chevy lowrider. Some stories are set in the Mexican countryside; in “Belleza y La Bestia,” the beautiful heroine is a defender of the Revolution and teaches the beast about the righteousness of the freedom fighters. “El Día de los Muertos,” a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, takes place in the time of the Aztecs and casts Orpheus as the feather-maker Nochehuatl.

These and the other cuentos in this book are further brought to life by abundant illustrations, by turns comical and poignant.

Anne Izard Storyteller’s Choice Award

Commended Title — Americas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Starred review — American Library Association

Best Collections to Share — 2005 Wilde Awards

Included “Book Sense Picks Children’s Books 240 Favorites for All Ages Recommended by Independent Booksellers”

Recommendations from: Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books,Horn Book, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates)

https://ihc.ucsb.edu/?s=Dr.+Marina+FLorez

THE GHOST SISTERS AND THE GIRL IN HALLWAY B
Kat and Marie Bench love anything to do with the supernatural. They soon find their new school is haunted by the ghost of a girl in Hallway B.

BILLIE NEVILLE TAKES A LEAP

With Bonnie Dodge
Billie Neville wants to be a daredevil, like her hero Evel Knievel, but learns there is much more than jumping a canyon.

An Idaho Author Award Winner

ON HOLY GROUND
Catholics have always enjoyed beautiful churches and St. Edward’s is no exception. It has been called the most beautiful church in Idaho. Award winning author Marcantonio celebrates its beauty, history, art and faith through the words of the parishioners, priests and visitors to the church. She details the stained glass windows, angels, bells, pillars, cornices. ceilings and all the other architectural details that went into creating the beauty of the structure which helps sustain the faith of the people who call St. Edward’s home.

Twin Falls came into being with the coming of irrigation water in 1904. Early Catholics met in various places around town. The Twin Falls Canal Company donated land at the corner of Second Avenue and Fifth Street and ground was broken on the church building in 1920. The St. Edward Catholic Church building was completed and consecrated in 1921. Marcantonio interweaves the history of St. Edward’s building and congregation with the history of the city from the beginning to the present.

VOICES FROM THE SNAKE RIVER PLAIN

An old Mexican ghost story, haunting landscapes and a road trip with Louis Amour and Zane Grey. These are some of the tales you will read in Voices from the Snake River Plain, a collection of short stories, poems and essays from award-winning writers, Bonnie Dodge and Patricia Santos Marcantonio. We tell stories about people who haven’t yet found their own voice, or of those who have lost their voices along their travels. Sometimes our stories rise out of the landscape and from dreams. Sometimes they reach into the past, or into the future, but mostly, our stories echo the human heart.

Many of the selections have been printed in other publications or have won writing awards. The foreword was written Diane Josephy Peavey, author of Bitterbrush Country: Living on the Edge of the Land, and an essayist on Boise Public Radio.

“This book is a small treasure… In Voices from the Snake River Plain we learn there is beauty in the landscape around us and people with stories to tell. And much to learn from both,” Peavey wrote.

Voices from the Snake River Plain