64 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JULY 29, 2019
Review_FICTION
satisfied. Agent: Kim Lionetti, Bookends
Literary Agency. (Sept.)The Spotted Dog:
A Corinna Chapman Mystery
Kerry Greenwood. Poisoned Pen, $26.99
(288p) ISBN 978-1-4642-1117-1
In Australian author Greenwood’s busy
seventh mystery featuring baker Corinna
Chapman (after 2012’s Cooking the Books),
several unusual incidents in Corinna’s
Melbourne neighborhood trouble her.
The cherished dog that saved the life of a
Scottish soldier in Afghanistan is stolen;
the computers of a Greek café are hacked
and pornography left behind; and the
homes of Corinna and her neighbor, pro-
fessor Dion Monk, are burgled. Signs seem
to indicate that people are searching for a
religious artifact, but Corinna is puzzled
as to why she has been singled out and
uneasy about hints of a criminal gang’s
involvement and the professor’s activities.
One traumatized character is unable to
speak, but the narrative presents a unique
way of conveying her voice that builds sus-
pense. Though the novel is light on actual
detection, the action reaches a tense climax.
Readers will enjoy warmhearted Corinna’s
stout defense of the vulnerable and welcome
the chance to spend time with the baker
and her eccentric circle of friends. (Sept.)Bloodline and Wine
Kelly Jones. Ninth Avenue, $16 trade paper
(346p) ISBN 978-0-9914468-2-7
Jones makes the most of her setting,
Tuscan wine country, in her captivating
sequel to 2015’s Lost and Found in Prague.
Investigative journalist Dana Pierson is on
vacation in Tuscany, hoping for a tranquil
week of good food and wine in the com-
pany of her friend Fr. Giovanni Borelli.
Then someone breaks into the Borelli
family estate wine cellar, where the culprit
drains barrels
and smashes
bottles. The
liquid spilled all
over the floor
proves fatal to
longtime servant
Paolo Paluzzi,
who slips,
strikes his head,
and then drowns
in the wine thathas collected in a clogged drain. Dana is
stunned at the cost of the vandalism—the
spilled wine was worth $8 million—
which her clerical friend believes was the
result of a vendetta against his family. As
the police look into the crime, another life
is almost lost: an apprentice working in
the Borelli vineyard is shot with an arrow
under circumstances that make an accident
unlikely. Jones keeps readers guessing as
to what lies behind the violence. Armchair
travelers will be rewarded. (BookLife)SF/Fantasy/Horror
★ Salvaged
Madeleine Roux. Ace, $16 trade paper (368p)
ISBN 978-0-451-49183-1
This taut thriller/mystery from Roux,
best known for YA horror (House of Furies,
etc.), pits a girl on the run from her past
against a parasitic monster named
Mother. In a spacefaring future, Rosalyn
Devar is a xenobiologist who takes a job as
a salvager—janitor of dead space crews—
to get away from her father, his business,
and the man who hurt her. When caught
drinking on the job, she’s given one more
chance: clean up the Brigantine, a research
ship whose crew is dead. But they aren’t.
Aboard the Brigantine, she meets Edison
Aries, the captain, and his undead crew.
They are infected with a mysterious fungus,
Foxfire, that has taken root in their minds,
convincing them that it is their mother and
that Rosalyn needs to join them. Stranded
aboard the Brigantine, Rosalyn and Edison
try to outwit the other crew members and
Mother, while looking for a way to stop
Foxfire from spreading and wondering
whether her father’s business is behind
Foxfire and other horrors. Scenes of violence
are gory but not gratuitous, and Roux will
leave readers wondering whether the real
source of evil is in human minds and hearts.
This entertaining, deeply disturbing, and
clever story hits all the right notes for those
who like a little horror with their SF. Agent:
Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary.
(Oct.)Of Wars, and Memories, and
Starlight
Aliette de Bodard. Subterranean, $40 (384p)
ISBN 978-1-59606-952-7
These 14 deeply culture-bound tales,set in the universes of de Bodard’s Xuya
and Dominion of the Fallen series, evoke
heartbreak from sacrifice, the price of
peace, and memories lost. “The Shipmaker”
and “The Waiting Stars” tell of mindships
that are implanted with human-birthed
artificial intelligences that teeter on the
line between humanity and technology.
In “A Salvaging of Ghosts” and “The Dust
Queen,” priceless treasured memories are
retrieved at the cost of life and reality.
The reader also gets a taste of the dark
alternative world in the two Dominion
of the Fallen prequel stories, “Children
of Thorns, Children of Water” and “Of
Birthdays, and Fungus, and Kindness,”
in which power and betrayal often go
hand in hand. Fans of artificial intelligence
will be enchanted by the Xuya stories,
while those partial to fantasy with fallen
angels will devour the bonus peek into
characters of the Fallen. Readers prepared
for melancholy and heartbreak will find
them finely crafted here. Agent: John
Berlyne, Zeno Literary Agency. (Oct.)The Blue Eye:
The Khorasan Archives, Book 3
Ausma Zehanat Khan. Harper Voyager, $17.99
trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-0-06-245923-7
Third in Zehanat Khan’s Khorasan
Archives fantasy series (after The Black
Khan), this rousing quest celebrates femi-
nist heroines Arian, First Oralist of Hira,
and her companion, Sinnia, who struggle
to overthrow the anti-intellectual and
patriarchal
Talisman.
Ashfall, the
Black Khan’s
capital, is being
besieged by the
Talisman and
heroically
defended by the
Khan as well as
Arian’s lover,
Daniyar. Arian
and Sinnia travel perilously in search of the
Sana Codex, which may hold the key to
their eventual victory over the Talisman.
These parallel adventures are hampered
by continually shifting alliances and reve-
lations of eerie and often malignant powers.
Zehanat Khan’s fondness for giving
important figures multiple titles often
dilutes her narrative pace, causing frequent