Review_FICTION
54 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JANUARY 27, 2020
Review_FICTION
Metzger’s other victims, paraplegic surgeon
Connie Wieczne and body-modified drug
courier Jack Cotard, in their struggle to
escape the building. Post creates moments
of beauty, repulsion, and menace with
equal flair, from childish crayon birds in
flight on a tenement wall to papier-mâché
homunculi. What at first appear to be plot
contradictions later connect elegantly as
the intricate mechanics of this dreamscape
are made clear. Impatient readers may
grow frustrated by how long it takes for
the tale’s internal logic to be revealed, but
those who stick with this dark story will
be gratified. Agent: Lane Heymont, Tobias
Literary Agency. (Mar.)The Deep
Alma Katsu. Putnam, $27 (432p) ISBN 978-0-
525-53790-8
Painstakingly researched and meticu-
lously plotted, Katsu’s latest (after 2018’s
The Hunger) infuses a pair of significant
shipwrecks with the supernatural. In 1912,
docile and dutiful Annie Hebbley, suddenly
eager to escape her confined life in a small
Northern Ireland town, finds work as a
stewardess on
the Titanic,
where she
becomes
entwined with
a wealthy couple
and their new
baby and
develops strange
compulsions as
mysterious
occurrences,
including disappearances and an attempted
suicide, plague the ship. In 1916, having
survived the Titanic’s sinking only to spend
the last four years in an asylum, Annie again
finds relief through work, this time as a
nurse on the Titanic’s sister ship, the
Britannic, which has been refitted as a war-
time hospital ship. Though readers will be
aware of the inevitable tragedies awaiting,
Katsu successfully injects suspense into
both time lines, spinning a darkly capti-
vating tale of hauntings, possessions,
secrets, and class through a multitude of
perspectives, as readers slowly come to
understand the truth of Annie’s often odd
behavior. The historically predetermined
ending may keep readers from connecting
emotionally to the narrative, but Katsu’sreaders and fans of Charlaine Harris will
devour this ambitious, emotionally
charged contemporary fantasy. Agent:
Tamar Rydzinski, Context Literary. (Mar.)A Stitch in Crime
Justin Robinson. Candlemark & Gleam, $20.45
trade paper (292p) ISBN 978-1-936460-93-9
The fun, pulpy fourth installment in
Robinson’s postapocalyptic City of Devils
series (after Wolfman Confidential) continues
exploring an Earth crawling with monsters
following the Night War that wiped out
most of humanity. Center stage this time
is the skin doll Jane Stitch, who is sewn
together from the corpses of six different
women and haunted by memories that she
isn’t sure are hers. After Jane’s explosive
temper destroys her relationship with
human private eye Nick Moss, she embarks
on a soul-searching mission to understand
her true nature. Her quest for the truth
takes her to the backwaters of Arizona to
speak with her creator, who pulls her into
his dirty business of corpse resurrection as
the price for answers about her existence.
Soon, Jane runs afoul of the ferocious
Dullahan clan, a quartet of headless
horsemen who control the town’s law
enforcement and wreak havoc on those
who question their authority. Robinson’s
tale is a treasure trove of monstrous
delights and, despite Jane’s gruesome ori-
gins, she proves an endearing lead. With
its heady blend of noir and campy horror,
this rollicking adventure doesn’t disap-
point. (Mar.)Switchboard
Andrew Post. JournalStone, $16.95 trade
paper (184p) ISBN 978-1-95030-516-2
Post (Chop Shop) folds this hallucinatory,
viscera-soaked horror novel into a puzzle
box of a haunted house story. Erie, Pa.,
police lieutenant Dwayne Spare goes
undercover at the dilapidated Dunsany
Arms apartments to catch one of its resi-
dents, chemist Gerald Metzger, the
manufacturer of the street drug Krokodil,
which has the unfortunate side effect of
rotting off users’ limbs. But when Dwayne
is found out, Metzger injects him with
Krok, using the drug to turn Dwayne
into a human telephone line channeling
messages from a grotesque, otherworldly
being. As reality and dream blur and time
grows oddly circular, Dwayne joins withis arrested, along with Enaya, a Muslim
coworker, for murder. The police are
content to pin the crime on a foreigner,
and ICE agents soon descend, threatening
Enaya with deportation and much worse.
As Alice says before entering the fray,
“We’re about to find out if there’s any due
process or legal fairness still remaining
when it comes to Homeland Security.”
Meanwhile, a second friend of Alice is
dealing with another deportation problem,
this one involving an American with
Haitian parents. Feisty Alice, who has
earned her retirement, offers incisive
observations on, among other topics, the
indignities of old age, gun control,
euthanasia, and the boycotting of plastics.
Series fans will miss her trenchant jibes at
the political establishment. (Self-published)SF/Fantasy/Horror
House of Earth and Blood
Sarah J. Maas. Bloomsbury, $28 (816p)
ISBN 978-1-63557-404-3
YA author Maas (the Throne of Glass
series) makes her adult debut with this
electrifying series launch set on a planet
plagued by conflict between oppressed
humans and upper-class supernaturals.
When a demon slaughters wolf-shifter
Danika Fendir and her packmates, Danika’s
best friend, the half-human, half-Fae Bryce
Quinlan, turns from carefree party girl to
traumatized loner. Bryce’s only comfort is
knowing that Archangel Micah Domitus
and the 33rd Imperial Legion have
incarcerated the man who orchestrated the
attack: a human with a vendetta against
the wolves. But two years later a vampire
with connections to Bryce dies the same
way Danika did, suggesting the pack’s true
murderer remains at large. Desperate to
discover the truth, Micah conscripts Bryce
to dig into Danika’s final days, and tasks
Hunt Athalar, an indentured Malakim
assassin doing penance for his part in a
failed rebellion, with protecting her.
Despite some murky worldbuilding that
occasionally undercuts the intricate plot,
Maas delivers a richly imagined tale
spiced with snarky humor and smoldering
romance between Bryce and Hunt. The
villains tend to twirl their mustaches, but
Bryce is a realistically flawed heroine with
moxie and heart to spare. Maas’s adult