WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 39Review_FICTION
after a chance
encounter with
a man whose
car had broken
down. Given
Greta’s nation-
ality, Sinclair
considers the
possibility that
she recognized
a Nazi war
criminal, who
subsequently killed her to keep her quiet.
The suspense heightens once Madden, a
shell-shocked WWI veteran, gets involved
in the search for the murderer. Charles
Todd fans will be pleased. Agent: Joy
Harris, Joy Harris Literary. (Jan.)The God Game
Danny Tobey. St. Martin’s, $26.99 (464p)
ISBN 978-1-250-30614-2
This grim sophomore novel from
Tobey (The Faculty Club) mixes the teen
horror and cyber thriller genres for a
glimpse of the cruelty that anonymity
and the internet make possible. Charlie
Lake is one of the founders of the
Vindicators, a group of senior geeks at
an Austin, Tex., high school who gather
in the tech lab and play the occasional
harmless prank. Charlie’s nihilistic
friend, Peter Quine, introduces them to
the G.O.D. game, which supposedly
amounts to “the sum total of human
conceptions about the divine come alive,
able to express itself and answer questions
and spout new proverbs and instructions.”
Charlie, Peter, and the three other mem-
bers of the group each have pressures and
secrets in their lives that leave them open
to the game’s demands. These begin
fairly innocuously, but rapidly move to
mysterious missions, violent pranks, and
betrayals of each other, culminating with
the “bargain” of a death for freedom from
the game. The heartlessness on display
may put off some readers, but fans of AI
run amok should relish this one. Agent:
Jodi Reamer, Writers House. (Jan.)Sanctuary
Luca D’Andrea, trans. from the Italian by
Howard Curtis and Katherine Gregor. Harper,
$16.99 trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-
289700-8
At the start of this twisted thriller setcomers alike. (Self-published.)Mystery/Thriller
No Bad Deed
Heather Chavez. Morrow, $26.99 (320p)
ISBN 978-0-06-293617-2
While driving alone one rainy night,
veterinarian Cassie Larkin, the narrator
of Chavez’s propulsive debut set in
California wine country, spots a large
man menacing a young woman in the road.
Cassie stops and calls 911, but against the
dispatcher’s advice, she gets out of her
van and confronts the man, who threatens
Cassie before escaping with her car. The
next night, which is Halloween, Cassie’s
husband, Sam, abandons their six-year-
old daughter, Audrey, while trick-or-
treating and disappears. Det. Ray Rico,
who investigates, suspects that either Cassie
or her 15-year-old son, Leo, is involved in
Sam’s disappearance. Chavez peoples her
tale with credible, flawed individuals,
presenting even the multiple antagonists
with harrowing backstories and convincing
psychological motives. While readers must
suspend disbelief at times (as when Cassie
fails to check in with Rico and goes rogue),
Chavez is in full command of plot and
pacing as the connection between Cassie’s
roadside confrontation and Sam’s disap-
pearance becomes clear. Domestic thriller
fans will be well satisfied. Agent: Peter
Steinberg, Foundry Literary + Media. (Feb.)★ The Decent Inn of Death
Rennie Airth. Penguin, $16 trade paper
(368p) ISBN 978-0-14-313429-9
Set in post-WWII England, Airth’s
outstanding sixth John Madden mystery
(after 2017’s The Death of Kings) takes
retired Scotland Yard chief inspector Angus
Sinclair, a series regular, to Hampshire to
visit friends. From his host, Sinclair learns
that Greta Hartmann, the local church’s
German organist, drowned in a stream
after slipping and hitting her head on a
rock. The official verdict of accident is
challenged by Greta’s housemate, Vera
Cruickshank, who refuses to believe that
her close friend, who always forded the
stream with great care, just slipped. Vera’s
argument impresses Sinclair, and his
suspicions of foul play are strengthened
when he learns that Greta was unsettledWhat starts out as a fairly realistic
drama eventually morphs into a surreal
caper, with luck as an actual commodity
to be prized—though to what end is
never made entirely clear by the author.
Some readers will be overwhelmed by the
whimsy of the story, while others will
enjoy Michaels’s unflagging imagination.
(Jan.)
Josephine’s Daughter
A.B. Michaels. Red Trumpet Press, $15.99
trade paper (508p) ISBN 978-0-9975201-2-5
Michaels’s fifth book in the Golden
City series (after The Price of Compassion)
offers a vivid portrait of San Francisco’s
Gilded Age through the eyes of Kit
Firestone, an impassioned nurse who was
born into high society. The story opens
in 1893 with 13-year-old Kit angry with
her well-meaning but controlling
mother, Josephine. Fast forward to age
18, and Kit has a romantic and sexual
encounter, learning afterward that her
beau had syphilis and has infected her
friend, Cecily, and gotten her pregnant;
Kit’s insistence on a prophylactic spares
her. After caring for Cecily, unconventional
and spirited
Kit eschews
marriage and
becomes a nurse.
She begins a
complicated
relationship
with Tom
Justice, a young
surgeon, that
intensifies in
tandem with
dramatic events—the 1906 earthquake,
Tom’s arrest for “willful murder” while
treating earthquake victims, and her
mother’s diabetes. Through alternating
narratives of Kit and Josephine, readers
learn of Josephine’s youthful involvement
in the Black Veil Society, which publicly
shamed men who assaulted women, and
sense how Kit follows in her mother’s
footsteps as an advocate for women’s
rights. Michaels is adept at handling med-
ical practices of the time and women’s
health topics, such as sexually trans-
mitted diseases and birth control, with
sensitivity and intelligence. Part family
drama, part romance, Michaels’s tale will
satisfy both fans of the series and new-