shrouded skeleton statue

Daryl M.

Librarian


Posts by Daryl M.

  • Book covers of favorite books

    My Favorite Books of 2024

    Season’s Readings, everyone! As is generally true, there have been some marvelous books published in 2024, and I’m thrilled to share my favorites with you. I’ve listed these books in alphabetical…

  • Genoveva Dimova and her 2 book covers

    Interview With an Author: Genoveva Dimova

    Genoveva Dimova is a fantasy author and archaeologist. Originally from Bulgaria, she now lives in Scotland with her partner and a small army of houseplants. She believes in writing what you know, so…

  • Michelle Chouinard and her book

    Interview With an Author: Michelle Chouinard

    Michelle Chouinard has written eight previous USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling mysteries under a different name. She has a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Stanford University and was…

  • Author Alex Segura and his book Alter Ego

    Interview With an Author: Alex Segura

    Alex Segura is the bestselling and award-winning author of Secret Identity, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller and a New York Times Editor’s Choice and an NPR Best Mystery…

  • Author Marjorie McCown and her latest novel, Star Struck

    Interview With an Author: Marjorie McCown

    Marjorie McCown has spent her entire professional life in the story-telling business, though she started out on the visual side of the craft. She spent more than twenty-five years in Hollywood working…

  • Author Emily C. Hughes and her first book, Horror For Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You're Too Scared to Watch

    Interview With an Author: Emily C. Hughes

    Emily C. Hughes (she/her) wants to scare you. Formerly the editor of Unbound Worlds and TorNightfire.com, she writes about horror and curates a list of the year's new scary books. You can find her…

  • Author Tim Major and his latest novel, Jekyll & Hyde: Consulting Detectives

    Interview With an Author: Tim Major

    Tim Major is a writer and freelance editor from York, UK. His books include Snakeskins, Hope Island, three Sherlock Holmes novels, short story collection And the House Lights Dim and a monograph about…

  • Author Joe R. Lansdale and his latest short story collection, In the Mad Mountains

    Interview With an Author: Joe R. Lansdale

    Internationally bestselling author Joe R. Lansdale has received the Edgar, Raymond Chandler, Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Inkpot Awards. His work includes mysteries, Westerns, horror, thrillers…

  • Author Tod Goldberg and his latest anthology, Eight Very Bad Nights

    Interview With an Author: Tod Goldberg

    Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including the award-winning Gangsterland trilogy and Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His…

  • Author M. L. Rio and her first novella, Graveyard Shift

    Interview With an Author: M. L. Rio

    M. L. Rio holds an MA in Shakespeare studies from King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe and a PhD in English from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her bestselling first novel If We…


Reviews by Daryl M.

  • Cover image for Our Hideous Progeny

    Our Hideous Progeny

    • By: Mcgill, C. E.
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley tells the tale of how Victor Frankenstein challenges the “natural order” and explores the secrets of life itself by creating a being made from the pieces of other men. But what if Victor had chosen another direction for his research? What if, instead of choosing to...
  • Cover image for Going Zero

    Going Zero

    • By: McCarten, Anthony
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    We all know that we are constantly being observed and monitored in today’s world. There are security and surveillance cameras on many homes, businesses, and on the traffic lights at intersections. ATMs and now self-check out machines in retail establishments also include cameras. Purchases, whether online or in a brick...
  • Cover image for The Lies of the Ajungo

    The Lies of the Ajungo

    • By: Utomi, Moses Ose
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    “There is no water in the City of Lies.”Tutu has lived all of his short life in the City of Lies with his mother. Located in the Forever Desert, the City of Lies used to have water. . .but the inhabitants were vanquished by the fierce Ajungo Empire which required...
  • Cover image for Hell Bent

    Hell Bent

    • By: Bardugo, Leigh
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    At the end of Ninth House, Galaxy “Alex” Stern solved the mystery of who killed Tara Hutchins and why, uncovering a conspiracy that involved some of the highest offices of Yale University and several of their “secret societies.” At the end of the novel, Darlington, Alex’s advisor in Lethe, the “ninth...
  • Cover image for The Motion Picture Teller

    The Motion Picture Teller

    • By: Cotterill, Colin
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Supot Yongjaiyut knows he is not living his best life. The year is 1996 and Supot lives in Bangkok. During the day, he works for the Royal Thai Mail Service, a job he loathes and for which he knows he has no aptitude. When he’s not at work, he spends...
  • Cover image for Weyward: A Novel

    Weyward: A Novel

    • By: Hart, Emilia
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    “The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.”  From: On Lies, Secrets, and Silence by Adrienne RichAltha is a 21-year-old woman who, in 1619, is accused of, and tried for, witchcraft in her small English village. She is a...
  • Cover image for Stone Blind

    Stone Blind

    • By: Haynes, Natalie
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    "I only see them for an instant. Then they're gone. But it's enough. Enough to know that the hero isn't the one who's kind or brave or loyal. Sometimes -- not always, but sometimes -- he is monstrous. And the monster? Who is she? She is what happens when someone...
  • Cover image for The Getaway

    The Getaway

    • By: Giles, Lamar
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    Karloff Country is a marvel. Modeled on Walt Disney World in Florida, Karloff Country is a slightly smaller theme park/resort complex with a similar number of theme parks as Walt Disney World, but also includes: planned communities for all of its employees, a power plant, vertical farms to provide the...
  • Cover image for Paperback Jack

    Paperback Jack

    • By: Estleman, Loren D.
    • Reviewed By: Daryl M.
    The year is 1946. WWII has ended and Jacob Heppleman is one of the many veterans returning home from the European conflict. For Jacob, home is New York City. Before the war, he wrote detective, western, and war stories for the pulp magazines. He even published a novel that was...