Frank Tallis: Max Liebermann Mysteries < Back Frank Tallis Author of The Max Liebermann Mysteries June 13, 2019 Dr Frank Tallis is a British retired clinical psychologist who has published over thirty scientific papers in international journals, a textbook about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and four psychology books for lay people: Changing Minds (a history of psychotherapy), Hidden Minds (a history of the unconscious), Lovesick (an exploration of the relationship between romantic love and mental illness) and The Incurable Romantic, a fascinating account of a life investigating obsessive love. Talllis is also the Anthony and Edgar-nominated author of the brilliant Max Liebermann Mystery series, about a dashing early 20th century Viennese psychiatrist and disciple of Sigmund Freud, who uses his understanding of human psychology to help solve horrible crimes. While discussing these ongoing investigations, Max and his good friend, the chubby Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt, play chess and consume delicious and well-described Viennese pastries and specialty coffees. Frank Tallis’ novels are: KILLING TIME (Penguin), SENSING OTHERS (Penguin), MORTAL MISCHIEF (Arrow), VIENNA BLOOD (Arrow), FATAL LIES (Arrow), DARKNESS RISING (Arrow), DEADLY COMMUNION (Arrow), DEATH AND THE MAIDEN (Arrow), and MEPHISTO WALTZ (Pegasus). In 1999 he received a Writers’ Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain and in 2000 he won the New London Writers’ Award (London Arts Board). In 2005 MORTAL MISCHIEF was shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award and for the Quais du Polar Award in France, 2007. FATAL LIES was longlisted for the International Thriller Writers’ Best Paperback Award, 2010. DARKNESS RISING (VIENNA SECRETS in the USA) was runner up for the 2009 Medical Journalist’s Association fiction award and shortlisted for the Elle Prix de Letrice in 2010. It was also nominated for an Anthony and an Edgar in 2011. DEADLY COMMUNION (VIENNA TWILIGHT in the USA) was shortlisted for an Edgar in 2012. The Liebermann books have been translated into fourteen languages and optioned for TV adaptation. I contacted Dr. Tallis on Twitter to tell him how much I like his Liebermann series (and point out that Americans also read his books). He tweeted back to say thanks and that it’s being filmed! Wish I’d had the moxie to write back and ask who is playing the lead. I just adore the series and hope he’ll keep it going. Dr. Tallis deserves more attention on this side of the pond. Previous Next

A Whipped and Sipped Mystery: Book 3 < Back Available from these sellers Click on the icon below to purchase a copy today Even a worldwide pandemic can’t keep a woman like Alene Baron down... nor from finding herself in the middle of a murder investigation. While she has to get creative to keep the Whipped and Sipped Café going during the COVID lockdown, that is nothing compared to figuring out the real story about a dead body found in a burnt-out building in her neighborhood. Red herring might not be vegan, but it does seem to be the order of the day. Charred A Whipped and Sipped Mystery: Book 3 Previous Next

I Meant to Tell You, by Fran Hawthorne (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2022) opens during a conversation between Miranda Isaacs and her fiancé, Russ, who is going through an FBI security check as a prelude to getting his dream job in the U.S. Attorney’s office. < Back I Meant to Tell You Fran Hawthorne January 17, 2023 I Meant to Tell You , by Fran Hawthorne (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2022) opens during a conversation between Miranda Isaacs and her fiancé, Russ, who is going through an FBI security check as a prelude to getting his dream job in the U.S. Attorney’s office. Miranda worries that her parents’ antiwar activities in the late 60s might be a stumbling block, but neglects to mention a felony kidnapping arrest that happened when she tried to help a good friend escape a bad marriage. Miranda thought that charge from nearly a decade ago had been erased, so she never mentioned it to Russ. But now, Russ is justified in bringing up the question of honesty in a serious relationship. Fran Hawthorne has been writing novels since she was four years old, although she was sidetracked for several decades by journalism. During that award-winning career, she wrote eight nonfiction books, mainly about consumer activism, the drug industry, and the financial world. (Ethical Chic was named one of the best business books of 2012 by Library Journal, and Pension Dumping was a Foreword magazine 2008 Book of the Year.) Hawthorne has been an editor or regular contributor for The New York Times, Business Week, Fortune, and many other publications. She also writes book reviews for the New York Journal of Books. Her debut novel, The Heirs, was published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press in 2018. In her non-writing life, Fran runs 8 miles a day, studies Hebrew and French, volunteers at the New-York Historical Society, and works on community projects at her local park and other places. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

In Three Muses (Regal House Publishing, 2022) by Martha Toll, John Curtin survives the Holocaust by singing for the entertainment of the kommendant who murdered his family. < Back Three Muses Martha Anne Toll September 20, 2022 In Three Muses (Regal House Publishing, 2022) by Martha Toll, John Curtin survives the Holocaust by singing for the entertainment of the kommendant who murdered his family. He’s sent to America, probably by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, to be adopted by a family whose son was killed fighting the war. The nourishment, love, and kindness of his new parents allows him to thrive. Years later, John is forced by Dr Roth to relive the worst moments of his life during therapy he’s required to do as part of his psychiatric training. Meanwhile, after seven-year-old Katherine loses her mother, her aunt enrolls her in ballet classes, never realizing how it will change Katherine’s life. The first thing to change is her name – Boris Yanakov, the director and choreographer, changes her name to the more Russian-sounding Katya Symanova. He seduces Katya and makes her a star, but also controls her every movement. When John sees Katya perform in Paris in 1963, he’s bewitched and can’t stop thinking about her. The next time they meet, in New York, John thinks he’s found the love of his life, but Katya is still under Boris’s control. John’s experience with the three muses of Song, Discipline, and Memory is completely different than Katya’s, but they are both forced to claw their way through doubt, despair and loneliness. Martha Anne Toll, whose debut novel, Three Muses , won the Petrichor prize for Finely Crafted Fiction, writes fiction, essays, and book reviews, and reads anything that’s not nailed down. Martha brings a long career in social justice to her work covering BIPOC and women writers. She is a book reviewer and author interviewer at NPR Books, the Washington Post, The Millions, and elsewhere; and publishes short fiction and essays in a wide variety of outlets. She has recently joined the Board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. When she’s not interviewing or writing Martha likes to have lunch with friends, swim, walk, and spend time with her family. She lives just outside Washington D.C. area. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

"We can't all be heroes. Some try and succeed. Others posture and pretend. And a few--just a few--set off on their hero's quest only to discover that failure was within them all along." < Back Compass Murray Lee December 13, 2022 We can't all be heroes. Some try and succeed. Others posture and pretend. And a few--just a few--set off on their hero's quest only to discover that failure was within them all along. Murray Lee's Compass (Publerati, 2022) recounts the adventures of a man who, after traveling the world shilling stories for a major geographic magazine about historic expeditions and explorers, sets out on an adventure of his own--an ill-advised and poorly planned trip to the Arctic floe edge under the disorienting twenty-four-hour summer sun. When the ice breaks and his guide disappears, the narrator ends up alone and adrift in the hostile northern sea. He draws on his knowledge of historic expeditions to craft his own, inept, attempt at survival. As time passes and he becomes increasingly disoriented, his obsession with Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea, becomes terrifyingly real. Part Life of Pi, part Into the Wild, Compass draws heavily on true historical adventures, Inuit mythology, and its Arctic setting. The narrator, a self-aware buffoon who remains nameless throughout, is both remarkably well-informed and entirely useless. He knows just enough to steer himself into the path of disaster--repeatedly, often comically, and ultimately tragically. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Yael’s parents originally emigrated to Canada from South Africa years before and have returned while mourning the tragic death of Yael’s brother. Yael, also in mourning, but busy learning everything from medic training to driving on the left side of the road, uncovers a deadly elephant poaching ring. After witnessing some horrible violence, she just isn’t sure what to do about it. < Back No Entry Gila Green December 8, 2020 No Entry (Stormbird Press, 2020) is Gila Green’s first young adult Eco-Fiction novel. It is the first in an environmental series focused on elephant poaching and the international trade that leads to their illegal slaughter. Seventeen-year-old Yael Amar is in South Africa, signed up for a summer course in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. A rising senior, she plans to join her parents in Johannesburg, where her father will spend his sabbatical year from a Canadian University. Yael’s parents originally emigrated to Canada from South Africa years before and have returned while mourning the tragic death of Yael’s brother. Yael, also in mourning, but busy learning everything from medic training to driving on the left side of the road, uncovers a deadly elephant poaching ring. After witnessing some horrible violence, she just isn’t sure what to do about it. In addition to No Entry , Canadian author Gila Green is the author of three novels: King of the Class (Non-Publishing 2013), Passport Control (S&H Publishing, 2018), and White Zion (Cervena Barva Press, 2019). Her short fiction appears in dozens of literary magazines in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, Israel, Ireland, and Hong Kong including: The Fiddlehead , Terrain.org , Akashic Books, Sephardic Horizons , Jewish Literary Journal , Fiction Magazine, The Saranac Review, Arc Magazine, Many Mountains Moving, Noir Nation, Quality Women's Fiction, The Dalhousie Review, The Bookends Review, and Boston Literary Review . Green’s work has been short-listed for the Doris Bakwin Literary Award (Carolina Wren Press), WordSmitten's TenTen Fiction Contest, the Walrus Literary Award, and the Eric Hoffer Best New Writing Award. She also wrote the introduction to Doikayt, an anthology of short tabletop roleplaying (November 2020). When She’s not teaching or writing, Green is busy raising five children, cooking, and baking her own bread. She loves music, daily walks through the Judean Hills by her home, hiking, pilates, and really good coffee. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

It’s 1937 and rural Tennessee is still recovering from the Great Depression. The construction of a huge dam brings job seekers, fortune hunters, and the promise of electricity to the area. Claire, a young mother of two, realizes her marriage is over when she wakes up with a sexually transmitted disease brought home by her husband. < Back Watershed Mark Barr January 15, 2020 It’s 1937 and rural Tennessee is still recovering from the Great Depression. The construction of a huge dam brings job seekers, fortune hunters, and the promise of electricity to the area. Claire, a young mother of two, realizes her marriage is over when she wakes up with a sexually transmitted disease brought home by her husband. Nathan is an engineer with a shameful secret who changes his name to get work at the dam. Everyone in this colorful cast of dog-fighting neighbors, beer-guzzling ex-husbands, and power-hungry employers is trying to survive in the mosquito-infested heat of a southern summer. Mark Barr has been awarded fellowships from Blue Mountain Center, I-Park Artists Enclave, Jentel Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Millay Colony, and Yaddo. Favorably reviewed by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, his debut novel, Watershed (Hub City, 2019), was featured in the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance’s fall Okra list and Deep South Magazine's Fall/Winter Reading List, and named as one of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's "12 Southern Books You'll Want to Read This Fall" and one of Nashville Lifestyles Magazine’s "Four Fall Reads." Mark holds undergraduate degrees from Hendrix College and University of Iowa, and an M.F.A. from Texas State University. He lives with his wife and sons in Arkansas, where he develops software and bakes bread. If you enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to discuss it further with me and other New Books Network listeners, please join us on Shuffle. Shuffle is an ad-free, invite-only network focused on the creativity community. As NBN listeners, you can get special access to conversations with a dynamic community of writers and literary enthusiasts. Sign up by going to www.shuffle.do/NBN/join Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Sarah Kennecott is a brilliant young doctor who cares deeply about justice for murder victims after her own family is murdered. She’s not like other people; she doesn’t like noises and smells, she doesn’t understand chit chat, and she cannot interpret inflection or nuance. < Back Into the Suffering City Bill LeFurgy July 28, 2020 In Bill LeFurgy's Into the Suffering City: A Novel of Baltimore  (High Kicker Books), Sarah Kennecott is a brilliant young doctor who cares deeply about justice for murder victims after her own family is murdered. She’s not like other people; she doesn’t like noises and smells, she doesn’t understand chit chat, and she cannot interpret inflection or nuance. It’s 1909, and the city of Baltimore is filled with gilded mansions and a seedy corrupt, underworld. Sarah struggles to be accepted as a doctor. After getting fired for looking too closely into the killing of a showgirl, she refuses to back down from the investigation and joins forces with a street-smart private detective who is able to access saloons, brothels, and burlesque theaters where Sarah isn’t allowed. Together, they unravel a few secrets that could cost them their lives. Bill LeFurgy is a professional historian who has studied the seamy underbelly of urban life, including drugs, crime, and prostitution, as well as more workaday matters such as streets, buildings, wires, and wharves. He has put his many years of experience into writing gritty historical fiction about Baltimore, his favorite city. Bill has graduate degrees from the University of Maryland and has worked at the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore City Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, and the Library of Congress. He has learned much from his children and grandchildren, including grace, patience, emotional connection, and the need to welcome different perspectives from those on the autism spectrum or with other personality traits that are undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, or unexplained. Bill has published many books and articles about U.S. history and history sources, including for the Library of Congress, Maryland Historical Magazine , and the U.S. Department of Energy. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

In her new novel This is How it Always Is (Flatiron Books, 2017), Laurie Frankel tells the story of the Walsh-Adams family and how they grapple with the youngest child, the fifth son, who announces at age three that he wants to be a girl. < Back This is How it Always Is Laurie Frankel December 10, 2018 In her new novel This is How it Always Is (Flatiron Books, 2017), Laurie Frankel tells the story of the Walsh-Adams family and how they grapple with the youngest child, the fifth son, who announces at age three that he wants to be a girl. While his four older brothers revel in typical boy behavior, Claude, who decides her name is now Poppy, wears dresses and purses to school. Local homophobia pushes the Walsh-Adams family to leave their big old farmhouse in Madison, WI. for a smaller home in Seattle. There, they decide to keep Poppy’s trans status a family secret. When Poppy is outed, her mother takes leave from her job and travels across the world to help her daughter figure out who she wants to be. Laurie Frankel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of three novels. Her writing has also appeared in the New York Times , the Guardian , Publisher's Weekly , People magazine, Lit Hub , the Sydney Morning Herald , and other publications. She is the recipient of the Washington State Book Award and the Endeavor Award. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and been optioned for film and TV. A former college professor, she now writes full-time. She was recently named one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Seattle where she lives with her family and makes good soup. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

In early-seventeenth-century Portugal, Spain, France, and Germany, dangers are plentiful—especially for those of Jewish heritage. Non-Catholics have been expelled from Spain, and the Inquisition has come to Portugal to impose its prohibitions. < Back Isabella's Way Barbara Stark Nemon September 30, 2025 Isabella’s mother recently died, and her father is in Europe making contacts for the family embroidery business. She’s 14 years old, alone in her house, working long hours to finish an embroidery commission for the local priest. It’s 1605, and Isabella has been raised as a Catholic in a small town in Portugal. But Isabella doesn’t know that her parents are “new Christians.” Then a mysterious foreign woman appears with a message that Isabella has been hired to embroider a trousseau in France. Isabella isn’t sure how to proceed, but her childhood friend David de Sousa, now in charge of their “New Christian” community, explains that the Inquisition has begun attacking small communities like theirs, and tells her that they must all leave Portugal as soon as possible, perhaps forever. Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of award-winning novels Even in Darkness and Hard Cider , lives, writes, cycles, swims, does fiber arts and gardens in Ann Arbor and Northport, Michigan. She has degrees in English literature, art history and speech-language pathology from the University of Michigan and worked with deaf and language disabled children. Even in Darkness is historical fiction based on a family story in 20th century Germany. Hard Cider , contemporary fiction, is set in northern Michigan. Find her online at https://www.barbarastarknemon.com/ Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Eileen Pollack covers her life in snippets or by delving into history, but the overall picture is of an extremely talented writer, a brilliant woman with a degree in physics and a long list of respected publications who is still somewhat bewildered to find herself alone. < Back Maybe It's Me: On Being the Wrong Kind of Woman Eileen Pollack November 1, 2022 In her new essay collection, Maybe It’s Me: On Being the Wrong Kind of Woman (Delphinium Books 2022), Eileen Pollack covers her life in snippets or by delving into history, but the overall picture is of an extremely talented writer, a brilliant woman with a degree in physics and a long list of respected publications who is still somewhat bewildered to find herself alone. She tells stories about her childhood home, her grandparents, her father the dentist, her mother’s closets, her ex-husband who thought his work took precedence, her son who turned into a socialist, and assorted neighbors, friends, and men who drifted through her life. In her distinctive voice, she sometimes slips humor into the most horrendous situations, maybe because that’s how she survived. This is an author who dissects her thoughts, words, and actions without worrying about having a big bow to tie it all together. Eileen Pollack is a writer whose novel Breaking and Entering , about the deep divisions between blue and red America, was named a 2012 New York Times Editor’s Choice selection. Her essay, “Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?” was published in the Sunday, October 6, 2013, issue of The New York Times Magazine and went viral; the essay is an excerpt from her investigative memoir The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still A Boys’ Club , published in 2015 by Beacon Press. A native of the Catskill Mountains, Eileen also is the author of the novels The Bible of Dirty Jokes and Paradise, New York , as well as two collections of short fiction, In the Mouth and The Rabbi in the Attic . Her innovative work of creative nonfiction called Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull was made into a major motion picture starring Jessica Chastain, Sam Rockwell, and Michael Greyeyes. A long-time faculty member and former director of the Helen Zell MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan , she now lives in Boston and offers her services as a freelance editor and writing coach . When she isn’t reading, writing, or teaching, Eileen loves to play tennis. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

When her grandmother writes to ask Elena to come and babysit for two children whose mother is "gone," Elena accepts with hopes that she can put off making any real decisions about her future. Through her grandmother's stories, Elena starts to understand her father's remoteness, and as the children she babysits become more attached to her, she starts to understand herself. < Back Among the Lesser Gods Margo Catts August 20, 2018 Margo Catts' new novel Among the Lesser Gods (Arcade Publishing, 2017) opens in 1978, as Elena Alvarez, a newly minuted physics graduate living in LA, discovers she's pregnant. She considers it to be just one more mistake in a lifetime of screw-ups. Her mother abandoned her after she accidentally set a deadly fire as a child, and she was raised by her cold distant father. She felt loved only when visiting her grandmother, who divides her time between the town of Leadville, Colorado, and a rustic mountain cabin in an old abandoned mining town. When her grandmother writes to ask Elena to come and babysit for two children whose mother is "gone," Elena accepts with hopes that she can put off making any real decisions about her future. Through her grandmother's stories, Elena starts to understand her father's remoteness, and as the children she babysits become more attached to her, she starts to understand herself. "It seems a person is never finished learning about sorrow..." Elena's internal conflicts, metaphysical musings, and reflections on family and forgiveness are all part of the stunning landscape. Then the two children go missing, and Elena is forced to confront the guilt that has followed her since childhood. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next