It’s 2016, after an attempted coup against Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and because of a tip, the police suddenly show up at the office of a young journalist. Nuray, her fellow journalists, and her visiting friend Adalet are thrown into a notorious prison. They’re placed in separate, filthy and horrifying cells, and Adalet has to confront the possibility of never getting out alive. Her Jewish boyfriend has already left Istanbul and is trying to get her to marry him, but Adelet loves her country. Nuray is alone in the world, but she has to confront the father who disappeared from her life and the soldier who wants to see her punished. This is a novel about regular people trying to live their lives in the aftermath of Turkey’s takeover by a populist, authoritarian leader. < Back A Coup: Turkish Trilogy Book 3 Phyllis Skoy October 31, 2023 A Coup , the third novel in Phyllis Skoy’s Turkish Trilogy (Black Rose Writing 2023) follows a young woman in Turkey. In the first book of the trilogy, Adalet, who has found new friends after a devastating earthquake killed her parents, destroyed their home, took her unborn baby, and left her scarred for life. Her husband leaves her for another woman, and as part of the divorce agreement, she’s forced to live far from the city. Now in the third book, Adalet is back in the city, visiting Nuray, a college friend who runs a small women’s magazine. It’s not long after an attempted coup against Erdogan, a strongman who is set to crush all opposition, and police suddenly show up and throw Nuray, her fellow journalists, and Adalet into a notorious prison. They’re in separate, filthy and horrifying cells, and Adalet has to confront the possibility of never getting out alive. This is a novel about regular people trying to live their lives in the aftermath of Turkey’s takeover by a populist authoritarian leader. Phyllis M Skoy’s first short story, “Life Before,” appeared as the Discovery of the Year in Bosque, 2013. What Survives , the first novel in the Turkish Trilogy (IP Books) was short listed for the Santa Fe Writers Project, a finalist in the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards, and First Runner Up in the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize Short List. In 2022, Black Rose Writing reissued What Survives and published the prequel, As They Are . A Coup, the third novel in the trilogy, follows the lives of two women in the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, a country which fascinates her. Myopia, A Memoir (IP Books 2017) describes what it was like to grow up with a refugee father still unknowingly consumed with the fears and struggles of his past. The author of various published short stories and essays, Skoy is a retired psychoanalyst who practiced in both New York City and Albuquerque before her retirement in 2018. She specialized in working with the deaf, with children, and with adults suffering from depression, anxiety, and trauma. She currently resides in Placitas, New Mexico with her husband and her Australian Cattle dog. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

19-year-old Anna’s parents won’t pay her college tuition if she studies art, the one thing she loves most. She’s been drifting from one class to another, one boyfriend to another, and can’t stand being stuck in Milwaukee. < Back At the End of the World, Turn Left Zhanna Slor June 7, 2022 Today I talked to Zhanna Slor about her novel At the End of the World, Turn Left (Agora Books, 2021). 19-year-old Anna’s parents won’t pay her college tuition if she studies art, the one thing she loves most. She’s been drifting from one class to another, one boyfriend to another, and can’t stand being stuck in Milwaukee. When she receives an online message from a woman in Ukraine claiming to be a long-lost sister, Anna responds despite all the warnings that she’s being scammed. She also meets a handsome ‘train-hopper’ who lures her into his risk-filled life. Anna’s sister Masha, a linguist who has been happily living in Israel, receives a one-way ticket from her father when it becomes apparent that Anna has disappeared without leaving a message. Masha hacks into Anna’s computer and starts following the trail – had she flown to Ukraine? Hopped a train with her blue-haired druggie boyfriend? And why was she wanted for questioning by the police? This is a novel about linguistics, identity, and the meaning of home, especially for the children of immigrants. Zhanna Slor was born in the former Soviet Union and moved to the Midwest in the early 1990s. She completed her undergraduate degree at University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and her master’s degree at DePaul University. She has been published in many literary magazines, including Ninth Letter, Another Chicago Magazine, and Michigan Quarterly Review, as well as contributing to the popular news publication The Forward. Her debut novel, At the End of the World, Turn Left, was called "elegant and authentic" by NPR and named by Booklist as one of the "Top Ten Crime Debuts" of 2021. Her second novel, Breakfall, a mystery/thriller set in Chicago, is due out in Spring 2023. When she’s not writing, Zhanna spends most of her free time chasing her three-year-old daughter or doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Practice Dying is about twins, David and Jamila, who seek meaning and connection from opposite ends of the world. Just as she turns 30, Jamila falls in love with an Indian pastry chef who is temporarily in New York City. < Back Practice Dying Rachel Stolzman Gullo July 16, 2019 Rachel Stolzman Gullo Practice Dying (Bedazzled Ink, 2018) is about twins, David and Jamila, who seek meaning and connection from opposite ends of the world. Just as she turns 30, Jamila falls in love with an Indian pastry chef who is temporarily in New York City. When that doomed relationship falters, she unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide, and David flies immediately home from Tibet. David is a devoted Buddhist who has been mentored by the 14th Dalai Lama. He is obsessed with a rash of self-immolations by Tibetan monks who are protesting China’s occupation of their country and attempts to annihilate their culture. In alternating chapters, the twins grapple with family bonds, spirituality, illness, death, and love. Rachel Stolzman Gullo is the author of The Sign for Drowning (Shambhala, 2008). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in various publications. Practice Dying was a semi-finalist for Best Novel in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Literary Competition, received a fellowship from Summer Literary Seminars, and was a finalist for the Inkubate Literary Blockbuster Challenge. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Yes, we eat this for breakfast! < Back Chocolate Zucchini – Apple Cake June 25, 2019 Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 30-50 Minutes Serves: 6-8 Slices of Cake Tags: Muffins and Breads, Baking, Vegetarian, Breakfast, Cakes & Pies & Icing About the Recipe p.84 Battered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery At least once a week, Kacey’s mother came over to the Whipped and Sipped Café. Isobel was another difficult woman in Alene’s orbit, and as soon as she arrived, she usually started lecturing the servers and the people sitting around her about the evils of coffee. She brought her own food in a container that she plucked from her purse. Alene would politely request that Isobel put away whatever she’d brought. “We sell raw pastries with cashew cream and chocolate pecan crusts and we have brownies made from different kinds of beans sweetened with date or coconut sugar, for goodness sake. We offer every kind of salad under the sun, Isobel. I’m sure you can find something to your liking on our menu.” “I’m sure you think your offerings are healthful,” Isobel would respond smugly, her chin jutting forward. “But I concentrate on a mostly raw, macrobiotic diet.” Alene would point out the sign on the door that politely explained their policy of not allowing patrons to bring food into the cafe. Wondering why someone with dyed-red hair, who wore mascara and leather sandals, was so concerned with being natural, she would invite Isobel to order from the raw, the vegan or the smoothie menu. Isobel would pack up what she’d brought, glowering, and grudgingly order a cup of herbal tea. Ingredients For the Cake: 1 ½ cups grated zucchini 1 small tart apple (like Gala or Honey-crisp), seeded and grated 3 eggs 1 cup packed dark brown sugar 1 ½ tsp vanilla 2 cups unbleached or gluten free flour 4 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar 1 tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips For the Icing: 1 cup semi-sweet chips ½ cup almond, rice or coconut milk ½ cup brown sugar Optional additions: 1/2 tsp cinnamon or 1/2 tsp pure vanilla or almond extract. Preparation Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and sugar two round 8” pans (a Bundt will need more time but looks nice). Throw everything into the food processor and blend until smooth. Add ¼ cup room temp water if batter is too thick. Pour into greased and sugared pan(s) of choice and bake about 30 -50 minutes until top springs back. COOL COMPLETELY before removing from pan and icing. Icing (optional): Zap 1 minute in microwave and stir until smooth. Slather between layers or thin it with water and drizzle over the top of the cake. Previous Next

The one I made nearly every Friday while my kids were growing up! < Back Apple Crisp May 25, 2019 Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 60 Minutes Serves: 9 Servings Tags: Baking, Cakes & Pies & Icing About the Recipe p.214 Battered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery “You were the one who told me about Hector-Schaf Electronics in the first place,” said Frank, chewing the crisp slowly and smiling the same way she did when she was eating something extraordinary, “but you neglected to say anything about Joan being blackmailed.” “I’m sorry,” said Alene. “It was a long time ago.” “Do you know if anyone else received a demand for money?” Frank asked. “Like your ex-mother-in-law?” “Mitzi never mentioned it,” said Alene. “She is an honest person and she wouldn’t have tolerated illegally obtained money. I told Gary that she’d probably have tossed Patrick out of her bed and her life if she knew he’d done something illegal such as helping Joan embezzle money.” Alene’s jaw had nearly dropped to the floor when Gary had asked if she thought Mitzi had tossed Patrick overboard on their cruise. Gary had also been on board when it happened. “She’d have called the police no matter what the blackmailer threatened her with,” Alene told Frank. “I once heard her rail against Neal when he couldn’t tell her what charities he supports.” “What about Neal’s father?” Alene said, “Well, you know that he died after falling off a cruise ship, right?” “That was very unusual and suspicious,” said Frank. “Yeah, it was weird, but the entire cruise industry changed their rules because of it,” said Alene Ingredients 7-8 tart apples (like Gala, Granny Smith or Fuji) - peeled and sliced thin) Juice of about half a lemon 1 tsp lemon zest 1 TBSP pure maple syrup ¼ cup fruity or berry liqueur or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 1 cup chopped toasted almonds or pecans (or mix them together) 2 cups quick oats ¼ cup whole wheat flour, almond flour, or gluten-free flour ½ cup brown sugar 2 tsp cinnamon Pinch of salt ¼ cup canola or coconut oil Preparation Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Mix dry ingredients with oil in a bowl or a zip locked bag In a large bowl, whisk syrup, lemon, zest, cinnamon, vanilla or liquor. Add apple slices and stir gently with a large spoon to evenly coat apples Spray square or pie glass pan and pour in apple mixture Press nut mixture gently over the apples to cover the entire top Bake covered with foil for about 40 minutes Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes until browned on top Previous Next

Ruth Rendell: Chief Inspector Wexford Novels (aka Barbara Vine) < Back Ruth Rendell Author of The Chief Inspector Wexford Novels April 29, 2021 1930-2015 Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. She is best known for creating Chief Inspector Wexford, starting with From Doon to Death, 1964 and ending with the 20th Inspector Wexford novel, End in Tears, 2005. Her first novel as her Barbara Vine pseudonym was A Dark-Adapted Eye , 1985. Rendell was said to have worked out her plot idea and who will commit the crime before she started writing her detective novels. She told Michael Hanlon of the Toronto Star , “I write intending this Perpetrator X in mind. I write without letting my readers know that it’s X.” She said that when she got to the last chapter, she usually found that someone else was the killer. Books under her own name tended to be more plot-driven while her Barbara Vine books focused on the mind of those with pathological, sometimes obsessive, problems. But everything of hers that I’ve read has stayed with me (often as a nightmare) over the years. Previous Next

Laurie R King: Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes, Harris Stuyvesant Books, Stand-Alone Books < Back Laurie R King Author of The Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes Mysteries September 28, 2021 Laurie R King is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels and other works, including the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes stories, beginning with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (named “One of the 20th Century’s Best Crime Novels” by the IMBA.) She has won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Lambda, Wolfe, Macavity, Creasey dagger, and Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, has an honorary doctorate in theology, and has been guest of honor at several mystery conventions. The author says she became a writer because she loves and has been nurtured by books. King never took a course in creative writing, took seven years to finish her undergrad degree, and didn’t start writing her own stories until she was in her thirties. Her language is crisp; she probes into period thought, manners, dress, and behavior but still manages to defy convention. I love that Mary Russell is a beautiful Jewish woman in whom an aging Sherlock Holmes has finally met his match. The Beekeeper's Apprentice (1994) A Monstrous Regiment of Women (1995) A Letter of Mary (1997) The Moor (1998) O Jerusalem (1999) Justice Hall (2002) The Game (2004) Locked Rooms (2005) The Language of Bees (2009) The God of the Hive (2010) Pirate King (2011) Garment of Shadows (2012) Dreaming Spies (2015) The Murder of Mary Russell (2016) Island of the Mad (2018) Riviera Gold (2020) Castle Shade (2021) The Lantern's Dance (2024) Knave of Diamonds (2025) Previous Next

Inspired by Leona Woods, the only woman who worked on the Manhattan Project, Atomic Love (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2020) tells the story of Rosalind Porter, a physicist recruited by Enrico Fermi to join his team at the University of Chicago. < Back Atomic Love Jennie Fields October 13, 2020 Inspired by Leona Woods, the only woman who worked on the Manhattan Project, Atomic Love (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2020) tells the story of Rosalind Porter, a physicist recruited by Enrico Fermi to join his team at the University of Chicago. During the war, Rosalind had fallen in love with Weaver, a fellow scientist working on the project. After the bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he suddenly drops her, and she’s fired from the project based on a false report claiming that she’d become unstable. Now she works at the antique jewelry counter in Marshall Fields’ Department Store and struggles to pay her Michigan Avenue rent. It’s 1950, five years after the war ends, and suddenly Weaver is trying to get back in her life. He broke her heart, and probably got her fired, so she never wants to see him again. But the FBI gives her a chance to make it up to all those who died because of her work on the atomic bomb. All she needs to do is go back to Weaver. Jennie Fields received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is the author of the novels Lily Beach , Crossing Brooklyn Ferry , The Middle Ages, and The Age of Desire . A Chicago native who loved Marshall Fields and used to live in the same neighborhood as her protagonist, Fields was inspired by her own mother’s work as a University of Chicago-trained biochemist in the 1950s. Fields now lives with her husband in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is working on her next novel. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Nadia is a young Bosnian refugee who has lost everyone she’s loved. In 1997 she gets into England on a fake passport and finds temp work in a shady office that might be doing something illegal. A new temp shows up and Nadia knows he’s from her country even though he says he’s Armenian. She can tell that he’s Serbian, perhaps the kind that hunted down Bosnians like her. Nadia sees danger everywhere. < Back Nadiia Christine Evans January 23, 2024 Christine Evans' Nadia (U Iowa Press, 2023) is a dark novel about how the trauma of war follows people no matter how far they’ve fled. A few years after the Balkan War, two refugees from Sarajevo are temping in the same questionable London office. Nadia, who is Bosnian, is unhinged by memories of starvation, deprivation, and losing everyone she loved, including her family and her girlfriend, Sanja. She sees potential snipers and visions of Sanja throughout London, sometimes becoming unhinged by it. All she has is her office friends, and the Indian family where she has tea with buns every day. Iggy was a Serbian sniper who gunned down Bosnians as part of a militaristic street gang, but he justifies all the innocent people he kills by weighing them against the people he saved by distracting his friends or purposefully missing. They’re both forced to confront their choices during the chaotic days of the war, but Nadia still struggles with survivor’s guilt, the ethical choices she made in taking a job in a shady office, and her queer sexuality. Christine Evans writes internationally produced plays, opera libretti, and fiction. Christine’s theater and opera work has been staged at the Sydney Opera House, the American Repertory Theater and many other venues, and her plays are published by Samuel French. She is a multiple MacDowell fellow, VCCA fellow, and a recipient of several DC Council on the Arts & Humanities Fellowships. Originally from Australia, she is a Professor of Performing Arts at Georgetown University, and lives in Washington, DC. She loves the ocean beyond all reason, dreams of dividing her time (as they say on the book jackets) between DC and Australia and has just dusted off her mandolin to start playing music again. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

A wealthy, old art collector always wants more, a successful gallery owner finds herself alone, and a famous painter at the top of his game might have been involved with the mysterious death of an art gallery employee. < Back The Violet Hour James Cahill May 5, 2026 A wealthy, old art collector always wants more, a successful gallery owner finds herself alone, and a famous painter at the top of his game might have been involved with the mysterious death of an art gallery employee. The world of buying and selling art is portrayed as hazy and ridiculous, but the astronomical numbers are serious. While some of the characters are a bit unlikable, everyone has a story and perceptions about who they are and what they need to be happy. The Violet Hour (Pegasus Books, 2026) is a well-written novel about the business of art, the power of wealth, and the transitional aspect of relationships. JAMES CAHILL was born and grew up in London. He has worked in the art world and academia for the past fifteen years, having originally studied Classics and English at Magdalen College, Oxford, followed by a master’s degree in contemporary art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. In 2018, he was awarded a PhD in Classics at the University of Cambridge. His debut novel, Tiepolo Blue (2022) was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and selected for H.M. The Queen’s Reading Room. To quote Her Majesty Queen Camilla: “Surprising, unsettling and gracefully told; ‘Tiepolo Blue’ is a story about art and academia, which reads like a thriller. ” He writes for publications including Artforum , the Financial Times , the Times Literary Supplement and the Spectator . Cahill has curated several exhibitions spanning contemporary art and classical antiquity. He divides his time between London and Los Angeles. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

When racing yacht “The Revonoc” went down in the Bermuda Triangle’s Sargasso Sea during a freakish storm in January of 1958, the sailing world was dumbfounded. The boat and five people on board, all well-known in the sailing world, completely vanished. < Back Set Adrift: A Mystery and A Memoir Sarah Conover June 27, 2023 When racing yacht “The Revonoc” went down in the Bermuda Triangle’s Sargasso Sea during a freakish storm in January of 1958, the sailing world was dumbfounded. The boat and five people on board, all well-known in the sailing world, completely vanished. Only the dinghy showed up a few days later, but all searches over the following months turned up nothing at all. Sarah Conover, the youngest of the two daughters of Lori and Larry, and granddaughters of Dorothy and Harvey, became an orphan that day. As an adult, Sarah began to ask questions about her parents and grandparents – her memoir weaves interviews with family members, articles, and official Coast Guard reports that Sarah studies to understand her ongoing feelings of loss, loneliness, and depression. Ultimately, her final thought is “There is no true story. Only mercy.” Sarah Conover holds a BA in comparative religions from the University of Colorado, and an MFA in creative writing from Eastern Washington University. She has worked as a television producer for PBS and Internews (an international media NGO), a social worker for Catholic Charities, a public school teacher, and taught creative writing through the community colleges of Spokane, Washington. She is the author of six books on world wisdom traditions and spirituality published by Skinner House Books, the educational publishing arm of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Her poetry, essays and interviews have been published in a variety of literary magazines and anthologies. She is a feature writer and columnist for Tricycle Magazine: the Buddhist Review and has taught meditation for many years at Airway Heights Corrections Center and within the Spokane community. Ms. Conover was a recipient of Washington State’s Grants for Artist’s Projects (GAP grant) and writing fellowships from the Ucross Foundation in Clearmont, Wyoming, and the Willapa Bay Artist Residence Program in Oysterville, Washington. She lives in a condo in Spokane, Washington and in her beloved yurtiverse at the base of the North Cascades in Winthrop, Washington, where she and her husband are building a small hermitage for monastic retreats. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next

Bad Lies tells the story of Eddie Bennison, who is over 50 when he makes it into the professional golf circuit. In two years, he wins millions of dollars in endorsements and prize money. Then a leading golf magazine publishes articles that suggest he unfairly tampered with his clubs and used performance-enhancing drugs. < Back Bad Lies Shelby Yastrow and Tony Jacklin November 1, 2018 Questions about freedom of the press, defamation, libel and slander have been in the news quite a bit lately. Bad Lies (Mascot Books, 2017) tells the story of Eddie Bennison, who is over 50 when he makes it into the professional golf circuit. In two years, he wins millions of dollars in endorsements and prize money. Then a leading golf magazine publishes articles that suggest he unfairly tampered with his clubs and used performance-enhancing drugs. Bennison loses all his endorsements and his ability to play the game. His lawyer, Charlie Mayfield, files a libel and slander lawsuit against the magazine and its powerful corporate owner. Then a woman accuses Bennison of sexually assaulting and beating her. While the lawyers on both sides build their arguments and tensions rise, we’re kept guessing right up to the moment when the jury foreman announces the verdict. Lawyer and author Shelby Yastrow , formerly General Counsel and Executive Vice President for McDonald’s Corporation, wrote two previous novels based on civil lawsuits that he litigated, and one non-fiction book about franchising the world’s largest hair-salon franchise. World-famous British professional golfer Tony Jacklin , who won many tournaments and helped popularize golf around the world, was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002. He is also the author of several autobiographical books about golf. Listen to Episode Buy Book Previous Next