Bury The Lead by Cassondra Windwalker

Weekly newspaper editor Jeff Paine's mind is filled with the detritus of newspaper clippings, presidential tweets, crossword puzzles, and horoscopes. When his artist girlfriend Ada Grigori announces her intention to leave him, he becomes obsessed with finding—or manufacturing—connections between otherwise unrelated events. Driven by professional curiosity and unrelenting cynicism, Paine uses his newspaper to manipulate the people of his hometown of Brisby, Colorado into revealing the ugliness lurking beneath their placid exteriors. A series of gruesome dog mutilations already have the town on edge when Paine’s carefully worded and technically factual stories stir up vigilante justice against a harmless old homeless man. Spurred on by the unexpected ease of his success, Paine sets his sights on exploiting the town’s hidden prejudices for financial gain and his own amusement. Meanwhile, no-one but Paine notices that a young transient man has gone missing. Exasperated with the plasticity of public sentiment and consumed by his own search for truth, Paine creates a trail of evidence that will ultimately both convict him of murder and set him free on appeal. The public will never know the truth of what became of Ada or of the young transient Brett, but the reader will have all the answers…if she can decipher them. Bury The Lead draws readers into the mind of a brilliant but highly unreliable narrator, forcing them to question their own perceptions of objective truth and the existence of a free press in a world where an unsubstantiated tweet can carry more power than an investigative report.

Entanglement: A Dystopian Sci-Fi Thriller by Alina Leonova

Cay thinks he may be going insane. His partner isn’t herself. He can only surmise that she’s been replaced, which is impossible. And yet… In a desperate attempt to discover the truth, Cay gives up his identity and flees home. Cutting out the implant that connects him to society is an unforgivable crime, but it may be the only way to find the people who can help him. His path leads him to the underworld where he meets Vietra. She wants to run from her past but can’t leave it behind. Together, they get a chance to discover why the world has set out to destroy them. Will the answers they find save them, or bring their downfall? Readers call Entanglement mind-bending, exciting, and unpredictable. This cyber-punk thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final page.

Life Long by Ronald L. Ruiz

NAMED TO KIRKUS REVIEWS’ BEST BOOKS OF 2017 Ray Lopez is on the run with a duffel bag full of cash. Both drug dealers and the police are after him. But Ray is not a criminal. His last brush with the law was over traffic tickets. Recently released from the hospital with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, he is haunted by voices, auditory hallucinations, that frighten him and cause him to question his every move. Ray’s journey from California to Laredo is perilous. Like so many Americans before him, he travels through unfamiliar territory with no clear way of knowing who will help and who will harm him. And he may well find himself on the wrong side of the border with a mind that has no borders.

Sticks by Pippa Greene

Damnable, broom-handle-sized sticks keep tumbling out of Nowhere and materializing into wretched Barbara's, Spartan apartment. But why? Before the appearance of the sticks, Barbara, was already far too anxious. Now she is losing sleep and, as a consequence, has grown decidedly snappish at work. Barbara's boss directs her to the "company" psychiatrist, a charming man, who, quite predictably, prescribes talk therapy and a dose of anti-depressants. Nevertheless, other pestering apparitions begin to present themselves--even in spite of Barbara's determination to live a quiet, utterly predictable, and rigidly unvaried life. Ultimately, the ghost of Barbara's father appears, rapping on the walls of Barbara's apartment, issuing orders via the "Ouija Board," and worse, using Barbara as a means of satisfying its own carnal appetites. Then one night unexpectedly, Father declares that he had never ever engineered his own presumptive suicide. Now had he? Father demands, therefore, that Barbara uncover his murderer. As Barbara begins to unmask the past, Barbara is faced with disturbing realities. In fact, one of these, in human form, is plotting to bludgeon Barbara to death...