Author's posts
We have a terrific excerpt for you today, dear readers, from a debut novelist who isn’t afraid to explore the bleeding edge of espionage! Long-time readers will know that I’m a sucker for a mythological retelling, especially in a new and unexpected genre. M B Courtenay’s A Spy Inside The Castle riffs off the myth …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/09/a-spy-inside-the-castle-by-m-b-courtenay-excerpt/
adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name. I love that this powerful middle grade story was adapted to the graphic novel format because that feels so much more accessible to a wider variety of readers, not only to kids with short attention spans but also to adults with less time on our hands …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/08/ghost-boys-the-graphic-novel-by-jewell-parker-rhodes-setor-fiadzigbey/
Hello, readers! Today, I’m super thrilled to be able to bring you a guest post from debut author Raidah Shah Idil, whose middle grade novel How To Free A Jinn was only recently published this past November. Like myself, Pn Raidah is a member of the Malay diaspora. In her guest post, she talks about …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/05/how-to-free-a-jinn-by-raidah-shah-idil-guest-post/
Honestly, every new Tamara Berry book is a treat, and I’m so glad I could finally get to this one! I’ve read all of her other mystery novels save one, and it was so disappointing to learn that her publishers aren’t picking up more of either of her prior series, both of which are excellently …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/04/murder-runs-in-the-family-by-tamara-berry/
subtitled A Story of the Louvre Museum and Architect I.M. Pei. I had no idea that the glass pyramid of the Louvre was only built in 1989! For some reason, I thought it was far more modern, tho perhaps I just wasn’t paying much attention at the time. After all, I’d visited the Louvre a …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/03/the-glass-pyramid-by-jeanne-walker-harvey-khoa-le/
translated from the original Czech by Martha Kuhlman. Part of the problem with preferring to go in blind to books after I initially say yes to them (usually months and months ago) as a professional book critic is that I’m sometimes blindsided by topics that I didn’t think a book would cover to the extent …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/01/heartcore-by-stepanka-jislova/
And now for a little counter-programming… (she says, having already bought a huge stack of gifts online.) Subtitled Fantasy and Science Fiction from a Powerful African Voice (and with a foreword by Eugen Bacon,) this collection definitely functions as both a critique of capitalism and other exploitative systems, as well as a celebration of Ghana …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/11/28/black-friday-short-stories-from-africa-by-cheryl-s-ntumy/
It is the day before Thanksgiving and I’m so tired. Are you tired? This year has been endless, and even reading has become something of a chore. My brain keeps yearning for something that’s charming and mildly stimulating that doesn’t feel like work. So you can imagine my relief at cracking open this book and …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/11/26/murder-among-the-stacks-by-rosie-a-point-charles-timmerman/
Small beginnings is right, as a humble young monk finds himself plunged into an epic quest over the course of this science fantasy adventure! Zeek has only ever known life at the monastery. For the most part, he enjoys his work of transcribing books, even if he’d much rather be having adventures than copying them …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/11/25/sunder-tome-one-small-beginnings-by-pierre-alexandre-comtois-mark-englert-buddy-beaudoin/
Patricia Crisafulli is back with the third book in her Ohnita Harbor Mystery Series, starring small town librarian, authenticator and educator Gabriela Domenici! Our heroine is excited about the latest assignment she’s devised for her students. The Traitor’s Map that was recently donated to an Ohnita museum might not be the most accurate map of …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/11/24/the-secrets-of-the-old-post-cemetery-by-patricia-crisafulli-excerpt/