On the Smugglers’ Radar

“On The Smugglers’ Radar” is a feature for books that have caught our eye: books we have heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. Thus, the Smugglers’ Radar was born. Because we want far more books than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?), we thought we would make the Smugglers’ Radar into a weekly feature – so YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!

On Ana’s Radar:

I loved Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman and can’t wait for her next book, Mr Nobody:

Who is Mr. Nobody?

When a man is found on a British beach, drifting in and out of consciousness, with no identification and unable to speak, interest in him is sparked immediately. From the hospital staff who find themselves inexplicably drawn to him, to international medical experts who are baffled by him, to the national press who call him Mr. Nobody, everyone wants answers. Who is this man? And what happened to him?

Some memories are best forgotten.

Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Emma Lewis is asked to assess the patient in a small town deep in the English countryside. This is her field of expertise, this is the chance she’s been waiting for, and this case could make her name known across the world. But therein lies the danger. Emma left this same town fourteen years ago and has taken great pains to cover all traces of her past since then.

Places aren’t haunted…people are.

But now something—or someone—is calling her back. And the more time she spends with her patient, the more alarmed she becomes that he knows the one thing about her that nobody is supposed to know.

This has been described as a “experimental disaster” novel and I am here for that:

When Alex Dolan is hired by multibillionaire Stanislaw Clayton to write a book about the Sioux Crossing Supercollider, it seems like a dream job.

Then something goes wrong at the site. Very wrong.

After the incident, Dolan finds himself changed, and the only one who can stop the disaster from destroying us all.

IAnd here is another thriller I think sounds rather well, topical:

A terrifyingly plausible, darkly satirical near-future thriller—in an America wracked by violence, unemployment, and climate change, a mega-corporation named Cloud brands itself a global savior. But two of its employees are about to learn the truth.

Cloud isn’t just an online storefront. It’s changing the world. The company’s massive warehouses keep millions of Americans employed, and its green-energy initiatives are turning back the clock on catastrophic climate change.

Best of all, the company’s live-work facilities are models for a new environmentally sustainable way of living. Powered by Cloud’s solar farms, these MotherClouds are crime-free, climate-controlled utopias, where workers live minutes from their jobs, not hours, and their every need is anticipated by Cloud’s high-tech facilities.

Or at least, that’s the pitch. Cloud’s latest two employees—security guard Paxton and stock-picker Zinnia—are learning that life in the Cloud isn’t quite as wonderful as it’s made out to be. Twenty-four/seven monitoring. Mandatory overtime. The employee star system and the horrors of cut day. Navigating Cloud’s massive warehouse; meeting ruthless quotas. But still—it’s better than going back outside, right? And at least they’ve found each other.

Except that Zinnia is not what she seems. She’s a corporate spy, infiltrating Cloud on a mission that could bring the company to its knees. And Paxton, with his all-access security credentials? He’s her meal ticket.

When Cloud’s ailing founder arrives at the MotherCloud on his farewell tour, Zinnia is forced into a desperate scheme that risks Paxton’s life, even as it leads her to the horrifying truths at the center of the Cloud.

In my pursuit of all things time travel I found this upcoming one from Nina Allan:

Martin Newland is fascinated by time. Watches and clocks are for him metaphorical time machines, a means of coming to terms with the past and voyaging into the future. But was his first timepiece a Smith, given to him on his fourteenth birthday, or the Longines he received four years later? Was it the small brass travelling clock unearthed in the run-down house for which he is to act as estate agent? And who is the maker of these time machines

This debut LGBT YA Fantasy sounds great:

After the War of Kinds ravaged the kingdom of Rabu, the Automae, designed to be the playthings of royals, usurped their owners’ estates and bent the human race to their will.

Now Ayla, a human servant rising in the ranks at the House of the Sovereign, dreams of avenging her family’s death…by killing the sovereign’s daughter, Lady Crier.

Crier was Made to be beautiful, flawless, and to carry on her father’s legacy. But that was before her betrothal to the enigmatic Scyre Kinok, before she discovered her father isn’t the benevolent king she once admired, and most importantly, before she met Ayla.

Now, with growing human unrest across the land, pressures from a foreign queen, and an evil new leader on the rise, Crier and Ayla find there may be only one path to love: war.

And that’s it from us! What books do you have on your radar?