Writing fiction is a lot like playing chess: very few people actually understand how it’s done, and most seem to think it involves randomly moving things around and shouting out words (checkmate!). There are a finite number of moves, pieces, openings, and endgames, and the trick isn’t to invent a whole new way of playing, but […]
Lauren Owen’s The Quick, about aristocratic monsters stalking London’s streets during Victorian England, is pitch-perfect and unputdownable. Like the best horror novels, it uses its subject to address real-world issues—in this case, class—but doesn’t allow its metaphorical weight to hold it down. This is a book to choose over sleeping; to savor in the small […]
![The Mysterious Affair at Styles [Illustrated] (Hercule Poirot Series)](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/2940012762979_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "The Mysterious Affair at Styles [Illustrated] (Hercule Poirot Series)")
