August, 2022 Newsletter 

Happy August! 

Do you also feel as though the summer has flown by? I keep reminding myself that there's a whole month left, more or less, and that I need to stop and enjoy it. We've been harvesting blueberries here, trying to keep up with the weeds in the vegetable garden, and moving our sheep around to new pastures so they can fill their bellies with sweet summer grass. I've also had some really fun book events this month and send thanks to everyone who attended virtually or in person!

As I write this, my husband and I are convalescing with Covid. We dropped all of the kids off at camp and were looking forward to our first real stretch of child-free time in seventeen years and then . . . Covid got us. But, we're lucky to be vaccinated and to have come through it relatively easily. While we've rested, we've loved watching the series The Bear, about a chef who returns home to Chicago to run his family's sandwich shop. Highly recommended. I've also done a lot of reading and will recommend some titles below. 

Looking ahead to the fall, I'm gearing up for Bouchercon, the world mystery convention, in Minnneapolis, and the Green Mountain Book Festival here in Vermont, both in September, as well as to Crimebake, the New England mystery convention, which will be held in Dedham, Massachusetts in November. Fingers crossed all of these events will happen safely and successfully. 

I'm working on a new writing project and waiting for my editor's feedback on Maggie #4. Once I get that, I'll jump back into the manuscript for a fairly substantial revision. I've liked having some time away from the book to work on other things and to think about the characters and plot some more. I can't wait to share the title, the cover, and more details with you this fall. 

Enjoy these fleeting days of summer and make sure to make time for reading. 

All best, 

Sarah

Whether consciously or subconsciously, I find my reading often comes in pairs or groups. I like to find thematically or otherwise related books to read together and I've found some great ones lately! I'm a Le Carré fan from way back and I'm always on the lookout for new-to-me spy fiction. These are my three recent favorites: Mick Herron's Slow Horses series, about failed MI5 operatives who might not be such failures after all, is smart, wry, and so entertaining. I loved the first and second installments (as well as the new series) and can't wait to keep going. Alma Katsu's Red Widow is a high energy thriller about a woman in the CIA investigating the death of a Russian double agent and realizing she can't trust anyone in her orbit. And I've only just started Dan Fesperman's Winter Work, which has been getting a lot of buzz, but I'm already enthralled. 

Here are two novels I recently read that project into a post-Covid future, a future where the past few years have been a prelude to other strains and viruses, other pandemics. I am such a fan of Carol Goodman's work and I loved the thrilling, eerie The Disinvited Guest, set on an island off the coast of Maine and delving into past public health emergencies and quarantine, as well as some Irish history and folklore, and asking whether the past is ever really buried. Peter Heller’s The Guide is a thrilling piece of wilderness noir, set at a remote fishing lodge, where the wealthy can escape the post-Covid virus strains that plague most Americans. Both novels contain beautiful descriptions of the natural world, juxtaposed with terrible human (and possibly not-quite-human) deeds. I found both riveting!