Review: BENNY RAMIREZ AND THE NEARLY DEPARTED by José Pablo Iriarte

Feb 072024
 

Kirkus: When Latin music great Ignacio Ramírez dies, his path to a rewarding afterlife is hindered by unfinished business that demands resolution.

Not only is Benny Ramírez the grandson of a famous Cuban American musician, but everyone else in his family has a talent, too: Papi is a well-regarded Hollywood producer, Mami has a gift for languages, older sister Cristina is a star dancer, and younger brother Manny is a promising actor. When the family inherits Benny’s estranged grandfather’s Miami home after his death, they leave Los Angeles, and the Ramírez kids enter the South Miami Performing Arts School, where Benny, who feels like he isn’t special, struggles to fit in. Fortunately, his musician abuelo’s spectral presence is tied to his mansion, unable to move on. Ignacio must figure out what his unfinished business is and resolve it by New Year’s. Only Benny can see Abuelo, who insists that helping Benny follow in his footsteps to become a world-famous trumpet player must be his unresolved task. Unfortunately, Ignacio has a history of egocentric behavior and little respect for boundaries, which leads Benny into many scrapes. The plot is reminiscent of other ghostly redemption tales, reinforcing the moral that family and community are more valuable than riches and fame. Iriarte writes with a lighthearted touch and includes ample physical comedy; the humor and Cuban American cultural touchstones make this work a welcome addition to the genre.
A humorous and haunting riff on a classic storyline. (Paranormal. 8-12)

THE TAINTED CUP by Robert Jackson Bennett

Feb 062024
 

In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empire’s borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death both terrifying and impossible.

Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she can solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana’s brilliance. Din is at turns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior—but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana’s mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

By an “endlessly inventive” (Vulture) author with a “wicked sense of humor” (NPR), The Tainted Cup mixes the charms of detective fiction with brilliant world-building to deliver a fiendishly clever mystery that’s at once instantly recognizable and thrillingly new.

January Translation Deals

Jan 312024
 

French rights to Martha Wells’ SYSTEM COLLAPSE, the newest installment in the New York Times bestselling Murderbot Diaries series, to L’Atlante, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

German rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ SYSTEM COLLAPSE, the seventh installment in the Murderbot Diaries series, to Heyne, by Sarah Knofius at the Thomas Schlueck Agency in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

German rights to USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw’s HAMMERS ON BONE and A SONG FOR QUIET, to Buchheim Verlag, by Sarah Knofius at the Thomas Schlueck Agency for Michael Curry.

Italian rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ WITCH KING and CITY OF BONES, to Ne/oN Libris, by Stefania Fietta at Donzelli Fietta Agency in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Italian rights to Katherine Addison’s THE GOBLIN EMPEROR, to Marco Rana at Edizione E/O, by Stefania Fietta at Donzelli Fietta, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier, for Cameron McClure.

Polish rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ NETWORK EFFECT, the fifth book in The Murderbot Diaries, to MAG Jacek Rodek, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Portuguese rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ ALL SYSTEMS RED, the first book in The Murderbot Diaries, to Relogio d’Agua, by Amaiur Fernández at International Editors Co. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Review: THE TAINTED CUP by Robert Jackson Bennett

Jan 302024
 

Kirkus: Sherlock Holmes meets Game of Thrones.

Call Bennett’s latest a drawing-room mystery, albeit the drawing room is the size of a small otherworldly kingdom. It begins, natch, with a corpse. “You were informed that the nature of his death was an alteration, yes, sir?” So asks a military officer of young Signum Dinios Kol, a.k.a. Din, who’s noted that a tree has torn the unfortunate victim apart. Din works for an oddball private detective, Immunis Anagosa Dolabra, a.k.a. Ana, who combines the wiles of Irene Adler with the eccentricities of Sherlock Holmes, including his penchant for narcotics. Din suspects that members of the Haza clan, corrupt 1 percenters, are mixed up in the nastiness, for they’re in the way of acquiring some real estate in the area, and the victim was an impediment. The whole business is complicated by the fact that someone has been undermining the walls of the empire so that leviathans can slither in from the ocean and add their mischief to the evil doings of errant titans abroad in the land. Ana has a fierce temper and is more loquacious than the subdued but sometimes lethal Din: “I do so admire,” she tells him, “how you can be a flippant shit with a mere handful of syllables. Quite a talent.” Bennett borrows from his own Foundryside series for a detail: Where those books involved a strange art called “scriving,” here Din is an Imperial engraver, “altered to remember everything I experienced, always and forever,” handy when it comes to memorizing safe combinations and the exact wording of past conversations. With plenty of red herrings—beg pardon, red leviathans—and neatly imagined plot twists to work through, the reader fond of faux medieval neologisms and occasional grownup moments (“a glimpse of her body, and a winking tuft of pubic thatch”) will enjoy solving the mystery with our heroes.

A rousing adventure for alt-fantasy fans.

December Translation Deals

Dec 312023
 

Italian rights to Jo Walton’s AMONG OTHERS, to Marco Rana at Edizione E/O, by Stefania Fietta at Donzelli Fietta, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Italian rights to C.L. Polk’s THE MIDNIGHT BARGAIN, to Marco Rana at Edizione E/O, by Stefania Fietta at Donzelli Fietta, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Caitlin McDonald.

Turkish rights to Melissa K. Roehrich’s LADY OF DARKNESS and LADY OF SHADOWS, to Ren Kitap, in a two-book deal, by Merve Öngen at AnatoliaLit Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

French rights to Melissa K. Roehrich’s LADY OF DARKNESS series and LEGACY series, to Guy Tredaniel, at auction, in a very nice deal, in a nine-book deal, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

Hungarian rights to New York Times bestselling author Tamsyn Muir’s PRINCESS FLORALINDA AND THE FORTY-FLIGHT TOWER, to Fumax, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Italian rights to Jeanette Ng’s UNDER THE PENDULUM SUN, to Marco Rana at Edizione E/O, by Stefania Fietta at Donzelli Fietta, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Jennie Goloboy.

Spanish audio rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ WITCH KING, to Recorded Books, by Amaiur Fernández at International Editors Co. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

November Translation Deals

Nov 302023
 

Annika Martin’s THE GRUMPY BILLIONAIRE, Book 8 of Billionaires of Manhattan series,  to Petra Kruijt at April (The Netherlands), by Vere Bank at Sebes & Bisseling, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Spanish rights to Jo Walton’s NECESSITY, to Duermevela, by Amaiur Fernandez at International Editors’, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Ukrainian rights to New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s STORM FRONT, FOOL MOON and GRAVE PERIL, the first three novels in the Dresden Files series, to Art Publishers “Nebo” LLC, by Sanja Stefanjesko at Prava i Prevodi in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

French rights to Nnedi Okorafor’s BINTI TRILOGY, WHO FEARS DEATH and THE BOOK OF PHOENIX, to Livre de Poche, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Donald Maass.

French rights to Nnedi Okorafor’s NOOR, to Rivages, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Donald Maass.

Japanese rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ SYSTEM COLLAPSE, the seventh book in the Murderbot Diaries series, to Tokyo Sogensha, by Shreya De Sousa at The English Agency (Japan) in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Starred Review: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Nov 282023
 

Library Journal:  It’s Dinios Kol’s first murder case as the junior assistant to the brilliant, irascible, and much senior investigator Ana Dolabra. Din has been magically engineered to retain every single detail of everything he sees and hears, which should be a boon in his work. But not when the victim is dead as the result of a tree growing out of his lungs. Ana uses Din’s observations to determine not just whodunnit but how this uniquely gruesome murder was accomplished. Her investigation, however, discomfits the rich and powerful even as the monstrous climate impedes the search and destroys the evidence. Bennett’s (Locklands) series opener introduces readers to a conspiracy of murder and skullduggery as seen through the eyes of a naive junior investigator who is forced to grow up fast and hard as his boss and mentor, the rather Sherlockian Ana, threads her way through a complex conspiracy of murders.

Starred Review: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Nov 162023
 

Publishers Weekly: Bennett (the Founders trilogy) brilliantly melds genres in this exceptional mystery-fantasy, the first in his Shadow of the Leviathan series. Dinios Kol has been tapped to serve as the new assistant to Ana Dolabra, an eccentric investigator with a reputation for solving cases blindfolded and without leaving her home. Dolabra’s recently been reassigned from the Khanum Empire’s richest enclaves to a dull backwater, where she and Kol get a knotty problem to untangle. Kol, whose prior experience consists of investigating pay fraud in the Khanum military, is dispatched to the scene of an unnatural death at the estate of the Haza clan, one of the wealthiest in the land, who mysteriously maintain a house out in the sticks. Commander Taqtasa Blas was found in a guest bedroom with some leafy trees sprouting through his body. Blas, a friend of the Hazas, had a reputation for harassing the estate’s female staff. Kol uses magic fluid to “engrave” the crime scene, impressing every detail on his mind to relate to his superior. Dolabra is intrigued by the apparently supernatural killing and sets about using her superior deductive skills to identify the killer. The worldbuilding is immediately involving, Bennett’s take on a classic detective duo dynamic feels fresh and exciting, and the mystery itself twists and turns delightfully. Readers will be wowed.

October Translation Deals

Oct 312023
 

James Scott Bell’s POWER UP YOUR FICTION, to 21st Century Culture Center (Korea), by Sue Yang at Eric Yang Agency on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Donald Maass.

Micaiah Johnson’s THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS, to Editora 14 (Brazil), by Flavia Sala at International Editors’, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Shaun David Hutchinson’s THE SCHOOL FOR INVISIBLE BOYS, to Nube de Tinta (Spain), by Amaiur Fernandez at International Editors’, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

K. Webster’s TRIPLE THREAT and DEATH WISH, to Grupo Portal (Brazil), by Cristina Purchio at International Editors’, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

Czech rights to Seth Dickinson’s EXORDIA, to Host, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Portuguese rights to New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop’s THE QUEEN’S PRICE, the latest book in her Black Jewels series, to Saída de Emergência, by Amaiur Fernández at International Editors’ Co. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Portuguese (Brazil) rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ ALL SYSTEMS RED, the first book in the Murderbot Diaries series, to Editora Aleph, by Cristina Purchio at International Editors’ Co. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

LJ Andrew’s CROWN OF BLOOD AND RUIN and THE EVER KING, to City Editions (France), in a two-book deal, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

Melissa K. Roehrich’s LADY OF DARKNESS and LADY OF SHADOWS, to Heyne (Germany), in a two-book deal, by Sarah Knofius at Thomas Schlueck Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

Seven Shades of Evil by Robert McCammon

Oct 242023
 

From his first appearance in Speaks the Nightbird to his latest adventure in The King of Shadows, Matthew Corbett has faced enemies of all kinds, from serial killers to sorcerers. Now author Robert McCammon presents eight gripping stories featuring the professional problem solver and his associates that take place between the popular novels.

Seven Shades of Evil includes four original stories, including “Wandering Mary,” and four additional tales that previously appeared in limited form and are no longer available elsewhere. Ranging from twisting murder plots to ominous portents of the paranormal, these stories are an intriguing blend of everything that has drawn readers to the Matthew Corbett series for more than twenty years.

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