Beach reading is a state of mind, and in the state of Alabama the season begins early and lasts long. From a few dozen select titles out early in 2023, we’ve curated a book list to prime the reading waters of early summer days and late summer nights. For full reviews on several of the titles included here, we’ve included the links. For more reviews, visit cullmantimes.com and select the “columns” tab.

‘The Rail Splitter’ by John Cribb (Republic Books, 370 pages, Feb. 2)

“The Rail Splitter” isn’t John Cribb’s first novelization about the life of our nation’s 16th president, but it’s unique in both the author’s oeuvre and the canon of Lincoln literature en masse. The story begins with Lincoln’s youth on the frontier and Cribb not only chronicles the adventures that will lead a young man to the presidency — that’s where his previous novel, “Old Abe,” picks up — he tells a story part love, part coming-of-age in a way that both humanizes and educates the life of America’s rags-to-riches president. We spoke with the author about his new book earlier in the year. Read that interview at https://tinyurl.com/5vjecrtb.

‘In the Porches of My Ears’ by Norman Prentiss (Cemetery Dance Publications, 344 pages, Feb. 7)

Prolific horror writer Norman Prentiss won the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Long Fiction, but he also won a 2009 Stoker for his short story, “In the Porches of My Ears.” Cemetery Dance Publications recently published a debut full-length collection of stories that opens with the 2009 award winner: The story about an overheard conversation in a movie theater that has … unexpected … effects on a couple’s relationship is just the tip of the unsettling tales to follow. While the book is available in print and digital, also visit the author’s website, normanprentiss.com, for a free story download as of the time of the publication of this review.

‘Bright and Deadly Things’ by Lexie Elliott (Berkley, 380 pages, Feb. 14)

Lexie Elliott grew up in Scotland at the foot of the Highlands, earned a doctoral degree in theoretical physics from Oxford and her novels (including “The French Girl” and “How to Kill Your Best Friend”) typically reflect an erudite tone gained through her travels. In “Bright and Deadly Things,” mysteries are buried at the top of the world in an atmospherically offering the brings us to the Gothic-esque setting of the Chalet des Anglais. As Dr. Emily Rivers, a recently widowed, non-medical Oxford don invited to the rustic and rural mountaintop for a university retreat, the novel delves into psychological suspense as the death (murder?) of a student is revealed. Read the review at https://tinyurl.com/mry4n2ta.

‘Lay This Body Down’ by Charles Fergus (Arcade CrimeWise, 322 pages, Feb. 14)

Similar to Cribb’s “The Rail Splitter,” Charles Fergus’ third offering in his three-book Gideon Stoltz Mystery series is a textured historical novel laced with action and the author’s signature intricate plotting. Highly readable, “Lay This Body Down” takes place in pre-Civil War America where human beings are considered chattel. The Pennsylvania Sheriff Stoltz, though, has his own mind about slavery when he is presented with the ethical dilemma on whether or not to uphold the Federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. From there, the murder of a white man, the disappearance of free Black people and a runaway boy from a Southern plantation converge to form one of the most important stories you’ll read this year. The novel works well as a standalone, but after being introduced to the young Stoltz, his wife, Truly, and the town, you’ll want to add “A Stranger Here Below” and “Nighthawk’s Wing” to your summer reading list.

‘Dempsey’ by Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson (Blackstone Publishing, 412 pages, Feb. 21)

“Dempsey” is book 7 of The Tier One Thrillers (“meet the next generation of covert ops”) as a former Tier One Navy Seal, John Dempsey, works through physical, mental and ethical challenges to become one of the world’s most lethal spies. This story begins after Task Force Ember’s successful intervention in Ukraine and as Dempsey disappears. Intelligence places him in Russia, presumably captured by the Russian FSB. The spy is presumed dead, but not is all as it seems in the stories from the writing team of Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson.

‘Hospital’ by Han Song, translated by Michael Berry (Amazon Crossing, 405 pages, March 1)

Han Song’s “Hospital” is likely to be the most unusual book you’ll take to the beach this summer. It will also be one of the most beautiful — unwrap the textured dust cover on the hardcover and you’ll find an exquisite library binding, the likes of which today are a rarity for a mass-produced trade edition at a “reading copy” book-afffordable price. Beyond the cover of this darkly satirical tale, the imaginative sci-fi selection spills out through the life of Yang Wei. When Wei travels to C City for work, he expects a normal business trip. The trip becomes a trap after a bout of stomach pain in his hotel room leaves him unconscious but waking up three days later to be sent to a hospital for examination. A confusing descent into the ever-spiraling workings of the hospital reveals secrets that are being hidden from the patients, culminating in a journey through a corrupt system and Wei’s increasingly tortured mind. “Hospital” is a psychological and philosophical suspense, dream-like tale that hearkens to the work of Haruki Murakami. Watch for book 2, “Exorcism,” in a follow-up to this visionary tale in November.

‘The Watchmaker’s Daughter’ by Larry Loftis (William Morrow, 506 pages, March 7)

The subtitle of Larry Loftis’ new book is perfectly in sync with its title to enchant lovers of stories — and especially lovers of heroical, historical stories centering on the Holocaust. Drawn with details from primary sources and personal archives, “The Watchmaker’s Daughter: The true story of World War II heroine Corrie Ten Boom,” is the first true biography of the Dutch watchmaker who saved hundreds of Jews — but at a cost of her own imprisonment and the murders of her family. Many of us know from her quintessential work, “The Hiding Place,” of how Ten Boom would risk everything to help Jews and underground workers escape the Nazis, would survive a concentration camp, go on to forgive her captors and become one of history’s most vocal and effective Christian missionaries. Loftis, a master of nonfiction storytelling (“The Princess Spy”) lays that foundation well throughout this seminal work: “He nodded toward the showers. ‘Use the drainholes!’ Corrie led Betsie inside. “Quick, take off your woolen underwear.’ Betsie did and Corrie removed the Bible hiding inside her dress, wrapped it in both pair of undergarments, and set it in a corner. They couldn’t survive with their Bible, she felt, and she hoped she could sneak back in after receiving the dress and retrieve it.” “The Hiding Place” is a masterwork of faith triumphant, and “The Watchmaker’s Daughter” offers us the formation of that triumphant faith. Reminiscent of “Schindler’s List,” Loftis’ work is similarly destined to become a cornerstone of World War II nonfiction.

‘Philanthropists: Inspector Mislan and the Executioners’ by Rozlan Mohd Noor (Arcade CrimeWise, 258 pages, March 7)

If the lure of a thrilling international crime novel — and perhaps the first police procedure to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns on policing — isn’t quite enough, the cover blurb from Michael Connelly will tip the scales: “Inspector Mislan Latif is my kind of detective. Harry Bosch would ride shotgun with him anytime.” Mohd Noor spent 11 years as a crime investigator for the Royal Malaysia Police and court prosecutor before successfully taking his work private — and to paper. His first Inspector Mislan novel, “21 Immortals,” was shortlisted for several international prizes and this, his fifth Mislan title, is on that same trajectory. Playing off Mislan’s backstory — much like his American counterpart, Bosch — the inspector is back on 24-hour duty following an assassination attempt eight months earlier. When the call of an execution-style double murder comes in, the mystery is just beginning: with the bodies are three pounds of drugs, no identifying documents, wallets or phones, and although the crimes were called in, nobody heard a thing. Discovering that the dead men are Rohingyan immigrants adds a prohibitive texture to the case — tensions between the local community and Rohingyan refugees fleeing persecution in Myanmar are already high. At the same time, and almost stifling their investigation, the rise of deaths from the spiraling pandemic leads the Malaysian government to implement a Movement Control Order — and it’s all hands on deck for officers to help with roadblocks. A nice twist on the part of the author turns an international story local, as this smart, fast-paced whodunit is layered competently with an eye-opening foreign focus on global policing.

‘Her Deadly Game’ by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer, 371 pages, March 28)

The pieces on a chess board are black and white, but Robert Dugoni grays the game by taking us into the mind and motivation of attorney Keera Duggan in the first of his new legal thriller series, “Her Deadly Game.” Duggan is a generational lawyer: Her father, Patsy “the Irish Brawler” Duggan, has made a legendary reputation in Seattle’s criminal defense arena. Here he welcomes his daughter into the family firm after Keera leaves the DA’s office following a disastrous romantic relationship with a senior colleague. But the Duggan firm of today is not the firm of old. Tarnished by Patsy’s alcoholism, the practice now only fields low-level criminal cases — something that Keera plans to change. Working through familial baggage, in addition to working for the defense after a career in prosecution — “You have that look,” Patsy said. … “That look young defense attorneys get when they realize the person they’re fighting so hard to get off is guilty.” — texture the story in ways remembrance of Dugoni’s popular Tracy Crosswhite series. Bringing in cross-story detectives Vic Fazzio and Del Castigliano — both of whom, like Tracy, Kerra had worked with on the prosecutorial side of the fence — is also a welcome addition to the story, making “Her Deadly Game” not so much a new series starter, but exactly what it is: a family affair. Read the full review of “Her Deadly Game” at https://tinyurl.com/yp78zx9x

‘Off the Bench’ by Fred Bowen (Peachtree, 141 pages, Mach 28, reading age 7-11)

Maybe you’ve got one of those kids who loves basketball, but isn’t so thrilled about reading — enter Fred Bowen, whose dozens of play-by-play novels (Fred Bowen Sports Stories) for middle-grade readers are guided by the author’s simple philosophy: “So many kids are passionate about sports, and I like tapping into that passion to show them how much fun reading can be,” (fredbowen.com). The fun in “Off the Bench” isn’t quite so much fun for Chris as the story opens. Chris comes from a sports-loving family and his high schooler brother, whose made a name for high score percentages, is already being recruited by Division 3 schools. Chris wants to be just like him, and he can’t understand why the coach won’t give him his shot — or seemingly any attention at all. It’s not that Chris doesn’t learn a few things, including the history of how valuable a “sixth man” is to forming team excellence, but to get any further he’s going to have to learn to get past a few other things — such as jealousy. Centered deeply on the sport, “Off the Bench” is a basketball player’s dream read, but Bowen moves the ball down the court here, showing how a competitive family can be first supportive and understanding in an encouraging climate.

‘Hollow Beasts,’ book 1 of 2: Jodi Lona, by Alisa Lynn Valdés (Thomas & Mercer, 253 pages, April 1)

The 2020 true-life hunting down of a 14-year-old in Iowa because “she looked Mexican” inspires Alisa Lynn Valdes’ debut thriller, “Hollow Beasts.” Dubbed the “Godmother of Chica Lit” for her “Dirty Girls Social Club” novels, Valdes continues the competent storytelling, but moving here into the grit of white supremacists who kidnap women of color as a proofing stage to the organization’s hierarchy. When academic Jodi Luna turns from her life as a professor of poetry in Boston to a new gambit as a game warden in her native New Mexico, she finds out she’s suited to the profession. She has a passion to protect her ancestral land and proves her agility by catching a poacher in her first week. That catch, though, turns into retaliation against the new warden and her daughter, forcing Luna to team with a deputy sheriff — the local sheriff flatly refuses to get involved: suspicions abound — in a captivating game of search-and-find that will ultimately one of two outcomes: the silencing of her own voice, or recovering the voices of the voiceless. A solid story sits atop important issues of injustice in this series starter.

‘I’ll Stop the World’ by Lauren Thomas (Mindy’s Book Studio, 426 pages, April 1)

“Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time” wrote one of the world’s great genre-busters in “Slaughterhouse-Five,” a quote that will come to many born of the Baby Boom generation — which is not unfitting — as we roll with Justin Warren through Lauren Thoman’s ’80s nostaglia-churning “I’ll Stop the World.” Few novels are so simply and cleverly named, but Warren — whose vacuous future is as predictable as a well-wound watch — does indeed come unstuck in time. Living in a 2023 world that has been personally defined by the murder of his grandparents nearly four decades earlier, Warren unexpectedly meets Rose Yin — who lives in 1985, 20 years before Warren will be born. And more, his grandparents are still alive — at least, for another week — and Warren hopes to keep it that way by joining with Yin to solve the mystery of a murder that has yet to happen. A fun romp, “I’ll Stop the World” could easily be a sleeper hit of the summer.

‘The Way Home: Two Novellas from the World of the Last Unicorn’ by Peter S. Beagle (Ace, 224 pages, April 4)

The year was 2006 when Peter S. Beagle won two international writing awards — the Hugo and the Nebula — for “Two Hearts,” the novella that continued the stories of Molly Grue and Schmendrick the Magician from the viewpoint of Sooz, a young girl who sets out to recruit a king to save her village. These honors came as no surprise. Beagle’s storytelling was on par in a worthy successor to his beloved “The Last Unicorn.” Now, Beagle captures that novella and new tale, told by Sooz, now all grown up, in “The Way Home.” As tender and touching as the 1968 novel that spurred these tales, “The Way Home” is a journey for all who have felt great loss and great love — and found them to be one and the same.

‘The Fourth Enemy: A Daniel Pitt novel’ by Anne Perry (Ballantine Books, 340 pages, April 11)

Anne Perry died from a heart attack on April 10, 2023, at age 84, and since that short time much has been written about the “murderer turned crime writer” (Perry, the pen name for Juliet Hulme, spent five years in prison from the age of 15 for helping kill a friend’s mother). Less attention — perhaps not unexpectedly given Perry’s voluminous literary output, penchant to tackle social injustice and timing of the release — has been given to “The Fourth Enemy,” the author’s sixth Daniel Pitt mystery and one that published, as scheduled, on the day after Perry’s death. Granted, it would be nearly impossible for a reviewer to supersede the finality of that book’s internationally best-selling author when both happen nearly simultaneously, but “The Fourth Enemy” deserves its due. A competent workhorse of a novel, here the London barrister Pitt comes at odds with challenges forcing traumatic changes to his professional and personal life in a mystery not centered on a crime of violence, but on one that has deeper societal ramifications. Perry is at her confounding best here, layering the Pitt series with four decades of writing experience earned book by book. Should this be the denouement of Daniel Pitt’s sleuthing it would be a worthy one, but given the state of publishing today (looking at you © V.C. Andrews), it could be that more of Perry’s vintage Pitt is in our future.

‘City of Dreams,’ book 2 of 2: The City, by Don Winslow (William Morrow, 352 pages, April 18)

“City of Dreams” isn’t the Don Winslow novel we should be reading this year. The one that was scheduled pre-pandemic — in fact, the one that is finished, edited and just about ready to hit bookstores — is “City in Ruins,” the culminating story in the Danny Ryan mobster trilogy that is destined to earn a place (in front of) Mario Puzzo’s “The Godfather.” But for bad and good, the book we have this year is the middle of the wiseguy trio — and only bad because the author has announced his retirement from writing, meaning we have only a single Winslow novel left before us, ever; and good, because, well, damn, Winslow right now pretty much stands by himself atop the Mount McKinley of American crime fiction. “City of Dreams” picks up where Winslow left Ryan and the boys (and women) in “City on Fire,” the story that sparked a war between Rhode Island’s Irish and Italian crime families. Leading what’s left of the decimated and defeated Irish mob, Ryan takes the “family” on a cross-country trek, searching for a new place to set up (legitimate) business away from the Italian gang. But being tracked by that gang, in addition to the Rhode Island State Police, FBI agents and other unsavory characters means constantly looking over your shoulder, and it is this that wears on Ryan and those remaining loyal to him. Plus, as we see time and again, blood will tell, and earning a honest dollar is antithesis to some of those bucking Ryan’s place at the head of the table. Peppering all of this are the allusions and storylines (and even a credible deus ex machina) from Homer’s “The Illiad” and Virgil’s “Aeneid” with which Winslow has papered the walls of his epic. As a middle child, Winslow includes enough backstory to make “City of Dreams” a standalone, but don’t go there. The author builds textures and layers into his longer works that are worth the trip. Really, what’s the fun in flying to the summit when you’ve missed all the flora and fauna on the way up? For a review of “City on Fire,” visit https://shorturl.at/CFS57. 

‘The Wisdom of Morrie: Living and Aging Creatively and Joyfully’ by Morrie Schwartz, edited by Rob Schwartz (Blackstone Publishing, 276 pages, April 18)

“Tuesdays with Morrie” was published more than 25 years ago, and since that time has spawned a movie, a play and a throng of other offshoots — but nothing like this book, “The Wisdom of Morrie.” That’s because none of those works following Mitch Albom’s seminal 1997 book was edited by Morrie Schwatz’s son, Rob Schwartz, who took direction (and notes, conversations and memories) firsthand from his father’s personal tutorage. A beautifully crafted book — from a supple library binding to a color scheme Rob Schwartz said he insisted on — the subtitle, “Living and Aging Creatively and Joyfully,” is but the tip of what this small treasure offers. Deep subjects — the importance of forgiving, the universality of faith, living a life of quality — are explored and touched upon simply and in a style that will be welcomed and understood by those who have spent any time at all with the old professor, whether in person, by word or on screen. Rob Schwartz said it took him a quarter of a century to develop the project, largely for personal reasons, and the time invested is well on display in this labor of love.

‘Salvage This World’ by Michael Farris Smith (Little, Brown and Company, 273 pages, April 25)

With nonstop hurricanes, a religious con woman (whose preferred wheels sit below a hearse) and generational, familial grudges, Michael Farris Smith conjures a Cormac McCarthy-ic post-apocalyptic spell over the bleakness of a land swallowed by kudzu and desperation in his most powerful story to date. Few authors can do what this author does, which is to invest us — deeply, lingeringly — in lives and places where the next vehicle you cross could be just as well toting a body as well as a load of failing crops, and all within the span of fewer than 300 pages. Smith is a noted literary stylist and this explains some of the magic, but it’s reporting the sheer bleakness of family and land that see too little sunshine year-in and year-out that propels us to —grudgingly, compulsively — turn the pages. A portrait of father with a barn full of regret clashes with the prodigal daughter in a homecoming vested with the memories of parental failures, youthful mis-decisions, a young child and a set of keys that are sought by an unholy pursuer. The sum: the author paints all of this with a signature sparse brush — no words are ever wasted in a Michael Farris Smith novel — coloring a contemporary gothic of the Deep South.

‘The Ferryman’ by Justin Cronin (Ballantine Books, 530 pages, May 2)

Few books, and their authors, can earn attention from the likes of Stephen King (“totally satisfying”), Chris Bohjalian (“brilliant hybrid”) or Andy Weir (“mind-bending”), but Justin Cronin is one of the elect. And “The Ferryman” shows us why (or to be more precise, why again: Cronin is the best-selling author of “The Passage” trilogy and a world-building style unique to his oeuvre). But as good as his current canon is, “The Ferryman” is better. Cronin’s latest tops the charts in the “post-apocalyptic-science fiction” category, but it’s not really that public consensus that shows its worth. It’s more than that. Prospera, founded by the mysterious Designer, is an archipelago hidden from the ravages of time and an outside world. Those who live there enjoy inordinately long lives, and when they retire (as determined by implanted health monitors) they take a ferry ride to the Nursery, where their bodies are rejuvenated, their memories wiped and life begins anew. You can imagine the story lines that develop from here, but it’s unlikely you’ll see what Cronin has planned. A long, engaging book, the story moves as fast as the movie it’s destined to be from an author who keeps improving, even as he inches toward his own ferry ride.

‘Below the Line’ by Lowell Cauffiel (Arcade Crimewise, 311 pages, May 2)

Lowell Cauffiel’s “Below the Line” won’t the most intense book you bring to the beach this summer, but it could be the most fun. Part Hollywood noir, part comedy of errors, Cauffiel’s Tinsel Town crime caper joins a corrupt Hollywood producer, an ex-cop with regrets and career criminal in a satisfying (well, once you add in the roller derby queen, anyway) romp that’s more than part Hollywood hustle. The story of a former Detroit homicide detective, Edwin Blake, trying to break into the movies could turn out to be the lark of the summer as the author pits the dark side of Hollywood with an everyman-dream of striking gold in California.