Underrated Reads

The Wishing Pool and Other Stories – Tananarive Due

Posted on May 17, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) You’ll keep looking over your shoulder as you read these eerie stories of horror, with a little science fiction sprinkled in, in The Wishing Pool and Other Stories. The title piece, “The Wishing Pool” features Joy, a woman returning home to North Florida to visit her father who is suffering from…

Posted in Sci-Fi/Speculative/Fantasy/Mythology, Short stories | Tagged African-American, aging, horror, race, society | Comments Off

The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants – Orlando Ortega-Medina

Posted on May 7, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “We were a family of emigrants, on the move from generation to generation. Forced to flee our homes because of intolerable situations imposed on us by those in power. The United States was meant to be the last stop on that journey.” Such is the case of thirty-six-year-old attorney and recovering…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Modern Literary Fiction, Reviewers' Top Picks | Tagged addiction, family, immigration, Judaism, LGBTQ, Religion, San Francisco, thrillers | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited – A Season in Lights: A Novel in Three Acts – Gregory Erich Phillips

Posted on May 4, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Less than a year ago, when the curtain fell after the opening night applause, I assumed the New York City I knew---and my place in it---could last forever.” A Season in Lights celebrates performers and other creative artists who travel to New York to fulfill their dreams. Specifically, the story…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged Broadway, Carnegie Hall, COVID-19, dancers, dreams, New York City, pianists | Comments Off

The Blue is Where God Lives – Sharon Sochil Washington, PhD

Posted on April 29, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “If Satan is successful, the family’s history will end with the blue baby girl.” It is currently 2008, and Blue (referenced above) is grieving the murder of her daughter. She questions God’s existence, which leads her to travel from her home in Houston south to The Ranch, a retreat run…

Posted in Historical Fiction, Sci-Fi/Speculative/Fantasy/Mythology | Tagged African literature, class, folkore, magical realism, mysticism, poverty, slavery | Comments Off

The Vulture Fund (Curtis Westcott Crime Thrillers Book 3) – Jeff Buick

Posted on April 25, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by Don Jung) #CommissionsEarned Two unlikely murders that don’t appear to be related become the focus of Boston detective Curtis Westcoast and his team as they try to unravel one mystery after another. This is a murder mystery series that is fast-paced, suspenseful and full of twists and turns. First, a woman with an…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Reviewers' Top Picks | Tagged hedge fund, India, murder | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: Tard – Del Staecker

Posted on April 22, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Thou shalt not be a victim, and thou shalt not be a perpetrator. But above all else---thou shalt not be a bystander.” That's one lesson Richard Bettis learned from Matt. One referred to Matt Mueller as an “enlightened outcast”, as he lived with compassion, love, a sense of serenity, and…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged corruption, crime fiction, downs-syndrome, family dysfunction, fantasy, philosophy, Religion, sociopaths | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: Paris Noir: The Suburbs: Akashic Noir Series – Hervé Delouche (Editor)

Posted on April 18, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Where was French romanticism? The opulence of the West? I found Paris—Pantin, really---very different from what I had imagined. I found Pantin ugly…”. An Albanian national flees his country in fear for his life and joins his cousin in this Paris suburb. In this story, “Patin, Really” by Timothée Demeillers,…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged crime fiction, French literature, French noir, immigration, Paris, short stories | Comments Off

Sweet Undoings – Yanick Lahens (translated by Kaiama L. Glover)

Posted on April 14, 2023 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “Nowadays, in the cities, you’ve got to drink it all in, the honey and the bile. All in the same cup.” Judge Raymond Berthier has just been murdered, and his nineteen-year-old daughter, Brune, is grieving as she tries to process it all. The same goes for her uncle, the pragmatic…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Culture, World Issues | Tagged corruption, Crime, culture, Haiti, Haitian literature, murder | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited:The Final Days of Abbot Montrose: An Asbjørn Krag Mystery – Sven Elvestad and Stein Riverton

Posted on April 10, 2023 by J D Jung

(reviewed by Ann Onymous ) Retired Detective Asbjørn Krag and his police colleague Keller are trying to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Abbot Montrose. But with no photographs, no one really knows what the Abbot looks like. He may have been kidnapped or murdered but with no ransom note and no body…who knows…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged crime fiction, Norwegian literature, thrillers | Comments Off