Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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Blood River Witch by T. J. Martinson
On Kentucky’s Blood River, a Sheriff’s Deputy investigates the death of her ex-fiance, whose brutal occultist murder strongly resembles a similar murder decades ago, for readers of Tana French, Gillian Flynn, Megan Abbott, and fans of True Detective
Deputy Sheriff Alicia Moore is thrust into the center of a chilling murder investigation when she discovers a victim identifiable only by his hauntingly familiar tattoo—her name inked onto the knuckles of her ex-fiancé, Jake.
Years earlier, Alicia’s father, the then-Sheriff, had arrested a teenage occultist for a nearly identical murder, believed to be driven by the suspect’s worship of demonic entities. Now, with Jake’s murder mirroring that past crime, doubts arise about whether the true culprit was ever caught. The mystery deepens with the arrival of Lucas Masterson, a Criminology PhD student studying the confluence between religious trauma and occult crime, who is eager to lend his expertise to the investigation. As Lucas delves into the case, his profound knowledge of the town’s grim history and his outsider perspective strain the local social fabric, while Alicia grapples with her suspicion towards his unsettling familiarity with the crimes. Caught between her strained relationship with her father, the community’s watchful eyes on a female deputy, and her own harrowing ties to the case, Alicia must navigate a maze of potential occultists, convicts, corrupt officials, and clergy to prevent a gruesome history from repeating itself once again.
For what lies at the heart of Blood River—is it an ancient malicious force seeking to harm the townfolk, or is there a deeper prejudice in a town that continues to punish women in a way that it does not punish the men?
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If Books Could Kill by Kate Eberle
DEBUT Roxie loves romance novels, but when her wish to live out a storyline from her favorite romance author is magically granted, it’s not quite what she’d hoped for. Turns out, the new book is a crime thriller, and Roxie is stuck as the protagonist in a dangerous genre she doesn’t know much about. In an effort to escape a serial killer, she accidentally kidnaps a nerdy but hot professor, Grant, in the strangest meet-cute ever. With his knowledge of the thriller genre and her expertise in self-defense, they team up to solve an international murder plot that takes them from Boston to London. In order to end the spell and get back to her real life, she must figure out the mystery. As Roxie and Grant live through several literary devices, they find true love together, but Roxie is reluctant to give her heart to Grant since he’s a character in the novel and will disappear once the story is over. VERDICT Full of adventure, a touch of the supernatural, plenty of kooky, adorable characters, and hilarious hijinks, Eberle’s highly original and fun debut is for fans of heartfelt, original rom-coms with strong bookish themes. — Library Journal Review
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Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution by Denise Kiernan
In honor of the 2026 United States Semiquincentennial, aka the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, deep-dive American history chronicler Kiernan (We Gather Together, 2020) considers an array of contributions made by various Revolutionary War-era women. Kiernan’s approach is impressively inclusive. She tends toward less celebrated individuals whose accomplishments often occurred behind the scenes (Sarah Bradlee Fulton’s cosmetics helped disguise Boston Tea Party participants) or were left out of male-centric standard narratives (Chief Nanye’hi helped broker Cherokee peace treaties). Subjects represent diverse segments of society (patriots and loyalists, New Englanders and Southerners, enslaved individuals, aristocrats, housewives, poets, spies). Chapters alternate between detailed historic accounts, effortlessly incorporating primary source material, and accounts of the author’s recent research-inspired visits to three landmarks: Mount Vernon, a former South Carolina plantation, and a casino on Indigenous lands. A few luminaries make cameo appearances (Abigail Adams, Marie Antoinette) but the emphasis is on everyday women who are resurrected through diaries and letters, shipping lists, headstones, and bills of sale. This is an engaging, enlightening, and quite satisfying read. – Booklist Review
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Sisters of the Midnight Sun by Rebecca Wright Stevens
On August 3, 1993, the bodies of two sisters, Wanda and Bernice Ipalook, were discovered in Utqiagvik, an oil-rich area on Alaska’s North Slope. Both women had been strangled, and one had been raped. Amos Lane, a drifter with a prior record, was charged with the crimes, and Stevens was the public defender assigned to defend him. She secured immunity for him if he testified for the prosecution against the person ultimately charged with the crime, Bernice’s fiance , John Adams. Ultimately, Adams was found not guilty of the murders, and Lane was found guilty of perjury. To this day, the crime remains unsolved. Stevens’s novelistic writing style focuses less on the trial itself than on her experiences as an outsider in the community and on the lives of the Iupiat people in Arctic Alaska. Stevens spent 36 years working as a defense lawyer, and readers will appreciate everything she did to protect her client, though they may wish for more insight into the Ipalook murders. VERDICT Although this true crime book boasts an expansive view of the surrounding I upiat community, readers may leave this book with further questions about the grisly, complex case at its center. – Library Journal Review
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The Talking Bone by Renee Denfeld
Ruby Spencer, known as “the Exonerator,” has devoted her life to finding missing women and freeing the people wrongly convicted for their disappearances. Her work leads her to Georgia, where Mitchell Brown, a 32-year-old man on death row, has just two weeks left before his execution. A decade earlier, Mitchell celebrated landing a new job, drank too much, and wandered into a gas station. He later awoke in his truck to find the attendant missing and the station splashed with blood. The evidence was lost, the body was never found, and Mitchell’s memory of that night never returned. As Ruby investigates, she travels to Mitchell’s Oregon hometown. There she uncovers a chilling parallel: Mitchell’s mother vanished when he was a child, just as Ruby’s mother disappeared years before. Chapters weave between past and present, revealing the story of Ruby’s mother as the clock ticks toward Mitchell’s execution. Forced to confront her own trauma and unresolved grief, Ruby pushes deeper into a case where justice feels out of reach.
VERDICT Drawing on her experience as a licensed death-row investigator, Denfeld (Sleeping Giants) crafts a taut, emotional thriller. Readers of her earlier novels will appreciate this intricately layered tale of suspense. –Library Journal Review
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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Information on the four library catalogs
The Digital Catalog aka Libby: https://stls.overdrive.com/
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
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Kanopy Catalog: https://www.kanopy.com/en
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 