Chris Quarembo's Readers' Club - October 2025
- Chris Quarembo
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Vol 5 Issue 10
This month’s issue features the work of two award-winning authors, who are masters at consistently creating top-notch crime novels, Michael Connelly and William Kent Krueger. Krueger is perhaps less well known but is an author who deserves wide attention.
For a change of pace from two crime novels I’ve chosen Jo Piazza’s novel, The Sicilian Inheritance. Piazza has created a mystery novel wrapped in a family saga.
My Recommendations This Month
The Late Show by Michael Connelly
Connelly, an award-winning writer of the long running Bosch series, also writes a spin-off series based in Los Angles. The Late Show is the first of six novels that introduces Detective Renee Ballard.
When we meet Ballard, she is a talented detective whose career is sideline when she files a sexual harassment complaint against her boss. She is working the overnight shift, known among cops as the late show.
Undeterred by her demotion, Ballard brings passion and skill to her job but resents having to hand over cases to higher ranking officers.
In The Late Show, she is first on the scene where a prostitute, brutally beaten, is left for dead. On the same night, Ballard responds to a nightclub shooting where a young waitress, caught in the crossfire, is killed.
Against orders, she continues to investigate both cases while working her usual night shift. Ballard's efforts yield results despite roadblocks in her path. She is a sharp, persistent detective, who doggedly pursues justice for crime victims regardless of the costs to her career.
The Late Show and the other Renee Ballard novels deserve a place on your TBR list. In my February newsletter, I recommended The Waiting, the sixth book in this series. In that novel Ballard heads a small team assigned to unsolved cases.
Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger
Krueger’s Iron Lake is the first in a bestselling series of twenty-one novels featuring Cork O’Connor.
O’Connor, a former Chicago cop now living in Aurora, Minnesota, is part Irish and part Native American.
During a blizzard that inundates the town, O’Connor searches for a missing boy while also investigating the murder of a prominent local judge. To find solutions to both cases, he must deal with local corruption and painful community secrets.
Krueger creates fully realized characters and brings the town of Aurora to life through vivid descriptions and palpable atmosphere.
This series has won the Edgar Award and the Anthony Award and sold more than a million copies.
Krueger is a full-time author, living in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
When her great aunt Rosie dies and leaves her property in Sicily, Sara Marsala embarks on a journey of self-discovery and a quest for long forgotten family history. Rosie believed that Sara’s great grandmother, Serafina, was killed in Italy before she could join her family in the United States.
Sara returns to the small village where her ancestors resided to seek answers to Serafina’s death in the early 1900’s. She learns that her great grandmother sought a better life for herself and the women of her village. Those efforts put Serafina's life in danger. And Sara realizes that her search for the truth holds dangers for her as well.
Piazza’s novel is an intricate mystery as well as a tale of the strength women need to survive in whatever era they live. The plot has numerous twists and turns that propel the story forward, while Piazza entices readers with descriptions of the food and beauty of Southern Italy.
Jo Piazza is a bestselling author, podcaster, and journalist. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and three children.
You Feedback Welcomed
Please email me with your feedback whenever you read any of my recommendations.
I received a request from a subscriber asking that I include web links to the novels I recommend. Initiallly, I thought it a good idea, but on futher thought I decided against including links. I prefer subscribers to choose for themselves where to purchase their books. And because I feel that independent bookstores deserve our support as well as Amazon or Barnes & Nobel, who both have a huge online presence.
Watch for my next newsletter in November
“Reading brings us unknown friends” – Honore de Balzac
About Chris
Chris Quarembo is an award-winning former newspaper reporter. Her debut novel Killer Deals, won an Independent Publisher Award for Excellence in 2024. Her short stories in the crime and mystery genre are available on Amazon. She is a member of Sisters in Crime.
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