Hello everyone! Welcome to another post of Indie Recommends Indie! Today, I have author Elizabeth Gilliland with me! I am enjoying her latest book, What Happened on Box Hill, and this is a great opportunity for us to share about it. This is an eclectic collection of indie books from multiple genres and I am sure something will pique your interest. Let’s welcome Elizabeth and get started.
Thank you for being on this series, Elizabeth! Please tell my readers a bit about yourself. 🙂
Thank you so much for having me, Kriti! I am a new writer/publisher but I’ve been a member of the writing community for a while as a ghostwriter, editor, proof-reader,etc. I love many different genres/styles (as you’ll see below!), but in my own writing I tend toward genre hybrids, retellings that try to push the envelope, and new ways to see old stories/characters.
Do you primarily read indie books or big publishers books as well?
I don’t intentionally set out to go after either – if a book looks good, I’ll read it, and often only discover afterward whether it was traditionally or independently published. Looking through my library and purchase history for the past few months, I’m a little surprised to see it pans out about 50/50 (though I do skew more toward buying indie, checking out traditionally published from the library. Aren’t libraries awesome?).
Elizabeth’s Indie Recommendations
Murder at the Mayfair Hotel by C.J. Archer
Genre – Historical cozy mystery
Published Year – 2020
Cleopatra Fox #1
It was the most fashionable place to stay in London, until murder made a reservation. Solve the puzzle in this new mystery from USA Today bestselling author of the Glass and Steele series.
December 1899. After the death of her beloved grandmother, Cleopatra Fox moves into the luxury hotel owned by her estranged uncle in the hopes of putting hardship and loneliness behind her. But the poisoning of a guest throws her new life, and the hotel, into chaos.
Cleo quickly realizes no one can be trusted, not Scotland Yard and especially not the hotel’s charming assistant manager. With the New Year’s Eve ball approaching fast and the hotel’s reputation hanging by a thread, Cleo must find the killer before the ball, and the hotel itself, are ruined. But catching a murderer proves just as difficult as navigating the hotel’s hierarchy and the peculiarities of her family.
Can Cleo find the killer before the new century begins? Or will someone get away with murder?
A cozy mystery with a genuinely interesting crime to solve, an even more interesting heroine solving it, funny and memorable side characters, and a hero very possibly named after Richard Armitage (or at least based off him in my imagination)? Yes, yes, yes, and YES! I enjoyed going back in time to Victorian London and learning more about the charming Cleopatra Fox; I have a pet peeve with historical fiction that tries to make its heroines too modern, but Cleo strikes a good balance of modern and historically plausible. As much as I love a good meaty Tana French-style mystery, sometimes I also need something a bit more life-affirming amidst the death, and this story remains fun and lighthearted while still providing plenty of twists and turns. Plus, the chemistry between Cleo and Mr. Armitage was palpable, which was an unexpected bonus. It’s difficult to balance humor, mystery, and romance and not let one overwhelm the other, but this novel has just the right combination of each.
Recommended to fans of historical cozies, Agatha Christie, Elly Griffiths, Andrea Penrose.
Dead Heads by Ross Young
Genre – Supernatural Mystery/Noir
Published Year; 2021
Gloomwood #1
Augustan Blunt is a washed out cop with a bad attitude, a drinking problem and a troubled past, oh, he’s also dead but that’s okay so is everyone else. Other than that things are just peachy.
Someone has stolen the Grim Reaper’s head and Blunt has been told to find it. In a new city where the rules of the living don’t apply Blunt’s up to his neck in the brown stuff and he’s never been much of a swimmer. With the aid of a woman who keeps turning involuntarily invisible, a journalist who hasn’t written an article since she died, and a bureaucrat who can’t say no to anyone, Blunt’s got to stop whoever is stealing the heads of the city’s elite.
As he begins his investigations he finds things aren’t all they seem. Who are the Gloomwood Youth Order? What do you call the murder of someone already dead? Why are people having their heads chopped off? And what is in the hot dogs? With time slipping away he needs to learn what makes the city tick before there’s no city left.
I love genre hybrids, so this book immediately grabbed my attention. A noir/detective story set in the afterlife, the novel also finds a fun balance with humor, a pinch of horror, and some more sentimental bits, too. As someone who grew up as a massive fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, and later on things like Supernatural and Doctor Who, I really appreciate texts that can turn on a dime so you never quite know what to expect. Will this scene make me laugh? Make me scared? Make me sad? All of the above? It’s rarer to find novels that play with that same kind of genre shift, but Young really pulls it off. Augustan Blunt is a lovably grouchy “straight man” amidst all of this genre chaos, and the portrait of the afterlife that Young puts together is unlike any I’ve encountered before. The writing is genuinely funny and clever, and the first book sets up for a fun, original series to follow.
Recommended to fans of Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams.
Seeking Mansfield by Kate Watson
Genre – Retelling, YA Romance
Published Year – 2017
Seeking Mansfield #1
Sixteen-year-old Finley Price has perfected two things: how to direct a world-class production, and how to fly way, way under the radar. The only person who ever seems to notice Finley is her best friend, the Bertram’s son Oliver. If she could just take Oliver’s constant encouragement to heart and step out of the shadows, she’d finally chase her dream of joining the prestigious Mansfield Theater.
When teen movie stars Emma and Harlan Crawford move next door to the Bertram’s, they immediately set their sights on Oliver and his cunning sister, Juliette, shaking up Finley and Oliver’s stable friendship. As Emma and Oliver grow closer, Harlan finds his attention shifting from Juliette to the quiet, enigmatic, and thoroughly unimpressed Finley. Out of boredom, Harlan decides to make her fall in love with him. Problem is, the harder he seeks to win her, the harder he falls for her.
But Finley doesn’t want to be won, and she doesn’t want to see Oliver with anyone else. To claim Oliver’s heart—and keep her own—she’ll have to find the courage to do what she fears most: step into the spotlight.
I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to Jane Austen retellings–and I use the word “snob” intentionally, because I don’t think it makes me better or special that I’m picky, I just am aware of the bias I have. All that to say that I wouldn’t put just any Austen retelling on this list, but I really enjoyed Seeking Mansfield. The novel stays true to the roots of the original novel (Mansfield Park) while also making subtle distinctions that Watson uses to make the story her own. Take, for example, the throwback to the famous plot point in the original novel of the home theatrical, Lovers Vows, and how Watson nods to this by setting her novel in a theatre. The original novel’s heroine, Fanny Price, is sort of notoriously most peoples’ least favorite Austen heroine; Watson really had her work cut out for her in updating “Finley Price” into a character modern readers would root for, but she pulls it off. I really appreciated how Watson digs into Finley’s mindset, explaining from a 21st century perspective how a quiet, reserved character still deserves our attention and empathy.
Recommended to fans of Jane Austen, Jenny Han, John Green, Rainbow Rowell.
Elements of Chemistry: Attraction by Penny Reid
Genre – New Adult Romance
Published Year – 2020
Hypothesis #1
He is everything she doesn’t want, so why does she want him so badly?
From the New York Times Bestselling Author Penny Reid
One week.
Private beach.
Invisible girl.
Jerk-faced bully.
What’s the worst that could happen?
Kaitlyn Parker has no problem being the invisible girl, which is why she finds herself hiding in various cabinets and closets all over her college campus. Despite her best efforts, she can’t escape the notice of Martin Sandeke—bad boy, jerkface bully, and the universe’s hottest, wealthiest, and most unobtainable bachelor—who also happens to be Kaitlyn’s chemistry lab partner.
Kaitlyn might be the only girl who isn’t interested in exploiting his stunning rower’s build, chiseled features, and family’s billionaire fortune. Kaitlyn wants Martin for his brain, specifically to tabulate findings of trace elements in surface water.
When Kaitlyn saves Martin from a nefarious plot, Martin uses the opportunity to push Kaitlyn out of her comfort zone: spring break, one week, house parties, bathing suits, and suntan lotion. Can she overcome her aversion to being noticed? Will he be able grow beyond his self-centered nature? Or, despite their obvious chemistry, will Martin be the one to drive Kaitlyn into the science cabinet of obscurity for good?
I will read pretty much anything that Penny Reid writes, so it was difficult to narrow it down to which one to recommend, but I chose the first book in the Hypothesis series because it has one of the most endearing heroines–not just in Reid’s novels, but maybe any book. Kaitlyn Parker is awkward, brilliant, and laugh-out-loud funny, and even though the series starts off with some of the familiar tropes of romance (not that I’m complaining, I still read them all), it confronts them in new and refreshing ways. The book is also aptly named “chemistry” since Kaitlyn and Martin Sandeke have it in spades. (Warning: this book is NOT suitable for work, or family gatherings, or any kind of public reading.) Part of what makes the series appealing is not just the sexual tension between the two main characters, but the real (and not artificially forced) obstacles that must be overcome for two very different people to be together. I’m always pleasantly surprised how Reid manages to side-step some of the stock romance conflicts and create something a little more meaningful.
Recommended to fans of Sally Thorne, Mhairi McFarlane, Emma St. Clair.
The Chapel St. Perilous by Michael Rands
Genre – Horror/Noir
Published Year – 2021
Standalone
Believing the universe is sending him secret signs, Marcel Swart puts his meagre savings into a high-leverage investment. Overnight, Marcel becomes a millionaire, but these winnings come at a great cost—such as the demon that seems to be following him, leaving carnage in its wake.
In a quest to set himself right with the universe, Marcel travels cross-country, finding himself in a small town in Alabama, rife with political tension surrounding a mysterious cult and a sheriff’s election that may very well decide the fate of the country. Marcel struggles to uncover the secrets of the cult, the town, and the world itself—all while facing criminal charges for a murder he can’t remember committing.
Part South Gothic, part metaphysical noir, with a tough of magic realism and a dash of dark comedy, the Chapel St. Perilous dares the reader to take a chance with fate.
To be fully transparent, my husband wrote this novel, and I edited it for him. That being said, I genuinely love this weird, dark, funny, thought-provoking book. The novel opens with a possible murder, but as we go along with Marcel on his journey, we discover his involvement with a potential homicide might actually be the most normal thing happening in this novel. Human sacrifice, deals with demons, creepy small Southern towns, references to epic Roman poems, and bitcoin–it’s an odd combination that shouldn’t really work, and yet Rands manages to weave everything in such a way that by the time you get to the last page, you realize that it truly couldn’t have come together in any other way. It’s the sort of ending that gives me chills every time I read it (which is a lot as both the wife and editor!). I’m both genuinely moved by how everything wraps up, and jealous as a writer that I’ve never come up with anything quite that good.
Recommended to fans of Joe Hill, Stephen King, Mike Flanaga.
Elizabeth’s Book Spotlight
What Happened on Box Hill
Genre: Jane Austen Variation/Retelling, Mystery, New Adult
Published Year 2022
Book One of the Austen University Mysteries
What would happen if you combined all of Jane Austen’s characters into one modern-day novel?
Murder, of course.
When Caty Morland’s roommate, Isabella, falls to her death on Initiation night, Austen University is quick to cover up the scandal and call it a tragic accident. But avid true-crime lover Caty remains convinced that Isabella didn’t fall; she was murdered. With the help of Pi Kappa Sigma President Emma Woodhouse, Caty organizes a dinner party with the most likely suspects, including familiar faces such as Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, Knightley, and Marianne Dashwood. The theme of the night is murder, and Caty has three courses to find out what happened to Isabella–and to try to keep the killer from striking again.
Book Links: Goodreads, Indie Story Geek, Amazon.
Readers who enjoyed A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro and Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale would like this book. I’ll be back with the review for What Happened on Box Hill later this month!
Connect with Elizabeth on Twitter and Bayou Wolf Press‘ website. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Did you add any books to your TBR today based on this post or did you see any you have already read? Tell us in the comments! Thanks for hanging out with us today!
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Banner Photo of library by Alfons Morales on Unsplash
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