Book Samples
SEX OF THE MIDWEST
a novel in stories
Robyn Ryle
One foggy morning, an email appears in inboxes across the small town of Lanier, Indiana, population 12,234. “Invitation to Participate: Sexual Practices in a Small Midwestern Town,” the subject line reads. A link leads to an extensive survey. But why has Lanier been chosen? And by whom? Street by street and resident by resident–from the Covid-stricken basketball coach, to the bartender finding her way to writing, to the bureaucrat with a vendetta against the hot-dog vendor–the email opens up the secret (and not so secret) lives of one small town, and reveals the surprising complexity of Midwestern life in our post-pandemic times.
SWALLOWTAIL
Emily Ross
In Quincy, Massachusetts, a detective must unravel the mystery of her own abduction 20 years ago in order to find the killer of a local girl—before her own daughter is next. A literary mystery thriller steeped in imagery from Surrealist art and Greek mythology, SWALLOWTAIL is the moving story of a woman’s journey to free herself from the trauma of her past, and a thought-provoking exploration of violent representations of women in myth and art.
