William Gibson Plumbs the Near Future: The Peripheral

The Peripheral - William Gibson

It never crossed Flynne Fisher’s mind that doing a favor for her brother would lead to such upheaval. After all, she was just doing security for some online game – or so she thought. This game was different, though: for one thing, the setting was… disturbingly familiar… and it was more realistic than any game she’d played before – especially the gruesome murder she witnessed. Flash forward a couple of days: word on the street is that there’s a contract out on her brother because someone thinks he saw something he shouldn’t have. What’s weird, though, is that the company who’d originally hired him is coming to his (and Flynne’s) defense with some pretty advanced tech. Turns out that her virtual reality trip hadn’t been into a game, it had been to the future. Or more accurately, to a future – you know: time-travel paradoxes and all that.

A Novel That Proves Anyone Can Be a Published Author

Dream With Little Angels - Michael Hiebert

Alvin, Alabama, is the only home eleven-year-old Abe Teal has ever known. His mother, Leah, is a second-generation town cop who’s gotten her life back on track after getting pregnant at 17 with Abe’s sister Carry. Alvin’s so tiny that the high school is in the next town, but it isn’t too small for murder… When one of Carry’s classmates disappears, Abe’s mother is haunted by memories of the death of another teenaged girl twelve years ago. Her first case as the town’s new detective remains unsolved. Now that not one but two young girls have disappeared again, Mother Teal finds herself driven – and extremely worried about her own daughter, who has only recently entered “the difficult years.” Meanwhile, Abe and his BFF Dewey are convinced that the new neighbor across the street from the Teal home is up to no good – maybe he’s even the killer.

Abe Teal is about to get a hands-on education in the sort of goings-on that make small southern towns so strange.

Stephen King’s "Revival": Lovecraft Lives!

Revival - Stephen King

Jamie Morton was barely six years old the first time Charlie Jacobs’ shadow fell across him. It would not be the last time – in fact, Charlie Jacobs’ shadow would remain with him until the end of his days. But back in 1962, Charlie was the newly-hired minister at the Morton family’s church, and with his wife and son beside him he'd brought new life to the moribund congregation.