Happy journeys—and careful navigation!—to Martha Hood’s The Valley and the Hill, the eighth shuttle to emerge from starship Candlemark’s Reckless imprint and the bookend to Martha’s The Miasma Is Not for Us to Say. Like its older sibling, Valley is a fusion of Stephen King and Elmore Leonard with yet another pitch-perfect take on small-town enmities, alliances and intrigues—but whereas Miasma’s were brought to a head by a semi-sentient cloud of evil-smelling fog, those of Valley are exacerbated by enhanced sensory perceptions, which prove a decidedly mixed bag. Here’s an informed opinion on Valley (the full quote can be found on the book page):

Magic meets murder mystery in a sequel as engaging as its predecessor, and once again takes the reader inside a web of toxic but fascinating relationships, set against the gentrification of a beloved community. // A saga of disillusion and change, and an ode to small-town nostalgia. —F. J. Bergmann, poet, editor of Star*Line, winner of multiple speculative poetry awards

And to whet intellectual, if not physical appetites, here’s a salient synopsis:

Valleytown bestows powerful gifts of perception upon its denizens. When Sergeant Dory Douce, a Feeler, investigates a disturbing incident in the town’s Hill neighborhood, she comes up against Toni Stonecamp, another Feeler who has turned her gift into a weapon. As Toni’s Touching tears Valleytown apart, Dory and her colleague Sara must find a way to counter remorseless evil, without destroying themselves or those they love.

Martha A. Hood lives with her husband and two old cockatiels in Southern California. Her fiction has appeared in a number of publications, including Interzone, Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, The Sockdolager, and Tales of the Unanticipated. She blogs, sporadically, at Speculativemartha.wordpress.com. During the last couple years, she has renewed her fickle interest in gardening and improved her pie-baking skills. Her novella The Miasma is Not for Us to Say appeared in 2020 from Candlemark & Gleam.

The cover image for Valley comes from Unsplash; the background comes from the talented Alan C. Caum whose covers, maps and witty interior illustrations (camouflaged as context-rich ads) grace many Candlemark works.

The Valley and the Hill is available on Amazon and on our website, where buying the lovingly prepared ebook brings along the full digital bundle (Epub, Mobi and the PDF with its visual flourishes) . All C&G ebooks are DRM-free.

Come brave the shoals of small-town politics with us—and keep watch for unusual sensations!