Wow. Crone is bleak, gritty and absolutely fucking brutal. Easily the best horror book I've read this year and probably one of the best horror novels I've read in a long time.
We follow Eli Lamp, an ex-detective and recovering addict whose daughter disappeared years ago. He's still obsessed with finding out what happened to her, while making a living as an enforcer for a local drug gang. When the gang's boss gives him a chance to clear his debts by investigating the murder of his son, things naturally get much, much worse.
A grim crime story gradually turns into something much darker and stranger. There's a witch in the woods, supernatural shit, drugs, violence and some absolutely horrific scenes. Rosson does a fantastic job of keeping the supernatural stuff connected to the very real misery of Eli and the people around him. Nothing feels like it's just there because the book needs a monster.
Eli is also a fantastic protagonist. He's not particularly likable, and he's done plenty of terrible things, but you understand why he is the way he is. His grief over Hannah has basically consumed his entire life, and watching him try to find some kind of answer or redemption is what gives all the horrible stuff happening around him so much weight.
I also really liked Avery and Vicki. The different perspectives work extremely well, and together they slowly fill in the story around Hannah's disappearance. There's a lot of grief and guilt here, but Rosson never turns it into some sentimental misery fest.
The horror here is nasty. Some scenes made me genuinely uncomfortable, and Rosson has absolutely no problem getting his hands dirty. But the violence never felt like the whole point. There's always something underneath it, whether it's grief, addiction, guilt, revenge or just people making terrible decisions because they're desperate.
I loved this one. It's dark, violent, weird, beautifully written and completely absorbing. Crone is exactly the kind of horror I want to read, and Keith Rosson has definitely moved into the "I'll read whatever this guy writes" category for me.
Bleak, brutal and genuinely haunting. My favorite horror read of the year so far.
3:00 AM | 
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FORMAT/INFO: Scion was published by Saga Press on September 1st, 2026. It is 240 pages long and available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Scion is an excellent read for those looking for an injection of cyberpunk action straight into their veins. It doesn't mess around, dropping you straight into a fight that manages to immediately sketch out the world: one of engineered monstrosities, cybernetic technology, and a relative ambivalence to violence. It's quick and effective worldbuilding. While I would have liked some more details filled in here and there, there's enough context laid out to support the story of an assassin-turned-temporary-bodyguard.
What follows the initial fight is a cryptic job offer with tantalizing bait: if Azure (our protagonist) can successfully defend the life of their employer for two weeks, they'll give Azure the truth about what happened at a job that went south four years ago. That kicks off a frenetic game of cat and mouse, as Azure has to fend off attacks from an unknown assailant with seemingly deep pockets of resources. It's great set piece after great set piece, and I ate it up.
What Scion is thin on is character development. You don't get to know much about Azure as a person. Their identity and past are largely a mystery, and while some of this is for plot reasons, it does make them a bit of a generic action-hero character. It's not a character that is going to stand out in my brain years from now.
But I will remember that I had a rollicking good time with this story and read it in just a few days. It's a definite recommend for someone looking for a flat out action story in a futuristic dystopian setting, a nice palette cleanse between heavier tomes. While this is a complete story in and of itself, there's a thread left dangling for more adventures, and I will happily pick up the next one when it releases.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Scion is an excellent read for those looking for an injection of cyberpunk action straight into their veins. It doesn't mess around, dropping you straight into a fight that manages to immediately sketch out the world: one of engineered monstrosities, cybernetic technology, and a relative ambivalence to violence. It's quick and effective worldbuilding. While I would have liked some more details filled in here and there, there's enough context laid out to support the story of an assassin-turned-temporary-bodyguard.
What follows the initial fight is a cryptic job offer with tantalizing bait: if Azure (our protagonist) can successfully defend the life of their employer for two weeks, they'll give Azure the truth about what happened at a job that went south four years ago. That kicks off a frenetic game of cat and mouse, as Azure has to fend off attacks from an unknown assailant with seemingly deep pockets of resources. It's great set piece after great set piece, and I ate it up.
What Scion is thin on is character development. You don't get to know much about Azure as a person. Their identity and past are largely a mystery, and while some of this is for plot reasons, it does make them a bit of a generic action-hero character. It's not a character that is going to stand out in my brain years from now.
But I will remember that I had a rollicking good time with this story and read it in just a few days. It's a definite recommend for someone looking for a flat out action story in a futuristic dystopian setting, a nice palette cleanse between heavier tomes. While this is a complete story in and of itself, there's a thread left dangling for more adventures, and I will happily pick up the next one when it releases.
Buy The Court of Venus
FORMAT/INFO: The Court of Venus was published on September 29th, 2026 by Tor Books. It is 416 pages long and available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Court of Venus is a tale of intrigue set inside the court of a mad king, where the alignment of the stars literally influences your fate. In this world, magicians are people who were born under certain celestial conditions, with the ruling planet at the time of their birth influencing their domain of magic. Jupiterborn can influence luck, Venusborn can read and influence desires, and Moonborn magicians (like our protagonist Bianca) can shapeshift and read memories. I really enjoyed how this magic system is continuously influenced by planetary alignments; Bianca's powers, for instance, wax and wane with the moon. She is almost powerless when it's a new moon but at the height of her powers when the moon is full. Venusborns on the other hand, find they are most powerful at dawn and dusk each day. It's a system that has some fixed rules, but is also fluid and not fully understood by the magicians themselves, and they are always chasing new knowledge that will help them better manipulate their abilities.
This is also a court intrigue tale and a satisfying mystery is presented. Bianca has returned to court to discover what happened to her childhood friend, the prince, who died under mysterious circumstances four years ago. That death was written off as a riding accident, but Bianca is convinced that something more nefarious happened. But is it connected to the threads of a current plot in the court? Was it because of an outside agent from a rival kingdom? Was it something else entirely? There's quite a bit going on in this tale, and Bianca has to sort it all out without running afoul of a dying, paranoid king who seems to execute people on a whim.
Tangling things even further is that the king's closest advisor is Roland, a Venusborn magician who was also a friend of Bianca's and the prince. But is he still someone Bianca can trust? Or has his own desire for power made him a dangerous enemy? Watching the two verbally spar and try to figure out how much they can trust each other made sparks fly, and I enjoyed the slow burn of this relationship. It's always hard to throw readers into a pre-existing relationship and make them understand the complexities of emotions in that bond, but I think the author did a pretty good job.
The one thing that held me back was this is a more aloof writing style that I felt stopped me from fully connecting with the characters. Once or twice some dangerous circumstances were over somewhat abruptly, preventing me from sinking into the story. There's enough good things going on here that I still recommend this story overall, but for me personally it was just short of the spark that would have knocked the book out of the park. That being said, I will be back for part two of this duology, because I do want to see what fate is written in the stars for these characters.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: The Court of Venus is a tale of intrigue set inside the court of a mad king, where the alignment of the stars literally influences your fate. In this world, magicians are people who were born under certain celestial conditions, with the ruling planet at the time of their birth influencing their domain of magic. Jupiterborn can influence luck, Venusborn can read and influence desires, and Moonborn magicians (like our protagonist Bianca) can shapeshift and read memories. I really enjoyed how this magic system is continuously influenced by planetary alignments; Bianca's powers, for instance, wax and wane with the moon. She is almost powerless when it's a new moon but at the height of her powers when the moon is full. Venusborns on the other hand, find they are most powerful at dawn and dusk each day. It's a system that has some fixed rules, but is also fluid and not fully understood by the magicians themselves, and they are always chasing new knowledge that will help them better manipulate their abilities.
This is also a court intrigue tale and a satisfying mystery is presented. Bianca has returned to court to discover what happened to her childhood friend, the prince, who died under mysterious circumstances four years ago. That death was written off as a riding accident, but Bianca is convinced that something more nefarious happened. But is it connected to the threads of a current plot in the court? Was it because of an outside agent from a rival kingdom? Was it something else entirely? There's quite a bit going on in this tale, and Bianca has to sort it all out without running afoul of a dying, paranoid king who seems to execute people on a whim.
Tangling things even further is that the king's closest advisor is Roland, a Venusborn magician who was also a friend of Bianca's and the prince. But is he still someone Bianca can trust? Or has his own desire for power made him a dangerous enemy? Watching the two verbally spar and try to figure out how much they can trust each other made sparks fly, and I enjoyed the slow burn of this relationship. It's always hard to throw readers into a pre-existing relationship and make them understand the complexities of emotions in that bond, but I think the author did a pretty good job.
The one thing that held me back was this is a more aloof writing style that I felt stopped me from fully connecting with the characters. Once or twice some dangerous circumstances were over somewhat abruptly, preventing me from sinking into the story. There's enough good things going on here that I still recommend this story overall, but for me personally it was just short of the spark that would have knocked the book out of the park. That being said, I will be back for part two of this duology, because I do want to see what fate is written in the stars for these characters.
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