I am treading on thin ice here by jumping into an author showcase because Caleb usually posts these.  But, I came across the two books I am featuring today while on a trip to the Florida Panhandle last week.  Even though I am still reading both books a little at a time, I can tell you that you can’t go wrong with either one.

First is Lake People by Abi Maxwell. Here is the product description from the Amazon Kindle store.

A haunting, luminous debut novel set in a small New Hampshire town: the story of the crisscrossing of lives, within and without family, and of one woman, given up for adoption as a baby, searching for the truth about her life.

As an infant, Alice Thornton was discovered in Kettleborough, New Hampshire, in a boathouse by the lake; adopted by a young, childless couple; raised with no knowledge of the women who came before her: Eleonora, who brought her family to Bear Island, the nearly uninhabitable scrap of land in Kettleborough’s lake; Signe, the maiden aunt who nearly drowned in the lake, ashamed of her heart; Sophie, the grandmother who turned a blind eye to her unwanted granddaughter. Alice grows up aching for an acceptance she can’t quite imagine, trying to find it first with an older man, then with one who can’t love her back, and finally in the love she feels for one she has never met. And all the while she feels a mysterious pull to the lake. As Alice edges ever closer to her past, Lake People beautifully evokes the interweaving of family history and individual fate, and the intangible connections we feel to the place where we were born.

This ebook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.

And how is this for a review?“I read this novel almost without stopping—it’s a riveting book, with quiet lyrical power. It’s also inventive, wonderfully strange, hard-headed, and genuinely enchanting. A very impressive debut.” —Joan Silber, author of National Book Award finalist Ideas of Heaven

Abi’s biography is almost as succinct as the review. Her “About the Author” section says simply: “Abi Maxwell was born and raised in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, where she currently lives. She studied fiction writing at the University of Montana, and now works as an assistant librarian at the Gilford Public Library. This is her first book.”

Maybe not on the opposite end of the writing spectrum, but at least with an altogether different vibe is our second book, Gun Machine by Warren Ellis.

Here’s the description.

Warren Ellis reimagines New York City as a puzzle with the most dangerous pieces of all: GUNS.

After a shootout claims the life of his partner in a condemned tenement building on Pearl Street, Detective John Tallow unwittingly stumbles across an apartment stacked high with guns. When examined, each weapon leads to a different, previously unsolved murder. Someone has been killing people for twenty years or more and storing the weapons together for some inexplicable purpose.

Confronted with the sudden emergence of hundreds of unsolved homicides, Tallow soon discovers that he’s walked into a veritable deal with the devil. An unholy bargain that has made possible the rise of some of Manhattan’s most prominent captains of industry. A hunter who performs his deadly acts as a sacrifice to the old gods of Manhattan, who may, quite simply, be the most prolific murderer in New York City’s history.

Warren Ellis’s body of work has been championed by Wired for its “merciless action” and “incorruptible bravery,” and steadily amassed legions of diehard fans. His newest novel builds on his accomplishments like never before, announcing Ellis as one of today’s most daring thriller writers. This is twenty-first century suspense writ large. This is GUN MACHINE.

Unlike Abi Maxwell, Warren Ellis has been around the block a time or two, as evidenced by his vita.

“Warren Ellis is an award-winning creator of graphic novels whose work includes Fell, Ministry of Space, Planetary, Transmetropolitan and Red, which was adapted into a film starring Bruce Willis, and the author of the novel Crooked Little Vein. He has also written for many of Marvel Comics’ top series including the Avengers, Iron Man and the X-Men. He lives in Southend with his family. Visit his website at www.warrenellis.com or follow him on Twitter @warrenellis.”

Like I said, you can’t go wrong with either of these books.