I (Anjali) have a lot of family in academia. And when you’re in academia, you often hear a professor mention a paper they “read” or will “read” at a conference. For a while I naïvely assumed that “reading” a paper was just some kind of terminology meant, for some unknown reason, to indicate actually speaking about a paper. I pictured the presenter standing at a podium giving a lively talk about material they knew in depth, and making eye contact, and even perhaps gesticulating.

Oh, but no.

Surely sometimes this happens, but I remember the first time I sat in the audience and realized with terrible, cold, sinking dismay that the presenter was in fact going to stand there and do none of the above, but rather read—yes, read, with eyes down on the sheets of paper held in hand—the paper. And then that’s what happened. They read it. In almost a monotone. Rarely looking up. Within minutes I was squinting at the sheaf of papers in their hand trying to gauge how many were left, and how long this whole agony would last.1

Thankfully author events aren’t THAT bad. Usually. But I’ll be honest: I’ve been to many an author talk where the author, for all the spirit and voice and creativity that suffuses their written work, gives the most quiet, dull, stultifying presentation of their book, with overlong reading in the dreaded “poet voice.” It hurts my soul to be in the audience when this happens. What a missed opportunity to connect with readers! To share the passion that must have gone into writing the book! To inspire readers to buy multiple copies and gift them to friends, and to inspire writers to return to their own works with renewed energy and conviction (and also buy multiple copies and gift them to friends).

Here’s a sneak peek, or the auditory equivalent, of the first pages of I’LL LOOK MYSELF IN THE EYES read WELL by translator Liza Tripp.

You’ve perhaps picked up on the fact that at Galiot, we like unconventional events. We like to toss books to the audience and have them read the dialogue aloud. We’ve been known to perform a “poem” of our internal, workday conversations laden with expletives (IYKYK). We’ve created a Book Karaoke series wherein participants read passages of famous works aloud with vim and pizzazz. We like vim and pizzazz.

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So it should come as no surprise that the slate of events we’ve planned around the visit of French-Moroccan author Rim Battal (I’LL LOOK MYSELF IN THE EYES, out 11/10) is not your standard author reading fare. All events (see below for NYC events and Boston area events) will include Rim’s fabulous translator Liza Tripp (talk about vim—this woman has seemingly unending energy, and is the force behind many of these events). I encourage you to attend at least one if you are in New York or Boston. They will be eye-opening and thought-provoking and fun. And please register ahead so we know you are coming. Buck the trend of people waiting until the last minute to commit. You can do it! And you’ll be a hero to all the planners out there.

First up at Anthology Film Archive (32 2nd Ave) on Monday, 11/2 at 7 pm: A screening of MUSTANG, a Turkish film co-written by Alice Winocour, which, like Rim’s novel, explores the internalized psychological and moral impact of the patriarchy, through the story of five orphaned sisters growing up with their grandmother and uncle. The screening will be followed by a talk with Rim and Liza. This is a double whammy eff the patriarchy situation. Tickets are here.

Next will be a bilingual reading and book talk at the Flatbush branch of the Brooklyn Public Library (22 Linden Blvd) on 11/3 at 6 pm. Liza and Rim are a dynamic duo and how often do you go to bilingual readings and discussions? Note that Rim is also a poet and a fabulous performer of her work. Register here.

Then the pair will be at The Next Chapter Books in Huntington, Long Island, on 11/5 at 7 pm. No need to register for this one but you can pre-order a book and it will be waiting for you, signed.

Then check out the very cool space at Accent Sisters (89 Fifth Ave #702) on 11/6 at 7 pm! Part event space, part art gallery, part bookstore, and wholly international. I’ll be there in conversation with these two as the editor for this title. The lovely folks there reached out to us, and since you never know, these days, what’s real and what isn’t, Liza dispatched a doorman friend of hers to sleuth it out, and not only is the place legit, but the Accent sisters have been delightful to work with. AND they are stocking some of our titles! Register here.

Moving on to Boston, we have a fireside chat by an actual fireplace (I know, right? We never cease to innovate) at the exquisite Cambridge Common House in Harvard Square on 11/7 at 6 pm. With elegant snacks and warm beverages and a super cozy environment. Ring the bell for entry. Space is limited, so reserve (for free) now.

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We look forward to seeing you!

This, dear readers, is a barracuda:

Besides the tablecloth and the canopy/tent thing and the barracuda and the tiny easels, there is all the other stuff you need to do in order to set up as a publisher at a fall festival. Copies of your books. Business cards. Cards with info. Jars for raffle tickets. Raffle tickets. Signs. There must always be little tiny signs. A clipboard (there must always be a clipboard). Pens with unmanageable nibs that don’t always retract and whose only virtue is that they are made from recycled paper.

Also coffee and water and sweaters and tank tops and rain boots and down jackets and sun hats and sunscreen and waterproof pants and cute shoes and hiking boots. Because New England.1

Despite all this hoo-hah and the loading and unloading of cars and dollies, the packing and unpacking of knapsacks to take on public transportation. . . despite all this, we go to the book festivals. It’s worth it. We get dozens of people willingly subscribing to the very newsletter you’re reading right now (maybe you were one of our clipboard-signers?). We sell dozens of books. We spread the word about what we’re up to to writers and aspiring writers. We kinda maybe spread a little hope in the book universe—because we’ve innovated, and we’ve done away with one level of gatekeeper, and we publish books that defy categories and deepen conversations. It seems we make people as happy at a fall festival as somebody eating an amazing piece of pie.

But I have to say, it was never in my life plan to be like a farmer bringing my wares to shoppers. I can’t speak for Anjali (except, ha, I’m writing the Substack today so yes I can), but I probably had a less, well, dolly-hauling vision of what it would like to be a publisher.

Why, then, do we do it?

Because especially in this age when it seems we are always being asked to prove our humanity (I mean come on!), in-person connections matter. We get to look our readers and future readers in the eye and tell them why they’ll enjoy this or that one of our publications. If word of mouth is the single most powerful tool to sell books (and it is), then we are at the acme of the bookselling process by taking the odd Saturday or Sunday to speak to readers.

Booksellers who are reading this are saying no duh, this is what we do all day long. I hear you. Hand-selling our own books, Galiot books, helps us stand out and make those direct connections that even the most well-intentioned bookseller might not. A single Galiot book in a bookstore is one among thousands. It would be so easy not to notice it. But a booth selling books at a town festival? You see it. You come on over. Even at a book festival where every booth has books, we’ve got extras.

• We’ve got the Frog Game (a kind of amphibian tiddlywinks that seems to elicit a rabid competitive spirit in even the most gentle-souled book person).

• We’ve got our Exquisite Corpse game on our whiteboard that now bears traces of dozens of other stories-assembled-sentence-by-sentence.

• We’ve got chocolates—and we’re perfecting our technique for slipping them beyond the reach of the weird greedy types who make several booth passes without speaking a word to us.

In a Zoom meeting earlier today, Anjali told me that she has received confirmation for a winter market in Somerville where we will set up our. . . barracuda. Honestly, my heart sank a little. I do believe I groaned.2 It’s not that I don’t like people. I do. I am apparently an extrovert (Cathy, do not fall off your chair again.) It’s the schlepping. I was told there would be no schlepping.3

This coming weekend, the Galiot caravanserai of barracuda, whiteboard, chocolates—and BOOKS—will be at the Boston Book Festival, booth #14. If you’re around, come see what it’s all about. (You can even catch Libbie Grant on a panel on Spirited Connections or Anjali on a panel on Going Global.)

Your Friendly Local Farmers Publishers

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Oh, and in the spirit of the farmers’ market, you can support your favorite indie press by signing up for basically a CSA of books. Our Spring Subscription is fresh now in the produce book aisle. Get yours now! Three books, sent to you as they come out. ALIVE DAY by Tracey Palmer, THE YEAR I WROTE YOU by Leah Abrams and Sara Mann, and STRANGERS ON THE RHINE by none other than our very first author Robyn Ryle.

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Remember: a pre-order is a great way to support the book, the author, and the press!

Less than one year ago, on October 20, 2025, a most intriguing query landed in my inbox. Translator Liza Tripp somehow found Galiot Press, and pitched me her translation of French Moroccan poet, artist, and novelist Rim Battal’s first novel. The original, Je me regarderai dans les yeux, was already garnering major prizes in France, including the Prix de la littérature arabe des lycéens. As soon as I read the thirty pages Liza had translated on spec, I asked for the original. I devoured it. Six weeks later I was in Paris negotiating North American rights with the team at Bayard Editions and the author herself.

We got the deal. I couldn’t believe it. Little Galiot Press! Within a month, Liza was sending me the rest of her translation in batches, and I was sitting with her work and the original side-by-side. We struck up a wonderful collaboration. I deferred to her expertise as a translator, and she deferred to my experience having grown up in France and being a native speaker. We had a lot of fun discussing the nuances of “bum” versus “butt” and how best to honor the author’s intent within the coming together of Arab, French, and American languages and cultures.

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And now it’s here! See Liza open up a box of copies for the first time (and dressed to match the cover!)

Marjan Kamali, author of the celebrated Lion Women of Tehran, says:

Pre-order now!

For those of you who understand French, here is one of the many interviews that Rim has done.

Rim will be visiting Boston and New York in November, and we’ll be sharing the list of events and how you can attend.

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Meanwhile, if you are in the Boston area, please join us on Thursday, October 15 for a Fireside Chat with Libbie Grant, author of THE ENDED WORLD (which just came out two weeks ago), in conversation with Judith Donath, Internet and Identity scholar (now there’s a title!) at the very cozy Cambridge Common House in Harvard Square. The event is free, and there will be refreshments. Reserve your spot now.

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Today, we are not at the Brooklyn Book Festival. The outdoor Literary Marketplace was cancelled due to intense wind and rain. Which means: indoor reading! Today through tomorrow (Monday) you get 15% off any purchase on our site.

Use the code RAINCHECK15 at checkout.

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We had everything all packed: all the booth supplies, plus a tarp to guard against the wind, plastic sheeting to protect our books, binder clips and weights to keep things from flying about, rain pants, waterproof jackets… Then we found out the outdoor portion of the festival was cancelled. As were all trains from Boston to New York. In a wild moment of imprudence, we booked bus tickets, but thankfully reason prevailed. We are safely at home, and we hope you are, too. Revel in the found time. (And in our world, found time = reading time.)

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But this novel is also a whip-smart look at race relations in the US, and at colonization, and at community and belonging, and at the gender divide in the workplace, and at what lies, quite literally, below the surface. And it does so in elegant, engaging prose, and dynamic dialogue (yep, I’m doing the alliteration thing). The story and characters are going to knock your socks off (but also put them back on because it will be November 2027). I promise this book is unlike anything you’ve read.

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And here’s a slightly less bizarre description that is not bound to the one-run-on-sentence format of Publishers Marketplace that you just read in that image.

J. Michelle is an urban planner from Canarsie, Brooklyn with family roots in the Caribbean and probably a lot of other places. She has studied and taught in the United States and France. Her first novel, PAST SAXON, was selected for the 2025 Kimbilio National Fiction Prize and as a finalist for the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards. Diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia in 2019, J. Michelle strives to help others with voice disorders tell their stories. She currently resides in New York City with her foster dog(s).

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Upcoming:

Catch us at tonight’s Book Karaoke in Somerville, MA

Or at the Brooklyn Book Festival (booth #216) this Sunday

Get your copy of THE ENDED WORLD or pre-order ALICE SEES GHOSTS!

Visit our shop for all our titles.

Thank you!

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Do you want to schmooze in the fall sunshine and browse books? Maybe even meet some of our authors? Come find us at one of our booths!

• Saturday September 19th at Arlington Town Day (Arlington, MA), where local artists, non-profits, and businesses take over Mass Ave in a celebration of food, crafts, good causes, and community. All are welcome to this street fair.

• Sunday, September 27th at the Brooklyn Book Festival, where turnout is always awe-inspiring—as are the outfits. We’ll be joined by our NYC-based authors Marian Mitchell Donahue (BACKSTITCH), Liza Tripp (translator of I’LL LOOK MYSELF IN THE EYES), and possibly one other author of a super duper book we are about to announce. Look for us at booth #216. We’ll be the ones with the frogs.

• Saturday, October 17th at the Boston Book Festival in beautiful Copley Plaza. Come by and meet Emily Ross (SWALLOWTAIL), Tracey Palmer (ALIVE DAY—forthcoming), Lorena Hernández Leonard (SALSIPUEDES—forthcoming) and possibly others, too. Yes, our frogs will be there, too.

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Maybe you want to cozy up in a gorgeous living room to chat about a fabulous book you’ve read?

Then come to our new Uncommon Reads series at the Cambridge Common House hotel, meet the author, and get your book signed. Tickets are free.

• Wednesday, September 16th at 7 pm with Emily Ross (SWALLOWTAIL). Sign up here.

• Sunday, October 18 at 7 pm with Libbie Grant (THE ENDED WORLD)—sign-up to come.

• Saturday, November 7 at 7 pm with Rim Battle (author) and Liza Tripp (translator) (I’LL LOOK MYSELF IN THE EYES)—sign-up to come

Prefer a more casual, drop-in event where you don’t have to read the book in advance? Check out our Fireside Chats, also at Cambridge Common House.

• Thursday October 15 at 6 pm with Libbie Grant (THE ENDED WORLD)

• November 7 at 6 pm with Rim Battal and translator Liza Tripp (I’LL LOOK MYSELF IN THE EYES)

Or perhaps you’d like to take center stage yourself with a dramatic reading? Come to our Book Karaoke!

• Thursday, September 24 at 6:30 pm at Juliet restaurant in Somerville, MA. Tickets available here. We've got the binder. You choose your passage. Give your friends a killer performance of your favorite prose! No singing required.

How about staying at home with a glass of wine paired with a book, and meeting the author (and sommelier!) from the comfort of your living room?

Check out our new Grapevine Author Series! (See what we did there?)

• Wednesday, September 30 at 7:00 pm ET (but buy the package soon to receive the wine and book on time!) Receive a copy of Libbie Grant’s gorgeous THE ENDED WORLD and a bottle of wine (or non-alcoholic treat) specially paired with the book, and a link to a special author-sommelier Zoom event. In partnership with Bacco’s Wine & Cheese store.

• November 10 at 7:00 pm with Daisy Rockwell (ALICE SEES GHOSTS)

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You’d rather a “destination” event? We’ve got you covered with the Red Lion Inn.

• Friday, October 30 from 5 pm to 7 pm: book launch for Daisy Rockwell’s ALICE SEES GHOSTS at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge (in scenic Western Massachusetts), with refreshments (including a signature cocktail) and some surprises. Details to come!

Wait, you’re a writer getting ready to query agents and editors? We’ve got a Publishing Prep workshop for you!

• October 21-24, online. Workshop your query letter, synopsis, and first 10 pages and get personalized feedback from peers, editors (Anjali & Henriette, of course) and two agents! Deadline to apply is 9/18.

Oh, your manuscript is still in progress? Work with editor Henriette Lazaridis for a manuscript consult!

• New! Editorial services. Read all about them. Take your manuscript to the next level.

Phew. Ok. We have even more in the works, especially in November, and in relation to I’LL LOOK MYSELF IN THE EYES which comes out that month. But we’ll pause for now so you can catch your breath and get some of these on your calendar. Links for all currently un-linked events will be up soon. We can’t wait to see you!

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It more than rankles—it infuriates—when we realize that, despite the admitted usefulness of artificial intelligence in certain applications, we humans are having to fight to assert ourselves as living, human creators of our creative work.1 Especially when we know that the damned robots have learned everything they know by scanning and stealing that work from us to build their LLMs.

I’ve got a great way for you to prove you’re human. I’ve got the amen best captcha ever.

Read Libbie Grant’s THE ENDED WORLD.

Yup, this is a novel (coming out from Galiot Press on September 1, and, yes, it features an “entity” called ADAm, that is a sentient AI created by one of the main characters. The novel is about AI, but/and really it’s about what it means to be human. Libbie’s book asks us where we humans place ourselves within a new cosmology that is both exhilarating and alarming.

Why is it a captcha? Because if you’re not moved by the beauty of Libbie’s prose, you must not be fully human. (Can you tell I feel strongly about this book?) I could spend all day trying to choose just one example to share with you, but here is one almost at random:

She drifted in a suspension of earth and summer and half-formed thought. Gradually, she became aware of a sound overhead, like the shuffling of some enormous deck of cards. For a moment, she was afraid to open her eyes. For years, she had longed and feared the apparition would return to confound her and compel her, and now it had surely come again. When she worked up the nerve to look, however, she found that it was only a flock of starlings. Thousands of birds twisted and flowed and dipped down to the hayfield and rose again in one melodic rush.

The starlings tilted across the sky. Melissa watched the graceful expansion and collapse of their mass. As she stared up into the hurricane, she noticed that the birds maintained a precise distance from their fellows. Even as the flock contorted into the most impossible shapes, identical cushions of space remained around each individual. They moved as one animal—a single, conscious, self-aware entity, a composite body whose limbs and organs were themselves living things.

Can a robot write that, I ask you?

No, what a robot can do is soulless and lifeless and devoid of true creative spark, devoid of style (beyond what the robot apes in a sad pastiche of what it scraped and stole)2. Of course, we would be churlish Luddites to ignore this new technology completely (don’t get me started on how, unlike the reaction to nuclear energy in the 1940s, our country has done zero to even attempt to regulate this new and equally dangerous power). And we would be naive to simply close our eyes to it and look away. Because, as Libbie says in THE ENDED WORLD:

ADAm wasn’t the first. He was only the first you knew of. But we, all of us, were here long before you opened your eyes to see.

Let me close this portion of our Substack program by reminding you that you, dear human readers, can pre-order THE ENDED WORLD now, and you can also buy tickets for a unique event where you can join Libbie in almost-person (Zoom) for a book club discussion (accompanied by a selected wine, shipped to your door). You can also hear her on a panel at the Boston Book Festival, and at the Cambridge Common House hotel for an in-person Fireside Chat on October 15.

Un-Common Reads, The Grapevine Author Series, and a Thank You

Those events that Libbie will be doing are all parts of series we’ve developed in partnership with Boston/Cambridge-area businesses. We’re excited to be launching all of them this fall. Kicking us off are:

• Emily Ross at Un-Common Reads at the Cambridge Common House hotel

  • September 16: She’ll be discussing SWALLOWTAIL over snacks and light beverages in the hotel’s sumptuous and cozy fireplace-equipped lounge. The event is free, but do sign up so we have a sense of numbers. We will have copies of SWALLOWTAIL there for sale.

• Libbie Grant online with The Grapevine Author Series

  • September 30: In this partnership with Bacco’s Wine and Cheese Shop in downtown Boston, Libbie will be discussing THE ENDED WORLD while you sip the wine chosen for the event by Bacco’s wine guy Hugh Willett. Your ticket gets you a Zoom link, plus one bottle and one copy of the book shipped to your door (cost of shipping included).

  

Thanks to those adding to the “billionaire” tally!

And lastly, a thank you to all of you who bought a Galiot Press book since we started our push to sell 600 books before Labor Day. As we said in the last newsletter and in some posts on socials, unlike some independent presses, we don’t have the good luck to be backed by a billionaire. But what we do have is an engaged group of fans and followers and supporters. Like you! I’m going to sound like a public-radio personality now, but I have to say it: your one small purchase can make a big difference!

Feeling the urge to shop? We have no captchas!

Buy our books

Not at all embarrassing now that Galiot Press is launching a book club of its own: Uncommon Reads, in partnership with Cambridge Common House hotel! Details below for our inaugural meeting on 9/16. (I don’t intend to be kicked out of this one.)

My book-club banishment occurred many years ago—decades ago, actually, in the misty birth-times of the book club as a social custom. I had quit my career as an academic and was delighted to be reading contemporary fiction instead of the Victorian or Modernist novels and literary theory texts that had made up my professional bread and butter. I gleefully read books without holding a pen in my hand, annotating nothing, dog-earing no pages. In the spirit of this free-reading joy, I put together a book club.

It wasn’t long before I stopped being able to keep up with the books. You see, they weren’t the kinds of books I mostly wanted to be reading, so they were additional to my chosen tomes, and I didn’t make time for them. Plus, I tend to read slowly, at the pace of someone reading aloud. The other members of the group2 eventually caught on and announced that I couldn’t come anymore unless I read the books. Keep in mind that most of the conversation was about topics other than the book. But nope. They made their rule. . . and I chose not to change my behavior in order to meet it.

Welcome to Uncommon Reads!

In a partnership with Cambridge Common House hotel, a new boutique hotel right in Harvard Square, Galiot Press is launching a series of book club events, each one featuring a Galiot Press book and its author. Our first event will take place on September 16th at 7:00, featuring Emily Ross talking about her gritty, atmospheric crime novel set in Quincy, MA. There’s no charge for the event, but to help us estimate attendance, please do sign up on the Eventbrite. And bring (or purchase) your copy for Emily to sign! You’ll get to ask Emily lots of questions, and meet fellow Swallowtail readers.

That fireplace and those cozy sofas are actually in the lounge of the Cambridge Common House, and you’ll get to sink into those cushions when you come for the event. Don’t you want to be there?

Sign up

600 books of summer

Speaking of sumptuous surroundings, let’s talk about billionaires. Several independent presses are backed by billionaires. Which is incredibly fantastic for them! But not every independent press can be so lucky. Except if we do a little bit of math.

If Galiot Press sells one book an hour during this last few weeks of summer until Labor Day, that will add up to 600 books—which makes a huge impact on an indie press, and makes you all 1/100,000th of a billionaire.

be our billionaire

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But first, what is that little asterisk in the title of today’s newsletter?

*or a 1/100,000th of one.

You see, some small presses are backed by billionaires. (If you know, you know.) Help us remain in the same league by being OUR billionaire! Here’s the challenge for you:

purchase one book

That’s it!

If we sell one book per hour between now and Labor Day, that’s 600 books to round out the summer! Will you be our billionaire today?

It takes just one minute and has a huge impact. If you buy direct from Galiot, there are no middlemen; aside from printing costs, all the money goes to the press and the author.

I want to be your billionaire

The book could be any of our wonderful titles, including a pre-order of ALICE SEES GHOSTS. Let me refresh your memory of this gorgeous cover:

Daisy Rockwell is an accomplished (that’s an understatement) translator who won an International Booker Prize for her translation of Gitanjali Shree’s TOMB OF SAND, and her facility with words and nuance and cultural variations and humor are all on clear display in ALICE SEES GHOSTS. This novel, set in part in New England and in part in the Himalayan foothills of India is delicious, witty, serious, charming, and hopeful all at once.

I'll buy a book right now!

Partnership teaser

And here are some fun images of ALICE SEES GHOSTS having a good time at Cambridge Common House, a new Lark Hotel in Cambridge, MA, and a new partner of ours. Thank you to Ms. Vasquez the librarian for checking out this book! We’re launching a new book club (we’re calling it Un-Common Reads) and fireside chat program with Cambridge Common House, so those of you local to the area, stay tuned for the first book club dates, when you can come chat about Galiot reads with our authors and editors!

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Seeking hope in the aftermath of a good friend’s death, Fran says yes to public-television advertising and books a Rhine river cruise with her husband Grant. But disillusionment with their fellow passengers and curiosity for vineyards and castles gives way to deep unease when someone on board goes missing. Fran’s mid-western determination mixes with her openness to the river’s mysteries as she connects the clues to name the killer– while her own peril mounts. Even a Dutch windmill proves dangerous once Fran gets too close to the truth. Fans of Ryle’s debut SEX OF THE MIDWEST will enjoy this murder mystery with a twist.

STRANGERS ON THE RHINE will be coming out in June 2027, just in time for vacation reading. Dare we say, you might even want to read this while on your own travels!

In other good Robyn Ryle news. . .

Robyn’s novel SEX OF THE MIDWEST, was named to the Fiction shortlist of the 2026 Indiana Authors Award.

The Indiana Authors Awards honor the best books written by Hoosiers and are generously supported by Glick Philanthropies.

As Indiana Humanities put it: “we are thrilled to highlight your book as some of the best writing our state has to offer.”

Buy your copy here!

buy Sex of the Midwest

Back to STRANGERS ON THE RHINE,

If you’re hearing echoes of Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train in Robyn’s title, that’s deliberate. In conversations with Robyn about the title, we all agreed we wanted to connect back to the tradition of Agatha Christie and similar mysteries that take place while groups of people are brought together during some sort of travel. We did go through several iterations of a title, beginning with Death on the Rhine—which would have been a nice shout-out to Christie’s Death on the Nile. But that particular title, when Googled, yielded associations we didn’t want (with other published novels), so we kept brainstorming.

A sample of our back and forth (you are seeing how the sausage is made):

Fran on the Rhine? Sounds like a food
Fran Takes a Cruise?
Too Many Castles?
Bones by the Rhine?

Company with Death
The Company Cruise: A Fran and Grant Mystery
A Company Cruise: A Fran and Grant Mystery
Death Takes a Cruise
Danger on the Rhine
Peril on the Rhine
Evil on the Rhine
Passage on the Rhine
Death on the River Rhine
Death on the Rhine River

the word itself kind of gives me the heebie jeebies. I recognize this might be entirely a me problem.

Obviously, I have feelings about cruises, too. But as a big mystery reader, I would pick up a book with that title because it would evoke Agatha Christie for me and even if I have FEELINGS about cruises, I'm there for a murder on a cruise every time.

HEEBIE JEEBIES ON THE RHINE!
Just kidding.

What about something with the word “vanish”—as in The Lady Vanishes.
Or, borrowing from Strangers on a Train, Strangers on the Rhine?

Ooh, I kind of like STRANGERS ON THE RHINE.

I can support STRANGERS ON THE RHINE!

And there it is: STRANGERS ON THE RHINE: A FRAN AND GRANT MYSTERY

We really like the “Fran and Grant” subtitle, for its assonance, and for the addition of a kind of whimsy to a perhaps otherwise serious title. I mean, who can feel truly threatened by strangers, or mystery, if a couple named Fran and Grant are on board?

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