Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpost.com. – Barbara Ellis
‘The Hired Man,’ by Sandra Dallas (St. Martin’s Press, 2026)
Set during the Dust Bowl years in southeastern Colorado, this historical novel by Denver author (and Denver Post freelance writer) Sandra Dallas opens with a stranger (a wandering hobo) suddenly appearing in an insular, struggling rural community. Though he stays, he is not welcomed by all. When a young woman is mysteriously and brutally murdered, even more suspicion falls on the stranger. One family, the family of the narrator, defends the stranger and supports his exoneration. But are things truly as they seem? Although this novel is set in the past, echoes of current debates about “strangers in our midst” resonate throughout. — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘The Keeper,’ by Tana French (Viking, 2026)
THE KEEPER
By Tana French
Viking. 484 pp. $32.
The third and final novel in the Cal Hooper series. Hooper, a retired Chicago cop, moved to a rural Irish village years ago and slowly found acceptance in the tradition-bound community, so untrusting and suspicious of outsiders. A death occurs. Is it an accident, suicide or murder? Opinions and rumors run rampant, threatening to tear apart delicately balanced, generations-long allegiances, fiercely held grudges and family loyalties. Hooper and his friends ultimately uncover the truth but question whose purposes that truth would actually serve and whom would it hurt? The characters – even many minor ones – are built with such thoughtfulness and detail that you come to care deeply about them, despite – or perhaps because of – their doubts and proverbial warts. I am far from alone in wishing, though in vain, for more from this well-crafted series. — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver
‘Gliff,’ by Ali Smith (Pantheon, 2025)
Two children, Briar and Rose, live in the countryside with a stolen horse. It sounds like a fairy tale, but “Gliff” is far from that. In the “brave new unlibraried world” of the near future, the siblings find themselves living alone in an unfamiliar town as the authoritarian government uses AI-type machines to mark them as Others. Smith has plenty to say about governments, freedom, conformity and survival, and she says it all with the magic of her incredible wordplay — which kept me reading this brief novel despite the accumulation of dread in my stomach. As in her other works, the brilliant author is devoted to the power of language, and its ability to shape the world around us. We need to listen. — 3 1/2 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker
‘The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean,’ by Susan Casey (Penguin Random House, 2023)
“The Underworld” was released in August 2023, just weeks after the OceanGate submersible imploded on a mission to view the Titanic, killing all five people on board. If you were asking, as I was, why anyone would power down to the bottom of the ocean in a tight, suffocating bullet, this book provides answers. It also affirms the reasons to be afraid. With Casey, it’s personal: “Others wanted to visit Paris, Bora Bora, the Serengeti: I wanted to go into the Ocean’s abyss. The idea of an unknown aquatic realm, ever present below but invisible unless we look for it — an underworld within our world — had always worked a sort of spell on me, an alchemical mix of wonder and fear.” She links the history of her own obsession and goal to see it firsthand with the history of man’s deep-sea exploration and the obstacles to getting there. And when she does finally descend, we go with her. Every sentence is lit up by Casey’s rapt fascination, and the book is peppered with color photos of the extraordinary life she finds there. Her infectious devotion makes this book irresistible. — 3 ½ stars (out of 4); Michelle Nelson, Littleton
‘Canticle,’ by Janet Rich Edwards (Spiegel & Grau, 2025)
“Canticle,” by Janet Rich Edwards. (Spiegel & Grau/TNS)
This debut novel — which landed on many “best books” lists — honors the lives of the Beguines, religious women who lived in simple community as long ago as the 13th century, at a time when the Church in Rome was all-powerful (and all-corrupt). As a teenager, when Aleys is moved by the brown-robed friars in Bruges, she escapes a forced betrothal to join the Franciscans. But there is no place for a woman there. Aleys is housed with the Beguines as she seeks God, performing miracles enough to make her dangerous to the Church. Eventually, manipulated by the bishop, she becomes an anchoress, suffering the trials of God’s presence and absence — and then becomes the scapegoat for the papal legate. The Washington Post write: “Edwards manages to produce a modern narrative that remains leashed to ancient experience and the evolving religious practices of the era — some shockingly peculiar.” — 4 stars (out of 4); Jo Calhoun, Denver
