Tom Kidd’s “Grantville Gumshoe in The Pre-enactor Murder” is a special treat. Tom takes a break from his Baen Books 1632 series cover artist duties to bring us a hard-boiled detective story, a murder case involving Grantville’s Civil War re-enactors. Our hero is a self-made down-time gumshoe who learned his trade from up-time detective movies, novels, and magazines. Will he solve the murder and find the hidden time machine that brought Grantville to the past? Stay tuned!

A young widow is being forced to waste away in a convent only because she is an inconvenience to her cold-hearted in-laws. Can she be rescued by a couple of very eligible bachelors? Will the wedding bells ring? Find out in Virginia DeMarce’s “Here or There?”!

Down-timer NESS security agent Astrid Schäubin encounters up-time Tejana horsewoman Alyse Ballantine. The two women from vastly different times and places strike up a friendship in Sarah Hays’ “Driving Force.”

A proud young samurai returns to the site of a deadly crime against his family and people seeking vengeance. His quest begins in Garrett W. Vance’s “Our Man Hiuchi.”

Edith Wild’s “Come Dig My Earth” is the fifth installment in the saga of Amalia, a young girl who has suffered severe bullet wounds during a murderous home invasion. Now she is in surgery while an unlikely duo investigates alongside Grantville’s law enforcement.