With reservations, RON JACOBS recommends a deep dive into the nature, history, and mindset of US intelligence
IN PRESENT-DAY Budapest, Krisztina hunts dying people for their songs in The Teardrop Method by Simon Avery (TTA Press, £8). Her first album was released to some acclaim a few years earlier but then she found her soulmate and contentment quietened her muse.
It's only when her lover dies in an accident that this strange gift — or curse — of being able to hear and claim the songs of the doomed arose to replace her talent.
But what if Krisztina isn't the only one? And what if someone else wants her song?

MAT COWARD presents a peculiar cabbage that will only do its bodybuilding once the summer dies down

A heatwave, a crimewave, and weird bollocks in Aberdeen, Indiana horror, and the end of the American Dream

A corrupted chemist, a Hampstead homosexual and finely observed class-conflict at The Bohemia

Beet likes warmth, who doesn’t, so attention to detail is required if you’re to succeed, writes MAT COWARD