14 August 2026
Coming in August 2026 from Silent Clamor Press, Faces in the Flames by N.T. McQueen gives us a multi-faceted gem in the shape of Stone Lake, CA, the fictional hill town captured in this short story collection. Each of these thirteen stories stands alone, published separately prior to this edition, and combining here into not-quite-a-novel, but a rich picture of semi-rural community life. With each new tale, McQueen shows us another face reflecting Stone Lake’s smoky light in its own peculiar way, the homes built by the contractor whose family is falling apart, the sermons preached by a pastor whose heart is filled with doubt. Each protagonist is destined for a bit part later on, while the local haunts, taverns, and discount stores become as familiar as home, we revisit them so often in these pages. Like McQueen’s varied cast of Stone Lake residents, we’ve lived here all our lives.
Hanging over these stories, like the smoke from the omnipresent hill fires above Stone Lake, there’s an atmosphere of poetic longing. Misunderstood Mouthy Mary, shiftless Homer Bagby, the inscrutable Larry Holliday Jr., they weave their stories of loss and lost chances around one another, suffering their frustrations and despair alone even as, denizens of a small town, they pass so close. Yet most of these tales end with redemption, or at least the hope of it. McQueen isn’t asking us to pity these long-suffering souls but to rejoice with them as they arrive at deeper understanding, that the past can be left behind, the hatchet can be buried.
The author’s style is unique and while each story is told from a different point of view, the narrative voice remains constant throughout, an omniscient teller of everyone’s tale, one by one. Though we are privy to their thoughts, these characters’ voices are filtered, never spoken in quoted dialogue, woven instead like threads into a homogeneous whole. As we navigate through neighborhoods rich and poor, into and out of houses, schools, and workplaces, the voice that takes us there is calm and objective, observing events and emotions, relating them with accuracy, without judgement. And if there are some secrets we’ll never learn, well isn’t that just like life in a small town? Faces in the Flames gives us nothing on a platter, but everything we need to know, leaving us with the feeling that it’s the fire on the hillside that will finally cleanse us, that all our sins might finally be burned away.
Thanks to Silent Clamor Press for an advanced reader’s copy. Faces in the Flames launches August 25, 2026. Preorder at https://www.silentclamor.com/faces-in-the-flames
Jennifer Frost Writes 
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