PJ Peterson solved mysteries of the medical kind while she practiced medicine as an internist. Writing murder mysteries seemed like the logical thing to do while practicing retirement. Julia Fairchild, MD, is loosely based on a younger version of herself. The tendency to stumble onto murders is purely fictional, however.

Dys·topia (“bad place”)

For some reason, dystopian tales continue to be immensely popular these days, as evidenced by the many films, novels, comics, video games, and nightly news. A recent addition to this burgeoning literature is Nicole Zelniker’s Until We Fall, where increasingly bitter partisanship has resulted in a second American civil war. The state of California secedes from the union, and the remaining United States become a democracy in name only: students are spooned a pabulum of history, easily digestible, one that avoids their nation’s complex story;