iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 14/09/2026

Another Spybrary podcast interview of mine is unleashed on the world. It’s with David McCloskey-recommended writer Robert McCaw, about his Washington molehunt book Traitors. Get it from your usual podcast source, or the link’s here. #readingcommunity #books #BookSky

050

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 08/09/2026

Read: Let it bleed by n/a 📚Rebus investigates high level corruption in Edinburgh. Again. It would be easy to dismiss it as just more Rankin content, except Rankin content is consistently very very very good. I’ll even forgive the Stones reference. #BookSky #books #readingcommunity

060

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 03/09/2026

Read: The alienist by Caleb Carr 📚Cracking atmospheric period NYC serial killer procedural with a walk on part for Theodore Roosevelt. #BookSky #readingcommunity #books

020

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 03/09/2026

Read: The Absinthe Forger by Evan Rail 📚One of those niche histories about something obscure. In this case, fake absinthe from pre-1915 when most of Europe banned it in a moral panic. Happily quirky, slight, and a bit hazy, like an afternoon drinking in the sun. #BookSky #books #readingcommunity

030

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 25/08/2026

Read: Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway 📚Le Carre’s son picks his father’s Smiley/Karla rivalry. Superb. Enough to make me reconsider my proscription on works that fills in holes in the canonical texts. #booksky #sky #readingcommunity

060

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 24/08/2026

Want to read: The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin 📚 #litfic

010

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 20/08/2026

Review: Rothstein - The Criminal Genius Who Fixed The World Series: matthewhurst.micro.blog/2026/08/20/… Read: Rothstein by David Pietrusza 📚 Another biography with more pages than story. Rothstein was a (very rich) New York grifter in the early 20...

010

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 12/08/2026

Read: Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe 📚Scandinoir in central Ontario. Scanadia-noir? Jaded small town detective catches a religious nutjob serial killer. Thoughtful and atmospheric. #booksky #books #readingcommunity

050

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 10/08/2026

Read: Next of Kin by Kia Abdullah 📚Aunt kills toddler nephew. It’s and accident. Or is it? Kinda courtroom, kinda psychological, thriller. Fast, tropey read, which is not a bad thing. #booksky #books #readingcommunity

041

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 02/08/2026

Read: The Age of Wonder by Holmes, Richard 📚British scientists and breakthroughs in the wider culture where they happened, from about 1760 to 1830. Sounds pedestrian but it’s rivetting storytelling. #books #readingcommunity #booksky

081

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 01/08/2026

Read: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 📚Gleefully weird and Vonneguts gonna Vonnegut. He seems to slip under the ‘problematic’ radar with some of his language. He’s using it to making a point, but that doesn’t always stop the Bad Word Police. So it goes. #books #readingcommunity #booksky

051

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 22/07/2026

Read: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 📚Very, very belatedly read this and remembered how weird and good Vonnegut is. Grim, black humour and immensely readable. So it goes. #books #readingcommunity #booksky

0142

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 21/07/2026

Graham Greene made spy novels respectable, but he (probably) never stopped spying himself. I interviewed the director of the Graham Greene Festival about Greene’s writing, spying, and friendship with Kim Philby. #books #booksky #readingcommunity spybrary.com/graham-gr…

030

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 06/07/2026

Read: Agent Sniper by Tim Tate 📚Real life Zelig-esque Polish spy/defector (and massive fantasist) in the Cold War, clearly written and researched. A good read.#booksky #books #reading

050

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 01/07/2026

Pulp Asylum has just published my latest short story, The Man Who Said Too Much, which features an ice storm, stealing old chairs, and a Russian genius. Read it here: bit.ly/4y6ypBF #crime #thriller #amwriting #writingcommunity #writersky

154

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 28/06/2026

Read: Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum 📚 on audiobook, which came out two years ago. So much of what @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu says about countries run by greedy narcissistic bullies could now be said about the US. #booksky #books #reading

050

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 16/06/2026

Read: The Pretender by Jo Harkin 📚Peasant Pretender puppeteered by powerful Plantagenet proponents. Wolf Hall minus the portentousness. #booksky #reading #books

120

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 11/06/2026

Read: London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe 📚As in his ‘Say Nothing’, Keefe clearly disentangles a lot of complicated world views and confabulations to illuminate a particular world, though the overarching story isn’t as sharply defined. #reading #books #booksky

051

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 09/06/2026

Read: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt 📚Cormac McCarthy with a sense of humour and optimism, and also an editor, and all the more likeable for it. #books #reading #booksky

041

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 06/06/2026

Read: Last One Out A Novel by Jane Harper 📚Her usual territory: resident returns to Australian small town and insular relationships (often between 3 male friends) which led to a tragedy a few years before. Realistic characters, well observed interactions, but nothing new. #booksky #reading #books

081

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 02/06/2026

Read: Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe 📚Fantastically researched especially the bits the TV series smoothed over. You do wonder exactly why Adams hasn’t sued over the allegations it makes about him. #books #booksky #readingcommunity

060

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 31/05/2026

Read: Pearl by Siân Hughes 📚Hughes is an award winning poet, and it shows, in a good way as her narator writes intensely and immersively about her mother’s death. As someone who felt no cause to grieve my own mother’s death, it was… informative. #books #booksky #readingcommunity

050

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 21/05/2026

Read: Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell 📚Big, detailed, accurate and gruesome. Also a cracking story (though not exactly genre-expanding). Great for immersion… #booksky #books #readingcommunity

150

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 19/05/2026

Read: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow 📚Freshman outrage at the shock of big companies being unscrupulous about how they make money. Nothing you can’t hear him perform any day of the week for free. #books #booksky #readingcommunity

050

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 14/05/2026

Read: Agents of Innocence by David Ignatius 📚Drips realism and apparently the CIA uses it as an exemplar of Middle Eastern espionage. The detail draws you in and the conflicts between ethnicities and sects is tragically still relevant. #booksky #books #readingcommunity

040

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 09/05/2026

The squid reached up and pulled the lever. The conveyor carried him out over the sea. They'd planned it all along. I hope "Squid Jigger" stays with you. 🦑 bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

020

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 06/05/2026

The best horror makes you feel complicit. I wanted "Squid Jigger" to do that — by the final page, you understand why this happened. And you can't entirely disagree. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

000

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 05/05/2026

Humboldt squid are pack hunters. They do coordinate. I just asked: what if they adapted to the ships harvesting them? My story "Squid Jigger" is the answer. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

020

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 05/05/2026

He was winched down onto a ghost ship in the dark, armed with a gun and his nerve. He didn't have enough of either. My story "Squid Jigger" — free and worth your time. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

020

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 04/05/2026

Read: Golden Hill by Francis Spufford 📚Dark smart pastiche of Fielding, Sterne, etc, in late 18th century New York, but there’s more to it than just quality fanfiction. The characters are ludicrously alive and you can smell the horse shit and ambition. #booksky #books #readingcommunity

020

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 03/05/2026

The thing about great monster horror: the monster reflects something true. I hope what the squid represent in "Squid Jigger" sits uncomfortably with you. The ending earns it. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

030

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 03/05/2026

Industrial fishing. A missing crew. A fixer who thinks he's seen everything. I hid a horror story inside a real-world injustice. "Squid Jigger" — free to read. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

030

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 01/05/2026

What I wanted Liu to fear most wasn't the dark water. It was looking into those wide, blinking eyes and realizing something behind them understood exactly what it was doing. "Squid Jigger." bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

010

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 01/05/2026

The helicopter is coming. He just has to hold on. I'm proud of the tension in the last act of "Squid Jigger," and the ending is the only one it could have had. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

040

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 29/04/2026

If you love horror rooted in real-world dread — isolated locations, unstoppable forces, nature as existential threat — I think "Squid Jigger" is your next read. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

000

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 29/04/2026

The squid parted to let him through. Like an honour guard. That's the moment in "Squid Jigger" where I wanted you to realize this isn't a rampage — it's an execution. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

030

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 27/04/2026

Humboldt squid are real apex predators and real pack hunters. I took that fact and asked: what if they adapted? The answer is my story "Squid Jigger." bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

020

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 27/04/2026

Our deepest fear isn't death. It's being rendered insignificant — becoming prey in something else's food chain. I went there in "Squid Jigger." Free fiction. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

010

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 25/04/2026

The squid didn't just attack. They planned. They maneuvered. They used the ship's own machinery against him. I wanted the horror in "Squid Jigger" to be terrifyingly logical. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

010

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 25/04/2026

They sorted him. Like catch. The crew, dismembered and packed into blue trays, ready for the freezer. I didn't flinch writing it. I hope you don't flinch reading it. "Squid Jigger." bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

020

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 23/04/2026

The deep ocean is the last place on Earth we truly don't understand. "Squid Jigger" is my horror story about what might have been evolving down there. 🌊 bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

040

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 23/04/2026

Read: The Unwanted Dead by Chris Lloyd 📚 Juicy atmospheric procedural set in Paris just after the Germans marched in during June 1940. Not spies, but feels like Furst, Gerlis, Robert Harris. #booksky #books #readingcommunity

050

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 22/04/2026

My short story "Squid Jigger" is a ghost ship story, a creature feature, and a meditation on what happens when nature fights back. Free to read right now. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

175

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 22/04/2026

Being alone on a dead ship at night, knowing something is down in the hold — I wanted to deliver that dread without ever needing the supernatural. "Squid Jigger." bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

030

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 20/04/2026

We've always assumed we're the apex predator. My story "Squid Jigger" is a short, sharp reminder that the ocean has never agreed. Free fiction that'll stay with you. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

030

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 20/04/2026

What's scarier than a monster? A monster that hunts in coordinated packs, corners you like prey, and patiently waits. That's what I put in "Squid Jigger." Free read. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

060

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 18/04/2026

It's not the jump scare. It's the slow realization. The bodies. The blue trays. The eyes in the floodlit water. I hope my horror gets under your skin. "Squid Jigger." bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

020

Matthew Hurst @stubsackfiction.substack.com · 18/04/2026

I wanted to tap into something primal: the fear that something in the dark is not just dangerous, but organized. And it knows where you are. That's "Squid Jigger." 🦑 bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

010