COMING OUT:

JANUARY 27TH, 2026

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Text that reads 'Published by DARKSPUR PRESS' with a small pencil icon.
Book cover titled "The Gossip Columnist" by Martyn Burke, featuring a stylized illustration of a military officer in uniform with a silhouette of a woman in front, both in a beige tone against a red background.

KIRKUS REVIEWS:

“In Burke’s historical novel, a gossip columnist harboring a dangerous family secret struggles to counter pervasive propaganda in Nazi-era Germany…..the work as a whole is dramatically absorbing and truly eye-opening ... Burke manages, with impressive literary artistry, to shed some light on a historical conundrum: How did such unabashed savagery spring from such a famously refined national culture? 

A stunning novel crackling with historical insight.”

Martyn Burke works in a multitude of worlds, moving between novels, films, and documentaries.

Black and white portrait of an older man with disheveled hair, wearing a button-down shirt, in front of a bookshelf filled with books.

He has published six highly acclaimed novels; he has won the Peabody Award and the International Press Academy Auteur Award. He has also been nominated for Emmys and Writers Guild awards. He often researches his novels by making documentaries which have included the Academy Award-short listed Under Fire: Journalists in Combat and as well as other topics ranging from traveling carnivals to war and terrorism.

Black and white photo of a crowd of people gathered outdoors, with a man in the foreground carrying a camera and a woman with a coat and headphones talking to another person. Some people are talking, others are standing around. The scene appears to be from a past era, possibly the 1960s or 1970s.
Two men in military uniforms standing outdoors in a wooded area, one holding a rifle and the other with a camera around his neck.
Vintage military press card from Vietnam war era with a black-and-white portrait of a man named Martin Burke, issued by Toronto Telegram agency. The card is brown, aged, with printed and handwritten text, and features military insignias at the top.
Book page with black and white photo of a man, Cyrillic text, and a maple leaf graphic.
Military fighter jet flying in the sky with a trail of vapor behind it, turned at an angle with a partly cloudy sky background.
A group of men, most wearing traditional Middle Eastern or Central Asian clothing and turbans, gathered around a small outdoor fire with a cooking pot on it, on a rocky hillside.
Black and white photo of two men standing outside, one reading a paper, with an ornamental fence and trees in the background.