By Kate Alice Marshall
Flatiron Books, 2025. 289 pages. Fiction
When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he has brought her to Idlewood, his family's isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives. Stay away from Connor Dalton. Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can't ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has with this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood. I've been here before. Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.
After reading Marshall’s excellent thriller What Lies in the Woods last year, I was so excited to pick this one up and it didn’t disappoint. The Dalton estate secluded atop a snowy mountain serves as the perfect setting for this isolation thriller. Marshall excels at creating not only physical isolation, but social isolation as Theodora is not a part of this family nor the wealthy world they exist within. It’s a fast-paced narrative with the stakes quickly rising as the walls start to close in on Theo. As her repressed memories begin to paint a clearer picture of her past, the danger she’s facing escalates and the Dalton family secrets start to stack up. Also, I didn’t see the twist coming which is the highest value I place on a thriller. Overall, if you enjoy themes of isolation, amnesia, and rich vs. poor immersed in a thriller with revelations around each corner that keep you guessing, you’re sure to enjoy A Killing Cold.
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By Alice Feeney
Flatiron Books, 2025. 306 pages. Fiction
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life. Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver's door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared. A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can't sleep, and he can't write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible -- a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife. Wives think their husbands will change but they don't. Husbands think their wives won't change but they do.
By Catherine Steadman
Ballantine Books, 2022. 319 pages. Fiction
Harry is a novelist on the brink of stardom; Edward, her husband-to-be, is seemingly perfect. In love and freshly engaged, their bliss is interrupted by the reemergence of the Holbecks, Edward's eminent family and the embodiment of American old money. For years, they've dominated headlines and pulled society's strings, and Edward left them all behind to forge his own path. But there are eyes and ears everywhere. It was only a matter of time before they were pulled back in . . . After all, even though he's long severed ties with his family, Edward is set to inherit it all. Harriet is drawn to the glamour and sophistication of the Holbecks, who seem to welcome her with open arms, but everything changes when she meets Robert, the inescapably magnetic head of the family. At their first meeting, Robert slips Harry a cassette tape, revealing a shocking confession which sets the inevitable game in motion. What is it about Harry that made him give her that tape? A thing that has the power to destroy everything? As she ramps up her quest for the truth, she must endure the Holbecks' savage Christmas traditions all the while knowing that losing this game could be deadly.
BW
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