The Butcher

The Butcher

By Jenifer Hillier

Gallery Books, 2024. 334 pages. Fiction.

Thirty years ago, police chief Edward Shank killed the most notorious serial killer in Seattle's history: the Beacon Hill Butcher. Now 80 years old and retired, he's given his home to his grandson, Matt, and settled into a quiet life at Sweetbay Village Retirement Residence. While renovating, Matt discovers a crate buried in the backyard that holds a secret so terrible that it threatens to ruin all their lives if it ever gets out. Especially that of Sam, his girlfriend, whose mother was killed when she was only two years old. Matt struggles with his dark family secret as Sam's obsession with solving her mother's murder grows. A true crime writer now working on a book about the Beacon Hill Butcher, Sam has always suspected her mother was one of his victims, even though she was murdered two years after the Butcher was killed. But then new victims begin to turn up, and the more she digs into the old murders, the more dangerous it gets. Turns out, the truth is closer to home than she ever could have imagined. 

In typical Jennifer Hillier fashion, the twists don't just come at the end of the story but are sprinkled throughout keeping you on the edge of your seat. There's also something about the gloomy, rainy backdrop of Seattle that always makes Hillier's books fantastic Fall reads. It almost feels like a character of its own in her stories. Sam was a great protagonist, logical and pragmatic in demeanor, and her search for the truth pushes the narrative along nicely. What was also interesting, but rather difficult, is that you get firsthand accounts of the Beacon Hill Butcher. There are several trigger warnings for those chapters (rape, torture, murder) and while it did add depth and understanding of the depravity of the crimes, it is not for everyone. Overall, if you're looking for a chilling read this Fall that focuses on unsolved crimes and serial killers, The Butcher is the book for you!

If you liked The Butcher, you might also like:

The Quiet Tenant

By Clémence Michallon

Alfred A. Knopf, 2023. 303 pages. Fiction.

A psychological thriller about trauma, power, and survival, which follows a young woman who has been captured and confined by a serial killer--who is a father, widower, former Marine, and lineman for the local electric company--as he hides the true nature of his double life from his daughter, neighbors, and the local bartender who could be his next victim, unless his captive manages to stop him. 

His & Hers

By Alice Feeney

Flatiron Books, 2020. 308 pages. Fiction.

Anna Andrews finally has what she wants. Almost. She's worked hard to become the main TV presenter of the BBC's lunchtime news, putting work before friends, family, and her now ex-husband. So, when someone threatens to take her dream job away, she'll do almost anything to keep it. When asked to cover a murder in Blackdown, Anna is reluctant to go. But when the victim turns out to be one of her childhood friends, she can't leave. It soon becomes clear that Anna isn't just covering the story; she's at the heart of it. CI Jack Harper left London for a reason, but never thought he'd end up working in a place like Blackdown. When the body of a young woman is discovered, Jack decides not to tell anyone that he knew the victim, until he begins to realize he is a suspect in his own murder investigation. One of them knows more than they are letting on. Someone isn't telling the truth.

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No One Can Know

No One Can Know

By Kate Alice Marshall

Flatiron Books, 20204. 324 pages. Fiction

Emma hasn't told her husband much about her past. He knows her parents are dead and she hasn't spoken to her sisters in years. Then they lose their apartment, her husband gets laid off, and Emma discovers she's pregnant right as the bank account slips into the red. That's when Emma confesses that she has one more asset: her parents' house, which she owns jointly with her estranged sisters. They can't sell it, but they can live in it. But returning home means that Emma is forced to reveal her secrets to her husband: that the house is not a run-down farmhouse but a stately mansion, and that her parents died there. Were murdered. And that some people say Emma did it. Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what really happened that night. Now, her return to the house may lure her sisters back, but it will also crack open family and small-town secrets lots of people don't want revealed. As Emma struggles to reconnect with her old family and hold together her new one, she begins to realize that the things they have left unspoken all these years have put them in danger again.

This is an atmospheric and chilling thriller set in New England which makes it a great Fall read. The book kicks off especially eerie as it begins with Emma and her sisters as younger girls discovering their parents' bodies. What's next is an intricately plotted mystery that focuses on character development. While Emma is the protagonist, I enjoyed that Marshall also gives chapters to the other sisters for a multi-perspective narrative. As always, I rate thrillers on whether I could guess the twist or not and this one had enough misdirection and red herrings to keep me guessing.

If you liked No One Can Know, you might also like:

Darling Girls

By Sally Hepworth

St. Martin's Press, 2024. 359 pages. Fiction

From the outside, Alicia, Jessica and Norah might seem like ordinary women you'd meet on the street any day of the week. Sure, Jessica has a little OCD and Norah has some anger issues. And Alicia has low self-esteem that manifests itself in surprising ways. But these three have a bond that no one can fully understand. It's a bond that takes them back decades, to when they were girls, and they lived on a farm with a foster mother named Miss Fairchild. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild, and they thought they were free. But the reach of someone with such power is long, and even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When bones are discovered buried under the farmhouse of their childhood, they are called in by the police to tell what they know. Against their will, they are brought back to the past, and to Miss Fairchild herself.

The Stranger Upstairs

By Lisa Matlin

Bantam Books, 2023. 278 pages. Fiction

Sarah Slade is starting over. She and her husband just bought a beautiful though crumbling Victorian house in a charming and lush community. The fixer-upper is a perfect opportunity to reach a new audience on her highly successful lifestyle blog, and it also serves as a distraction from her failing marriage. But Black Wood House has a grisly history--one involving a gruesome murder-suicide. And even as Sarah wallpapers over the house's horrifying past, she knows better than anyone that a new façade can't conceal every secret. The renovations are a challenge: The workers coming by to inspect and fix the house are acting erratically and experiencing strange accidents--and there's only so long she can continue to sleep in the bedroom with the bloodstained floor and suffer the mysterious footsteps she hears from the attic. When menacing notes start appearing everywhere, Sarah becomes convinced that someone or something is out to kill her. The more she remodels Black Wood House, the angrier it seems to become. With every passing moment, Sarah's life spirals further out of control and with it, her sense of reality. Though she desperately clings to the lies she's crafted to conceal her own secrets, Sarah Slade must wonder…was it all worth it? Or will this house be her unraveling?

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Ready or Not

Ready or Not

By Cara Bastone

The Dial Press, 2024. 378 pages. Romance

Eve Hatch is pretty content with her life. Her apartment in Brooklyn is cozy, but close to her childhood best friend Willa, and far from her midwestern, religious upbringing where she always felt misunderstood. While her position as an administrative assistant at the Wildlife Federation of America is a dream-adjacent job, she's hoping her passion and hard work will help her land a more glamorous role. And sure, her most recent romantic history has consisted of not one but two disappointing men named Derek. At least she always knows what to expect until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-night-stand. Suddenly, this surprise pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve's ride-or-die friendship with Willa is suddenly feeling off. And surprisingly, it's Willa's steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help. He has always been supportive, but now he's checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her woes, and is suddenly irresistible? Add in a kind but conflicted baby daddy, who also happens to have a girlfriend, and Eve is feeling out of her depth, to say the least. 

A cute friends-to-lovers romcom with a pregnancy twist, Ready or Not is an upbeat and heartwarming tale. Bastone didn’t shy away from the complexities of relationships, both platonic and romantic. One of the most heart wrenching, yet relatable subplots was that of Eve’s best friend Willa struggles to conceive. The heavy topic was discussed with sensitivity and compassion and felt realistic. I enjoyed Eve and Shep’s slow-burn romance, it didn’t feel rushed, which was much needed given the life changing situation Eve was facing. Overall, Ready or Not was a feel good romcom with depth and I recommend it to lovers of Yulin Kuang, Abby Jimenez, and Emily Henry.

If you like Ready or Not, you might also like:

How to End a Love Story

By Yulin Kuang

Avon, 2024. 372 pages. Romance 

Helen Zhang hasn't seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever. Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She's even scored a coveted spot in the writers' room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer's block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he's well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn't have taken the job on Helen's show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can't pass up. Grant's exactly as Helen remembers him--charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she's never been. And Helen's exactly as Grant remembers too--brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen's parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he's in the picture at all. When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet the key to making peace with their past, and themselves, might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.

Yours Truly

By Abby Jimenez

Forever, 2023. 398 pages. Romance

Dr. Briana Ortiz's life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother's running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that's probably going to the new man-doctor who's already registering eighty-friggin'-seven on Briana's "pain in my ass" scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game by sending Briana a letter. And it's a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn't actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who's terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her "sob closet," and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable--a kidney for her brother--she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor especially when he calls in a favor she can't refuse.

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The Missing Half

The Missing Half

By Ashley Flowers

Bantam, 2025. 260 pages. Fiction

Nicole "Nic" Monroe is in a rut. At 24, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana. She's just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she's been working at since high school. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace. On the night Kasey went missing, her car was found over a hundred miles from home. The driver's door was open, and her purse was untouched in the seat next to it. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both cases eventually went cold. Nic wants nothing more than to move on from her sister's disappearance and the state it's left her in. But then one day, Jules's sister, Jenna Connor, walks into Nic's life and offers her something she hasn't felt in a long time: hope. What follows is a gripping tale of two sisters who will do anything to find their missing halves, even if it means destroying everything they've ever known.

The Missing Half is a woman (or in this case, women) gone missing mystery with a sentimental center. It’s truly about the love and bond of sisters, of blood and choice. Flowers excelled at creating a believable and deep connection between Nic and Jenna, as they fell into their roles as big and little sister. Their search for the truth included several twists, turns, and red herrings which keep you guessing until the very end. If you enjoy a twisty mystery with a heart, you’re sure to love The Missing Half.

If you liked The Missing Half, you might also like:

Famous Last Words

By Gillian McAllister

William Morrow, 2025. 326 Pages. Fiction

It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla's life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But after she arrives at the office, police officers storm the foyer: in the city, just near her work, a man has taken three hostages and is now in a tense standoff with law enforcement. And Luke, the person she's loved for more than a decade, the father of her child, is involved. But he is not a hostage. He is the kidnapper. All she has is a half-written cryptic note that Luke left for her. Seven years after the crime that shocked the nation, and her husband's subsequent disappearance, Camilla has slowly accepted that she will never have answers about what really happened that day. But just as she prepares to let Luke go for good, an anonymous location, sent to her by text message, reignites her suspicions about the kidnapping and sends her on a dangerous search for the truth.

Parents Weekend

By Alex Finlay

Minotaur Books, 2025. 312 pages. Fiction

In the glow of their children's exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families gather over dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids never show up for dinner. At first, everyone thinks they're just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours tick by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise. Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella--The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them--come from very different families. What drew them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

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You, Again

You, Again

By Kate Goldbeck

The Dial Press, 2023. 439 pages. Romance

When Ari and Josh meet the first time, the wrong kind of sparks fly. They hate each other. Instantly. A free-spirited, struggling comedian who likes to keep things casual, Ari sublets, takes gigs, and lives by a code that ensures her friends-with-benefits stay firmly in the friendzone. Born-and-bred Manhattanite Josh has ambitious plans: he'll take the culinary world by storm, find The One, and make her breakfast in his spotless kitchen. They have absolutely nothing in common except that they happen to be sleeping with the same woman. After their disastrous first meeting, Ari and Josh never expect their paths to cross again. But years later, as they're both reeling from ego-bruising breakups, a chance encounter leads to a surprising connection: friendship. Turns out, spending time with your former nemesis is fun when you're too sad to hate each other. As friends-without-benefits, they find comfort in late night Netflix binges, swiping through each other's online dating profiles, and bickering across boroughs. It's better than romance. Until one night, the unspoken boundaries of their platonic relationship begin to blur. 

When I read this was a gender swapped version of When Harry Met Sally, I was immediately sold. What followed was a modern dating story full of Millennial indulgence and heart-breaking and rebuilding authenticity. Ari’s commitment phobia was so frustrating, but also understandable along with Josh’s need to fit everything neatly into a box. Goldbeck really focused on developing these two characters both in their relationship with each other, but also as individuals. It’s rare that a romance is successful on both these fronts. I loved their banter and pop culture references (once again, Millennial indulgence). Similar to When Harry Met Sally, NYC was also a living and breathing character in the story. Overall, if you enjoy an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope with strong character development, you’ll love You, Again. 

If you liked You, Again, you might also like:

Ready or Not

By Cara Bastone

The Dial Press, 2024. 378 pages. Romance

Eve Hatch is pretty content with her life. Her apartment in Brooklyn is cozy, but close to her childhood best friend Willa, and far from her midwestern, religious upbringing where she always felt misunderstood. While her position as an administrative assistant at the Wildlife Federation of America is a dream-adjacent job, she's hoping her passion and hard work will help her land a more glamorous role where she could actually make a difference someday. And sure, her most recent romantic history has consisted of not one, but two disappointing men named Derek. At least she always knows what to expect until she finds herself expecting after an uncharacteristic one-nightstand. Suddenly, this surprise pregnancy cracks open all the relationships in her life. Eve's ride-or-die friendship with Willa is suddenly feeling off. And surprisingly, it's Willa's steadfast older brother, Shep, who steps up to help. He has always been supportive, but now he's checking in, ordering her surprise lunches, listening to all her woes, and is suddenly irresistible? Add in a kind but conflicted baby daddy, who also happens to have a girlfriend, and Eve is feeling out of her depth, to say the least. 

A Winter in New York

By Josie Silver

Delacorte Press, 2023. 372 Pages. Fiction

When Iris moves to New York City to restart her life, her friend Bobby drags her to an autumn street fair in Little Italy. Among the food stalls, a family-run gelateria catches her eye. She returns the next day and meets Gio, whose uncle is recuperating from a stroke and cannot remember the family's gelato recipe. Sampling the last remaining batch, Iris realizes the recipe is the same as the one her mother makes. Iris offers her services to help re-create the family's recipe. Will secrets she's hiding threaten the new life-- and love-- she's been building?

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This Book Will Bury Me

The Book Will Bury Me

By Ashley Winstead

Sourcebooks Landmark, 2025. 456 pages. Fiction 

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. In this morbid internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose, and even glory. When news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected. Details don't add up, the police are cagey, and there seems to be more media hype and internet theorizing than actual evidence. When Jane and her sleuths take a step closer, they find that every answer only begs more questions and begin to suspect their killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they've faced before. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap. Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case and left the world reeling, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans. 

Closely inspired by the real-life crimes of the Idaho 4 and the internet investigators of the Delphi Murders, Winstead takes on the complex and controversial topic of citizen sleuths. I want to give a disclaimer that there are some direct references to these crimes and the media coverage that followed in case that is triggering for you. Overall, I found the book to be suspenseful and compulsive with an intricate plot that doesn’t weigh down the suspense. A lot of the book takes place in internet chat groups and forums and the mixed media element of the storytelling made this an immersive, yet fast-paced read. If you listen to true crime podcasts, you’ll find a lot of references that were fun to catch. The ending is explosive albeit a little controversial. Overall, if you enjoy twisty thrillers about serial killers with references to real life crimes, you’ll enjoy This Book Will Bury Me.

If you liked This Book Will Bury Me, you might also like:

The Haunting of Room 904

By Erika Wurth

Flatiron Books, 2025. 306 pages. Fiction

Olivia Becente was never supposed to have the gift. The ability to commune with the dead was the specialty of her sister, Naiche. But when Naiche dies unexpectedly and under strange circumstances, somehow Olivia suddenly can't stop seeing and hearing from spirits. A few years later, she's the most in-demand paranormal investigator in Denver. She's good at her job, but the loss of Naiche haunts her. That's when she hears from the Brown Palace, a landmark Denver hotel. The owner can't explain it, but every few years, a girl is found dead in room 904, no matter what room she checked into the night before. As Olivia tries to understand these disturbing deaths, the past and the present collide as Olivia's investigation forces her to confront a mysterious and possibly dangerous cult, a vindictive journalist, betrayal by her friends, and shocking revelations about her sister's secret life.

The Last One at the Wedding

By Jason Rekulak

Flatiron Books, 2024. 338 pages. Fiction

Frank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He was convinced that their estrangement would become permanent. He's even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic, and determined to finally make things right. He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate-very secluded, very luxurious, very much out of his league. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she's marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But it's difficult: Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn't seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose Maggie forever.

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A Killing Cold

A Killing Cold

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.

If you liked A Killing Cold, you might also like:

Beautiful Ugly

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. 

The Family Game

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.

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Murder Road

Murder Road

By Simone St. James

Berkley, 2024. 342 pages. Fiction

July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They're looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to be a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchhiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them. When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart but take April and Eddie down with it all. 

 A spine-tingling thriller that borders on horror, Murder Road is the ultimate tale of a honeymoon gone wrong. Simone St. James is the master of blending true crime inspired stories with the supernatural resulting in a realistic and believable ghost story. April and Eddie were fully realized characters with just a touch of mystery to keep the narrative building until the conclusion. I really enjoy how James incorporates citizen sleuths into her stories, not only because I love true crime, but it makes me feel like I’m a part of the investigative process. Overall, this was an atmospheric murder mystery with a supernatural twist sure to please lovers of thrillers and horror alike.

If you like Murder Road, you might also like:

The September House

By Carissa Orlando

Berkley, 2023. 344 pages. Fiction

You can survive anything. That's what Margaret tells herself when the walls of her house start to drip blood every September. She's learned how to live with it ... and the other terrifying apparitions that have made the sprawling Victorian house she and her husband bought four years ago turn from a dream home into a living nightmare. But she can outlast all of it. Hal felt differently, though. Her husband couldn't take the hauntings anymore, and he left. But now he's not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine arrives, intent on looking for her missing father, convinced something grim has happened to him. With every desperate attempt Katherine makes at finding Hal, the hauntings at the September House grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

Diavola

By Jennifer Thorne

Tor Publishing Group, 2024. 291 pages. Fiction 

Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive. It isn't easy when she's the only one in the family who doesn't quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he's practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone--including her blandly docile husband and two kids--falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mom seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, just wants some peace and quiet. The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going off the rails--the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself. (Warning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.)

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One Perfect Couple

One Perfect Couple

By Ruth Ware

Scout Press, 2024. 383 pages. Fiction

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she's pretty sure they won't extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren't going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples--Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana--in order to win a cash prize. But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. 

A modern twist to the Ten Little Murder Victims trope from And Then There Were None, One Perfect Couple is also a murderous representation of the adage “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” Lyla, as a virologist, is the perfect fish-out-of-water character to anchor this story. Surrounded by influencers and aspiring model/actors, she struggles to adapt to the foreign world of faking reality. Ware gives us a behind-the-scenes peak into the filming of these shows and how certain personalities either strive or fail. I was most intrigued by how parasocial relationships played out in this life-or-death scenario. Can you really trust someone just because you like their YouTube channel? Love Island meets Lord of the Flies, One Perfect Couple was the perfect amount of commentary on social media, reality tv, and toxic masculinity embedded in a truly enjoyable thriller.

If you liked One Perfect Couple, you might also like:

Middle of the Night

By Riley Sager

Dutton, 2024. 365 pages. Fiction

The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul-de-sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again. Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul-de-sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle? The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed ghosts roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate. The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.

The Midnight Feast

By Lucy Foley

William Morrow, 2024. 354 pages. Fiction

It's the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests' healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the "Manor Mule" cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen. And yet, just outside the Manor's immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. The local community resents what they see as the Manor's intrusion into the local woods and attempts to privatize the beach, and small skirmishes have erupted on the edges of the property between locals and the staff. And the whispers keep coming, about an old piece of pagan folklore -- it must be folklore? -- the Night Birds, an avenging force that can be called upon to make right wrongs that elude the law. Though surely everything at the Manor has been done above board. On the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. There's been a fire. A body's been discovered. Something's not right with the guests. What happened on the grounds of the Manor the past 36 hours? And who -- or what -- is the cause?

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Never Saw Me Coming

Never Saw Me Coming

By Vera Kurian

Park Row Books, 2021. 389 pages. Mystery

It would be easy to underestimate Chloe Sevre. She's a freshman honor student, a legging-wearing hot girl next door, who also happens to be a psychopath. She spends her time on yogalates, frat parties and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her. Chloe is one of seven students at her college who are part of an unusual clinical study of psychopaths. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements. When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey. As she races to identify the killer and put her own plan for revenge into action, she'll be forced to decide if she can trust her fellow psychopaths -- and everybody knows you should never trust a psychopath.

Kurian has done the unthinkable and had me rooting for a psychopath which is truly a feat since Chloe, at times, is highly unlikeable. For a rather dark thriller, I was surprised by how much fun I had following Chloe’s hijinks in her plot to kill her childhood friend while also trying to avoid being killed herself. The book excelled at depicting the unlikely friendship among psychopathic students as they work together to figure out who is killing them. Their dynamic was both difficult to wrap my brain around and highly entertaining which goes to show Kurian’s skill in writing rich, dimensional characters. I also appreciate a mystery that I can’t solve and when I say I didn’t see the end coming, I truly mean it. If you enjoy the television show Dexter or love a thriller with a dark academia vibe, then Never Saw Me Coming is for you!

If you like Never Saw Me Coming, you might also like:

Everyone is Watching

By Heather Gudenkauf

Park Row Books, 2024. 297 pages. Fiction

The Best Friend. The Confidant. The Senator. The Boyfriend. The Executive. Five contestants have been chosen to compete for ten million dollars on the game show One Lucky Winner. The catch? None of them knows what (or who) to expect and it will be live streamed all over the world. Completely secluded in an estate in Northern California, with strict instructions not to leave the property and zero contact with the outside world, the competitors start to feel a little too isolated. When long-kept secrets begin to rise to the surface, the contestants realize this is no longer just a reality show--someone is out for blood. And the game can't end until the world knows who the contestants really are.

They Never Learn

By Layne Fargo

Scout Press, 2020. 342 pages. Fiction

Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor, but she's even better at getting away with murder. Every year, Dr. Clark searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she's avoided drawing attention to herself, but as she's preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Dr. Clark insinuates herself into the investigation. Everything's going according to her master plan until she loses control with her latest victim. Meanwhile, Gorman student Carly Schiller is just trying to survive her freshman year. Finally free of her emotionally abusive father, all Carly wants is to focus on her studies. Her new roommate has other ideas. Allison Hadley is cool and confident, and the two girls quickly form an intense friendship. So when Allison is assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay and turning her fantasies about revenge into a reality.

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One by One

One by One

By Ruth Ware

Scout Press, 2020. 372 pages. Fiction

Getting snowed in at a luxurious ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn't sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there's a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers each with something to gain, something to lose, and something to hide. When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech start-up, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. Even worse, one Snooper hasn't made it back from the slopes. As each hour passes without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles further...one by one.

As the weather turns cold and snow begins to fall, this is a perfect read for a winter's day in. Ruth Ware earns her title as a modern-day Agatha Christie with this claustrophobic and isolating mystery. The POV alternated between Erin, a chalet employee, and Liz, a minor shareholder of Snoop. Telling the story through the perspective of two outsiders puts the reader in the same spot as our narrators. We could relate to their confusion and suspicions of the other characters. Ware also excelled at creating an ambience that matched these characters’ personalities, beautiful yet cold. As more and more Snoopers went missing, the tension grew until the surprising twist ending. Overall, if you want to snuggle up with a good mystery on a cold day, One by One is for you!

If you liked One by One, you might also like:

The Overnight Guest

By Heather Gudenkauf

Park Row Books, 2022. 332 pages. Fiction

True crime writer Wylie Lark, snowed in at an isolated farmhouse where she's retreated to write her new book, finds a small child in the snow outside and, bringing him inside for warmth and safety, learns that the farmhouse isn't as isolated as she thought.

The Night She Disappeared

By Lisa Jewell

Atria Books, 2021. 401 pages. Mystery

On a beautiful summer night in a charming English suburb, a young woman and her boyfriend disappear after partying at the massive country estate of a new college friend. One year later, a writer moves into a cottage on the edge of the woods that border the same estate. Known locally as the Dark Place, the dense forest is the writer's favorite area for long walks and it's on one such walk that she stumbles upon a mysterious note that simply reads, "DIG HERE." Could this be a clue towards what has happened to the missing young couple? And what exactly is buried in this haunted ground?

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Cursed Bunny

Cursed Bunny

By Bora Chung

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2022. 247 pages. Fiction. 

Cursed Bunny is unique and imaginative, blending horror, sci-fi, fairy tales, and speculative fiction into stories that defy categorization. By turns thought-provoking and stomach-turning, here monsters take the shapes of furry woodland creatures and danger lurks in unexpected corners of everyday apartment buildings. But in this unforgettable collection, translated by the acclaimed Anton Hur, Chung’s absurd, haunting universe could be our own. 

If there’s one thing that can be said about Bora Chung it’s that she’s a one-of-a-kind original. I’ve never read a horror anthology quite like this. Each story is endlessly imaginative, twisted, and yet grounded by the tissues of society’s woes. You will find anything from body horror to fables that ruminate on feminism and capitalism. All of that said, this is not for those squeamish or faint of heart, but if you love dark, thought-provoking horror, Cursed Bunny is for you. 

If you like Cursed Bunny, you might also like:

Our Wives Under the Sea

By Julia Armfield

Flatiron Books, 2022. 228 pages. Fiction.

Leah is changed. Months earlier, she left for a routine expedition, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp. By turns elegiac and furious, wry and heartbreaking, Our Wives Under the Sea is a genre-bending exploration of the depths of love and grief at the heart of a marriage.

Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

By Carmen Maria Machado

Graywolf Press, 2017. 245 pages. Fiction.

In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives, and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store's prom dresses. One woman's surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella 'Especially Heinous, ' Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Her Body and Other Parties swings from horrific violence to the most exquisite sentiment. In their explosive originality, these stories enlarge the possibilities of contemporary fiction.

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The Only One Left

The Only One Left

By Riley Sager

Dutton, 2023. 382 pages. Fiction.

Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume 17-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End. It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her 70s and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer, "I want to tell you everything.” As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought. 

An excellent Gothic thriller with twists and turns in true Riley Sager fashion. The decaying Hope’s End made for a perfectly eerie setting and created a sense of true urgency in the final moments of the book. Sager’s Kit McDeere is one half unreliable narrator and one half a relatable mess, but either way, I was rooting for her to find out the truth from beginning to end. Overall, if you love a suspenseful read with light horror elements, you are sure to love The Only One Left.

If you liked The Only One Left, you might also like:

Daisy Darker

By Alice Feeney

Flatiron Books, 2022. 338 pages. Mystery

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker's entire family is assembling for Nana's 80th birthday party in Nana's crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows. Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

The Family Upstairs

By Lisa Jewell

Atria Books, 2019. 340 pages. Fiction

Gifted musician Clemency Thompson is playing for tourists on the streets of Southern France when she receives an urgent text message. Her childhood friend, Lucy, is demanding her immediate return to London. It's happening, says the message. The baby is back. Libby Jones was only six months old when she became an orphan. Now 25, she's astounded to learn of an inheritance that will change her life. A gorgeous, dilapidated townhouse in one of London's poshest neighborhoods has been held in a trust for her all these years. Now, it's hers. As Libby investigates the story of her birth parents and the dark legacy of her new home, Clemency and Lucy are headed her way to uncover, and possibly protect, secrets of their own. What really happened in that rambling Chelsea mansion when they were children? And are they still at risk?

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Nightwatching

Nightwatching

By Tracy Sierra

Pamela Dorman Books/Viking, 2024. 355 pages. Fiction 

A footstep on the stairs. A second to react. What happens next will determine everything. Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise. But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs. She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender. In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm, to plan. Should she search for a weapon or attempt to escape? But then she catches another glimpse of him. That face. That voice. And at once she knows her situation is even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is and what he wants.

This heart-pounding thriller is a page turner. Sierra immediately throws you into a life-or-death situation told through the perspective of a mother trying to save her children. I was blown away by Sierra's storytelling and she really excelled at walking you through the narrator's thought process in such dire circumstances. It was extremely relatable and incredibly frustrating at the same time. I was also thoroughly impressed with the direction the story takes at the midway point. I thought the book was about one thing and then it completely turned itself on its head. The ending is truly a work of art and a testament to Sierra's craftmanship. Overall, if you love action-packed thrillers, then Nightwatching is for you! 

If you liked Nightwatching, you might also like:

None of This is True

By Lisa Jewell

Atria Books, 2023. 370 pages. Fiction

Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix's children's school. Josie has been listening to Alix's podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Josie's life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can't quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix's life-and into her home. But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family's lives under mortal threat. Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?

Listen for the Lie

By Amy Tintera

Celadon Books, 2024. 336 pages. Fiction

What would you do if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thinks so too? What if the truth doesn't matter? As Lucy Chase's Texas hometown begins to tell versions of what happened and who Lucy is to a nationwide, true crime obsessed audience, at the bequest of her grandmother, she returns to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend's murder, even if she is the one that did it.

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