by Tiffany Crum
Pine & Cedar, 2026. 357 pages. Fiction
Benny Abbott and Joy Moore host one of the most beloved podcasts in the world. Each week, they delight listeners with a different "against-all-odds" survival story, gleefully finding the weird, life-affirming humor in near-death experiences. Since their first episode on Joy's experience with severe narcolepsy, they've been the best friends everyone wants to befriend - and thanks to the meticulous management of Joy's husband Xander, they've built a lucrative empire. But their next survival story may be their own. When Benny arrives at Joy and Xander's one morning to record, he finds shattered glass and an empty house. The one clue shedding light on the couple's disappearance is the incomplete, previously-unseen first draft of Joy's memoir. Benny is desperate to find them, even when the police soon zero in on him as their prime suspect. But as the hours tick by, the odds seem increasingly stacked against Joy and Xander being found alive.
Just like the podcast Benny and Joy host (which I really want to listen to!), this book is a great exploration of tense themes with high stakes with a little sprinkling of humor and romance. While the search for Joy and Xander drives the plot, the history of Joy, Xander, and Benny's relationship is also slowly revealed through additions of Joy's unpublished memoir, which adds a little humanity and heart to the story. I appreciated the addition of moments of lightness to balance the suspenseful ones. And since this is a book about a podcast, this book also examines how fame changes the trajectory of both the search and the dynamics of Joy, Xander, and Benny's relationship. This is a great read for those who like their mysteries and thrillers to include some great character-driven moments as well. I also highly recommend the audiobook!
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After the death of her best friend, Lucy seeks for a new start by moving to L.A. But when her grandmother convinces her to return to her small Texas town, Lucy learns that she's the subject of a new podcast, and the podcast host is also in town looking for clues. Working together, Lucy becomes determined to solve her best friend's murder, even though she's afraid she's the one who did it.
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Sourcebooks Landmark, 2025. 342 pages. Fiction
June, 1975. The Taylor family shatters in a single night when two teenage siblings are found dead in their own home. The only surviving sibling, Vincent, never shakes the whispers and accusations that he was the one who killed them. Decades later, the legend only grows as his career as a horror writer skyrockets. Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of Vincent Taylor. Now on the brink of financial ruin, she's offered a job to ghostwrite her father's last book--his memoir disclosing what really happened.
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Hope, Ash, and Caro met at an online book club. Over the past two years, they've been there for each other in every way-except in person. When each of their lives reach a crossroads, they decide to meet in real life at the gorgeous Sonnet Resort at Eden National Park. Hope, an actress, has become entirely too famous and needs to get away from it all. Ash, a successful online entrepreneur, isn't sure what has happened to her marriage. Caro, a doctor, has lost a patient and doesn't know if she wants to carry on or start all over. And none of them are telling each other the full story.
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