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Review

We Were Never Friends

by Dodie Ownes November 20, 2025

A group of sorority sisters gets together to celebrate queen bee Roxy’s son’s engagement to Celeste, the daughter of her Theta Mu sister Beth—or at least that’s what the event appears to be on the surface. But there is something odd about the estate, recently renovated by Roxy’s husband, Ryan, that reminds them all of the tragedy that happened many years ago during spring break, when their sorority sister Sunny was found dead in the pool at the Desert Inn. Nothing about these “sisters” is what it seems, and all have their own stories about the night that Sunny died. Rouda packs a lot of drama into the slow unraveling of the characters—the successful doctor, the Beltway not-really-grieving widow, the scholarship girl, the victim, the drug dealer—until the real crime comes into view. Including a ghost seems like cheating, but the woman in a green gown who looks just like Sunny cannot be an apparition, can she? Mean Girls has nothing on We Were Never Friends.

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November 20, 2025 0 comment

Review

Last Night Was Killer

by Brian Kenney November 20, 2025

Book of The Week

Interested in a new and hilarious spin on motherhood? Then get on your reading list the laugh-aloud-funny/steer-wheel-gripping story of Tilly Turner, a single mom who will do anything for her identical twin daughters. When her career as a stand-up comic hits the shredder and her beloved mother has recently died, Tilly moves back to her hometown in Idaho, eager to establish community. Which, naturally, brings her to join a pole-dancing 101 class. And guess what? Pole dancing turns out to be a total blast. If only she didn’t wake up the next morning with a pounding headache, bad case of alcohol-induced amnesia, and a dead body scrunched in the trunk of the car. For starters, who is the dead man? Could Tilly have done him in? And where can she get a reliable babysitter whom the twins will love so that she can go figure out what’s happening and what the other strippers may know? Add to this the hottie agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives who keeps showing up at her home, not invited but not disinvited either. Sit back, relax, and enjoy what is sure to be one of the best blends of crime fiction with a good dollop of coziness to be published in 2026.

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November 20, 2025 0 comment

Review

The Drop

by Jeff Ayers November 20, 2025

Cady Ellison picked up a new hobby during the pandemic and now creates videos of herself riding extreme roller coasters. A friend from college, Danny, is working at a theme park that’s about to open, and he invites her to ride Hysteria, a 650-foot-tall behemoth. She arrives at the park site to discover three other college friends are there to test the ride. This reunion puts the four of them in the coaster car, with Danny staying below to operate the ride. The restraints are so tight, they can barely move in their seats. When they get to the top, the view is staggering, and the drop looks even more intimidating. The coaster inches closer to the drop-closer-closer-then stops. After several minutes, the four begin to question what’s really going on. When Danny takes the maintenance stairs up to them, he reveals that he has been wanting to take revenge on them for years, and they will have to be truthful if they are to escape. Masters combines a psychological thriller with acrophobia (fear of heights) and veloxrotaphobia (fear of roller coasters), creating a read as intense as that feeling in the pit of your stomach as the coaster hits the drop. Smart, clever, and full of surprises, this drop is worth the ride.

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November 20, 2025 0 comment

Review

The Camino

by Brian Kenney November 20, 2025

Get out your box of tissues. And keep them out. This thriller/mystery from one of the Netherlands’ best crime writers demands your full attention, and will surely get it from most readers. The plot is simple. Lonne Bennet, a chocolatier, has been living with her husband, Emil, a former refugee from Bosnia, in South Limburg. Emil decides to walk the Camino de Santiago, the famous hike from France to Spain. Shockingly, Lonne learns that Emil has not only died on the walk, but died by suicide. One year later, Lonne remains obsessed with her husband’s death, and in the hope of getting answers to some of her questions, she follows his path, right down to leaving on the same date. But Lonne finds herself ruminating over the horror of war and learning of the secrets her husband carried around. As the walk progresses, it feels more treacherous, and Lonne begins to realize that there are some people who don’t want her to learn the truth. Quietly seductive, this is the perfect choice for reading groups.

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November 20, 2025 0 comment

Review

The Final Problem

by Danise Hoover November 20, 2025

It’s 1960, and Ormond Basil, semi-retired actor, encounters two friends who persuade him to join them on a yacht for a brief Mediterranean jaunt, ostensibly to discuss a possible acting opportunity. Basil made his fame by playing Sherlock Holmes in 15 films, and many still think of him in that role. An unexpected storm traps the three on a small island where there’s only a hotel and restaurant, and overnight, there is a classic locked-room murder. With no authorities on the island, and only seven guests and four hotel staff, somehow Basil is charged with the investigation. A Spanish author of pot-boiler mysteries becomes his Watson, and together they mull over the clues of this and the murders that follow. Basil’s internal dialog is full of old movie gossip, and his full memorization of the Doyle oeuvre gives color to their probing. There is of course a postmortem, which offers a solution to the question of whether Holmes was faced with Moriarty or Irene Adler. A wonderful three-pipe problem with all loose ends neatly tied up.

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November 20, 2025 0 comment

Review

You’ll Never Forget Me

by Henrietta Thornton November 20, 2025

Raya, Isha. You’ll Never Forget Me. January 13, 2026. 304 pages. Bantam. DEBUT

Always a bridesmaid, that’s Dimple Kapoor. She looks so like her rival for movie roles, Irene Singh, that they can’t be in the same movies. Casting directors must choose one or the other, and it seems they always go for Irene. It all comes to a head at a glitzy party at Irene’s Hollywood home. The two verbally spar at the top of some stairs, and Irene ends up at the bottom, dead, after a push from Dimple, who suddenly finds her career taking off as a result. All’s fair in love and movie roles, right? But Dimple learns to her horror that someone saw what happened and has evidence. As she takes care of that situation, too, ruthless private investigator Saffi Mirai Iyer is on to her and laser-focused on getting justice. The clash of two women who are twinned in their ambition and inability to back down, but completely different in their goals, creates an absorbing moral game, while the spoiled Hollywood expectations of the main character adds a delicious love-to-hate element. Dimple is the bridezilla of actresses and readers won’t be able to look away from this fast-moving debut thriller.

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November 20, 2025 0 comment

Review

You Did Nothing Wrong

by Henrietta Thornton November 13, 2025

BOOK OF THE WEEK

“In dance, there is a carnivorous demand for repetition until perfection is reached.” God knows former ballerina Elodie has put the work in, but try as she might, her life is still a mess. After a whirlwind romance, she and her six-year-old son, Jude, have moved from Australia to the States and are now living in her new husband, Bren’s, inherited house. Bren is lovingly, painstakingly, restoring the house. But its run-down, construction-site state is far from the worst problem. Elodie is already at her wit’s end with Jude’s clingy behavior and tantrums that make him seem much younger than his age. She does her best to hide his issues from Bren, but can’t keep them a secret when Jude becomes terrified of the house, which he says doesn’t want them there and has an evil life inside its walls. Events start to make Elodie agree, and once she faces “a dark that picks its teeth with children’s bones,” readers will wonder who’s right—ever-more-terrified Elodie or fed-up, it’s-all-in-your-head Bren—and how this strange domestic puzzle can ever be worked out. A chilly, creepy, gripping tale by the award-winning author of Hazelthorn.

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November 13, 2025 0 comment

Review

The Dog Walkers’ Detective Agency

by Brian Kenney November 13, 2025

A heartfelt animal cozy akin to David Rosenfeld’s Andy Carpenter series and Rita Mae Brown’s Sneaky Pie Brown books, along with all the sophistication of Only Murders in the Building. The small, coastal town of Framstone is dog heaven, with walkers providing their pooches with rural strolls, treats galore, and smells most intriguing. Until Charles Boardman is dragged deep into the woods by Ruby, his Staffordshire bull terrier. Has Ruby found a half-eaten burger? Try the corpse of a former cop who now owns a bar. It takes only milliseconds for the information to spread among the dog-walking community, with mid-thirtyish Charlie—who grew up in Framstone and has only recently returned—at the center of the investigation. But the story doesn’t end there. Charlie receives anonymous threats, and, even more frightening, another body surfaces on the beach. Can Charlie resolve the mystery and come out alive? Hogan’s prose is delightful, full of humor and wonderfully clever. This reader’s only wish is that this book is the first in a series.

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November 13, 2025 0 comment

Review

Lost in Yellowstone

by Jeff Ayers November 13, 2025

pecial Agent Emme Helliwell of the National Park Service ends up in Yellowstone to investigate when a human foot is found after the eruption of a geyser in Maggi’s follow-up to A Death in Zion. Going back to this historic National Park brings excessive stress and concern, since her last time there, she failed to find missing hiker David Finch. If the foot is David’s, it will solve a three-year-old cold case. Unfortunately, the coroner determines that the foot comes from a teenager, not an adult. Helliwell discovers a mysterious private school called Higher Purpose, and everything about its operations seems sketchy. Add in an ex-boyfriend ranger to assist her on the case; since their breakup didn’t end well, the stress levels for Helliwell guarantee that at some point she will explode like Old Faithful. Maggi uses the natural, chaotic Yellowstone landscape in an imaginative, fun way to tell her terrific story. Readers who love the National Parks will find much to savor and will want to visit Yellowstone right after turning the last page.

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November 13, 2025 0 comment

Review

Ruby Falls

by Dodie Ownes November 13, 2025

Times are hard everywhere in 1928, but when Leo Lambert discovers a huge underground waterfall in a cave system outside Chattanooga, he is convinced it can be a moneymaker and names it after his wife, Ruby. There are curiosity seekers, but Ruby Falls needs something sensational to bring the crowds and their coins to town. Enter Professor Jeremiah Hagathorn, known all over the Midwest for his mind-reading skills, whom Leo challenges to find a hatpin hidden somewhere in the six miles of caves around Ruby Falls. With a small entourage in tow, including a newspaper reporter and Hagathorn’s wife, Editha, Hagathorn embarks on his mission. Unbeknownst to the group, Quinton, a cave guide, and Ada, a recent widower who has been secretly roaming the caves, have been charged with following the professor and others to ensure their safety. When the reporter is found dead after their first night in the caves, Hagathorn insists on continuing his quest before returning to the surface to report the murder, despite knowing that the killer is among them. No one is to be trusted, and as supplies dwindle, suspicions grow. Phillips gives readers two stories here—the sensational hatpin search amidst the danger and grandeur of Ruby Falls, and Ada’s grieving for a life never lived, not knowing about the one that lies before her. A historical mystery in a unique setting, adding “locked cave” to the genre vernacular.

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November 13, 2025 0 comment