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Review

Love Letters to a Serial Killer

by Henrietta Thornton and Brian Kenney

Deeply disturbing pals up with darkly comic to create one heck of a morbid ride. Thirty-something Hannah is a little lost. Her work in a non-profit in Minneapolis is as meaningless as her occasional hook-ups with self-centered guys who only want one thing. The light of her life? True crime, specifically the unfolding story of a murderer in Atlanta who has killed four women and is quickly identified as William, a good-looking lawyer. From combing the true-crime forums by night and the news articles by day, Hannah’s interest in William blossoms until she takes the next step: she writes to him. Thus begins a correspondence that works its way from hatred to love, as all the while her life crumbles around her. By the time the trial is announced, Hannah has nothing to stop her from driving to Georgia, spending weeks observing the proceedings, and hanging out with the other true-crime weirdos (too judgy? I don’t think so). But as in all good crime books, nothing is as it seems, and the truth sends Hannah—and the reader—spinning in a completely surprising direction.

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Review

Wordhunter

by Henrietta Thornton

Many of us remember an early teacher fondly, and for Maggie Moore it’s Ms. Barker, the seventh-grade teacher who taught Maggie to diagram sentences. Maggie’s now studying forensic linguistics—the kind of analysis that allows researchers to determine if Shakespeare was the real author of a given work—and is by far the best student in the program. She’s thrilled when Professor Ditmire invites her to be his research assistant and recommends her to the local police, whose broke department can hire only a student to uncover the author of vicious notes that are being left at crime scenes. Maggie is glad of the work: she’s facing graduation soon with no job prospects, and more importantly to her, she might now be able to get the police to investigate the disappearance of her best friend years before, a case they never took seriously. Grammar lovers and anyone who likes a quirky protagonist—Maggie’s no stereotypical nerd, she’s a foulmouthed, tattooed diner waitress who drinks way too much—will find Maggie’s sentence-diagramming habit and her brilliant mind fascinating while following her to a linguistic triumph. Sands’s other books are true crime, and fans of that genre who want a fictional readalike can do no better than picking up Wordhunter.

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Review

Miss Austen Investigates: The Hapless Milliner

by Henrietta Thornton

Jane Austen’s throngs of fans will adore this series starter that introduces the writer as a lively amateur sleuth; a treasured member of a large, loving family; and as a woman of her time—feisty but too often kept from her potential. The marriage market among Jane’s circle looms large, of course, with Jane hoping for a proposal any day from a young Irishman while those around her assess one another in terms of their potential as financial insurance. When an alliance is about to be announced by a local family, their façade of gentility is threatened when a young woman is found murdered in their home. Jane recognizes her as a milliner she’s bought from lately. The local magistrate seems content to blame “gypsies” for the crime, an accusation Jane disputes as no traveling people have been seen in the area lately, but she’s soon sorry when another is accused: her mentally disabled brother, George. It’s now up to our literary hero to find the real killer and bring George home. The large cast of characters here keeps things lively; there’s often humor too, both in Jane’s wry comments throughout and in her witty letters to her sister about the case’s progression.

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Review

Very Bad Company

by Brian Kenney

A delightful satire—fun, fast, and furious—of the high-flying tech industry. Every year adtech start-up Aurora brings together its top executives for a weekend retreat (think PowerPoint presentations and Jet Skis), this year, it’s in Miami Beach. It’s quite a cast of characters: for starters, the CEO models himself on Churchill. In the hands of other novelists, the cast could become a messy menagerie. But each character here is so well-defined, beginning with the company’s latest hire, Caitlin Levy, Head of Events (curious since Aurora has never sponsored an event). But just when the second day has started and everyone is beginning to sober up, there’s the announcement that the company has been sold, and suddenly everyone is if not very, very rich, then quite rich. It would be time to celebrate, except that one of the high-level executives has disappeared. And the entire retreat is under surveillance by the tech media, who can sniff a good story. Like Rosenblum’s first novel, Bad Summer People, this novel delights in exploring what lies under the surface. The adtech folks would call that a deep dive.

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Review

I Will Ruin You

by Jeff Ayers

Richard Boyle teaches 11th-grade English, and during class one morning, he looks out his window and sees a former student walking toward the entrance with a bomb strapped to his chest. He takes matters into his own hands and ends up confronting the bomber, who wants to see three specific individuals so he can complete his mission. Richard ends up saving everyone, but the bomber trips and blows himself up. Now a hero, Richard learns that his actions have made some people angry, including the bomber’s parents and a blackmailer with dirt on Richard, though he has no idea what that might be. In his case, good deeds are punished. To reveal any more of the story would spoil some neat surprises. Barclay immediately turns up the intense narrative and creates a page-turner that could quickly turn toward uncomfortable territory due to its subject matter, but since he is a master, he avoids that realm completely. Instead, we have a psychological and paranoid thriller that fires on all cylinders.

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Review

If Something Happens To Me

by Jeff Ayers

A trip to lover’s lane ruins lives in Finlay’s latest thriller. Ryan Richardson was with his girlfriend, Ali, when they were attacked. He receives a blow to the head and is thrown out of the car while Ali screams and vanishes along with the vehicle. Five years later, Ryan has changed his name to escape the constant pressure of suspicion in Ali’s death. Abroad, attending law school, he learns that the car has been found in a lake, and inside were two dead men and an envelope with the words, “If something happens to me” written on it. Inside are a series of numbers. Is it a code to reveal the truth about that night? Ryan seeks closure, but trying to get the answers he seeks ends could put him in the crosshairs of a killer. The twists are nonstop, and the story falls into surprising territory. Finlay’s name on the cover guarantees a great read, and this one will end up on many best-of-the-year lists.

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Review

Agony Hill

by Brian Kenney

A classic mystery that pulls the reader in and doesn’t let go until there’s a resolution. It’s the mid-1960s, and Franklin Warren arrives in small-town Bethany, Vermont to join the state troopers as a detective. It’s a time of change: as young men head to Canada to escape the draft, the state is developing highways that, many fear, will change Vermont irrevocably, while the echoes of the Cold War continue to reverberate. Warren is also escaping his own demons, a tragic occurrence he left behind in Boston but is unable to forget. But before he can unpack—literally!—he’s called to investigate a fire; Hugh Weber, a hippie farmer, has burnt down his barn and likely killed himself, although evidence of suicide is scant. Warren digs deep into the community, from Weber’s widow to Warren’s elderly next-door-neighbor, a retired intelligence agent. Secrets abound, but which one will unveil the murderer? Fans of Kay Jennings and Jeff Carson will appreciate this new series by the author of The Drowning Sea.

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Review

What Have You Done?

by Henrietta Thornton

Lapena’s psychological thrillers never disappoint. In her latest, set in Fairhill, Vermont, a farmer investigating vultures over his field finds the dead body of a young woman. This kind of thing never happens in Fairhill, and when the horrified local police realize that the victim is a local teen, Diana Brewer, the town reels in shock and grief. “Trying to make sense of something that will never, ever make sense” are Diana’s bereft single mother, who worries others by telling them she still communicates with her daughter, and the young woman’s best friends, Riley and Kelly, who are determined to find the killer. But even in a small town, it’s not easy to figure out who could have done this awful thing, and readers will enjoy sleuthing along with the characters as suspects emerge, each with something dark to hide. Supernatural elements enter in several ways here, adding to the edginess and puzzlement. If you like Chris Bohjalian, this one’s for you, not just because of the Vermont setting but also the small-town drama.

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Review

One of Our Kind

by Henrietta Thornton

In many ways, Kingston and Jasmyne Williams are living their dream life. Their little boy, Kamau, is thriving. They have another baby on the way. And Kingston, or King, is making oodles of money in finance. But King is eager for a next step: moving them to Liberty, a controversial suburban Los Angeles community of very, very rich Black people that comes with all the trappings. A sumptuous spa—sorry, wellness center. Lavish homes with three living rooms each (one for everyday, one for company, and a den, of course). And an excellent school for Kamau where every teacher is Black and they won’t have to worry about him fitting in. From the moment she reluctantly agrees to this transformation of their lives, Jasmyn is nervous about abandoning her community and her belief in giving other Black people a hand up. And she’s right: Liberty turns out to be one sinister place, in ways readers will never guess and that will keep them on edge right up to the last gasp of surprise. Yoon’s first adult novel has some of the hallmarks of her YA background: a character who feels like it’s her against the world, a shifting sense of who can be trusted, and a feeling of not fitting in. This will be a great crossunder read for young adults as well as a hit with fans of Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl.

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Review

What You Leave Behind

by Brian Kenney

A beautifully balanced novel that includes a foray into the world of the Gullah-Geechee people, the experience of grief, and the uncovering of a land grab, all wrapped up in an edge-of-the-seat thriller. Deena Wood is back in her hometown in coastal South Carolina. A 40-something lawyer, she had been living in Atlanta until her husband divorced her, she lost a court case—and her job—and her beloved mother died. It’s time to start over, which means moving in with Dad and his new wife. To unwind, Deena likes to drive along the coast, and one day she comes across a cantankerous, elderly African American man who states that he is fighting to keep his valuable land. Suspicious of Deena’s motives—has she been sent to make him move?—he chases her off his property. But Deena can’t forget him, and when she returns a week later, she discovers he’s gone, with no trace left behind. Deena becomes obsessed, and sets out on a fascinating but deadly search that takes her deep within her community as she goes after a conspiracy that has been exploiting the rural poor for decades, right up to today. Morris (All Her Little Secrets) has written a perfect novel for a book group, and it’s sure to be one of the best books of 2024.

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