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Review

Kill to Keep

by Jeff Ayers

In her latest mystery, Taylor delivers a thrilling and atmospheric whodunit set against the backdrop of a traveling carnival on the eve of its grand opening. When Sheriff Bet Rivers and her boyfriend, Rob Collier, stumble upon a dead man during a stroll through the fairgrounds, the investigation quickly grows complicated. There was the sound of a gunshot, but the man bears no visible bullet wound. Even more puzzling, none of the carnival workers seems to recognize the victim, leaving Rivers with a nameless corpse and a growing list of suspects. As she fights for answers, the sheriff uncovers a world of deception, with workers operating under assumed names and a community built on secrets. The deeper she digs, the clearer it becomes that some of those hiding in the shadows will go to extreme lengths to stay hidden, including committing another murder. Taylor masterfully balances a richly drawn cast of characters with the cozy, small-town charm that makes this series so appealing. The mystery unfolds at a satisfying pace before building to a climax that is both breathtakingly tense and deeply rewarding. Best of all, newcomers to the series need not worry. This installment works beautifully as a standalone, making it an ideal entry point into the world of Sheriff Bet Rivers.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die

by Dodie Ownes

What is not to like about this rollicking, trope-riven (and I mean that in a good way!) revenge-mystery thriller? Jason, the three-timing guy who strings Cham, Nora, and Ruby along with good looks, great sex, and loose promises, is about to find out about a woman scorned. Add a spooky camp in a remote area outside of Big Sky, Montana; a cult history associated with one of the gals; and a donated organ (I kid you not), and you have my attention. As the women grow closer and more resolute that they just want to scare Jason, weird things begin to happen at the cabin to which they have lured the cheater and his new catch, Thalia, for a romantic weekend. When the ladies arrive, they find buckets of blood that may have been the first clue that this place had seen horrors in the past. The trio push through, however, with their observations shared with the reader in chapters told from each woman’s point of view, as well as excerpted police transcripts and diary entries. This is as much a sharp, funny feminist manifesto as it is a chilling payback story about the power in women’s ability to dictate their own future. A good dose of slasher, a hit of supernatural, and a lot about getting even, this atmospheric adventure has all the feels.—Dodie Ownes

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Review

Gimme Shelter

by Dodie Ownes

Klein here expands on the investigative activities of former cop Layla, who’s now sequestered at the Lake Pinecrest Trailer Park with her aging-rock-star dad and a delightful cast of friends (included a pig named Pippi). Layla, an aspiring musician, still picks up an occasional gig at a brunch or birthday party, but spends a good bit of time, with the help of hot neighbor Nick, keeping an eye on her father and his encroaching dementia. When he bought the trailer park and moved into the mansion on the grounds to be closer to his daughter, Don believed he could live out the rest of his days without the scrutiny of the press, but now someone is blackmailing him. When a local teacher is found dead under bizarre circumstances, her former colleague Commissioner Dayton Castinetto gets Layla involved, while the details of her last failed and tragic police assignment start to come into view. With a bevy of gal pals from her AA support group and the “ladies” from the trailer park who dote on rocker Don (think Steven Tyler or Rod Stewart), this ragtag group gets down to business to find a murderer, clear Layla’s name, and locate the blackmailer. With everyone recovering from something, hysterical dialogue, and high stakes danger, readers will rip through Klein’s latest.—Dodie Ownes

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Review

Murder at the Spirit Lounge

by Danise Hoover

It’s December in the beach town of Gore-on-Sea, and Nora Breen, recently a cloistered Carmelite nun, is drawn into the intrigue of a séance by friend and Detective Inspector Rideout. She is not invited to attend, but Rideout is. The medium, Mrs. Chimes, dies during the séance, murdered as we later find out, and all who were present seem marked for strange and dreadful deaths of their own. The connection is discovered only after much sleuthing, and Nora, with her sharp intelligence and easy manner, is able to uncover the striking details needed to unravel this. There is, however, so much more to this book than its complex mystery. The richly drawn characters, quirky situations of life in this odd town, and spectacularly inventive and colorful descriptive prose used by the author (portraits “rendered in gravy-brown paint”) make this captivating to read. As it is the second in a series, readers can only hope for number three.—Danise Hoover

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Review

Her Life in Ruins

by Brian Kenney

Catherine Saunders has quite a few balls in the air. In her final year of an elite graduate school (Stanford, archaeology) she’s nearly finished her dissertation, is entertaining several love interests, helps escort posh Stanford seniors on a dig—they unintentionally provide lots of humor, unlike the tech multimillionaire bros, who need plenty of attention. But then the unthinkable happens, and the subject of Catherine’s dissertation, a fascinating and important Mayan pot, disappears. To try to recover the object, Catherine pairs up with her research partner, as well as a possible love interest, and heads into the Yucatán in search of a master forger who may well have the original object…and could be trying to unload it. As the story line gears up, and as we ricochet all over the ancient Mayan world, readers are certain to fall in love with Catherine and her academic/rom com/espionage life.—Brian Kenney

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Review

Exit Wound

by Jeff Ayers

Book of the Week April 16, 2026

Maldonado delivers a blistering finale to detective Veranda Cruz’s long pursuit of bringing justice to bear against the Villalobos crime family, closing the series with relentless tension and high-stakes action. Veranda believes that capturing Adelmo Salazar will finally end the nightmare, but his escape from custody turns that hope into something far more dangerous, leaving her barely alive and firmly in the crosshairs. Salazar answers to the ruthless Hector Villalobos and his son, Adolfo, both of whom are determined to eliminate Veranda at any cost. As she and her team scramble to track down Salazar and dismantle the Villalobos empire, they remain unaware that a full-scale war is already underway—one they are ill-prepared to survive, let alone win. Every lead they chase and every apparent breakthrough only reveal how far behind they truly are, with their enemies always several moves ahead. With the first three installments (Blood’s Echo, Phoenix Burning, and Death Blow) now back in circulation, readers can fully appreciate the scope of this explosive conclusion. While newcomers can jump in without prior knowledge, longtime fans will find this payoff especially satisfying. Maldonado raises the stakes to their highest point yet, crafting a finale in which cartel warfare and crime fiction collide in a gripping, pulse-pounding showdown.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

One Second Away

by Jeff Ayers

Jessie and her husband, Vaughn, are divorcing. Living on opposite coasts and struggling to determine custody for their nine-year-old son, Dylan, they agree to have Dylan fly solo from LA to New York to visit Vaughn. The airline has is ready to accommodate him as an unaccompanied minor, and it’s all set for his grandparents to pick him up when he lands. With an AirTag in his backpack and location sharing on both his phone and watch, he takes off. Hours later at JFK, his grandparents tell Jessie they were diverted to another gate to pick him up, but it turns out the plane landed at the correct one. At the gate where Dylan landed, people who look like his grandparents pick him up and have the proper paperwork. When Jessie checks, the AirTag says he’s still in LA, but the tracking on his phone and watch say he’s still at the gate. Who would want to take Dylan? At the same time, a subway operator in Toronto sees green lights all the way to the next station and slams into a stationary car. The operator’s last words are, “The lights were green,” but the video footage shows only red lights. And this is only the beginning of this intense and fantastic thriller. Mofina’s compelling and twisty narrative builds suspense while playing with reader expectations. He takes a great plot and adds the human element so we care about the characters and what’s happening on every gripping page. Everyone should be one second away from snapping this up and adding it to their reading pile.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

51%

by Henrietta Thornton

Witten, Matt. 51%. April 28, 2026. 364 pages. Level Best Books.

In a nightmare near-future—perhaps the scariest part being that it seems like a logical extension of our present—a system that resembles a combination of the Tea Party’s toxic self reliance, China’s social-credit system, and AI on steroids has taken over the United States. But while tech has changed, human nature hasn’t, and a group of fifty-one percenters, those who owe more than half of their annual income to one of the greedy syndicates now in charge, is ready to escape to Canada and start a revolution. The book meets the group on the brink of escape, when one of them is found dead. Taking up the case is Juke O’Keefe and his crime marketer, Haylee Navarro, with her position necessary because NYPDinc officers must raise the money to investigate any crime they take on—judges and forensic scientists won’t work for free, after all. Complications ensue, not just because Juke cares more about victims than about making money for NYPDinc, but because of divided loyalties on Haylee’s part and the ever-looming threat from syndicate heads who want to use the investigation to find those planning rebellion. Alongside the tech and dictatorship vibes, which are absorbing (albeit terrifying) on their own, are several relationship stories. Even the future is still a small world, and as the stakes increase, both for the murder to be solved and for the revolutionaries-in-waiting to break free, readers are drawn into a compelling, tense and violent struggle for love and what’s right.—Henrietta Thornton

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Review

A Taste for Murder

by Chris Kahn

A tremendously well-balanced, traditional novel—in the best sense of the word—that is sure to appeal to a wide range of crime-fiction readers. Joe Mottram is on leave from the London police and forced into a sabbatical on the island of Capri. Delightful, no? No. Matt is accompanied by his teen daughter, Angelica (for whom everything is just too much of a bother, except for boys). A fatal accident killed his wife a year ago, and father and daughter have a rocky relationship. And while they are staying at an idyllic resort, they could be staying at a Motel 6 for all the attention they pay each other. Until there is a murder, of course, and Joe jumps in to help young police inspector Lorra Lorrancio discover the killer. A Taste for Murder is rich in plot, but it is even richer in detail. As the story slowly unfurls, so too does the grief, beauty, and menace. Matt Baker is a British television screenwriter known for creating the ITV drama Hotel Portofin. Here’s hoping this novel is the start of a series.—Brian Kenney

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Review

The Parisian Heist

by Henrietta Thornton

Book of the Week 4.2.26

The catalyst for the action, emotions, and treachery in this book is the desperation of widow Jo van Gogh. Her brother-in-law Vincent’s work is now beloved and fetches millions, but after he and Jo’s husband Theo were gone, Jo was left with little except the determination to make Vincent famous. For years, she begged dealers and galleries to just take a chance on the work they deemed “a bit hectic.” Jo became like the other women who form the backbone of this twisting thriller: underestimated by men but never by one another, while saving their lives by their wiles and willingness to disregard convention. The savvy widow is aided in her work by Claire, a former sex worker with many secrets who’s desperate that Jo won’t find out a truth about her earlier life, and who makes a decision that threatens to destroy her present as well. Those women’s drama intertwines with chapters that take place in the 1990s and feature three young women, Paris art students whose mysterious benefactor has cancelled their scholarship and who also find desperation pushing them toward actions they thought they’d never consider. At the behest of another widow, this one married into a fabulously wealthy but miserable family of art dealers, they risk everything. What a cocktail of art history, determination, and rich people behaving badly, with all capped by an art heist that will have readers holding their breaths.—Henrietta Thornton

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