Domestic

I’m not sure I’ve met a more unhinged middle-aged, crochets-hats-for-cats, hoarder and emotionally abandoned character than Junie Oldham. Teased mercilessly in school about her last name (Bacon, Old Ham, Hammy), she nonetheless believes that she has a chance with dreamy Blake Patton, her crush. Despite he and his friends’ cruelty, she maintains hope, and years later, he shows up at an AA meeting and Junie’s fantastical hopes and revenge wheel go into high gear. Posing as a tutor for Blake’s daughter, Junie’s ruse goes undetected until a fateful dinner party brings her face to face with another high-school abuser. Then Glass really takes readers for a ride, as one opportunity after another presents Junie with chances to expose Blake as the villain he is and herself as the victim that few recognize. Completely mad or genius or both, Junie is a character with purpose that I will not forget—and with the book’s open ending, I can only hope her hunt for vengeance is satisfied.—Dodie Ownes

Rose Dearling’s brother, Will, sits in jail, convicted of murdering Alexandria Hopely, his first love. With adjoining backyards, the Dearling and the Hopely families were particularly close, but that all changed when Rose refused to accept that Will was the killer. Years later, Rose is the best-selling author of The Smileys Next Door, a thinly fictionalized account of what she thinks really happened to Alex, naming Mr. Hopely as his daughter’s murderer. When her sister, Hazel, disappears, Rose is summoned by family to leave New York City and return to her hometown, Loxahatchee FL, where unsurprisingly, former friends regard her with suspicion and disdain. As family secrets begin to surface, Rose becomes even more convinced that Will is innocent and that the real killer is still on the loose. Local cop Nick Pullman gets put on the case, bringing another backstory into the narrative as the search for Hazel grows more desperate. A skanky teacher and a lecherous neighbor round out the cast, and Hanks has readers’ heads snapping as this story tumults to its thrilling and surprising conclusion.—Dodie Ownes

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