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What She Knows

by Chris Kahn

Book of the Week October 22, 2026

Franny admits to being quite the unreliable narrator—when in the throes of addiction, she only cared about her next fix. Now clean, she is starting life back up in tiny Orion, NY and things are going well. Shortly after moving to town, she met Joshua, handsome and steady, a widower with two girls, and soon married. When Franny takes over the pharmacy where Joshua’s wife was murdered when an attempted burglary went wrong, she begins to question her own memories of that very night. She didn’t pull the trigger, did she? With only her long-distance sister Jackie and local reporter Annette as support, her paranoia becomes justified when someone starts sending threatening messages to Franny and her new family. Joshua turns cold and it seems that their perfect love story is over. But small-town secrets don’t stay secret for long, and soon the local police have another murder on their hands. Feldman gifts readers with a tense and twisty tale that has all the feels—sympathy for a recovering addict, trust in friends and family, and finally, a bullseye on the killer. A debut that hits the mark.—Dodie Ownes

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Article

Animals of the French Species

by Chris Kahn
Book of the Week October 15, 2026 After the traumatic events of The Wonder Test, FBI agent Lina Connerly and her teenage son move from California to Paris, where she is posted to the American Embassy as a liaison between U.S. and French counterintelligence agencies. Mother and son are also dealing with their lingering grief over the death of Lina’s husband in a car accident two years ago. Still, the Paris they find is not a romantic refuge but a gritty and dirty metropolis (“you can almost smell the French Revolution”). The French present Lina with a 20-year-old unsolved case—the Train Fantôme—involving the bloody deaths of nine passengers in a single metro car. Could it be connected to a mysterious device found in a tunnel wall, which might be linked to a secret weapons program in Eastern Europe? Covertly, Lina is also tracking an Edward Snowden-like American intelligence agent who leaked classified documents, fled to Russia, and is now rumored to be hiding in France. Her need to find him becomes urgent when her sources start turning up dead. Richmond skillfully weaves two complex espionage plots into a touching family drama about rebuilding a life after a tragedy. Fascinating spycraft details are mixed with amusing observations about expatriate life and Franco-American cultural differences. Fans of Chris Pavone’s The Expats will enjoy this.—Willy Williams
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Review

Nothing Human Left

by Dodie Ownes

Book of the Week October 8, 2026

Gracie is constantly under her mother’s surveillance. If it weren’t for her cousin Desi and her brother Kit, she would have no friends—or protection—at school, where most consider Grace and Marge weirdos. But Marge is sure that there are enemies out there, whom she calls People Faces, waiting to hurt them. Moving through dual timelines, readers meet grown up Gracie, now a social worker with friends and a job she enjoys, trying hard to put her past behind her—a past that includes her mother murdering her best friends in the most horrific ways. When Marge is given early release because she is dying and asks to see Gracie once again, the memories come flooding back. As her mother denies the murders, the events of 20 years ago start to come into focus, and even though she thought Marge completely insane, incidents begin to make Gracie think otherwise. The flips between past and present serve to build incredible tension as each unknown is teased out and the psychological twists become more and more tangled. When Gracie decides to visit her former home, the murder scene, she is no longer sure whom she can trust, including herself. The monsters that Hart has created will leave readers gasping at their cruelty, intent, and complete lack of humanity. Can old wounds still heal?—Dodie Ownes

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Article

Complicit

by Chris Kahn

Book of the Week September 17, 2026

Knapp’s debut tells a dark story laced with hope and courage. Dr. Randi Jewell recently lost her police officer husband to violence during a robbery and her sister has mysteriously vanished. She buries herself in her work as an OB-GYN, overworking to forget. Her 13-year-old daughter, Alaina, asks her to help a friend who’s pregnant and having complications. The friend, who calls herself Holly, is 18, and her living conditions are far from safe. She doesn’t trust Randi at first but slowly begins to warm to her care. Randi starts noticing patterns that tie back to her husband’s death and her sister’s disappearance as she learns more about Nora, Holly’s real name. Doing the right thing could cost Randi her career, or worse, land the rest of her family in the local cemetery. Knapp’s background as an OB-GYN in rural communities lends authenticity to this disturbing yet uplifting tale. Don’t be complicit in overlooking this terrific medical thriller. Knapp has a long career as a gifted storyteller ahead of her.—Jeff Ayers

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Article

Girls Will Be Girls

by Chris Kahn

After Mallory moves to Herldsburg, MA, with her family, she’s desperate to make friends with the Sweet Hill Moms, a group of women who walk the neighborhood every day. That is, when they’re taking breaks from their successful Instagram accounts that document their perfect lives. Mallory feels far less glam, looking after two small kids and barely making it financially while her husband doesn’t lift a finger at home. When she’s accepted to the exclusive friend group, it’s more bitchy than she expected, and it seems like this will be a takedown of wealthy suburban moms. But Stava’s absorbing thriller turns into something quite different, offering unexpected characters and motivations and a satisfying and detailed story of what happens when girls will be girls. This has the tone of Big Little Lies, and Stava’s Count My Lies will soon be a TV series of its own; a screen adaptation of Mallory and her neighbors’ shocking-in-the-best-way tale can’t be far behind.—Henrietta Thornton

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Article

Price of Silence

by Chris Kahn

A reporter becomes part of the story in Kipness’s latest, and the result is a gripping ride. Even though Sydney Price has relatives who run Glenmont Media, she has chosen to earn her place as a reporter on her own terms and works at a smaller New York TV network. Her desk is next to a colleague she’d rather avoid, a man who isn’t very nice and has a habit of swiping her snacks. Then everything accelerates. A bomb threat in the building next door, the home of Glenmont, turns out to be very real, and Sydney’s brother is suspect number one. Her irritating deskmate is suddenly rushed to the hospital with food poisoning, fighting for his life. When sabotage strikes the plaza, Sydney throws herself into finding answers, even as she realizes her position as a reporter both helps and hinders what she can uncover. While a menacing storm bears down on the city, one thing becomes painfully clear: whatever she digs up could make her the next target. Kipness writes about the world of television news with real expertise and flair, crafting compelling characters and a baffling, twisty mystery. Layer in a sharp exposé of New York high society, and you get a story readers will be eager to talk about. Fortunately, the price of silence isn’t too steep here, because word of mouth is exactly what this terrific book deserves.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

Old Ham

by Dodie Ownes

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

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Review

The Crying Killer

by Jeff Ayers

Eight years ago, Tuesday Hendrickson’s world shattered when her younger sister was murdered by a serial-killer boyfriend, Arsen Bauer, a monster who was shot and killed by police that night. In the aftermath, Tuesday made a life-changing decision. She took in her sister’s newborn daughter, Julia, assumed new identities, and disappeared. Having rebuilt her life as a private investigator, she now dedicates herself to protecting women trapped in dangerous relationships. But when Tuesday rescues a woman outside a bar one evening, she comes face to face with something impossible: a man who looks unmistakably like Arsen Bauer and appears very much alive. Her shock deepens as a new string of murders emerges, each killing bearing the chilling signature that made Bauer infamous. Is history repeating itself, or is something far more sinister at work? As Tuesday races to uncover the truth, she has no idea that she has become a target herself. Manipulated, watched, and slowly cornered, she finds the secrets she has fought so hard to protect beginning to unravel. The truth about that fateful night eight years ago is about to surface, no matter the cost. Lourey takes what could have been a straightforward serial-killer thriller and transforms it into a powerful story of resilience, raw emotion, and the fierce determination to survive against impossible odds. Packed with twists that genuinely surprise, this is the kind of book that demands to be read in a single breathless sitting.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

Members Only

by Brian Kenney

If you have the taste for crime writing—either the real stuff or the imaginative—then you are destined to love Emma Rosenblum’s latest satirical thriller. The book is set at the super-exclusive Harrington Connecticut country club. On a day when one of the younger members will be having an evening wedding, the morning kicks off with a bang that echoes throughout the campus. Suicide? Car exhaust? Pistol? Whatever it might be, it’s now the force that catapults the story ahead, from the bride-to-be (please don’t marry me) to the club’s president (I’m almost broke) to the politics of pickleball and, lest we forget, the totally cute chef. Far more honest than most profiles about privilege, this is a story few readers will forget.—Brian Kenney

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Review

Nasty Little Secrets

by 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

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