Tag:

Psychological

Review

What She Knows

by Dodie Ownes

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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Review

Animals of the French Species

by Willy Williams
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

The Midsummer Girls

by Danise Hoover

This book has so many twists and turns that it may not be possible to define. Allissa has been searching for her sister, Shannon, since her disappearance 12 years ago. The disappearance upended their family, shattering what had been a happy life. An unexpected message from a supposed friend of Shannon’s sets Alissa on a path that may lead to destruction and that involves a rich man, simple naïve young women, and a mysterious remote island somewhere near Gurnsey. The island, it seems, has spiritual control of those who come. Who is trustworthy, who is real? What has happened for all these years? Not an easy book, but starkly compelling to read.—Danise Hoover

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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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Review

Dead Med

by Henrietta Thornton

DeWitt Medical School has a drug problem. In recent years, students have overdosed, a history that students are very aware of. This year’s newbies just know they’d never do drugs, even to cope with the ultra-high pressure anatomy class that’s the center of their first-year fears. Heather is the first we spend time with. She’s trying so hard in the class but can’t seem to succeed. She sees her roommate hanging out and having a good time; surely she can’t be getting good grades from tough Dr. Conlon? As the chapters fly by, the pressure increases and we meet other students, each with pressures to bear in addition to the anatomy hell they’re enduring: a father who died too soon; tuition bills that necessitate a sketchy job that turns out much worse than expected; a famous surgeon to live up to. When the students start to crack and behave in increasingly unhinged ways, readers will be rapt and shocked by the twists revealed. Medicine is here a much more prominent element than in McFadden’s previous books, but as a former physician, she has the background to back it up. What’s no different is the stellar dark psychological suspense and characterization. Get this on your TBR.—Henrietta Thornton

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Review

Before I Disappear

by Dodie Ownes

It’s everyone’s worst nightmare: waking up in a strange room, with injuries, a new name and hair color, and being told by an undercover cop that you are in a witness-protection program. Academic criminologist April can’t remember anything that has happened for the last several months. All Hollister, the cop, can fill her in on is that bad folks are looking for her, and if she can’t remember what how occurred before she was brought into the ER with a bullet in her head, the case against her attackers won’t fly. Bit by bit, conflicting memories come back—a fiancé, Chris, who secretly put a tracking device in her purse; a room full of bodies and red threads coming down on her; her Aunt Dahlia, who raised April after her parents and brother were killed in a car accident. Quinn (The Bridesmaid) spools out small details that build the story and keep readers guessing about Chris’s possible involvement with the mob, April’s mysterious injuries, and secrets about her family. As the trial grows near, the pressure for memories to return mounts, as does the speed and pace of the book. Triggered by flashbacks, April’s recollections begin to unravel and a desperate cross-country race to get to the evidence ensues. Quinn has built a breathless cinematic psychological thriller that leans into dissociative identity disorder, with revenge and subterfuge on the front burners.—Dodie Ownes

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Review

Accidents Never Happen

by Dodie Ownes

What do Blondie, Edgar Allan Poe, and Amontillado sherry have in common? These are all key to solving Zang’s atmospheric and creepy mystery. In 1985 Baltimore, sisters Annabel and Madeline (Mad) run Goldie’s, a dive bar with a Poe connection—it’s so like many southside bars, each with its own schtick. Their father not only named his daughters after Poe characters, he also is suspected of being the infamous Poe Toaster, who leaves roses and sherry at the grave on Poe’s death anniversary. After he disappears, a string of murders, all of bartenders, strikes the city. Before long, Mad is pulled into it, not knowing whom to suspect—Tim, who runs “spirit” tours around the city; Martin, a burly chef who takes a shine to her; or maybe even her own father. When she makes a gruesome discovery in a hidden room in the basement and Annabel is nowhere to be found, Mad knows she must do something to find her sister and protect herself, her cousin Piper, and Goldie’s. Zang cranks up the tension deliciously as more grisly connections are made, leaving Mad to come to a terrifyingly awful conclusion as to who is responsible for the killings. Poe and ‘final girl’ fans, this one’s for you!—Dodie Ownes

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Review

Complicit

by Jeff Ayers

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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Review

Girls Will Be Girls

by Henrietta Thornton

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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Review

Darling, You’re Next

by Dodie Ownes

Maren and Topher find each other in a total meet-cute: she stumbles and twists her ankle while jogging, and a handsome kind man comes to her rescue. The attraction is unmistakable, but they part ways with just a smile. When they find each other in the same grief-counseling session the next day, it seems like kismet—Topher is mourning the loss of his fiancée, Abby, and Maren’s father has recently passed—and the relationship takes off. Quickly. Can Topher actually be this perfect? As more details come to light about how Abby died, Maren suspects she doesn’t know the whole truth, and sensing that, Topher tightens his hold on her. With a dual timeline, readers will build parallels between the stories he is trying to hide from his past and what is happening now. Bush builds support nets around both Abby and Maren through an interesting cast of characters both sympathetic and problematic, such as Topher’s alcoholic mother and Abby’s best friend. This is addictive and thrilling, the sense of dread growing as each chapter flies by, with a spectacular ending that readers won’t see coming.—Dodie Ownes

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