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Suspense

Review

The Tarot Reader

by Charlotte Del Vecchio July 31, 2025

Jade Crawford, or as her clients know her, Madame Ravencroft, is a 25-year-old psychic, offering a variety of services thanks to her supposed connection with the great beyond. However, Jade’s spiritual talent is nothing more than a creative ruse, delicately toeing the line between criminal and therapeutic. Jade and her younger sister, Stevie, run their Psychic Parlor and Shoppe out of Winston-Salem, NC, struggling to make ends meet and searching for income by any means necessary. After losing their mother to a tragic accident and their father to a prison sentence, the girls were forced to take on the family business and continue the con in order to survive. When a sleazy local politician goes missing, Jade sees an opportunity to promote her business and maybe claim the reward money by sending in a tip offering the location of the body to the police, claiming to have seen it in a vision. When her “vision” is revealed to be hauntingly accurate, Jade and Stevie find themselves in a whirlwind of media and customers demanding a piece of the magic. As Jade continues to spin her web of lies around the police and the town, she finds her sister and herself entangled in the investigation not only as suspects but possibly the next victims. Fans of Samantha M. Bailey will appreciate this thrilling twist on a female-driven thriller with layers of secrets and complexities throughout.

July 31, 2025 0 comment
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Review

The Glass Man

by Willy Williams July 24, 2025

Opening shortly after the traumatic events of The Mountain King, the second entry in de la Motte’s Asker series finds Leo Asker settling back into her job as head of the Malmö police’s obscure Resources Department (aka The Department of Lost Souls) when the estranged survivalist father she calls “Prepper Per” contacts her after 15 years of silence. A body has been found near his farm, and he will be arrested shortly as the primary suspect. Claiming a frame-up, Per threatens violence if Leo refuses to help him. Having survived her father’s attempt to kill her years ago, she knows Per means business. Meanwhile, childhood friend Martin Hill, recovering from injuries sustained from helping Leo on her last case, has moved to the remote and eerie lakeside estate of the Irving family to write the history of the medical technology company founded by paterfamilias Gunnar Irving. Long obsessed with the rumors (UFOs, red-eyed aliens) behind the Irvings’ success, Martin is thrilled at the chance to investigate further. But he soon discovers dark secrets that might be connected to Leo’s probe. Once again, the author has penned an atmospheric, fast-paced thriller that features a creepy serial killer and provides plenty of chills for the dog days of summer. Leo and Martin make a great sleuthing team, and Scandinavian noir readers will eagerly await their next adventure.

July 24, 2025 0 comment
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Review

Breathe In, Bleed Out

by Dodie Ownes July 17, 2025

Maybe Hannah’s best friend Tess is right—a restorative yoga retreat in Joshua Tree might be what Hannah needs to let go of the images of her fiancé’s horrific death, right after he proposed to her in a stunning wilderness setting. On the women’s arrival in the desert, all seems idyllic—the sound bowls, Guru Pax in his flowing robes, the yurts and tech-free environment. But soon Hannah’s nightmares about Ben’s death are supplemented with visions of Waylon Barlow, an ancient miner with a flesh mask and a pick axe. The other retreat attendees, including Hannah’s high school ex-boyfriend Miles; tech-bro Jared and his ethereal partner, Luna; and Dennings, an ex-Marine, start to sense that something is off. Pax’s assistant, Kimi, assures them all is well—but then Dennings disappears. In superb Final Girl form, the retreat attendees get picked off one at a time, in entertainingly gruesome ways. As Hannah struggles to survive and save Tess, she has to confront her own secrets. Author McAuley, winner of Esquire’s Best Horror Book of 2022, Curse of the Reaper, demonstrates once again his flair for cinematic suspense with humor and splatter.

July 17, 2025 0 comment
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Review

Behind These Four Walls

by Charlotte Del Vecchio July 17, 2025

When Isla’s shady side business of digging up dirt for hire leads her back to the all-too-familiar Corrigan Group, she must face the demons this powerful family has held over her for the past 10 years. Isla had a tough start to life, orphaned young and stumbling through her formative years until she met Eden Galloway and finally felt like she had found her family. At 16, Isla and Eden’s plan to run away is interrupted by Eden’s insistence on resolving her mysterious unfinished business with the Corrigan family in Virginia. Promising to return before Isla wakes up the next day, Eden is never seen again. And since Isla is an unhoused 16 year old running from the threat of foster care, she has no option but to keep moving. Isla never forgot about her friend, she just never had a way in—until now. As Isla digs deeper into the Corrigans, she finds unlikely friends and even stronger enemies working their own agendas within the powerful family. Isla must push through the network of lies and family loyalties in order to discover the only truth she really cares about: what happened to Eden? Find yourself as a fly on the wall in the home of this power-hungry, treacherous, and deceitful family as all of their secrets come to light in one final stand-off.

July 17, 2025 0 comment
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Review

Clive Cussler: The Iron Storm

by Henrietta Thornton July 10, 2025

Brace yourself! This is a wild ride, and one that is just as enjoyable even if you’ve never read the late Cussler or Du Brul’s other Cussler titles. Readers are swept off to WWI Europe along with Isaac Bell, a detective with New York’s Van Dorn agency (created by Cussler, this group is like the Pinkertons on steroids). Bell is tasked by President Wilson with visiting the war-torn continent to gauge what it would be like for American men forced into battle there if the United States enters the fray. His journey turns into a series of chases and vicious confrontations, with he and comrades facing expected foes in the form of ruthless German soldiers, but also a less-expected force: anarchists who seek to use the cover of war to sow murderous chaos. Newcomers to Bell will want to go back to previous creations in this series as this is a wonderfully memorable character, with kindness and smarts to spare along with guts aplenty. Get this breakneck thriller on your list.

July 10, 2025 0 comment
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Review

The Tutor

by Henrietta Thornton June 26, 2025

The tutor is Isabel, a young woman who’s just started her new job at a rich Florida private school. Readers know that she’s angling to meet the Caldwells, a family whose son, James, attends the school; we follow along as she visits their palatial home for the first time, snooping while there—but what’s she up to? In the meantime, we meet Evelyn, James’s mean-spirited grandmother. Her daughter-in-law Rose, the female lead here, can’t do anything right, and in Evelyn’s view is a gold digger who needs to be out of the picture. The man between these two women is too busy with his finance work to be of any help, and the situation disintegrates as Isabel reveals the reason she wants to know the Caldwells and Rose finds out that her mother-in-law is rumored to have too many mysterious deaths in her tony circle. With secrets and twists coming fast, not to mention emotional stakes that build to fever pitch, this is psychological fiction at its best.

June 26, 2025 0 comment
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Review

The Dead Husband Cookbook

by Dodie Ownes June 26, 2025

Maria and Damien Capello hit the big time when they opened their oh-so-chic restaurant Polpette della Nonna in upstate New York. Chef Damien was the darling of the foodie circuit, known for his incredible creations—until his sudden disappearance, officially ruled as a suicide. But since no body was ever found, suspicion abounds, and rumors swirl that Maria had something to do with it. Which might involve a freezer, a cookbook, and a secret ingredient. When publisher Hanes House gets one scant chapter from Maria, promising to tell the real story, junior editor Thea is shocked when she is assigned to the project and whisked off to meet Maria to flesh out the rest of the book, on an extremely tight deadline. Thea’s phone is taken away, wifi access is highly controlled, and as she is doled out one chapter at a time by the enigmatic Maria, with the mystery of the vanishing chef slowly revealed in one delicious twist after another. Nothing is as it appears in the Capello family, and their secrets will soon collide with Thea’s world. With its humor, touch of domestic angst, and possibly unreliable narrators and recipes, foodies who love a good mystery in a kitchen setting will devour this tale.

June 26, 2025 0 comment
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Review

The Sunshine Man

by Brian Kenney June 19, 2025

It’s a big day for both Bridget Keller and her old family friend Jimmy Maguire. Jimmy’s being released from notorious English prison Wandsworth, having served decades for the murder of his childhood friend Providence. And Bridget, Providence’s older sister, is on her way to the prison gate to meet Jimmy and kill him. But things aren’t quite right for the attack, so Bridget puts it off…and puts it off…while she tails Jimmy as he visits old haunts, planning to kill him at every stop. As we journey with the ill-fated pair, readers look back at Bridget and Jimmy’s childhoods. Both have been abandoned by their mothers, Bridget physically when her mother took off, Jimmy emotionally as he survives life with his alcoholic mother; “the mister,” an abusive man whom Jimmy just KNOWS isn’t his father; and his small-time-criminal brothers. Nobody expects good from a Maguire. But as readers come to know Jimmy from his friendships, efforts to escape a life of crime, and sometimes-sparkling inner thoughts, it becomes harder to view him as just a criminal. Solid twists add to the emotional uncertainty to create a thought-provoking look at intersecting tough lives and longings for love.

June 19, 2025 0 comment
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Review

A Killer Getaway

by Charlotte Del Vecchio June 12, 2025

For the past five summers, Lily Lennox has left her successful business in Cincinnati to work as a lifeguard at elite Caribbean Island wellness resort the Riovan. But no one knows why. They also don’t know about the string of deaths attached to the Riovan that conveniently align with Lily’s annual stay. As the protagonist returns to her annual island lifestyle, she exposes the truth behind the Riovan’s problematic wellness practices and her own reasons for returning. But this year, Lily’s plans are interrupted by a mysterious journalist, Daniel Black, who is intent on chipping away at any crack in the resort. Their attraction to each other only grows as Lily resists and attempts to divert his attention away from the resort’s secrets. This summer-vacation thriller provides a witty outlook on wellness culture and exposes the harsh impacts of body-image obsession while following a female antihero along a dark path of revenge, reflection, and romance. For fans of Emily Henry’s feel-good nature and Jeneva Rose’s twisted thrills, who will be uncovering its mysteries until the very end.

June 12, 2025 0 comment
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Review

The Intruder

by Henrietta Thornton May 29, 2025

Casey just wanted a quiet life in the New Hampshire woods. That’s mostly what she’s got, despite the neighbor that seems a bit off and the icky landlord whose suggestive comments she could do without. When a massive storm bears down, her cabin’s failing roof is a worry but turns out to be the least of her problems. Then she sees someone outside. It’s a teenage girl who’s been hiding in the garden shed, and when Casey tries to help her, Casey soon becomes captive in her own home while the storm rages. The girl, who seems enraged at Casey for reasons that are a mystery to readers and the hapless captive alike, is ready to make this night a violent one. Alternating with that story is the tale of Ella, a girl who lives with her abusive, hoarder mother, and her desperation to escape that life and the bullying at school. McFadden brings her usual tight plotting and twists to this massively absorbing work of psychological terror, which will be a winner with her fans and all who enjoy a tense, character-driven read.

May 29, 2025 0 comment
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