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Women

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The 10:12

by Chris Kahn

Book of the Week July 16, 2026

Maloney’s impressive debut opens with what should be an ordinary train journey, until hijackers throw everything into chaos. Reluctant hero Claire Fitzroy finds herself stepping up, rallying fellow passengers and methodically working through the train cars to neutralize the armed threats one by one. Claire is the unlikeliest of leaders, and once the dust settles, public opinion is sharply divided: was she brave and decisive, or did her ego turn a bad situation catastrophic? Claire is haunted by her choices on that fateful day, desperate to put it behind her, but a fascinated public refuses to let her disappear quietly. The story unfolds across two timelines: the tense, visceral hijacking itself and the courtroom drama of the hijackers’ trial, weaving between them with skill and purpose. Maloney’s decision to structure the narrative this way pays off enormously; the back-and-forth between past and present generates a tension that a straightforward chronological telling simply couldn’t achieve. As for the title, 10:12 carries a double meaning: the time the train departed, and, fair warning, the number of hours you’ll lose sitting motionless, completely unable to put this book down.—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

The Wild Beneath

by Dodie Ownes

Book of the Week June 25, 2026

A massive tsunami hits the Pacific Northwest and sweeps away Annie’s mother and father Maya and Aiden, and there’s not much left of Hale’s Landing, where she is sheltering with her grandmother Ruth. Then Annie discovers a man on the beach, about her age, with slimy, pale skin and strange eyes. As she and her aunt nurse Walker back to health, more questions than answers come up about him, making the townspeople suspicious. Moving back and forth in time from when Aiden first met Maya to the present to time in between, readers will find the lives of of Hale’s Landing inhabitants unfolding across the pages—Annie’s best friend and first love, Evan Hale, trapped by his father Isaac’s logging business; Uncle Henry, gruff and loving; and the chorus, locals who mistrusted Maya even before she and Aiden made the decision to live full-time on a sailboat. Annie can no longer deny that the sea calls her, as it did her mother, and Walker is somehow part of that—but how, and why? What is the connection she is missing? And can Hale’s Landing survive without the logging business that built it? Anderson spins an enchanting and exhilarating tale that will especially appeal to those who love everything about our waters and forests and all that dwell in and around them.—Dodie Ownes

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Review

Among the Ruins

by Henrietta Thornton

Ireland in 1970 is teetering on the edge of being a good place for women, but it’s not moving quickly enough for Nicoletta Sarto, who’s on maternity leave from her journalism job at Dublin’s Sentinel. As the book opens, she’s due back at work in a week, but stuck between two forces: her boss wants her back early, and everyone else, from her useless partner, Barney, to her coworkers and family, thinks she should stay home with her new twin girls. Nicoletta does whatever she wants (hooray!), and she’s soon back at work, patching together daycare from various reluctant family members while pursuing a crime story. (Never mind that she’s supposedly working on the newspaper’s “womens’ pages.”) The story of murder and stolen art, interspersed with looks at women’s rights (not many), class differences (too many), and organized crime (ditto), takes an unexpected turn and is followed by a surprising and lovely coda showing Nicoletta post-chaos. A fast-moving and interesting look at the recent past, with a gritty character to cheer on–get this on your TBR. In the meantime, try the first in the series, Where They Lie, which features Nicoletta in the ‘60s.—Henrietta Thornton

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Review

The Secrets We Hide

by Jeff Ayers

Slaughter returns with another gripping thriller following this series’s debut We Are All Guilty Here, and secrets once again prove fatal. Private investigator Allison Vickery, a former cop, is on the verge of vanishing with cash in hand and fake IDs ready for herself and her teenage daughter, Mandy, when gunshots shatter the quiet of their neighborhood. Sheriff Emmy Clifton arrives to find Allison dead. Clifton’s sister, ex-federal agent Jude Archer, sweeps the upstairs only to be shot herself and discover Mandy barely conscious with a head wound. All signs point to Allison’s allegedly abusive ex, but as Clifton digs deeper, a more complicated picture emerges. Mandy was secretly involved with an older man, a relationship she kept hidden even from her closest friends. In a town where nearly everyone is guarding something and buried secrets are practically a local tradition, Clifton must untangle a web of lies to find the truth about what happened to mother and daughter. Slaughter is masterful at keeping readers glued to the page, blending psychologically rich characters with dark, timely subject matter and a plot loaded with misdirection. Fans will be eager to follow Emmy Clifton and Jude Archer into whatever danger awaits them next.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

Better Than Revenge

by Dodie Ownes

Book of. the Week May 14, 2026

Were you a theater kid in high school? I wasn’t—but I sure enjoyed watching the drama play out between the teenage divas and their choruses. I got the same vicarious joy from this book, watching Nadine Heywood and Harper Moore, frenemies since their early days at the elite Central Arts and Drama School in London, duke it out to be “the” number one A-list actress. While Nadine is considered an accomplished and serious thespian, Harper is more the It Girl, getting roles in “popular” films that don’t garner her as many awards as Nadine, but do capture the attention of fans and the press. But even when Nadine has won all the recognition and lauds needed to seal her reputation, thoughts of Harper still haunt her. Their mutual obsession comes to a head when Nadine discovers Harper at her door with a confession, and blood on her hands—literally. These two actresses know how to perform, and together, they will control the narrative. Snippets from an upcoming crime documentary provide additional clues to the reader and add layers to this passionate tale of two celebrities who have the ability to take each other down, but can’t follow through. Bitchy, catty, and hellacious fun—with murderous intent.—Dodie Ownes

 

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Review

Time to Burn

by Jeff Ayers

Book of the Week April 30, 2026

What if the ultra-wealthy could vacation in the past? In this imaginative premise, time travel is real and commercialized, with Tempus Tours, helmed by the enigmatic Inigo Frank, catering to elite thrill-seekers who are willing to pay a premium for front-row seats to history. Frank invites documentary filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to shadow him for a week, capturing both the behind-the-scenes operation and a group of tourists embarking on a harrowing excursion to London during the 1941 Blitz. The trip goes catastrophically wrong. Most of the party returns badly injured and in need of emergency care, but one traveler, Sasha, doesn’t come back at all. Phoebe’s documentary takes a sharp turn as she finds herself embedded in a desperate rescue mission, filming Frank and his team as they race to pull Sasha from the past. But the deeper Phoebe digs, the stranger things become. Details feel off—one party member was married to someone else entirely, Phoebe’s certain, and she has the unsettling sense that the missing woman is someone from Phoebe’s own past, tied to a mistake she’d rather forget. Lloyd’s gripping, thought-provoking narrative goes far beyond a clever sci-fi concept, using time travel as a lens to examine identity, consequence, and the hidden forces that shape who we become.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

Promise Me Never

by Henrietta Thornton

Working at a literary agency while writing her own novel, Savannah meets megastar author Bennett and is smitten. She’s shocked when he seems to feel the same, and soon they’re in a whirlwind romance that rapidly gets serious. Savannah can’t help feeling it’s a little too quick, but tries to put doubts out of her mind. And if Bennett is a little too persistent in his wish for her to move out of New York City to relatively sleepy Bedford and get married, well, she shakes that off too. Who wouldn’t want to quit work and spend her days writing in a mansion? But soon her doubts are back when she hears local gossip that Bennett’s last wife’s drowning death may not have been an accident. And the more she lives with this controlling man, the more she’s convinced that the rumors about that death and other suspicious happenings in Bennett’s past are all too true. Constantine (a pen name for the duo of sisters behind The Next Mrs. Parrish) alternates chapters that impart Savannah’s and Poppy’s points of view, showing each woman’s fall to despair, with the characters’ voices ramping up the tension as the fast-moving thriller unfolds. These authors are already best sellers; this next book will satisfy their fans and bring in more readers who enjoy domestic turmoil and twists.—Henrietta Thornton

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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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Article

The Author Weekend

by Chris Kahn

Book of the Week April 9, 2026

Faye Wader, NYT bestselling author of the Kitty Howe mystery series, finally makes the plunge with the encouragement of her assistant, Jade, and hosts her first ever author event. On Misery Island, a place of nostalgic fun and hijinks for Faye, the 50 attendees will be able to attend Pre- Post- or Peri-Menopausal Mermaid Meditation; Publishing Confidential: Inside the Book Business, with Faye’s editor and agent; a Kitty Howe-themed Clambake, and more. The swag bags include plenty of kitsch, including signature Kitty Aviators, binoculars, and a lobster bib, along with copies of her last, and newest, title. And never mind that Faye’s number-one fan and critic, Peggy Mercer, will be there, surely with news of a misplaced comma or incorrect tense – all those other loyal adoring Kitty loyalists will lift Faye above that. The arrival of Faye’s franchise series rival, though not a complete surprise, ups the competition for attendees’ attention, as well as that of her editor, Merry, and her agent, Hal. Distracted by concerns with her forthcoming manuscript and lack of feedback from Hatchet, her publisher, Faye slips up on a plot point detail, which Peggy recognizes as a lie in Faye’s own backstory. Meanwhile Xoey, a social media maven who’s crippled without her phone, is desperate to tell the “author weekend story.” Feeling trapped by a prescribed wardrobe and envy, Faye begins to spiral. Before long, the bodies start to pile up. Readers will delight in discovering who ends up on the top of the heap, both literally and figuratively. A sharp, gossipy, and hilarious satire of the publishing business.—Dodie Ownes

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