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Debut Novel

Book Review: Shutter by Melissa Larsen

By Doreen Sheridan

June 16, 2021

Shutter by Melissa Larsen is a chilling debut novel about a young woman who agrees to star in a filmmaker’s latest project but soon realizes the movie is not what she expected. Betty Roux is a young woman running from her recent past. Sleeping on her friends’ couch in New York City, she has vague…

Book Review: Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage

By Doreen Sheridan

June 2, 2021

This powerful debut novel pulls no emotional punches as it explores the life of a troubled, vulnerable gay man trying to hold body and soul together as he searches for healing and acceptance. Jonah Keller is a broke waiter in New York City, clinging to his dream of becoming a famous playwright in the face…

Book Review: The Photographer by Mary Dixie Carter

By Michelle Carpenter

May 24, 2021

What makes something real? Is it something tangible, or is it the feeling something evokes? Mary Dixie Carter poses this question in her psychological thriller, The Photographer. This novel follows a photographer, Delta, who becomes engrossed in the life of her clients, and in doing so seems to create her own version of reality. However,…

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham: Cover Reveal and Excerpt

By Crime HQ

May 14, 2021

Available wherever books are sold on January 11, 2022 — pre-order today from any of these partner bookstores: Anderson’s Book Shop (Naperville, IL) BookBar Denver (Denver, CO) Book Carnival (Orange, CA) Cavalier House Books (Denham Springs, LA) Copper Dog Books (Beverly, MA) Fiction Addiction (Greenville, SC) Fountain Bookstore (Richmond, VA) Itinerant Literate (Charleston, SC) My Sister’s Books (Pawley’s Island, SC) Murder by the Book (Houston,…

Book Review: Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

By Doreen Sheridan

March 12, 2021

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley is a debut novel and groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community. I ugly cried my way through the ending of this book at 5:30 a.m. after reading all night, which I hope is enough of a recommendation for readers who…

Book Review: Saving Grace by Debbie Babitt

By Angie Barry

March 11, 2021

Twenty-four years ago, two eleven-year-old girls disappeared in the small town of Repentance, Arkansas. Mary Grace Dobbs remembers that year very well—she was a sixth-grader herself, a classmate of the missing girls.  I was coming up on the anniversary of my parents’ death when the girls began disappearing.   That summer twenty-four years ago, right…

Book Review: Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay

By Doreen Sheridan

March 2, 2021

It’s hard to believe that this highwire act of tight plotting, alternating perspectives, and shifting timelines is a debut novel, but Alex Finlay’s Every Last Fear is a remarkable addition to the thriller genre, juggling all its many plot points so deftly that it kept me guessing whodunnit and why till the very end. Matt…

Social Media & Mystery-solving

By Olivia Blacke

February 18, 2021

Technology, and social media in particular, is interwoven into our daily lives in large and small ways we might not even think about anymore. Assuming you’re not reading this on your phone right now, you probably have your phone handy and I’d wager that you’ve checked at least one social media site today—and have probably…

New Excerpt: Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay

By Crime HQ

February 12, 2021

CHAPTER 7 SARAH KELLER Agent Keller slid the key into the door of the small ranch-style house, moths circling the porch light above her. Readington, New Jersey, wasn’t a fancy neighborhood, which was just as well. That would’ve been cost prohibitive, given her FBI salary. But it was safe, filled with working-class families and young…

Book Review: Killer Content by Olivia Blacke

By Doreen Sheridan

February 9, 2021

Odessa Dean is still getting used to life in New York City after spending her first quarter-century or so in the sleepy Louisiana town of Piney Island. Her aunt needed a cat-sitter while jaunting off to Europe for three months, so Odessa happily took the opportunity to see the big city, rent-free. Aunt Melanie tried…

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