All These Bodies by Kendare Blake is an edge-of-your-seat YA mystery involving 16 bloodless bodies, two teenagers, and one impossible explanation that proves the truth is as hard to believe as it is to find. In the summer of 1958, a gruesome string of murders reshaped ordinary life in the Midwest. Corpses were found entirely…
A Most Clever Girl is based on the life of the American communist spy Elizabeth Bentley. She was recruited in New York City at the beginning of World War II to fight against fascism. Elizabeth was a well-educated loner working in dead-end jobs. On a personal level, becoming a communist meant she suddenly had a…
The Mad Women’s Ball by Victoria Mas is a critically acclaimed French novel of historical fiction, translated by Frank Wynne, that follows the mistreatment and dehumanization of women deemed “mad” and forced into imprisonment within a women’s asylum. The Belle Epoque was a riot of culture and prosperity for the French Republic, with innovations in…
The Missing Hours by Julia Dahl is a novel about obsession, privilege, and the explosive consequences of one violent act, where a violent sexual assault leads Claudia Castro down the painful road toward vengeance but also recovery. When Claudia Castro wakes up in her dorm room, she realizes quickly that something is very, very wrong.…
Like any kind of writing, literary criticism must strive to find the most precise words to communicate what it wants readers to see as it deconstructs a narrative. That’s why vague words like “special” and “unique” are frowned upon; they fail to be specific. That said, both of them apply perfectly to Richard Chizmar’s Chasing…
When Paloma was growing up in the Little Miracles Girls’ Home in Sri Lanka, all she wanted was to be adopted. She could hardly believe it when rich and beautiful Mr. and Mrs. Evans from San Francisco took an interest in her and wanted to take her home as their daughter. It felt like a…
The Necklace by Matt Witten follows the journey of a mother’s cross-country trip to witness the execution of the murderer who slaughtered her 7-year-old daughter 20 years prior—but a startling discovery could mean the wrong man is about to be put to death. It’s been 20 years since the death of her 7-year-old daughter Amy,…
Sometimes Chief of Police Jesse Stone just has to wonder whether trouble is a given in his hometown of Paradise, Massachusetts. Local landowner Thomas Lawton III wants to sell a prime piece of beachfront real estate, known as The Throw, that two developers are none-too-politely salivating over. Billy Singer is a Vegas impresario looking for…
The title of Meg Tilly’s new thriller is evocative and intriguing—who is the heiress running from? Why is a wealthy woman on the lam? A vulnerable woman at the end of her rope is a trope that speaks to our deepest fears. We applaud a woman’s determination to leave a perilous situation while wishing no…
The Final Child by Fran Dorricott is a stunning psychological thriller where the victim of a childhood kidnapping teams up with a former journalist whose cousins were also kidnapped in a powerful tale of a survivor being forced to confront her painful past. Over 20 years ago, a serial kidnapper known as “The Father” terrorized…
