Teresa Brock

Meet BTB Reviewer Teresa Brock

Background: If I'm on the rails, you should worry. I go through life with the best attitude loving every minute of it and trying to get as many books into my brain as possible. I truly love finding new authors and being a conduit of sorts to get their book babies into as many hands as possible.

Go-To Author: AI Finn, Kristin Hannah, Scott Turrow , Erik Larson, Dennis LeHane, Andrews & Wilson, Brad Thor, Jack Carr and Danielle Trussini.

Author People Should Discover: Michele Packard, Andrew Bridgeman, ME Proctor and Joshua Moehling.

Book You Would Recommend From 2024: Love You Till Tuesday by ME Proctor.

Most-Anticipated Book Of 2025: Nowhere by Allison Gunn: a horror author in a very male dominated genre - I am all about that. Robert Dugoni’s Hold Strong , Nemesis by Gregg Hurwitz and Family Ties by Michele Packard.

Favorite Local/Indie Bookstore: Butcher Cabin Books in Louisville, Kentucky and A Likely Story in Midway, Kentucky. Both of these are in The Bluegrass State, locally owned and work with local authors and other businesses to support reading.

Favorite Charities: The Wounded Warrior Project.

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Scar the Sky by J. Todd Scott (9/9/25)View Teresa’s Latest Reviews (book pub. dates)

The Survivor by Andrew Reid (3/24/26)
Antihero by Gregg Hurwitz (2/10/26)
Dark Sisters by Kristi DeMeester (12/9/25)
Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino (11/25/25)
The Adversary by Andrews & Wilson (11/4/25)
Remain by Nicholas Sparks & M. Night Shyamalan (10/24/25)
War on the Porch by Travis Davis (10/16/25)
The Gallery Assistant by Kate Belli (10/14/25)
Silent Creek by Tony Wirt (10/7/25)
Photograph by Brian Freeman (10/07/25)
The Hitchhikers by Chevy Stevens (10/7/25)
Denied Access by Don Bentley (9/30/25)
The Whisper Place by Mindy Mejia (9/16/25)
The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards (9/16/25)
Scar the Sky by J. Todd Scott (9/9/25)
Family Ties by Michele Packard (9/9/25)
The Quietist by Daniel David Gothard (9/2/25)
In Deadly Company by L. S. Stratton (9/2/25)
Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley (9/2/25)
Spider to the Fly by J. H. Markert (9/2/25)
8114 by Joshua Hull (8/26/25)
Leverage by Amran Gowani (8/19/25)
The Witch's Orchard by Archer Sullivan (8/12/25)
The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd Robinson (8/5/25)
A Noble Sin by Andrew Bridgeman (8/5/25)
The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen (8/5/25)
The Ever End by Audrey Wilson (8/5/25)
Departure 37 by Scott Carson (8/5/25)
Fade In by Kyle Mills (7/29/25)
The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr (7/22/25)
Blood and Treasure by Ryan Pote (7/22/25)
The Red Letter by Daniel G. Miller (7/22/25)
Whatever Kills the Pain by CW Blackwell (7/18/25)
Welcome to Cottonmouth by Jay S. Bell (7/8/25)
Remote: The Five by Eric Rickstad (7/8/25)
The White Crow by Michael Robotham (7/1/25)
Edge of Honor by Brad Thor (7/1/25)
Proof by Jon Cowan (6/24/25)
Gone Dark by Ryan Steck (6/17/25)
Of Flesh and Blood By Hunter Burke & N.L. Lavin (6/10/25)
Sister Butcher Sister by KD Aldyn (6/10/25)
King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby (6/10/25)
Blood Feud by Martin Rooney (6/3/25)
The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark (6/3/25)
Be Mine by Lizzy Barber (5/27/25)
Tell Them You Lied by Laura Leffler (5/27/25)
Lay Your Armor Down by Micahel Farris Smith (5/27/25)
The Safari by Jaclyn Goldis (5/20/25)
The Palace of Sinners and Saints by Ammar Merchant (5/20/25)
Spontaneous Remission By Joel Shulkin (5/13/25)
Fog and Fury by Rachel Howzell Hall (5/13/25)
Marguerite by the Lake by Mary Dixie Carter (5/8/25)
No Man's Ghost by Jason Powell (5/6/25)
See How They Fall by Rachel Paris (04/29/25)
Bop City Swing by ME Proctor and Russell Thayer (4/22/25)
Vatican Daughter by Jonie Marie Iraci (4/15/25)
Streets of Nashville by Michael Amos Cody (4/15/25)
Remote: The Six by Eric Rickstad (4/8/25)
The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer (4/8/25)
Dark Rising by Andrews & Wilson (4/8/25)
Heartwood by Amity Gaige (4/1/25)
Flames of Deception by Travis Davis (3/25/25)
Gothictown by Emily Carpenter (3/25/25)
Nowhere by Allison Gunn by (03/25/25)
Where the Bones Lie by Nick Kolakowski (3/22/25)
The Buffalo Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (03/18/25)
The Extraterrestrial Zoo by Samantha van Leer (3/4/25)
The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica (3/4/25)
The Memory Ward by Jon Bassoff (3/4/25)
Real Bad, Real Soon by Eric Beetner (2/25/25)
Nemesis by Gregg Hurwitz (2/11/25)
Not Our Daughter by Chad Zunker (2/11/25)
Dark Vector by Ward Larsen (2/4/25)
A Long Time Gone by Joshua Moehling (2/4/25)
The Department by Jacqueline Faber (2/4/25)
The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter (1/28/25)
At Dark I Become Loathsome by Eric LaRocca (1/28/25)
Penitence by Kristin Koval (1/28/25)
Johnny Careless by Kevin Wade (1/25/25)
The Spear and the Sentinel By J. L. Hancock (1/18/25)
Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson (1/8/25)
The Dragon the Eagle and the Jaguar by Rodger Carlyle (01/14/25)
Assume Nothing by Joshua Corin (12/10/24)
The Good Bride by Jen Marie Wiggins (12/10/24)
Nobody's Hero by M.W. Craven (12/03/24)
Baker by Michele Packard (12/01/24)
The Egyptian Enigma by David Darling (11/26/24)
Out in the Cold by Steve Urszenyi (11/12/24)
Burn This Night by Alex Kenna (11/12/24)
The Lake of Lost Girls By Katherine Greene (11/5/24)
In Too Deep by Lee Child & Andrew Child (10/22/24)
Good Looking Ugly by Rob D. Smith (10/22/24)
Origin Story by A.M. Adair (10/22/24)
The Slate by Matthew Fitzsimmons (10/8/24)
Hometown Vendetta By Traci Hunter Abramson (10/1/24)
Somewhere by Matthew Reed Williams (10/10/24)
The President's Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins (10/8/24)
Not Yours to Keep by Zelly Ruskin (10/8/24)
Fortunate Son by Andrew Bridgeman (09/24/24)
Heroic Measures by Joel Shulkin (09/17/24)
The Bachelorette Party by Sandra Block (9/3/24)
Love You Till Tuesday by M. E. Proctor (08/12/24)
The Chamber by Will Dean (8/6/24)
The Rule of Three by Sam Ripley (8/6/24)
Homecoming Queen by Chad Boudreaux (8/6/24)
Stone Creek by Kate Brandes (8/6/24)
May the Wolf Die By Elizabeth Heider (7/2/24)
Tempest North by Rodger Carlyle (7/16/24)
Show Game by Steve Anderson (7/2/24)
The Midnight Rambler by Don Carr (6/20/24)
Three Burials by Anders Lustgarten (6/18/24)
Dreams in Incarceration by Cillian Dunne (6/18/24)
The Vixen Amber Halloway By Carol LaHines (6/11/24)
The King Street Affair by Jon Sealy (6/6/24)
Moneymaker by Josh Boldt (6/5/24)
A Better World by Sarah Langan (4/9/24)
Relentless by Michael Maloof (11/17/23)
The Hollywood Con Queen by Scott C. Johnson (6/6/23)

The Survivor By Andrew Reid

Told in alternating points of view, the story moves between Ben Cross—an anxious, seemingly unremarkable young man harboring lethal secrets from his past—and NYPD Transit Detective Kelly Hendricks, who is just as determined and dangerous in her pursuit of justice.

The Survivor by Andrew Reid is a white-knuckle thriller that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go. Set almost entirely on a hijacked New York City subway train, the novel creates an atmosphere of claustrophobic tension that feels both cinematic and immediate. With each new car, the stakes rise, the body count climbs, and Ben Cross is pushed to his limits—not just physically, but emotionally. Reid’s ability to balance breathless action with psychological depth keeps the reader on edge, questioning not just who’s behind the terror, but how far one man will go to survive.

No matter how much time passes, the past doesn’t stay buried—it waits. And when it rises, it does so piece by piece like the delicate clicks of tumblers turning in a lock. A flash of memory here, a whispered lie there—each revelation falling into place with precision. Until, finally, with a deep metallic clunk, the last secret is exposed, and everything once hidden swings wide open.

This is a lean all the way in and hold the hell on kind of book.  

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Antihero By Gregg Hurwitz

Evan Smoak is many things—Orphan X, government-trained assassin, and to those who find his untraceable number, the Nowhere Man. Stolen from a foster home and forged into a weapon by a covert program that erased names and replaced them with letters, Evan became the perfect operative—silent, precise, unstoppable and living back Jack John’s 10 Commandments. But he walked away, turning his lethal skills toward a new mission: saving the helpless when no one else will. To the outside world, he’s just a ghost, but to the desperate, he’s a last chance. Always hunted, always alone, Evan lives by a strict code—protect the innocent, punish the guilty—no matter the cost.

In Antihero, Evan is challenged on so many levels.  He is still the smart ass, calculated, OCD, vodka drinking, magnet shirt wearing guy we love, but his feelings are a constant tug-of-war between isolation and connection, duty and humanity. He is deeply disciplined and controlled on the surface, but underneath he wrestles with loneliness, guilt, and the heavy weight of what he was trained to do. Evan is a man caught between two worlds: the weapon he was made to be and the human being he wants to become and after losing Tommy and watching Joey grow up, the unknown softer side (yeah I said softer)  of Evan is winning, and I am so here for it.

This mission just hits differently.  It is raw, real and relevant and is happening every single day in the world that we live in.  When Luke Devine calls for some help, Evan is put on track to find and help a young woman, Anca Dumitrescu, and American Romanian who had a seizure on a subway train.  She was taken, assaulted and abandoned.  Evan and Joey head to New York to find her, help Devine calm the hell down, and uncover a dirty wretched world that will simply turn your stomach knowing that crimes against the unwilling happen every single day.  Evan must balance mercy with vengeance per the request of the young woman who was defiled and abused yet finds the light even in the worst situations and that light is what Evan needs.

If you haven’t started the Orphan X series, stop everything and dive in—you won’t regret it.  The Nowhere Man, pulls you straight into the action and refuses to let you go, leaving you desperate for the next mission. Antihero might just be my favorite installment yet. Gregg Hurwitz crafts Evan with meticulous precision—every detail matters, from the smudge of bird droppings on a window, to the way Evan scans a room, to the quiet complexity of how he navigates the women in his life. It’s that level of detail that makes this story tangible, authentic and one I need to see on the big screen. And yes—he even gets a brand-new commandment. I cannot wait to see where it takes him next.

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Dark Sisters By Kristi DeMeester

Dark Sisters by Kristi DeMeester completely consumed me from the first page. I went into this blind never having read anything by this author, but knew from the blurb it was for me. I found myself compulsively turning pages, unable to break away from its eerie pull. DeMeester’s mastery of atmosphere is undeniable — each scene pulses with tension, thick with dread, vivid locations and quiet fury. It’s not just that I couldn’t stop reading; it was that I didn’t want to.

The story unfolds through three distinct points of view across different timelines, covering multiple generations of women, each one deepening the emotional impact and adding layers to the mystery. The shifting narratives created a rhythm and keeping me fully immersed in each character’s world, and DeMeester handles the transitions with such precision that it never once pulled me out of the story. If anything, it made me more invested — eager to see how each thread would eventually weave together – and when it did – holy smokes.

And at the heart of it all are the women. Fierce, wounded, searching — each of the female protagonists had me in their corner from the beginning. Whether they were trapped in the grips of a suffocating cult or navigating who they are and what their purpose is, I rooted for them with everything I had. Their pain was palpable, but so was their strength, and watching them fight for autonomy, understanding, and connection was harrowing. Dark Sisters is dark gothic horror, yes — but it’s also a haunting story for women who refuse to disappear.

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Best Offer Wins By Marisa Kashino

Marisa Kashino's Best Offer Wins is a darkly humorous debut that takes the soul-crushing chaos of the D.C. housing market and cranks it up into a wickedly fun, sometimes feral and compulsively readable ride.  At the center of it all is Margo Miyake, a thirty-something publicist whose life feels stalled until she sets her signs on the dream house she has to have.  But forget open houses and Zillow scrolling - Margo's obsession escalates fast and watching her spiral from stressed house-hunter to delightfully unhinged is equal parts shocking and delicious.  Kashino nails the balance of domestic suspense, mystery and perfectly timed humor pulling readers into a world where ambition, envy and desperation blue the line between relatable and downright terrifying.

What really seals the deal is Kashino’s voice—it’s sharp, fearless, and refreshingly unique. The author doesn't just give us a character in Margo - she gives us an unforgettable force of chaos who is off her rocker in the most entertaining way.  I found myself asking, what extremes would I go to if the house of my dreams was just out of reach.  (I wouldn't do what Margo did - maybe.) The tension ramps up, the plot escalates quickly and the humor makes the madness strangely palatable.  It's dark, twisty and impossible to put down.  Best Offer Wins is smart, sassy and downright addictive and Kashino proves she's an author to watch with this wildly entertaining debut.

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The Adversary By Andrews & Wilson

Andrews & Wilson prove once again why they are at the very top of the thriller game with The Adversary. You really need to read all of the Tier One books—and don’t forget the Sons of Valor series as well. I mean really, what are you waiting for? These two give readers everything we crave: jaw-dropping action, crossovers between series, deep-buried easter eggs, and subtle hints that pay off down the line. Nothing in their universe is ever throwaway—if you catch it once, odds are it will come back around.

To really appreciate this story, you need to understand Task Force EMBER. This isn’t a typical military unit; it’s an off-the-books counterterrorism task force born from tragedy, made up of former SEALs, spooks, and special operations veterans who fight the wars America can’t acknowledge. They are a deniable, black-ops unit operating in the shadows where the rules of war don’t apply—and The Adversary shows both the price and the necessity of their work. That cost hits hard here, as Jake Kemper finally uncovers the truth about his father and proves he has what it takes to carve his own path. There’s a deeper emotional core in this installment, layered over relentless tension, and it’s impossible not to hope we’ll see Jake and Jack side by side in future books.

Of course, Andrews & Wilson never neglect the action. The combat scenes here are sniping precision, brutal close-quarters, and high-tech chaos all rolled into one. Every firefight is written with explosive intensity and immersive realism. The Taiwan operation is a perfect example: claustrophobic, tactical, and spiraling out of control in a way that makes you read faster just to breathe again. The action is always thrilling, but what elevates it is the emotional weight—loyalty, sacrifice, survival. You feel every decision, every shot fired.

And then there’s Liu Shazi, the kind of antagonist who you just can’t shake. A former Snow Leopard turned MSS asset, he’s ruthless, cunning, and untethered by rules or loyalty. A lone wolf with the authority to command and the will to destroy, he’s both terrifying and fascinating. Shazi operates as though every boundary is his to break, which makes him deadly—but also sets the stage for his inevitable downfall.

The Adversary delivers everything that makes this series addictive: sharp authenticity, nonstop action, and a villain who gets under your skin. But it also deepens the emotional heart of the story, pulling secrets into the light and setting the stage for what’s next. It’s a relentless, pulse-pounding ride with real soul.

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Remain By Nicholas Sparks & M. Night Shymalan

I picked this book up solely on the fact that Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan collaborated on this project. I didn’t even read the blurb – my instincts chose this one for me.   I love Nicholas Spark’s books and M. Night Shyamalan’s work on the big screen, so this had to be a win.  I was right.  Let’s make this a little better – there is going to be a movie based on this book with M. Night Shyamalan directing the movie and writing the screenplay so watch for in October 2026. That being said, go into this blind and just love it. 

Remain is a rare beast—a mash up of genres for all the right reasons. Nicholas Sparks brings the tender, soul-deep romance, while M. Night Shyamalan layers in an eerie, slow-creeping dread. Tate Donovan isn’t just another wounded hero looking for a fresh start; he and his late sister Sylvia share an otherworldly connection that defies reason. When Wren walks into his life—magnetic, mysterious, and possibly not of this world—the line between healing and haunting blurs into something unforgettable. It’s part romance, part supernatural thriller, all wrapped in Cape Cod’s windswept, salt-bitten atmosphere.

And then come the twists. The kind that rearranges everything you thought you knew about the characters, the powers at play, and even the nature of love itself. Sparks makes you ache for these people, and Shyamalan makes you question every page—right up until the ending hits like a full-blown tilt, flipping the board and leaving your heart in freefall. It’s haunting and beautiful, impossible to put down.

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War On The Porch By Travis Davis

War on the Porch by Travis Davis is a fictional account inspired by real events and a soldier that overcame odds and turned his loss into inspiration.  This novel channels the voice of a WWI soldier so authentically that it reads like a personal remembrance—harrowing, reflective, and hauntingly intimate. Blinded in combat and forever changed, Patrick King recounts the events that stole his sight during the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918—truths he never revealed, not even to his wife. What unfolds is a confessional, decades in the making, marked by silence, trauma, and the ache of memory finally set free.

Travis Davis writes with more than skill—he writes with heart. Drawing from his own military experience, he brings authenticity, compassion, and deep emotional truth to every page. His stories aren’t just about war—they’re about what it means to carry a promise, to love without limits, and to find connection even in silence. Every word reflects the time, care, and research he pours into his craft. Davis doesn’t just tell a story; he invites readers to feel it—to understand what it means to serve, to listen, and to truly be heard.

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The Gallery Assistant By Kate Belli

This book doesn’t just tell a story—it places you in New York in the raw, fractured aftermath of 9/11. The author captures the city's ache with the sensitivity of a portraitist—layering mood and memory like oil glazes on canvas. Through the lens of the art world, we see how creation, destruction and criminal activity layer together to make a page turner that is completely immersive.   It’s a thriller that doesn’t just chase danger, but emotion, beauty, and truth in a world forever altered.

This is a tightly-wound mystery that plunges you into a web of deceit and trail of money, when an emerging painter is found dead.  Chloe Harlow thought the art community was close and protected, but after a night of black out drinking and she finds one of the gallery’s top artists is dead she is left with hazy memories that are blurred with conflicting accounts of what happened that night.  Chloe never imagined she would be a “Nancy Drew” in her own story.  Especially when she is being questioned by the police and protected by her employers.

Kate Belli delivers everything mystery readers crave: layered, unreliable characters that feel strikingly real, razor-sharp pacing, high stakes, and just the right amount of red herrings and misdirection. Set against a vividly immersive art world backdrop, the story blends suspense, emotional depth, and gallery-life intrigue in a way that truly sets it apart.

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Silent Creek By Tony Wirt

Tony Wirt is firmly on my auto-read list, and Silent Creek proves exactly why. He’s a master of slow-building dread—the kind that doesn’t just sneak up on you, it moves in, settles on the couch, and dares you to look away. His take on small-town life is dead on: the gossip, the grudges, the way people cling to tradition like it’s gospel. In Wirt’s world, secrets don’t just stay buried—they ferment, sour, and eventually explode. And wow, does it get messy.

What I loved most is how real these characters feel. Wirt doesn’t do cardboard cutouts; he gives us flawed, complicated people you might actually bump into at the gas station, went to high school with—or secretly cross the street to avoid. Each fractured friendship, every layer of jealousy or regret, feels like it’s been simmering for decades. By the time everything boils over, you’re clutching the book tighter than a cup of bad diner coffee, desperate to know how it all ends. And trust me—the ending? Shocking, in the best way.

This is dark tension at its finest—an emotional reckoning that drips with suspense and nostalgia, twisted together in a way only Wirt can pull off. He doesn’t just hand you a thriller; he hands you a story about people, about the ways hate and love can coexist in a single heartbeat, and about the fallout of never letting go. If slow-burn suspense is your jam, and you like your small towns served with a side of secrets and revenge, Silent Creek is an absolute must.

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Photograph By Brian Freeman

Brian Freeman’s standalones never miss, and Photograph proves it yet again. One old snapshot—just a little girl in the rain—turns into a live wire of secrets, lies, and danger. Shannon Wells a PI who runs her business out of a high-top table at a tiki bar in Daytona called  Beachside, charges into the case with grit sharpened by her own bruised past, her trauma and tangled family history pushing her to dig deeper when anyone else would’ve walked away. She’s strong, she’s flawed, and she’s relentless—exactly the kind of protagonist you want leading you through a maze where every clue cuts a little deeper.

And oh, the way he weaves this web. The layers and connections between characters that span twenty-six years, looping and tangling in ways you’ll never predict. Every time you think you’ve got it pinned down, another revelation flips the board. It’s proof of just how much history, heartbreak, and even the keys to the future a single photograph can hold. Lean in, because this isn’t just a mystery— it’s a relentless, twist-loaded chase through the shadows of the past, and it will not let you go.

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The Hitchhikers By Chevy Stevens

The Hitchhikers transported me straight back to 1976 in the most vivid, immersive way. From the setting of the Olympics to the prices at thrift shops and grocery stores, every detail felt authentic and alive. Rotary phones, hitchhiking culture, hippies passing joints on the roadside—Chevy Stevens captured it all. I was hooked from the very first page.

The story follows Tom and Alice, a couple on a road trip, who cross paths with Ocean and Blue, two strangers camping under the same summer sky. What begins as an act of kindness soon turns into something far more dangerous. Tom and Alice couldn’t have known that their friendly gesture would thrust them into the lives of two young people fleeing a violent, chaotic past—leaving behind a trail of unpredictable chaos and death.

Told through dual points of view—Alice and Jenny (a.k.a. Ocean) —the novel explores the inner lives of two strong women, each shaped by their own trauma and survival. Their voices are raw, compelling, and heartbreakingly real. I loved the way their backstories were slowly revealed, adding tension and emotional depth as the story unfolded. It reminded me that life is like a chess game: every move is a reaction, and the past always has a way of catching up.

What stood out most to me was the unshakable suspense. Stevens expertly weaves a psychological thriller that is not only chilling, but deeply human. The realism is partly what makes it so haunting—the fear and vulnerability of hitchhiking in the '70s, inspired by real-life dangers, feels both distant and disturbingly familiar.

If you're a fan of character-driven thrillers with immersive settings and emotional weight, this one delivers!

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The Whisper Place By Mindy Mejia

The Whisper Place is Book 3 in the Iowa Mystery Series following Jonah Kendrick and Max Summerlin and their not so traditional private investigation firm, Celina Investigations.   First of all, let me say the first two books are fabulous and the more you read, the more invested you are in Jonah and Max and their quirky but fun relationship as friends and co-workers, but if you don’t have time to read those, it is safe to jump in here.  The author will give you just the right amount of information to catch up and not be repetitive for the series readers. 

With Max Summerlin’s law enforcement past and Jonah Kendrick’s psychic gifts, they’re an unlikely pair—but exactly the team you’d want on your side when someone goes missing.  One day Charlie walks into their office and asks them to find his girlfriend.  This is where the questions start. (1) He does not know her last name and a lot of other basic information;  (2) He has stacks and stacks of cash and; (3) It is obvious he is holding some secrets of his own. 

This story tells us about Darcy (maybe Kate) who is running from something, but what or who is unknown.  The Whisper Place  is told in a linear timeline, through multiple POV’s with gut wrenching and heart-breaking flashbacks.  This book is part mystery and part psychological thriller.  Mindy Mejia doesn’t just tell a story—she drops you right into the heart of it. You feel every ounce of the trauma and terror the main character endures. The pacing? Flawless. Just when you think things are settling down, Mejia hits you with a twist that pulls you right back in. The red herrings? Constantly keep you guessing. I won’t be missing a single thing she writes.

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The Poisoned Pen

Scar The Sky By J. Todd Scott

One moment. One spark. One chance encounter—and Andi Ellis's entire world changed. Once a vibrant teacher who lit up every room and loved her work, her life took a drastic turn when she was struck by lightning during a field hockey game. She died… and was brought back. But the woman who returned was no longer the same. Unable to find understanding in her hometown, she sets out in search of others who have experienced what she has—other lightning strike survivors.

Enter Adan Rio and Linnea Wren—former FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit agents turned private detectives with a bond forged through past trauma and years of unshakable trust. Linnea possesses a near-supernatural ability to draw meaningful conclusions from the faintest of clues, while Rio brings emotional intelligence, physical strength, and social finesse to their partnership.

Years later, Andi and her young daughter Ruby are living in quiet seclusion in New Cornelia, Arizona, when Rio and Linnea are pulled into the search for a senator’s missing daughter. What begins as a separate investigation slowly unravels into something much larger and darker. Two paths, thousands of miles apart, collide—connected by a serial killer obsessed with Lichtenberg figures and the power of lightning.

J. Todd Scott is completely in his element here. This story is a masterful blend of suspense, horror, and science fiction, wrapped in themes of trauma, isolation, and survival. I love how he messes with my head just enough to make me wonder—have I met Rio and Linnea before? He subtly builds their backstories and trauma across the pages, grounding their characters in a deeply human way as the tension escalates.

The pacing is tight, the red herrings are devious, and just when I thought I had it all figured out—boom, the suspect slips away. This is not a story you skim. It’s one you live in, every single page pulling you deeper into its electric current.  In Scar the Sky, lightning rewires fate and unleashes a killer obsessed with scars, storms and anyone left in its wake.

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The Poisoned Pen

The Wasp Trap By Mark Edwards

Mark Edwards’ The Wasp Trap is the very definition of a wickedly clever thriller—ingenious, chilling, and impossible to put down. What begins as a nostalgic dinner among six former college friends quickly mutates into the dinner party from hell, where secrets are the only currency and survival depends on revealing them. Edwards traps his characters—and his readers—in a grand house where phones die, the internet vanishes, and escape is impossible. The tension builds with every page as Will, Sophie, Rohan, Lilly, Theo, and Georgina realize their captors don’t want money—they want truth, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it.

Told through dual timelines, the novel shifts seamlessly between the summer of 1999—when a dating app experiment spiraled into a test to identify psychopaths—and the present, where the fallout of that fateful summer crashes down. Each flashback peels away layers of betrayal, ambition, and regret, while the present-day scenes escalate into a claustrophobic game of “who has the secret?” Edwards saves his sharpest blows for Part 3, where the pace becomes so relentless you’ll be glued to the pages until the very end.

With locked-room suspense, morally tangled questions, and secrets sharp enough to sting, The Wasp Trap is fast-paced, binge-worthy, and completely unpredictable.

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Family Ties By Michele Packard

Michele Packard has done it again—but not in the way you’d expect. I’ve read everything she’s written, and Family Ties is not even remotely in the same wheelhouse…and I am absolutely here for it. This book is a barn burner, the perfect genre mashup of psychological thriller and horror, with a tension that grips you by the throat and refuses to let go.


The patient’s journal entries are chilling and disorienting, and the fact that the book is split into two parts only heightens the madness—you’re constantly questioning whether you’re reading the truth, the dangerous unraveling of lies, or if you’re the one losing it. Packard leans hard into the unreliable narrator trope, and she nails it. The ambiguous, unpredictable ending left me reeling and clutching the book with a million questions—will there be more? Can there please be more? Family Ties is the kind of story that makes you want to text your bookish friends at 2 a.m. just to scream, “you are NOT ready for this ending.”

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The Quietist By Daniel David Gothard

At just 168 pages, The Quietist is proof that brevity can be powerful. There isn’t a single wasted word—every page carries weight, and every scene feels essential. What impressed me most was how fully formed the three characters, Dr. Christopher Lansing, Catherine Stannard and Patrick Hawton are; they’re not just figures on a page but living, breathing people whose inner lives you can feel. Each of them reacts to grief and trauma in such different ways that their stories become a mirror for how grief, trauma and survival reshape us all—sometimes breaking us down, sometimes allowing unexpected strength to surface.

As I read, I found myself deeply moved by the way each character reflects on their life before and after the accident. Their thoughts reach across time—about the joy they once had, the regrets they carry, the futures they imagine, and the pasts they wish they could rewrite. It’s a haunting, beautiful meditation on loss and possibility, one that I’d recommend to anyone who appreciates character-driven fiction that goes straight to the heart.

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Leverage By Amran Gowani

Leverage is a whip-smart, punchy debut that drags the high-powered, low-morality world of hedge funds straight into the light—and doesn’t care who it offends along the way. Al Jafar, our quick-tongued antihero, is losing millions by the minute, his life is on the line and still somehow managing to make us laugh out loud with deadpan one-liners and spot-on pop culture jabs. Team America, superheroes, corporate buzzwords (and I think I remember Monty Python being referenced in ‘your general direction) —it’s all fair game, and Al’s sarcasm isn’t just sharp, it’s survival. In a world this toxic humor might be the only thing keeping him from going under.

The title isn't just a nod to financial jargon—it’s a razor-sharp metaphor for the pressures, power plays, and moral compromises that define the protagonist’s world. On the surface, it refers to the risky borrowing tactics hedge funds use to amplify profits (and losses), but for Al Jafar, it’s also the emotional and psychological weight used against him. His firm leverages his identity, his fear, and his desperation to protect itself, while Al scrambles to hold onto his career, his sanity, and his sense of self-worth. Gowani uses the concept to explore who gets power, who gets crushed by it, and what it really costs to survive in a system where everything—including people—is currency.

Gowani doesn’t flinch from the ugly stuff either. The racism? Constant. The bullying? Corporate and casual. The gaslighting and moral rot? Oh, it’s thriving. Everyone in this world has sold their soul, but Al is still clinging to a receipt—and watching him maneuver through the greed and hypocrisy is part thrill ride, part slow-burn tragedy. Leverage is biting, bold, and brutally honest.

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The Witch's Orchard By Archer Sullivan

The Witch’s Orchard is steeped in Appalachian folklore and small-town tradition in a way that feels both timeless and dead-on accurate. From whispered variations of the witch legend to small town life revolving around church activities and judging people by their last names, every detail rings true. The setting isn't just a backdrop—it's alive. You can almost taste the homemade desserts on the table, feel the tension of old family reputations, and, yes, crave the pepper chicken from the local Chinese restaurant (my personal favorite). The cultural nuance is rich and specific, making the story deeply immersive and undeniably atmospheric.

This is book one in the Annie Gore series, and I’m already counting down for the next. Annie is the kind of protagonist I love—tough, grounded, smart, and carrying just enough of a complicated past to keep things interesting. She’s not a superhero, but she’s resourceful and real, and her emotional depth adds a layer of authenticity to the investigation. Whether she’s facing small-town politics, buried secrets, or her own ghosts, Annie brings a quiet strength and compassion that’s easy to root for.

The pacing in The Witch’s Orchard is pitch perfect. The tension simmers early, then ramps up into a full-on race to the truth that never lets up. Each chapter propels the story forward with urgency but never sacrifices character or atmosphere. The mystery itself is one that needs to be uncovered in a town that needs answers and Annie Gore is determined to do so. If you like your mysteries with grit, folklore, and heart, this one delivers—and then some.

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Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

The Art Of A Lie By Laura Shepherd Robinson

Step inside 1749 London and you’ll find yourself elbow-deep in sugar, scandal, and schemes. Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s The Art of a Lie doesn’t just recreate the past—it wraps you in it, from the grime of the streets to the tension in the gambling halls and the shady characters behind those doors. The level of historical detail is extraordinary, from the confectionery craft to the way characters speak and carry themselves. I was completely transported—lost among the pages in a world I did not want to leave.

Told in four parts from two sharply drawn points of view, we follow Hannah Cole, a recently widowed confectioner trying to survive in a man’s world, and William Devereux, a mysterious “entrepreneur” with his own secrets and connections to Hannah’s late husband. Their narratives twist around each other, full of guarded truths, a list of lies and secrets each character wants to keep guarded and unspoken tension, until the arrival of a third force—former author turned magistrate Henry Fielding (yes that Henry Fielding author of The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, 1979) —ratchets up the stakes. What begins as a slow unraveling of a possible inheritance turns into a dangerous game of deception and survival.

This is more than a cat-and-mouse thriller—it’s a masterclass in manipulation, where trust is fleeting and everyone is vulnerable to being molded to someone else's purpose. Hannah and William are both prisoners of their past, haunted by the lies they’ve told and the truths they fear. As alliances shift and the pressure builds, the question becomes not just who will win, but who will survive the lies intact.

Follow Teresa on Twitter or Instagram or contact her via the site.

Purchase The Art Of A Lie
(Note: most indie bookstores can fulfill an order as quickly as larger retailers. Please consider contacting them for your next purchase.)

Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen

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