Rules Of Engagement By Ward Larsen

In Rules of Engagement, President Jack Ryan is pulled into a global crisis after what should have been a routine diplomatic trip ends in a deadly plane crash in Turkey. Official reports call it an accident. However, with only fifteen bodies recovered and a missing intelligence asset who clearly matters to the wrong people, the hunt becomes a race across multiple countries to uncover who survived, what they’re carrying, and why powerful forces are willing to burn everything to get to them first. As threats stack up and time collapses, Ryan works side by side with his children, trusted allies, and legends like John Clark to connect the dots before a shadow war turns very real.

Ward Larsen absolutely knocked this out of the park. He stays true to the heart of the Ryanverse while bringing a fresh rhythm and edge that feels modern, urgent, and fearless. I loved seeing generations of relationships come back into play, the trust built over decades paying off in high pressure moments where every decision counts. This story feels so relevant, and scary, to think about all of the covert operations unfolding while the rest of us are just living our normal lives, unaware of the chess game happening behind the curtain. It makes you pause and wonder how much of the world is quietly being steered in rooms we will never see.

The action is relentless and wildly creative, from drone dogfights I never knew I needed to pulse pounding extractions that had me holding my breath. Add in cutting edge AI, rapidly evolving tech, and dialogue that crackles with both tension and perfectly timed humor, and you get a thriller that never feels heavy or stiff. Between the burning coffee pots, sharp one liners, and characters who feel real even when the stakes are insane, this book delivers on every level. Smart, fast, authentic and absolutely gripping, Rules of Engagement is the kind of thriller that reminds you why the Jack Ryan series continues to dominate.

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Mist And Malice By Rachel Howzell Hall

Mist and Malice by Rachel Howzell Hall wastes exactly zero time—this thing picks up right where Fog and Fury drops you and basically says, “hope you stretched.” So yes, you absolutely need book one first, but honestly? That’s not a chore, it’s a gift. Sonny Rush is barely three-ish weeks into her life in Haven, California, and already knee-deep in chaos: dead bodies, missing people (and dogs), human trafficking, poisonous cupcakes (yes, really), and enough lies and fraud to make your head spin. Sonny doesn’t care if she’s getting paid or not.  She is relentless, stubborn, and just reckless enough to make it work.This time around, she’s juggling a runaway girl, a missing husband, and the long-buried truths about her father.

What makes this hit is that it’s not just about what’s happening; it’s about who it’s happening to. This is a character-driven thriller in the best way: messy motivations, emotional baggage, and a main character who is deeply flawed but impossible not to root for. We dig further into Sonny’s past; why she was dismissed from the LAPD, her complicated relationship with her mother, her god-father Ivan, and the dynamics with Cooper and India (my queen, my favorite). Haven itself feels like a beautifully toxic mess, and Sonny moves through it with a strange mix of grace and pure “cocaine bear energy.” She’s protecting the vulnerable, confronting betrayal head-on, and somehow holding it together while everything around her burns. The atmosphere is thick, the stakes are real, and the emotional weight lands. I love this series, full stop, and I will be first in line for whatever comes next

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The Fourth Option By Jack Carr & MP Woodward

I wanted to do something a little different with this review. Jack Carr and M. P. Woodward are two authors I will follow forever, but The Fourth Option hit me in a way I was not expecting. This one feels personal, raw and uncomfortably real. I’ll keep the endgame twists to myself, but I need to talk about why this story stayed with me.

I went in knowing Carr’s style from the The Terminal List—tactical, precise, no-holds-barred. But this? This feels different from the first page. It is quieter, more intimate, and it absolutely knocked the wind out of me.

We meet Chris Walker, a former Navy Seal and former CIA Ground Branch member, at rock bottom. He was medically retired after a TBI and was drowning in survivor’s guilt after losing his close friend and Master Chief, John Staub. Walker is living out of a beat-up 1984 Volkswagen Vanagon that is part home and part rolling arsenal. When we find him, he sits there with a 1911 in his hand, ready to end it. That opening scene is heavy. Not dramatic for the sake of it. Just quiet, crushing, and deeply human. You can feel his isolation. His loss of faith and in everything he once believed in.

Then the phone rings.

It is Staub’s widow. Her son Connor is dead from what looks like another opioid overdose, another statistic the system is ready to file away and forget, but she knows something is wrong, and she calls the one person she trusts – Walker – and that call changes everything. It gives him purpose again, and from there the story turns into something that feels almost like a modern western. Walker starts pulling at threads from New Orleans outward, uncovering a conspiracy that goes far beyond one family’s tragedy. This is not just about drugs. It is bigger, darker, and rooted in failures at every level—law enforcement, courts, and institutions that are supposed to protect people.

Walker decides to become something else entirely.

The pacing builds from that emotional spark into a full burn. The action is classic Carr—tight, tactical, and brutal—but it is the why behind it that makes it hit harder. Walker is not just fighting enemies. He is fighting himself, what he believes and what justice actually means when the system fails. This is where the title lands perfectly. The “fourth option” is vigilante justice. The path no one is supposed to take. The one Walker was always heading toward whether he realized it or not.

Also, I need to say it—I am completely obsessed with Paladin. Even the name says everything - holy warrior; champion for a cause.

By the end, Walker feels cut from the same cloth as James Reece, but he stands on his own as a more fractured, searching kind of hero. He is messy, human and dangerous in a way that feels inevitable. I closed this book thinking about loyalty, purpose, and about what justice really looks like when the system stops working.

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The Pawn By John David

The Pawn delivers a sharp, modern crime story anchored in the pursuit of truth. Right in the middle of an NCAA playoff game, journalist Pete Lemaster receives a call from his friend Cole, about his uncle (Scotty)  having been arrested in Singapore for drug smuggling  What begins as an effort to spotlight a possible wrongful accusation quickly widens into something far more complex. Alongside Lieutenant Rebecca Dawes, Pete follows a trail that cuts through media attention, public perception, and deeper forces at play. The international backdrop and headline driven stakes give the story a sense of immediacy that feels grounded and relevant.

Seeing the investigation unfold through a journalist’s lens adds weight to every discovery, where uncovering the truth is only part of the battle and telling it carries its own risks. The pacing is tight, the dialogue is confident (and sooo fun), and the interplay between Pete and Rebecca continues to build with purpose. Even the supporting cast leaves an impression, especially Pete’s mother, Evelyn, my personal favorite side character. This is a fast moving, character driven thriller that balances suspense with insight.  The Pawn delivers the kind of crime thriller readers crave, fast, sharp, and impossible to put down.

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The Anniversary By Alex Finley

Meet Jules Delaney and Quinn Riley. It is 1992 and they share a high school, but not the same life. Then May 1 changes everything. Jules survives an attack by the May Day Killer, a predator who leaves a trail of girls who were not as lucky. That same night Quinn’s future implodes after a concert fight spirals out of control and he is arrested. The story returns to May 1 each year as more girls disappear, Quinn’s mother is murdered, and the distance between Jules and Quinn slowly collapses until their lives collide in ways neither of them could have predicted. The book's structure works like snapshots across a decade, revealing pieces of the past while the present tightens. The tension never lets up and the identity of the killer stayed just out of reach the entire time.

This book absolutely deserves the hype. The one day a year format makes it impossible to stop reading, each chapter is sharp, fast, and loaded with emotion. The dual perspectives add depth while the serial killer storyline keeps the intensity high. Grief, survival, friendship, and the messy ways people grow after trauma are woven into a twisty, bingeable thriller that delivers on every level. The pacing is tight, the mystery is layered, and the payoff is completely worth it. This is everything I want in a thriller and probably his best yet. Alex Finlay is an auto read author for me and with books like this, I will shoot them straight to the top of the to be read pile every single time.

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Dear Mother By Rea Frey

Isabelle Archer is many things at once: an investigative journalist trained to chase truth, a mother trying to protect her own child, and a daughter shaped by a childhood that never offered safety or simplicity. Raised in a home full of foster siblings, her past is marked by one child who vanished and three more lost in a devastating fire—an “accident” that never sat right. Illness, fear, and whispered theories trailed the family, all tightly controlled by her mother, Gail, whose grip on the narrative was as suffocating as it was unwavering. When Gail dies, Isabelle returns home expecting paperwork and closure. Instead, she finds autopsy results that crack open the past. What follows is a reckoning—across dual timelines and shifting POVs—that forces Isabelle to relive what she survived and confront what may have been deliberately hidden all along.

This is the kind of book you fall into fast and don’t surface from easily. Rea Frey doesn’t sanitize motherhood, mental illness, or abuse; she leans into the discomfort and lets the mess breathe. The emotional tension is sharp, the atmosphere heavy, and the mystery unfolds with quiet control rather than cheap shock tactics. Isabelle’s love for her mother exists right alongside fear and suspicion, which makes her feel achingly real. The structure is clean, the twists land, and the emotional stakes never feel manufactured. Frey remains an auto-read for me because she understands how to braid psychology and suspense without losing the human core. Dear Mother is proof that family secrets don’t fade—they ferment, and when they finally surface, they demand to be faced.

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The Girls In The Dark By Avery Bishop

Megan and Allison Hadley were abducted near their home by a serial killer who targets twins. Months later, after being held in cages and tortured, Megan manages to escape, but her sister and the killer were never found.  Megan tries to move on. She's written a book and gives talks about being a survivor, but chapters of her past life have not been finished.  There is no peace or closure which  keeps her looking over her shoulder constantly. Twenty years later, on the anniversary of their disappearance, a new clue surfaces, pulling Megan back into a past built on missing pieces, buried truths, and secrets she’s been carrying far longer than anyone realizes.

From the first page, I was locked in.  Seriously, this is the kind of book that if you have to call into work - so be it.  It is totally worth it.   The story unfolds across two timelines: the brutal past where Megan and Allison endure the unthinkable, and the present where Megan’s carefully guarded secrets keep tightening the screws. It’s claustrophobic and breathless in the best way. Every chapter adds another layer, and just when you think you understand what happened, the book shifts again. The tension never lets up, and the truth stays just out of reach until the very end.

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The Caretaker By Marcus Kliewer

Marcus Kliewer’s The Caretaker opens with desperation and a choice that feels both reckless and inevitable. After losing their father in a horrific accident, Macy Mullins is barely keeping life together for herself and her younger sister Jemma, while they wait for a life insurance payout that never seems to arrive. The trauma of the accident followed Macy into every part of her life, making it nearly impossible to hold a steady job. Macy applies for a caretaker position at a very remote and isolated house. All of the warning bells are ringing. The man she was supposed to care for is dead, but she is offered nine thousand dollars for three days of work with three thousand paid up front. Turning this kind of money down just isn’t an option. Macy is handed a VHS tape and a list of rigid rules left behind by David, instructions that must be followed exactly if she wants to survive the weekend. The question is not just what she is caretaking, but why the rules exist at all.

From the moment those rules begin, The Caretaker tightens like a vise. Kliewer builds a suffocating atmosphere where literally every action matters and every choice could have a dangerous outcome. The story blends psychological dread with supernatural horror in a way that feels cinematic. The isolated setting, the strange rituals that must be performed in precise patterns, and the growing sense that something ancient is waiting just beyond the edge of the house create relentless tension. As the weekend unfolds the pressure never lets up, escalating scene by scene until the reader feels trapped alongside Macy, questioning every sound and every shadow. It is the kind of story that crawls into your head and refuses to leave.

From the prologue, Kliewer commits to the experience. The fear is not cheap or fleeting. It is patient, intelligent, and deeply unsettling. He understands how to make the reader participate in the terror, turning every page into an act of bravery. The result is a high concept horror story about isolation, ritual, and the terrifying possibility that some rules exist for a reason. The Caretaker is a rare novel that does not just tell you a horror story. It dares you to survive it.

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Last One Out By Jane Harper

Five years after her son Sam vanished without a trace, Ro Crowley returns to Carralon Ridge, the rural Australian town that has nearly disappeared along with him. What once was a thriving community,  is now a hollowed out place being swallowed by a coal mine, with abandoned homes, dust, and silence standing where families once lived. Sam’s disappearance left behind only a rental car and muddy footprints, and Ro is still chasing answers that no one ever found. As she moves through what remains of the town, old secrets surface, the pain of losing a son is still there, and the mystery of what happened that night slowly begins to take shape.

This book was far more emotional than I expected, in the best way. The ache that Ro, her husband Griff, and their daughter Della carry after losing Sam is on every page, the constant wondering, the lack of closure, the way grief quietly tears a family apart. Jane Harper writes this pain beautifully and with so much honesty. The story is very character driven and a true slow burn, letting you sit with the loss, the tension, and the unraveling truth instead of rushing to answers.

Carralon Ridge feels like a character all its own, a dying town shaped by economic devastation and the people left behind who have lost not only livelihoods but hope. This is as much a story about grief and change as it is about a missing young man, about what happens when families and communities are forced to watch everything familiar slip away. The mystery unfolds gradually, but the emotional weight is what truly pulls you in, making this a haunting, atmospheric, thoughtful, and deeply moving read.

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A Wound That Will Not Heal By Eric Beetner

In February 2024, Eric Beetner introduced readers to Carter McCoy.  A vigilante born not from recklessness, but from a terminal diagnosis and the realization that the systems meant to deliver justice were failing the very people they claimed to protect. A Wound That Will Not Heal brings that journey to its most devastating and urgent chapter. Carter moves through a world where grief, violence, and moral consequence are his constant companions.  Carter is a man who has buried his wife and daughter, taken a life, and still carried a stubborn belief that the world should be better than what it is. In this installment, the threat cuts especially deep: men posing as immigration officials exploit fear and power, rounding up vulnerable people for profit under the protection of authority. When their cruelty touches someone connected to Carter, his fight becomes inevitable. What follows is not simply a confrontation, but a reckoning with corruption, with truth, and with the cost of doing what is right when nothing else works.

What makes this book, and the entire trilogy, my absolute favorite is Carter McCoy himself (well I love Chester too!). He embodies a kind of moral clarity and courage the world often seems to lack. He acts when others hesitate. He confronts injustice directly. He protects those who cannot protect themselves. Carter represents a quiet but persistent longing for accountability, truth, and decisive action in a world that can feel indifferent, manipulated, or broken. He is deeply kind-hearted and genuinely wants what is best for others, yet he carries a warning edge, being a man shaped by loss who refuses to tolerate cruelty. Across the series, the stakes grow heavier as his illness advances, and every act of resistance demands more from a body that is failing him. The tension between his weakening physical state and his unyielding sense of justice gives the trilogy its pulse.

I cried reading this book and not only because of its tragedy, but because of the fragile hope threaded through every page. It is powerful, unsettling, and deeply human.  I will miss Carter and Chester and even that old truck, but what I will never forget is the feeling that goodness, determination, and integrity can still exist in a damaged world. These novels offer more than suspense; they offer the possibility that one person’s refusal to look away can still matter. The Carter McCoy series is not an escape from reality — it is a confrontation with it, demanding readers wrestle with justice, accountability, and what it means to stand for what is right when the consequences are permanent.

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Nothing Tastes As Good By Luke Dumas

Nothing Tastes as Good by Luke Dumas is a chilling and unsettling look at diet culture wrapped in a disturbing horror story that feels uncomfortably close to reality. Emmett Truesdale has struggled with his weight his entire life, and living in image-obsessed Southern California only magnifies every insecurity. After years of failed diets, social rejection, and feeling like he will never measure up, Emmett enrolls in a clinical trial for a revolutionary weight-loss drug called Obexity. The results are immediate and dramatic—pounds drop quickly and for the first time people begin to see him differently. But the miracle treatment comes with side effects that no one fully understands, and with enormous money and reputation riding on the drug’s success, some consequences are quietly pushed aside as Emmett’s transformation takes a far darker turn.

This novel feels painfully real. Beneath the body horror and moments of gore is a heartbreaking exploration of diet culture, social media pressure, and the cruel expectations placed on bodies in our society. My heart genuinely broke for Emmett. All he wanted was to feel comfortable in his own skin and be accepted for who he was. Even as he begins achieving the results he thought he wanted, he remains trapped in the same emotional isolation. The structure of the book adds another layer of immersion with the inserts from Emmett’s blog posts, social media updates, and the clinical notes tracking his progress. Watching the numbers on the scale drop while simultaneously seeing the shifts in his physical, mental, and emotional state was both fascinating and disturbing, and the small satirical jabs at diet culture (EmaC-8 and more) along the way were brilliantly done.

After speaking with Dumas at Bouchercon and reading the author’s note at the end (which is absolutely worth your time), it becomes clear that there is a deeply personal element woven into this story. That authenticity shines through on every page. This is horror that is disturbing, a little gory, and thought-provoking in equal measure, forcing readers to confront the uncomfortable reality of how much value our culture places on appearance and acceptance. And just when you think everything has wrapped up neatly, Dumas delivers a final twist that lands perfectly. If you enjoy horror that unsettles you while also giving you something meaningful to think about long after the last page, this one is definitely worth picking up.

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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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Dig By J.H. Markert

Dig drops you onto Crow Island, a fictional coast near Savannah that feels real enough to raise goosebumps. The Geechee and Gullah folklore is not window dressing. It is the heartbeat of this story. Boo hags, haints, rituals — they are alive on these pages. And yes, I fully went down the rabbit hole on boo hags and immediately regretted it because nothing prepares you for a skin-shedding spirit that rides your sleeping body and steals your breath. If that doesn’t terrify you, I cannot help you. 

This book blends horror, history, supernatural dread, generational trauma, and buried family secrets until you have no choice but to dig for the truth right alongside the characters. Every layer uncovers another lie and another echo from centuries past. Markert handles it with intention. The human darkness and the otherworldly darkness show up with no apology.

I’m not gonna lie — this one got under my skin. I had nightmares. I switched to daytime reading like a coward and still couldn’t look away. Markert, a Kentucky author with a fearless storytelling style, built a world soaked in atmosphere and dread. If you’ve ever wondered what happens to your dreams, or what would happen if your worst one came true, Dig belongs on your list immediately.

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She Fell Away By Lenore Nash

In She Fell Away, Lenore Nash introduces Lake Harlowe, a U.S. State Department diplomat whose new posting in New Zealand quickly turns into a search for a missing American teen, Bowie Bishop. What begins as a disappearance unfolds into something far darker, pulling Lake into a web of power, secrets, money and buried truths. As the investigation deepens, so does the story’s emotional core, revealing Lake’s own past growing up in a cult and the lingering trauma that still shapes her choices. The case becomes more than a mission. It becomes personal, especially as the connections between Lake, Bowie, and the complicated relationships with their mothers begin to surface.

I was pleasantly surprised by the emotional depth running beneath the tension. Nash’s background in historical romance shines through in the immersive writing and carefully built atmosphere. This is not a breakneck thriller chasing plot alone. It is deeply character driven, spending real time inside Lake’s grief, guilt, and internal struggles. The dynamics between Lake and her mother, Bowie and her mother, and the growing connection between Lake and Bowie give the story weight and urgency. Lake’s childhood trauma unfolds slowly, revealing pieces of a painful past that adds another layer of intrigue and keeps the emotional stakes high.

Pick this up if you want a thriller with substance and mood, one that values psychological complexity as much as suspense. The tension is steady, the emotional threads are compelling, and Lake Harlowe feels like a character with much more to reveal. I am genuinely excited this is the start of a series because her story feels far from finished, and I want to see where her journey goes next.

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Judge Stone By James Patterson & Viola Davis

Set-in small-town Alabama, Judge Stone by Viola Davis and James Patterson introduces Judge Mary Stone, a woman whose family has been woven into the fabric of Union Springs for generations. She is respected, resilient, and shaped by experiences most people could never imagine surviving. As the town wrestles with its own slow transformation, deep divisions simmer beneath the surface. Issues like racism, religion, politics, class, and education are all pressing in when a devastating case lands in her courtroom. A thirteen-year-old girl is raped and undergoes an abortion, and when complications arise, the doctor who performed the procedure is arrested. What follows is a storm of public outrage, threats, and political pressure as Mary Stone must uphold the law while confronting impossible moral questions about faith, justice, and the cost of forcing a child to carry a pregnancy born from violence.

Patterson and Davis fearlessly lean into the discomfort that is caused by the issues on these pages. This book does not present easy answers or tidy resolutions. Instead, it exposes the fractures within a community and challenges readers to examine their own beliefs about bodily autonomy, religion, and legal responsibility. The story forces you to sit with questions most people would rather avoid. Where does justice truly live — in the letter of the law or in compassion? What happens when personal faith collides with professional duty? The emotional weight here is immense on so many levels and on so many characters. The tension builds not just through courtroom drama but through the psychological strain placed on Mary Stone as she navigates threats to her safety, her reputation, and her conscience.

This is a devastatingly beautiful read that demands engagement rather than passive consumption. It asks the right questions and refuses to soften their impact. The writing balances urgency with emotional depth, creating a story that feels both intimate and relevant. Judge Stone is more than a legal thriller, it is a meditation on power, beliefs, and the human cost of laws and legal systems that often fail the very people they claim to protect. Sometimes there simply is no right or wrong answer.  

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Turn Off the Light By Jacquie Walters

Turn Off the Light unfolds across four hundred years, anchored to one house that refuses to stay quiet. In the past, Edith is a healer whose knowledge of plants and nature makes her useful and feared in equal measure, a woman labeled dangerous simply for knowing too much. In the present, Claire returns home carrying her own grief, a sister who vanished, a father slipping away into end stage dementia, and a life already frayed at the edges. The story moves between their perspectives, stitching together history and horror as the house reveals its long memory of fire, loss, and unanswered questions. Walters lets the pieces surface gradually, trusting the reader to connect them, until the past and present finally speak to each other in ways that feel both inevitable and unsettling.

This is a haunting, slow burn kind of read, the kind that creeps under your skin leaving you wanting more and needing to know the truth. The house is more than a setting, it is a witness, a keeper of secrets, and sometimes the loudest voice in the room. Walters blends supernatural tension with historical weight, giving the story depth beyond the scares and reminding us how often women like Edith were punished for knowledge instead of praised for it. It is a smart, patient novel that rewards attention, tying its threads together with care and confidence. This is one of those books you do not rush through or overshare about. You turn the pages, lower the lights, and let it do what it came to do, then sit there afterward thinking about how much the past loves to linger and how rarely it ever lets go.

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One Beautiful Year Of Normal By Sandra K. Griffith

When August Caine was eleven, her father was murdered and the crime was never solved. In the aftermath, her mother, Claire, fell into debilitating depression, leaving August largely on her own in New York City until her Aunt Helen intervened and Claire was placed into care. August then spent a single year in Savannah with her aunt, a brief and defining period where life felt safe and ordinary. Years later, August receives a phone call informing her that Aunt Helen has died and that she is the sole heir to her estate. The news is jarring. August had been told her aunt died fifteen years earlier. Returning to Savannah means stepping back into a history shaped by omission, loss, and carefully maintained silence.

This mystery is rooted in mental illness, generational secrecy, and withheld truth. The novel unfolds through alternate timelines that slowly expose the fractures in August’s understanding of her own life. As she moves through Savannah, the family history she was never allowed to know emerges in pieces, each revelation complicating the last. The suspense here is character driven rather than plot heavy, built on what August remembers, what she was protected from, and what was deliberately hidden. Griffith allows tension to grow through emotional recognition instead of shock, creating a quiet unease as August begins to see how survival shaped the version of reality she was given.

I am a sucker for a debut author, and this one earned my trust early. Set in Savannah, the novel immerses the reader in a Southern atmosphere that feels lived in and intimate, where history, old money, and secrets exert quiet pressure all around August. Griffith’s background in psychology is evident in her careful handling of trauma and perception, allowing pain to exist without spectacle. By the end of the book, I found myself longing for normal alongside August, hoping she might reclaim what was taken from her before she understood its value. One Beautiful Year of Normal is thoughtful, restrained, and deeply compassionate. This book had a heart, and it never lost sight of it.

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The Poisoned Pen

Adrift By Will Dean

Adrift by Will Dean follows Peggy and her son Samson as a spontaneous move onto a rundown canal boat becomes a slow tightening trap. What begins as Drew’s dream of a quieter life to fuel his writing; slowly turns into a world of isolation, control, and fear, where freedom disappears inch by inch. Told through dual points of view, the story pulls you inside a family where love runs deep, even as emotional damage quietly reshapes everything. As Peggy and Samson try to survive the life Drew has chosen for them, the walls close in until escape feels almost impossible.

I will read anything Will Dean writes, and this novel reminded me why. He has an uncanny ability to grab hold of your emotions and refuse to let go. The story is dark, unsettling, and deeply sad, but it also carries an aching tenderness, especially in the unconditional love between a mother and her child. The claustrophobic tension builds with every chapter, mirroring the control tightening around Peggy and Samson, until you feel as emotionally drained as they do. I was grateful I read all the way through the author’s notes, which add even more weight to the story and its real world relevance.

This book comes from a painful place, yet it is one that deserves attention. It explores grief, love, and the quiet ways people can hurt one another even if they are doing what they believe is best. Adrift resonated with me and challenged me to step into someone else’s experience of trauma and survival. It is intense, heartbreaking, and beautifully written. Ten out of ten, an incredible story I will not soon forget.

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Purchase Adrift
(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

Children Of The Savage City By Elizabeth Heider

Children of the Savage City pulls you straight into its world and refuses to let your attention drift for a single moment.  Nikki Serafino is back in Naples working with the Phoenix Seven, the liaison group navigating the impossible space between the police and the US military, and while it is possible to read this as a standalone, you are only cheating yourself. This is book two, and the continuity between the stories is half the thrill, because every character carries history, every choice has weight, and every secret has its own echo. This time the death of a young woman inside the historic Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo spirals into something far darker, all while dangerous debts cling to both Nikki and Valerio like smoke. Then there is Beatrice, Nikki’s mother, and the long shadow cast by her death and the death of her brother Adriano. When Nikki’s father arrives asking for three names she never expected to hear, she knows the past is alive and kicking and not finished with any of them.  The way clues are dropped into place is masterful, like someone feeding you crumbs that you think you understand, until the final pages and one final clue is dangling in front you leaving you needing the next installment.

The multiple story lines in this book are incredible, but it is the texture of Naples that takes center stage. You feel the pulse of the city in its churches, its food, its traditions, and its fierce families who hold their love as tightly as their secrets. Yes, there are a lot of characters.  Get to know them. You need them. Every one of them. They move across both books with purpose and carry their own stories like they have lived there forever. Naples in this series is a maze of beauty and danger built on Il Sistema, the system that shapes its children from the moment they can walk. Crime and survival blur until the difference becomes almost philosophical. The beasts of Naples hunt anywhere they please. Churches. Alleys. Market squares. Homes. Young or old, innocent or guilty, no one is exempt. Cops can be bought. Judges can be bent. People with money can be just as dirty as those with nothing. Everyone needs something from someone else, and no one seems to know who sits at the top of this food chain or if that person even exists.

The plot moves like a chase from beginning to end because Nikki never gets a moment to breathe. She trusts almost no one and with good reason. Trouble loves her and follows her like a dark shadow. And Valerio, who continues to make me root for him at every turn, carries his own broken corners that make him both dangerous and deeply human. As the two of them work to uncover the truth behind the murder at Chiesa del Gesu Nuovo, their own pasts drag them into the underworld of Naples where survival is a skill and loyalty is currency. This story is dark, smart, and emotionally honest. It asks what power does to people and what people will do to protect whatever is left when power strips everything else away. It is atmospheric. It is character driven. It is crime fiction at its finest, and I will keep saying that until everyone listens. Clear your schedule.  Thank me later.

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

Purchase Children Of The Savage City
(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

Murder At 30,000 Feet By Susan Walter

I binge read Murder at 30,000 Feet last night and I have zero regrets. This is a high altitude whodunit with tension that never lets up. When Federal Air Marshal Carlos Renaldo boarded Flight 866 to San Juan, he didn’t expect anything more than a smooth flight. After all, in all his years on the job, no one had ever been in real danger. But this flight was different. A violent storm with a lightning strike that causes a power glitch and when the lights flickered back on one passenger was dead. And suddenly, the calm skies turned into a full-blown crime scene. 

This story moves fast and doesn’t waste a moment. There are so many intersecting threads and multiple narrators including a bridal party, a high school baseball team, solo travelers, and plenty of drama unfolding at 30,000 feet. As the clues come together and the chaos builds in the air, all signs begin to point to one big secret that started in the small town of Crestwood and the suspicious death of Matthew Kessler, a high school baseball player who died in a hit and run accident three years earlier. Everyone has something to lose, and no one is completely innocent

Murder at 30,000 feet  balances action and emotion. The story feels cinematic but still grounded in raw human fear and guilt. It’s more than a murder mystery; it's a collision of past and present, of lies that refuse to stay buried. It's a story of cause and effect and the impact of decisions made. Susan Walter has been, and will stay, on my radar; she knows exactly how to keep the tension tight, the story moving, and the reader hanging on every word until the wheels hit the runway.

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

Purchase Murder At 30,000 Feet
(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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