Choke Point By Brad Thor

Before I even get to Scot Harvath and the body count, I have to talk about just how timely Choke Point feels. Brad Thor isn't merely writing thrillers—he's playing three-dimensional chess with today's headlines. The theory of the Thucydides Trap hangs over these pages like a gathering storm, exploring what happens when an emerging superpower threatens an established one. From maritime choke points and proxy warfare to economic influence and shadow governments, the stakes feel uncomfortably real. In a world where control of strategic waterways can determine the balance of power, Thor reminds us that sometimes the winner isn't the one with the biggest army; it's the one controlling the bottleneck.

Now, let’s get to it.  Scot Harvath quickly discovers that retirement and beach chairs were never really in his DNA. When the Carlton Group calls, he's more than ready. Add a deadly hitman with ties to Harvath, corrupt politicians in Washington, and a worldwide chase, and this thing comes flying out of the gate with dead bodies and zero patience. I loved the story-within-a-story structure and the way Thor seamlessly blends pulse-pounding action with frighteningly plausible geopolitical strategy. Twenty-five books in and Harvath still refuses to slow down, and frankly, neither does Brad Thor. Choke Point is smart, relentless, and packed with the kind of "just one more chapter" energy that may include cancelling plans. In the end, everyone is fighting for the same thing, because whoever controls the choke point controls the game.

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Every Lie I Told By Hilary Davidson

I'd definitely go in blind with this one. Hilary Davidson took a cast of absolute disasters, tossed them into a blender with money, drugs, power, family trauma, and enough secrets to bankrupt a therapist, and somehow turned the whole beautiful mess into one wildly addictive thriller.

Jackie Swift and her sister Madi never had a chance at a storybook childhood. Tragedy seemed to have these women on speed dial, and survival became their middle name. Jackie built a career as a PR fixer for the rich and reckless, cleaning up scandals for people with more money than morals, while Madi carved out a life as a tarot card reader and ASMR influencer with a dangerous knack for finding trouble. And because big sisters apparently come with a lifetime warranty, Jackie has spent years rescuing Madi from one drug-fueled catastrophe after another.

So when Madi sends a frantic message saying she's at Jackie's former boss's house and thinks she may have overdosed, Jackie rushes over expecting another mess to clean up. Instead, her sister has vanished but a dead body remains.

From there, the lies multiply faster than anyone can contain them.

Over the course of one chaotic week, an investigation peels back layers of corruption, revenge, old wounds, and ugly family truths. NDAs, money, drugs, and power keep secrets buried, but only as long as they serve the right people. Everyone is tangled up in this spectacularly dysfunctional web, and nobody gets to walk away with clean hands.

An unreliable narrator? Absolutely. A parade of deliciously unlikeable characters? Sign me up. Family secrets, past trauma, revenge, lies, manipulation, and enough drama to power a reality show? Oh, we're eating.

Every Lie I Told is the literary equivalent of watching privileged people make terrible decisions while clutching your popcorn and muttering, "Well, this isn't going to end well." I was completely entertained by every jaw-dropping, messy, toxic minute of it. Hilary Davidson understood the assignment and delivered one heck of a twisty, unputdownable ride.

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Tell Your Friends By Lauren Wilson

Tell Your Friends pulled me in immediately with the glossy illusion of perfection surrounding the vlog At Home With the Shaws, but the deeper I got, the more unsettling it became. Crystal has spent her entire life online, performing happiness for an audience that believed they knew everything about her family while never seeing the cracks underneath. Now at university and desperate for a life that belongs to her, Crystal is finally ready to step out from behind the carefully edited image her mother created. Opposite her is Alyssa, lonely, searching for identity, and attaching herself to anyone who makes her feel seen. Their friendship develops with this creeping intensity that feels both comforting and deeply dangerous. Lauren Wilson absolutely nails the ugly side of influencer culture and the emotional cost of growing up with every moment packaged for public consumption.

The first half of the book is deeply character driven while still building that slow burn tension in the background that takes you through to an ending that is an addictive and toxic emotional rollercoaster. The alternating POV’s between Crystal and Alyssa peel back layers so carefully that I constantly questioned who was trustworthy and who was quietly unraveling. Beneath the messy friendships, toxic relationships, and unhinged behavior is a story about identity, grief, loneliness, and the desperate need to be loved by someone, anyone, even if it destroys you in the process. Tell Your Friends is a sharp, unsettling thriller that peels back the polished filter of influencer culture to expose the loneliness, obsession, and damage hiding underneath. Filled with messy female friendships, unreliable characters, dark academia vibes, and tension that simmers until the final pages explode, this one should be on your summer reading list.

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The Girl In The Lake By Lauren Oliver

The Girl in the Lake pulled me in immediately with its chilling premise, but what completely hooked me was the way Lauren Oliver turns grief, memory, and buried trauma into something that feels almost alive on the page. Kate Willis works for the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia. In this instance, she is interviewing a child who claims to remember a past life. When she arrives in Stockbridge to meet with Henley, she is thrown into a situation she was not expecting. Henley seems to be living a past life of her best friend, Becca, who died at summer camp 24 years ago. Every chapter carries this quiet sense of dread as Kate tries to remain clinical and impartial while unraveling under the weight of secrets she has spent decades trying to bury. Henley’s nightmares, drawings, and memories are genuinely unsettling, and the deeper this story digs into the blurred line between science and something far more haunting, the harder it becomes to look away.

This is an intensely character driven thriller and that is exactly why it works so well. Kate is messy, complicated, grieving, angry, and deeply human. Whether it is Henley, her exhausted mother, or the former bunkmates forced to revisit that fatal summer, every character feels layered and important. The dual timelines build tension beautifully as the truth about Becca slowly surfaces piece by piece, and I was completely locked into the eerie atmosphere surrounding Stockbridge, Lake Sauquamet and the abandoned camp (and let’s not forget The Gray Lady who still haunts me). Oliver clearly did her research into children reporting memories of previous lives, which gives the story an unsettling authenticity that makes everything hit harder. I had absolutely no idea where this book was taking me and I loved every second of it. The fact that this is only the beginning of a series makes me even more excited because there is so much left to uncover within the DOPS world. I will gladly knock down doors for the next installment.

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The Tuxedo Society By Paul Rudnick

Holy bajole, this was the funniest thing I have read in a long time. To call The Tuxedo Society by Paul Rudnick “not your typical spy thriller” feels almost criminally understated because this book is operating on its own fabulous wavelength. I do not think two pages went by without a laugh out loud moment. From the second Andrew "Drew" Birnbaum is swept into the orbit of this elite group of queer spies, the story explodes into chaos and never once slows down. Every member of the Tuxedo Society brings their own kind of brilliance to the madness, from lesbian real estate moguls to a tech genius to former operatives who feel like they walked straight out of a fever dream. It reads like a spy spoof that knows exactly what it is and leans all the way in with sparkle and attitude.

This book is unapologetically big and I could talk about it for days. Maybe it was the protein bar (a bomb) or the yoga mat masquerading as a gun, or maybe it was the fact that Drew is still afraid of his mom... I LOVED IT ALL! The satire lands, the pop culture nods hit, and the whole thing feels wild, theatrical, and delightfully ridiculous in the best possible way. This is not about realism. This is about the vibes, the one liners, the absurdity, and the joy of watching everything spiral into campy perfection. It is loud, chaotic, and an absolutely ridiculous good time. I had so much fun with this one and honestly kind of wish the Tuxedo Society were recruiting because I would sign up immediately.

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The Memory Foundation By Amanda West

The Memory Foundation delivers exactly what thriller readers show up for and then pushes it further into eerie, speculative territory. An isolated snowy facility. Avalanche warnings hanging in the background. A powerful organization promising to unlock, preserve, and possibly control human memory. Yes please. The story alternates between investigative journalist Natasha Walker, a new mother desperate for a career saving story, and Lydia Hunter, the wife of founder Wade Hunter. Together, their perspectives peel back the glossy promise of a breakthrough. The Memory Foundation claims it can capture and preserve a person’s memories before they disappear, allowing them to be experienced again in vivid detail. Marketed as hope for dementia patients, this technology promises to safeguard identity by holding onto the moments that shape who we are. But if memories can be stored, they can also be filtered, softened, or erased. What begins as compassionate science quietly raises a more dangerous possibility. If you can control memory, you can control how someone understands their past and ultimately who they become.

Tash needs this story. Her mother is fading from dementia, her career is teetering, and Wade Hunter is guarding the kind of scientific advancement that could change everything. When a mysterious Patient A offers her a way inside, the tension starts simmering immediately with secrets, paranoia and the sense that she is being watched. Patient A refuses to give real answers yet somehow feels connected to Tash in a way that raises more questions than it resolves. What follows is a locked room style thriller wrapped in speculative science, morally gray ambition, and psychological tension that keeps tightening.

This is the kind of speculative thriller that feels both chilling and addictive with memory experiments, ethical lines being crossed and characters carrying secrets heavy enough to bury them. The hype makes sense. Amanda West has been making noise, and this one shows us why. The concept is smart, the atmosphere is claustrophobic, and you will question what happens if this sort of technology becomes available, because controlling memory is not just about healing the past. It is about rewriting the future, and that is where things get dangerous.

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Beneath A Broken Sky By Joshua Moehlin

In Beneath a Broken Sky by Joshua Moehling, a violent tornado rips through the small Minnesota town of Sandy Lake, leaving behind devastation and a small community that thrives on tourism trying to recover from wildfires, downed trees and a pretty big economic downturn. When a controversial local mother is murdered after publicly challenging the school system over bullying against her gay son, Detective Ben Packard is pulled into an investigation that exposes deep divisions within the community. As tensions rise and suspicion spreads, Packard navigates a case shaped as much by prejudice and fear as by evidence. While the bodies pile up, Ben is confronting personal struggles and the complicated reality of living openly in a town that does not always welcome him.

I have loved this series from the beginning because it is so deeply character focused, and watching Ben grow into himself has been the real reward. His struggle with identity, the tension within the police force, and the push and pull of small-town life give the story an emotional core that always feels genuine. The town itself becomes a character, full of charm and contradictions, and the familiar touches make it even richer this time around. The issues among these pages are real. Whether the topic is an illegal immigrant, a broken dream or too much alcohol, Moehling’s writing makes it easy to connect with the story.

Between books I find myself looking forward to Ben’s three-legged corgi Frank and the perfectly timed banter between Ben and Jill Theilen, which offers welcome moments to smile amid the heavier themes. You do not have to read the entire series to appreciate this book, but spending time with these characters as they evolve makes the experience even more meaningful. Readers are always allowed a little more into his past and what makes him the man he is today. The mystery is always strong, but what keeps me coming back is Ben’s devotion to his work, his community, and the quiet determination to build a life where he truly belongs.  

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Caller Unknown By Gillian McAllister

Simone Seaborn travels to Texas for what is supposed to be a simple camping trip and long overdue mother daughter time with Lucy, her teenage daughter who dreams of becoming an actress. After a frustrating journey, they settle into their cabin for the night, only for Simone to wake the next morning to find Lucy gone. What follows is not a ransom demand but something far more unsettling. The kidnapper leaves strict instructions, starting with tell no one and absolutely not the police, and demands a series of tasks instead of money. From there, the story becomes a relentless cat and mouse chase that unfolds across harsh landscapes and impossible choices, delivering a tense and original thriller that never lets up and times its twists with precision.

This book hit close to home for me. My youngest just graduated college and the reality of an empty nest is settling in, which made Simone’s fear and devotion feel painfully real. Simone is shaped by a traumatic childhood, and motherhood is the one role she has always chosen with certainty and purpose. Her love for Lucy is fierce, uncompromising, and willing to cross lines most people would never consider. Is it over the top at times? Absolutely. Did I care? Not for a second. Gillian McAllister balances high stakes suspense with the emotional reckoning of a parent who would risk everything for their child, and she does it with confidence and control. This is sharp, intense, and emotionally charged storytelling, and readers should grab it immediately. McAllister remains an auto read author for me, no hesitation.

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

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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Purchase Nothing Tastes As Good
(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

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.  

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

Purchase The Survivor
(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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