Tag: Mystery

Kate’s Review: “Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes”

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Book: “Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes” by Sandra Jackson-Opoku

Publishing Info: Minotaur Books, July 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A sparkling debut mystery set on the south side of Chicago, featuring the quick-witted, unforgettable Savvy Summers, proprietor of a soul food café.

When Savvy Summers first opened Essie’s soul food café, she never expected her customer-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. But when Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead at table two, she suddenly has more to worry about than just maintaining Essie’s reputation for the finest soul food in the Chicagoland area.

Even as the police deem Grandy’s death an accident, Savvy quickly finds herself—and her beloved café—in the middle of an entire city’s worth of bad press. Desperate to clear her name and keep her business afloat, Savvy and her snooping assistant manager, Penny Lopés, take it upon themselves to find who really killed Grandy.

But with a slimy investor harassing her to sell her name and business, customers avoiding her sweet potato pie like the plague, and her police sergeant ex-husband suddenly back in the picture, will Savvy be able to clear the café’s name and solve Grandy’s murder before it all falls apart?

After all, while Savvy always said her sweet potato pie was to die for, she never meant literally.

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

I am kind of at the point where I am seriously asking myself if I just add the ‘cozy mystery’ sub-genre to my rotation of review topics, because I keep having my attention caught by books that fit that description. I’ve already committed to reading the “Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mysteries”, and when I saw the book “Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes” by Sandra Jackson-Opoku on one of my general NetGalley browses I really wanted to read it. So hey, maybe we are at the start of a new coverage point for me. Because, much like the “Tita Rosie’s Kitchen” series, I could see this one being pretty fun to follow judging from the debut.

The mystery itself is what I usually expect from the cozy mystery sub-genre. It’s easy to follow, has a clear group of suspects who all have pretty believable motives, and it doesn’t go too hard or get too messy when it comes to the casualties that are inevitable. I wasn’t terribly shocked by any of the twists and turns, and didn’t find myself in any particular suspense, but it was palatable and easy to read, and I was definitely entertained as I was going. I wasn’t really surprised by the final reveal, but the journey getting there was a ride I didn’t mind taking.

Because that’s kind of the thing with me and cozy mysteries; I’m not really looking for a plot that keeps me guessing and keeps me on my toes. I’m almost always looking for a cast of characters I like to follow and an enjoyable time and place, and I felt like Jackson-Opoku achieved that in this book. I enjoyed Savvy as our amateur detective, as not only is she a Black woman who owns a soul food restaurant, she is also older than I usually read when I pick up a mystery, being well into middle age. She has seen and experienced things that make her less impetuous and more prudent, and I liked having her perspective and her history in place as we were introduced and as we followed her on her first mystery. I also liked our supporting characters who will surely show up as the books continue, whether it’s her friend/colleague Penny, or her ex-husband Falon (who, it seems to me, may be being set up to be a romantic interest as they are still quite close, and I wouldn’t be mad about it). I also just really enjoyed how Jackson-Opoku brings the Southside of Chicago to life, as I could see the people and see the neighborhoods as she was establishing the time and place.

And of course, the food based elements really spoke to me. It’s always fun having a story based around food, cooking, and the community and culture that comes with it, and it’s even better when it comes with recipes (and this one does!). I just really liked reading about the different foods that Savvy was creating in her restaurant and how it connects her to her family history, loved ones that she has had to say goodbye to, and to the community and culture of Chicago’s Southside and the Black population that calls it home. And I do love some sweet potato pie every now and again. You know, so long as it isn’t poisoned.

“Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes” is a fun and easy going cozy mystery that will surely please those who like the genre.

Rating 7: A solid debut cozy mystery with a fun main character and a cast filled with potential, “Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes” is a promising beginning to a new series.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes” is included on the Goodreads list “Cozy Mysteries Published by African-Americans in Decade: 2020s”.

Kate’s Review: “Everyone Is Lying To You”

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Book: “Everyone Is Lying To You” by Jo Piazza

Publishing Info: Dutton, July 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at ALAAC25.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Lizzie and Bex were best friends in college. After graduation, Bex vanished, leaving Lizzie confused and devastated.

Fifteen years later, Bex is now Rebecca Sommers, a “traditional” Instagram influencer with millions of followers who salivate over her perfect life on her ranch with her five children and handsome husband, Gray. Lizzie is a struggling magazine writer, watching reels while her young children demand her attention.

One night out of the blue, Bex calls Lizzie with a career-making proposition—an exclusive interview with her about her multimillion-dollar business venture and an invitation to MomBomb, the high-profile influencing conference.

At the conference, Bex goes missing and Gray is found brutally murdered on their ranch. Lizzie finds herself plunged into the dark side of the cutthroat world of social media that includes jealousy, sordid affairs, swingers, and backstabbing. She must learn who her old friend has become and who she has double-crossed to try to find her, clear her name, and maybe even save her life.

Piazza’s master storytelling and razor-sharp insight into the world of social media brings us a pulpy, juicy, and cleverly plotted read that will have you guessing all the way through and leave you gasping for more.

Review: Thank you to Dutton for giving me an ARC at ALAAC25!

In recent years we have seen an uptick in ‘tradwife’ content online. For those unaware, tradwife influencers generally create content surrounding traditional family values, homemaking, motherhood, and pushing a conservative (and oftentimes far-right) agenda. It’s interesting seeing it play out as our societal Overton Window in the U.S. has shifted further right, making these influencers centerpieces of aspirational ‘and you can be an ideal traditional housewife and mother too!’ content, even though by being incredibly successful (and certainly monetized) influencers they are already not following the ‘be a submissive homemaker’ ideal they are pushing but being the actual breadwinner who supports their families with their content creation more than many of their husbands do. This kind of stuff fascinates and unsettles me, and when I heard that Jo Piazza had a tradwife centered murder mystery coming out called “Everyone Is Lying To You” I knew that I HAD to read it. And man, it was great.

At the heart of “Everyone Is Lying To You” are two women, who are both wives and mothers and who were best friends in college but lost touch for years. We have Lizzie, a determined journalist who works for a women’s publication, but has been struggling to adjust to working passion and becoming a mother to two children with a newly unemployed husband (who is supportive and great but a little aimless). The other is Rebecca, formerly Bex, who is a very popular family influencer who shows off her perfect marriage on a sprawling ranch while she raises six kids and homesteads with her traditional and conservative husband Gray. Rebecca reaches out to Lizzie promising her a juicy story if she attends the biggest female/family centered influencer convention, and while they are there Bex disappears and Gray is murdered on the ranch. We follow Lizzie’s perspective as she tries to figure out if her friend is a murderer whilst also fending off gossipy and perhaps cutthroat influencers, finding pieces of the puzzle and hoping to clear Bex while also wondering if she is actually a murderer. Piazza has some solid pacing, some really well done reveals and twists, and has so many misdirects and suspects that I really was kept guessing for most of the story. Hell, it was so well done that I didn’t even roll my eyes at any of the more out there reveals, as the story itself was so strong that it was easily forgivable.

The mystery of a murder and tradwife influencers is great, and I was already fully in, but it’s the two women we are following that really made this story a true knockout for me. I found Lizzie to be incredibly relatable, as a woman who never really took to the motherly instincts that we are told we all have, and who feels frazzled and sometimes overwhelmed by her family and the expectations that come with being a mom even if she really really loves every bit of her kids and her husband. But it was Rebecca/Bex that really shined, as we slowly learn her story through her perspective chapters and how she has ended up incredibly famous, while hiding so many of the darker aspects of her life because it would hurt the brand she has built around herself, and because she doesn’t want the world to know what her husband is really like. It was pretty clear to me that a lot of the inspiration for her was from Hannah Neeleman, aka Ballerina Farm (if you want a summary of the really insidious undertones of Hannah and her creepy husband’s vision, Jordan and McKay have a GREAT breakdown as former Mormons who have a lot of insight, or a REALLY deep dive from Fundie Fridays that postulates it’s pure Christian Nationalist propaganda), and Piazza makes Rebecca incredibly easy to root for while also making it hard to know if she could be capable of murder. I loved Rebecca’s chapters and wanted the best for her, even when I didn’t know if she was a killer or not.

In instances like this I’m down to support women’s rights AND wrongs. (source)

And finally, Piazza clearly knows her stuff when it comes to influencers and tradwife Internet/media content, because she knows all the ins, outs, controversies, and hypocrisies and finds ways to showcase them front and center. Whether it’s women who peddle wellness lifestyles while doing not so healthy things off camera, or mommy influencers who hide their nannies from the camera, or women who feel like they have to promote really exploitative things, usually at their children’s expense, for clicks and engagement, this book tackles a LOT and makes it snappy, cutting, and incredibly engaging. It’s such a great deconstruction of all the hypocritical and damaging things that tradwife content promotes as ideal, and I savored every bit of it.

“Everyone Is Lying To You” is a fast and addictive thriller with a bit of satirical bite to it. It’s a surefire winner for summer reading, and I really, really loved it.

Rating 9: I mean this book was basically written for me and all of my special interests and I was totally absorbed by all of it. PERFECT summer reading.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Everyone Is Lying To You” is included on the Goodreads list “Fiction About Influencers”.

Serena’s Review: “The Rushworth Family Plot”

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Book: “The Rushworth Family Plot” by Claudia Gray

Publishing Info: Vintage, June 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: Netgalley!

Where Can You Get this Book: Amazon | IndieBound | WorldCat

Book Description: Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney understand each other perfectly; it’s a pity their families do not. A series of misunderstandings, misplaced pride, and—indeed—prejudice, has led their parents to deem the pair unsuited to wed. Now, with the Season approaching, Juliet’s grandfather, General Tilney, has sent her to London with a new wardrobe and orders to prove herself worthy of someone better than the snobby Darcys. Meanwhile, Jonathan has been forced to accept an invitation to stay in town with old friends Edmund and Fanny Bertram at the house of Edmund’s brother, Sir Thomas. Oblivious to and undesiring of female attention outside of Juliet’s, Jonathan is at risk of being ensnared by Caroline Bingley’s previously rebuffed plans to make herself—or her daughter—mistress of Pemberley.

But when Mr. Rushworth, the former husband of Edmund’s sister Maria, is discovered dead in his home, Jonathan and Juliet find themselves with problems far weightier than the marriage market. In one of the greatest scandals of its day, Maria abandoned her new husband in favor of the notorious rake Henry Crawford, and when he wouldn’t marry her, was forced to flee to the continent in disgrace. Now Maria is back, accompanied by a daughter she claims Mr. Rushworth fathered after their divorce—and who he wrote into his will just before his death. To spare Edmund and Fanny further social shame, Jonathan and Juliet must unmask a killer before the drama surrounding the Rushworth family fortune claims another victim.

Previously Reviewed: “The Murder of Mr. Wickham” and “The Late Mrs. Willoughby” and “The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh”

Review: Another entry in the Mr. Darcy/Miss Tilney mysteries and just as enjoyable as the rest! I went into this one both excited (because Claudia Gray has yet to set a single step wrong) but also a bit nervous (because the characters from “Mansfield Park” and especially the dynamic between Edmund and Fanny seem like the most challenging of Austen’s originals to re-create). But, as always, I shouldn’t have worried at all!

Let’s start with the mystery itself! Like always, Gray does an excellent job setting the stage for the murder at the center of this story. There are a number of excellent suspects and red herrings, and every time the reader (or Miss Tilney or Mr. Darcy, for that matter) feel as if they might begin to get a reading on the situation, another twist will be thrown in. I also enjoyed the other, smaller mysteries that made up many of the subplots, such as the Bertrams’ handling of the sale of their plantation in Antiqua.

The story also delved into Fanny’s character and her struggles with childbirth in a very deep way. Poor Fanny. She’s always getting the most rough end of the stick, both in her original story and now here with all of this tragedy. However, I think the way that infertility and miscarriage was handled was incredibly sensitive, and some of Fanny’s internal thoughts and struggles are of the sort that you don’t often see portrayed well on the page. On a lighter note, I enjoyed her interactions with Edmund, and it we even got a bone thrown to some of the Edmund/Fanny/Mary Crawford drama from the original book.

Of course, the main draw is, as always, Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney themselves. Their relationship continues to be hindered by their ridiculous parents, but I was incredibly excited to see Catherine Tilney finally in person on the page! It’s also poetic justice that she immediately gathered a better reading on the situation between Jonathan and Juliet than her husband did in the last book. Their letters discussing the matter were particularly fun! Of course, as this is a series that is ongoing, sticks continued to be thrown in the cogs of them actually formally pursuing things (Darcy and Elizabeth really need to get their act together!). But the story definitely took a twist in this area that I wasn’t expecting and that lead to some of the major action at the end of the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one! It didn’t perhaps reach the highs of some of the previous books (mostly because the secondary characters are largely unlikable or fairly depressed through most of the book which lead to a bit less humor). But I really liked the mystery and I will be first in line to check out the next one!

Rating 8: Full of unexpected action and twists and turns galore, this is another incredibly showing in the series!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Rushworth Family Plot” isn’t on any Goodreads lists but it should be on: Austen Retellings.

Kate’s Review: “Now She’s Dead”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Now She’s Dead” by Roselyn Clarke

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, June 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Last summer, Sara Ellis was found dead by the lake, and only Mandy knows what really happened. This summer, she’s desperate to keep it a secret.

For a few weeks every summer, Sara was Mandy’s best friend. At Highmark, the lake resort where their families vacationed, the two were in a world of their own. Or at least Mandy got to be part of Sara’s world.

But now Sara’s dead. The police ruled her death an accident; a tragic mistake after a night of impaired judgment. For the past year, Mandy’s coped by escaping: leaving home and barely keeping it together at school. The last thing she wants to do is return to Highmark this summer—even if she does need “closure.” As soon as she’s back, though, she hears the whispers: someone killed Sara Ellis. And if she’s not careful, they’ll figure out it’s all her fault.

As evidence resurfaces and anonymous accusations are scrawled in angry red spray paint, Mandy must confront the truths she’s been avoiding about last summer. Because someone wants to make her pay for what happened to Sara that night.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Summer is basically here, and while it’s probably my least favorite of the seasons (it’s just so hot), I do really enjoy the vibes and ambiance of sitting by the pool with my book. It’s especially fun if the book is engaging, a little soapy, and filled with lots of drama, shocks, and surprises. Admittedly, I have a pretty picky standard when it comes to books like these, and if it even so much as VAGUELY drifts into no no territory (like last minute twists that don’t feel earned), I will feel sour about it, poolside or not. But I have great news! “Now She’s Dead” by Roselyn Clark is the kind of book that not only would make great poolside reading for the season, it also managed, for me, to not fall into any pitfalls I associate with the genre!

The structure of this thriller mystery is fairly straight forward. Our protagonist is Mandy, a teenage girl who is returning to the lakeside resort where her summer best friend Sara died in an assumed accident the previous year. Mandy off the bat has a lot of guilt, and since it’s first person POV she tells the reader that it is her fault that Sara is dead, and we get a story told through the present summer as a true crime content creator has started sniffing around the resort, and through flashbacks to the days leading up to Sara’s death. It’s a great device, and it’s the perfect kind to have an unreliable narrator drive the story as the audience has to piece together what really happened. When done well this is quite possibly a favorite structure of mine when it comes to thrillers, and Clarke manages to make it flow easily. It has a nice slight of hand, and while I was pretty convinced that Mandy didn’t have all the information and was probably missing something (and side note, her dialog DID sometimes veer to bashing the reader of the head with all the ‘BUT I KILLED HER’ quips), I was still curious to see how it was all going to unravel to what actually happened, and I was surprised a good deal of the time! The clues are there, but the sleight of hand keeps them hidden until Clarke is ready to reveal them for the most part.

And what really kept me going in this book was how it portrays a very complicated, close, but somewhat unbalanced friendship between two teenage girls. You can tell that Mandy and Sara see themselves as incredibly close, but that their closeness and their friendship is in many ways unhealthy, with resentment, jealousy, and insecurities nagging at them both during the lead up to Sara’s death. It’s a bit soapy as Mandy and Sara keep aggravating and baiting each other as disaster looms on the horizon, but what I really appreciated is that while it could solely have been a motive, it’s actually a rather emotional examination of this kind of toxic friendship between teenage girls that may hit close to home for some readers, be they the intended YA audience or not. I know that I can think of at least one close, but at times unhealthy, friendship I had when I was in high school, with my role being VERY similar to Mandy’s in the friendship of the sidekick who is overshadowed and resentful, but also unable to process my own contributions to the toxicity. It felt real and honest, even if most of us in these shoes weren’t dealing with a murder mystery we may or may not have been involved with. Minor details!

“Now She’s Dead” is a sudsy and twisty thriller that should definitely join you on your summer adventures. It’s a fun ride and I really enjoyed it.

Rating 8: A fast paced and well crafted thriller, absolutely perfect for summer reading season!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Now She’s Dead” is included on the Goodreads lists “2025 YA Thrillers and Mysteries”, and “Bisexual Books of 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “See How They Fall”

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Book: “See How They Fall” by Rachel Paris

Publishing Info: Scarlet, April 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publicist.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: In this compulsive debut thriller set in Sydney’s wealthiest suburbs, one detective’s investigation into a family tragedy threatens to collapse a powerful dynasty. . . .

When Skye married into the wealthy Campbell family, she thought she was entering paradise. But lately, she’s been unhappy in her marriage to Duncan and hiding a few secrets of her own as she tries to maintain a normal, happy life for their six-year-old daughter, Tilly.

Now the family patriarch, Sir Campbell Turner, has died and his three sons are set to inherit the luxury goods empire upon which he built their fortune. But plans for a seamless handover are complicated when a fourth, hitherto unknown, heir named Cody comes forward. The Turners gather for an intimate weekend retreat at an opulent seaside estate in order to meet this newcomer and figure out their next steps. With so much at stake, tempers flare and egos clash within their first few hours together. But even as the tensions rise no one could predict that their very first night would end with a shocking poisoning that leaves one family member dead and another fighting for her life.

Sergeant Mei O’Connor is assigned to investigate the incident and though her superiors are keen to close the case as swiftly as possible, the evidence just isn’t lining up. Mei already has enough on her mind as she struggles to care for her terminally ill mother and recover from her broken engagement, but she can’t help poking around the Turners, convinced that there’s more to the suspicious poisoning than a simple accident. As Mei continues to push for answers, she may just send the carefully laid dominoes of the Turner empire crashing down.

Review: Thank you to SparkPoint Studio for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Hoo boy, buckle up everyone because I have once again brought you all a novel that has scummy rich people behaving badly! Nope, this trope still hasn’t gone out of style for me, and the more frustrated I get with real world examples of this, the more cathartic I find novels that center nasty wealthy sleaze balls and show them for what they are. So of COURSE I wanted to read “See How They Fall” by Rachel Paris! I like soapy thrillers, I like dysfunctional families, and I like murder mysteries. It was bound to be a winner.

The premise is simple. The Turners, a billionaire family still reeling from the patriarch’s death a few months earlier, are gathering with their loved ones for a weekend at a summer estate, with hopes of hashing out the inheritance, while also dealing with a new surprise heir in the form of an illegitimate son of the middle son, Duncan. During the weekend, one of the brother’s wives is dead, and Duncan’s daughter Tilly is hospitalized in grave condition, both victims of arsenic poisoning. Skye, Tilly’s mom, is desperate to find out what happened, while Duncan hides her away, and Mei O’Connor, a detective assigned to the case, starts to peel back the nasty layers of this wealthy family. Our mystery is mostly who poisoned Tilly and her aunt Nina, but as we see it through Skye and Mei’s perspectives, the mystery becomes more about what the family as a whole has to hide. It’s suspenseful, it has believable twists and turns, and it has high stakes with a little girl near death, her mother becoming more unhinged as more secrets come out, and our lead investigator finding lots of dirty laundry, therein putting a target on her back as well. The Turner Family is filled with complete sociopaths, and as the story continued the more tense I became, fearful for Skye AND Mei and what they may uncover. Paris has a lot of tricks up her sleeve, and many of them were pulled off seamlessly.

I also enjoyed the dual perspectives between Skye and Mei, as both of them have some really well constructed back stories, well thought out motivations, and their two takes on the story as it is happening complement each other as they each present different clues to the reader about what is going on and who could be behind the poisonings. Skye is deeply sympathetic as her daughter lies unconscious after being poisoned, and while her husband Duncan is lying, gaslighting, and hiding something from her, and trying to keep her from finding out family business that may or may not be tied to Tilly’s attempted murder and Nina’s actual murder. I was seriously worried for Skye as well as enraged on her behalf, and Paris nails the way that the most insidious of wealthy people will manipulate even those that they purport to love if it will keep power within their grasp. Mei, on the other hand, has problems of her own, and it makes this case deeply personal, whether it’s because she is still reeling from a break up with a manipulative jerk, or because when she was a child her younger sister went missing, and she sees her sister in Tilly. I really felt for her, and if there was a series following her as a detective I would definitely read it.

Overall, “See How They Fall” is fun, addictive, and an entertaining thriller. If you like the genre, definitely seek it out.

Rating 8: Lots of reveals, lots of scandal, and two interesting character perspectives make this book an addictive thriller.

Reader’s Advisory:

“See How They Fall” isn’t on any relevant Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on the list “Novels If You Like ‘Succession'” in the Goodreads article “What To Read Based on Your Pop Culture Obsessions”.

Kate’s Review: “Murder Land”

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Book: “Murder Land” by Carlyn Greenwald

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, May 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Where You Can Get That Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Murder Land opens tonight. Not everyone will survive. Buckle up for a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

Seventeen-year-old Billie feels like she is on top of the world. She gets to spend the summer with her best friend, sparks are flying with her crush, and she has received a promotion to ride operator for one of the most buzzworthy new attractions in the theme park she works at. But the first night on the new job takes a dark turn when her creepy coworker mysteriously dies…on her ride, when she isn’t authorized to be running it.

At first, it seems like he died by heart attack, but by the time she returns to the body with help, it looks like a broken neck. Had she just imagined him sitting upright a few minutes ago? It’s as if someone is trying to pin his death on her, and she has one night to figure out who is really responsible before she is blamed.

Billie recruits the help of her friends to sneak around the park after-hours and search for the truth. But as the night stretches on and more people wind up dead, Billie realizes she may not make it out of Murder Land alive. And her friends may know more than they’re letting on.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an eARC via NetGalley!

Outside of Disney World, I am not REALLY a fan of theme parks. We have a couple here in Minnesota, there’s Valley Fair a bit south of the cities, and the Mall of America has Nickelodeon Universe, which my five year old loves and I only tolerate for her sake (also, here’s some lore: it USED to be called Camp Snoopy and was Peanuts themed, but alas, those days are long over). But even though I don’t really like theme or amusement parks, I do love the idea of a horror or thriller novel set in one. It just opens up so many different opportunities for suspense and horror. Because of this I was definitely interested in checking out “Murder Land” by Carlyn Greenwald, a new YA thriller that has a murderous night at a popular theme park as its premise. Nickelodeon Universe could NEVER. Plus I really like that cover. It just screams Santa Cruz Boardwalk by way of “The Lost Boys”.

No vampires, though. (source)

But promising premise and my own dorky associations aside, I am sorry to say that, for me, an old hat connoisseur of the thriller genre, “Murder Land” was a bit of a let down.

But first, the good. As I mentioned above, the premise and potential of this story is off the charts for me. There is a precedent in thrillers and horror stories for theme parks or carnivals or festivals to be unique and unsettling settings, and I, for one, wouldn’t be opposed to more of it. And that translates over to “Murder Land”, with clear homages to places like Knotts Berry Farm. And I always love a theme of greedy corporations hoping to hide scandals for profit purposes, and the conspiracies that can come to fruition because of it. And also, as a YA thriller, I could see this being a solid introduction to the thriller genre, as there is definitely a plotted out mystery that does feel planned and thought out. I also love a device that uses epistolary or ‘found footage’, so the way that we have transcripts from a website/channel that is all about the history of CaliforniaLand and references ‘urban exploration’ along with it. That all worked for me.

But, on the flip side, I am definitely not the target audience for this book, and I have read so many thrillers over the years, that nothing about “Murder Land” really stood out to me despite all of the potential that it had. I thought that our main characters, rounded out by protagonist Billie and her friend group Grace, Leon, and Sawyer, were pretty cookie cutter in their personalities and their relationships with each other. We have a bit of a love quadrangle going on, which I can usually grin and bear if it’s basically sidelined, but within this story, taking place in ONE night with lots of death and murder and tragedy at hand, it felt clunky and out of place. I also felt that the way that the reveals were done, outside of a few in the transcripts, didn’t have that much weight. I think this is probably due to the fact that I wasn’t as invested in the story because I wasn’t as invested in the characters, but I DO feel like even if I don’t connect with any characters in a thriller I can still be, well, thrilled. And I wasn’t held in much suspense as this story was going. I do think that it’s very possible (maybe even probable) that if I was a teen reading this it would have worked better, but for this forty year old, it just didn’t click.

Overall I think that this didn’t work for me because I’m not the audience it caters to. “Murder Land” was a disappointment for me, but it probably won’t be for everyone!

Rating 6: This is a solid thriller for the age group it is intended for, but seasoned thriller fans in general may be a little underwhelmed.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Murder Land” is included on the Goodreads list “YA Releases of May 2025”.

Serena’s Review: “A Drop of Corruption”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “A Drop of Corruption” by Robert Jackson Bennett

Publishing Info: Del Rey, April 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.

Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire’s greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.

Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.

Review: I’ve never gone wrong picking up another book by this author! But I was particularly excited to grab this sequel, as the first one was the perfect mixture of two things I love especially: incredibly creative fantasy worlds and a Holmes/Watson duo solving complex mysteries. And this was one of those rare sequels where I went in pretty much wanting exactly the same as the first one! And boy, did I get it, and more!

So, I’ll jump straight to the end of the review now and say this was pretty much my idea of a perfect read. Not only did it bring back everything I loved from the first book, but it expanded on the the world-building and fantasy aspects of the story and gave greater depth to our main characters. The mystery itself was also complex and interesting, with numerous twists and turns. There were the right number of red herrings that readers could form their own guesses and theories, but then, when the final reveal came, there were inevitably pieces that were still true revelations.

I also really enjoyed the deeper themes of monarchy and empire that were explored in this book. The first one brushed up on some of these themes as well, but this one really dove into the ideas of kings and their seemingly deep-seated appeal as a form of governance. (On this point, the author included a really excellent author’s note at the end that is definitely worth giving a read!). Throughout the story, there is commentary and exploration of these structures of society, who falls through the cracks and who benefits, and why people cling to form of government that doesn’t serve them. Beyond this, there were some really great discussions of the inglorious but necessary role of justice enforcers and the pursuit of truth, even when it takes you to some dark places. (Of course, this being a fantasy novel, those dark places were more then simply metaphorically “dark.”) Is it ever right to do the wrong thing for the right reason? Who decides and how should justice be served? These are big topics, but the book does a great job of tackling them, without ever feeling heavy-handed or preachy.

Beyond this, I was simply happy to spend more time with Din and Ana. From Din, we saw the challenges that he’s faced, working for such an eccentric woman as Ana for now several years. In some ways, he’s adjusted well. In others, it’s clear he’s still floundering to find his role in this world. For Ana’s part, she’s still brilliant, but also strange in a way that is often perturbing. As the story continued, we began to see more and more glimpses behind the curtain, and there were some great reveals regarding her own history towards the end of the book.

The world Bennet has created here continues to be simply wild. So much creativity, but also so much horror, awaits around every corner. Similarly to the first book, this isn’t the read for you if you struggle with body horror. The dangers of this world present in incredibly unique and disturbing ways, and Bennet doesn’t shy away from fully describing it as such. The stakes of this book are also closely tied to the biodiversity of this world, and it was great exploring how humanity has found a way to live and thrive in a world as perilous as this one.

Overall, this was an excellent sequel, everything I could have wanted from a follow-up book! It took the phenomenal groundwork that was laid in the first book and ran wild with it. Can’t wait to see what comes next!

Rating 10: Deliciously dark, exploring the disturbing nature not only of this wild fantasy world but also of the depths of humanity itself.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Drop of Corruption” is on this Goodreads list: Best Books Ever.

Kate’s Review: “What Remains of Teague House”

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Book: “What Remains of Teague House” by Stacy Johns

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, April 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Three siblings reckon with the darkness hidden within their family after multiple graves are discovered behind their childhood home.

When the Rawlins family matriarch unexpectedly dies, all three adult children rush home. What they find is a house bursting with grief, dark memories surfacing around each corner, and multiple bodies buried deep in the woods. The Rawlinses want to believe these discoveries point to a crime long past. But one of the graves behind Teague House is fresh, the earth disturbed just that week—and its inhabitant is a local woman they knew.

Is the youngest Rawlins sibling with something to hide guilty of her murder? Is his sister experiencing false memories of her late father digging near the graves? Why is their aunt in such a rush to leave town after her sister’s funeral?

Enter private detective Maddie Reed, who has her own reasons for being curious about the bodies buried behind Teague House. Detective Reed sets out to unmask a killer—one she may have been hunting all her life.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Families hiding secrets are always fun types of thrillers to me. I enjoy a sub-genre of families being terrible and damaging the generations down the line, no matter WHAT the parent genre is, but when you bring murder into it as well as generational trauma that is a topic that has so many possibilities. Because of this love for that kind of drama, I was very interested in reading “What Remains of Teague House” by Stacy Johns. When family secrets involve dead bodies, old AND new, buried on the family property, things have a possibility to get juicy!

I think that some of the strongest things in this book were character based. We followed a few of the characters through third person, and in one case first person, perspective chapters, where we get to follow their parts of the mystery and see how they all fit together. We had perspectives from all three of the siblings, Sandra, Jon, and Robby, as well as past perspectives from Aunt Phil to see the background to Russ and Val (who got a single chapter at the start). I found Aunt Phil’s to be really well done and thought that it was great getting some context for her relationship with Val, giving us insight into Val as well. The sibling perspectives went from fine (Jon and Sandra) to deeply irritating (Robby. It’s by design as he’s a scumbag, but it was grating to have to read his chapters). But the best one, for me, was that of Maddie, who is an investigator who gets privy to what is happening at Teague House, and has her own reasons and connections (potentially) to one of the bodies that has been unearthed. I really enjoyed Maddie’s chapters, as not only was hers the first person perspective, but I also thought that her motivations, backstory, and arc were the most interesting. Her chapters also read like a well done procedural, and I enjoyed seeing her on the trail and getting her information from the Rawlins siblings in hopes of finding justice.

But, along with that, comes why it didn’t work as well for me as I had hoped it would. We had some good build up and pacing for a lot of the novel, but then as we started to get closer to the climax things started to go REALLY fast and felt really rushed and cobbled together. I was left scratching my head a bit about some of the reveals, feeling like some choices were made just to make things shocking without really earning it. On top of that, going back to Robby’s character from above, we had such a frustrating and grating character in this guy that I was actively turned off anytime we were following his perspective. I can usually do fine with immoral characters or people who are deeply unlikable, but that’s only if there is something a bit more interesting about them, and Robby just wasn’t interesting. Just obnoxious. These things sadly derailed my experience, and the other characters couldn’t quite compensate.

I think that “What Remains of Teague House” had its ups and downs. I definitely don’t regret reading it, but it was pretty middle of the road.

Rating 6: I like a family drama, but with some really unlikable characters and a rushed ending this one didn’t live up to my expectations.

Reader’s Advisory:

“What Remains of Teague House” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Family Secrets”.

Kate’s Review: “This Book Will Bury Me”

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Book: “This Book Will Bury Me” by Ashley Winstead

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, March 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: From the bestselling author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and Midnight is the Darkest Hour comes a chilling, compulsive story of five amateur sleuths, whose hunt for an elusive killer catapults them into danger as the world watches.

It’s the most famous crime in modern history. But only she knows the true story.

After the unexpected death of her father, college student Jane Sharp longs for a distraction from her grief. She becomes obsessed with true crime, befriending armchair detectives who teach her how to hunt killers from afar. In this morbid internet underground, Jane finds friendship, purpose, and even glory…

So when news of the shocking deaths of three college girls in Delphine, Idaho takes the world by storm, and sleuths everywhere race to solve the crimes, Jane and her friends are determined to beat them. But the case turns out to be stranger than anyone expected. Details don’t add up, the police are cagey, and there seems to be more media hype and internet theorizing than actual evidence. When Jane and her sleuths take a step closer, they find that every answer only begs more questions. Something’s not adding up, and they begin to suspect their killer may be smarter and more prolific than any they’ve faced before. Placing themselves in the center of the story starts to feel more and more like walking into a trap…

Told one year after the astounding events that concluded the case and left the world reeling, when Jane has finally decided to break her silence about what really happened, she tells the true story of the Delphine Massacres. And what she has to confess will shock even the most seasoned true crime fans…

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of this novel!

I really loved Ashley Winstead’s previous novel “Midnight Is The Darkest Hour”, so much so that it made my top ten list the year it was published. I found it to be propulsive and addictive, and when I had the opportunity to read her newest book “This Book Will Bury Me” I knew that I had to take it. I was even more interested when I read the premise, as I thought that it sounded familiar, plot wise. I do enjoy thrillers that take inspiration from real life. But this one made me have to really do some introspection about that.

“This Book Will Bury Me” has a clever story structure, as it is a story within a story that has some unreliable narration and a design like it’s a tell all true crime memoir. We have Jane, a woman who, after being traumatized by her father’s sudden death when she was in her early twenties, latched onto a true crime forum and became an armchair sleuth with four other true crime aficionados. When she and this group break a case wide open, they get a lot of attention upon themselves, and then get pulled into a brutal multiple murder of some college students in Idaho (which is very clearly based on the Moscow Murders – I will talk about that in a bit). We are seeing things through the lens of a disgraced public figure trying to clear her name, which adds a mystery on top of other mysteries, and makes for a gripping narrative as we try to see if Jane and co can solve the mystery, and what happens to make them all so reviled after the fact. I found Jane to be a compelling narrator, because I found her to be incredibly sympathetic as well as incredibly maddening at times. Winstead did her due diligence of drawing out and fully backing up why Jane would have been so drawn into the world of internet crime solving, as she hasn’t had clear answers about the tragedy of her father’s natural, but incredibly traumatizing, death, and needs to find answers to other mysteries to compensate. Sure, I spotted a few twists before they were revealed, but I was having a fun enough time that it didn’t matter.

What also worked for me in this was how Winstead also takes a controversial topic like true crime, specifically internet sleuths and their assistance/meddling (depending on who you talk to) in real life cases with real life victims. Jane and her friends all seem to have the best intentions as they try to solve crimes, but it’s hard to deny that, good intentions or not, they let hubris, ego, and their own biases drive their investigations. It’s not exactly a farfetched problem given that there have been plenty of internet sleuths in real life who have put innocent people on blast and done horrific damage (I’m thinking of the Reddit Boston Marathon Bomber debacle, I’m thinking of that one TikTok woman who named a half assed theoretical suspect in the aforementioned/soon to be mentioned Moscow Murders and sent viral harassment their way ALL BASED ON TAROT READINGS, and more). I appreciated that Winstead didn’t set out to make Jane a nasty person, but a damaged person who makes some pretty big missteps, even if her intentions are pure. But it does raise a lot of questions about the people whose love of true crime goes a few steps further into actually trying to insert themselves into it, blurring the lines between a theoretical fascination and an active participant. I enjoyed that it wasn’t super black and white.

BUT. I will say that I was uncomfortable with how close and obviously ripped from the headlines this plot was to the Moscow Murders in Moscow, Idaho. Ripped from the headlines stories happen quite a bit in pop culture. “Law and Order”‘s entire franchise takes that premise and creates episodes from actual crimes that happen, for example. But I think that part of my issue here was that the initial student murders in this book felt like they were completely lifted from that specific crime, a crime that is still pretty raw and still hasn’t had true resolution or justice because the main suspect hasn’t even gone to trial yet. And I mean LIFTED. Like timelines, details of the house, details of the fallout, it felt like the first group of murdered college students in this book were carbon copies of what happened on King’s Road in 2022. Had there been some changes or tweaks it would have felt a bit better to me. For example, the second mass murder scene felt like it was inspired by Ted Bundy’s sorority house spree, but didn’t feel like I was just reading the spree with new names. On top of that, Bundy happened DECADES ago, and he was tried and convicted and executed, so the victims families had at least some sense of closure. That hasn’t happened for the families of the Moscow victims yet. So as it was it felt kind of ghoulish to me to be so close to the actrual details. Though perhaps there’s an argument to be made that it would still be ghoulish even if it had made the changes and tweaks. I guess it goes back to questions about true crime and exploitation. Which in turn may shadow the intent that I do feel like this book was going for.

SO, it’s a bit messy and complicated. As a thriller that kept me interested, I did enjoy “This Book Will Bury Me”. But, I hope that in the future authors who want to take inspiration from real victims and real crimes can make it feel a little less blatant, because if this one had done that it would have been a slam dunk. As it was, it felt murkier than I would have liked.

Rating 8: A gripping mystery with a dissection of true crime fandom gone too far, “This Book Will Bury Me” is another entertaining read from Ashley Winstead, though I am a little uneasy about how close it was to the inspiration.

Reader’s Advisory:

“This Book Will Bury Me” is included on the Goodreads list “2025 Mystery Thrillers True Crime”.

Kate’s Review: “A Girl Like Us”

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Book: “A Girl Like Us” by Anna Sophia McLoughlin

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, February 2025

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Succession meets Saltburn in a crackling locked-room thriller of inconceivable wealth, unchecked power, and the secrets poised to bring a powerful family down.

It’s 2004 and former reality TV star and party girl Maya Miller has just married the most eligible bachelor on the planet: Colin Sterling, of the globally famous Sterling family whose history of aristocratic titles and land holdings rival a British royal and whose media empire is comparable to the Murdochs. To some, Maya represents the American dream. To others, a gold digger. But when Colin’s cousin Arianna, the heiress to the family’s immense fortune, is found murdered, Maya is thrust into the spotlight: first as she is revealed to be the next heiress to the fortune, and then as the prime suspect.

Swiftly, the entire Sterling family goes into lockdown at Silver House, the family’s ancestral estate in the English countryside. They’re told it’s for their own safety—but Maya becomes convinced that it’s not to keep threats out, but to keep secrets in. Now, she has no choice but to find and expose the truth hidden within the Sterling family, and why Arianna, a girl she had never met, chose her to take her place. But Maya has secrets of her own. And she knows that in order to survive the Sterlings, she’ll have to beat them at their own game.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of this novel!

You’d think that with the state of EVERYTHING going on right now I would be fully turned off of books about disgusting billionaires with way too much power being full on villainous, and yet it’s still a sub-genre of thrillers that I greatly enjoy (I mean I guess we will see if that continues going forward? Maybe it the stories all end like “Ready or Not”?). Regardless of my existential dread, I picked up “A Girl Like Us” by Anna Sophia McLoughlin in hopes of a soapy and easy to digest escapist thriller with twists and turns and maybe something a little more. I got basically everything except for the last bit.

In terms of mystery, this one is fairly straight forward. We have the uber wealthy steeping in their privilege and cruelty, as well as a newcomer who is dying to fit in but has some salacious secrets of her own, and a mysterious murder and a slew of suspects. It’s the exact kind of thriller that I would associate with a day by the pool or a long plane ride, one that makes the time go fast and keeps the reader entertained. Given how billionaires are really showing their asses lately (or even being fully super villain!) I am always down for a story that puts their terribleness front and center, and with Maya being a bit of a wild card and kind of a villainess in her own ways herself it’s fun to root for a morally grey character against a backdrop of really nasty people with too much money and power. And it just adds more some really soapy moments that felt right out of an episode of “The Bold and the Beautiful” circa the early 2000s when I was watching it in the student union when I was between classes in college. I was entertained to be sure.

But as I said above, by being fairly straight forward it doesn’t really go outside the box of what I’d expect from the genre, and while it’s fun seeing two dimensional villains claw at each other, it also makes for a tale that doesn’t really stand out in the long run. There are some interesting dynamics at play as we follow the perspectives of both Maya in the present and then Arianna in the past through her journal entries, but this too just stuck to familiar pathways and formulas. None of this is a bad thing, necessarily, though I have been finding myself more intrigued and compelled with thrillers that go the extra step. Would I recommend this as a fun read? Absolutely. But that being said, it didn’t wow me in the way that some recent thrillers have.

“A Girl Like Us” is a solid thriller that checks a lot of boxes of the genre. I was entertained, but not blown away.

Rating 6: Entertaining and soapy, but it didn’t really reinvent the wheel when it comes to thrillers.

Reader’s Advisory:

“A Girl Like Us” is included in the Goodreads article “A Month-by-Month Guide to 2025’s Biggest Mysteries and Thrillers”.