Tag: Thriller

Kate’s Review: “We Were Warned”

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Book: “We Were Warned” by Chelsea Ichaso

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, March 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: Everyone knows the legend of Fairport twenty years ago, a shocking murder closed the place down. This year, the ruins will be bulldozed at last. But tonight, it’s not too late to die.

All her life, Eden Stafford has heard the lore about the abandoned beach resort at the edge of ever since the notorious murder there, anyone who sets foot on the property is cursed to die, It’s more than just a over the years, two high school students who dared to explore the ruins of Fairport Village were killed there.

Eden is no stranger to notoriety, having endured a family scandal that’s made her a target at school. So when she reluctantly attends an overnight party at the ruins, she’s on edge—not because of some legend, but because the clique that has made her life hell for years is there, too, including Caleb Durham, the worst of them all.

Yet out of all the things Eden expected to happen that night, finding another student dead at Fairport Village wasn’t one of them.

Though the death is ruled an accident, Eden knows she saw something suspicious at the ruins—and Caleb and her other longtime tormentors did too. Now they’re all being followed by a deadly stranger, and to save themselves, they must work together to uncover the truth about Fairport Village. But after all that’s happened, can Eden really trust Caleb and his friends? Or will they leave her to face a killer alone?

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

One of my favorite things to do when I was working at one of my old library internships was putting together YA displays. I had this internship for half a year and I did about four or five displays, and finding common themes in books, from the obvious to the kind of quirky, was really fun. Whenever I read a YA novel I think about this fun task, and what kind of display said book would fit into. I kept thinking about that as I read “We Were Warned” by Chelsea Ichaso, because man would it have had so many possibilities! Would it have been on a YA Urban Legends display? A “If You Like “Pretty Little Liars…” display (dating myself like crazy here)? Would it have been on a “Creepy Stories By The Seaside” display? It has a lot of potential!

This is probably a great entry for the thriller genre for the target audience, but also has the goods to be entertaining to anyone looking for a quick and snappy read with some decent red herrings and an easy to follow mystery. I love the idea of an urban legend that is possibly true, and the way that it captures how a small town tragedy can take on a life of its own within the minds of the people who live within a community that has head to live with it. I’ve always been a huge sucker for mysteries and horror tales that use this kind of device, and this one had a solid background and a sufficiently eerie setting of an abandoned seaside resort that was the location of a horrific murder and some devastating fallout in the years after (including more murders). I found the mystery to be entertaining and a quick read, and I can definitely see how young adult audiences would be able to relate to Eden and Caleb, and even some of the more morally grey characters like Victoria, Caleb’s close friend and kind of Mean Girl that is Eden’s nemesis (but maybe misunderstood?). I enjoyed the dynamics between these characters and how Ichaso upended expectations for Eden and for me as a reader.

That said, as a 40 year old woman who has read MANY mysteries and thrillers over the years, “We Were Warned” definitely reads like a YA thriller to me. Which is NOT a bad thing at all. I would absolutely put this on a display for chilling thrillers in a YA section of a library, and know exactly who I would recommend this title to. But as a YA thriller, it does have some things that didn’t work for me. For one, Eden is, at times, a bit grating in the constant reminders of how Caleb must hate her and how much she hates him, while it’s pretty clear to the reader (or at least this reader) that there was more to the story on Caleb’s side. It got a bit repetitive to read about her resentment towards him and her assumptions, as it was obvious that wasn’t the case. There were also some twists in here that didn’t work for me, one in particular that followed a familiar ‘one last shock’ routine that almost never clicks with me when it happens in a thriller novel I’m reading. But again, these kinds of things are not necessarily going to hinder the audience that the book is intended for. It’s definitely a ‘your mileage may vary’ situation.

“We Were Warned” has a fun premise and an entertaining mystery. While it was a bit middle of the road for me, I am pretty certain that it will be a good fit for its intended audience!

Rating 6: Entertaining and a fast read to be sure and almost certainly a solid thriller for the audience it is written for, though more seasoned thriller fans may be underwhelmed at times.

Reader’s Advisory:

“We Were Warned” is included on the Goodreads list “YA Novels of 2025”.

Kate’s Review: “The Crash”

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

Book: “The Crash” by Freida McFadden

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, January 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: The nightmare she’s running from is nothing compared to where she’s headed.

Tegan is eight months pregnant, alone, and desperately wants to put her crumbling life in the rearview mirror. So she hits the road, planning to stay with her brother until she can figure out her next move. But she doesn’t realize she’s heading straight into a blizzard.

She never arrives at her destination.

Stranded in rural Maine with a dead car and broken ankle, Tegan worries she’s made a terrible mistake. Then a miracle she is rescued by a couple who offers her a room in their warm cabin until the snow clears. But something isn’t right. Tegan believed she was waiting out the storm, but as time ticks by, she comes to realize she is in grave danger. This safe haven isn’t what she thought it was, and staying here may have been her most deadly mistake yet.

And now she must do whatever it takes to save herself—and her unborn child.

A gut-wrenching story of motherhood, survival, and twisted expectations, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden delivers a snowbound thriller that will chill you to the bone.

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

Here is a bit of a wild thriller confession on my part (though if you have been reading my reviews for awhile now it won’t be shocking): I haven’t read anything by Freida McFadden. I feel like she’s a pretty popular author in the genre right now, at the very least she is very prevalent with title after title coming out. And she does show up on my various reading feeds pretty often. But I just hadn’t checked her out! Well, until Poisoned Pen Press sent me an ARC of “The Crash”, a novel about a pregnant woman named Tegan fleeing a bad situation… who ends up in a worse situation when her car crashes during a blizzard and she’s ‘rescued’ by an older couple in the middle of nowhere, who say they can give her shelter…. and then imprison her in their basement. Well, I mean, come on. The premise alone is super, super intriguing. And I figured it was high time that I read something by this author that I’d been seeing everywhere. And to be quite honest, once I was done, I wasn’t totally sold.

But first the things that did work for me. I was pleasantly surprised that not only do we get the perspective of Tegan, our pregnant hostage in the basement of a strange couple in rural Maine, we ALSO get the perspective of Polly, the wife of the duo who is the actual mastermind of the kidnapping plot. It was a bold choice, and because we got to see what was going in her mind I was able to see that this was not only having some “Misery” vibes, but also some “Pearl” vibes as well. I say “Pearl” because Polly is both deeply unwell and a bit disturbing, but also sympathetic in a lot of ways, in this case because of her deep grief, trauma, and borderline psychosis due to her infertility when she so desperately wants a child. Is it a little cliché? Sure. Does grief and trauma over not being able to have a baby mean you can kidnap a pregnant woman your husband stumbled upon after a car crash and plot to to take the infant for your own?

Polly, noooooo. (source)

That said, I really enjoyed the Polly sections because I loved the unhingedness of it all. It made it fast paced and a true page turner, the exact kind of read I want for escapism. Polly was a huge reason for that.

But on the other hand, there were a couple of things that didn’t work as well for me. The first was Tegan as a character, as while Polly was very interesting to me, Tegan felt half baked. I just didn’t connect with her as much and thought that she was a lot more two dimensional than I wanted her to be. On top of that, we had some pretty wild twists and turns that felt shallow and only there for shock value, and I don’t want to spoil any of them here because I do want people who want to read it to not go in with all the fun sucked out, but there was one in particular that made me say ‘really?’ out loud once it was revealed. You all know how grumpy I get about books that have massive twists for the sake of twists, and this one had one that I found to be particularly frustrating (I will admit that there was another that I did generally like, though it wasn’t super surprising).

So for my first Freida McFadden novel it was a bit of a mixed bag. I am pretty sure I will be checking out other books by McFadden, because this one was fun for the most part, but I will probably save them for times that I need a quick and not so deep escape.

Rating 6: Pretty entertaining and it has an interesting perspective from that of the main antagonist, but some of the twists were a little too outlandish for my tastes.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Crash” isn’t on any super relevant Goodreads lists, but it would fit in on “Kidnapped!”.

Kate’s Review: “The Widow’s Web”

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

Book: “The Widow’s Web” by Susan Moore

Publication Info: Bloodhound Books, January 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: When her tycoon husband suddenly dies, a woman discovers the sinister secrets of Silicon Valley, in this psychological thriller debut.

When tech mogul Brad Jones is found drowned off the Marin coast, his death is quickly ruled a suicide. But his wife, Dr. Anna Jones, a renowned cyberpsychologist, isn’t convinced. Driven by grief and suspicion, Anna begins to dig into Brad’s past, uncovering some dark details behind Silicon Valley’s elite.

Anna soon crosses paths with Scott and Kristy Lyle, influential figures with connections reaching the highest echelons of the tech industry. The deeper she goes, the more she realizes Brad’s death is tied to a long-buried secret—one that powerful people would kill to protect. Caught between the truth and some dangerous enemies, will Anna risk everything to expose the sinister forces at play?

The Widow’s Web is a gripping psychological thriller that explores ambition, betrayal, and the terrifying reality that our worst enemies may be those we trust the most.

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

Well it just so happens that this week the books I’m reviewing are ALL about rich people behaving badly! Just like “A Girl Like Us” on Tuesday, we are now tackling a story that feels way too relevant, and in this case it’s even more so as it is about villainous tech bros in Silicon Valley doing shady things and destroying lives to maintain their power. I miss the days that my associations with that part of Northern California were more about my childhood memories of family trips and beautiful oceans and less about the aforementioned monsters in tech. Yep, “The Widow’s Web” by Susan Moore is a rich behaving badly thriller, but it has less melodrama and more actual nasty and disturbing plot points. Which surprised me in a good way.

As a thriller, “The Widow’s Web” is pretty straight forward on the surface. We have Anna, a psychologist who has been married to her tech mogul husband Brad for years and living a lavish life in Silicon Valley. But when Brad suddenly dies by drowning, she is suddenly plunged into a viper’s nest of lies and secrets involving her husband and fellow tech bro Scott Lyle, and realizes that Brad was hiding horrible secrets from her. We get the clues to the big reveals through modern day investigation from Anna herself, to flashbacks involving Brad and his business dealings, to journalistic digging from a reporter who has ties to Scott Lyle through his wife Kristy, and it all makes for a mystery that is fairly well put together, though well tread territory when it comes to the puzzle pieces and the way they fit together. I did wholly enjoy Anna as a character, as a grieving wife as well as a woman who is trying to protect her son from dark truths as she is finding them out.

But what struck me the most about this book is that, unlike other wealthy people behaving badly books I’ve read recently, Moore decides to take the bad behavior to incredibly dark and sociopathic places. I don’t want to spoil too much, but this book and its reveals don’t feel soapy or fun, and while I love soapy and fun, I appreciate the candor that Moore has put into place in her characters and the absolute depravity that she is calling out, as these tech bros are so rich and powerful that they don’t feel any fear of consequences. Was it a mind fuck to read this kind of story as tech bros are trying to dismantle society as we know it and turn in their techno-dystopic ideals? It sure was! Does it make this book feel all the more relevant and horrifying? YUP, IT SURE DOES. That is what stood out to me about this book. I didn’t expect it to continue fueling my existential dread about everything.

“The Widow’s Web” has familiar beats, but dares to push the envelope in its themes. Because of that, I found it to be compelling and effective.

Rating 7: A twisty conspiratorial thriller that has a sympathetic main character and the gall to go to the darkest places when calling out the sociopaths of the tech industry.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Widow’s Web” isn’t on any Goodreads lists yet, but it would fit in on “Mysteries Set in Silicon Valley (Fiction)”.

Kate’s Review: “A Girl Like Us”

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

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”.

Kate’s Review: “Death in the Downline”

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

Book: “Death in the Downline” by Maria Abrams

Publishing Info: Quirk Books, January 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: It’s multi-level murder in this darkly funny mystery novel about the glamorous world of MLM “huns”—and the dangerous secrets at the top of the pyramid.

Drew thought she was destined to rise above her small New Jersey hometown and make it as a serious journalist in New York City. But now she’s back in Clearfield, pushing thirty, newly single, and living with her father.

After a chance encounter at the grocery store, she reconnects with her former best friend, Steph, who married young and never left their hometown. But Steph looks . . . good. She’s tanned, clear skinned, and glowing. She drives an expensive car and wears only name brands. What’s her secret? A multi-level marketing scheme called LuminUS that’s taken the ladies of Clearfield by storm. With nothing left to lose, Drew gets sucked into this glamorous world of downlines, sales parties, and girls’ trips.

But when a LuminUS distributor dies under mysterious circumstances, can Drew uncover the dark secret at the heart of the organization—and save her best friend—before it’s too late?

Laugh-out-loud funny and a pitch-perfect skewering of pyramid schemes, Death in the Downline is a page-turner that will have readers nodding in recognition and cheering for Drew until the cathartic conclusion.

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

While I myself haven’t been sucked into an MLM/multilevel marketing/pyramid scheme, I know some people who have. One of whom was my grandmother! I have memories when I was a girl and we would visit my grandparents in Iowa and she would have all these Aloe Vera based skin products, be it lotion, bug spray, or analgesic heat cream for muscle aches. And confession, the heat cream was fantastic, as I used it a lot when I was playing softball and it really did the job. But it didn’t really make her any money, with her main customers being her close friends and kids. I’ve been obsessed with the scammy and manipulative nature of MLMs for awhile, and the way they suck people in and drain them for all they are worth. Because of this I was really, really excited to read “Death in the Downline” by Maria Abrams. Not only is it a murder mystery, which I am into, but a satire on MLMs?! Yes! I want it!

As a mystery I really enjoyed “Death in the Downline”. It starts with Drew, a down on her luck journalist who had to leave New York City with her tail between her legs and move back in with her father in her small hometown. She reconnects with her former best friend Steph, who seems to have a picture perfect life of wealth and luxury, seemingly all due to her ‘business’ LuminUS, a wellness brand that sells creams, supplements, and other ‘healthy’ things. Steph convinces Drew to join her ‘team’, and Drew, needing money and feeling desperate, agrees. But soon she realizes that some things about LumiUS aren’t adding up, and then a member of the team is murdered while they’re all on a conference. I love a journalist trying to break a story, and Drew is a really fun protagonist because she’s scrappy, a little sour, and gets sucked into figuring out what happened to her acquaintance and how much Steph, and LuminUS, is hiding. The mystery is well done with some good curves, but it always feels a little cozy and fizzy as we see these MLM huns going to really forced parties, sniping at each other, and scrambling to make sales even as their friend is dead. But Abrams even expands it to feel not only a little “Real Housewives”, but also to feel a little corporate conspiracy, as not only is there a murderer at hand, but also the very real potential of a shady company trying to cover its own ass in regards to its pyramid scheme. I loved the two mysteries and thought that Abrams blended them well with some fun and bitchy characters to round it all out.

But what I loved even more is how Abrams tackles the very upsetting reality that MLMs are predatory scams that target (predominantly) women of varying circumstances (be it a wish to provide for their families while feeling unable to work outside the home, or a need for money, or other circumstances of desperation or drive) and suck them dry while walking away with their money. I think about my grandmother who had all this product and not much to show for it, and the horror stories you hear about places like LulaRoe or Monat or what have you. In this book it’s LuminUS, which has taken a small town and surrounding suburbs by storm as the local economies shake and the need for money is dire for some. While Drew is more within it because she smells a story, we see other women like bestie Steph and the women on her ‘team’ who have their own reasons to join, betting their life and their investments on this sketchy product. The LuminUS lore draws from a lot of MLM inspirations and brings in not only the way that it manipulates and scams people and drives them to debt while promising riches, but also some serious questions about the lack of regulations on ‘wellness’ products that we hear about time and time again when it comes to MLMs. I loved this angle because it gave it a little more bite and could perhaps open up some reflection from potential readers who would otherwise be tricked.

I really liked “Death in the Downline”! It was cozy but also a little snide, but in a way that wasn’t off putting. I will definitely be checking out more books by Maria Abrams in the future!

Rating 8: Fun, funny, twisty, and just an all around good time, “Death in the Downline” is a witty mystery that takes on predatory MLMs and the unachievable promises they make with a dash of murder on the side.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Death in the Downline” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “#Girlboss Mysteries”.

Kate’s Review: “Mask of the Deer Woman”

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

Book: “Mask of the Deer Woman” by Laurie L. Dove

Publishing Info: Berkley, January 2025

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

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

Book Description: To find a missing young woman, the new tribal marshal must also find herself. At rock bottom following her daughter’s murder, ex-Chicago detective Carrie Starr has nowhere to go but back to her roots. Starr’s father never talked much about the reservation that raised him, but they need a new tribal marshal as much as Starr needs a place to call home. In the last decade, too many young women have disappeared from the rez. Some dead, others just… gone.

Now, local college student Chenoa Cloud is missing, and Starr falls into an investigation that leaves her drowning in memories of her daughter—the girl she failed to save. Starr feels lost in this place she thought would welcome her. And when she catches a glimpse of a figure from her father’s stories, with the body of a woman and the antlers of a deer, Starr can’t shake the feeling that the fearsome spirit is watching her, following her. What she doesn’t know is whether Deer Woman is here to guide her or to seek vengeance for the lost daughters that Starr can never bring home.

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

I’m always on the lookout for more procedural mysteries. It’s a sub-genre I have enjoyed for a long time, ever since I’d watch “Law and Order” with my father in middle and high school. So when a new one comes across my radar, I am usually all in to give it a try, and “Mask of the Deer Woman” by Laurie L. Dove was no exception. I was already sold on a story about a woman law enforcement officer looking for a missing woman, but when I saw that it had an Indigenous main character and a setting on a reservation I was even more sold. Expanding the possibilities in a sub-genre is always a plus for me.

As a procedural mystery, “Mask of the Deer Woman” had a lot of moving parts that worked really well for me as a reader. Our protagonist is Carrie Starr, a former Chicago detective who has taken a job as a tribal marshal on the reservation where her father grew up. Carrie is a deeply flawed and damaged protagonist, who is still reeling from the death of her daughter Quinn and has slid into depression and substance abuse. When she has to start investigating a missing woman on the reservation, she at first thinks that it’s just another person who ran off, but the more she digs the more she starts to see patterns of many missing and murdered women, and starts connecting dots to a higher and more complicated mystery. As a main character she is at times hard to like, but I didn’t need to like her to want her to succeed, and I found her grief and trauma realistic and made her all the more complex. I also enjoyed the dissonance that she has having returned to a culture that she has so little connection to, and her return starts to bring out memories, connections to locals when they are sure how much they can trust her, and a vision of Deer Woman, a story from her culture that speaks to the violence towards women and a vengeance because of that. And that’s the big mystery here: the missing girls, with Chenoa Cloud the grad student in the present and more missing women in the past. Many people want to write them off as runaways or addicts, but it’s clear to many that that isn’t the case. Carrie starts to look into many missing women and uncovers some dark truths that have long gone ignored. It is a strong and very pertinent plot point (more on that in a bit), and I enjoyed how Dove slowly revealed her cards, and how there were intricate and more powerful pieces in play than I expected. I found it to be well plotted and very, very sad as well, given how MMIWG2S is an epidemic of violence that is too often ignored.

My favorite aspect of this book is a reflection of this point, which was the way that Dove wove in very timely and important to talk about issues that many Indigenous communities face in America today, usually due to our country’s history with colonialism and genocide and the trickle down consequences of that. Carrie has returned to her father’s community on a reservation in Oklahoma to work as a tribal marshal, and the realities the rez faces play huge parts in this book. Whether it’s the poverty the community faces, the drug and alcohol addiction that is rampant, the large number of missing and murdered women and girls in the community, and the way that local governments try to take advantage of the Indigenous people for their land and money making opportunities, specifically with oil companies trying to grab up their land. The systemic racism that the Government still holds towards Indigenous communities is a huge undercurrent in this story, and Dove finds a lot of inroads to address these themes and to connect them to the violence and mystery at the heart of the story.

I enjoyed “Mask of the Deer Woman”. I hope that Laurie L. Dove keeps writing Carrie Starr stories, because I will absolutely continue reading them.

Rating 8: Tense, well plotted, and heartbreaking. “Mask of the Deer Woman” is a solid procedural mystery that also centers very real struggles that Indigenous people in America face due to colonialism and systemic racism.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Mask of the Deer Woman” is included on the Goodreads list “Diverse Releases of 2025 – Mystery, Thriller, Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “Tell Me What You Did”

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

Book: “Tell Me What You Did” by Carter Wilson

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, January 2025

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

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

Book Description: She gets people to confess their crimes for a living. He knows she’s hiding a terrible secret. It’s time for the truth to come out…

Poe Webb, host of a popular true crime podcast, invites people to anonymously confess crimes they’ve committed to her audience. She can’t guarantee the police won’t come after her “guests,” but her show grants simultaneous anonymity and instant fame—a potent combination that’s proven difficult to resist. After an episode recording, Poe usually erases both criminal and crime from her mind.

But when a strange and oddly familiar man appears on her show, Poe is forced to take a second look. Not only because he claims to be her mother’s murderer from years ago, but because Poe knows something no one else does. Her mother’s murderer is dead.

Poe killed him.

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Dead Girl in 2A and The New Neighbor comes a chilling new thriller that forces the question: are murderers always the bad guys?

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

I am someone who really enjoys her true crime and weird tales podcasts, and I really enjoy seeing podcasts being incorporated into horror and thriller fiction. A podcast that I discovered last year was one called “Radio Rental”, where people write in their strange experiences and then record the stories themselves so that they are the ones to tell the story to the audience as opposed to a static host. I fell off it a little bit, but its really fun and I should probably go back and revisit it. I couldn’t help but think about that podcast when I read the premise for Carter Wilson’s “Tell Me What You Did”, but instead of real life scary or strange stories it was a story about a podcast that lets people anonymously confess crimes to the host Poe, who has some secrets of her own. But then an unhinged guest calling himself Ian calls in and claims that he killed her mother when Poe was a teenager. Which doesn’t make sense, because Poe is convinced that she already killed her mother’s killer. All of this sounded great, and Carter Wilson was a new name to me, so I thought why not take a chance on it? And I’m so happy I did, because “Tell Me What You Did” was loads of fun.

While it’s true that I was able to predict a few of the reveals in this book, that didn’t stop me from feeling the suspense as it built up in pacing and intensity. There were also a couple red herrings that did make me question my predictions, and a few things did catch me by surprise. I think that one of the biggest strengths of this was that it was an effective cat and mouse game as Poe realizes she is being stalked by a very dangerous lunatic, but also as we learn about her own past with stalking and cat and mouse shenanigans as she hunted down the man she believe brutally murdered her mother. I found myself tearing through in the last third of the book, really itching to see how it was all going to shake out, and man, were the twists and turns effective. To add some icing on this cake we also have some REALLY scary moments involving Ian and the lengths he will go to torment Poe. He’s the kind of villain that would translate SO WELL to a screen, and he was well realized in this.

But I also liked the ambiguity about Poe herself and her characterization. We know that she’s deeply traumatized due to witnessing her mother’s murder, and we slowly learn about how she herself committed a murder against who she thought was her mother’s killer. Her circumstances definitely make you sympathize, but we also have to ask some hard questions about revenge and vengeance and whether her actions against this person were justified. Especially when there is a sudden possibility that maybe the man she was so convinced was the murderer was actually an innocent man. I liked seeing Poe have to reckon with this possibility, and have to reflect on her certainty and perhaps need to come to terms with not REALLY being able to know. I feel like sometimes these ‘messy female protagonist’ tropes fall into obvious and well worn categories, but Poe’s horrific backstory AND her murderous past elevated this trope to new heights.

All in all, what a fun thriller! I’m happy that I took a chance on “Tell Me What You Did”, because it was very entertaining and a suspenseful read. If you have a winter getaway planned, consider bringing it along!

Rating 8: Twisty, turny, fast paced and at times genuinely scary, “Tell Me What You Did” is a fun and breakneck thriller.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Tell Me What You Did” is included on the Goodreads list “Most Anticipated Releases of 2025”.

Ripley’s Reviews: “Ripley Under Water”

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

“Ripley’s Reviews” is an ongoing series where I will review every book in Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripley” Series, as well as multiple screen adaptations of the novels. I will post my reviews on the first Thursday of the month, and delve into the twisted mind of one Tom Ripley and all the various interpretations that he has come to life within. Up next is the final book in the series, “Ripley Under Water”.

Book: “Ripley Under Water” by Patricia Highsmith

Publishing Info: Alfred A Knopf, October 1991

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: Tom Ripley passes his leisured days at his French country estate tending the dahlias, practicing the harpsichord, and enjoying the company of his lovely wife, Heloise. Never mind the bloodstains on the basement floor.

But some new neighbors have moved to Villeperce: the Pritchards, just arrived from America. they are a ghastly pair, with vulgar manners and even more vulgar taste. Most inconvenient, though, is their curiosity. Ripley does, after all, have a few things to hide. When menacing coincidences begin to occur, a spiraling contest of sinister hints and mutual terrorism ensues, resulting in one of Patricia Highsmith’s most elegantly harrowing novels to date.

Review: Happy 2025! I guess? New Year, new me, etcetera, and while I’m feeling pretty nervous about what this year has in store, I feel like we have the perfect transition here about to begin with my “Ripley’s Reviews” series. For you see, in the spirit of out with the old and in with the new, we are ending the first phase of this ongoing blog romp, as we have reached the end of the Tom Ripley books with “Ripley Under Water”! Patricia Highsmith published this book in 1991 and then passed away four years later, and therefore we are at a crossroads for how we follow Ripley as my series continues. I was hoping we’d get a pretty slamdunk ending to Ripley’s adventures after some shaky twists and turns. Unfortunately, that isn’t really what we got here.

Me in the final pages of this novel (source).

I found this to be more of the same from this series. Tom Ripley is still living at Belle Ombre with Heloise (oh Heloise. I enjoy her, she’s so daffy), just trying to tend to his garden and live life in relative comfort and opulence. And once again someone enters his life potentially threatening his comfort and stature, this time in the form of a boorish American couple called The Pritchards, who know a lot about his past and plan to make him suffer for it because… reasons? I did like the idea of Tom being on the receiving end of a little bit of torment for once, though the Pritchards were pretty two dimensional as villains, and I felt like we sleep walked through the story as Ripley attempts to outmaneuver them and keep his secrets hidden, even as they escalate and a literal body end up on Ripley’s literal doorstep. It’s entertaining, but nothing really stood out as unique or original. At least in “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” we had some really campy moments to even out the drudgery of Tom playing cat and mouse again. Here it’s just the same old song and dance, and while I enjoy Ripley very much and find him to be quite a character, I’ve realized that he needs supporting characters to play off of for his stories to really be successful. But I feel like as the series has gone on we’ve just gotten roadblocks and warm bodies that we know aren’t going to succeed in outwitting him.

And the saddest part of this book is that while it’s the final book in the series, it just kind of ends. I don’t know if this was because Highsmith had more plans for Tom but then died before she could bring them to life, or if it was because she knew that it would be a payday for her should she keep writing Ripley books and this one was merely a vessel to get said payday. I hope it wasn’t anything as cynical as that. But man, this just kind of ended without much fanfare. Maybe it’s a statement about how people like Tom Ripley just get to keep getting away with things. But as a narrative ending for Tom Ripley as a character, it just wasn’t very satisfying. I don’t know if I wanted him to get caught. It’s something I’m struggling with as the Joe Goldberg series goes on as well. But I wanted more than this.

Sorry to say that with “Ripley Under Water” we have come to a less than satisfying ending to Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripliad”. I don’t think this was a failed experiment on my part, as now having his full trajectory was interesting to be sure. But I had higher hopes than were warranted.

Well we are officially done with the book series. But we aren’t done yet! We still have a few films and TV adaptations to take on! And my first review of a “Ripley” adaptation is the film “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, which I will review next month! AKA the first movie where I was made aware that Jude Law is a person who exists. Can’t wait to revisit this one.

Rating 5: I’m a bit sad this is how we end the literary adventures of Tom Ripley, as it was more of the same and a weak ending to the series about one of the thriller genre’s MVPs.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Ripley Under Water” is included on the Goodreads list “The Vilest Man in Fiction”.

Ripley’s Reviews: “The Boy Who Followed Ripley”


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

“Ripley’s Reviews” is an ongoing series where I will review every book in Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripley” Series, as well as multiple screen adaptations of the novels. I will post my reviews on the first Thursday of the month, and delve into the twisted mind of one Tom Ripley and all the various interpretations that he has come to life within. Up next is the fourth book in the series, “The Boy Who Followed Ripley”.

Book: “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” by Patricia Highsmith

Publishing Info: Lippincott & Crowell, May 1980

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: The Boy Who Followed Ripley, the fourth novel in the Ripley series, is one of Patricia Highsmith’s darkest and most twisted creations.

Tom Ripley meets a young American runaway who has a dark secret that he is desperate to hide. Soon this unlikely pair is drawn into the seamy underworld of Berlin and a shocking kidnapping. In this masterful thriller, Highsmith shatters our perceptions of her most famous creation by letting us glimpse a more compassionate side of this amoral charmer.

Review: Okay look, I’m not going to beat around the bush here. I went into this review series thinking that all of the “Ripley” novels were going to be deeply suspenseful and able to stand the test of time. Patricia Highsmith is a well regarded author, and Tom Ripley is an icon. In the penultimate novel “The Boy Who Followed Ripley”, we get a bit of a dip in quality. Okay, a pretty large dip in quality. As a thriller, it really is stilted. The pacing is totally off. We have Tom Ripley meeting a young American teenager named Billy, who is actually an heir to a fortune named Frank Pierson who fled his home in America because he threw his wheelchair bound father off a cliff. So Tom finding a kindred spirit in this murderous young man goes on a road trip to Berlin, where we vacillate between tedious travel to a weird kidnapping plot that makes the story feel like it’s stopping and starting. Yes, as a thriller “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” didn’t feel all that thrilling or compelling to me.

But as a queer romp with Ripley really REALLY leaning in to the at the very least bisexual side that Highsmith spent so many years denying? GOOD LORD DOES IT WORK.

The way this book was gagging me as Ripley was feeling his oats… (source)

I am just going to be putting a pretty heavy spoiler warning on this review because we have to talk about so many things. As I mentioned above, for years Patricia Highsmith flat out denied the speculations that Tom Ripley was written as a gay man, in spite of the fact that people were picking up on little signs and coded moments here and there. His obsession with Dickie Greenleaf in the first book is probably the biggest piece of evidence, so much so that both the 1999 adaptation with Matt Damon and the newest Netflix adaptation with Andrew Scott run with it (the latter more than the former, and I will be watching both of these down the line in this series). But in “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” it feels like either Highsmith decided to maybe take these fan theories and speculations for a whirl, or she just decided to troll her readers. Because my goodness is Tom in his experimentation era here. Whether he’s listening to and appreciating Lou Reed’s album “Transformer” (long regarded as an album that really taps into the queerness of Glam Rock), or admitting to himself and others that he doesn’t really crave sex from his wife Heloise, or hanging out in a gay bar in Berlin with Tommy and enjoying the people he is interacting with, or LITERALLY DRESSING IN DRAG TO HELP FOIL THE KIDNAPPING PLOT, this book is REALLY going places that I didn’t expect when it came to Ripley’s sexuality. I’m by no means saying this is some pride parade of a novel, nor am I saying that this book is somehow ahead of its time when it comes to queer characterization. But I will say that getting into Ripley’s head as he’s getting in drag and seeing him muse about how putting on this disguise is freeing, or seeing him look on with what could be longing as Frank finds a fleeting community at a gay bar on the dance floor, was oddly bittersweet, and perhaps some of the most poignant moments for the character yet.

I don’t know why Ripley was so interested in saving Frank. Does he see himself in him? Does he see a potential protege? Is he just fixated again? It’s not clear. It has a lot of questions it leaves unanswered, and then Ripley moves on and will be going into his final story in the next. But for being the weakest in terms of thriller elements, any book that has Tom Ripley fighting kidnappers in drag as a ruse is a okay in my book. There is also a BBC Radio dramatization of this book with Nicholas Hoult as Frank, and I MAY be adding that to my adaptation reviews if I can find it. Anyway, next up is the final book in the series “Ripley Under Water”. I don’t know how Highsmith is going to wrap it up, but there’s no way to top Ripley in drag, if I’m being honest.

Rating 6: As a thriller, this is probably the weakest of the “Ripley” stories yet. BUT AS A QUEER FEVER DREAM?? It’s everything.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Boy Who Followed Ripley” is included on the Goodreads list “The Vilest Man in Fiction”, and “Drag Queen Fiction”.

Kate’s Review: “Alter Ego”

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

Book: “Alter Ego” by Alex Segura

Publishing Info: Flatiron Books, December 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at ALAAC24.

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

Book Description: Alex Segura, LA Times Book Prize–winning author of Secret Identity, returns with a clever and escapist mystery set in the world of comic books. In the present day, a comics legend is given the chance to revive a beloved but forgotten character. But at what price?

Annie Bustamante is a cultural force like none other: an acclaimed filmmaker, an author, a comic book artist known for one of the all time best superhero comics in recent memory. But she’s never been able to tackle her longtime favorite superhero, the Lethal Lynx. Only known to the most die-hard comics fans and long out of print, the rights were never available―until now.

But Annie is skeptical of who is making the offer: Bert Carlyle’s father started Triumph Comics, and has long claimed ownership of the Lynx. When she starts getting anonymous messages urging her not to trust anyone, Annie’s inner alarms go off. Even worse? Carlyle wants to pair her with a disgraced filmmaker for a desperate media play.

Annie, who has been called a genius, a sell-out, a visionary, a hack, and everything else under the sun, is sick of the money grab. For the first time since she started reading a tattered copy of The Legendary Lynx #1 as a kid, she feels a pure, creative spark. The chance to tell a story her way. She’s not about to let that go. Even if it means uncovering the dark truth about the character she loves.

Sharply written, deftly plotted, and with a palpable affection for all kinds of storytelling, Alter Ego is a one-of-a-kind reading experience.

Review: Thank you to Flatiron Books for providing me with an ARC of this novel at ALAAC24!

I will admit that when I saw that Alex Segura had written a sequel to his thriller “Secret Identity”, I was a little shocked. Not because I thought that “Secret Identity” was bad! In reality I really liked that novel, but I thought that it had been wrapped up really well, and that the story of Carmen Valdez and her comic hero The Legendary Lynx was finished. When I saw “Alter Ego” at ALAAC24, clearly I had to pick it up, even if I wasn’t sure where it could go. But I was more than happy to find out!

Note: The ARC I had doesn’t have the comic book excerpts included, as I imagine they were still in process when it was printed. So I can’t speak to that aspect of the story. That being said, I remember this device being used very well in “Secret Identity” and imagine it will be the same here. I intend to check out a finished copy ASAP!

As I said, I was way off the mark when I thought that there wasn’t much more to get from the Legendary Lynx’s story, as “Alter Ego” goes in a new, present day direction, and still finds suspense, passion, and a tantalizing mystery and story about being a woman in comics. This time it’s the story of Annie Bustamante, a comics writer, filmmaker, and author, who has been approached to reboot the Legendary Lynx by Triumph Comics and its CEO Bert Carlyle. Given that Annie loves the Lynx and has ever since she was a child, she is intrigued, but skeptical, in part because of the way Triumph wants her to team up with a controversial film director to execute the vision, but also because Bert seems… cagey. And because she’s getting messages of warning about a hidden truth about the Lynx and the danger she may be in. Segura does a great move in this book, as he picks it up a bit where he left “Secret Identity”… and then completely turns it on its head, leaving the Lynx’s still a mystery, and Annie the one to pick up the mantle of figuring it out. I loved how we got new clues, new revelations, and new moments of intrigue, while still harkening back to “Secret Identity” and the various characters within its pages, from Carmen Valdez to her illustrator to others, some of whom have a less than happy fate (no spoilers though). The mystery about the messages, how the Lynx’s true creator has still been hidden, and what it’s going to take to finally reveal the truth, and the dangers associated with it, are taut and well paced.

But what I liked the most about this book was our protagonist Annie Bustamante. Annie is driven, to the point, passionate, and a little cynical, and we are given such a rich backstory and character arc that it all falls into place very easily. She has dealt with a lot of hardship and loss, but has a resilience that makes it very believable for her to want to not only give justice to the Legendary Lynx, a character she has loved for most of her life, but that she would continue to pursue the truth about her origins even in the face of some pretty serious danger, conspiracy, and adversity. She is scrappy as hell and the perfect amateur detective, with a chip on her shoulder and a little bit of baggage to boot. And I loved that she is also a devoted and loving mom to her teenage daughter Margot, who never comes off as too precocious or unbelievable. As a Mom to a daughter who is my only child, stories like these always hit a little harder now, and I really appreciated the healthy relationship they had. Everything about Annie really worked for me, she’s one of the best thriller protagonists I’ve seen in a novel in awhile.

I am so glad that Alex Segura decided to do another book in the Legendary Lynx story, as “Alter Ego” really brings more complexity and depth to the story as a whole. If you liked “Secret Identity”, the follow up is definitely something to seek out.

Rating 8: A solid follow up with a really endearing main character and a well done mystery, “Alter Ego” continues the story of the women who pay homage to a long forgotten comics icon.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Alter Ego” is included on the Goodreads list “2024 Mystery Thrillers Crime To Be Excited For”.