BEACH THRILLER by Jamie Day

Jamie Day reliably writes a secret-filled family drama set in a beach town that’s perfect for your summer reading. Grab a beach chair, a cool drink and some sunscreen and settle in for her latest, aptly titled BEACH THRILLER.

Holly, a fiction writer at a crossroad in her career and a dead-end in her bank account, returns to her family’s rundown cottage on a valuable ocean view property to save money and reinvent herself professionally. Her return to the family property is haunted with ghosts, both of her mother, recently passed after a battle with dementia, and her sister Anna, who died under mysterious circumstances when Holly was a teen. Holly plans to revise a novel she had begun when Anna was alive, based on her sister’s life. In order to get a better sense of what happened to Anna, Holly begins asking questions of the people who knew Anna the summer she died. What could go wrong?

With an amusing cast of characters, some complex, some not, and some memorable settings, which rise to the level of characters themselves, Day has written an engaging, if occasionally predictable, suspense novel.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

BEACH THRILLER is out June 9, 2026.

What a fantastic book! Alan is a high powered ad exec who suddenly comes face to face with the rampant consumption that he depends on for his living. When he decides to “opt out” of that materialistic lifestyle, his decision comes crashing into the world his wife has been desperately trying to create for herself and her daughters. Hilarious and poignant, Courtney Maum’s novel will show you the excesses of the country club class, while also making you think about your own relationship to those same desires and needs. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Little Brown and Company and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

ALAN OPTS OUT is out June 2, 2026.

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Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 movie PSYCHO is a classic, at least in terms of the history of film. Aside from some great cinematography, it spawned modern horror as a genre, specifically the slasher film. And that, of course, is what makes it highly problematic.

Leah Rowan has updated and reclaimed the story by telling it from Marion’s point of view and eschewing the typical ending. This book is all about Marion and how she ended up at a remote hotel with a bag of cash that is not hers. The same cultural dynamics are at play, but Rowan gives Marion the backbone and resilience that Hitchcock robbed her of.

Happily, Rowan doesn’t just rely on propping her story up on a well-known film. Her writing is tight. The plot speeds along, careening around twists that go perilously close to the cliff’s edge. And there’s an interesting cat and mouse dynamic where I found myself rooting for both characters because both were so well-developed. Brava!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

MARION is out June 2, 2026.

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What classic films would you like to see retold? Drop a note in the comment box.

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A young bookseller with a murky past and dark secrets is whisked to an exclusive after-dark tour of a famous, and notorious, library for dark fairy tales as a Valentine’s surprise by her new paramour. When the group is accidentally locked inside and one of them dies, all of the tour groups’ individual secrets begin to surface. Interspersed with some of the fairy tales in the library’s most famous book, the story, told from multiple points of view, careens from dark revelation to darker revelations, and the body count rises.

Pliego’s book is a dark thriller with tinges of horror. You won’t want to look away until the stunning conclusion.

Thank you to Ballantine | Bantam and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

THE LIBRARY AFTER DARK is out May 5, 2026.

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Fleeing a traumatic brush with death in London, Gabrielle Adams leaves her fiancee and her dream job as a powerful player in the publishing world to run a quirky bookstore in a seaside village. But all is not nearly as peaceful there as she expects.

Ross has established herself as an agile writer in the thriller genre, often choosing remote and atmospheric settings and traumatized protagonists. THE COVE, a romantic suspense standalone novel, is yet another testament to her best-selling status. The gripping plot has twists and turns, but also just enough humor and romance to keep the reader locked in.

Perfect for fans of Sally Hepworth and Stephanie DeCarolis.

Thank you to Ballantine | Bantam and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

THE COVE is part of Ross’s Summer Suspense Mystery series and was published in the UK in 2021. The US publication will be out May 5, 2026.

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THIS WEEKEND DOESN’T END WELL FOR ANYONE by Catherine Mack

This is the third of Catherine Mack’s hugely popular Eleanor Dash novels, which follow the best-selling author as she once again finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation while on vacation. When she’s asked by her agent to participate in a weekend writing conference in the Bahamas, Eleanor naively thinks it will be a relaxing getaway with her boyfriend, Oliver Forrest, and her sister/assistant, Harper. But there are many more familiar faces at the resort when she arrives. And that’s not the biggest surprise on her arrival. There’s a dead body in their suite.

As Eleanor starts to feel paranoid, the warnings and the bodies begin to pile up. And the police are no help, as usual.

Mack employs her usual humor and snarky direct addresses to the reader, along with a plot that keeps getting murkier by the minute. Another fun beach read by Catherine Mack.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

THIS WEEKEND DOESN’T END WELL FOR ANYONE is out April 28, 2026.

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The Thursday Murder Club is back, but things have changed a bit. It’s a year after the events of LAST DEVIL TO DIE, and Elizabeth doesn’t quite have her groove back. But the gang is busy with their own lives. Joyce’s daughter is finally getting married. Ron is settling in with his new girlfriend. And Ibrahim is counselling Connie Johnson, who’s just been released from prison and still harbors a grudge against Ron. Donna and Chris play smaller roles this time, but both show up at key moments.

At the wedding, the best man, Nick asks Elizabeth for help finding the person who placed a still-undetonated bomb under his car then disappears. Feeling the pull of her old self, Elizabeth agrees to help and begins to find her way through her grief.

The beauty of this series about a motley group of septuagenarians living in a quaint retirement community is that with each installment, the main characters change and grow. The mystery, involving car bombs and a hidden fortune in BitCoin, is top-notch, but the characters are the heartbeat of the story. Osman employs his usual wit, with one of my favorite self-referential bits ever when Ron gets into two separate side conversations about who was the best James Bond. Perfect!

THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTUNE is available now.

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Have you watched the Netflix series? What did you think?

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WHAT MEETS THE EYE by Alex Kenna

Looking for a propulsive thriller/detective novel with an art world setting? Look no further than Alex Kenna’s debut WHAT MEETS THE EYE. Her main character, Kate Miles, formerly a promising LAPD detective whose career is derailed by an accident during a police operation, is complex and determined to get her life back on track. When a distraught father asks her to investigate his daughter’s suspicious death, ruled a suicide by a cop Kate knew was sloppy at best, she takes the job partly to pay the bills, but she becomes increasingly convinced that the daughter, the controversial painter Margot Starling, was murdered.

Kenna weaves a twisty plot, full of shady galleries, struggling artists and gangsters. I couldn’t put this down!

WHAT MEETS THE EYE is available now.

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THE AWARD by Matthew Pearl

Matthew Pearl has been a favorite author of mine since his first book THE DANTE CLUB. His latest, THE AWARD, published December 2025, is a clever mash up of crime novel and literary fiction. Beginning with an author’s note that “Some of this happened,” the novel follows David, an emerging author keen to make his mark in the literary circles of his adopted home town of Boston and beyond. When the opportunity to live in the same house as his curmudgeonly idol, Silas Hale, David and his fiancée Bonnie jump at the chance, despite some less-than appealing circumstances. While his proximity fails to gain Hale’s attention, David does manage to win the same literary award that Hale had won with his debut novel. And yet, just as everyone, including Hale, begins to take notice of David, news of a mix up regarding the award reaches David, and events devolve quickly from that point.

Blending a cat-and-mouse plot with incisive commentary on the insular world of authors and literary awards, Pearl’s novel is hard to put down. Amusing and heart-pounding by turns, I found myself reading far into the night.

THE AWARD is available now.

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I, SPY by LM Kemp

I honestly didn’t know what to expect with this book. The set up involving a former spy who’s in hiding and trying to shield her young daughter from her past is intriguing, but potentially full of pitfalls. LM Kemp deftly navigated those, crafting a story that is a full-on thriller, while also weaving in a relatable story about motherhood, with its social landmines and surprising connections, and the unrealistic urge all parents have to protect their children from all heartache and danger. I would give this six stars out of five, if I could. Brava! I feel fortunate to have found this debut and look forward to subsequent books by Kemp!

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

I, SPY is out May 5, 2026.

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At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Tony Luong for The New York Times

34 years ago today, in the early hours of March 18, 1990, thieves gained entry into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, disguised as Boston police officers investigating a reported disturbance. After more than two hours on the premises, they disappeared with 13 artworks, from priceless Rembrandts and a Vermeer, to the bronze eagle finial from a flagpole. None of the works has been returned, and the trail has gone cold, especially after the deaths of a few people of interest to the investigators. The frames and pedestals remain empty.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit. More than the art that is left, which includes a priceless array of important work, I wanted to see the empty frames. Have you seen them? The empty frames scattered among different galleries in the Gardner Museum are lit as if they still surrounded their original charges. It’s a very dramatic effect. A visitor is just as likely to stumble across one of these echoes of their stolen treasures as they are to find them by design. And yet, seen by chance or by choice, their very emptiness is jarring. It puts the visitor back on her heals, even when she knew the story of their theft.

Those frames that acted as supporting characters, both drawing attention to their prize and protecting their ward, stand testament to the terrible loss of rarities. None of the art works which were stolen in the dark hours of that March night can be replaced. This is partly why the museum has chosen to leave the discarded frames on the wall.* Some were even repaired to be returned to their original placement. The frames stand in for their unique contents in memoriam as a lover erects a funerary monument to their lost paramour.

But the empty frames are not the only memorial monuments in the museum. There is a lovely collection of sarcophagi that Mrs. Gardner amassed in her mansion. A collection that you must pass by to reach the rooms with the empty frames. The Farnese Sarcophagus is the most famous of the sarcophagi, although there are others scattered around the museum. With its relief of revelers, maenads and satyrs in a Bacchanalian feast, it depicts a life lived to the fullest. Such scenes were inspired by the Etruscan practice of depicting the dead on the lids of their sarcophagi reclined at an eternal feast, as if to depict it they have secured such a fate.

View of the gallery with the Farnese Sarcophagus and a detail. Photos: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Because the lid was lost prior to the discovery of the sarcophagus, scholars don’t know to whom the coffin belonged. They have confidently dated it to early in the 3^rd century. The museum suggests it was made in Rome around 225 CE, and its history can be traced from its discovery in Tivoli in the 16^th century through the Farnese Family, a couple of Popes and a king, but its particular history between its fabrication and its discovery is lost.

It is important to remember that this glorious carved marble box was, in fact, a funerary monument to an individual. There was, most certainly, a body in there, who was removed at some point. And while Mrs. Gardner didn’t steal it (the sarcophagus was in fact purchased by her husband), it was, at some point, “discovered.” Let’s consider that discovery.

By the third century CE, Romans were burying their dead in catacombs. The more affluent were buried in sarcophagi. Marble was one of the most expensive materials used for such purposes. In all likelihood, this particularly spectacular example of relief carving was “discovered” in a catacomb. The lid, which may have included an identifying inscription or even a portrait likeness, was removed. And the bones that would have been left, were discarded. At great effort, the heavy box itself would have been removed from the catacomb. The sarcophagus’s condition, empty with no lid, serves a similar supporting role that the empty frames do. What is lost is irreplaceable, at least to the person who ordered this monument.

Please understand that I’m not trying to suggest that the sarcophagus needs to be repatriated, as many recently looted artifacts should be. So many are obtained by raiding the resting places of the long dead. And while those dead may not be identifiable, that does not mean that there are no ancestors who are violated by the removal of burial objects.

In the case of the Farnese Sarcophagus, the extensive documented provenance of the ancient work in individual hands after its discovery, and its sale to the Gardners in 1897 renders it legitimately the property of the museum, at least as far as the law is concerned. I don’t question that.

Instead, I am merely trying to articulate what may be a violence or trauma at the heart of collecting art and antiquities. The owning of such unique things is perhaps not possible without the threat or actuality of theft. And the objects themselves are almost always a memorial of that very possibility, the punctum that Roland Barthes describes at the heart of photography, that possibility of a photograph, of his dead mother in Barthes’s case, to cause an intense and subjective effect on the viewer, one wrapped in memory. Barthes rightly pointed out that photography, in its ability to act as a ‘living image of a dead thing’ had its roots in ancient funerary objects. However, he maintains that photography is singular in its ability to elicit this intense and subjective effect on the viewer. I don’t agree. In the case of the empty frames at the Gardner, the viewer feels the prick of a similar punctum, the power of the loss, displayed as emptiness surrounded by a frame, like a mourning lover draped over the funerary monument.

*One of the main considerations in keeping the empty frames comes from Mrs. Gardener’s will, which insists the museum, her former home, stay installed exactly as she left it.

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HOLY ISLAND by LJ Ross

Set on the fabled tidal island of Lindisfarne, LJ Ross’s HOLY ISLAND harnesses the windswept, brooding atmosphere of the craggy rock, isolated twice a day by the tides and always by the dangerous waters surrounding the island. Ross excels with remote settings and small-town secrets. When outsider, DCI Ryan retreats to Holy Island, he is expecting to be left alone, but when a grisly murder lands almost on his doorstep, he must team up with a local with the specialized knowledge he needs to crack the case and with secrets of her own. Ross’s writing is tight and evocative. I look forward to reading more in the DCI Ryan series.

HOLY ISLAND is fast-paced, tightly plotted and thickly atmospheric. For fans of Dennis Lehane, Tana French and Tessa Wegert. This is the US release of her bestselling debut.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

HOLY ISLAND is out April 7, 2026.

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DREAMT I FOUND YOU

By Jimin Han

Han’s beautifully-written retelling of a classic Korean story of doomed lovers balances updating the tale while simultaneously recounting it through the eyes of contemporary Korean Americans who are navigating their own insular immigrant community and the insular New England beach community they inhabit. Han touches on K-Pop, social media, stalking, childhood trauma, folktales and magic, all the while keeping a light enough touch that I could not put this book down. This is truly a masterpiece!

Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

DREAMT I FOUND YOU is out April 28, 2026.

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DIET OF DEATH: A Reluctant Food Columnist Mystery

by Ang Pompano

Quincy Lazzaro has a problem. Actually, he has a few problems. He really wants to be an investigative journalist, but the only job he’s managed to find is as a food columnist named Betty Ann Green. Now he needs to pretend to be the beloved Betty’s assistant and write about food, even providing recipes. Another problem, he can’t cook.

He manages, with the help of his elderly neighbor, Mary, and his ex-wife’s “borrowed” recipe collection to muddle through the column, until he witnesses the death of a popular diet doctor during his interview with the man.

DIET OF DEATH is a well-written detective novel with quirky characters and some fine twists!

Five out of five cannoli!

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BLADE by Wendy Walker

Who remembers watching Figure Skating in the Winter Olympics as a kid? For me, it was Dorothy Hamill with her signature Hamill Camel. I was such a huge fan, I even asked for the same haircut that she had. When I saw that Wendy Walker, one of my favorite writers, was writing a thriller, inspired HER OWN experience training for the Olympic trials, I knew I just had to read her book.

Walker hit all of her marks with grace. Told in two points of view in two timeframes, BLADE will keep you on the edge of your own figurative blade from the first word, “Run,” until the last. Ana Robbins, a former Olympic hopeful, now working as a criminal attorney to defend children, is called to the remote Colorado training facility she left years before to defend young figure skater Grace, who’s been accused of murder. Ana must battle her own demons while she tries to hunt down Grace’s.

Walker has addressed trauma in her psychological thrillers before. This novel benefits from that, as well as Walker’s own experiences as a young skater living away from her family and her career perspective as an attorney. Never heavy-handed, but always deftly moving through the narrative, both support the story as the reader is propelled through the same high-stakes emotion Grace and a young Ana experience.

Five out of five stars!

What’s your favorite memory of an Olympic sport?

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WHAT HAPPENED NEXT by Edwin Hill

How do you know what really happened when a family tragedy occurred before you were old enough to remember it and no one wants to talk about it? How can you come to terms with your own life, when everyone tells you your father was a monster who killed one man, then tried to kill you?

Charlie Kilgore is haunted by these questions. When his boss suggests he return to his hometown to investigate for a true crime podcast, Charlie reluctantly agrees. After all, his mother and brother won’t be pleased that he’s dredging up the past. Nor will most of the residents of the town. And when bodies start dropping, Charlie realizes just how dangerous his questions are and just how much more he has to lose.

Edwin Hill always delivers when he writes about small towns and families with secrets. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT is no exception. Atmospheric with messy, but believable characters, this thriller will keep you turning pages until far later into the night than you planned!

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT is out April 1, 2026.

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KILLING ME SOFTLY by Sandie Jones

Freya and Charlie are on top of the world. Newlyweds, madly in love, promising careers and a fabulous London social life. Until the night it all comes crashing down in a spectacular way. Now they are lying for each other to the police to avoid being charged in a hit-and-run accident, fleeing London for a tiny village and trying to hold their marriage together, to kick an addiction, and to build a new life.

But there are cracks in their marriage that go deeper than either of them suspect. And there are dangers lurking in the village, which will pit Freya and Charlie against each other and test them even further.

Sandie Jones has written a fast-paced and deeply unnerving psychological thriller about addiction and obsession that keeps the reader guessing throughout.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

KILLING ME SOFTLY is out March 31, 2026.

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A NOVEL CRIME by Deborah Levison

Mary Jo Codburn is desperate. She’s facing an empty nest, alone and wondering what ever happened to her dreams of becoming a published author. Her job in real estate is lackluster. Her writing group is fine, but it’s not getting her any closer to published. When she stumbles upon an embarrassing incident for a bestselling author, she does what anyone would do. She blackmails her to help her with her own novel and to introduce her to agents and publishers.

Renaming herself Summer Brannigan, Mary Jo careens headlong down a path of blackmail and con artistry. Mary Jo’s descent into kidnapping and ultimately murder is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Levison manages to make Mary Jo just earnest and delusional enough to draw the reader deeper into this far-fetched plot until the twist at the end. In the end, I found myself wondering if maybe Mary Jo was the one who had been conned by her own desperation.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

A NOVEL CRIME is out March 31, 2026.

Alexander’s latest Bakeshop Mystery, set in bucolic Ashland, Oregon, is a pitch perfect cozy, full of baked goods, amazing savories, a town full of eccentric characters and a complicated mystery that kept me guessing until the end. When a controversial director is murdered with a stage prop just before the cast party for a visiting performance of the Broadway classic Perfect Crime, Jules and her talented team at Torte add sleuthing to their repertoire. THE WHISKING HOUR is a very satisfying mystery that’s perfect for fans of the genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

THE WHISKING HOUR is out February 24, 2026.

What if your best friend, who agreed to be your surrogate, disappears just days before your baby’s due date? This is the nightmare scenario Danielle Girard has spun into an intense thriller that questions how well you really know your oldest friends and how much you can trust your childhood memories. I couldn’t wait to get back to this book every time I had to put it down. Highly recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGallery and Atria Books for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

PINKY SWEAR is out February 24, 2026.