My Sister Is Going to Kill Me

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Thank you Kathleen Carter Communications and William Morrow Books for the gifted copy.

Corporate intrigue, family drama, and outdoor adventure make this an entertaining whodunit. 

My Sister Is Going to Kill Me by Nina Simon follows two sisters who couldn't be more different. Liv is the buttoned-up planner, Mandy's the free spirit. Every year they take a sister trip, and this year Mandy books them on a whitewater rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. It's a launch event for a buzzy new wellness product from a charismatic CEO, so what could go wrong? 

There's plenty of finger-pointing and enough suspects to keep most armchair detectives guessing. I loved the Grand Canyon and Colorado River setting, which Nina Simon describes beautifully.

A great pick if you like isolated settings, family drama, corporate intrigue, and as many twists and turns as the river. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

About the Author
Follow Nina on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her books.

The Last to Drown

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Noelle Ihli knows how to write an edge of your thriller. The Last to Drown is a banger and so bingeable.

Narrator Vivienne Leheny does a fantastic job with the fast paced action and all the emotions. 

Grab this one if you love propulsive action, cat and mouse thrillers, isolated locations, and strong women. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wear your life vest and jump right into it! 

Grab a copy of The Last to Drown at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

About the Author

Noelle W. Ihli is a thriller-suspense author. She lives in Idaho with her husband, two sons, and two cats. When she’s not plotting her next thriller, she’s scaring herself with true-crime documentaries or going for a trail ride in the foothills. Follow Noelle on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her books.

She Dies in the End

 

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Thank you to Kathleen Carter Communications and Amazon Publishing for the gifted ARC, and to Brilliance Publishing and NetGalley for the gifted early listen.

In She Dies in the End by Elle Marr, Penny Lin matches donated bodies with the labs that need them, and she treats the dead with respect. When her ex turns a body into a party spectacle, her furious rant goes viral. Then he turns up dead in her morgue, and Penny is suspect number one. A truly original premise, steady tension, and lots of twists. Mirai's audio narration is fantastic. I started out reading the ARC and switched to the audiobook for the majority of the book.

If you love mysteries with a premise you've never seen before, add this one to your list.

Out October 20. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

About the Author

Elle Marr is the author of seven thrillers centering AAPI characters. Her debut THE MISSING SISTER was published in April 2020, and her latest release, THE LIE SHE WEARS was published on November 18, 2025. Her work has been featured in PopSugar, Woman’s World Magazine, Goodreads, Audible, and TV affiliates for CBS, ABC, FOX, and NBC. Follow Elle on Instagram and visit her website for more news about her books.

The French Illusion

 

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Many thanks for the free book, Penguin Random House Audio! John Grisham wrote a spy thriller, and I'm here for it. 

The French Illusion is a high stakes game of cat and mouse that plays out on an international stage.

American honeymooners Chelsea and Paul are kidnapped in Paris, the ransom is paid, but only the wife comes home. And this is not the first time it's happened. 

A young CIA analyst comes up with a daring plan to find Paul and apprehended the kidnappers. She recruits a young lawyer from the Justice Department to pose as bait for the kidnappers. It's a daring plan that could have deadly consequences. 

This is a fast, tense, revenge story with a counterterrorism twist underneath. The ending a felt a little rushed to me and wrapped up a little too tidy. But ultimately was satisfying. 

Michael Beck's narration is fantastic. He's a perfect fit for mix of political intrigue and action. He also does a great job juggling accents and numerous characters. 

This is a great choice for a reader looking for the tension filled espionage mixed with adrenaline filled action. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

If you liked this review, you might be interested in my review of Gisham's The Widow.

About the Author

John Grisham is the author of more than fifty consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include Framed, Camino Ghosts and The Exchange: After the Firm.

Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.

When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.

Follow John on Instagram and visit his website for more news and information about his books.

Mask of the Deer Woman

 

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Thanks to my bookstagram pal Kristin for including me on this tour celebrating this week's paperback release of Mask of the Deer Woman, and to Laurie L. Dove and Berkley for the gifted copy. If you missed this one when it came out last year, now's your chance. 

Carrie Starr is a former Chicago detective who's hanging on by a thread. After her teenage daughter's death, she's numbing the grief with joints and alcohol. Her last option is becoming the marshal for her father's tribe in Oklahoma. She's the only law enforcement on the entire reservation, and she didn't grow up there. She doesn't know the land or the people.

Then Chenoa, a young Indigenous grad student, goes missing, and her mother begs Carrie to find her. Once Carrie starts digging and sees how many women have vanished from the rez over the years, she's a dog with a bone. She finds a strength she probably didn't know she still had.

What I loved:
📍 It puts a spotlight on the epidemic of missing Indigenous women, how their stories get ignored by the media, and how agencies squabble over who should even investigate.
📍 The atmosphere. Dove contrasts the beauty of the land with the greed of people who want to exploit it.
📍 Carrie's journey as a biracial woman reconnecting with the Native roots she was cut off from her whole life.
📍 Folklore and a touch of magical realism that walks the line between the real world and the spiritual one.
📍 It doesn't shy away from poverty, unemployment, generational trauma, and limited opportunities on the reservation.

This is a mystery with layers. It's character driven, intricately plotted, and steadily paced. Carrie is complicated and flawed, and I was rooting for her by the end. I'm already looking forward to the sequel, Cry of the Rain Crow, on December 8. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grab a copy of Mask of the Deer Woman at Bookshop.org and help out an indie bookstore while you're at it. And don't forget to preorder Cry of the Rain Crow!

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in Missing by E.A. Jackson. It's another female-led police procedural about a missing person.

About the Author

Laurie L. Dove is a reporter and editor whose work has appeared in numerous publications and garnered several honors for outstanding journalism. She graduated with a master’s degree in Creative Writing and Literature from Harvard University. She is an adjunct professor who currently lives and writes in Kansas. Follow Laurie on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her books.

It's Not What You Think

 

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Thank you Sourcebooks Audio for the gifted early listen!

Nadeeka is sure her boyfriend Jamie is cheating. She's been through it before, and all the signs are there. But just as she's about to catch him, she comes home to find police at her door. Jamie has been murdered. As she tries to put her life back together, she learns he really was hiding something. Just not what she thought.

It's Not What You Think by Clare Mackintosh starts out feeling like classic domestic suspense. Then one twist flips the whole story on its head. I didn’t see it coming at all. It's intricately plotted and goes to some dark, ugly places that are very timely.

The story moves between several POVs, and the full cast audio is the way to go. Vineeta Rishi, Tuppence Middleton, Samuel Barnett, and Richard Armitage all bring so much emotion and urgency to their parts.

This is a great pick if you want a timely thriller that digs deeper than the usual domestic suspense. Go in knowing as little as possible and let it break your brain.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️  Out September 22.

You can preorder a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in my review of Before You Were Anne. it's another twisty domestic suspense thriller.

About the Author

Clare Mackintosh is the New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of I Let You Go, I See You, and Let Me Lie, translated into more than thirty-five languages and with more than two million copies sold worldwide. She is the founder of Chipping Norton Literary Festival and is the patron of the Silver Star Society, an Oxford-based charity that provides special care for mothers with medical complications during pregnancy at John Radcliffe Hospital. Follow Clare on Instagram and visit her website for more information about her books.

The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies

 

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Thank you Macmillan Audio for the gifted audiobook!

Nothing makes me trust a book faster than two people who can't stand each other. 

Kate Westbury's The Oxford Guide to Scandals and Lies is set in 1951. The war's over but England's still picking itself up. Ginevra "Gin" Bishop is a society girl studying at Oxford who's clever, competitive, and dead set on proving she's more than a debutante. Sidney Braithwaite is a WWII vet back at school trying to forget everything he saw.

They meet. They annoy each other instantly. And it's the good kind of annoyed. The kind that's really just attraction in a bad mood.

Then an MI5 agent is poisoned while tracking a Soviet spy on campus, and British intelligence decides these two are exactly the pair to find the traitor.

This is historical fiction, romance, and thriller all in one, and it works. The tension runs on two tracks. Gin and Sidney circling each other, and the investigation closing in. The banter is sharp. The twists will keep any armchair detective on their toes. 

Ell Potter narrates and she's fantastic. She makes the sparring sizzle. You can hear the eye rolls.

For a debut, this covers a lot of ground: great time period, murder mystery, espionage, and a romance worth rooting for. And there's more coming. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Out now! 

You can grab of copy of The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies at Bookshop.org and help out an indie bookstore while you're at it.

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in my review of The Kindness of Strangers by Emma Garman. It's also a post WWII mystery set in London.

About the Author

Kate Westbury grew up a voracious reader of detective fiction, and unraveling plot twists became her favorite pastime. She now puts her whodunnit obsession to good use writing historical mysteries. Beyond the page, Kate teaches Latin and dreams of moving to an English village with crimes to solve. Follow Kate on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her work.

Before You Were Anne

 

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Thank you to Simon and Schuster Audio for the gifted audiobook. 

Some books tell you who a person was. This one shows you who she had to become.

Anne Walker is found murdered in her Seattle home and her sixteen-year-old daughter Naomi is gone. Detective Chelsey Calhoun and her partner Ryan Montoya catch the case, and what starts as a straightforward investigation cracks wide open when the detectives learn Anne was born Rika Takahashi on a remote farm in Japan. Her path to that suburban house runs through Tokyo's underworld, an isolated town in Idaho, and decades of carefully built lies. 

Chelsey has to find Naomi before she becomes the next victim, and the closer she gets to Rika's real life, the more dangerous the truth turns out to be. Rika’s not the only one with secrets. 

This is slow-burning, atmospheric, character-driven suspense told in three voices across timelines. Author Emiko Jean expertly weaves them together. The flashbacks are what make it. Rika's whole life unfolds in them, and by the end you understand exactly who she was and what she survived. Jean writes about motherhood, identity, trauma, and the damage that silence and secrets do to a family. Her prose is more lyrical than sharp, but it still takes the story to dark places. Meanwhile Chelsey is wrestling with her own family secrets and her own sense of identity, and that parallel gives the whole book real emotion. 

On audio, narrators Mizuo Peck, Meiko Gavin, and Mirai turn in outstanding performances. Their three distinct voices all carry real tension and heartbreak. If you want a layered, emotional mystery that stays with you long after the last page, this is your book. It's the second Chelsey Calhoun book but works completely as a standalone. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grab a copy at Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

If you liked this review you might be interested in my review of The Return of Ellie Black. It's the first book in the Chelsey Calhoun series.

About the Author

Emiko Jean is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult and adult fiction, including Love Me Tomorrow and Love Me Always. Her work has been published around the world and translated into over thirty languages. Follow Emiko on Instagram and visit her website for more news and information about her books.

Tear the City Down

 

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Thank you Grand Central Publishing and Megan Beatie Communications for the gifted ARC.

Andre Hardy was fourth-round NFL draft pick. Now he’s writing gritty crime fiction.

Coltrane Davis has made millions as a fixer for Saul Sollman, a crooked kingmaker who moves San Diego’s elite around like chess pieces. Coltrane wants out. He’s got a teenage daughter with real tennis talent and a woman he’s ready to build a life with. Then the Chargers’ star running back is compromised, and Saul pulls him in for one more job. Easy money. There’s no such thing.

That job cracks San Diego open. Coltrane follows it into the city’s underworld and finds a girl being trafficked, and from that moment the book stops being about football entirely. He’s already haunted by his daughter’s best friend, another trafficking victim he couldn’t save. Saving this one becomes the only thing that matters to him.

Coltrane is a man of contradictions and he knows it. He knows something in him is broken and he’s trying to fix it with meditation and Buddhism, both of which his girlfriend Mona brought into his life. He’s also finding out that walking away from Saul is nowhere near as simple as deciding to.

The action is relentless and Coltrane will fight his way out of anything. But Hardy gives you more than suspense. Racism, poverty, and class inequality run through every page of this. It’s noir that has something on its mind.

This is a great choice for fans of S.A. Cosby looking for edgy noir. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Out Sept. 1. 

🚨I’m chatting with Andre about Tear the City Down on IG Live Wednesday, September 2 at 3:00 PM EST. Come hang out with us.

Grab a copy of Tear the City Down at Bookshop.org and help am indie bookstore while you're at it.

if you enjoyed this review, you might like my review of Brimstone Hollow. 

About the Author

Andre Hardy has written across multiple genres, including creative nonfiction, essays and short stories, screenwriting, and long-form narrative. Andre’s essays, interviews, and critical analysis have been published in L.A. Tribe Magazine, Lunch Ticket, Antioch University’s cutting-edge literary and visual arts journal, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. His short story, “Negro in a Hot Tub,” is featured in Made in L.A.: An Anthology of Stories Rooted in the City of Angels, written by Los Angeles-based writers. Andre was the fourth pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1984 National Football League draft. He is a member of the NFL Retired Players Association and the NFL Legends Community, and he earned his MFA through the NFL Players Trust tuition reimbursement program. Follow Andre on Instagram or  visit his website for more news and information about his work.

Currently Reading

 

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It just helps keep this space going.

Thank you Simon Audio, Grand Central Publishing, and Megan Beatie Communications for the gifted copies! 

I just started listening to The Camino by Anya Niewierra. This is a literary thriller about a woman who walks the Camino de Santiago in search of answers to her husband's death. This one's out Aug. 25. 

I'm reading Tear the City Down by Andre Hardy. Coltrane is a hustler and fixer, but he's ready to quit the game for his daughter and the woman he loves. But one final job involving an NFL player gets complicated and pulls Coltrane into danger he never expected. This is gritty crime fiction debut from Hardy, a former NFL player. It's out Sept. 1. 

You can preorder a copy of The Camino and Tear the City Down from Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it.

The Shadow Friends

 

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Thank you to Amazon Publishing and Megan Beatie Communications for the gifted ARC.

I started this series with book three and it was just fine.

Tess Gerritsen’s The Shadow Friends was definitely the thriller I needed at the right time. It’s a smart, fast-paced spy story about a group of friends who are all retired intelligence agents. They call themselves the Martini Club, and they spend their retirement on good food, good conversation, and a lot of drinks. Until duty calls.

When a renowned infectious disease expert and Russian defector turns up dead at a conference, followed by the murder of a hotel waitress, the group gets pulled back into the game. Ingrid recognizes the killer’s handiwork immediately. She’s seen it before, decades ago, on a mission that nearly got her killed.

I really liked Ingrid, her husband Lloyd, Maggie, and Declan. Gerritsen provides enough backstory that jumping in at book three never felt like a gap. I had a real handle on these characters and their friendship from page one. The pacing never let up, the tension stayed high, and the spycraft was sharp throughout. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one is perfect for anyone who loves the idea of nosy retirees solving mysteries and saving the world at the same time. 

The Shadow Friends is out August 25. You can preorder a copy from Bookshop.org and help an indie bookstore while you're at it. 

You you enjoyed this review you might be interested in my review of Kills Well with Others. It's a funny and fast paced spy thriller about a group of retired female assassins who go back to work to find a mole in their former organization.

About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen earned international acclaim for her first novel of suspense, Harvest. She introduced Detective Jane Rizzoli in The Surgeon (2001) and Dr. Maura Isles in The Apprentice (2002) and has gone on to write numerous other titles in the celebrated Rizzoli & Isles series, most recently The Mephisto Club, The Keepsake, Ice Cold, The Silent Girl, Last to Die, Die Again, and I Know a Secret. Follow Tess on Instagram or visit her website more news and information her books.