Category: Book Reviews

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Secrets, lies, and fascism in The Stranger in Room Six by Jane Corry

Mandy Webster

What happens when old secrets surface in the unlikeliest of places? Jane Corry’s upcoming novel The Stranger in Room Six (releasing October 7, 2025) is a cozy mystery that blends history, intrigue, and the complicated lives of women who’ve carried more than their share of burdens.

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At the heart of the story are two women connected to Sunnyside Home for the Young at Heart. Belinda, newly released after serving fifteen years for her husband’s murder, is determined to rebuild her life and keep her past hidden. Taking a job at Sunnyside seems like the perfect way to start over. Then there’s Mabel, the home’s oldest resident, who first arrived as an evacuee during the Blitz. She knows Sunnyside’s darkest truths—secrets that, if exposed, could endanger everything. And lurking behind it all is the mysterious Room Six, where someone is watching and waiting for the right moment to strike.

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The Break-in by Katherine Faulkner asks how far you’d go to protect your family

Mandy Webster

How would you deal with killing a violent intruder in self-defense—with your child just a room away? Katherine Faulkner’s The Break-in explores the terrifying aftermath of that choice, blending suspense with tough moral questions about justice, guilt, and survival.

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Alice, a London mother, is hosting a playdate when a disturbed man forces his way inside. Acting on instinct, she kills him, an act later ruled self-defense. But the relief doesn’t last. Anonymous online comments, cryptic phone calls, and unsettling behavior from her husband, nanny, and friends make Alice question who the intruder really was—and whether the threat has truly ended.

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If You Knew Me by S.P. Miskowski is a layered psychological thriller that reads like a true-crime docuseries

Mandy Webster

In If You Knew Me by S.P. Miskowski (out September 23, 2025), the lines between journalist and subject blur in a story that feels part true-crime, part literary thriller. Parker Dillon is a novice reporter whose career is already teetering—her aunt has sold the website where she works, and the new owner is keen to swap human writers for AI. But when she discovers a buried cold pitch from a woman named Ann Mason, her luck seems to change. Ann claims she once did something terrible and got away with it, and she’s strangely obsessed with a washed-up TV star. Parker pursues the story, chasing Ann from Seattle to Arizona, only to find herself in a dangerous game where she may be more prey than hunter.

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What makes this book especially compelling is how much it reads like one of those binge-worthy Netflix docudramas (Inventing Anna comes to mind). Miskowski weaves together Ann’s unsettling narrative and Parker’s journalistic pursuit with the same fascination those shows inspire—watching an extraordinary crime unravel while peering into the lives it warps. There’s even a late-chapter epilogue styled like a “Where Are They Now?” segment, the kind you’d expect to see at the end of a documentary.

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The Wrong Daughter by Dandy Smith is a diabolically twisty psychological thriller

Mandy Webster

What if your sister disappeared one summer night—and then walked back into your life sixteen years later? The Wrong Daughter by Dandy Smith takes this premise and spins it into one of the most anxiety-inducing psychological thrillers I’ve read this year.

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The story follows Caitlin, whose older sister Olivia was abducted when they were children. When a woman claiming to be Olivia suddenly reappears, Caitlin should feel joy. Instead, her carefully rebuilt world begins to unravel piece by piece. The tension comes not only from the mystery of whether this is truly Olivia, but also from the way she manipulates every situation to Caitlin’s detriment.

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Joy Moody is Out of Time is a heartbreaking and layered novel about love, lies, and family

Mandy Webster

What happens when doing the wrong thing might actually be the most loving choice? That’s the central question at the heart of Joy Moody is Out of Time by Kerryn Mayne, a novel that blends quirky crime with an emotionally complex family story.

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Behind the bubblegum-pink facade of Joyful Suds laundromat in Bayside, Australia, Joy Moody has been raising her twin daughters, Cassie and Andie, under a carefully constructed lie. For nearly twenty-one years, she’s told them a fantastical tale about their destiny, a story designed to protect them—but also one that has left them isolated from the world around them. When Joy is suddenly found dead on the twins’ twenty-first birthday, the truth unravels, and the girls are left to face a world they are utterly unprepared for.

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Other People’s Houses by Clare Mackintosh is a layered thriller of secrets, lies, and murder

Mandy Webster

When break-ins on a luxury English estate collide with a body discovered in a Welsh lake, Clare Mackintosh’s Other People’s Houses unravels into a gripping web of crime, corruption, and personal drama.

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The story begins with two separate investigations: in Cheshire, DS Leo Brady looks into a string of break-ins on The Hill, a posh community where people pay a premium for safety and exclusivity. Across the Welsh border, DC Ffion Morgan pulls the body of an estate agent from a lake. Neither case seems connected—until they are, and then things get complicated fast.

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The Empty Cradle by Lisa Rookes is folklore-infused horror at its finest

Mandy Webster

What happens when the dream of a family turns into something dark and uncanny? The Empty Cradle by Lisa Rookes blends psychological suspense, folklore, and magical realism into a story that unsettles you in the best possible way.

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The novel follows Amy, who has been going along with her husband Joel’s dream of starting a family—even though she’s never been completely sure motherhood is what she wants. Joel, more than Amy, is the one determined to have a child. But when she discovers he’s having an affair with her best friend, Amy flees to a dilapidated cottage in a Yorkshire village. Originally, she had bought the cottage with plans to flip it as a short-term rental, not to make it a home. Yet once she’s there, she begins to imagine that maybe she could create a life for herself in the village—if only the unsettling occurrences around her would stop.

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Why Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan is the best novel I’ve read so far in 2025

Mandy Webster

Every once in a while, a book comes along that completely captivates your imagination and refuses to let you go. Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan is that book for me—the #1 best novel I’ve read so far in 2025.

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Set against the stark, blistering backdrop of the Mexicali borderlands and the eerie Salton Sea, Salt Bones is a darkly lyrical story of mothers and daughters, folklore and truth, justice and horror. Malamar Veracruz has lived her whole life in El Valle, raising two daughters while carrying the pain of her sister Elena’s disappearance years ago. When another girl goes missing, Mal is thrust back into that old nightmare, haunted by visions of a horse-headed woman tied to local legend. But as Mal and her daughters uncover layer after layer of family secrets, folklore, and lies, the story reveals what women have always known: men are the destroyers, and the women who try to protect others are too often turned into monsters themselves.

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Why A Good Person by Kirsten King is one of the most entertaining debuts of the year

Mandy Webster

What happens when your ex-situationship suddenly dies after you hex him? In A Good Person by Kirsten King, the answer is pure chaos, hilarity, and narcissistic delusion.

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This book was absolutely hilarious. Kirsten King throws us headfirst into the brain of Lillian, a millennial antihero who is equal parts self-absorbed, delusional, and entertaining. Reading her inner monologue feels like being stuck at brunch with that one friend who always makes themselves the main character of every story—but in the best possible way, because you can safely laugh without being their victim.

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Haunted, cursed, and divided: exploring race and privilege in Del Sandeen’s This Cursed House

Mandy Webster

When Jemma Barker leaves 1960s Chicago for a new life in New Orleans, she doesn’t expect to uncover centuries-old curses, deadly family secrets, and the brutal realities of colorism and privilege. In This Cursed House, Del Sandeen takes readers into the dark, secret-laden corridors of a New Orleans family through the eyes of Jemma Barker, a young Black woman fleeing her life in Chicago. Desperate for a fresh start and haunted by the spirits she’s always been able to see, Jemma accepts a job with the enigmatic Duchon family—only to discover that their charm hides centuries-old curses and shocking prejudices.

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Sandeen’s debut is steeped in Southern gothic flair, with a plot that twists around supernatural secrets, family betrayal, and the fraught complexities of race. The novel does an especially striking job of exploring how white-passing Black characters navigate privilege and fear, often at the expense of their darker-skinned relatives. It’s a sharp and unsettling examination of racism, colorism, and the extremes some will go to protect a tenuous hold on societal acceptance.

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