Tag: Crime Novel

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum: A twisty thriller about love, loyalty, and coercive control

Mandy Webster

What happens when your best friend—the person who helped build your life and career—vanishes, and you’re the one everyone thinks killed her? In This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum, releasing March 10, 2026, a wildly popular podcast duo built on survival stories faces a mystery they might not survive themselves.

Get your copy of This Story Might Save Your Life from my independent online bookstore today!

Best friends Benny Abbott and Joy Moore have made a career out of telling “against all odds” survival stories on their beloved podcast. From Joy’s experience with severe narcolepsy to countless near-death tales told with irreverent humor, they’ve turned trauma into connection—and connection into a carefully managed empire, thanks largely to Joy’s husband, Xander.

Then Joy disappears.

Continue reading “This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum: A twisty thriller about love, loyalty, and coercive control” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Medium Rare by A. Natasha Joukovsky: An Icarus retelling weighed down by its own ambition

Mandy Webster

In Medium Rare by A. Natasha Joukovsky, the author of The Portrait of a Mirror returns with what’s billed as a modern tragicomedy reimagining the myth of Icarus through bureaucracy, B-list fame, and college basketball. It’s a high-concept premise: a middling Washington lobbyist goes viral-adjacent after predicting a near-perfect NCAA March Madness bracket, while a woman named Cassandra—yes, that Cassandra—watches it unfold with prophetic detachment and literary ambition. The execution, however, is far less aerodynamic.

Get your copy of Medium Rare from my independent online bookstore today!

Phil is the novel’s Icarus stand-in: an ordinary, faintly dissatisfied man who stumbles into the possibility of a billion-dollar perfect bracket during the 2019 tournament. As his predictions hold, attention snowballs. The media circles. The money looms. The ego inflates. You don’t have to be an oracle to see where this is headed. Phil will fly too high. He will burn. The arc is obvious from the start, which might have worked if the journey there had felt sharp or surprising.

Continue reading “Medium Rare by A. Natasha Joukovsky: An Icarus retelling weighed down by its own ambition” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson: A twisty Southern thriller about sisterhood, guilt, and revenge

Mandy Webster

What if the person avenging your sister’s death isn’t you—but someone who knows more than you ever did? In Missing Sister, Joshilyn Jackson delivers a chilling, character-driven thriller that explores the razor-thin line between justice and obsession. The novel follows Penny Albright, a rookie cop still reeling from the tragic death of her twin, Nix, five years earlier. Born three minutes apart, the sisters were inseparable—until Nix’s sudden death and a cryptic voicemail left Penny drowning in guilt and unanswered questions.

Get your copy of Missing Sister from my independent online bookstore today!

Now working in law enforcement to honor Nix’s dream of making the world safer, Penny is called to her first murder scene and comes face-to-face with Danny Bowery, one of the three men she’s long blamed for her sister’s death. He’s sprawled in a pool of blood outside an upscale Atlanta shopping center, as if conjured by Penny’s long-harbored anger. And then there’s the blonde woman in blood-soaked clothes gripping a box cutter—a woman who hints that Bowery’s murder is only the beginning of a larger story about sisters before vanishing into thin air.

Continue reading “Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson: A twisty Southern thriller about sisterhood, guilt, and revenge” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

The Gallery Assistant by Kate Belli: A twisty, sinister thriller with a uniquely New York perspective

Mandy Webster

Kate Belli’s The Gallery Assistant is a thriller that keeps readers on edge, blending the tension of a murder mystery with the complexity of a city and world forever changed by tragedy. Chloe Harlow, a young gallery assistant in New York, wakes up one morning in November 2001 with hazy memories of the night before—and quickly discovers that an up-and-coming painter and the gallery’s newest artist has been murdered. Pulled between her life in Williamsburg and the high-stakes Upper East Side art world, Chloe is thrust into a dangerous web of deceit, secrets, and deadly intrigue.

Get your copy of The Gallery Assistant from my independent online bookstore today!

While the story is undeniably gripping, it does fall into the familiar—and sometimes frustrating—trope of a main character holding crucial information back from the authorities. Chloe’s insistence on solving the murder herself, despite having no investigative training and facing serious danger, is occasionally hard to swallow. Her reluctance to report even life-threatening incidents strains believability, though it does drive the narrative tension. A bit more insight into her reasoning could have made these choices feel more grounded.

Continue reading “The Gallery Assistant by Kate Belli: A twisty, sinister thriller with a uniquely New York perspective” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Night Watcher brings Halloween horror vibes to a storm-soaked thriller

Mandy Webster

Sometimes a thriller doesn’t just keep you on edge—it crawls under your skin and lingers like a nightmare. That’s exactly what Daphne Woolsoncroft achieves in Night Watcher, a dark, atmospheric suspense novel set in Portland, Oregon, where the rain never stops and neither does the fear.

Get your copy of Night Watcher from my independent online bookstore today!

Nola Strate has spent her adulthood trying to outrun the shadows of her past. As a child, she narrowly escaped a notorious Pacific Northwest serial killer known as the Hiding Man. Now she’s a late-night radio host, fielding calls about hauntings and strange sightings on the show her father once made famous. It’s the perfect job for someone who wants to talk about fear without facing it directly.

Continue reading “Night Watcher brings Halloween horror vibes to a storm-soaked thriller” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

She’s Going to Pay by Alexandra Ivy struggles with execution despite a promising premise

Mandy Webster

I’m always drawn to novels set in overlooked places—small towns that don’t typically get the spotlight—and Alexandra Ivy’s She’s Going to Pay caught my attention for that reason. Set in Canton, Missouri, it has all the ingredients of a juicy domestic suspense: a missing father, a stepmother with a hidden identity, a hometown full of secrets, and a daughter who reluctantly returns to face it all.

Get your copy of She’s Going to Pay from my independent online bookstore today!

The setup is fantastic. Jesse Hudson left Canton years ago after her stepmother and stepsister vanished under suspicious circumstances and her father was suspected of murder. When he also disappeared, Jesse built a life elsewhere. Now she’s back to sell his old bar, only to learn her stepmother was never who she claimed to be. As Jesse digs into the past, she becomes convinced her father’s disappearance is tied to this buried identity—and discovers that someone in town has been waiting for her return.

Continue reading “She’s Going to Pay by Alexandra Ivy struggles with execution despite a promising premise” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Poison Wood by Jennifer Moorhead is a sharp psychological thriller about secrets, ambition, and survival

Mandy Webster

Some thrillers grip you not just with their twists but with the way they expose the lies we tell ourselves to get by. Poison Wood by Jennifer Moorhead (releasing October 28, 2025, available now for pre-order on Amazon) is one of those novels.

Get your copy of Poison Wood from my independent online bookstore today!

Rita Meade is an ambitious crime reporter still riding the wave of her acclaimed docuseries on the Broken Bayou serial killer. But when a skull turns up in the Louisiana forest where she once attended the troubled Poison Wood Therapeutic Academy for Girls, the story hits too close to home. The murder conviction of her former classmate’s killer is unraveling, her father—the judge who presided over the case—is in failing health, and returning to the woods means confronting long-buried secrets. As Rita investigates, what she uncovers threatens not only her career but also her family, her relationships, and her sense of self.

Continue reading “Poison Wood by Jennifer Moorhead is a sharp psychological thriller about secrets, ambition, and survival” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Keep This for Me by Jennifer Fawcett is a suspenseful novel about inheritance, identity, and dark family legacies

Mandy Webster

Some thrillers hook you with the crime itself, but Jennifer Fawcett’s Keep This for Me lingers because of the questions it raises about what we inherit from our families—by blood, by silence, and by circumstance.

Get your copy of Keep This For Me from my independent online bookstore today!

The story begins in 1993 when Fiona Green’s mother, Ana, disappears after a roadside abduction by Eddie Ward, a truck driver later revealed to be a prolific serial killer. Although authorities uncover a mass grave of his victims, Ana’s body is never found. Thirty years later, Eddie Ward is on his deathbed and insists he didn’t kill Ana, leaving Fiona with more questions than answers. Returning to her hometown, she finds herself reliving the past when another young woman vanishes—and this time, suspicion falls on Jason Ward, Eddie’s son.

Continue reading “Keep This for Me by Jennifer Fawcett is a suspenseful novel about inheritance, identity, and dark family legacies” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

One dark night by Hannah Richell: a gripping thriller full of secrets

Mandy Webster

What starts as a Halloween dare in the woods spirals into tragedy in Hannah Richell’s One Dark Night, a novel that blends small-town secrets, teenage vulnerability, and the long shadow of trauma into an atmospheric thriller you’ll race through. The story unfolds after a student is found dead near the notorious Sally in the Wood—a place steeped in eerie folklore and whispered warnings.

Get your copy of One Dark Night from my independent online bookstore today!

At the heart of the novel are Rachel, a guidance counselor struggling to connect with her daughter Ellie, and Ben, her detective ex-husband who’s investigating the case while facing personal turmoil. As the community reels, Ellie hides dangerous secrets of her own, and the past refuses to stay buried. Told through multiple perspectives, Richell keeps the tension taut, weaving in folklore, atmosphere, and a growing sense that danger lurks where you least expect it.

Continue reading “One dark night by Hannah Richell: a gripping thriller full of secrets” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

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.

Get your copy of Joy Moody is Out of Time from my independent online bookstore today!

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.

Continue reading “Joy Moody is Out of Time is a heartbreaking and layered novel about love, lies, and family” →