Tag: Thriller Novel

Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward: A brutal, brilliant thriller about survival in the ashes

Mandy Webster

A lot of thrillers pretend to be gritty—Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward actually earns it, dragging readers into the Colorado Rockies and refusing to let them look away. Releasing February 24, 2026, Nowhere Burning is a harrowing, genre-blurring novel that folds the dark myth of Peter Pan and the feral desperation of Lord of the Flies into something uniquely Ward: unsettling, intimate, and psychologically razor-sharp.

Get your copy of Nowhere Burning from my independent online bookstore today!

Riley and her younger brother Oliver flee their troubled home in the middle of the night, chasing rumors of Nowhere—an abandoned ranch once owned by a reclusive movie star and now whispered about as a refuge for runaways. What they find is a scorched sanctuary with its own rules, its own hierarchy, and its own buried horrors. It promises freedom. It demands a price.

Continue reading “Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward: A brutal, brilliant thriller about survival in the ashes” →
Author Interview

Author interview: Jennifer van der Kleut on The Better Mother, Nancy Drew, and writing thrillers with real stakes

Mandy Webster

From childhood Nancy Drew notebooks to a debut thriller that asks hard questions about motherhood, loyalty, and what we owe one another, Jennifer van der Kleut’s path to publication has always been rooted in curiosity and emotional stakes. Her first novel, The Better Mother, released February 10, 2026, and introduces readers to a protagonist at her lowest point—then dares her to fight her way back. In this interview, van der Kleut talks about the books and writers who shaped her, why community matters on and off the page, the rituals that keep her grounded at the keyboard, and how remembering what’s truly at stake drives every story she tells.

Jennifer van der Kleut’s debut novel, The Better Mother, released February 10, 2026.

Q: What/who were your early literary influences, and how do you think their writing has shaped you as a storyteller today?
A: As a child, my number-one favorite mystery series was Nancy Drew. I wanted to be Nancy Drew. So much so, that I got a blank notebook, and as I read each book, I took notes of the clues and suspects in the story as though I were the detective myself, and tried to come to my own conclusion before the culprit was revealed.

Continue reading “Author interview: Jennifer van der Kleut on The Better Mother, Nancy Drew, and writing thrillers with real stakes” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams: A suffocatingly tense survival thriller beneath the surface

Mandy Webster

Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams, releasing February 17, 2026, takes the author’s talent for relentless suspense and drops it hundreds of feet underground—into a setting that’s as psychologically unnerving as it is physically dangerous. Known for high-concept thrillers like No Exit and The Last Word, Adams once again proves he knows exactly how to weaponize isolation, fear, and timing.

Get your copy of Her Last Breath from my independent online bookstore today!

At first, I worried this might be the kind of survival novel that traps the reader in a single claustrophobic space for the entire book. That fear didn’t last long. While a huge portion of the story centers on the many hours Tess spends trapped in a cave, Adams smartly structures the novel around her hospital-bed interview with a detective. Tess’s account of what happened underground is intercut with revelations about her best friend Allie and the unsettling secrets she kept hidden. The result is a story that constantly moves, even when its protagonist physically cannot.

Continue reading “Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams: A suffocatingly tense survival thriller beneath the surface” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer: A ferocious horror novel about motherhood, patriarchy, and the cost of being “good”

Mandy Webster

Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer is a horror novel that knows how to tell a gripping story while quietly dismantling the cultural myths propping it up. Scheduled to release on February 10, 2026, it’s the rare book that makes you start mentally planning your year-end “best of” list before you’re even finished reading. Trad Wife is an unsettling, deeply intelligent literary thriller that uses horror not just to disturb, but to say something urgent about womanhood, motherhood, and the performance of femininity in the age of social media.

Get your copy of Trad Wife from my independent online bookstore today!

Camille Deming presents herself online as the ideal #tradwife: cooking from scratch, tending her homestead, centering her life around her husband and home. The problem is that she’s missing the one thing her followers—and the ideology she’s bought into—demand most: a baby. When Camille discovers a mysterious well behind her farmhouse and makes a wish, her desire is answered in ways that are grotesque, intimate, and impossible to undo. Her pregnancy brings skyrocketing engagement and validation, even as her body begins to change in frightening ways and her marriage quietly continues to rot.

Continue reading “Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer: A ferocious horror novel about motherhood, patriarchy, and the cost of being “good”” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

The Better Mother by Jennifer van der Kleut: A new mom’s nightmare of gaslighting, obsession, and control

Mandy Webster

There’s a particular kind of suspense novel that feels less like escapism and more like a psychological endurance test—and this is very much one of them. The Better Mother by Jennifer van der Kleut falls squarely into the latter category, delivering a fast-paced, anxiety-inducing suspense novel that taps into very real fears about boundaries, manipulation, and what happens when someone decides they know what’s best for your life better than you do.

Get your copy of The Better Mother from my independent online bookstore today!

Savannah Mitchell is 34, freshly recovering from a devastating breakup, and finally feeling like she has her life back on track when a brief fling with a man named Max leaves her pregnant. When Savannah reaches out to tell him the news, he explains that he’s just reconciled with his ex-girlfriend, Madison, and needs time to break it to her. The twist comes quickly: Madison isn’t angry or resentful—she’s thrilled, eager to be involved, and insistent on helping Savannah through the pregnancy.

Continue reading “The Better Mother by Jennifer van der Kleut: A new mom’s nightmare of gaslighting, obsession, and control” →
Find Your Next Read

My 5 favorite books of 2025: Fierce, compelling, and unapologetically feminist

Mandy Webster

This year has been a phenomenal one for reading. I’ve devoured dozens of new releases, and after much deliberation, I’ve narrowed down my favorites to five books that I think are particularly telling of the age we live in. Each of these novels features women at the center of the story—some brilliant, some flawed, some delightfully deranged—and together, they paint a vivid picture of modern womanhood. These are all books I have actually read this year, reviewed, and vetted as an experienced author and book reviewer. There are undoubtedly other incredible 2025 releases I haven’t yet encountered, but these five stand out for me.

Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan

Givhan’s novel is a dark, seductive thriller that stays with you long after the final page. I loved how she navigates grief, trauma, and memory with a sharp psychological lens. The female protagonist is both vulnerable and fierce, and there’s a subtle feminist undercurrent that interrogates how women navigate power and vulnerability in a patriarchal world.

Read now!

Continue reading “My 5 favorite books of 2025: Fierce, compelling, and unapologetically feminist” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay: Domestic bliss, but make it murderous

Mandy Webster

What happens when the thing that bonded you as a couple is the one thing you’re no longer allowed to do? A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay takes that question and runs with it—through marriage, parenthood, suburbia, and the quiet, suffocating boredom that sets in when two people stop working as a team. Readers who enjoyed This Girl’s a Killer will feel immediately at home here, thanks to the same blend of dark humor, moral ambiguity, and sharp observations about womanhood and rage.

Get your copy of A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage from my independent online bookstore today!

Hazel and Fox once believed they were made for each other. Not in a meet-cute, rom-com way, but in a far more specific sense: they are serial killers who take pleasure in killing objectively bad men, saving future victims while satisfying their own darker impulses. Before pregnancy and playdates, their greatest joy came from killing—and from doing it together. Their intimacy was built on absolute trust, shared secrets, and a kind of moral clarity that only made sense to the two of them (and me, to be honest).

Continue reading “A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay: Domestic bliss, but make it murderous” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara: A suburban nightmare fueled by gossip, boredom, and bad timing

Mandy Webster

In It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara, a single, careless message detonates inside a pristine, affluent neighborhood—and what follows is a sharp reminder that the most dangerous places are often the ones that look the safest. This latest thriller from the #1 international bestselling author of All Her Fault leans hard into what I like to call Suburban Gothic, where the manicured lawns and friendly group chats conceal resentment, entitlement, and secrets desperate to stay buried.

Get your copy of It Should Have Been You from my independent online bookstore today!

Susan is a tired, overwhelmed mother on maternity leave, the kind of woman who feels invisible and slightly feral after too many sleepless nights. When she vents to her sisters about her neighbors—only to accidentally send the message to the entire local WhatsApp group—the damage is instant and irreversible. Even though she deletes it, the truth has already escaped, and the neighborhood’s fragile sense of civility begins to crack.

Continue reading “It Should Have Been You by Andrea Mara: A suburban nightmare fueled by gossip, boredom, and bad timing” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

Darkrooms by Rebecca Hannigan: A gripping Irish mystery with unforgettable, flawed women

Mandy Webster

On the night of the Summer Solstice in 1999, nine-year-old Roisin O’Halloran vanished into the Hanging Woods, a copse that had terrified generations of children in the small Irish town of Bannakilduf. Twenty years later, her disappearance remains a shadow over the town—and over the two women now drawn together to uncover the truth: Roisin’s older sister, Deedee, a rookie cop barely holding herself together, and Caitlin, Roisin’s childhood best friend and a petty criminal with a penchant for deception and risky behavior. In Darkrooms, Rebecca Hannigan delivers a lush, moody thriller that explores guilt, justice, and the dangerous ways past traumas shape the present.

Get your copy of Darkrooms from my independent online bookstore today!

If you’re a fan of unlikeable characters and unreliable narrators, this novel is made for you. Caitlin lies, steals, and teeters on the edge of self-destruction, and you’re never quite sure whether to believe her confessions—or whether they hint at something even darker.

Continue reading “Darkrooms by Rebecca Hannigan: A gripping Irish mystery with unforgettable, flawed women” →
Book Reviews, Find Your Next Read

The Briars by Sarah Crouch: When a mountain town’s secrets turn into a predictable romance

Mandy Webster

A thick chill crept through the fir trees the moment I stepped into the pages of The Briars — I could almost smell the damp pine needles underfoot in Lake Lumin. In The Briars by Sarah Crouch, an atmospheric backdrop, a lone game warden fleeing her past, and the ominous presence of both a cougar and a hidden murderer promise a taut thriller.

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

Coming into the novel, I was mesmerized. The descriptions of the Pacific Northwest setting — moss-clad trees, misty mountain ridges, ancient forest trails — transported me so completely I was ready to pack my car up and head to Lake Lumin myself. Annie Heston, newly employed as a game warden, chasing whispers of a cougar sighting: that narrative worked. Her patrols through the woods, the sense of isolation, the danger — I wanted to linger there.

Continue reading “The Briars by Sarah Crouch: When a mountain town’s secrets turn into a predictable romance” →