June 4 was the 2022 ITW Thriller Awards, and I was happy to be able to attend in person after a long pandemic break. It was a pleasure watching Mark Greaney (who I interviewed last year) be a great host. And I loved listening to R.L. Stine’s hilarious speech while presenting Frederick Forsyth the 2022 ThrillerMaster Award. What an enjoyable night! Congratulations to all the winners!
"This audiobook is essential listening. Narrators Therese Plummer and Emily Shaffer shine as Lo and Bea Denham, two teenage sisters whose lives are upended when their parents are killed in a car accident." (AudioFile Magazine)
From Courtney Summers, the New York Times best-selling author of the 2019 Edgar Award Winner and breakout hit Sadie, comes her electrifying follow-up - a suspenseful, pulls-no-punches story about an aspiring young journalist determined to save her sister, no matter the cost.
Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died in a tragic car accident, her sister Bea joined the elusive community called The Unity Project, leaving Lo to fend for herself. Desperate not to lose the only family she has left, Lo has spent the last six years trying to reconnect with Bea, only to be met with radio silence.
When Lo’s given the perfect opportunity to gain access to Bea’s reclusive life, she thinks they’re finally going to be reunited. But it’s difficult to find someone who doesn’t want to be found, and as Lo delves deeper into The Project and its charismatic leader, she begins to realize that there’s more at risk than just her relationship with Bea: her very life might be in danger.
As she uncovers more questions than answers at each turn, everything Lo thought she knew about herself, her sister, and the world is upended. One thing doesn’t change, though, and that’s what keeps her going: Bea needs her, and Lo will do anything to save her.
A Macmillan Audio production from Wednesday Books
"The narrators beautifully build suspense, and the intensity never falters. This is one of those compelling audiobooks that will have listeners driving around or walking an extra block just so they can listen longer." (School Library Journal, starred review)
"[A] deeply disconcerting investigative thriller that seems unassuming but worms under the skin and into the mind." (Booklist, starred review)
"A powerful, suspenseful, and heartbreaking thriller about identity, sisterhood, and belonging." (Kirkus, starred review)
How does the disappearance of 19 high school baseball players remain a mystery for 30 years?
Angel Blondeaux had been taught since birth to never betray family, only to escape the clutches of home to become an FBI agent. For generations, Blondeaux has been the name to respect in Moreau Parish and the name to fear. Crime is no longer a part of life, but a lifestyle woven into the fabric of the parish. So, when Angel Blondeaux had graduated Quantico, she was rejected by the family like a bad organ.
The matriarch of the Blondeaux clan is Angel's grandmother Paulette. Paulette's successor was to be Angel's aunt Lorna, until her mysterious death places the role of heir up for grabs. The FBI forces Angel to return home for her aunt's funeral, only to discover a new will has been drafted, leaving Angel the house and an immense plot of land, along with the buried secrets of the missing baseball players.
Perfect town. Perfect homes. Perfect families. It’s enough to drive some women mad...
In a tale inspired by real events, pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fiancé back to his Minnesota hometown. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she’s eager to settle down. Lilydale’s motto, “Come Home Forever,” couldn’t be more inviting.
And yet, something is off in the picture-perfect village.
The friendliness borders on intrusive. Joan can’t shake the feeling that every move she makes is being tracked. An archaic organization still seems to hold the town in thrall. So does the sinister secret of a little boy who vanished decades ago. And unless Joan is imagining things, a frighteningly familiar figure from her past is on watch in the shadows.
Her fiancé tells her she’s being paranoid. He might be right. Then again, she might have moved to the deadliest small town on earth.
“My Sweet Girl pushes the boundaries of what a thriller can do.” (The Washington Post)
“Fiendish [and] full-of-twists ... Sri Lankan author Amanda Jayatissa keeps us guessing and worrying until the very end.” (The New York Times)
“A thriller centered on the meaning of identity and all the layers it can have.” (NPR)
A Most Anticipated Novel of Fall 2021 by Entertainment Weekly, NPR, New York Post, The Boston Globe, Fortune, Buzzfeed, Goodreads, Shondaland, PopSugar, Bustle, Betches, Lit Hub, Crime Reads, BookRiot, Crime by the Book, The Nerd Daily, The Every Girl, and more!
Paloma thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you...
Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything - schools, money, and parents so perfect that she fears she'll never live up to them.
Now at 30 years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping someone find their way in America - that is, until Arun discovers Paloma's darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this country.
Before Paloma can pay Arun off, she finds him facedown in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment, but by the time the police arrive, there's no body - and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in the first place.
Paloma is terrified this is all somehow tangled up in the desperate actions she took to escape Sri Lanka so many years ago. Did Paloma’s secret die with Arun, or is she now in greater danger than ever before?
Ike Randolph has been out of jail for 15 years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid. The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek....