Good Reads & Views

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Fiction

What it’s about: Naomi and her two best friends are infamous for putting away a serial killer when they were kids, after an encounter in the woods. Only the girls were there that day, and the small community sees them as heroes, but they’re also liars. After learning the killer who attacked her has died in prison 22 years later, Naomi goes back to their small town of Chester, and she begins to question what she really saw that day in the woods.

Why you might like it: Marshall’s writing is powerfully descriptive in this novel, bringing even more darkness and magic to the woods. This dark thriller offers a look into a community full of secrets and webs of lies that cause many twists and reveals that leave readers feeling stranded in the woods just like Naomi.

Reviewers say: “Unexpected plot twists, deep psychological perspicacity, and an endlessly interesting dance between past and present...evokes the dread and intensity of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects” (NYT Book Review).

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Exiles by Jane Harper
Fiction

What it’s about: In his third appearance in the series (after The Dry and Force of Nature), Agent Aaron Falk attends a christening that had to be cancelled the previous year. It coincided with a popular food & wine festival where a woman disappeared after leaving her baby unattended. Now, a year later, both the christening and the annual festival are once again back on the schedule and Aaron is having second thoughts about the assumed suicide of the woman a year earlier.

Scenery: Jane Harper’s books always have the various landscapes of the land down under as a backdrop. Here the setting is South Australia’s lush wine country.

Reviewers say: “Writing at the top of her game, Harper effectively uses whodunit tropes to explore her characters’ hidden lives. Readers interested in literate and nuanced mysteries will be eager to see more of Falk” (Publishers Weekly); “For those who enjoy a slow burn with a satisfying conclusion” (LibraryReads).

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Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
YA Fiction

What is it? A riveting page-turner featuring an Indigenous teen dealing with issues of predatory colonialism, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), first crushes, and family secrets.

What it’s about: Boulley returns to Michigan’s Sugar Island and the Firekeeper family ten years after the action of her hit thriller Firekeeper’s Daughter in this gripping stand-alone YA novel. A jeep accident wrecks Perry’s plans to spend the summer fishing; she owes her Aunt Daunis for car repairs and now she’s stuck working a summer internship at the tribal museum. Despite her original resistance, Perry becomes engrossed in issues related to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) when she learns that a local collector is using legal loopholes to unjustly retain Anishinaabe artifacts and remains. A daring plan to repatriate these artifacts takes a dangerous turn and leads to a connection to local missing and murdered women.

Why you might like it: Characters are vividly drawn--Perry is delightfully snarky and self-aware and supporting characters are experiencing realistic, complicated life challenges. Critical issues like MMIW, sexual assault, grooming, and cultural heritage ground this fast-paced yet thought-provoking heist narrative.

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River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan
Fiction

What it’s about: Eva Santos Moon is a flourishing Chicana artist who has suddenly hit creative stagnation. Even with her practice in the ancient spiritual ways of brujeria she finds herself struggling with a disconnect to her magickal roots, her art, and sudden blackouts. Her husband, her rock and father that holds the family together, is shockingly taken into custody as a potential murder suspect of their family friend. Eva finds herself not knowing who to trust, the police, herself, or her husband. As she fights to keep her family safe, she turns to her magick to protect them while confronting her dark past.

What critics are saying:  “In River Woman, River Demon, Givhan writes: ‘For us folks of color, conjuring isn’t entertainment; it’s the brass key pointing us to freedom.’ And with this novel Givhan wholly embodies this thesis, manifesting a richly textured exploration of personal pain, trauma, and loss, while capturing that slippery dreamlike beyond that people of color feel in our bones. River Woman, River Demon is a major working, a novel both visceral and revelatory” (Cadwell Turnbull, award-winning author of No Gods, No Monsters).

You might also like: The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Cordova.

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Stay Awake by Megan Goldin
Fiction  

The Plot: Liv Reese wakes up in the backseat of a cab with no recollection of how she got there, her last memory being 2 years ago. A stranger is now living in what was once her apartment and she finds herself on the run for a crime she doesn’t remember committing. Trying to piece together the lost memories and the notes she leaves herself written on her hands and arms, Liv must figure out who she can and cannot trust and how to clear her name.  

Tell me more: This novel keeps the reader constantly guessing and creates a sense of paranoia and suspense. As the plot opens, Liz is in a New York City she thinks she remembers and soon realizes that not only does she not recall the last two years, but her short term memory erases itself when she falls asleep. Is she a murderer, is she in danger, or both?  

Reviewers say: “Shocking twists and resourceful, well-drawn female characters keep the pages turning as the clever mystery unfolds. Goldin reliably entertains” (Publishers Weekly). “This thriller may cause readers to lose sleep so they can find out who is the true killer!” (LibraryReads).  

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What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline
Fiction

What it’s about: To say that there are surprises in this novel would be an understatement. Just when you think you may have figured out what is happening, Scottoline throws in an unfathomable plot twist. The Bennett family are the victims of a carjacking gone wrong. And then, as it happens, it is far from simple and possibly not even a carjacking. Within the first few words you are pulled in and feel as if you are a part of the family and their lives. It is so well written that tears will flow, as if you are there experiencing it with them. You will not want to put the book down until you finish reading it. 

Why you might like it: It’s suspenseful, thrilling, heart-wrenching, action-packed, and full of plot twists.

You might also like: Loyalty by Lisa Scottoline.

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Billy Summers by Stephen King
Fiction

What it's about: In this (non-horror) noir thriller, Veteran Billy Summers is an assassin-for-hire who will only take jobs where he kills really bad guys. Now he wants to retire, right after completing one last job. As is usually the case, things don’t go quite as planned and he ends up going after the people who stiffed him on his last job. They should have known better…

Reviewers say: "This is another outstanding outing from a writer who consistently delivers more than his readers expect" (Publishers Weekly); “Murder most foul and mayhem most entertaining. Another worthy page-turner from a protean master” (Kirkus Reviews).

Want a taste? " He has no problem with bad people paying to have other bad people killed. He basically sees himself as a garbageman with a gun.” “God doesn’t have a plan, He throws pickup sticks."

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This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel
Fiction

What it’s about: This book follows a couple of shifting points of view. Natalie is a young professional who receives an email telling her that if she doesn’t tell her sister the truth, the unknown sender will. Her sister went away to a retreat where she’s been cut off from everyone and everything for six months and Natalie has no way to reach her without following the instructions sent by the person behind the email. In alternating POVs you begin to follow the life of an unnamed young woman with a controlling, abusive father, and a troublesome family dynamic. She’s forced to confront her fears and anything else her father wants her to do.

Is it for you? If you like books about intriguing cultish behavior, sibling dynamics and secrets, and questionable decision-making you should read this.

You might also like: Emma in the Night by Wendy Walker.

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The Trees by Percival Everett
Fiction

For readers who enjoy: Jordan Peele’s films, Southern noir with an uncanny twist, dry humor, and spare prose.

What’s it about: Ed and Jim, Special Detectives ("that’s not just because we’re Black”) are called to the scene of a gruesome double murder in Money, Mississippi—two men are found horribly mutilated—one, a white man with a racist past, and across the room, a young Black man who bears a startling resemblance to Emmett Till. Then the body of the Black victim disappears, and reappears at a second murder scene, with a second white victim. The detectives soon learn that eerily similar murders are occurring all over the country. Short chapters, quick scene changes, and humor—punchlines, slapstick gags, and wordplay—move the action along. This satirical revenge novel is deeply tinged with horror and haunted by history.

Book buzz: Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, the nominating committee calls The Trees “an irresistible page-turner, hurtling headlong with swagger, humour, relish and rage.”

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Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton & James Patterson
Fiction

What it’s about: Annie Lee is young, driven, and talented. She goes to Nashville to chase her dreams and make it big as a singer songwriter. I’m a big fan of Dolly Parton. Once I learned that Dolly was a part of the narrating cast, I was sold on listening to the audiobook. She didn’t disappoint. I was immediately absorbed into the book.

Is it for you? It is a very inspirational story about strength and perseverance through some pretty rough hardships and the ability to overcome some of the worst things you can imagine. The characters are relatable and have a genuine feel.

You might also like: What are the Chances by Kenny Rogers.

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