Perfect for suspense fans who’d normally tune out the minor characters the author has preemptively scratched.
A suspicious death pits two strong, determined mothers of children with autism against each other.
It’s a sign of the relentlessly sharp focus of Berry that although the woman bashed to death at Hurricane Creek is Annabelle Chapman, the wife of the mayor, the mayor himself makes no appearance and doesn’t even get a first name. Instead, attention instantly focuses on wealthy, well-connected Genevieve Hill and her son, Mason, who are both found at the scene, with Mason, a 14-year-old with the body of an adult and the mind of a 4-year-old, bending over the body. Planning to appoint a guardian ad litem for Mason, Detective Layne calls on pediatric psychologist Casey Walker, a specialist in autism whose daughter, Harper, is on the spectrum. By the time that plan falls through, single mother Casey has developed a fascination bordering on obsession with Genevieve, a former Miss Alabama whose stockbroker husband, John, died six years ago. Despite, or maybe because of, Genevieve’s well-documented devotion to her son, Casey becomes convinced that something is off about her and the relationship, and she presses to find out more by talking with Savannah Hill, a first-year student at Ole Miss who has plenty to say about her mother, and examining the unexpectedly revealing records of the intelligence tests Mason has taken over the years. As Casey and Genevieve circle each other with mounting hostility, it becomes more and more obvious what really happened to Annabelle Chapman; the only secret that remains hidden is the motive, and it’s a humdinger.
Perfect for suspense fans who’d normally tune out the minor characters the author has preemptively scratched.Pub Date: June 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-54203-546-0
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
Another gem from Lippman, with a heroine who elevates being ordinary to an art form.
An ordinary woman finds extraordinary adventures on a river cruise on the Seine.
Muriel Blossom acknowledges that she’s a “no-frills” person, a trait that served her well when doing surveillance for Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan. When she gets an unexpected upgrade on her British Airways flight to Paris, she finds herself not only in business class, but on the other side of the looking glass. Allan Turner, a handsome stranger, befriends her in the Chesapeake Lounge, which her upgrade allows her to access. She misses her connection at Heathrow because of the weather, so he invites her to share his luxurious suite in a London hotel, paid for, he insists, by his firm. Then he sends her off on the Eurostar train to reach Paris via the Chunnel in time for her ship’s departure. Once in Paris, she meets another stranger, younger but equally attentive. Danny Johnson takes her to a friend’s atelier in the Marais where the plus-sized Muriel can find the fashionable clothing she deserves. A mysterious man in a bellman uniform knocks on her hotel-room door and invites her to leave her luggage in the hallway so it can be transferred overnight to her ship, but of course she realizes that’s nonsense. She also receives the news that Allan died in a fall from his balcony the night after she left London. When Danny turns up on her cruise, she knows something’s off, but she can’t put together the pieces. That’s because Lippman is unrivaled in her ability to lay out clues in a way that makes them seem not only mysterious, but downright surreal. Only at the end does everything fit together so naturally that it all seems blazingly obvious. Like Muriel, who’s patient and sensible to the end, you’ll just have to wait.
Another gem from Lippman, with a heroine who elevates being ordinary to an art form.Pub Date: June 17, 2025
ISBN: 9780062998101
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
A particularly nasty villain heightens the stakes in this thriller about a woman learning how to be her own hero.
An author is targeted by a fan who just can’t let her go.
Arden Bowie has had plenty of tragedy in her life, but now she’s finally on top. After her parents died when she was a teenager, she moved from Brooklyn to Ohio to live with her aunt, uncle, and cousins. She soon became part of their loving family and grew up to become a writer and bookseller. When her debut novel is published, she meets Dustin Dubecki at her first event. He showers her with praise, asks for writing advice, and wants to take her out for coffee. Arden tells herself he’s just a little awkward, but then he keeps showing up at her local events—and, even stranger, she’s sure she sees him lurking at her event in New York City. When he bursts into her apartment one night and assaults her, Arden’s calm life is shattered. Dustin gets a five-year sentence at a psychiatric facility; Arden spends most of that time rebuilding her sense of stability. Eventually, she moves to Oregon to start a new life where Dustin can never find her. But even though she has a beautiful home, a thriving career, a doting family, new friends, and even a potential love interest in a former cop named Gideon Riley, Arden can’t escape Dustin’s rage when his sentence is finally up. Roberts toggles between Arden’s point of view and Dustin’s, giving the reader occasional glimpses into his extremely twisted mindset. Although Arden’s attempts to escape Dustin are engrossing, the story stalls in the middle when far too many pages are dedicated to Arden purchasing and decorating a house. But the excitement picks back up when Dustin, a truly odious villain, re-enters the story. It’s also satisfying to see Arden grow into someone who refuses to be a victim, even as she deals with horrifying circumstances.
A particularly nasty villain heightens the stakes in this thriller about a woman learning how to be her own hero.Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250413581
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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