BOOK REVIEWS
The Caretaker (by Marcus Kliewer)
I loved Marcus Kliewer’s debut, so I went into The Caretaker with high expectations. A desperate young woman takes a three-day caretaking job on the Oregon Coast and finds herself bound by strange “Rites” meant to keep something terrible contained. The house tour is deliciously eerie, the audiobook is excellent, and the mental-health threads almost saved it for me. The ending did not.
Into the Fire (by Gregg Hurwitz)
Evan Smoak wants Into the Fire to be his last job. It isn’t. I listened on Audible—Scott Brick is Evan for me—and I came away more interested in the man than the mission. The ending shoved the next book up in my rotation.
Y is for Yesterday (by Sue Grafton)
I started Sue Grafton’s Alphabet series in 2017 after seeing her in conversation with John Grisham. A few months later, she was gone. This year I finally reached the last book she wrote, Y Is for Yesterday—and I didn’t care much for it. Too many threads, too few people to root for, and a sharp turn from the Kinsey novels I liked best. I finished it anyway. Here’s why.
Her Last Breath (by Taylor Adams)
After loving No Exit, I grabbed Taylor Adams’s Her Last Breath as soon as it hit Libby. The cave scenes are uniquely frightening—I’ll be sticking to Mammoth Cave—but I could see the ending coming. Well written. I just wished I liked it more.
We Will Be Watching (by Ruth Ware)
Leaving Instagram meant losing author updates—until newsletters. Signing up for Ruth Ware’s list got me a free copy of her unpublished short story “We Will Be Watching,” a tense escape-room thriller I loved. Review + how to read it inside.
Dear Debbie (by Freida McFadden)
I’m such a Freida McFadden fan. Her books reliably deliver the kind of twisty, bingeable entertainment I crave, and I only wish I could catch up on her new releases and dive into the…
It Could Have Been Her (by Lisa Jewell)
Lisa Jewell has such a long backlist of titles, which means I have a lot of great books by her still ahead of me. I fell in love with her storytelling through her suspenseful thrillers, though I’ve also…
Mad Mabel (by Sally Hepworth)
I've been wanting to read Sally Hepworth's suspenseful thrillers for a while. When Mad Mabel became available on Libby, I jumped on the opportunity to finally read one of her novels and…
The Summer Guests (by Tess Gerritsen)
I was truly sold on the Martini Club series when I “met” Tess Gerritsen during a Back Room author event. She was discussing The Summer Guests, the second book in the series, and I was…
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