Chandler Baker got her start ghostwriting novels for teens and tweens, including installments in a book series that has sold more than 1 million copies. She grew up in Florida, went to college at the University of Pennsylvania and studied law at the University of Texas. She now lives in Austin with her husband. Although she loves spinning tales with a touch of horror, she is a much bigger scaredy-cat than her stories would lead you to believe.
Like Mother, Like Daughter (2024) Kimberly McCreight "Like Mother, Like Daughter is a stunning thriller, perfectly capturing the naked vulnerability and open wounds that result from being someone's mother and someone's daughter. Within the hairpin twists and turns of McCreight's writing is a cathartic story of maternal love where mothers are never martyrs, they're fighters."
Watch it Burn (2024) Kristen Bird "Southern scandal and a small town punctured by violence, Watch It Burn is fast-paced crime fiction at its absolute finest."
Listen for the Lie (2024) Amy Tintera "A singular voice that explodes off the page, Amy Tintera's writing flashes with sharp comebacks and pointed commentary as she expertly knits her web of secrets and small town lies. Hands down the most fun I've had reading about murder."
My Darling Girl (2023) Jennifer McMahon "Jennifer McMahon takes an all-too-relatable idea - who hasn't been driven a bit mad by their mother? - and deftly twists it into a tale of supernatural suspense and psychological thrills. My Darling Girl is the rare book that delivers both chilling scares and genuine emotion - I got goosebumps from both."
The Whispers (2023) Ashley Audrain "Ashley Audrain writes about motherhood and how it feels to be a woman today with a fearlessness few can muster. Every time I turned a page, I thought: yes! This is why I read--to connect, to feel seen, to be confronted with my deepest fears, and, of course, to go on a breathtakingly suspenseful ride while doing it."
The Only One Left (2023) Riley Sager "Page after page, Sager feeds our voyeuristic hunger to know every deep, dark, bloody detail in those rare cases that capture our attention and our imagination. I'll say it: Kit is, hands down, my favorite heroine in the Sager-verse and The Only One Left is a terrifying treat for all of his fans (like me!)."
The Senator's Wife (2023) Liv Constantine "A deadly cocktail of medical mystery, family drama, and psychological suspense--I'll admit, The Senator's Wife really got me."
Not So Perfect Strangers (2023) L S Stratton "I was delighted to be caught in the crosshairs of this deliciously devious cat-and-mouse game between two strikingly different, but equally magnetic women as they duked it out for justice, revenge, love, and power. This one keeps the reader guessing until the very end."
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise (2023) Colleen Oakley "The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise is pure joy on paper. With wit, sass, and real emotion, Tanner and Louise, two unlikely fugitives, find connection, common ground, and true friendship across generations. A delightful reminder that there are meaningful second, third, and even fourth acts in life."
Lute (2022) Jennifer Thorne "Is there a dark side to paradise or a bright side of hell? That's the genius of Lute, a book made magic by its captivatingly isolated setting, spine tingling suspense, and characters with a heartbeat . . . or at least for so long as they survive The Day. This is the only creepy island I was actually sad to leave when I turned the last, spellbinding page."
Spells for Forgetting (2022) Adrienne Young "With magic, murder, and prose that reads like music, Adrienne Young weaves together an immersive tale amidst the Pacific Coast island of Saoirse where love and pain both stick to the bone and a novel that will surely stick with me for many years to come, too."
I'm the Girl (2022) Courtney Summers "Bold, brave and unflinchingly visceral, I'm The Girl exposes the raw twitchy nerve at the emotional epicenter of girlhood with a message relevant for all ages: learning to understand the world in which we live doesn't mean caving to it. Summers is a singular voice, a feminist force, and a writer who plays by her own rules."
A Gracious Neighbor (2022) Chris Cander "A dynamic and insightful storyteller, Cander imbues her work with such poignant character detail, as a reader, I felt I'd all but moved into Martha's neighborhood. As a documented lover of tales of complicated relationships between women, I must say that A Gracious Neighbor is among the best."
My Summer Darlings (2022) May Cobb "May Cobb delivers another firecracker of a novel complete with her signature scandalous leading ladies and steamy suspense--this is not your mother's thriller!"
The Lifeguards (2022) Amanda Eyre Ward "At once a love letter to my favorite city and a tense interrogation of the bonds of motherhood, The Lifeguards places three very different women in the pressure cooker of one Austin summer and watches the sparks ignite. I love a carefully crafted mystery where all the tricky pieces fit just so. . . . A masterclass."
Dig Two Graves (2022) Gretchen McNeil "A delightfully devious two-hander and terribly fun, Neve and Diane's deadly promise sets in motion a thrilling high-stakes game of chess. No one writes murder like Gretchen McNeil."
Wish You Were Gone (2022) Kieran Scott "Equal parts murder mystery and complex relationship drama, Scott builds her house of cards with a steady hand using dirty secrets and tangled histories. I was holding my breath until not just the last page, but the last paragraph."
Fake (2022) Erica Katz "Fast, sharp and utterly compulsive."
The Last House on the Street (2022) Diane Chamberlain "Diane Chamberlain elegantly braids together two stories, set apart by history, to render this taut, edge-of-your-seat tale of two women reckoning with the dark truth of the land they each call home. As compelling as it is important, the novel's focus on the efforts of a group of college students in the South during the Civil Rights movement will no doubt make it a favorite amongst book clubs everywhere."
Good Rich People (2022) Eliza Jane Brazier "A novel that's equal parts edge-of-your-seat suspenseful, bitingly funny, and wholly original."
The Neighbor's Secret (2021) L Alison Heller "The Neighbor's Secret is the rare thriller that actually leaves you feeling better about humanity. Buoyant and big-hearted, I had zero self-control when it came to inhaling chapters to uncover each delicious new secret. This will be an easy book to recommend to everyone I know--an absolute crowd pleaser!"
Just One Look (2021) Lindsay Cameron "Lindsay Cameron has penned a relentlessly gripping and cunning tale of the new Pandora’s box—the inbox. Just One Look had me promising myself just one more chapter, just one more page, just one, until—oops—I was done."
The Girls Are All So Nice Here (2021) Laurie Elizabeth Flynn "With The Girls Are All So Nice Here, Flynn takes the insecurities that come with being a young woman and sharpens them into a deadly point. I read open-mouthed as Amb navigated the complex social calculus of her worlds right up until that stinging kick of a final chapter left me breathless."
Madam (2021) Phoebe Wynne "Imagine if Donna Tartt and Margaret Atwood got together to write a creepy, suspenseful novel about a school for young women in the Scottish Highlands. The result is Madam, a book I couldn't for the life of me put down. Brooding and unsettling, Wynne paints a gorgeous picture that only serves to camouflage the dark secrets she's hidden within."
In Case of Emergency (2020) E G Scott "A smart whodunit that brims with human insight about the surprising ways in which we heal and the importance of coming face-to-face with our role in the trajectory of our lives. In Case of Emergency is a fast-paced volley of a story batted back and forth between a cast of entertaining characters, all while stylishly concealing more than a few tricks up its proverbial sleeve."
The Comeback (2020) Ella Berman "Raw and nuanced...slices straight down to the nerve. A chilling exposé unfolding in real time--I dare anyone to read it without squirming in suspense and in recognition."
The Girl from Widow Hills (2020) Megan Miranda "With Hitchcockian flair, Megan Miranda shrewdly examines what becomes of the people at the center of those rare, sensational news stories that capture the nation’s attention. The Girl from Widow Hills gave me the creeps in the best way possible."
East Coast Girls (2020) Kerry Kletter "With lush prose and poignant reflections on fate, forks in the road, and the power of female friendships, East Coast Girls is a book whose pages demand to be both snuck in under the covers late into the night and savored. I've already made a permanent place for it right beside Judy Blume's Summer Sisters in the bookshelf of my heart."
Pretty Things (2020) Janelle Brown "A can't-look-away story of and for our generation, Pretty Things combines a spellbinding setting with dark, slippery secrets to expose what we've always known--or maybe just hoped--to be true about the gilded lives presented in our social media feeds. Janelle Brown is a literary powerhouse."
Reputation (2019) Sara Shepard "A modern murder mystery that exposes our deepest fears about how vulnerable we are to the parts of ourselves we hide online. As the secrets pile up, Shepard writes her calculating anti-heroines with sharp clarity, daring the reader to keep pace alongside her. I, for one, was breathless."
