Awards
| Barry Awards Best Novel nominee (2019) : Leave No Trace |
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Mindy Mejia recommends
Northwoods (2024)Amy Pease"Through vivid settings and unforgettable characters, Amy Pease shatters the peaceful illusion of upper Midwest resort towns. I couldn't get enough of Sheriff Marge North, a woman whose emotions are a vital asset to her job, and her son, Eli, whose buried trauma makes investigating a murder nearly impossible. NORTHWOODS is much more than a crime novel. It's a story of how the world breaks us and yet sometimes, if we're lucky, offers us a path forward. A debut not to be missed!"The Wild Between Us (2023)Amy Hagstrom"Revolving between two search and rescue missions fifteen years apart in the Marble Lake wilderness, like two points of gravitational pull, The Wild Between Us explores the depths of guilt, secrets, and the unbearable weight of time in the face of tragedy. This immersive thriller had me riveted from the first page. Do not miss Amy Hagstrom's exceptional debut!" Behind the Lies (2023)Maren Cooper"Corporate intrigue meets domestic drama in Maren Cooper's debut thriller. Secrets, lies, and fraud make this a fast-paced and suspenseful read. A great debut!" Just Stay Away (2023)Tony Wirt"Cancel your plans and find a good chair because once you start Just Stay Away, you won't be able to stop. A psychological game of cat and mouse evolves between a writer and his daughter's creepy new friend in this superbly plotted, fantastically immersive domestic thriller. From the characters to the writing to the pitch-perfect ending, Wirt delivers on every level." This is How We End Things (2023)R J Jacobs"Experiments in deception turn deadly in this superb dark academic thriller by RJ Jacobs. With an intriguing cast of characters, all with secrets of their own, ever-ratcheting, pitch-perfect tension, and a killer on the loose, I could not read This is How We End Things fast enough. This is one addictive book." Have You Seen Her (2023)Catherine McKenzie"Sleeping with the Enemy meets Free Solo in the latest hypnotically immersive thriller by Catherine McKenzie. In the tradition of Gillian Flynn, with nods to our current true crime obsession, Have You Seen Her is a stunner. I couldn't read it fast enough." Everything We Didn't Say (2021)Nicole Baart"A woman returns to her Iowa hometown to face her past, reclaim her family, and solve the cold-case murders that abruptly ended her childhood. Memory collides with consequence in this perfectly paced mystery and clear-eyed ode to America’s heartland. I loved everything about this book. Nicole Baart is a master storyteller." Where I Left Her (2021)Amber Garza"Amber Garza establishes herself once again as a master of domestic suspense with WHERE I LEFT HER, in which a teenager's disappearance forces a family's secrets to the light in this pitch-perfect thriller. Vibrant characters and precisely laid clues kept me hooked until the very last page." Wolf Kill (2021)(Sam Rivers Mystery, book 1)Cary J Griffith"The deep freeze of a Minnesota winter meets the chilling underbelly of a small Iron Range town in Cary Griffith’s fantastic Wolf Kill. I loved meeting Sam Rivers, the wolf expert and USFW field agent assigned to protect the nation’s wildlife, and can’t wait to follow Rivers on his next adventure." Girl One (2021)Sara Flannery Murphy"Girl One flares into the world with genetic possibilities and a bold remaking of history. A speculative feminist thriller of the highest order, Girl One is fresh, boundless, and thought-provoking. Certain books and characters linger long after the final page. Josephine Morrow and her extraordinary journey is one you won’t soon forget." Bad Habits (2021)Amy Gentry"With every novel, Gentry’s work upends our expectations of identity. Her characters explore alter egos through the guise of performance, aliases, lovers, and—in Bad Habits—even grad programs. Hailing Jamesian roots as it explodes into the world of academia, Bad Habits layers precise detail, dread, and dark desire in an addictive page-turning story. The unforgettable ending made me immediately want to read the entire book again. Do not miss this hypnotic masterpiece." Behind the Red Door (2020)Megan Collins"Behind the Red Door isn't just a gripping, finely-tuned thriller, it's a masterful meditation on fear. Dark forests, crumbling cabins, and mutating nightmares all populate this New England landscape where one woman may hold the key to saving a kidnapping victim. But in order to do so, she'll have to confront a lifetime of terror, including the ultimate fear: not knowing who can be trusted or where the monsters live. I was hooked from the first page." The Wolf Wants In (2019)Laura McHugh"If you’re looking for a writer who understands Midwestern life from the grand scales of economic and social contracts down to its tiniest customs and stoic beauty, look no further. Laura McHugh is the queen of the haunted heartland. Every scene simmers with hope and dread, making it impossible to rest until I knew these characters’ fates. An absolute must-read." River Bodies (2018)(Northampton County, book 1)Karen Katchur"Karen Katchur is a master at writing into the dark spaces of our intimate family relationships, and River Bodies is her most stunning work to date." Three Days Missing (2018)Kimberly Belle"Kimberly Belle's Three Days Missing is exactly what you want in a thriller-riveting, edge-of-your-seat storytelling. When an eight-year-old is kidnapped from a remote Georgia campground, two seemingly opposite mothers fight to recover the boy. Every minute counts as Belle keeps the story racing to its gripping end, but the most intriguing element of the book is the interplay between disparate characters. Belle resists easy conclusions and nearly every relationship-be it spouse, family, friend, or foe-doubles down on its intricacies during the course of the action, making readers acutely aware of the unfathomable space between ourselves and others. Absolutely unputdownable. I couldn't let go of this book until I'd devoured the last page." The Depth of Lies (2017)E C Diskin"A brilliant examination of the shadows lurking in every relationship and what happens when you step into the darkness." The Blackbird Season (2017)Kate Moretti"Moretti spins a tale of suspicion, deceit, and dreams that die as suddenly as a flock of starlings falling from the sky. A thrilling morality tale of the highest order, The Blackbird Season will make you question the lines between right and wrong, victim and criminal, and the unknowable intentions that form our innocence and guilt." Visitors also looked at these authors
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