For my latest thriller, With My Little Eye, I wanted to write a creepy, twisty, funhouse-ride of a story that also let me examine our national unhealthy obsession with celebrity, the insane beauty standards we put on women (especially as we age), and what privacy looks like in the age of social media. The idea of being watched is both enticing and terrifying for everyone with an Instagram. “Look at me—but not too hard, and not too long!” If you are an actor—or a dancer, or a musician, or even a writer—you can’t opt out. You have to put yourself out there.
As I began to write what I thought would be a many-voiced story, the character of a working actor decided take center stage, as it were. Meribel Mills isn’t super-famous. She’s best known for a small but juicy part on an iconic 90’s sit-com, but that doesn’t save her from catching the eye of an obsessive fan. An actor’s life is a fertile ground in which to grow a tale about a stalker so divorced from reality that he will follow the middle-aged, single mom who once played his teenage obsession all the way across the country.
Actors aren’t the only ones who act out, however. There are big egos and big money on the table in all aspects of the entertainment world, and some of my favorite mystery and suspense titles unfold in the worlds of dance, broadcast news, high fashion, magic, and music. These rich settings provide an extra kick of fun between the plot twists.
The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelk-Dale
Three ambitious young dancers meet at the Paris Opera Ballet School in a story so self-assured and tightly written it’s hard to believe this is a debut novel. Kapelk-Dale swings us back and forth in time, through friendships forged in the ruthless and hotly competitive world of professional dance to the insane demands and pressures placed on professional ballerinas. It’s an enthralling exploration of some truly warped power dynamics. A series of betrayals leads inexorably to a bloody conclusion with a twist you won’t see coming.
Prime Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan
News, let’s face it, has become a subset of the entertainment world. In Prime Time, Ryan debuted her compelling recurring character, Charlotte McNally. It’s a fast-paced tale about a TV reporter under pressure to deliver a ratings-boosting story. She books an interview with the widow of a man who died quite recently in an accident, only to realize the same man sent her an email right before he died. The book won the Agatha Award for best first novel, and Ryan herself is an award winning investigative journalist. Her behind-the-scenes understanding of the world Charlotte inhabits is a vivid pleasure. If you haven’t read Ryan’s books before, start here, and you’ll be hooked enough to read straight through to her latest release, The House Guest.
Someone Had to Do It by Amber and Danielle Brown
Brandi Maxwell, a young woman who has just landed her dream internship in the world of high fashion, is learning that the rich are different. Micro-aggressions and drug addled, entitled models rip the veil of glamour off this gritty landscape, and then Brandi hears the wrong thing at a posh party. She gets caught up in the nefarious scheme of It-Girl Taylor, who is about to lose everything due to her own addictions and her father’s new wife. There’s a thoughtful exploration of racism, privilege, and the corrupting influence of power at the heart of secret-fueled tale of murder and ambition.
Maddalena and the Dark by Julia Fine
Get this novel on your radar! While it is likely to be marketed as historical fiction, there is such palpable malice, such a growing sense of dread, that I kept finding myself holding my breath as I read. Set in lush, wild Venice at the beginning of the 18th century, it’s a violent and suspenseful tale of a young, ambitious violinist who meets the titular Maddelena at a prominent music school that is also a convent. Maddalena has been stored there to protect her “value” as a prospective bride, and as she plots a heist to steal back her life and gain control over her own future, their fates entwine. Envy and ambition and obsession drive the novel to a bloody conclusion that haunts me still.
Acts of Violet by Margarita Montimore
Is Violet Volk a famous magician—or an infamous one? She lives big and leaves messes behind, most of which have to be cleaned up by her sister Sasha. This genre-bending story leans hard into mystery when Violet’s final trick seems to be to literally disappear. Sasha’s narration is interspersed by news stories and transcripts from a Violet-obsessed podcast, giving the book a true crime feel. The twists start early and keep coming, and I gobbled this one down in a matter of hours.
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