Megan Abbott, Beware the Woman
(Putnam)
Megan Abbott goes Rosemary’s Baby! A pregnant woman and her doting husband head to a family retreat in the woods, ready to relax with the knowledge that her father-in-law is a doctor. But a sudden health scare, and the family’s strict supervision of her activities, make the cottage start to feel more like a prison, and Abbott’s narrator starts to get a bad feeling about her mother-in-law’s early demise. Abbott has already proven that teenage girlhood is Noir AF, so I’m psyched to read her do the same thing for pregnancy.
Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People
(Flatiron)
It was difficult to tear myself away from this delicious thriller long enough to write a blurb for it, and you’ll find yourself tearing through the pages of what feels like the crime fiction equivalent of that show Revenge. The people in this nasty and terribly enjoyable novel are not to be envied, despite their beautiful second homes in a normie outpost on Fire Island. They treat each other terribly, dressing each other down when they’re not vigorously pursuing extramarital affairs or scheming to win island tennis champions, and as is wont to happen in such novels, eventually a murder results.
Michelle Gagnon, Killing Me
(Putnam)
In this wild ride of a thriller, a woman finds herself rescued from the clutches of a serial killer by a mysterious female vigilante. She should be happy. Or at least trying to heal. But post-escape she’s now a person of interest who also happens to be a con artist. Her now-threatened exposure forces her to go on the run to Vegas, where she starts a cautious flirtation with a sex worker and meets a madam with a heart of gold. Things are going well—that is, until the vigilante returns with a very particular agenda.
Vanessa Walters, The Nigerwife
(Atria)
In this pitch-perfect psychological thriller, set in the glitzy world of Lagos’ ultra-wealthy jet-set, a young ex-pat wife married to a wealthy Nigerian man disappears, and her aunt soon arrives from London seeking answers. The liquor pours are heavy, the sun beating down even heavier, and secrets weigh heaviest of all in this sultry, suspenseful thriller that had better be adapted for television as soon as the WGA strike is ended.
