The CrimeReads editors make their selections for the month’s best debut novels.
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Maia Chance, The Body Next Door
(MIRA)
A woman’s life unravels after the body of a young woman is dug up by a construction crew at her family’s vacation house on Orcas Island. Chance writes compellingly of a world of luxury and privilege slowly shattered by a series of revelations. –DM
Stella Sands, Wordhunter
(Harper Paperbacks)
In Sands’ debut, a linguist living in a small town in South Central Florida is recruited to help solve crimes. The mysteries unfold one after another, and the wordplay and investigations into language soon take some very dark turns. –DM
Elizabeth Staple, The Snap
(Doubleday)
Elizabeth Staple’s clever and furious thriller follows four women who have fought for a place in the cutthroat world of professional athletic organizations, only to find themselves enabling and covering up the sins of more powerful men. They must confront their participation in a system that has also victimized them in order to move forward with their lives (and careers). –MO
Asha Elias, Pink Glass Houses
(William Morrow)
A wealthy enclave in Florida is the setting for Asha Elias’ deliciously nasty skewering of parental competition. Pink Glass Houses feels a bit like The Favourite—a naive newcomer to the neighborhood soon reveals her claws as she enters into deadly battle with a more polished resident over the coveted position of PTA president. Corruption, maneuvering, and suspicion abound, all leading to a thrilling conclusion. –MO
