This month’s psychological thrillers are fast-paced, intricate, and deliciously shocking. With new books from May Cobb, Rachel Howzell Hall, Samantha Downing, Chandler Baker, and more, it’s a star-studded line-up of new releases that are sure to please whether you’re reading them poolside or (more reasonably) inside in the AC.
May Cobb, A Likeable Woman
(Berkley)
Austin-based writer May Cobb is back with another sizzling thriller set in the sultry Texas heat. In her latest, a woman who has always wondered about the death of her unpredictable mother finds new answers in a memoir. She returns to her hometown to seek out the truth (and perhaps reconnect with an old flame, or at least have some flirtation in a swimming pool). You’ll tear through this one poolside! Maybe on the beach, while wearing sunglasses…who knows what thoughts of delicious vengeance may be hidden behind sunglasses. –MO
Colin Walsh, Kala
(Doubleday)
In 2003, a tight-knit group of friends in small-town Ireland is torn apart when one goes missing. Nearly two decades later, a body is found, just in time for a hen party bringing everyone back together. Alternating between past and present, Colin Walsh skillfully reveals the dark secrets behind the murder and missed opportunities to bring the killer to justice. Of particular note is Walsh’s talent for dialogue and dynamic descriptions. –MO
Rachel Howzell Hall, What Never Happened
(Thomas and Mercer)
The obituary is an art unto itself, and I am so excited it is being explored by none other than the fantastic Rachel Howzell Hall! Skilled obituary writer Coco Weber is back on Catalina Island, a tiny island paradise off the coast of California. Twenty years before, she was the sole survivor of a terrifying home invasion. But now she’s back–ready to grapple with the bad memories and take care of her Aunt Gwen. Exxxxxxxxcept maybe there’s a serial killer on the island targeting elderly people? Coco begins to wonder… and then one day, she gets a copy of her own obituary in the mail. What! (Note: I wanted to end this blurb with the phrase “special die-livery” but I didn’t want to be fired.) –OR
Jessica Ward, The St. Ambrose School for Girls
(Gallery)
In Jessica Ward’s 90s-set novel, a girl arrives at boarding school ready to stand out in her all-black wardrobe, but hoping to keep her mental health history private. When the queen bee of the school begins to mercilessly pick on her, things escalate quickly, and when a body is found, Ward’s narrator finds herself unable to trust anyone, including herself. Ward treats the subject of bipolar disorder with respect while still crafting a complex psychological thriller. –MO
Laura Lippman, Prom Mom
(William Morrow)
I promise you—I swear to you—that Prom Mom means something very different than what you’re thinking! I’m not going to spoil it. I’m just going to say that Laura Lippman’s incredibly layered and tense COVID-era thriller tells multiple stories about its main characters, a man and a woman whose pasts are linked by tragedy and tawdry gossip, and whose current lives are connected by something more powerful: the desire for a second chance. –OR
Liz Nugent, Strange Sally Diamond
(Gallery/Scout)
Sally Diamond has led a quiet life for decades, with her own peculiar habits, without bother. Then her father dies, she burns the corpse in the incinerator, and she becomes an object of much curiosity indeed. Liz Nugent finds much empathy for her strange heroine, whose heartbreaking backstory slowly comes to the fore, interspersed with Sally’s journey from isolation to beloved community member. There’s the usual trademark Liz Nugent disturbing content, but with a heart-felt dose of humanity to balance things out. –MO
Jamie Day, The Block Party
(St. Martin’s Press)
In this delightful suburban thriller, a block party is the catalyst for a neighborhood’s public unraveling, bringing long-festering secrets and dangerous liaisons to the surface. The Block Party is split between two timelines: a murder in the present day, and the events from last year’s block party that set the murderer in motion. A wickedly fun send-off of suburbia that does presume a bit more talking to the neighbors than actually happens in the burbs…My father has, like, never met his neighbors. –MO
Chandler Baker, Cutting Teeth
(Flatiron)
Children can be such little monsters. But monstrous enough to kill their beloved teacher, weeks into a class-wide biting outbreak in which the children appear to have developed a taste for human blood? Baker already impressed me with her #metoo thriller The Whisper Network and her reverse-Stepford Wives take, The Husbands, and with Cutting Teeth, she once again proves herself one of the sharpest and wittiest observers of women’s roles and mothers’ sacrifices. –MO
Samantha Downing, Twisted Love Story
(Berkley)
Samantha Downing is one of those rare writers equally focused on character and plotting, and it shows in the twists and turns of her novels, as well as the genuine emotions they evoke in readers. In her latest, an on-again-off-again couple is bound together by a dark secret—and it’s unclear whether it will destroy them or allow them a chance to prove their love fully, once and for all. –MO
Laura Sims, How Can I Help You
(Putnam)
Laura Sims’ latest is a Highsmithian cat-and-mouse thriller featuring two librarians: Margo is hiding something, and Patricia is obsessed with discovering her secrets. A suspicious death of a patron becomes the catalyst for curiosity and a looming, explosive confrontation in this uneasy thriller. Sims’ work harkens back to the complex personality studies of mid-century psychological fiction, and pays homage to middle-aged womanhood—serial killers age too, after all.–MO
