Six of the best cult thrillers

Jennifer Brody, also known as Vera Strange, is the award—winning author of the Disney Chills series, the Continuum Trilogy, and Stoker finalist Spectre Deep 6, which prompted Forbes to call her “a star in the graphic novel world.” She is the coauthor of All Is Found: A Frozen Anthology and Star Wars: Stories of Jedi and Sith, in which she penned the Darth Vader story. A graduate of Harvard University, Brody is also a film/TV producer and writer and a creative writing instructor. She began her career in Hollywood working for A—list directors and movie studios on many films, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Golden Compass. Brody lives and writes in Joshua Tree, California.

Her new novel is Namaste and Slay: A Dark Romantic Thriller.

At CrimeReads Brody tagged six top cult thrillers that "aren’t just escapist reads; they’re cautionary tales about the perils of seeking salvation in the wrong places." One title on the list:

Amina Akhtar, Kismet

Finally, Amina Akhtar’s Kismet (2024) skewers Sedona’s crystal-clutching scene with murderous wit. Ronnie Khan, a New Yorker escaping her abusive past, follows wellness influencer Marley to Arizona’s red rocks. What starts as downward dogs and aura cleansings spirals into rivalries, esoteric power plays, and bodies piling up amid the vortexes. Akhtar’s satire is sharp, exposing the performative spirituality of influencers while delivering thriller thrills. The cult energy pulses through the “glittering guru” crowd, where enlightenment hides cutthroat ambition. It vibes with Namaste and Slay’s luxury-gone-wrong ethos, blending humor with horror in a desert of deception.

Read about another entry on the list.

Kismet is among Elisa Shoenberger's eight top thrillers about influencers and the world of influencing, Rachel Koller Croft's eight top thrillers in which the characters actually get to have fun, Jamie Lee Sogn's eight top mysteries & thrillers set in the wellness industry, Molly Odintz's twelve wacky, weird, and wildly entertaining mysteries & thrillers and Meredith Hambrock's five recent crime novels featuring messy female characters.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Louise Fein reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Louise Fein, author of Book of Forbidden Words: A Novel.

One title she mentions:

The Artist [US title - The Artist and the Feast] by Lucy Steeds

This is a story of a young aspiring journalist who hopes to kick start his career by travelling to rural Provence shortly after the end of World War I to interview a famous, reclusive artist. There he encounters the artist’s strange and silent niece. This is a stunningly beautiful and evocative novel, which positively drips with secrets, colour, light and the slow pace of life in 1920’s rural Provence. It is part mystery, part love story, part exploration of the twisted, painful affairs of the human heart. I loved every exquisite...[read on]

About Book of Forbidden Words, from the publisher:

From bestselling author Louise Fein comes a new historical novel set in a world of banned books and censorship, in which an encrypted manuscript unleashes a chain of consequences across 400 years, perfect for fans of Weyward and The Briar Club.

1552, PARIS: The print­ing press is quickly spreading new ideas across Europe, threatening the power of church and state and unleashing a wave of book burning and heretic hunting. When frightened ex-nun Lysbette Angiers arrives at Charlotte Guillard’s famous printing shop with her manuscript, neither woman knows just how far the powerful elite will go to prevent the spread of Lysbette’s audacious ideas.

1952, NEW YORK: Milly Bennett is a lonely housewife struggling to find her way in her new neighborhood amidst the paranoid clamors of McCarthy’s America. She finds her life taking an unexpected turn when a relic from her past presents her with a 400-year-old manuscript to decipher, pulling her into a vortex of danger that threatens to shatter her world.

From the risky backstreets of sixteenth-century Paris to the unpredictable suburbs of mid-twentieth century New York, the stakes couldn’t be higher when, 400 years apart, Milly, Lysbette, and Charlotte each face a reality where the spread of ideas are feared and every effort is made to suppress them.

Dramatic and affecting, and inspired by the real-life encrypted Voynich manuscript, Book of Forbidden Words is both an engrossing story about a timeless struggle that echoes through the ages and a testament to the indomitable spirit of those who dare to let their words be heard.

Visit Louise Fein's website.

Q&A with Louise Fein.

Writers Read: Louise Fein.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Mara Casey Tieken's "Educated Out"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges-And What It Costs Them by Mara Casey Tieken.

About the book, from the publisher:

Through the stories of nine rural, first-generation students and their families, Educated Out shows how geography shapes college opportunities, from admission to postgraduation options.

A former third-grade teacher in rural Tennessee, education researcher Mara Casey Tieken watched as her former students graduated high school. She was shocked at how few were heading to college—and none were going to elite four-year schools. These students were representative of a larger national phenomenon: In 2021, 31 percent of rural adults aged twenty-five and older held a postsecondary degree, compared to 45 percent of urban adults, and rural students are especially unlikely to pursue degrees from private, selective schools. Why, Tieken wondered? And what happens to the handful of rural students who do attend elite colleges, colleges that may feel worlds away from home?

Tieken addresses these questions in Educated Out—a study that shows how geography shapes rural, first-generation students’ access to college, their college experiences, and their postgraduation plans and opportunities. Tieken closely follows a group of nine students for their college years and beyond at an elite New England private school that she calls Hilltop. Interviews with these students reveal the critical moments in the students’ educational careers when their rural origins mattered most: when applying to college, she shows how students are hindered by limited college counseling resources. Once on campus, they learn that many of the school’s opportunities are not available to them: they cannot access spring break trips, job networks, or low-pay-but-important internships. These students discover that home and college are very different worlds with different academic, social, and political climates—and, over time, they start to question both. As they near graduation and navigate a job market in which the highest-paying and most prestigious opportunities are located in urban centers, they begin to feel the complicated burden of their schooling: they’ve been “educated out.” Their stories show the costs of college for rural students: If they do not pursue higher education, they lose the opportunity for social mobility; if they do, they face a more permanent departure. These costs are individual, but rural families and communities also suffer—they lose young people with talent and skills.

In addition to advocating for a higher education landscape that truly includes rural students, Tieken critiques a system that requires people to leave their rural homes in search of opportunities. Our current economy depends on inexpensive rural labor. Without meaningful change, some students will have to make the impossible decision to leave home—and far more will remain there, undereducated and overlooked.

Both engaging and accessible, Educated Out presents important and timely questions about rurality, identity, education, and inequality.

Learn more about Educated Out at the University of Chicago Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Educated Out.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top fake dating romance novels

Haruka Iwasaki is a writer and bookseller living in Brooklyn, NY. She writes personal essays about her Japanese American identity, grief and growing up in NYC. One essay has appeared in print this year in Oh Reader magazine.

At Lit Hub Iwasaki tagged seven favorite fake dating romance novels to read for Valentine’s Day, including:

Lynn Painter, Better than the Movies

Romantic comedy-obsessed Liz has been fantasizing about the perfect romance with her dream guy, Michael, who just moved back to town. But Michael is also friends with Liz’s next door neighbor (and nemesis), Wes. Naturally, Liz decides to create her own rom-com HAE and rope Wes into helping her win Michael’s heart by pretending to fake date each other. Will Liz’s romantic notions help her win Michael or Wes? Despite its screwball plot, this book will have you in a puddle of tears!

Read about another title on the list.

Q&A with Lynn Painter.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Louise Fein

From my Q&A with Louise Fein, author of Book of Forbidden Words: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I actually love the title, Book of Forbidden Words! I would love to take credit for it, but it was actually reached with collaboration with my editor. I was playing around with Forbidden Words, or The Forbidden Word, but she came up with Book of Forbidden Words, and I knew that was it. I do think it is a title that gives readers a good idea of what the book is about. It is a celebration of the freedom of speech and the power of the written word. The book is set in two very different time periods, four hundred years apart. Or perhaps they aren’t so different after all. I also feel the themes in the book echo all the way down the years to the present day.

As the title insinuates, there is a manuscript at the heart of this book, and three women who are connected with it. Lysbette Angiers, an ex-nun in the early 1500’s who writes the book, Charlotte Guillard, a Parisian printer who in 1553 preserves the book for future generations, and Milly Bennett who in 1950’s suburban New York, unencrypts the manuscript. Each of the women must fight for their right to have their voice heard, for their words and ideas to matter. Each woman risks everything in pursuit of this freedom, and all of them...[read on]

Visit Louise Fein's website.

Q&A with Louise Fein.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sherry Rankin's "The Dark Below," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Dark Below by Sherry Rankin.

The entry begins:

The Dark Below is set in a small West Texas town on the northern rim of the Concho Valley—an austere landscape of scrub and cattle, scattered with abandoned Cold War infrastructure and the kinds of memories that never quite stay buried. The body of Chase Loudermilk, a student at the local community college, is discovered in a derelict, flooded missile silo on his family’s property. His death appears to be a suicide, but Teddy Drummond, his criminology professor, is unconvinced.

A former detective with a complicated home life, Teddy quit the force five years ago after a hostage negotiation ended in tragedy. Since then, she’s tried to live quietly—to be a good mother to her two children, to maintain an uneasy truce with her ex-husband, and to avoid the ethical and emotional quagmires she once navigated daily. But she also misses the excitement and sense of purpose police work once gave her.

Chase’s death doesn’t sit right with Teddy, and she allows herself to be drawn into an investigation that forces her to confront old guilt and divided loyalties—and to work alongside the woman who hates her most.

Teddy carries her own deep reservoir of personal grief, which she keeps carefully contained, throwing herself into work at the expense of her relationships. She has sharp professional instincts but feels profoundly uncertain as a mother and a friend. My dream casting for Teddy would be Emily Blunt. She has a rare ability to project intelligence and resolve without hardness, and she excels at conveying inner conflict through stillness and restraint. She could play Teddy as I imagine her—weary, capable, and quietly relentless.

Opposite her is Raina Bragg, Teddy’s former best friend turned bitter adversary. I can easily imagine her played by...[read on]

Visit Sherry Rankin's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Killing Plains.

The Page 69 Test: The Killing Plains.

Q&A with Sherry Rankin.

My Book, The Movie: The Dark Below.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Robert D. Priest's "Oberammergau"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Oberammergau: The Passion Play and Its Audiences from the Enlightenment to the Nazis by Robert D. Priest.

About the book, from the publisher:

The passion play at Oberammergau in Bavaria is one of the oldest theatrical spectacles in the world, with a history of regular performance that dates back to 1634. By the dawn of the twentieth century, each season drew hundreds of thousands of spectators from Europe, North America, and beyond. Thomas Cook's first package tourists rubbed shoulders with luminaries ranging from Henry Ford to Rabindranath Tagore and Sylvia Pankhurst to Franz Liszt. This book provides a new account of Oberammergau's surprising rise from local curiosity to global celebrity that weaves its development into the course of European and transnational history. Beginning in 1770, when the play's survival was threatened by a government ban, the book traces Oberammergau's story across the next century and a half, ending with the Nazi government's sponsorship of the tercentenary season in 1934. Combining close analysis of the community's archives and an analysis of the kaleidoscopic cultural and intellectual resonances of the play in Europe and North America, the book shows how the passion play's success hinged on the way its performers channelled the turbulence of modern European history and the shifting fascinations of their international audiences during the long nineteenth century. Not simply a religious relic serving devout spectators a dose of Catholic kitsch, the Oberammergau passion evolved in close connection with shifts in European culture. As the village transformed into an international destination, a diverse and growing crowd of artists, writers, actors, journalists, politicians, musicians, tourists, and pilgrims from across Europe and America took their experiences at Oberammergau back home to intervene in pressing debates of the time. Admirers used Oberammergau to think about unity in a divided Germany, the role of theatre in society, and the waning of religious belief; critics saw an example of commercialisation, cultural decline, and prejudice. This book shows that to explain the extraordinary prominence of Oberammergau in nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American culture, we need to understand the vast array of meanings that viewers drew from the play's content and survival, and recognise that these extended far beyond the religious.

Learn more about Oberammergau at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Oberammergau.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thirteen novels that celebrate female friendship

Elizabeth Wellington Rollins is a writer and author of the forthcoming novel The Three Graces of Pearl Street, slated for publication in fall 2026. Her work has appeared in BBC, Condé Nast Traveler, The Week, Travel + Leisure, and Vogue.

At People magazine she tagged thirteen novels "that capture the complex friendships between women in every shade of light and dark." One title on the list:

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See

In this triumphant historical saga, Young-sook and Mi-ja are two free divers and close friends whose lives unfold against a heartbreaking political backdrop that disrupts a matrilineal society on Jeju island, South Korea.

Read about another novel on the list.

The Island of Sea Women is among the Amazon Book Review's thirteen favorite novels that showcase fierce and fiery female protagonists, Sara Roncero-Menendez's twelve great reads that celebrate the bonds between women, and Vanessa Wilkie's seven provocative books of feminist history.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Laura Jensen Walker's "The Alphabet Sleuths"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Alphabet Sleuths by Laura Jensen Walker.

About the book, from the publisher:

Disposing of a body is as easy as A, B, C! Introducing the Alphabet Girls, four senior gal pals turned accidental sleuths―The Thursday Murder Club meets The Golden Girls, with a splash of Killers of a Certain Age

At sixty-nine years old, Claire Reynolds is changing things up. She’s volunteering. Learning to rollerblade. She’s rescued a shelter dog. And today, she’s killed a man. It wasn’t on her to-do list, but stuff happens.

Besides, the man in question was strangling her good friend Daphne, and what’s a gal to do? Scream, possibly. Call the cops. Or―at retired officer Daphne’s insistence―call in the rest of their senior gal pals, roll up the body in a blanket, and toss it off a cliff.

The dead man is a member of the local crime family, and if the police get involved it’s not just Daphne at risk, it’s them all.

But the body’s just the start. Soon the Alphabet Girls―Atsuko, Barbara, Claire, and Daphne―must transform into the Alphabet Sleuths, if they’re to keep both their liberty . . . and their lives.

Meet Atsuko Kimura (75, retired journalist), Barbara Wright (age redacted, retired actress), Claire Reynolds (69, retired paralegal), and Daphne Cole (62, retired cop) in the first funny, fast-paced Alphabet Girls Mystery from award-winning author Laura Jensen Walker.

Visit Laura Jensen Walker's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Alphabet Sleuths.

Q&A with Laura Jensen Walker.

The Page 69 Test: The Alphabet Sleuths.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Brian Soucek's "The Opinionated University"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education by Brian Soucek.

About the book, from the publisher:

Why institutional neutrality is nothing but an illusion.

Can a university ever truly be neutral in today’s social and political climate? Pushing against the tide of universities increasingly pledging to stay neutral about contentious issues, law professor Brian Soucek argues that their promises are doomed to fail—universities can’t help being opinionated.

In The Opinionated University, Soucek shows that neutrality is a myth by taking a deep dive into several prominent campus controversies of the day, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and restrictions on campus speech and protest. Each issue requires universities to choose a side in what they do, if not also in what they say. In everything from curricular and admissions decisions to their response to outside rankings and their evaluation of faculty, universities express the values at the heart of their mission. Soucek argues that those pushing for neutrality are only preventing universities from standing up for their values, whether in today’s current moment of crisis or in periods of political calm.

Both timely and deeply engaging, The Opinionated University calls on universities to dispense with neutrality as a governing principle and focus instead on what their mission should be, and who should determine it.

Learn more about The Opinionated University at the University of Chicago Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Opinionated University.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top Sri Lankan novels haunted by the nation's past

Yosha Gunasekera is a Sri Lankan-American attorney who represents people who have spent decades behind bars for crimes they did not commit. She teaches a course at Princeton University focused on wrongful conviction and exoneration. Gunasekera is a former Manhattan public defender and has written and spoken extensively on the criminal legal system. She lives in New York City with her husband.

Her debut mystery is The Midnight Taxi.

At Electric Lit Gunasekera tagged seven Sri Lankan novels haunted by skeletons in the nation’s closet. One title on the list:

Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan

Brotherless Night unfolds amid the early years of the civil war between the Tamils and Sinhalese. Through the eyes of Sashi, a young woman who dreams of becoming a doctor, the novel traces how violence infiltrates domestic life and slowly dismantles a Tamil family weighed down by the decisions they make to uphold their way of life. Somehow, those very decisions are the things that unravel them all. We follow Sashi through her adolescence, her education, and her deepening political awareness as the war tightens its grip. The ghosts in this novel are many: missing brothers, dead classmates, and abandoned futures. As Sashi’s world shrinks under the weight of conflict, her lost possibilities haunt her as much as the dead. The final effect is devastating—a reminder of the enduring physical and mental trauma of war.

Read about another title on Gunasekera's list.

Brotherless Night is among Eliana Ramage's eight top books about ambitious women, Daphne Fama's seven novels set during times of great political upheaval and Asha Thanki's seven novels about families surviving political unrest.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Will Shindler reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Will Shindler, author of The Bone Queen: A Novel.

His entry begins:

Never Flinch by Stephen King.

Given that I write a mixture of crime and horror, it’s probably no surprise that a new King novel is always an automatic purchase for me. I’ve been particularly drawn to his later work, beginning with Mr Mercedes, which introduced us to Holly Gibney - one of his most quietly fascinating creations.

As someone who’s written a series I can testify that one of the most difficult things to do is moving a character forward, without losing those essential traits that people liked about them first place. It’s an exercise in running on the spot sometimes – giving a sense of more propulsion than sometimes you as, as a writer can allow. King has managed...[read on]

About The Bone Queen, from the publisher:

A chilling horror-thriller debut where a mother's search for her missing daughter battles against the shadows of a historic, dangerous legend.

Single mother Jenna arrives on the tranquil shores of Athelsea fueled by the desperate hope to find Chloe, her teenage daughter who’s disappeared from their London home. She has no idea why–all she knows is that Chloe had changed in the previous two weeks, haunted by something, or someone, and the ferry ticket here is the only clue she has.

As she explores the village and interacts with the locals, Jenna soon realizes a macabre secret is being hidden in plain sight. A dark legend of a vengeful woman called the Bone Queen is spoken of in hushed tones amongst the villagers, some of whom are frantically trying to suppress the tale that has long terrorized their lives.

As Jenna starts to learn more about the Bone Queen and her previous victims, the village’s grip on reality begins to loosen and no one can say for sure who, or what, is responsible for the deaths and disappearances on Athelsea. Suffering from what she can no longer distinguish between paranoid hallucinations or real manifestations, Jenna must act quickly before Chloe is next…

The Bone Queen has left her mark, and one day she’ll collect.

Follow Will Shindler on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

My Book, The Movie: The Bone Queen.

Q&A with Will Shindler.

The Page 69 Test: The Bone Queen.

Writers Read: Will Shindler.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Laura Jensen Walker

From my Q&A with Laura Jensen Walker, author of The Alphabet Sleuths:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I always have to have a title before I begin writing a book. The title tells me what the book’s about, and tells readers the same. When I decided to write a cozy mystery about senior sleuths set in a retirement community (well before The Thursday Murder Club released) I didn’t want to copy Richard Osman’s international bestseller, but I did want the title to have a similar feel. I also wanted to make readers curious: why are they called the Alphabet Sleuths? Who are these sleuths? Happily my publisher liked the title and did a fabulous job illustrating the story with the cover.

What's in a name?

Since my title is The Alphabet Sleuths, I had to...[read on]

Visit Laura Jensen Walker's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Alphabet Sleuths.

Q&A with Laura Jensen Walker.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best time-travel books

Michelle Maryk graduated from Cornell University with a degree in English and attended the Yale Writer’s Workshop. For the better part of twenty-five years, she’s been a successful voiceover, on-camera commercial, and comedic actor, and she is a dual Swedish and US citizen.

The Found Object Society is her debut novel.

At Oprah Daily Maryk tagged six of the best time-travel books. One entry on the list:

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, by Andrew Sean Greer

Andrew Sean Greer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Less, had me ugly crying on a beach in Mexico, so I’ll read anything he writes. There’s an elegant simplicity to his prose that cuts to the quick of human frailty, and this very different story of his was no exception.

The novel centers on a woman in the mid-1980s who is grieving the death of her twin brother to AIDS while suffering through a terrible breakup. Feeling helpless, she agrees to undergo electroshock therapy. With each session, she is involuntarily transported to a version of her life in either 1918, 1941, or present-day 1985. Each rendition of Greta has a different career and personality, yet the principal characters in her life—her ex-lover and her twin brother—are always there, showing up as different iterations of themselves. Gorgeously rendered, this book lends hope to the idea that whatever path we’re on, it’s worth living.

Read about another novel on Maryk's list.

The Page 69 Test: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells.

My Book, The Movie: The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Karen M. Morin's "Cattle Trails and Animal Lives"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Cattle Trails and Animal Lives: The Founding of an American Carceral Archipelago by Karen M. Morin.

About the book, from the publisher:

Cattle Trails and Animal Lives remaps the historical and empirical geography of the emergent cattle industry as a series of carceral sites and nodes in the American West, focusing on the experiences of animals living and eventually dying under intense carceral structures, practices, technologies, and tools. This work shifts the narratives of the Old West cattle kingdoms from cowboys, ranchers, and cattle barons to the lived experiences of cattle caught within the rural “carceral archipelago” of the emergent U.S. beef industry. The work focuses on these animals’ forced movement over land and sea—their experiences, lives, and agency as formerly free—roaming animals who were captured, enclosed, moved, and eventually shipped by railroad to slaughterhouses in Chicago and beyond. The spatial nodes and sites of the carceral archipelago include the open range, the ranch, the cattle trail, and the cattle town and the intense human carceral controls enacted within them. The work further interprets how these animal lives are culturally renarrated to contemporary audiences through living history sites, other touristic and artistic re—creations of historic cattle drives, Hollywood westerns, and museum exhibits featuring material carceral artefacts. Together these not only perpetuate heroic myths of the Old West but normalize and even celebrate the carceral experiences of animals.

Learn more about Cattle Trails and Animal Lives at the University of Georgia Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Cattle Trails and Animal Lives.

--Marshal Zeringue

Megan Chance's "The Vermilion Sea," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Vermilion Sea: A Novel by Megan Chance.

The entry begins:

The Vermilion Sea was lot of fun to write. It’s not only historical fiction, but it’s also got a bit of paranormal and some horror thrown in for good measure. Given that it all takes place on a specimen-collecting luxury cruise on the Gulf of California, and there’s nowhere for the guests or the scientists to go once things begin to go horribly wrong, it’s a locked-door story as well.

Since we’re dealing with the realms of the fantastic here, and weird creatures and big weird atmosphere energy, for a director, I’m going to pick Guillermo Del Toro, though honestly it would have been fun to see what Alfred Hitchcock would have done with the tension in the book as well.

When I was writing, I had distinct actors in mind. For the main female protagonist, marine biologist Billie McKennan, I pictured British actor Emily Beecham, who starred in the Netflix series 1899 (RIP 1899. I loved you with my whole heart). For the character of James Holloway, the rich benefactor and owner of the cruise ship Eurybia, I pictured...[read on]

Visit Megan Chance's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Splendid Ruin.

The Page 69 Test: A Splendid Ruin.

Q&A with Megan Chance.

The Page 69 Test: A Dangerous Education.

My Book, The Movie: A Dangerous Education.

Writers Read: Megan Chance (February 2023).

Writers Read: Megan Chance (January 2025).

My Book, The Movie: Glamorous Notions.

The Page 69 Test: Glamorous Notions.

My Book, The Movie: The Vermilion Sea.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six novels featuring the most unhinged women

Marisa Walz is a psychological suspense author who lives outside Chicago with her husband and two young children.

Good Intentions is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads the author tagged "six novels featuring gloriously unwell female protagonists—women I would absolutely invite to brunch, after I hid the knives." One title on the list:

Oyinkan Braithwaite, My Sister, the Serial Killer

Protectiveness taken to homicidal extremes. Korede is a dutiful nurse whose beautiful younger sister Ayoola has a habit of killing her boyfriends—and calling Korede to clean up the mess (literally). When Ayoola sets her sights on the doctor Korede secretly loves, the sisters’ long-standing dynamic of loyalty, resentment, and shared culpability reaches a dangerous breaking point.

The novel explores what loyalty really costs—and how far one “good” sister will go to protect family, even when family is a monster.

Read about another entry on the list.

My Sister the Serial Killer is among Amy K. Green's five novels about living near serial killers, Anna Barrington's six social thrillers that will make you question who you can trust, Kate Alice Marshall's six great thrillers featuring sisters (and murder), Margot Douaihy's four novels that show the power of siblings in mysteries & thrillers, Francesca McDonnell Capossela's seven books about women committing acts of violence, Tessa Wegert's five thrillers about killer relatives, Catherine Ryan Howard's five notable dangers-of-dating thrillers, Sally Hepworth's top five novels about twisted sisters, Megan Nolan's six books on unrequited love and unmet obsession, Sarah Pinborough's top ten titles where the setting is a character, Tiffany Tsao's top five novels about murder all in the family, Victoria Helen Stone's eight top crime books of deep, dark family lore, and Kristen Roupenian's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Robert Dugoni reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Robert Dugoni, author of Her Cold Justice.

His entry begins:

I’m often asked what I’m reading.

Can I be honest? When I’m writing, I’m writing 8 hours a day. I write my first draft like I’m running a marathon. I just keep going and going and going. The goal is to reach the end, figure out what the book is about and then rolls up my sleeves, dig in and edit like crazy. Because of this, at the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is read. Sounds terrible for a writer, doesn’t it?

When I’m on vacation, I like something light, good fun and enjoyable. Harry Potter. The Lord of the Rings. But...[read on]

About Her Cold Justice, from the publisher:

To save a client accused of murder, defense attorney Keera Duggan must fight a complex web of corruption in a riveting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

In a quiet South Seattle neighborhood, a suspected drug smuggler and his girlfriend are murdered in their home. When a young man named Michael Westbrook is accused of the brutal double homicide, his uncle JP Harrison turns to Keera Duggan to defend him. JP is Keera’s trusted investigator, and he desperately needs Keera to save his nephew against escalating odds.

The evidence is circumstantial—Michael worked with one of the victims, drugs were found in his possession, and he bolted from authorities. Ruthless star prosecutor Anh Tran has gotten convictions on much less. With the testimony of two prison informants, the case looks grave. But Keera never concedes defeat. To free her client, she must dig deep before Tran crushes both of them.

As the investigation gets more twisted with each new find, Keera is swept up in a mystery with far—reaching consequences. This case isn’t just murder. It’s looking like a conspiracy. And getting justice for Michael could be the most dangerous promise Keera has ever made.

Visit Robert Dugoni's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Wrongful Death.

The Page 69 Test: Bodily Harm.

My Book, The Movie: Bodily Harm.

The Page 69 Test: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: The Eighth Sister.

The Page 69 Test: The Eighth Sister.

My Book, The Movie: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Agent.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Agent.

Q&A with Robert Dugoni.

The Page 69 Test: In Her Tracks.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: A Killing on the Hill.

My Book, The Movie: A Killing on the Hill.

The Page 69 Test: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

My Book, The Movie: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (October 2024).

My Book, The Movie: Her Cold Justice.

The Page 69 Test: Her Cold Justice.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Will Shindler's "The Bone Queen"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Bone Queen: A Novel by Will Shindler.

About the book, from the publisher:

A chilling horror-thriller debut where a mother's search for her missing daughter battles against the shadows of a historic, dangerous legend.

Single mother Jenna arrives on the tranquil shores of Athelsea fueled by the desperate hope to find Chloe, her teenage daughter who’s disappeared from their London home. She has no idea why–all she knows is that Chloe had changed in the previous two weeks, haunted by something, or someone, and the ferry ticket here is the only clue she has.

As she explores the village and interacts with the locals, Jenna soon realizes a macabre secret is being hidden in plain sight. A dark legend of a vengeful woman called the Bone Queen is spoken of in hushed tones amongst the villagers, some of whom are frantically trying to suppress the tale that has long terrorized their lives.

As Jenna starts to learn more about the Bone Queen and her previous victims, the village’s grip on reality begins to loosen and no one can say for sure who, or what, is responsible for the deaths and disappearances on Athelsea. Suffering from what she can no longer distinguish between paranoid hallucinations or real manifestations, Jenna must act quickly before Chloe is next…

The Bone Queen has left her mark, and one day she’ll collect.

Follow Will Shindler on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

My Book, The Movie: The Bone Queen.

Q&A with Will Shindler.

The Page 69 Test: The Bone Queen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books about the expense of burial

Becky Robison (she/her) is a writer living in Louisville, Kentucky. A graduate of UNLV's Creative Writing MFA program, her work has appeared in Salon, Slate, Business Insider, and elsewhere. She’s also the mind behind My Parents Are Dead: What Now?—a project that aims to help people navigate the dizzying labyrinth of post-death bureaucracy based on her own experience.

Robison's new book is My Parents Are Dead: What Now? A Panic-Free Guide to the Practicalities of Death.

At Electric Lit the author tagged seven "books that show how the invisible hand of the market reaches far beyond the grave." One title on the list:

Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins by Amy Shea

Forget about a funeral—what happens when a bereaved family can’t even afford to bury their dead? And what about deceased people who have no family to claim them? Through a combination of reporting and personal essays, Amy Shea—author and cofounder of the Equitable Disposition Alliance—uncovers the patchwork system U.S. municipalities have cobbled together to lay the indigent dead to rest. Some cities bury the unclaimed dead, while others cremate them. Some cities hold mass memorial services, while others dispose of the bodies without ceremony. By weaving her own experiences of death and working with unhoused populations into the narrative, Shea forces us to consider not only how we plan (or don’t plan) for our own demise, despite our comparative privileges, but also what we owe others in our community—during and after their lives. No spoilers, but you shouldn’t skip the index.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Jordan B. Smith's "The Invention of Rum"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity by Jordan B. Smith.

About the book, from the publsher:

A complex history of rum, from its production to its consumption, and from its origins in the Caribbean to its impact on the Atlantic world

It was strong. It was cheap. It was ubiquitous. Fermented and distilled from the refuse of sugar production, rum emerged in the seventeenth-century Caribbean as a new commodity. To conjure something desirable from waste, the makers, movers, and drinkers of rum arrived at its essential qualities through cross-cultural experimentation and exchange. Those profiting most from the sale of rum also relied on plantation slavery, devoured natural resources, and overlooked the physiological effects of overconsumption in their pursuit of profit. Focusing on the lived experiences of British colonists, Indigenous people, and enslaved Africans, The Invention of Rum shows how people engaged in making and consuming this commodity created a new means of profit that transformed the Atlantic world.

Jordan B. Smith guides readers from the fledgling sugar plantations and urban distilleries where new types of alcohol sprung forth to the ships, garrisons, trading posts, and refined tables where denizens of the Atlantic world devoured it. He depicts the enslaved laborers in the Caribbean as they experimented with fermentation, the Londoners caught up in the Gin Craze, the colonial distillers in North America, and the imperial officials and sailors connecting these places. This was a world flooded by rum.

Based on extensive archival research in the Caribbean, North America, and Britain, The Invention of Rum narrates the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century history of one of the Atlantic world’s most ubiquitous products. Smith casts this everyday item as both a crucial example of negotiation between Europeans, Africans, and Americans and a harbinger of modernity, connecting rum’s early history to the current global market. The book reveals how individuals throughout the Atlantic world encountered―and helped to build―rapidly shifting societies and economies.

Learn more about The Invention of Rum at the University of Pennsylvania Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Invention of Rum.

--Marshal Zeringue