This week, Steph and I talk about books with memorable characters who we will never forget!

Books We've Been Reading

You Belong Here

Don’t Forget the Girl

Recursion

Doll Parts

Honey and Spice

Do What Godmother Says

Books with Memorable Characters

Junie

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Dissolution

The Paper Palace

An Inconvenient Woman

None of This is True

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This week, I talk with Cobie LaJeanne about her pitch-black thriller Blood in the Cradle. We dive into her inspiration for the story, how the book developed over time, and what it was like creating a detective with synesthesia!

Blood in the Cradle Synopsis

When decorated detective Chloe Van Belle receives a call about a severed limb in a fountain, she dreads returning to Encounters, a renowned angel-worshipping church tied to her dark childhood wounds. She’s further shocked to learn six-year-old Lillian vanished [from the congregation] without being reported.

Chloe’s half-sister Rosie, a devout believer engaged to the reverend’s son, remains unwavering that everything unfolds according to divine will, refusing to see the evil in front of her.

An eerie search leads to Lillian’s body tucked in a cradle with a vintage watch, linking the crime to a similar murder twenty years ago. The gruesome scene triggers Chloe’s morbid fascination with death, making her visual-gustatory synesthesia, which gives murder a literal sweet taste, harder to hide. With Chloe’s nightmares and half-memories resurfacing, she engages in a macabre game of cat and mouse with the killer.

As casualties grow and evidence points to the highest levels of the church leadership, Chloe must protect Rosie and her team—but is it from a monster or herself?

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Last year, Sabrina Thatcher (aka Olivia Day Wallce) and Lori Brand shared their experiences at ThrillerFest, and this year, since I got to go for the first time, we all get back together to discuss Thrillerfest 2025!

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Emily Layden joins me to talk about her new contemporary fiction novel Once More From The Top!  We dive into her inspiration for the book, and our shared obsession with the many facets of fame.

Once More From The Top Synopsis

Everyone in America knows Dylan Read, or at least has heard her music. Since releasing her debut album her senior year of high school, Dylan’s spent fifteen years growing up in the public eye. She’s not only perfected her skills when it comes to lyrics and melody; she’s also learned how to craft a public narrative that satisfies her fans, her label, and the media. In the circles of fame and celebrity in which she now travels, the careful maintenance of Dylan Read pop star is often more important than the songs themselves.

And so lots of people think they understand everything about Dylan Read. But what no one knows is the part of her origin story she has successfully kept hidden: her childhood best friend Kelsey vanished the year before Dylan became famous. Now, as Dylan’s at the height of her career, Kelsey’s body is found at the bottom of their hometown lake—forcing Dylan to reckon with their shared past, her friend’s influence on her music, and whether there’s more to their story than meets the eye.

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This week, Caileigh Hynes @thebookpear joins me and shares 5 of her favorite reads in 2024 so far!  We dive into what we love about thrillers, how she started her account, and our matching pet names!

Books We Talked About

Kill for Me Kill for You

The Return of Ellie Black

Look Closer

She’s Not Sorry

Murder Road

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This week, I talk with Hannah D Sharpe about her new domestic suspense Between Lies and Revenge.  We dive into how she learned about gemology, her experiences with MLMs, and found family.

Between Lies and Revenge Synopsis

Years after the death of her brother and the theft of her heirloom jewelry, ex-con Elle is on the run ... until she spots a stranger wearing a signature piece. Determined to take back what is hers, Elle stalks and befriends the woman, using her gemology skills as a ruse. Elle offers to appraise and clean the jewelry, replicating and replacing the pieces instead.

Olivia is drowning. She maxes out credit cards behind her financially-strict husband's back in order to pay for fertility treatments, keep her blackmailing father at bay, and maintain appearances with her wealthy friends and their cultist MLM social circles. When Olivia meets Elle, she finally feels understood ... and inspired.

With Elle’s expertise and Olivia’s connections, the two start a side-hustle by way of home jewelry appraisal parties. When this isn't lucrative enough, they develop the perfect con: switching rich housewives’ gems with fakes. But their hidden truths get in the way of their success, and each other. Before their secrets bury them, they must confess their lies to one another and trust their final con will exact the revenge that’ll secure their freedom, and their lives.

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This week, I got to talk with Chelsea Bieker about her powerful emotional suspense novel Madwoman.  We dive into the story's exploration of motherhood, traumatic childhoods, coping mechanisms, anxiety and integration.  

Madwoman Synopsis

The world is not made for mothers.
Yet mothers made the world…

Clove has gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation. 

But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun. As we race between her precarious present-day life in Portland, Oregon and her childhood in a Waikiki high-rise with her mother and father, Clove is forced to finally unravel the defining day of her life. How did she survive that day, and what will it take to end the cycle of violence? Will the truth undo her, or could it ultimately save her?

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This week, I got to talk with Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado about their new action thriller Fatal Intrusion.  We dive into their joint writing process, the inception of the story, and creating a killer obsessed with spiders.

Fatal Intrusion Synopsis

Carmen Sanchez is a tough Homeland Security agent who plays by the rules. But when her sister is attacked, revealing a connection to a series of murders across Southern California, she realizes a conventional investigation will not be enough to stop the ruthless perpetrator.

With nowhere else to turn, Sanchez enlists the aid of Professor Jake Heron, a brilliant and quirky private security expert who, unlike Sanchez, believes rules are merely suggestions. The two have a troubled past, but he owes her a favor and she’s cashing in. They team up to catch the assailant, who, mystifyingly, has no discernable motive and fits no classic criminal profile. All they have to go on is a distinctive tattoo and a singular obsession that gives this chillingly efficient tactician his nickname: Spider.

Over the next seventy-two hours, Sanchez and Heron find themselves in the midst of a lethal chess match with the killer as they race to stop the carnage. As the victims mount, so do the risks. Because this spider’s web of intrigue is more sinister—and goes far deeper—than anyone could possibly anticipate.

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This week, MacKenzie Green joins the show, and we talk about our shared love for reading, how reading expands empathy, and five books that define her reading style!

Books We Talked About

Creativity, Inc.

My Government Means to Kill Me

The Immortalists

Wordslut

The Swimmers

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This week, Halley Sutton and I dive into an NYU study that showed how reading raises empathy, and share books that have expanded our empathy as well.

Books We Talked About

Dear America Series

Hurt for Me

Dear Dickhead

Daisy Jones and the Six

The Force of Such Beauty

The Push

Little Deaths

Missing White Woman

The Reformatory

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?

Say Hello to My Little Friend

The Lion Women of Tehran

Star Girl

Since She’s Been Gone

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This week, Gare and I dive into our very long lists of fall books we can't wait to read!

Books We Talked About

Where They Last Saw Her

The Bachelorette Party

Madwoman

Society of Lies

Between Lies and Revenge

This Girl’s a Killer

Once More from the Top

Leave the Girls Behind

An Academy for Liars

The Blue Hour

Running Cold

The Boyfriend 

It Will Only Hurt For A Moment

Fair Catch 

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This week, I talk with Emma Bamford about her thriller Eye of the Beholder, a feminist retelling of Hitchcock's Vertigo.  We dive into what inspired her to write a Vertigo-inspired thriller, and how well the story of controlling image still fits modern times.

Eye of the Beholder Synopsis

When Maddy Wight is hired to ghostwrite the memoir of world-renowned cosmetic surgeon Dr. Angela Reynolds, she thinks it might just be her chance to get her career back on track. She travels to Angela’s remote estate in the Scottish Highlands to hunker down and learn everything she can. But the deeper she digs, the more elusive the doctor becomes. Is there more hidden beneath the surface of the kaleidoscopic beauty industry than Angela wants to reveal?

Sharing the estate is Angela’s enigmatic business partner, Scott, whose mercurial moods change as quickly as the conditions on the darkening moors outside. Confined to the glass-walled house, Maddy can’t shake the feeling of being watched. As objects go missing, handprints appear on the windows, and a stranger lurks in the grounds, she finds herself drawn ever closer to Scott. Returning to London once the book is finished, Maddy is excited for their future together. But her dreams are shattered at the book launch when Angela learns that Scott has leapt to his death from the Scottish cliffs.

Which is why, months later and lost in a fog of grief, Maddy is completely blindsided when she sees Scott entering the Tube station just in front of her. It can’t be him, can it? After all, Scott is dead...or is he?

In exploring the differences between looking and seeing, surface and depth, and the power of the female gaze, this tribute to Hitchcock’s 1958 film masterpiece asks: If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, how much can you trust what you see?

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This week, I talk with Linda Hurtado Bond about her new action thriller All the Missing Girls.  We dive into how her husband helps her write, and how her job as an television news anchor influences her writing.

All the Missing Girls Synopsis

As a crime reporter for a Tampa TV news station, Mari Alvarez knows when an investigation enters dangerous territory. But with her estranged sister missing and almost no information to go on, Mari can’t trust anyone but herself to find the truth. Now she has just 48 hours to sneak into Cuba undetected, track down her sister…and pray to her orisha that she’s not too late.

This is nothing like reporting in her neighborhood, though--a place she knows like the back of her hand. In Havana she has no contacts and only an ice-cold trail of cryptic clues. When Detective Tony Garcia offers to help, Mari puts aside her instincts and tries to let someone in. But soon they’re caught in a maze of lies, deception, and an undercurrent of the island’s own witchcraft, a sinister Brujería.

Every lead draws Mari further into this world of shadows, especially when her sister isn’t the only young woman who’s gone missing. Each step pushes Mari and Tony toward a revelation they never saw coming. And as they close in on the horrifying truth, one thing becomes clear…no one will let them leave Cuba alive.

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This week, I talked with Kaira Rouda about her new thriller Jill Is Not Happy. We dive into how her own road trip inspired the story, what Kaira loves about writing domestic thrillers, and the likeable unlikeability of Jill.

Jill is Not Happy Synopsis

Some secrets keep a couple together.

If you ask Jill Tingley, she’ll tell you she and her husband Jack are college sweethearts living the dream in Southern California. Wealthy, popular and genetically blessed, theirs is an enviable life, though they’ve grown distant in recent years. Newly empty nesting with their daughter Maggie away at college, Jill suggests a road trip to reconnect.

Jack would rather do anything else than drive to Utah with his wife. He’s only stayed in this marriage because of a shared secret, a tragedy in the past he wanted to keep buried. And for his daughter’s sake. But Jack is finished with the charade of his marriage. He’s filing for divorce as soon as they return, no matter what.

But he doesn’t realize what else Jill is hiding.

So begins a cat-and-mouse road trip as a cunning wife—think Ripley in yoga pants—and a reluctant husband match wits and drive each other to the edge. But everything will be fine. Jill still loves Jack and believes he’s the only one for her. She’ll do anything to keep him. Anything. She always has.

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This week, Gare and Steph and I talk about books that got us into reading, changed our lives, and changed our brain chemistry!

Books That Got Us Into Reading

Heartsick

The Good Girl

The Fact of a Body

Books That Changed Our Life

A Density of Souls

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

And Then She Was Gone

Books That Changed Our Brain Chemistry

The Shards

The Good Daughter

The Chain Gang All Stars

Books We’re Reading

The Lion Women of Tehran

The Lies We Told

Talking to Strangers

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Kate

Gare

Steph

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This week, I'm back with Halley Sutton and we dive into what makes something scary.  We discuss different movie and book concepts and the way different scary sub-genres scare different people.  My audio also recorded through my camera instead of my microphone, so sorry for the audio quality in advance.

Books We Talked About

This Family Lies

Stalker

The Chestnut Man

Maeve Fly

The Return

Movies We Talked About

Longlegs

Oddity

Late Night with the Devil

A Quiet Place: Day One

Maxxxine

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This week, I talk with Elisabeth Eaves about her thriller The Outlier.  We dive into what attracted her to writing an "unlikeable" female psychopath for the main character, and the quandary of hurting few to help the many.

The Outlier Synopsis

Cate Winter, at 34, is a wildly successful neuroscientist and entrepreneur who has invented a cure for Alzheimer's that will improve the lives of millions. On the verge of selling her biotech company for an obscene sum, she is also about to become very rich.

But Cate has a secret that keeps her deeply uneasy about everything she is and does: she grew up at the Cleckley Institute, a treatment facility for the rehabilitation of psychopathic children. And, as far as she knows, she is the institute's only success: all of her peers have become thwarted, maladjusted or even criminal adults.

Then Cate discovers the existence of another ex-patient and outlier who might prove that her success isn't a fluke. He has not only stayed out of jail, but he's made a mark in business and science. Though his identity is confidential, she breaks the rules and drops everything to track him down. And when she finds him, living under an assumed name in Baja California, she is immediately obsessed. Like her, he is driven and brilliant, an innovator willing to do what it takes to perfect a new energy technology that will stop global warming. Here, at last, is her mirror, her ultimate collaborator, the possible answer to the enigma of her nature.

But in the wake of a mysterious death, Cate can't avoid suspecting him. If he is involved, do his ends justify his means? Ruthless herself, she's about to find out whether there are any moral lines she won't cross.

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This week, Gare and Steph are both on the podcast and we all talk about books from our favorite thriller sub-genres!  Gare shares serial killer thrillers, I share action thrillers, and Steph shares "am I going crazy" psychological thrillers.

Books We Talked About

Gare - Serial Killer Thrillers

Jar of Hearts

Please See Us

Bright Young Women

Kate - Action Thrillers

Alias Emma

Assassins Anonymous

The Recruiter

Steph - Psychological Thrillers

Bloodline

When She Was Me

Like It Never Was

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Today, I talk with Yasmin Angoe about her new domestic thriller Not What She Seems!  We talk about the end of the Nena Knight series, how we both miss Nena, and how appearances not always being what they seem inspired her new novel.

Not What She Seems Synopsis

After years of self-exile, Jacinda “Jac” Brodie is back in Brook Haven, South Carolina. But the small cliffside town no longer feels like home. Jac hasn’t been there since the beloved chief of police fell to his death—and all the whispers said she was to blame.

That chief was Jac’s father.

Racked with guilt, Jac left town with no plans to return. But when her granddad lands in the hospital, she rushes back to her family, bracing herself to confront the past.

Brook Haven feels different now. Wealthy newcomer Faye Arden has transformed the notorious Moor Manor into a quaint country inn. Jac’s convinced something sinister lurks beneath Faye’s perfect exterior, yet the whole town fawns over their charismatic new benefactor. And when Jac discovers one of her granddad’s prized possessions in Faye’s office, she knows she has to be right.

But as Jac continues to dig, she stumbles upon dangerous truths that hit too close to home. With not only her life but also her family’s safety on the line, Jac discovers that maybe some secrets are better left buried.

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This week, I talk with Kieran Scott about her dishy new thriller People Will Talk.  We dive into her inspiration for the book, how she crafted three POVs, and what made her choose a chandelier as a murder weapon.

People Will Talk Synopsis

When the Frank family throws their annual clambake at their gorgeous beachside home on Cape May, the seafood is always delivered to white-clothed tables on fine bone china. And Peter Frank, the beloved son and perennial heartbreaker, will make the rounds, charming every woman on the guest list.

Top of that list this year are Maya, his tennis star girlfriend just coming off the high of winning Wimbledon; Catherine, his high school sweetheart turned wildly successful wedding planner and influencer; and Leanne, the fiercely protective aunt and legal guardian of his only son. When Maya, Catherine, and Leanne arrive expecting an extravagant feast, they’re instead lured into a room together by a mysterious text to find Peter and…Tilly.

Tilly, all golden blonde hair and perfectly tan skin, explains to the three women that she and Peter plan to get married that night, that Maya and Peter are through, that Peter will no longer be investing in Catherine’s company, and that Leanne must give up guardianship of her nephew. The enraged women attend the impromptu wedding, but when a chandelier falls and crushes the bride, suddenly they’re three likely suspects with three perfect motives. Now they’ll have to work together to figure out who really did kill Tilly, and fast—because maintaining a good reputation in this crowd can be murder.

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This week, Audrey Egner ( @chapterandconverse ) and I share some of our favorite bingey summer thrillers!

Books We Talked About

Don’t Believe It

The Weekend Away

You Can Trust Me

My Summer Darlings

Lie By the Pool

It Could Be Anyone

The Au Pair

A Flicker in the Dark

An Anonymous Girl

He Started It

All the Colors of the Dark

The God of the Woods

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On this episode, I talk with John Fram about his genre-bending gothic thriller No Road Home.  We dive into how he found inspiration for the story in his dad, his use of Biblical imagery, and the touches of horror throughout.  

No Road Home Synopsis

For years, single father Toby Tucker has done his best to keep his sensitive young son, Luca, safe from the bigotry of the world. But when Toby marries Alyssa Wright—the granddaughter of a famed televangelist known for his grandiose Old Testament preaching—he can’t imagine the world of religion, wealth, and hate that he and Luca are about to enter.

A trip to the Wright family’s compound in sun-scorched Texas soon turns hellish when Toby realizes that Alyssa and the rest of her brood have dangerous plans for him and his son. The situation only grows worse when a freak storm cuts off the roads and the family patriarch is found murdered, stabbed in the chest on the roof of their sprawling mansion.

Suspicion immediately turns to Toby, but when his son starts describing a spectral figure in a black suit lurking around the house with unfinished business in mind, Toby realizes this family has more than murderer to conceal—and to fear.

As the Wrights close in on Luca, no one is prepared for the lengths Toby will go in the fight to clear his name and protect his son in this “grand gothic story as enthralling as it is terrifying."

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On this episode, I talk with Heather Chavez about her newest thriller What We'll Burn Last.  We dive into her desire to write a thriller with a wildfire, the complexities of three POVs at war with each other, and how much fun she had writing the wildfire as a POV.  

What We'll Burn Last Synopsis

Three women.

When she was twelve, Leyna Clarke watched her older sister, Grace, walk away from their Sierra Nevada foothills home with her boyfriend, Adam Duran. Neither was ever seen again. Sixteen years later, a stranger who looks like Grace shows up at the restaurant where Leyna works—and vanishes soon after. When it comes out that Leyna was one of the last people to have talked with the young woman, Leyna’s childhood crush Dominic, who is also Adam’s brother, pleads with her to do the last thing she wants to do: come home.

Three secrets.

But Leyna isn’t the only one who hasn’t been able to leave that fateful night behind. Her mother, Meredith, still lives in the family’s old home—even if she claims to believe the police’s theory that Grace and Adam were willing runaways. Down the street, Adam and Dominic’s mother Olivia has also stayed, determined to be there when her son finally returns. . . and to prove that Meredith and Leyna have been hiding something all these years. But the past isn’t the only threat to the two families, or the missing girl. As a wildfire sparks, tempers flare and intentions turn deadly. Because someone in the neighborhood knows what really happened that night—and just how good the forest is at keeping its secrets.

Who will you trust?

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Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

On this episode, I talk with Gregg Podolski about his debut action thriller The Recruiter.  We discuss how his job as a recruiter inspired the story, why we both love comedy with our action thrillers, and the fun of writing an action hero who isn't good at action.

The Recruiter Synopsis

When bad guys need good help, they call Rick Carter.

He's a criminal recruiter, searching for contract killers, cyber hackers, gun smugglers, and any other assorted villains-for-hire a European crime boss might need. But, when the family he left behind in New Jersey is caught up in a client's plot to monopolize the black market, Rick has to save them from two of his own top candidates: deadly assassins known only as Ghost and The Persian.

Fixing his own mess will require a set of skills he doesn't have--not a problem, as finding qualified help is where he excels. But stepping into action, becoming the hero his family needs, that's new territory. For a man who's spent the last ten years being the best at helping the worst, this may be his last chance to do something right.

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This week, I shared a quick ThrillerFest Recap (more to come on that front), and then Gare and Steph and I shared some of our favorite iconically blue and yellow covered thrillers!

Books We Talked About

No Road Home

Keep it in the Family

Believe Me Now

When No One is Watching

The Pact

Daughter of Mine

Not a Happy Family

What Have You Done

Darling Girls

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This week, Gare is back!  And we share some of our favorite reads of the first half of 2024.

Books We Talk About

Listen for the Lie

Kill for Me, Kill for You

An Inconvenient Woman

The Man on the Train

This Family Lies

The Hollywood Assistant

The Hunter’s Daughter

Love Letters to a Serial Killer

Bodies to Die For

How We Name the Stars

Rabbit Hole

Missing White Woman

Things Don’t Break on Their Own

No Road Home

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This week, I got to chat with Sarah Easter Collins about her exceptionally emotional debut novel Things Don't Break on Their Own.   She shares how the shifting nature of memory, sibling differences and the first dog in space inspired her book.

Things Don't Break on Their Own Synopsis

A heart-wrenching mystery about sisters, lovers, and a dinner party gone wrong.

Twenty-five years ago, a young girl left home to walk to school. Her younger sister soon followed. But one of them arrived, and one of them didn’t. 

Her sister’s disappearance has defined Willa’s life. Everyone thinks her sister is dead, but Willa knows she isn’t. Because there are some things that only sisters know about each other—and some bonds only sisters can break.

Willa sees fragments of her sister everywhere — the way that woman on the train turns her head, the gait of that woman in Paris. If there’s the slightest resemblance, Willa drops everything, and everyone, and tries to see if it is her.

When Willa is invited to a dinner party thrown by her first love, she has no reason to expect it will be anything other than an ordinary evening. Both of them have moved on, ancient history. But nothing about Willa’s life has been ordinary since the day her sister disappeared, and that’s not about to change tonight.

Sarah Easter Collins has written an extraordinary novel about memory, lost love, and long-buried secrets that sometimes see the light of day.

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This week, I got to chat with Eliza Jane Brazier about her new erotic assassin thriller It Had to Be You.  We dive into her inspiration for the book, and how she never intended for it to be taken as anything other than fantasy.

It Had to Be You Synopsis

Two contract killers, each with a hit out on the other, must fight their growing attraction as they face off in an epic game of lust and murder across Western Europe.

When Eva and Jonathan hook up on the sleeper train from Florence to Paris, they think they’ll never see each other again. Which is too bad, because neither has ever felt a spark like this for another person. But love isn’t on the agenda in their line of work.

Six months later, they run into each other in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. This encounter is not by chance, because Eva has been hired to kill Jonathan. She’s a contract killer, but what she doesn’t know is that he is too.

Their meeting kicks off a high-stakes adventure across Western Europe. There will be tourism. There will be bodies. Eva and Jonathan might even fall for each other.

As the two get closer to completing their assignments, it becomes clear that they are also being hunted—by something even more dangerous than love. . . .

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This week, I talk with Liz Keenan and Greg Wands about the inception of their new podcast Imposter Hour, a show that delves into the syndrome haunting creatives, impacting their lives and work.  We dive into the origin story of the show and their plans for it in the future.

Subscribe to Imposter Hour on Apple or Spotify

Follow Imposter Hour on Instagram

Or check out their website ImposterHour.com for more info!

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This week I talk with Rachel Graham and Lee-Ann McGuire Whitlock, who as a writing duo make up pen name Rachel McGuire, about their super-bingeable destination thriller On the Surface.

On the Surface Synopsis

Sawyer Stone III and Dani Fox, a young couple who spend their time circumnavigating the globe aboard their 42-foot sailboat and documenting it for their fledgling YouTube channel Sailing with the Foxes, have anchored in Exuma, in the Bahamas. As they wait for the price of crypto to rebound so they can provision and continue their journey, they’re partying and exploring with their fellow cruisers offshore. On the surface, everything looks perfect. But one night, Dani vanishes after a boat party, and Sawyer has no memory of her disappearance.

The search for Dani is initially fueled by concerns that she drowned during one of her daily ocean swims, but Dani's prescheduled video posts, recorded before she went missing, soon reveal a darker side to her relationship with Sawyer. Meanwhile, Royal Bahamas Police Force Inspector Veronique Knowles has her hands full trying to keep the investigation on course as the story of the American woman missing in the Bahamas goes viral and the internet sleuths unearth secrets from Sawyer’s past. Sawyer Stone is far from perfect, but is he a murderer? 
 

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This week, I talk with May Cobb about her twisty erotic thriller The Hollywood Assistant.

The Hollywood Assistant Synopsis

Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life, and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple, Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny LA.

The Sterlings are warm and welcoming. A perfect couple. All Cassidy has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury: Designer clothes. A sparkling pool. Great pay.

When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. Nate is sexy and talented, and Cassidy can’t believe her luck. Clearly, Marisol doesn’t know what she has. Maybe that’s why the two are always fighting when they think Cassidy isn’t around.

But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.

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This week, I talk with Kendra Elliot and Melinda Leigh about their new thriller Echo Road, where they combine their Mercy Kilpatrick and Bree Taggert series into one mystery.

Echo Road Synopsis

During a vicious heat wave, a county maintenance worker stumbles upon two suspicious suitcases abandoned by the side of the road. Sheriff Bree Taggert responds to find two bodies stuffed inside the luggage. The press demands action. The community is on edge. Suddenly, Bree is at the center of a media firestorm.

In Oregon, a senator’s daughter goes missing. FBI Special Agent Mercy Kilpatrick agrees to keep the politically sensitive case on the down-low. When she finds a link between the disappearance and a double homicide three thousand miles away, Mercy takes the next plane out—and lands right in the middle of Bree’s double homicide investigation.

To save the missing girl, Bree and Mercy must work together to stop a killer who’s playing deadly games with the press and stirring up public rage. Hungry for notoriety, he dares Bree and Mercy to catch him before he kills again.

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This week, Halley Sutton is back and we talk about some of our favorite bookish characters!

Books We Talked About

Where Are You Echo Blue?

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment

No Road Home

Lay Your Body Down

How Can I Help You

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The Man on the Train

Follow Her Home

Midnight is the Darkest Hour

Thursday Next Series

Over Her Dead Body

Must Love Books

I Didn’t Do It

Vladimir

The Outlier

Kill for Love

Eight Perfect Murders

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This week, Steph Lauer and I share books that pair well with each other.  If you liked the first one, you'll probably love the second one.

Books Kate Talked About

The Hollywood Assistant

The Force of Such Beauty

The Hunter’s Daughter : Blood Sisters

Pretty Things : On the Surface

Almost Surely Dead : Missing White Woman

Big Little Lies : The Other Mothers

The Lady Upstairs : Twisted

Books Steph Talked About

Do What Godmother Says

Like it Never Was

Ask for Andrea : Before You Knew My Name

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder : That’s Not My Name

Butcher and the Blackbird : The Girl in 6E

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife : The Girls Are All So Nice Here

Notes on an Execution : Don't Forget the Girl

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This week, I talk with Debbie Babitt about her new Hitchcockian thriller The Man on the Train.  We dive into how she gets to know her characters, how she figures out plot and what she's working on next.

The Man on the Train Synopsis

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Linda Haley is awakened early one morning by two police officers at the door. She has no idea that her husband has been living a secret life during his daily commute from Scarsdale into the city. Now Guy is the prime suspect in a brutal murder that could derail Linda’s high-powered career and may be connected to a cold case.

And Guy has disappeared.

With a warrant out for her husband’s arrest, Linda sets out to prove his innocence accompanied by an ex-cop who harbors a secret affection for her. Together, they travel to the scene of a forty-year-old unsolved murder and a night of violence that shattered the serenity of a small fishing hamlet just past the Hamptons.

But as the manhunt intensifies and she begins to uncover the shocking truth—and the past Guy has buried deep—Linda must decide if the stranger she married is innocent or guilty. And if he truly deserves to be saved.

Featuring tense, atmospheric suspense that moves at breakneck speed, this Hitchcockian thriller careens from a bedroom community just north of New York City to the picturesque beaches of eastern Long Island to a suburban train station, where a killer hiding in plain sight waits to exact a final revenge.

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This week, I got to talk with Rob Hart about the second book in his Assassins Anonymous Series The Medusa Protocol. We dive into the inspiration for the title, how he crafts action without letting his main characters kill anyone, and plans for the third book in the series.

The Medusa Protocol Synopsis

When Astrid, known in her assassin days as Azrael, stopped showing up to Assassins Anonymous, the group assumed her past had caught up with her. Only her sponsor Mark, formerly the deadliest killer in the world, holds out hope that she’s okay. Then, during a meeting, the group gets a sign, or rather, a pizza delivery. Is there another psychopath out there who actually likes olives on their pizza, or is Astrid trying to send Mark a message?

Meanwhile, Astrid wakes up in the cell of a black site prison, on a remote island. A doctor subjects her to mysterious experiments, plumbing the depths of her memory and looking for a vital clue from her past. She’ll do anything to escape, except…killing anyone. Hmm. Turns out it’s not easy to blow this joint without blowing anything, or anyone up.

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This week, Halley and I share updates on our 1,000 Words of Summer challenge and dive into what we love about our favorite book covers.  We also share what we've been reading, watching and listening to.

Books We Talked About

Almost Surely Dead

Stone Cold Fox

The Last Housewife

The Favorites

The Lies I Tell

The Force of Such Beauty

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This week, I talk with Rob Hart about his new action packed thriller Assassins Anonymous.  We dive into how he came up with the idea for an assassin who swears off killing for moral reasons, why musicals and action movies are similar, and how he created an empathetically accessible assassin as a main character.

Assassins Anonymous Synopsis

In this clever, surprising, page-turner, the world’s most lethal assassin gives up the violent life only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the first option is off the table. What’s a reformed hit man to do?

Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind, and joined a twelve-step group for reformed killers.

When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him. All without killing anyone. Or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns, nonviolence is a real hassle.

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This week, Steph Lauer and I talk with Lori Brand about her insanely fun thriller Bodies to Die For.  She shares her inspiration for the book, and her personal journey writing it.  

To check out her article about why she wrote Bodies to Die For, click here

Bodies to Die For Synopsis

Popular fitness influencer Gemma has transformed herself from a Before into an After, complete with washboard abs, thriving business, and gorgeous husband. But social media can be deceiving. Offline, the cutthroat world of bikini bodybuilding may just eat her alive. That's if she's not first devoured by the secret nemesis that lurks beneath her polished surface, waiting to destroy her.

Software engineer Ashley is fat and frustrated. Frustrated with failed diets. With a world that wants her to shrink. With biased doctors, online trolls, and even her own mother. Until Ashley falls in with a mysterious and radical sect of Fat Activists who are fighting back ... by any means necessary. She's never felt so alive, so full of purpose. She'll do whatever it takes to ride this high, destroy Diet Culture, and win the approval of her charismatic leader.

But when Gemma's toughest rival turns up dead, and more fitness girls fall like dominoes, it's beginning to look like the body image war has gone too far.

With breakneck pace and keen insights, Bodies to Die For takes a hard look at social media, the $70 billion diet industry, and the war on women's bodies--the wars we wage with each other, and with ourselves.

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This week, Olivia Day Wallace and Lori Brand join the podcast and tell me all about their experiences at ThrillerFest!  They share their most memorable moments, their favorite panels and new books that grabbed their attention.

Books We Talked About

The Den

Such a Bad Influence

A Friend in the Dark

The Drowning Woman

Syndicate Spy

For Worse

Sing Her Down

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This week, I talk with Sara Koffi about her addictive domestic suspense While We Were Burning.  We dive into her inspiration for the book, how she ended up writing thrillers, and her favorite part of writing the book.

While We Were Burning Synopsis

After her best friend's mysterious death, Elizabeth Smith’s picture-perfect life in the Memphis suburbs has spiraled out of control—so much so that she hires a personal assistant to keep her on track. Composed and elegant, Brianna is exactly who she needs—she slides so neatly into Elizabeth’s life it's almost like she belonged there from the start, and proves herself indispensable. Soon, the assistant Elizabeth hired to distract her from her obsession with her friend's death is the same person working with her to uncover the truth behind it.

Because Brianna has questions, too.

She wants to know why the police killed her young Black son. Why someone in Elizabeth’s neighborhood called the cops on him that day. Who took that first step that stole her child away from her. And the only way she’s ever going to be able to find out is to entwine herself deep into Elizabeth’s life, where the answers to her questions lie. As the two women hurtle towards an electrifying final showdown, and the lines between employer and friend blur, it becomes clear that neither of them is what they first appear.

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This week, Halley Sutton is back and we talk about buzzwords that grab our attention in synopses and some of our favorite books that are outliers compared to what we normally read.

Books Kate Talked About

Made For Love

Ace of Spades

Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?

Carrie Soto is Back

Books Halley Talked About

Heating and Cooling

Mr. Fox

Thursday Next Series

Get in Trouble

How to Be Eaten

Frankissstein

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Jaime Lynn Hendricks is back to talk about her newest twisty thriller A Lovely Lie!  Steph joins our conversation about the inspiration for the book, how Jaime builds her large casts, and her favorite part of writing 90s teenagers.

A Lovely Lie Synopsis

Is it better to believe a lovely lie or to know the horrible truth?

1999: The night of their senior picnic, Scarlett Russo and her best friend Pepper were involved in a car accident that left two of their classmates dead. Afterward, they lied to the police, protecting each other from the consequences. Then Pepper left town and Scarlett never heard from her again…

Now: Twenty-two years later, Scarlett has buried that deadly incident deep in her mind and built a comfortable life for herself, working in a hotel on the west coast of Florida and raising her teenage son with her husband Vince. Her peace is disrupted, however, when Pepper’s daughter shows up with news of Pepper’s death. Zoey is twenty-one and studying to be an investigative journalist. She has a cryptic letter from Pepper addressed to Scarlett that alludes to the events of that fateful night and Pepper’s initial intentions to get an abortion. Now Zoey wants answers about her mother’s past. Who is Zoey’s father? And what really happened after the senior picnic? As Zoey continues to dig into the past, all of Scarlett’s buried secrets threaten to rise to the surface.

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This week, Steph and I talk about the first book we read from authors we've read multiple books from, and which of theirs is our favorite.

Books Kate Talked About

Bodies to Die For

Lying in Wait

Strange Sally Diamond

I Found You

The Night She Disappeared

Blood Oranges

This Family Lies

Every Last Fear

The Night Shift

A Flicker in the Dark

Books Steph Talked About

The Helper 

The Other Mothers

Darling Girls

The Good Sister

The Invited

Children on the Hill

Then She Was Gone

Watching You

Book of Cold Cases

The Haunting of Maddy Claire

It Could Be Anyone

A Lovely Lie

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This week, I talk with Ruth Ware about her newest thriller One Perfect Couple.  We dive into the inspiration for the book, and what stereotype Ruth would be on a reality show.

One Perfect Couple Synopsis

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.
 

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This week, I talk with Alexander Boldizar about his new thriller The Man Who Saw Seconds.  We dive into the gray areas of morality, the vulnerabilities of government structures and the willingness to do anything for the people you love.  

The Man Who Saw Seconds Synopsis

Preble Jefferson can see five seconds into the future.

Otherwise, he lives an ordinary life. But when a confrontation with a cop on a New York City subway goes tragically wrong, those seconds give Preble the chance to dodge a bullet—causing another man to die in his place. 

Government agencies become aware of Preble’s gift, a manhunt ensues, and their ambitions shift from law enforcement to military R&D. Preble will do whatever it takes to protect his family, but as events spiral out of control, he must weigh the cost of his gift against the loss of his humanity. 

A breathless thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page, The Man Who Saw Seconds explores the nature of time, the brain as a prediction machine, and the tension between the individual and the systems we create. Alexander Boldizar provides an adrenaline-pumping read that will leave you contemplating love, fear and the abyss.

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This week, I was lucky enough to go to Chicago with Steph to see Julie Clark in conversation with Mary Kubica about her new thriller The Ghostwriter!! If you haven't seen the sprayed edges already, you need to. We had so much fun at the event, but also had the best time recording our first IRL episode! The reading gods smiled down on me and now specific fiction books work for me in audio form, so we decided to share some of our favorite audiobooks!

Books We Talked About

Finding Me by Viola Davis

This American Woman by Zarna Garg

Cue the Sun! by Emily Nussbaum

Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

Don't Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp

The Good Sister Sally Hepworth

Allegedly Tiffany D. Jackson

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Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, Halley Sutton is back to talk about good gateway or starter thrillers - like when your non-thriller reader friend asks you what they should read and you don't want to scare them away from the genre immediately.  

Books We Talked About

Kate's Picks

All the Missing Girls

Death of a Dancing Queen

All Good People Here

The Lies I Tell

Never Have I Ever

Halley's Picks

Stephanie Plum Series

Gold Coast

Carl Hiassen Books

I Have Some Questions For You

Fake Like Me

Hollywood Homicide Series

Patricia Wants to Cuddle

Check Out Author Social Media Packages

Check out the Bookwild Community on Patreon

Check Out My Stories Are My Religion Substack

Get Bookwild Merch

Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with Kimberley G. Giarratano about her second book in The Billie Levine Series Devil in Profile.  We dive into her favorite parts about writing the series and where she got her inspiration for the art theft plot.

Devil in Profile Synopsis

Unlicensed P.I. Billie Levine is trying to bank some extra cash, so she picks up hours working as a process server for another investigative firm. Mindless and mostly 9 to 5, Billie is content to simply hand over court documents until during a routine stakeout, she stumbles upon the corpse of an elderly man, an art collector with ties to Nazi Germany.

Compared to Billie, the dead man has it easy. Billie is feeling on edge lately. Maybe it’s because her father is insisting his estranged kids come to his wedding in Sedona, or that David is making plans to move out, or that a smug teaching assistant is getting underfoot on her latest case.

Although, it’s possible she could use the help when the cops zero in on Billie’s boyfriend, Aaron, and his connections to an international art ring. Turns out, Aaron’s stint in Israel has left him with more than just a thick scar across his neck. The woman he screwed over wants revenge, and she’s determined to leverage Billie’s murder case to get it.

With the detectives focused on Aaron, Billie sets her sights on stopping a killer who is tying up loose ends — Billie being one of them.

Check Out Author Social Media Packages

Check out the Bookwild Community on Patreon

Check Out My Stories Are My Religion Substack

Get Bookwild Merch

Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

Gare is back!  And we are talking about all the summer 2024 thrillers we are excited to read!

Books We Talked About

Bodies to Die For

A Talent for Murder

On the Surface

The Sorority

Ladykiller

The Hollywood Assistant

Letters to a Serial Killer

Assassins Anonymous

Shadowheart

It Had to Be You

The Last Party

The Haters

The Best Lies

Behind You

Society of Lies

Talking to Strangers

You Will Never Be Me

The Last Girl Left

Check Out Author Social Media Packages

Check out the Bookwild Community on Patreon

Check Out My Stories Are My Religion Substack

Get Bookwild Merch

Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

Other Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba