Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Five dark books for long summer days

Sara Ochs is an author, law professor, and avid traveler. Born and raised in Upstate New York, Ochs and her husband now split their time between the United States and Sweden.

When she’s not turning one of the many places she’s visited into the setting of her next thriller, she can usually be found trip planning.

Ochs’s debut novel, a thriller set on a remote Thai island, was published as The Dive in the UK and territories and as The Resort in the US.

[Q&A with Sara Ochs]

Her new novel is This Stays Between Us.

At CrimeReads Ochs tagged five "dark books that are perfect to balance out the cheeriness of summer." One title on the list:
ALL HER FAULT by Andrea Mara

The very first chapter of this addictive thriller by Andrea Mara begins with every parent’s worst nightmare: a mother turning up to a playdate to find her son missing. What unfolds is an intrinsically plotted web of secrets and lies that will leave you second guessing every single character. An underlying feeling of unease runs through the entire novel up to the very last page, and I stayed up racing through the pages well after the sun went down.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue