Four novels that give a voice to Massachusetts' blue-collar communities

Emily Ross is the author of the mystery thriller Swallowtail and the International Thriller Writers Thriller Awards finalist, Half In Love With Death. She won the Al Blanchard best story award for her short story, “Let the Chips Fall”, which appeared in Devil’s Snare: Best New England Crime stories 2024. She is a graduate of Grub Street’s Novel Incubator and lives in Quincy, MA, with her husband and Obi-Wan Kenobi, their very playful cat.

[The Page 69 Test: Half In Love With Death; Writers Read: Emily Ross (December 2015); My Book, The Movie: Half In Love With Death]

At CrimeReads Ross tagged four novels that give a voice to blue-collar communities like Quincy, Massachusetts. One title on the list:

Micheal Harvey, Brighton

When I was a teen, I sometimes hung out with my sister and her boyfriend in Oak Square in Brighton MA. He called his colorful friends there “the buzzards.” I was not comfortable around them, but they told good stories about some of the not-so-good things they’d done.

Michael Harvey’s crime thriller, Brighton, unflinchingly captures that same edgy blue-collar world with its daily dose of drunkenness, crime, violence, and racism. But it is also a novel about boyhood and two friends, Kevin Pearce and Bobby Scales, who are united by an act of violence that sends them off in different directions.

Kevin manages to escape Brighton and becomes a successful journalist. Bobby is left behind to accept the consequences. Years later, when Bobby becomes a suspect in a string of local murders, Kevin must return, ostensibly to help his friend, but also to face the past that won’t stay buried.

Brighton opens with Kevin skimming stones across the water. It’s a tranquil scene, but only for an instant. Things quickly turn dark in this novel that is as much about blue-collar neighborhoods like Brighton, places that can drag you under, as it is about the people there who struggle to stay above water.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight memoirs exploring the damage of purity culture

K. W. Colyard grew up weird in a one-caution-light town in the Appalachian foothills. She now lives in an old textile city with her husband and their clowder of cats.

At Book Riot Colyard tagged "eight memoirs exploring the damage of purity culture." One title on the list:

Wayward: A Memoir of Spiritual Warfare and Sexual Purity by Alice Greczyn

This memoir describes a childhood of homelessness, followed by her parents’ decision to pull up stakes and trust in the Lord to provide for them and their five children. Here, Sex Drive actress Alice Greczyn recounts the damage her Evangelical upbringing caused, beginning with her suicidal ideations at age 13.

Read about the other memoirs on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top 10 legal thrillers

One title on Tertulia's top ten list of legal thrillers:

Rogue Justice: A Thriller
Stacey Abrams

The Georgia political powerhouse returns to pull back the curtain on the machinations of power in Washington. This time, a federal judge is dead and Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene must crack a conspiracy involving murder, blackmailed judges and the nation's top secret court.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Sally Smith's five top legal thrillers, Brittany Bunzey's eight best legal thrillers, Chad Zunker's six legal thrillers with powerful social messages, and Jillian Medoff's eight top legal thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven titles about disability as an ethics of care

Jodi-Ann Burey (she/her) is a writer and critic who works at the intersections of race, culture, and health equity. She is the author of Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work.

At Electric Lit Burey tagged eleven books "that in one way or another touch on disability identity." One entry on the list:

Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones

This gripping memoir from philosopher and two-time Pulitzer finalist Chloé Cooper Jones is part travelogue, part philosophical text, and part search for beauty anywhere and everywhere: a Beyonce concert in Milan; a tennis tournament in Palm Springs; a bar in Brooklyn. Cooper Jones reckons with chronic physical pain, as well as the pain of navigating a society that dismisses visible illness, disability and difference as “less than”—less capable, less worthy, and less beautiful. Not one page in my copy of Easy Beauty is without marginal notes or lines and lines of yellow highlight. In one well-marked section, Cooper Jones discusses the beauty and value we are told broken Greek statues possess, despite disfigurement. She contrasts that to the ire hurled at Marc Quinn’s Alison Lapper Pregnant, a 12 foot marble, naked and pregnant figure of Alison Lapper, an artist who was born without arms and shortened legs. Cooper Jones reminds us: “... Quinn’s sculptures are not of broken forms, but of whole forms, whole people, complete bodies.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Christoffer Carlsson's four top crime novels

Christoffer Carlsson was born in 1986 in Marbäck, Sweden. He holds a PhD in criminology from Stockholm University and is one of Sweden's leading crime experts. He is the youngest winner of the Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, which he has won twice. The New York Times named his debut, Blaze Me a Sun, one of the best crime novels of the year. He lives in Stockholm.

Carlsson's new novel is The Living and the Dead.

At CrimeReads the author tagged four favorite crime novels that he finds himself "returning to again and again, usually late at night," including:

Kerstin Ekman, Blackwater

On Midsummer’s Eve, a woman stumbles upon two dead bodies in a tent. Eighteen years later, the killer is found.

Eighteen years. Makes you think about time and memory. That’s part of Blackwater’s immense power, for me—the way the novel understands time and people, how crime ripples through years and changes.

Maybe a memory is a sort of story that takes place inside, over and over again, and just like a story does, it evolves and changes with time. Memory is far too fickle a thing to capture the past; in Blackwater, memory is the opposite of what it claims to be. Memory succeeds at what nothing else can: memory makes it possible to be reconciled with one’s history. What was once unbearable is no longer so. It is only a memory.

As I’ve heard it, the story goes: entering the kitchen where her husband sat having coffee one morning, Ekman said, “You know what? I think I’m writing a crime novel.”

As if the novel had surprised her.

“The novel showed me a double murder,” she said later. “If a novel does that, as a writer you need to try and figure them out, because the reader will. You have to respect your reader.”

Ekman had to go deeper, to find her way out. It was the only way; the novel challenged her to. So she did and wrote what is, for me, my favorite crime novel ever to come out of Sweden. Perhaps it is the Great Swedish Novel; it’s certainly a contender.

What is the Swedish experience, exactly? I’m not sure. I’m trying to figure that out.

In Blackwater, no one’s a villain, no one’s a hero. Everyone you meet is so incredibly ordinary and still mysterious. Everyone is searching for meaning wherever they can find it: in nature, community, in the idea of home, in silence, in their own history, in their sins. And possibly, eventually, only find it in the rare moment of truly touching, reaching another human being.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Blackwater is one of Elizabeth Hand's six favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six titles that celebrate Indigenous resistance

Brittany Penner is an author, practicing family physician and a lecturer with the University of Manitoba Max Rady College of Medicine, and has been a keynote speaker at the University of Manitoba.

Her new books is Children Like Us: A Métis Woman's Memoir of Family, Identity and Walking Herself Home.

At Oprah Daily Penner shared "her essential reading list for Native American Heritage Month, including three seminal memoirs, a YA murder mystery, and a picture book packed with wisdom." One title on the list:

The Knowing, by Tanya Talaga

In this urgent book—and its accompanying docuseries adaptation—the acclaimed, bestselling Anishinaabe author investigates a family mystery with national implications: the disappearance of her great-great-grandmother.

Little about this woman was passed down through the family and, despite several members searching for years, little information could be found in the official record. It was believed she’d been taken to Toronto, but as to where she ended up, what her life entailed, and how long she lived, no one knew. It ultimately took Talaga and a team of researchers scouring through historical documents to learn what had happened to her. Weaving skillful reporting with rich personal narrative, Talaga connects the broader history of the cultural disconnection that many Indigenous people experience to her own history as an Indigenous woman with European settler heritage who was raised apart from her culture. There’s hope that by discovering the story of her lost relative, she may better understand herself and help her family members do the same.

What begins as an intimate story of a single ancestor broadens to encompass the disturbing and often overlooked history of government- and church-ordained disappearances and genocide in both the United States and Canada. Talaga dives headfirst into painful subjects, but she leaves enough room to pause and reflect before diving even deeper. Storytelling is a foundational component of most Indigenous cultures, and even when we are raised cut off from our culture, many of us still find that we carry this part of ourselves with us. Talaga is a gifted storyteller, which is undoubtedly connected to her identity as an Anishinaabe woman, as she focuses on themes of resiliency and cultural reclamation for both her family and Indigenous peoples across North America.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight sensational Christmas thrillers & crime novels

Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family. At Book Riot she tagged "eight wonderful Christmas thrillers and crime novels (yes, cozy mysteries included) to add a bit of Sherlockian flair to [her] festivities." One title on the list:

The Glass Thief (Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery #6) by Gigi Pandian

It’s one thing to solve a murder. It’s another entirely to solve three murders commited in a 70 year span, and blamed on the family ghost. Jaya ends up traveling to France and Cambodia to solve this case. Or should I say fleeing to France and Cambodia? After all, it’s a case that hits very close to home.

Read about the other titles on the list.

The Glass Thief is among Mia P. Manansala's five top Christmas-themed mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten brilliant titles you can read in a weekend

One title from Tertulia's list of ten critically acclaimed books you can read in a weekend:

Eternal Summer by Franziska Gänsler

As forest fires rage and guests disappear, two women form a tense, unexpected bond in a family-owned hotel on the brink of climate disaster. Publishers Weekly called this haunting story of trust, danger, and resilience “a work of psychological suspense” that imagines “a world that no longer offers respite.”

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six thrillers featuring toxic friendships in academic settings

Kit Frick is a MacDowell fellow and ITW Thriller Award finalist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from Syracuse University. She is the author of the adult suspense novels The Split and Friends and Liars, the young adult thrillers Before We Were Sorry (originally published as See All the Stars), All Eyes on Us, I Killed Zoe Spanos, Very Bad People, and The Reunion, and the poetry collection A Small Rising Up in the Lungs.

[The Page 69 Test: See All the Stars; Writers Read: Kit Frick (August 2018)]

At CrimeReads Frick tagged "six thrillers set on college campuses, or reuniting a group of college friends." One title on the list:

Ruth Ware, The It Girl

Ruth Ware’s collegiate thriller is both a page-turner and a searing examination of a group of college friends with years of lies between them. The story unfolds in dual timelines. “Before” takes place during Hannah’s first year at Oxford University, leading up the murder of her suitemate April, the quintessential “It Girl.” We then catch up with Hannah “After,” ten years later, as she’s expecting her first child, working at a bookstore in Edinburgh—and is inevitably drawn back into the past.

The Oxford porter who was convicted of the murder has died suddenly in prison, and soon new information comes to light suggesting he may, in fact, have been innocent. So who killed April?

The jarring news leads Hannah back to her old college friends with whom she’s fallen out of touch, and she soon begins to suspect that she may not have as solid a grasp on the web of relationships as she once thought she did. One of them has been keeping secrets from her. One of them may have been responsible for April’s murder.

Read about the other novels on the list.

The It Girl is among Gillian McAllister's five best maternal thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight wickedly monstrous titles like "The Witcher"

The son of a librarian, Chris M. Arnone's love of books was as inevitable as gravity. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. His cyberpunk series, The Jayu City Chronicles, is available everywhere books are sold.

His work can also be found in Adelaide Literary Magazine and FEED Lit Mag. You can find him writing more books, poetry, and acting in Kansas City.

At Book Riot Arnone tagged eight "books to bring The Witcher vibes into your reading life." One title on the list:

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

This epic fantasy is dark, twisted, and full of horrible characters. So, pretty much just like The Witcher. This novel shifts between several fascinating points of view. Glokta is an inquisitor and torturer. Bayaz is an old wizard with a pathetic assistant. Captain Luthar is more selfish than brave. Logen Ninefingers is a barbarian of unparalleled infamy, though right now, he’s just trying to survive. These four are on a collision course that is certain to be bloody and treacherous.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twenty-three enemies-to-lovers titles that turn rivalry to romance

Amanda Prahl is a freelance writer, playwright/lyricist, dramaturg, teacher, and copywriter/editor. At PopSugar she tagged twenty-three favorite enemies-to-lovers titles that turn rivalry to romance, including:

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

"ACOTAR" has built such a massive fan base in part because it scratches so many genre itches: romance, fantasy, and yes, of course, enemies-to-lovers. Loosely inspired by the classic enemies-to-lovers tale of "Beauty and the Beast," Sarah J. Maas's illustrious modern series is sure to keep you turning the pages.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles featuring monstrous men

Heather Parry is a Glasgow-based writer and editor, originally from South Yorkshire. Her debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You, and the non-fiction book, Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism. Parry lives in Glasgow with her partner and their cats, Ernesto and Fidel. Her second novel, Carrion Crow, will be published in 2026.

At CrimeReads the author tagged five "books that continue to inspire me for their bold, unflinching ways of looking at the monstrous man, both the real and fictionalized versions of him." One title on the list:

Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

It is quite an achievement to write a book that gets so perfectly into the mind of a monster that it remains widely misunderstood even seventy years after its initial publication—and an even bigger achievement to write that novel in your third language.

A story purporting to be a tale of love and romance, written from the perspective of a child abuser about the child he abused, Lolita struggled to find a publisher and, when it was released, in France, it was called “sheer unrestrained pornography” by the editor of a British newspaper. The British Home Office was told to seize all imported copies; it was banned in several countries. By the time it was published in the US, in 1958, it’s notoriety was firmly cemented. It has sold fifty million copies since then.

Lolita is a book despised and adored in equal measure, and for the same thing: for its ability to channel the mind of a terrible man. The novel is relentless in its perspective, offering nowhere for the reader to run. They are Humbert Humbert, for three hundred and thirty six pages; they are forced to look at Delores through the eyes of a man who has the most inexcusable, abominable desires.

And by reading the book they are forced to confront the existence of such men, as well as the harm they do. Few books change culture, and even fewer manage to do so while being beautifully written; it is to Nabokov’s immense credit that the opening lines of a book about a paedophile are some of the most widely quoted, even today.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

Lolita appears on Catherine Steadman's list of six top books with unreliable narrators, Leo Benedictus's top ten list of evil narrators, Juno Dawson's best banned books list, Jo Nesbø's six favorite books list, Emily Temple's list of ten essential road trip books that aren’t On the Road, Olivia Sudjic's list of eight favorite books about love and obsession, Jeff Somers's list of five best worst couples in literature, Brian Boyd's ten best list of Vladimir Nabokov books, Billy Collins' six favorite books list, Charlotte Runcie's list of the ten best bad mothers in literature, Kathryn Williams's list of fifteen notable works on lust, Boris Kachka's six favorite books list, Fiona Maazel's list of the ten worst fathers in books, Jennifer Gilmore's list of the ten worst mothers in books, Steven Amsterdam's list of five top books that have anxiety at their heart, John Banville's five best list of books on early love and infatuation, Kathryn Harrison's list of favorite books with parentless protagonists, Emily Temple's list of ten of the greatest kisses in literature, John Mullan's list of ten of the best lakes in literature, Dan Vyleta's top ten list of books in second languages, Rowan Somerville's top ten list of books of good sex in fiction, Henry Sutton's top ten list of unreliable narrators, Adam Leith Gollner's top ten list of fruit scenes in literature, Laura Hird's literary top ten list, Monica Ali's ten favorite books list, Laura Lippman's 5 most important books list, Mohsin Hamid's 10 favorite books list, and Dani Shapiro's 10 favorite books list. It is Lena Dunham's favorite book.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven festive mystery titles for the holidays

Sabienna Bowman is a Digital News Editor at People magazine, where she has been working since 2023. She previously worked at PopSugar, Bustle and Scarymommy.

She tagged eleven festive mystery books that are to die for this holiday season, including:

The Mistletoe Murder Club by Katie Marsh

Clio, an actress-turned-struggling-PI, is elated when she's cast in her local Christmas pantomime, but when the director is murdered on opening night, she'll have to focus not only on her performance, but on solving a murder as well. Her solution? Bring in her two best friends to assist her on the case — while also playing a cow in the show. The Mistletoe Murder Club is a perfect cozy mystery, especially if you're on the hunt for a book that's as funny as it is clever.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top YA historical fantasy books

Susie Dumond is a queer writer originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the author of Queerly Beloved, Looking for a Sign, and Bed and Breakup, and she also talks about books as a senior contributor at Book Riot and a bookseller at her local indie bookstore. Dumond lives in Washington, D.C., with her spouse, Mickey, and her cat, Maple. When she’s not writing or reading, you can find her baking cupcakes or belting karaoke at the nearest gay bar.

At Book Riot Dumond tagged ten of the most enchanting YA historical fantasy books. One title on the list:

Brooms by Jasmine Walls and Teo DuVall

This high-flying graphic novel beautifully combines real history from 1930s Mississippi with a fantastical twist where racist anti-magic laws have led to illegal broom races with big prizes. Six members of the Night Storms team see an upcoming race as a chance to hone their powers and take control of their fate. Brooms is an enthralling tale with meaningful insights into the problems teens face in our real world.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten books where women were pushed to the edge

L.M. Chilton is a journalist with fifteen years of experience working on a variety of television shows, such as This Morning, Loose Women, and more. His writing has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Metro (London), and The Mirror (London).

The author's novels include Swiped and Everyone in the Group Chat Dies.

In 2024 at The Strand Magazine Chilton tagged "ten books where women take their lives and (mostly men’s’) deaths into their own hands." One title on the list:

YOU’D LOOK BETTER AS A GHOST by Joanna Wallace

Claire enjoys her part-time career as a serial killer, knocking off her victims for the most innocuous of crimes – cutting in front of her in line, or a severe lack of fashion sense. They appear to her as ghost-like entities, an indication that they’re going to be next on her hit-list. But when someone discovers her murderous little hobby, Claire has a new target. Fueled by a terrible childhood and the loss of her father to dementia, you can’t help but feel a degree of sympathy for this otherwise-cold-blooded killer.

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six espionage novels with charmingly clueless protagonists

Jonathan Payne is a British-American writer based in New York City.

His first novel, Citizen Orlov, was named a Book of the Month by Apple Books. It won the 2024 IBPA Silver Medal for Mystery/Thriller and the 2024 IPPY Bronze Medal for Suspense/Thriller.

Payne previously worked in national security for the British government.

He holds a Master of Arts degree in Novel Writing from Middlesex University, London.

Payne's new novel is Hotel Melikov.

[Q&A with Jonathan Payne]

At CrimeReads the author tagged six favorite espionage novels with charmingly clueless protagonists, including:

Graham Greene, Our Man In Havana

Greene’s hilarious, absurd thriller follows James Wormold, a struggling British vacuum cleaner salesman in Cuba, who is recruited by MI6 to provide intelligence in exchange for cash he desperately needs. In order to keep the money flowing, Wormold begins to invent his intelligence, including by photographing vacuum cleaner parts and telling London they’re aerial photographs of secret military bases. When real life begins to imitate Wormold’s inventions, things begin to get very strange.

Alec Guinness gives a great turn as Wormold in Carol Reed’s 1959 movie adaptation.

Read about the other titles on the list.

Our Man in Havana also made Francesca Kay's list of the ten top books about the Cold War, Jesse Armstrong's top ten list of comic war novels, Allegra Frazier's top five list of books to remind you of warmer climes, Pico Iyer's list of four essential novels by Graham Greene and Alan Furst's five best list of spy books; it is one of Stella Rimington's six favorite secret agent novels.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten literary thrillers set in the artworld

Laura Leffler is a writer and art historian who builds stories within the gorgeous, strange, and sometimes terrifying art world. After receiving a master’s degree in post-war and contemporary art, she spent more than a decade working in commercial galleries, doing everything from art fair sales to condition reporting and logistics. Along the way, she witnessed more of that glittering world’s dark underbelly than she thought possible. Laura currently lives in Colorado with her family.

Tell Them You Lied is her first novel.

At Tertulia the author tagged ten favorite literary thrillers set in the artworld. One title on the list:

Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand

The title of this book refers to the deterioration of an image each time it is reproduced–think of zooming in on a digital image of an old photograph reproduced in a black and white newspaper. Hand’s novel is a seriously dark and gritty tale of a photographer of a certain age who embarks on a journey to the remote islands of Maine to interview her once-upon-a-time artistic idol—only to find herself embroiled in a missing person’s case.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Generation Loss is among Caroline Wolff's six female characters who defy traditional archetypes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top speculative books for fans of "Pluribus"

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged "five great speculative books, chosen for various similar aspects as Pluribus" [the sci-fi show that’s the brainchild of Vince Gilligan, the writer-producer-director behind shows like Breaking Bad and Better Caul Saul]. One title on the list:

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

In Pluribus, Carol is one of the few people left on the planet who are not infected by the alien virus. In this inventive novel, Laura Byrd is the only person left alive on Earth. She’s a scientist at an isolated Antarctic research station, so when the killer virus spreads across the globe, it doesn’t reach her. But the other layer to this story is the City, a liminal space where the dead reside as long as someone alive on Earth remembers them. So when everyone dies on Earth except Laura, the City is then only populated by people she remembers.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Brief History of the Dead is among Tim Thornton's top ten books about the afterlife.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels about living near serial killers

Amy K. Green is a contemporary American author from New England who made an unconventional journey to becoming a writer. Originally pursuing a career in accounting, her transition to writing came after years of working in corporate finance and film production.

Growing up as an only child in a small New England town, Green credits her active imagination to solitary hours spent playing in the woods and her enthusiasm for pop culture. Her debut novel, The Prized Girl, published in 2020, was written during downtime between film productions. The novel showcased her skill in crafting complex narratives.

Green’s new novel is Haven't Killed In Years.

At CrimeReads the author tagged "five books that hinge on living in the close proximity of a serial killer." One title on the list:

Oyinkan Braithwaite, My Sister, the Serial Killer

Korede is bitter. She’s sick of cleaning up after her little sister, literally. Ayoola kills her victims and relies on Korede to handle the aftermath. From the first page, My Sister, The Serial Killer contrasts the complexities of family loyalty with morality.

Korede’s loyalty is tested when her longtime unrequited love asks for her sister’s phone number. Korede knows what it means to be one of the men in Ayoola’s life, or more accurately, how it ends.

I love how this story weaves in glimpses of the past to explain Korede’s mindset. She was her sister’s protector from a very young age and that relationship does not dissipate after one murder…or two…or maybe three? Korede’s struggle is a fascinating conundrum and an unnerving story.

Read about the other titles on Green's list at CrimeReads.

My Sister the Serial Killer is among 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

Ten brutal survival thrillers

At Fully Booked Laura Tarallo tagged ten books like The Running Man, including:

Vertical Run by Joseph R. Garber

One morning, you show up at work and suddenly everyone is trying to kill you. That’s Vertical Run, a claustrophobic thriller that trades game shows for office buildings and contestants for conspiracies.

While less grand in scale, the paranoia is thick enough to slice. It’s a game of corporate cat-and-mouse, and it never stops moving.

Why we recommend it: Sometimes, claustrophobia is the deadliest enemy. Perfect for fans of paranoid, high-stakes chases where every shadow could be your last. It’s the kind of thriller that keeps your pulse pounding long after the final page.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine books about forbidden desire

Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed novels Dear Edna Sloane, Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far is the Ocean From Here. She has worked as an editor for Medium, and her work has appeared in the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, Oprah, Coastal Living, Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, Catapult, The Millions, The Rumpus, and many other publications.

Shearn has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and currently lives in Brooklyn with her two children.

Her latest novel is Animal Instinct.

[The Page 99 Test: How Far Is the Ocean from Here; Writers Read: Amy Shearn (March 2013); Q&A with Amy Shearn; My Book, The Movie: Dear Edna Sloane; The Page 69 Test: Dear Edna Sloane; The Page 69 Test: Animal Instinct; Writers Read: Amy Shearn (March 2025); My Book, The Movie: Animal Instinct]

At Tertulia Shearn tagged "nine great works of fiction about characters who lust after what they’re not supposed to." One title on the list:

Panpocalypse by Carley Moore

One of the first great pandemic novels to appear, this initially serialized book tells the story of Orpheus, who is queer, disabled, poly, and searching the city for her long lost love, Eurydice. What she finds is a portal that takes her to a lesbian bar in 1930s Paris. I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted to live inside of a fictional world as much as I do this one.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four academia-centered mysteries

Peggy Townsend is an award-winning journalist and author. Her work has appeared in Catamaran literary magazine, Santa Cruz Noir, The Boston Globe Magazine, Memoir, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. Twice she lived for seven weeks in her van, traveling to Alaska and along the back roads of the U.S.

Townsend's new novel is The Botanist's Assistant.

At CrimeReads she tagged four favorite academia-centered mystery novels, including:

Katy Hays, The Cloisters

While this delicious novel is set at The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden in New York City, academic research is at its core. Art-history student Ann Stilwell is a summer hire at the museum and is thrilled to dig into the history of fortune-telling as her research project.

When Stilwell, however, discovers a fifteenth-century deck of tarot cards that may or may not tell the future, she is pulled into a world of obsession, secrets and greed. Smartly written and wonderfully plotted, The Cloisters is one of those novels you won’t soon forget.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten titles that refuse to dramatize or sanitize mental illness

Fredrik deBoer is a writer and academic. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Playboy, and Harper’s among many others. His nonfiction books include The Cult of Smart (2020) and How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement (2023). He holds a PhD in English with a concentration in writing assessment and higher education policy from Purdue University.

The writer's new novel is The Mind Reels.

At Electric Lit deBoer tagged ten books

that make a noble attempt at negotiating the gap between interior illness and exterior narrative. They don’t sanitize the disorientation, the self-doubt, the breakdowns that follow breakdowns; they resist turning mental illness into a metaphor or exotic spectacle.

One title on the list:

Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Few memoirs have ever been more willing to make the memoirist look unsympathetic than Prozac Nation; three decades after its release, the book’s critics still don’t understand its self-awareness. A raw memoir of depression lived in excess—an excess of shame, despair, and spectacularly fractured ambition. Wurtzel writes of growing up bright, sensitive, full of promise, then gradually being undone by an illness that induces acute panic, long stretches of exhaustion, and humiliations she feels she can’t escape. Wurtzel’s language is blistering, grandiose, and often unbearably earnest. Long passages feel (and are) performative, as critics have charged, but with a purpose: Wurtzel understood that depression makes you pretentious, selfish, and myopic—and that the most unlovable parts of her are the parts she must learn to live with. Prozac Nation doesn’t offer tidy lessons, only a voice that says, this is what it was like. In that willingness to be ugly, the book is an act of great bravery.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Wurtzel (June 2008).

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight notable true stories from history about survival

Carolina Ciucci is a teacher, writer and reviewer based in the south of Argentina. She hoards books like they’re going out of style. In case of emergency, you can summon her by talking about Ireland, fictional witches, and the Brontë family. At Book Riot she tagged eight compelling true stories from history about survival. One title on the list:

Into Thin Air by John Krakauer

Mount Everest seems tailor-made for survival stories… that is, if you survive it. That’s what Jon Krakauer did, barely, when a deadly snowstorm unleashed during his descent. One of the only two survivors, this book explores the allure of such a lethal mountain, on top of recounting Krakauer’s story.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Into Thin Air is among Amy McCulloch's eight thrilling books about mountaineering, four books that changed Rupert Guinness, Jeff Somers's five best books where nature is the antagonist, Nicole Dieker's top nine books even non-readers will love, James Mustich's five top books about mountaineering, and Ed Douglas's ten best survival stories.

--Marshal Zeringue

The 15 best "Frankenstein" retellings

Emily Burack is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site.

At Town & Country she tagged fifteen of the best Frankenstein retellings, including:

Eileen M. Hunt’s Artificial Life After Frankenstein is not a retelling; rather, it uses Shelley’s work as a lens to understand the “ethics and politics of making artificial life and intelligence in the twenty-first century.” Hunt is a professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame; Publishers Weekly reviews that her book “succeeds as an impressive and resounding challenge to technology-driven doomsday scenarios, replacing these with a vision of a gentler, kinder future in which humankind preserves both its existence and its best, most humane qualities.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see seven great horror novels inspired by Frankenstein.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine divorce memoirs about the empowering potential of endings

Heather Sweeney is a Virginia-based writer whose essays and creative nonfiction work about life as a military spouse, divorce and relationships, parenting, and women’s health have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, The TODAY Show, Newsweek, Business Insider, Good Housekeeping, and elsewhere.

Sweeney's new memoir is Camouflage: How I Emerged from the Shadows of a Military Marriage.

At Electric Lit the writer tagged nine books that "speak to the universal truths and personal trials that accompany the end of a marriage." One title on the list:

We Are Too Many by Hannah Pittard

No relationship or friendship is perfect. Sometimes love runs its course. Sometimes we outgrow people. In Hannah Pittard’s case, everything happens all at once. This genre-bending memoir cleverly combines fact and fiction as Pittard tells the story of her discovery that her husband is having an affair with her best friend, which results in the end of her marriage and her long friendship with a woman she trusted. With humor and candor, Pittard shares real exchanges and fills in the blanks of her knowledge with speculation as she analyzes what went wrong. We Are Too Many pulls readers into a fast-paced, time-jumping narrative about the demise of a marriage, betrayal, broken trust, and starting over while coping with heartbreak. The fact that this memoir is told through dialogue creates the illusion that we’re part of the conversations, experiencing the emotions right alongside the author. But even as it shows how complicated relationships and female friendships can be, this book also reminds us that it’s possible to find humor in dark times.

Read about the other entries on the list.

We Are Too Many is among Fran Littlewood's nine stories and folktales featuring sisters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven mystery novels that explore the power of rumors and gossip

Lauren Oliver is an author, screenwriter, and media entrepreneur. Her works include multiple New York Times bestselling novels for teens, including Before I Fall (which spent seventeen weeks on the list and was adapted into a feature film released by Open Road), the Delirium trilogy (a two-million-copy-selling dystopian series translated into thirty-five languages), and Panic, which she later adapted into the streaming TV show on Amazon Prime of the same name, for which she wrote every episode and served as Executive Producer.

Oliver's new novel is What Happened to Lucy Vale.

At CrimeReads the author tagged eleven novels in where "the truth is hidden not under a rock but concealed in the rumors passed between neighbors." One title on the list:

Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies

This novel masterfully uses the small-town gossip mill to drive its narrative. The story unravels through the perspectives of several women, with their interconnected lives and the rampant speculation about their secrets and relationships ultimately leading to a shocking event at a school trivia night.

The gossip is both a red herring and a crucial tool for revealing character and motive.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

Big Little Lies is among Jennifer Jabaley's six novels where competitive parenting goes off the rails, Sandra Chwialkowska's five books where bad things happen in beautiful places, Jamie Day's seven crime books featuring special events going off the rails, Ashley Audrain’s six great thrillers featuring manipulative mom-friends, Nicole Hackett's six top mysteries about motherhood & crime, Janice Hallett's five notable gripping mysteries set in small towns, Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman's six riveting titles of ultra-competitive parents, Pamela Crane's five novels featuring parenting gone wild, Michelle Frances's eight top workplace thrillers, and Jeff Somers's ten novels that teach you something about marriage.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five contemporary mysteries for those who love the classics

Dana Johnson Vengrouskie is a writer, copy editor, and general creative who’s passionate about storytelling, art, and language. She writes fiction and poetry as Wendelyn Vega. When she’s not writing, editing, or daydreaming, she enjoys reading, doodling, trying out new recipes, spending time with her husband, and playing with the three mini tigers she keeps in her house.

At The Nerd Daily she tagged "five contemporary mysteries to read if you enjoy the classics," including:

Body and Soul Food by Abby Collette (2021)

If you enjoy your murder mysteries with memorable characters and a healthy dose of small-town coziness along the lines of Miss Marple, Abby Collette’s Body and Soul Food will be right up your alley. A pair of fraternal twins is pulled into a mystery when a friend/former foster brother is murdered in public on a light rail. After they are labeled as suspects, the siblings determine to discover the culprit, beginning their first foray into detective-work.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight books about the excesses & intrigues of celebrity

Hannah Beer is a writer from North West England. She lives in London and works in communications. A reformed fangirl, she has an encyclopedic knowledge of celebrity culture that she writes about in her newsletter Emotional Speculation. When not working or writing, she enjoys reading, going to gigs, and cooking elaborate meals for her friends.

Beer's new novel is I Make My Own Fun.

At Electric Lit the author tagged eight books about the excesses and intrigues of celebrity. One title on the list:

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

Wuthering Heights meets Ice Princess. Need I say more? In all seriousness, I was wildly entertained by this novel. Following competitive figure skater Katarina Shaw and her childhood sweetheart-turned skating partner Heath Rocha on their dramatic, often scandalous road to the Olympics, it’s a tale of love, ambition, and notoriety. It asks whether it’s possible to have one without sacrificing the others. What this book does well—alongside making reading about figure skating feel like watching it (no mean feat)—is showcase just how many people are involved in making—and keeping—somebody famous. It offers as much a peek behind the fame machine as it does the world of Olympians, and I gobbled it up in one sitting.

Read about the other entries on Beer's list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Four novels about obsession, power, and dangerous bonds

Robin Merle is the author of Involuntary Exit: A Woman’s Guide to Thriving After Being Fired. She has published short fiction in The Chouteau Review, South Carolina Review, Kalliope, and Real Fiction. She holds a master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, where she earned a fellowship. In her other professional life, as a nonprofit executive, she has raised over a half-billion dollars in philanthropic support to improve individuals’ quality of life and access to opportunities. A longtime New Yorker, Merle now lives in Scarborough, Maine with her family.

Her new novel is A Dangerous Friendship.

At CrimeReads Merle tagged four irrestible novels that "expose the shadow side of intimacy, the thin line between attraction and peril that reflects our darkest longings." One title on the list:

We Were Never Here — Andrea Bartz

Best friends Emily and Kristen can finish each other’s sentences, send messages in code, and take trips to exotic lands where the unthinkable happens – twice! A night out in Cambodia and a similar night years later in Chile end in bloodshed, both allegedly in self-defense from male predators. They help each other cover up the murders, until stories of inexplicable violence from Kristen’s past starts to unravel their friendship. Unexplained coincidences, secrets, and lies multiply as Kristen morphs into a stalker and Emily into an untrustworthy narrator. This is a thriller about loyalty twisted into coercion and the terrifying realization that the person who knows you best could also destroy you.

Read about the other entries on Merle's list at CrimeReads.

We Were Never Here is among Jilly Gagnon's five top thrillers featuring toxic friendships and Megan Collins's seven thrillers in which friendships are tested.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels featuring the Black bourgeoisie

Brittany K. Allen is a writer and actor living in Brooklyn.

At Lit Hub she tagged five novels to read if you’re fascinated by the Black bourgeoisie. One entry on the list:

Colson Whitehead, Sag Harbor

As winter rolls over New York, I’m dreaming of beaches. What better time to revisit this earlier Whitehead novel? Sag Harbor places us in the rare air of the Hamptons, among a cadre of Black elites in the 1980s.

This is fundamentally a coming-of-age tale, freighted with more nostalgia for certain wonder years than social critique. But as Todd McEwen noted in The Guardian on its release, Whitehead uses his dorky hero, Ben, to map the “melancholy geography of class.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

Sag Harbor is among Benjamin Markovits's top ten stories of male friendship, Amanda Brainerd's eight books to take you back to the Eighties and Jeff Somers's top ten books to take you someplace you’ve likely never been.

--Marshal Zeringue