Four thrillers that capture the horror of siblings left behind

Isabel Booth is the pen name of Karen Jewell, a former trial attorney and now a writer. She holds an undergraduate degree in English, a Master’s in Business Administration, and a Juris Doctorate degree. When she’s not writing she loves to read, travel, and cook dinner for friends. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband.

Booth's new novel is Then He Was Gone.

At CrimeReads the author tagged four thrillers "examine the effects on the sibling left behind." One title on the list:

Tim Johnston, Descent

The Courtland family is on vacation in Colorado when eighteen-year-old Caitlin, starting college in a few weeks on a track scholarship, is abducted. Her younger brother Sean is left lying by the side of the road, his leg shattered by the stranger in yellow-tinted glasses who took her.

Months go by, then years, and Sean undergoes transformation from a shy, overweight teenage boy his sister called Dudley, to a muscular, cigarette-smoking young man. He wanders aimlessly around the country in a truck he stole from his father, taking odd jobs to earn gas money to keep going. Ready to fight anyone abusing or disrespecting young women, he is haunted by shame that he didn’t do more to stop Caitlin from climbing into the kidnapper’s vehicle to go get help for her brother.

Beat up, released after a night in jail, Sean asks his father, “Do you think we’ll ever feel normal again?” When his father asks what’s normal, Sean replies, “I don’t know….Not this.” The novel is a powerful story of guilt, loneliness, and a family falling apart.

Read about the other novels on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten sunny destination thrillers

Robyn Harding is the international bestselling author of several novels including The Haters, The Perfect Family, The Arrangement, and Her Pretty Face. Her novels The Party and The Drowning Woman were both finalists for the Crime Writers of Canada best crime novel award. Her novel The Swap debuted at #1 on the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star Canadian bestsellers lists. She is also the screenwriter and executive producer of the independent film, The Steps. She lives in Vancouver, BC, with her family and two cute but deadly rescue chihuahuas.

[Coffee with a Canine: Robyn Harding & Ozzie; The Page 69 Test: The Arrangement; My Book, The Movie: The Swap; The Page 69 Test: The Perfect Family]

Harding's new novel is Strangers in the Villa.

At People magazine the author tagged ten destination thrillers set in warm and sunny locales. One title on the list:

With Malice by Eileen Cook

This riveting YA thriller has echoes of the Amanda Knox case, including its gorgeous Italian setting and a public trial by media. Eighteen-year-old Jill wakes up in a hospital room with serious injuries, and no memory of the devastating Tuscany car accident that killed her best friend. In the headlines, Jill is painted as a jealous monster, a sociopath. She must piece together the events of her forgotten trip to prove her innocence.

Read about the other thrillers on Harding's list.

With Malice is among Kit Frick's five YA thrillers about vacations gone horribly wrong and Darren Croucher's six YA murder mysteries for fans of Big Little Lies.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven notable Hamptons novels

Nicole Sellew is a writer and English teacher based in Connecticut and New York City. In 2022, she received an MLitt in fiction from the University of St Andrews, where she is currently studying for her PhD.

Sellew's new novel is Lover Girl. The publisher calls it a "picaresque debut of forbidden desire, in which a young woman escapes NYC to work on her novel in the Hamptons, falling into a downward spiral of lovers and other destructive behaviors."

At Lit Hub the author tagged seven Hamptons novels to read this winter. One title on the list:

The Guest by Emma Cline

The summer this came out, every linen-clad maniac was clutching this in their greasy hands on their morning stroll past The Golden Pear. A classic tale of a beautiful young woman just tipping her prime and freeloading with a boring older man. Our fearless heroine gets into all sorts of trouble, and what started out as a charmed vacation ends up becoming a horrific, picaresque nightmare. Read it if you like age-gap relationships or beautiful sentences about sand dunes.

Read about the other novels on Sellew's list at Lit Hub.

The Guest is among Arielle Egozi's eight books about women being bad.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles about women becoming beasts

Caitlin Breeze lives in London in a tiny house full of books. She has a BA from the University of Cambridge, a Creative MA from Falmouth University, and a love of all things eldritch.

The Fox Hunt is her first novel.

At Electric Lit Breeze tagged seven novels in which women turn monstrous to reclaim their humanity. One title on the list:

The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan

In Margo Lanagan’s take on selkie folklore, the women of Rollrock Island are seal-wives. They have been called from the sea and trapped in human skins so that men can claim them as brides. These seal-women are not cheerful wives, but exiles aching for the water. Their marriages are abductions, separating them from their true selves. In prose that stings like wind off the sea, Lanagan paints the domesticity the brides are forced to wear by hopeful husbands, and their unabating longing for the cold, deep water and their true forms. In this story, beast form is a lost dream of freedom: a utopia of female existence, freed from civilization, in which women’s original forms are sleek, powerful, and magical. It is a haunting and beautiful read suggesting that women do not want to turn beastly, so much as to return to their rightful beastly selves.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine thriller-y, crime-y speculative novels

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

The Found Object Society is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads Maryk tagged nine of her "recent (and one of my oldest) speculative favorites that thrillingly delve into crime and murder in its many forms." One entry on the list:

The Paradox Hotel, Rob Hart

Time travel for the ultrarich? Check. Powerful government entities privatizing the technology for their dubious gain? Check. One grieving female security officer trying to solve a murder while she slips between the present and past due to her time travel sickness called, Unstuck? Check and check. The time portal is starting to glitch; baby dinosaurs keep popping up; and things are going all kinds of wrong at the Paradox Hotel. Here, Hart showcases his mastery of melding noir, sci-fi and thriller in this wild ride.

Read about the other novels on Maryk's list at CrimeReads.

The Paradox Hotel is among Michelle Maryk's six of the best time-travel titles and Molly Odintz's seven top novels set in supernatural hotels.

The Page 69 Test: The Paradox Hotel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight titles inspired by lucky Chinese New Year rituals

Lauren Kung Jessen is a mixed-race Chinese American writer with a fondness for witty, flirtatious dialogue and making meals with too many steps but lots of flavor. She is fascinated by myths and superstitions and how ideas, beliefs, traditions, and stories evolve over time. From attending culinary school to working in the world of Big Tech to writing love stories, Kung Jessen cares about creating experiences that make people feel something. When she’s not writing novels, she works as a content strategist and user experience writer. She also has a food and film blog, A Dash of Cinema, where she makes food inspired by movies and TV shows. She lives in Nashville with her husband (who she met thanks to fate—read: the algorithms of online dating), two cats, and dog.

Kung Jessen's new novel is The Fortune Flip.

At The Nerd Daily the author tagged eight books inspired by lucky Chinese New Year rituals, including:

If you’re hanging lanterns, paper cuttings, and decorations to usher in good fortune and happiness: Double Happiness by Heather Eng

Mei must learn—and choose—what it is she really wants in work, life, and love in this novel about a woman with a carefully constructed life who’s caught between a relentless tech job, her fiancé, and an unexpected new relationship. This one comes out on May 19, 2026, so this is a peek at what’s on my TBR!

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine memorable depictions of AI in fiction

Justin C. Key is a practicing psychiatrist and a speculative fiction writer. He is the author of the debut novel The Hospital at the End of the World and the story collection The World Wasn’t Ready for You. His stories have appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, Lightspeed, and on Tor.com. He received a BA in biology from Stanford University and completed his residency in psychiatry at UCLA. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.

At Lit Hub Key tagged nine favorite depictions of AI in fiction, including:

Cortana (Eric Nylund, Halo: The Fall of Reach)

My favorite AI sidekick. She’s what we hope Siri or Alexa will one day be, a companion that can feed us all the information we need in any given situation, hack into alien computer systems, and brew our morning coffee all while keeping it entertaining. I was first introduced to her not in the video game, but in the written prequel, which I devoured before while I waited for 2001’s Christmas to come.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight works featuring cathartic bathhouse scenes

McKenzie Watson-Fore is a writer, artist, and neighbor currently based in her hometown of Boulder, Colorado. She holds an MFA in Nonfiction from Pacific University. She writes about evangelicalism, relationships to people and place, and self-discovery. Watson-Fore serves as the executive editor for sneaker wave magazine and is the founder and host of the Thunderdome Conference. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and Best American Essays.

At Electric Lit Watson-Fore tagged eight works featuring cathartic bathhouse scenes, including:

Splinters by Leslie Jamison

A spa visit is ideal fodder for Jamison: a bespoke, sensory setting that gradually recedes into background to allow for dialogue or interior reflection. In this case, Jamison and her friend Anna spend an evening at the Russian and Turkish Baths on Tenth Street. Jamison’s descriptions are lush and steamy, much more florid than either Zauner’s or Koh’s. The presence of others in the bathhouse is a fact Jamison uses to console herself against her personal disappointments and deprivations, and she gestures toward the communal nature of these spaces and the sense of shared humanity they open up. As elsewhere in Splinters, Jamison is straining for transcendence, and she asserts it via her projections onto and vivid descriptions of others.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Splinters is among Nathalie Atkinson's eight new books about sex, relationships and romance.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven great titles about bad moms

M.K. Oliver is a former English teacher and headteacher originally from Liverpool. He long dreamed of becoming a writer and after many years of working in schools, he took the exciting decision to put down the whiteboard marker, take up the keyboard, and give it a go.

Oliver's new novel is A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage.

At People magazine the author tagged "a few great books in which mothers range from a little bit selfish to completely, dreadfully awful!" One title on the list:

Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

A wonderfully comic take on the overwhelmed single mother. The conceit that opens the book is brilliant and sets the tone for the series. Finlay is a struggling crime writer who is outlining the plot of her novel over lunch to her agent and is mistaken for an assassin.

This is cosy and comic crime territory, but it is a study of a single mom operating outside the boundaries of acceptability, and showcasing what it feels like to be constantly operating in a hugely entertaining crisis mode.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Finlay Donovan is Killing It is among Darynda Jones's thirteen must-read laugh-out-loud mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight creepy post-apocalyptic titles

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged eight creepy post-apocalyptic novels. One entry on the list:

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

And finally, in what feels more and more likely, technology has turned against the humans. The AI that the world has depended upon has decided it doesn’t need people around anymore, and its robots attack, killing most of civilization. A lone group of survivors narrates the novel, telling the story of the deadly strikes while trying to decide if they have any chance of ever fighting back.

Read about the other novels on the list.

Robopocalypse is among Liberty Hardy's five great robot sci-fi books and Emily Temple's fifty greatest apocalypse novels.

The Page 69 Test: Robopocalypse.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight top thrillers about jealousy & obsession between friends

Jennifer van der Kleut is an award-winning former journalist of both print and digital publications, including the DC affiliate of ABC7 News. A graduate of San Jose State University, she spent most of her life in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to the Northern Virginia suburbs of DC, where she currently lives with her husband and two sons. For nearly a decade, she was the lead singer of the Bay Area-based band SweetDuration, and performed with artists like Jason Mraz, Big Country, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Stabbing Westward. When she’s not writing, she loves going to the beach with her family, going to concerts with her girlfriends, and getting lost in the pages of a book.

Her debut novel is The Better Mother.

At Electric Lit van der Kleut tagged eight thrillers in which "friendships are questioned and pushed to their limits." One title on the list:

The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding

Once a prominent chef, Lee now finds herself living on the streets after the Covid pandemic shut down her successful restaurant. Each night, she parks her car in a wealthy, oceanfront neighborhood and sleeps clutching her belongings, with all the doors locked. One morning, she witnesses the beautiful and privileged Hazel trying to drown herself in the ocean and saves her. At first, Hazel is furious that Lee foiled her suicide attempt, but soon, the two become fast friends. Lee depends on Hazel for companionship and the basic human comforts she can’t afford that Hazel takes for granted. For Hazel, Lee becomes a true friend she confides a secret to—her husband is abusive. She envies Lee’s freedom. It’s not long before Lee sees Hazel as the cash cow that can help her get back on her feet, and Hazel sees her new friend as her ticket to freedom. What happens when Hazel decides to put Lee’s life on the line to get what she wants, and Lee goes along with it for a promised payday?

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Drowning Woman is among Stephanie DeCarolis's five books that tackle the realities of domestic violence.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles that use isolation to create horror

Saratoga Schaefer (they/them) is the USA Today Bestselling and Indie Press Bestselling author of Serial Killer Support Group, Trad Wife, The Last Time We Drowned, and A Thousand Monstrous Forms. Their books have been featured in Variety, People magazine, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour, and their writing has appeared in Writer’s Digest, CrimeReads, and more. Originally from Brooklyn, Schaefer now lives upstate with several needy animals and a haunted clown table.

At CrimeReads the author tagged five "horror books that thrill in keeping their characters (and story) isolated." One title on Schaefer's list:

Richard Matheson, I Am Legend

One of the key pieces of literature in the vampire canon, this classic from the 1950s features Robert Neville, the last man on Earth, who hunts plague-infected vampires during the day, hunkering down alone at night. No spoilers, but that ending is…incredible. (And the movie didn’t do it any justice, let’s be real.)

One of the key themes in this story is isolation and how Robert thinks, behaves, and reacts due to his terrible loneliness being the last man alive. The isolation in this one is all-encompassing. Robert suffers from all types of seclusion, and the effect becomes clear the further you read. What’s lonelier than being the last of your kind?

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

I Am Legend is among Alena Bruzas's seven top literary horror novels, David Koepp's seven essential contagion novels, Jeff Somers's five notable books totally unlike their adaptations, Jonathan Hatfull's ten best vampire novels ever, Jennifer Griffith Delgado's top eleven mind-blowing surprise endings in science fiction and fantasy literature and Kevin Jackson's top ten vampire novels.

--Marshal Zeringue