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

Eight books about the ups and downs of friendship

Lillian Li is the author of the novel Number One Chinese Restaurant, which was an NPR Best Book of 2018, and longlisted for the Women’s Prize and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.

Her work has been published in the New York Times, Granta, One Story, Bon Appetit, Travel & Leisure, The Guardian, and Jezebel. Originally from the D.C. metro area, she lives in Ann Arbor.

[Writers Read: Lillian Li (June 2018)]

Li's new novel is Bad Asians.

At Lit Hub the author tagged eight titles about the ups and downs of friendship. One book on the list:

J. Courtney Sullivan, Commencement

I can still remember ripping through this book when I first got it, straight out of college myself. Like The Group, Commencement follows a group of friends who graduate from a Seven Sisters school (in this case, Smith) and embark on paths cleared for them by the feminists before them. Sullivan has such a talent for writing characters you love, and whose love for each other is utterly believable (and aspirational). You’ll root for Celia, Bree, Sally, and April as they test their friendships, families, and personal values, and come out stronger together.

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

Commencement is among Julie Buntin's twelve books that totally get female friendship and Alexis Coe's ten books for recent grads.

The Page 69 Test: J. Courtney Sullivan's Commencement.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top sci-fi books about competitions

At Book Riot Liberty Hardy tagged five great sci-fi titles about competitions. One title on the list:

The Blood Trials by N. E. Davenport

When Ikenna’s grandfather, the former Legatus, is murdered, she knows that someone on the Tribunal must be responsible. But the only way to get answers is to get close, and she decides to do that by joining the Praetorian Trials of Mareen. They’re a grueling challenge that only one-quarter of the contestants survive, and subjecting herself to not only the danger but also Mareen’s racist and sexist society, Ikenna fights to get her revenge.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine memoirs about dating, desire, and reclamation

Estelle Erasmus, an award-winning journalist and 2025 TEDx Speaker, is the author of Writing That Gets Noticed (named a "Best Book for Writers" by Poets & Writers Magazine), as well as the host/executive producer of the podcast Freelance Writing Direct. She is an adjunct instructor for NYU’s School of Professional Studies/Center for Publishing and Applied Liberal Arts, and has written for over 150 publications, including the New York Times, Next Avenue, WIRED, Slate, The Independent, the Washington Post, and AARP: The Magazine.

At Electric Lit Erasmus tagged nine memoirs that "offer a realistic counterpoint to Valentine’s Day myths, and a clearer understanding of what it really meant to search for love." One title on the list:

And You May Find Yourself... by Sari Botton

Sari Botton’s memoir-in-essays speaks directly to her experience of reevaluating love, ambition, desire, and reinvention later in life, when familiar romantic narratives no longer fit. The memoir moves between youthful missteps made to fit in with mean girls, misguided efforts to please men, fraught friendships, and professional dissatisfaction, alongside a present-day reckoning with who she has become. Botton writes with humor and clarity about bad therapists, “Mr. Wrongs,” and the exhaustion of contorting herself to meet expectations that were never really hers. As old identities fall away, she explores how desire shifts with age and self-acceptance. Grounded in feminist reflection and emotional honesty, the book offers a reassuring perspective, showing that intimacy and fulfillment can emerge from inhabiting one’s authentic self, flaws and all, with patience and self-awareness. Once Botton reaches that realization, she ultimately finds the intimacy she was seeking in a satisfying relationship and marriage.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Six top cult thrillers

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

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

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

Janelle Brown, I’ll Be You

Janelle Brown’s I’ll Be You (2023) explores sibling bonds through the lens of a California wellness cult. Identical twins Sam and Elli, former child stars, have drifted apart: Sam’s battling addiction, while Elli’s embraced motherhood and self-help. When Elli vanishes after joining a secretive group called GenFem—promising empowerment through seminars and “enlightenment”—Sam impersonates her to infiltrate it. What unfolds is a twisty tale of identity theft, manipulation, and buried family secrets. Brown’s pacing is relentless, highlighting how cults prey on vulnerabilities, layering luxury (think Ojai spas and guru-led retreats) with coercion. The seductive vibe comes from GenFem’s promise of reinvention, much like the transformative allure in Namaste and Slay. It’s a gripping study of twins as mirrors, reflecting how cults distort self-perception.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven fake dating romance novels

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

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

Naina Kumar, Say You’ll Be Mine

Meghna has been in love with her best friend since college. When he announces that he’s engaged and asks her to be his best man, Meghna is determined to move on even if it’s Karthik, the boring matchmaking prospect her parents set her up with. But Karthik and Meghna have much to discover about each other during their fake engagement. This one is a slow burn and has an unexpected villain!

Read about the other titles on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thirteen titles that celebrate female friendship

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

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

Kin by Tayari Jones

In this breathtaking dual coming-of-age story, two motherless girls from the Jim Crow South take different paths into adulthood while holding onto the bond that sustained them through childhood.

Read about the other novels on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven Sri Lankan novels haunted by the nation's past

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

Her debut mystery is The Midnight Taxi.

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

My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa

Jayatissa’s My Sweet Girl is a sharply plotted psychological thriller. It centers on Paloma, a woman adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage into a vastly different life in the United States. But like most compelling thrillers, her adopted life is built on a buried truth and Paloma carries a secret that trails her like a shadow. Paloma’s roommate begins to uncover this past, but before Paloma can pay him for his silence, she finds him dead in their apartment. By the time police arrive, the body has disappeared. The novel’s ghosts include the past Paloma has tried so hard to outrun, the identity she tried to abandon, and the lingering spectre of people who refused to be erased. In My Sweet Girl, the truth always catches up and it never arrives quietly.

Read about the other titles on Gunasekera's list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six of the best time-travel titles

Michelle Maryk graduated from Cornell University with a degree in English and attended the Yale Writer’s Workshop.

For the better part of twenty-five years, she’s been a successful voiceover, on-camera commercial, and comedic actor, and she is a dual Swedish and US citizen.

The Found Object Society is her debut novel.

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

The Paradox Hotel, by Rob Hart

Time travel for the ultrarich? Check. Powerful government entities privatizing the technology for their dubious gain? Check. A grieving female security officer trying to solve a murder while slipping between timelines against her will? 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. Hart masterfully melds noir, sci-fi, and thriller genres in this wild and fast-paced ride.

Read about the other titles on Maryk's list.

The Paradox Hotel is among Molly Odintz's seven top novels set in supernatural hotels.

The Page 69 Test: The Paradox Hotel.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six titles featuring the most unhinged women in fiction

Marisa Walz is a psychological suspense author who writes books about people behaving badly. She lives outside Chicago with her husband and two young children.

Good Intentions is her debut novel.

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

R. F. Kuang, Yellowface

Struggling author June Hayward steals the unpublished manuscript of her literary rival—the brilliant, beloved, deceased Athena Liu—and publishes it as her own. When the stolen book becomes a sensation, June’s guilt escalates into paranoia and terrible, desperate decisions as the internet, the industry, and her own unraveling psyche close in.

Razor-sharp and savagely funny, the novel exposes ambition, envy, and the monstrous lengths one woman goes to claim the success she believes the world owes her.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

Yellowface is among Disha Bose's five novels that explore and center female friendship, Taylor Hutton's five top novels with tantalizing anti-heroes, Elizabeth Staple's eight books about youthful mistakes that come back to haunt you, Lauren Kuhl's eight top novels about toxic relationships, Elly Griffiths's top ten books about books, Toby Lloyd's seven books that show storytelling has consequences, Sophie Wan's seven top titles with women behaving badly, Leah Konen's six top friends-to-frenemies thrillers, and Garnett Cohen's seven novels about characters driven by their cravings.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books about the cost of burial

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

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

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

The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans

While Too Poor to Die covers funeral poverty in the United States more broadly, Prickett and Timmermans focus on a specific case study in The Unclaimed: four Angelenos who join the ranks of the abandoned dead for dramatically different reasons. Their reporting reveals that the poor aren’t the only ones who end up in the care of the overworked and bureaucracy-burdened civil servants we meet in the book. Like many cities, Los Angeles prioritizes immediate family when it comes to claiming a body—and some families refuse to claim their dead. Even if friends or other communities wish to step in, they often aren’t legally allowed to do so. When I saw Pamela Prickett speak at last year’s Funeral Consumers Alliance conference, she emphasized another cause: fraying social ties. Our culture promotes self-reliance, which can easily turn into isolation. As communities dissolve, more people die alone.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles about work

Daniel Poppick is a poet and novelist. His debut novel is The Copywriter (2026).

He is also the author of the poetry collections Fear of Description (2019), selected for the National Poetry Series, and The Police (2017). His work appears in The New Yorker, The Paris Review Daily, The Drift, Harper's, BOMB, The New Republic, Chicago Review, and other journals.

At Lit Hub Poppick tagged seven books about work. One title on the author's list:

Kathryn Scanlan, Kick the Latch

In this novella about an Iowa woman’s lifelong career training horses, the most haunting characters are the horses themselves: an unpaid shadow workforce at the racetrack, the rodeo, and in stables, empathically and mysteriously buoying the human souls who love them. At times, Kick the Latch seems to suggest that injured racehorses and their exhausted caretakers might share a parallel fate. “Priests came on race days to bless the horses’ legs before they ran,” Scanlan’s shrewd narrator observes, “but there’d be plenty of times it didn’t work.” Everywhere you go, even and especially if they can’t speak, somebody is always working.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top contemporary nonfiction books for Black History Month

At People magazine senior books editor Lizz Schumer tagged ten inspiring and educational nonfiction books to read this Black History Month. One title on the list:

Until the Last Gun Is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight to Save America's Soul by Matthew F. Delmont

Even as the Civil Rights movement was in full swing at home, more than 300,000 Black troops were drafted and sent to fight in the Vietnam War. These often impoverished soldiers left pervasive racism back home only to find themselves thrust onto the frontlines of a hotly contested war many saw as unjust. For Black Americans, the Vietnam War led a generation to question what justice really means. It's an indelible portrait of a fractured movement, a generation of veterans failed by the very country they fought for and the bravery of Black servicemen and advocates.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six historical fiction books based on true stories

Katie Moench is a librarian, runner, and lover of baked goods. A school librarian in the Upper Midwest, Moench lives with her husband and dog and spends her free time drinking coffee, trying new recipes, and adding to her TBR list.

At Book Riot she tagged six historical fiction titles based on real people and events, including:

How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee

Set in Singapore during World War II, How We Disappeared sheds light on a lesser-discussed aspect of the Japanese occupation and weaves together the past and present. In 1942, 17-year-old Wang Di is kidnapped and taken to a Japanese military brothel where she is forced to work in sexual slavery as a “comfort woman.” In 2000, her grandson Kevin hears a mumbled admission from his ailing grandmother, which drives him to begin searching for the story of her life. The novel flows between 1942 and 2000, showing how the tragedies Wang Di suffered during the war have affected her and her family’s lives. As she grows more ill, even more secrets are revealed. Praised for its skilled structure and evocative writing, the book was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Read about the other novels on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top thrillers by Black writers

Leodora Darlington is a writer from London with Ghanaian heritage. She received a distinction for her Masters in Creative Writing from Brunel University, where she studied under authors like Benjamin Zepheniah and Will Self.

A Bookseller Rising Star in 2021, Darlington is also an editor and has published a range of bestselling fiction. The Exes is her debut novel.

At CrimeReads Darlington tagged "five thrillers by Black authors that I simply couldn’t put down." One title on the list:

S. A. Cosby, Razorblade Tears

This is a book that comes up time and time again on people’s “favorite thrillers” lists. S. A. Cosby has delivered a total masterpiece of Southern noir. The story centers on Ike Randolph and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons—one Black, one white—who team up to avenge their murdered sons. The catch? The sons were married to each other, and both fathers had rejected them because of it.

This book wrecked me in the best way possible. It is violent and visceral, yes, but underneath the action is a profound exploration of redemption, guilt, and the possibility of change. Watching these two hardened men confront their own prejudices while raining down vengeance is a cinematic experience I won’t soon forget.

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

Razorblade Tears is among David Bell's five great thrillers about domineering parents, Robyn Harding's seven unlikely friendships in crime fiction, Lesley Kara's six crime novels about settling old scores, and Liz Nugent's top ten first lines in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten fantasy and romantasy books for embracing feminine rage

A self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, Braidee Otto combines her academic background in Literary Studies with a deep passion for storytelling to create heartfelt, immersive narratives. Songbird of the Sorrows is the first installment in her debut adult romantic fantasy series, Myths of the Empyrieos. She lives in Adelaide, South Australia, with her partner, two beloved dogs, and a cat that appeared in her backyard on the winter solstice.

About Songbird of the Sorrows: An outcast princess turned spy embarks on a mission to infiltrate a rival kingdom, but the secrets she uncovers force her to decide whether to follow orders or defy them.

At The Nerd Daily Otto tagged "ten fantasy and romantasy books with heroines who are gloriously, righteously angry." One title on the list:

The Curse of Ophelia by Nicole Platania

Two years after the war has ended and the man she loves vanished during a forbidden ritual, Ophelia’s search for answers has led only to heartbreak. When a fatal curse resurfaces, marking her for death, and a messenger reveals she may be the key to saving her clan and finding Malakai, Ophelia embarks on a desperate journey with her found family. Racing against time and betrayal, she must confront the lies of her leaders, the Angels, and her own belief in love before the curse claims her life.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top Shakespeare-inspired titles

Rebecca Fallon is a New England-born Londoner and a graduate of Williams College and the University of Oxford.

Family Drama is her debut novel.

At Lit Hub she tagged five titles that make for:

a masterclass in how to steal from Shakespeare, featuring some world-class thieves. Each story contains shades of its foundation. All deal in Shakespeare’s timeless themes of power and family, loss and love. All strike at the most profound elements of life. But each also departs in truly original ways, allowing the author to express something honest and new through the conversation with the source.

One novel on the list:

Sally Rooney, Intermezzo

Joyce may be the obvious influence on Rooney’s latest work, but as fans of Ulysses will know, a seam of Hamlet runs throughout that great Irish masterpiece. This literary gene certainly passed to Rooney’s modern-day Dubliners, and it’s no surprise that the author re-read Hamlet whilst writing Intermezzo.

Both books are about sons grieving their fathers and avoiding their doomed relationships. As a character, Rooney’s Peter Koubek is much like the Danish prince; as a human-rights lawyer, he similarly sees himself as a vehicle of justice whose actions are often misguided, resulting in more harm than good. Peter’s struggles with the nature of sanity and mortality echo some of the Dane’s more famous monologues. “Under what conditions is life endurable,” Peter wonders, to paraphrase the great question of the play. Hamlet, dense with soliloquies, translates well to the intense interiority of Intermezzo.

Even within her prose, Rooney occasionally slips into iambic pentameter. When Margaret, a local arts administrator, recalls her brief affair with Peter’s brother Ivan as “a dream, attached at the corners to no reality, shared with no one, vanishing into nothingness.” Even the most mundane moments are elevated with this language, as when Peter “made from unthinking habit too much coffee.” In three places—including the final page—direct quotes from Hamlet weave into Peter’s interior monologue. “Thou know’st, ’tis common; all that lives must die,” he muses, a nod to his consciousness of the play even as it influences him as a literary character.

Rooney avoids, however, the bloody tragedy—Peter, unlike Hamlet, is saved by having a brother. Ivan proves one reason for Peter “to be” in the end, along with his two non-drowned girlfriends, Sylvia and Naomi. Peter’s only vanquishing is an ego-death, as he’s forced to release his fixation with monogamy and acknowledge the complexities of relationships. Would such a revelation have been a better end for Hamlet? Perhaps. It certainly would have saved Gertrude a lot of grief.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels that celebrate Mesoamerican cultures and mythologies

Angela Montoya has been obsessed with the magic of storytelling since she was a little girl. She hasn’t seen a day without a book in her hand, a show tune in her mind, or a movie quote on her lips. She is the author of Sinner's Isle and A Cruel Thirst. When she isn’t lost in the world of words, Montoya can be found hiding away on her small farm in Northern California, where she’s busy bossing around her partner and their two children, as well as a host of animals.

Montoya's new novel is Carnival Fantástico.

At The Nerd Daily the author tagged five novels that explore "the dynamic, complex deities that can only be found in Mesoamerican legends." One title on the list:

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

I will read anything Aiden Thomas writes, but The Sunbearer Trials is one of my absolute favorites. The story introduces us to Teo, the trans son of Quetzal, the goddess of birds. When Teo is chosen against all odds to compete in the Sun Bearer Trials, he must face opponents who are far more powerful and far better equipped to survive. During our hero’s journey, we meet a rich cast of deities that have been reimagined from Mesoamerican legend, making this story feel epic, daring, and truly unique. Celestial Monsters, the second book in this duology, is equally remarkable.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five spy thrillers that are good literature

Michael Idov is a novelist, director, and screenwriter. A Latvian-born American raised in Riga under Soviet occupation, he moved to New York after graduating from the University of Michigan.

Idov’s writing career began at New York Magazine, where his features won three National Magazine Awards. His first book, 2009’s satirical novel Ground Up, sold over 100,000 copies worldwide and was optioned for a series by HBO. From 2012 to 2014, he was the editor-in-chief of GQ Russia, an experience that became the basis for his 2018 memoir Dressed Up for a Riot.

In addition to spy novels The Collaborators (2024) and The Cormorant Hunt (2026), Idov has worked on numerous film and TV projects, including Londongrad, Deutschland 83, Cannes Main Competition title Leto, and his own 2019 directing debut The Humorist. He and his wife and screenwriting partner, Lily, divide their time between Los Angeles, Berlin, and Portugal.

[Writers Read: Michael Idov (October 2009); Q&A with Michael Idov]

At CrimeReads Idov tagged five favorite books "that work both as excellent spy thrillers and good literature, delivering all the clandestine kicks while treating the reader as an actual adult." One title on the list:

Jonathan Payne, Citizen Orlov

A fishmonger bumbles his way into a royal assassination plot in a silly yet hyperliterate sendup of both Kafka and Graham Greene. The setting—a made-up Eastern European backwater that feels about eighty percent Czech—is half the fun, but, amazingly, the madcap plot with its innumerable twists works on its own, too. The result is a hoot and a half that practically begs to be a Wes Anderson film.

Read about the other novels on the list at CrimeReads.

Q&A with Jonathan Payne.

--Marshal Zeringue

Twelve memoirs of widowhood

Marion Winik is the author of nine books, including The Big Book of the Dead (2019) and First Comes Love (1996; reissued with a new introduction in 2026). Her essays have been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and elsewhere; her column at BaltimoreFishbowl.com has been running since 2011.

[Coffee with a Canine: Marion Winik and Beau (December 2009); Coffee with a Canine: Marion Winik and Beau (June 2013); Writers Read: Marion Winik (June 2013)]

A professor at the University of Baltimore, she reviews books for The Washington Post, Oprah Daily, and People, among others, and hosts the NPR podcast The Weekly Reader. She was a commentator on All Things Considered for fifteen years. She is the recipient of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Service Award.

At Publishers Weekly Winik tagged twelve top widow memoirs, including:

The Widow’s Guide to Dead Bastards: A Memoir
Jessica Waite

This title is hard to resist, but what about that “dead bastard”’s son, who was nine at the time of his beloved father’s death? I worried about that the whole time I was reading this book, having faced similar dilemmas in writing about my own late husband’s lapses. This woman faced an avalanche of nasty secrets about a husband she had mostly adored, though his undiagnosed bipolar disease had begun to cause trouble in their relationship toward the end of his life, before he died from heart attack at 47. Her appealing voice keeps the reader on board through the big messy reveal and the New Age/paranormal experimentation that follows.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue