Jenny Milchman teaches writing and publishing for New York Writers Workshop. Last year she founded Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, a holiday which went viral, enlisting booksellers in all 50 states and internationally. She co-hosts the literary series Writing Matters, which draws authors and publishing professionals from both coasts to events held at a local independent bookstore. Jenny features Edgar winners, international bestsellers, and independently published authors in the Made It Moments forum on her blog, Suspense Your Disbelief. Her short fiction has been published in a collection called "Lunch Reads" from Istoria Books.
Our Kind of Game (2024) Johanna Copeland "Our Kind of Game is a twisted romp through the perils and pleasures of privilege. From the confines of a defanged suburbia, Stella Parker starts to see cracks in her lacquered life, hints of the childhood she outran. Getting to safety this time may require blowing the whole thing up. Because when the past comes calling, it isn't always neighborly."
The Vineyard Remains (2024) Addison McKnight "Secrets wash up like seawater in Addison McKnight's island tale of betrayal and deception, which proves one age-old truth. Nobody can hurt you like those who love you best."
Jewish Noir 2 (2022) (Jewish Noir, book 2) Chantelle Aimee Osman and Kenneth Wishnia "Jewish Noir will dazzle crime fiction readers of every variety."
You Will Remember Me (2021) Hannah Mary McKinnon "The Queen of the Happily-Never-After Ending has done it again! Nobody leaves readers with their nerves tingling, their hackles raised like Hannah Mary McKinnon. In You Will Remember Me, a man fights to rebuild his identity, his past, and his life--while a woman fights to save him from the twisted nemesis who has dismantled all three. Joy Fielding fans, take note! You'll remember this novel."
The Nightworkers (2020) Brian Selfon "The murder of a promising young painter lights the fuse for Brian Selfon’s deep dive into the wicked stain left by addiction, crime as just another business, and the way families can fall apart and then be partially patched back together in the most heartbreaking of ways."
Before She Was Helen (2020) Caroline B Cooney "Caroline B. Cooney has a genius for skewering culture, crime, and society. As once she demonstrated to the world a pressing level of danger we needed to understand, now she whips millennial angst, recreational drug use, and one feisty, heroic retiree into a thrilling, toxic brew that will leave readers cheering by the end. Retirement villages never seemed so mysterious and exciting! Under Cooney's deft hand, hidden dangers emerge, and the ties that bind us, young and old, just may save us in the end."
Vanishing Falls (2020) Poppy Gee "...a novel that blends crime and women's fiction with a mystery at its heart. Best of all, this novel introduces us to an unforgettable heroine, Jo-Jo, who will tug at your heartstrings even as you cheer for her to solve the crime."
The Monsters We Make (2020) Kali White "Kali White catapults readers with fierce, unflinching honesty into a time corrupted by innocence. The characters are so real they sizzle, and will make you cry as you cheer them on. In the pulse-pounding climax, White manages to serve up justice without ever once denying the terror of all The Monsters We Make."
All We Buried (2020) (Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery, book 1) Elena Taylor "There's a new sheriff in town...And as the facts of an old mining tragedy emerge, alongside all-too-modern secrets of adultery, betrayal, and abandonment, Bet realizes that this crime is as personal as it gets. For there are things more valuable than the gold in Collier's caves that must be uncoveredand Elena Taylor's gutsy new heroine is just the one to do it. Let's hope this is the start of a long-lived series!"
River Bodies (2018) (Northampton County, book 1) Karen Katchur "Karen Katchur weaves together a twisting braid in River Bodies, a multigenerational tale that dares us to examine not only the secrets we hide but the reasons we hid them in the first place."
How Far She's Come (2018) Holly Brown "Holly Brown's latest brings [...] sliced-from-the-headlines story of male and female power played out against a twenty-four hour news cycle [...] raising the titular question: Have we really come anywhere at all?"
The Last Mrs. Parrish (2017) (Last Mrs. Parrish, book 1) Liv Constantine "Gillian Flynn meets Joy Fielding in Liv Constantine’s The Last Mrs. Parrish. In an age of great anti-heroines, comes the most unlikeable one yet, the coldly devilish Amber Patterson. This thriller delivers the most satisfying ending since B.A. Paris’ smash hit Behind Closed Doors - and a victorious romp of revenge."
The Vanishing Year (2016) Kate Moretti "Kate Moretti's The Vanishing Year is a Rebecca for the modern age - a novel filled with doubts and deception, secrets and history. Society wife Zoe Whitaker must confront the age-old question of whether forgetting our past dooms us to endless repetition--and more heartache and danger than one woman can bear."
Missing, Presumed (2016) (DS Manon Bradshaw, book 1) Susie Steiner "There is a secret pulsing at the heart of this police proceduralslashfamily thriller, and it isn’t only the truth about where beautiful young Edith Hind has gone. In heroine Manon Bradshaw, readers will find a character so real she bleeds. As Manon exposes the mystery behind Edith’s disappearance, she also reveals the truth about her own loneliness and life. Best of all, perhaps, in both women’s redemption, we discover the potential for our own."
The Child Garden (2015) Catriona McPherson "Weaving strands of literary mystery, horror, and magical realism, The Child Garden is a twisting, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't tale about the ripple effect of tragedy."
Black-Eyed Susans (2015) Julia Heaberlin "A twisted tale of how evil makes its mark, Black-Eyed Susans winds a net around the reader, shifting time, perspective, and events until the only sure thing is the pulsing question at the heart of this novel: What happens when a ruthless predator leaves one of his victims alive?"
New Yorked (2015) (Ash McKenna, book 1) Rob Hart "One part Dennis Lehane, one part Lee Child, and one part pure Rob Hart."