While you wait for The God of the Woods
Liz Moore's latest novel The God of the Woods is a dramatic story of class, crime and family dynamics that is high on many readers lists.
In August 1975 a camp counselor in the Adirondacks discovers 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar is missing. Barbara is the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the locals. She's also not the first member of her family to disappear. Barbara's older brother went missing 14 years ago and he hasn't reappeared.
During the search for Barbara the complicated secrets of the Van Laar family and their connections to the blue-collar community that works for them become exposed.
“A brilliant, riveting fox trap of a novel – an epic mystery, a family saga and a survival guide. Liz Moore shows us how easy it is for any of us to get lost in the woods, and what to do if you want to be found. I loved this book.” —Miranda Cowley Heller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace
While you wait for your hold on The God of the Woods explore other compelling stories of class, crime and family dynamics.
Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
When Nina's prestigious liberal arts degree doesn't lead to the career she planned on, she starts stealing from the rich in LA. She learned how to steal from her con artist mom who was always hustling to give Nina a good life. Now her mom is sick and Nina decides the best way to help her is to run an elaborate and dangerous scam.
Vanessa is a young heiress who is also not living the life she planned. She's an Instagram influencer whose real life is not as glamorous as the pictures. After a broken engagement, Vanessa retreats to her family's estate in Lake Tahoe where Nina and Vanessa's paths collide. They both struggle to survive deceit and destruction.
This book kept me guessing and eager to find out what would happen next. It's full of secrets, lies and tangled relationships.
“Part psychological thriller and part morality tale, Janelle Brown’s Pretty Things is literary suspense at its best. Gorgeous prose, complex characters inhabiting the fascinating worlds of elite Instagram influencers and high-stakes scam artists, a thought-provoking dual narrative, a twisty plot with a shocking, never-saw-that-coming ending—this brilliant novel has it all! I read it in one day in one sitting, mesmerized, and I loved every moment.”—Angie Kim, bestselling author of Miracle Creek
All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris
Ellice Littlejohn's life is good – she's using her Ivy League degree as a corporate attorney in a prominent Atlanta firm, she has great friends and she has a fun casual romantic relationship. Then one morning Ellice walks into the executive suite to find her boss, who's also her casual romantic partner, dead with a gunshot to the head. She's the only one in the office this early, so she walks away and acts like nothing has happened.
Turns out Ellice has several secrets she needs to keep hidden including a kid-brother who's spent time in jail. She cannot be in the spotlight.
Ellice, the only Black attorney, is promoted to replace her deceased boss. The police are getting suspicious about the death. Ellice starts to uncover some shady happenings at the firm putting her in an ethical and moral dilemma. She's also working to protect her brother.
The plot twists and social commentary of this suspense kept me engaged and rooting for Ellice all the way through.
“All Her Little Secrets is a brilliantly nuanced but powerhouse exploration of race, the legal system, and the crushing pressure of keeping secrets. Morris brings a vibrant and welcome new voice to the thriller space.” —Karin Slaughter, New York Times and international bestselling author
The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
After a body is discovered on an English beach, three women in London receive a text that makes them drop everything and leave town. They are all headed to the rundown house of the fourth woman from their high school group, Kate. There are secrets the women need to protect.
As girls at a second-rate boarding school they were notorious for playing the lying game. The game had complicated rules that made students and teachers leery of these girls. In their final year the girls were all expelled under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death the school's eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also was also Kate's father).
Who's body was found and why are these women now running to help Kate who lives in the coastal village? Lives will be upended, more lies will be told and secrets will be revealed in this suspenseful story of dangerous past and present mistakes.
“Ware masterfully harnesses the millhouse’s decrepit menace to create a slow-rising sense of foreboding, darkening Isa’s recollections of the weeks leading to Ambrose’s disappearance… with arguably her most complex, fully realized characters yet, this one may become her biggest hit yet.” ― Booklist, Starred Review
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
Right after her 25th birthday, Libby Jones receives a letter telling her the names of her birth parents and that she's inherited their abandoned mansion. The house in London's popular Chelsea neighborhood is worth millions. This is a lot to take in as her birth parents have always been a mystery.
It turns our they are even more mysterious than Libby could have imagined. When Libby was an infant police found three dead bodies in the mansion's kitchen and Libby alone in her bedroom crib. The other four children that should have been in the house were gone.
Libby works to unravel the story of her parents and all the secrets surrounding this house she now owns. Who lived in the mansion? What happened to her parents? Where are the children (now hopefully adults) who had lived with them?
Jewell is one of my favorite authors and this is one of her best dark twisty tales. Her books always surprise me and keep me up reading well past my bedtime.
“A stunning psychological thriller with a horrific, yet all too believable, family story at its centre. Full of atmosphere and menace. I was gripped from the first page.” —Elly Griffiths, author of The Stranger Diaries
