List of the most popular hashtags for theme #READCRIMEFICTION

Saturday at Starbucks with a highly-anticipated new suspense novel ‍♀️ I’m SO honored to reveal the brand-new cover for Lisa Jewell’s newest psychological thriller, THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS, coming November 5th from @AtriaBooks!! how GORGEOUS is this cover?! • I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Lisa Jewell at not one but TWO Scandinavian crime fiction festivals earlier this year, & guys, she is an absolute gem of a human. I loved getting to know her a bit, and have been highly anticipating her newest release ever since then! So you can imagine how totally thrilled I am to share today’s post. The US cover for Lisa’s newest thriller has CHANGED & this is your first look at the book’s gorgeous new cover!!! What do you think of it?! Thank you so much to Atria for letting me share this early look with you guys • Not only is this book’s cover stunning, but its plot looks A+, too. Ruth Ware has called this book “rich, dark, and intricately twisted” aka sign me up. THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS takes readers inside one family’s past as buried secrets threaten to come to light. Soon after her 25th birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life: the letter contains the identity of her birth parents. But not only that - the letter also informs Libby that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well... 25 years ago, police were called to a home with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy 10-month old baby in her crib. Downstairs lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live in that home? Missing. What happened in the glamorous mansion all those years ago? Were there any survivors of the cult-like activity? And who is looking for Libby? • This book sounds ALL kinds of binge-worthy, and I cannot wait to dig in. ‍♀️ What do you think - is THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS on your TBR

A quiet little coffee break in the middle of a busy day ☕️ cannot put down my current read & I’m not at all complaining • Have you ever discovered a new-to-you author & felt like “why on EARTH did I not start reading them sooner” That’s me right now with Lisa Jewell. I had the opportunity to dip into Lisa’s work in preparation for a panel I moderated with her at the fantastic Danish crime festival @krimimessen, and now I’m absolutely tearing through her 2019 release THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS. I have no idea why it took me so long to get on board with Lisa’s work, but dang I am THERE now and I’m loving it. • THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS is the kind of story that starts out relatively innocuously, but bit by bit becomes increasingly creepy & unputdownable Lisa uses alternating narrators to fantastic end: the threads of this story are very independent from one another, but they read like trains on track for a collision, & I am riveted waiting to see what happens. This is one heck of a complex suspense novel - it’s got elements of international conspiracy involving a super creepy cult that might be coming for our protagonist, and it’s also got elements of domestic drama & secrets. aka there is SO much to love about it if you’re up for something different & dark. ‍♀️ • What author(s) have you recently discovered & become obsessed with?!

Happiest of Mondays, friends!! ♡ had a very productive day & I’m now ready to head home & READ. A solid start to the week if I may say so myself! • This weekend I started reading THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by Lisa Jewell (on sale 11/5 from @AtriaBooks!) annnd I am totally hooked on this psychological suspense novel so far. This story is a fascinating blend of domestic suspense & conspiracy/cult thriller, which I am LOVING. I have to admit, I was expecting a story much more focused on the domestic angle, but I’m actually loving that it’s defying my expectations a bit! I’m always game for something fresh & new, and Lisa Jewell definitely serves up that kind of read here. • THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS splits its time between a couple different plotlines. First up, there’s Libby: our story’s protagonist, who, soon after her 25th birthday, receives a highly-anticipated letter revealing the identity of her birth parents - and a shocking surprise, that her parents left her their mansion in their will. Libby suddenly finds herself coming face to face with her own personal history - and confronting its dark secrets, too. BUT Lisa doesn’t stop there. She also weaves into this main narrative a totally compelling story of a cult-like group of individuals who, in the past, essentially invaded/took over the mansion where Libby’s birth parents once lived. I don’t want to spoil anything about this thread of the story - it’s one where you’ll actually want to go in as blind as possible - but it’s totally engrossing & insidious the way Lisa weaves this cult-like behavior into a once “normal” family. This book is super addictive & entertaining, and I cannot wait to see where it goes next. • What are your favorite Monday rituals?! Do you have any special ways you like to get your week off on the right foot? ❤️

Back to NYC & back to work, but wishing I had a bit of that Florida sunshine with me today! ⛅️ • Thank you guys SO MUCH for all the birthday wishes yesterday!!! I had a crazy afternoon/night of travel back to NYC, and when I finally got back home and opened up Instagram, I was just completely floored. I can’t thank you enough for all the support and love - you guys sure know how to make a girl feel special. ❤️ endlessly thankful for you all!!! • I’m back in NYC now after an amazing long weekend in Florida with my Grammy ❤️ & as much as I didn’t want to leave (AND as much as I didn’t love the flight delays yesterday ), the silver lining of an evening spent traveling was LOTS of reading time. And dang, do I need all the reading time I can get, because I am OBSESSED WITH MY CURRENT READ. If creepy psychological suspense with gothic inspiration and genuinely weird (in the best way) elements sounds up your alley, I have got THE BOOK for you. GRETCHEN by Shannon Kirk releases in a couple weeks, and it is *amazing.* I loved Shannon’s previous release, IN THE VINES, but this one is even better. It’s about a mother & daughter who have been on the run for as long as the daughter can remember - but they finally seem to have found the perfect hiding place, a remote house in the New Hampshire woods. Only there is WEIRD stuff going on at the house, and it might not be as safe as they thought. • You guys know I love stories involving creepy houses/houses with a dark history, and the house central to this story is SURREAL and amazing. It’s populated by a pianist and his lonely daughter, a teenager obsessed with puzzles (yes, you read that right ). That teenager’s name is Gretchen, and she quickly becomes very fixated on/determined to befriend our protagonist, Lucy, who is now living in a little guest house on Gretchen’s father’s property. Gretchen is a WILD character, so vividly drawn and surreal in her own ways, and the house she lives in reflects her personality through and through. This book is EVERYTHING & more so far - I’m about 1/3 of the way through and can’t put it down. • Are you a Shannon Kirk fan?! Who else is obsessed with her writing

Thriller Thursday throwback ‍♀️ to a lovely afternoon spent reading in a favorite coffee shop looking forward to the weekend so I can do more of this • Oh my goodness, it has been a WEEK. Between the power outage at my apartment & lots of exciting things going on at work (see @aaknopf’s recent post with ’s for hints at what I’m working on ), I’ve been moving 1048394 miles a minute & haven’t had time to sit & read other than on my commute. BUT thankfully I do have a pretty lengthy commute, and I’ve been spending it with THE WHISPER MAN by Alex North, which I am *loving*. • THE WHISPER MAN is a totally unusual & compelling blend of serial killer thriller, procedural, & family drama. This book is goosebump-inducing levels of creepy; the author deftly weaves some truly unsettling scares into this story, enough so that I’ve had some weiiiird dreams the past couple of nights. It feels like the deeper into the book I get, the creepier it gets, which I’m loving AND this book also has an incredibly strong human element. This story is really about the relationship between fathers & sons in all its complexity. I love a story that can balance its thrills with its humanity, and that’s exactly the kind of story Alex North has crafted. My reading time has been limited this week, but every single minute I’m able to sneak with this book has been one very well spent. • I’m curious: how many books do you guys read (on average) every month? I feel like it varies SO much for me, depending on how busy work is!!

Give me ALL the serial killer thrillers. ‍♀️ So. Dang. Excited. To finally be digging into one of my most-anticipated late-summer reads, THE WHISPER MAN by Alex North, on sale 8/20 from @CeladonBooks!! • Raise your hand if you LOVE a serial killer thriller ‍♀️ this is one of my absolute favorite crime fiction subgenres, and I couldn’t be more excited to be digging into what’s sure to be one of 2019’s hottest thriller releases. THE WHISPER MAN has been garnering major buzz both here in the US and in the UK, with some of the biggest names in crime fiction praising it as “Beautifully written. Beautifully plotted” (C.J. Tudor), and “the most unsettling thriller I have read since Jo Nesbø’s The Snowman” (Alex Michaelides) aka SIGN ME UP. ‍♀️ Side note: how gorgeous is this cover?! It’s my favorite color scheme & I just LOVE the design • THE WHISPER MAN is a multigenerational tale of a father and son caught in the crosshairs of an investigation to catch a serial killer preying on a small town. After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes a fresh start will help him and his young son Jake heal. A new beginning, a new house, a new town. But the town has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered 5 residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed “The Whisper Man,” because he would lure his victims out of their homes by whispering at their windows at night. Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Frank Carter’s crimes, reigniting old rumors that he may have had an accomplice. Now, two detectives must find the boy before it’s too late, even if that means visiting The Whisper Man in prison. And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window..... • Okay how AWESOME does this sound?! Who here loves a good serial killer thriller?! I think we’re going to be seeing a *lot* of THE WHISPER MAN this summer

When it’s Friday & you just finished your current read... get me to a bookstore immediately. • Oh my GOODNESS. This afternoon I finished reading THE WHISPER MAN by Alex North (on sale in the US 8/20!), and dang it that book was so GOOD. I have to say it was super different from what I was expecting (don’t worry, I’ll explain) but I absolutely tore through it & loved the ways it surprised me. If you’re a fan of character-driven, emotionally-charged suspense with a dark side, THE WHISPER MAN is the book for you. ‍♀️ • THE WHISPER MAN is definitely a serial killer thriller (it has a suuuper creepy & movie-worthy villain/local legend called The Whisper Man at its core), & it has LOTS of spine-tingling chills in store for readers. BUT it’s not a super violet or gory book - if this book were a horror movie, it WOULDN’T be a slasher, if that makes sense. There are murders in this book, but what scared me most was what the author hinted at, but didn’t show us. There’s a lot of restraint in this story - it’s not in-your-face violent, and it’s all the creepier for that quality. This book ALSO has an amazing local lore element, which I always love. But what surprised me most of all about this book was its focus on the father-son relationship. In more ways than one, this story is about the power of that bond and the complexities of it, too. It’s a story rich with emotional heft & full of page-turning suspense, and I LOVED it. ‍♀️ • So naturally, I’m now on the hunt for my next read. I’ve got a very VERY fun post to share with you guys tomorrow, revealing the cover for a *big* fall psychological thriller... stay tuned!!! & happy weekend!!❤️

Cloudy skies in NYC today ☁️ aka perfect moody weather for some crime fiction reading ‍♀️ • It’s been a weird 24 hours in the city guys. I had planned a blog post to run today spotlighting a brand-new release (the amazing GRETCHEN by Shannon Kirk), BUT surprise surprise, there’s no power at my apartment after the heatwave in NYC over the weekend. It’s SO. Hot. Still in our apartment and I don’t have WiFi there sooo needless to say I’ve been staying at work as much as possible & my blog plans got a bit messed up. BUT at the end of the day it could be much worse & I’m just hoping things get back to normal soon. • BUT the good news is, I’m absolutely loving my current read, THE WHISPER MAN by Alex North! this book is ALL KINDS OF CREEPY. So far the story is alternating between a father & son who move to a new town following a family tragedy, and a police officer who is called in to help on a missing child case. I love the author’s writing style — the chapters are short and propulsive, giving this story serious “popcorn reading” qualities. BUT the story is also quite dark and chilling — the author has this way of casually dropping little references to seriously scary things, like imaginary friends & local lore, into otherwise ordinary scenes. The result is a story that’s CREEPY and completely addictive. Where I’m at in the story, the father & son are settling into their new home... and the father is beginning to suspect something sinister is going on in the town. This is one of those books I want to be reading 24/7, and I cannot wait to see where the story goes next. • Are you a fan of mysteries/thrillers with short chapters?! I love the way they can add forward movement to stories - when they’re done well, they always make me extra hooked on the book I’m reading.

Resurfacing after the most relaxing weekend spent in Connecticut with my family & catching up on my reading with THE WHISPER MAN by Alex North ‍♀️ • How has everyone’s weekend been?! I’ve spent mine with my family in CT, having a belated birthday celebration & just generally relaxing. It’s been such a great weekend, and now I’m getting ready to go back to the city & back to work already looking forward to my train ride back to NYC aka time to devour my current read, THE WHISPER MAN. • If there were an award for “most subtly & instantly creepy book,” I think THE WHISPER MAN would be a GREAT contender. I’m still early on in this read, but so far I’m SO impressed with how casually the author injects his story with some serious scares. This story places readers in a town that feels very ordinary & quiet - the sort of charming place that might be a great place to raise a family, as our story’s protagonist intends it to be for him & his son. BUT there’s something sinister happening in this town, & readers will be seriously creeped out very early on in the book by a scene where a young boy is walking home annnd being stalked by a serial killer. so far I’m loving how the author blends the familiar with the VERY creepy - I always find books that have an element of relatability/realism PLUS serious scares get under my skin the most, and I feel like THE WHISPER MAN is going to be exactly that kind of read. I can’t wait to see where the story goes. • How did you spend your weekend?! I hope everyone stayed cool in this crazy heatwave!!