This month on BookTrib, Women’s Fiction Writers Association shares a list of women’s fiction books with edge-of-your-seat suspense.
TAXED TO THE MAX by Michelle Cornish
This time they’ve gone too far . . .
All Cynthia Webber has ever wanted was to keep her son safe. A career as a forensic accountant was supposed to help her do that, but Cynthia’s world is rocked to its core when four-year-old Luke goes missing from Chinook Centre, along with his grandmother.
When Cynthia discovers the kidnapping has ties to one of her files, she’s more determined than ever to get Luke and her mother back before Christmas, even if it means risking her own life.
THE MONEY SHOT by Anne Dano
Dr. Rebecca Matthews is the queen of daytime talk. Her fairy-tale marriage, nine Emmys, and 12 years as the top-ranked show prove there’s nobody better at fixing a broken relationship. But when her ratings slip and her biggest sponsor bolts, the network pressures Becca to spice things up. The suits want their money shot. Making matters worse, Becca uncovers a troubling secret about her husband, Ryan, thrusting her into a crisis that threatens not just her marriage, but her show and career.
Never one to shy away from adversity, Becca decides to make her boss happy and repair her marriage on her hit show. As she navigates this uncharted territory, more devastating discoveries come to light, testing her resolve and forcing her to question everything she believes in. Desperate for time and space to recover, Becca retreats to the one place she finds sanctuary: Her beach house. There, she makes a series of discoveries that will alter the rest of her life and force her to question if the money shot is worth it.
BLIND SPOT by Maggie Smith
A gripping suspense novel with a twisty ending about an ambitious prosecutor hunting for her sadistic stalker, only to find herself framed for murder when he turns up dead.
Rachel Matthews is used to stress—from the cutthroat world of the district attorney’s office to her escalating clashes with her teenage daughter. So, when a stranger sends a lavish bouquet with a macabre message and leaves a disturbing video on her doorstep, she’s quick to act. Teaming up with an old classmate turned private investigator, she wades through old case files, searching for who’s harboring a grudge against her.
But before she can pinpoint a suspect, her stalker makes a demand—he wants money, lots of it, or he’ll hurt her daughter. In a dangerous gamble, Rachel meets her stalker on an isolated beach, only to find herself fleeing from a shocking crime scene. Can she solve the puzzle of who’s framing her before she loses her family, her career, and her freedom?
FLORIDA GIRLS, A Novel by L.L. Kirchner
A war bond tour full of eager young women. A sunny town with a seedy underbelly. When the Florida Girls start shooting back, will anyone survive?
St. Petersburg, Florida, 1944. Thelma Miles can’t stand injustice. Broke and orphaned, the 18-year-old joins a troupe of touring swimsuit models, only to find she’s stepped into the mafia’s lair.
Kathleen Young has a one-track mind, often missing the obvious. Determined to get her emporium out of debt and take her sick husband to California’s healing climate, organizing the tour is the first in a series of increasingly drastic measures.
Against the chaotic backdrop of late WWII America, Kirchner’s twisty story delves into organized crime and the growing pains of a nation. Peppered with real-life characters and in-depth research, this intricate weave of perspectives offers up a fictional band of females who refused to hand over the reins of power.
WHAT LIES WE KEEP by Janet Roberts
Cyber security expert, Ted McCord, has been fired. He risked everything in a game far beyond his control.
Charlotte McCord never understood her husband’s addiction to the trappings of corporate life – the titles, the money, the promise of visible success he sees as opposite his Montana upbringing. Ted uncovered an embezzlement scheme, did something unthinkable to gain a promotion, and hid his actions from his wife. Then the guilty co-conspirators turned the tables on him. Charlotte leaves, taking their daughter. As Ted works to clear his name, Charlotte leans on her friends. But one friend’s secret upends everything Charlotte believes about Ted. Unsure who to trust, she jettisons from hurt and anger to the tempting promise of solace in the arms of a handsome River Rescue officer.
Stretching from Pittsburgh’s urban skyline to the beautiful ranch country of Montana, What Lies We Keep is a moving story of corporate ambition that shakes the very foundations of a marriage and asks: What happens when we embrace the life we think we should have, rather than the life we have?
UNDER JACKSON BRIDGE by Susan Specht Oram
She leads a hectic life. But when this determined single mom stumbles on buried secrets, will the truth put a target on her back?
Between repairing boat engines and caring for her teenage daughter, Irena Fishbone is always on the run. Still owed ten years child support by her ex-husband, she’s made her own way and built a thriving business. But when she and her ex join a shipboard celebration with a close-knit group of old high school friends, she’s furious when the stubborn man refuses to wear a lifejacket and the two of them are swept away by a rogue wave.
Horrified that he never returned to the boat, as the Coast Guard scours the sea the driven woman organizes a search party to track down her missing ex-husband. But returning to the marina empty-handed, her growing suspicions reveal damning financial records, furtive friends, obscure messages… and a tangled web of lies.
If you like courageous heroines, unsettling conflict, and jaw-dropping twists, you’ll be gripped by this chilling page-turner.
OF LIES AND HONEY by Donna Norman-Carbone
Harper Alexander is devastated by a miscarriage even though she thought she never wanted to be a mother. Because of her husband’s determination to create a family and her inability to carry a child to term, they consider alternative options.
As the result of a secret love affair, Callie Sebastian becomes pregnant. Her socialite mother is appalled by her teenage daughter’s behavior. To protect the family’s reputation, she sends Callie to a Catholic boarding school for wayward girls.
When Raina Edwin’s third child starts school, leaving her with an empty house, she begins to long for another baby. Unfortunately, their farm will not support a new addition to their family. To fill the void, Raina starts a new business: selling honey.
As Harper, Callie, and Raina deal with their strife, their lives collide in unexpected ways. A revealed secret forces each of them to make choices that will alter their roles as mothers and daughters forever.
A GIRL, STUCK by Kelly Elizabeth Huston
She wants in. He needs out. But their forbidden attraction puts them both in danger.
A typically tough private investigator and criminology professor, Harriet “Harry” Smith distracts herself from heartbreak by diving headlong into her latest surveillance job. On a steamy New York City night, she sets out on foot, cocksure and reckless, landing face-to-face with Trey Popov, a serious rising star in the Trubetzkoy crime family. She escapes the verboten interaction, but when the two meet again, Harry plunges undercover as a wholesome schoolteacher who turns Trey’s head despite his compulsion to climb the criminal ladder.
Harry’s scheme and forbidden attraction combust in a violent disaster. As she works toward justice for her murdered police detective-dad, she hopes to rescue the good, bad guy too far down the wrong road to be saved. For Harry, doing the right thing is also the hardest thing, but crossing some lines isn’t in your DNA when you bleed blue. Devastated by heartache, goaded by ambition, and blinded by attraction, Harry’s allegiances falter, and the differences between academic theory and real life prove that no one makes it out unchanged. Hell, some don’t make it out at all.
THE WILD BETWEEN US by Amy Hagstrom
After inheriting his uncle’s lodge, Silas Matheson hopes the grandeur of the California Sierra Nevada will be a fresh start for his two young sons, and a chance to finally face his demons. It was here, fifteen years ago, that Silas and his friends Jessica, Danny, and Meg ventured into the mountain wilderness and Jessica vanished without a trace. When his boys go missing in the same dark woods, the fear and guilt that Silas has been running from ever since come crashing back.
Silas’s panicked call brings in the local search and rescue unit, and two familiar faces: Danny and Meg. As the frantic search gets underway, the three friends are plunged into a painfully recurring nightmare, each of them thinking, This can’t be happening again.
With a storm brewing and the boys’ fates threatened with every desperate hour, the secrets of the past begin to surface, and this time, for Silas, Danny, and Meg, there’s no escaping the truth.
HER PAST CAN’T WAIT by Jacqueline Boulden
Just when everything is going right for Emily Archer, it all goes terribly wrong.
With a recent promotion at work, a circle of supportive friends, and a loving sister, Emily’s future looks bright. But her world is shattered when an important client gropes her at his company’s annual gala. Emily responds by slapping the man in the face, almost breaking a finger.
Forced to take time off, Emily begins working with an EMDR therapist to understand why she snapped. Psychotherapy takes Emily down a path to a painful trauma she suffered as a teen.
While she’s putting the pieces together and healing from her past, she discovers a local celebrity is targeting women in her community. Despite warnings from the police and her therapist to steer clear, Emily is determined to stop him.
Can she bring him to justice once and for all, or will she become his next victim?
