Afleveringen
-
This week, Halley and I share updates on our 1,000 Words of Summer challenge and dive into what we love about our favorite book covers. We also share what we've been reading, watching and listening to.
Books We Talked About
Almost Surely Dead
Stone Cold Fox
The Last Housewife
The Favorites
The Lies I Tell
The Force of Such Beauty
-
This week, I talk with Rob Hart about his new action packed thriller Assassins Anonymous. We dive into how he came up with the idea for an assassin who swears off killing for moral reasons, why musicals and action movies are similar, and how he created an empathetically accessible assassin as a main character.
Assassins Anonymous Synopsis
In this clever, surprising, page-turner, the world’s most lethal assassin gives up the violent life only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the first option is off the table. What’s a reformed hit man to do?
Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind, and joined a twelve-step group for reformed killers.
When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him. All without killing anyone. Or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns, nonviolence is a real hassle. -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
-
This week, Steph Lauer and I talk with Lori Brand about her insanely fun thriller Bodies to Die For. She shares her inspiration for the book, and her personal journey writing it.
To check out her article about why she wrote Bodies to Die For, click here
Bodies to Die For Synopsis
Popular fitness influencer Gemma has transformed herself from a Before into an After, complete with washboard abs, thriving business, and gorgeous husband. But social media can be deceiving. Offline, the cutthroat world of bikini bodybuilding may just eat her alive. That's if she's not first devoured by the secret nemesis that lurks beneath her polished surface, waiting to destroy her.
Software engineer Ashley is fat and frustrated. Frustrated with failed diets. With a world that wants her to shrink. With biased doctors, online trolls, and even her own mother. Until Ashley falls in with a mysterious and radical sect of Fat Activists who are fighting back ... by any means necessary. She's never felt so alive, so full of purpose. She'll do whatever it takes to ride this high, destroy Diet Culture, and win the approval of her charismatic leader.
But when Gemma's toughest rival turns up dead, and more fitness girls fall like dominoes, it's beginning to look like the body image war has gone too far.
With breakneck pace and keen insights, Bodies to Die For takes a hard look at social media, the $70 billion diet industry, and the war on women's bodies--the wars we wage with each other, and with ourselves. -
This week, Olivia Day Wallace and Lori Brand join the podcast and tell me all about their experiences at ThrillerFest! They share their most memorable moments, their favorite panels and new books that grabbed their attention.
Books We Talked About
The Den
Such a Bad Influence
A Friend in the Dark
The Drowning Woman
Syndicate Spy
For Worse
Sing Her Down
-
This week, I talk with Sara Koffi about her addictive domestic suspense While We Were Burning. We dive into her inspiration for the book, how she ended up writing thrillers, and her favorite part of writing the book.
While We Were Burning Synopsis
After her best friend's mysterious death, Elizabeth Smith’s picture-perfect life in the Memphis suburbs has spiraled out of control—so much so that she hires a personal assistant to keep her on track. Composed and elegant, Brianna is exactly who she needs—she slides so neatly into Elizabeth’s life it's almost like she belonged there from the start, and proves herself indispensable. Soon, the assistant Elizabeth hired to distract her from her obsession with her friend's death is the same person working with her to uncover the truth behind it.
Because Brianna has questions, too.
She wants to know why the police killed her young Black son. Why someone in Elizabeth’s neighborhood called the cops on him that day. Who took that first step that stole her child away from her. And the only way she’s ever going to be able to find out is to entwine herself deep into Elizabeth’s life, where the answers to her questions lie. As the two women hurtle towards an electrifying final showdown, and the lines between employer and friend blur, it becomes clear that neither of them is what they first appear. -
This week, Halley Sutton is back and we talk about buzzwords that grab our attention in synopses and some of our favorite books that are outliers compared to what we normally read.
Books Kate Talked About
Made For Love
Ace of Spades
Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
Carrie Soto is Back
Books Halley Talked About
Heating and Cooling
Mr. Fox
Thursday Next Series
Get in Trouble
How to Be Eaten
Frankissstein
-
Jaime Lynn Hendricks is back to talk about her newest twisty thriller A Lovely Lie! Steph joins our conversation about the inspiration for the book, how Jaime builds her large casts, and her favorite part of writing 90s teenagers.
A Lovely Lie Synopsis
Is it better to believe a lovely lie or to know the horrible truth?
1999: The night of their senior picnic, Scarlett Russo and her best friend Pepper were involved in a car accident that left two of their classmates dead. Afterward, they lied to the police, protecting each other from the consequences. Then Pepper left town and Scarlett never heard from her again…
Now: Twenty-two years later, Scarlett has buried that deadly incident deep in her mind and built a comfortable life for herself, working in a hotel on the west coast of Florida and raising her teenage son with her husband Vince. Her peace is disrupted, however, when Pepper’s daughter shows up with news of Pepper’s death. Zoey is twenty-one and studying to be an investigative journalist. She has a cryptic letter from Pepper addressed to Scarlett that alludes to the events of that fateful night and Pepper’s initial intentions to get an abortion. Now Zoey wants answers about her mother’s past. Who is Zoey’s father? And what really happened after the senior picnic? As Zoey continues to dig into the past, all of Scarlett’s buried secrets threaten to rise to the surface.
-
This week, Steph and I talk about the first book we read from authors we've read multiple books from, and which of theirs is our favorite.
Books Kate Talked About
Bodies to Die For
Lying in Wait
Strange Sally Diamond
I Found You
The Night She Disappeared
Blood Oranges
This Family Lies
Every Last Fear
The Night Shift
A Flicker in the Dark
Books Steph Talked About
The Helper
The Other Mothers
Darling Girls
The Good Sister
The Invited
Children on the Hill
Then She Was Gone
Watching You
Book of Cold Cases
The Haunting of Maddy Claire
It Could Be Anyone
A Lovely Lie
-
This week, I talk with Ruth Ware about her newest thriller One Perfect Couple. We dive into the inspiration for the book, and what stereotype Ruth would be on a reality show.
One Perfect Couple Synopsis
Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.
But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.
-
This week, I talk with Alexander Boldizar about his new thriller The Man Who Saw Seconds. We dive into the gray areas of morality, the vulnerabilities of government structures and the willingness to do anything for the people you love.
The Man Who Saw Seconds Synopsis
Preble Jefferson can see five seconds into the future.
Otherwise, he lives an ordinary life. But when a confrontation with a cop on a New York City subway goes tragically wrong, those seconds give Preble the chance to dodge a bullet—causing another man to die in his place.
Government agencies become aware of Preble’s gift, a manhunt ensues, and their ambitions shift from law enforcement to military R&D. Preble will do whatever it takes to protect his family, but as events spiral out of control, he must weigh the cost of his gift against the loss of his humanity.
A breathless thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page, The Man Who Saw Seconds explores the nature of time, the brain as a prediction machine, and the tension between the individual and the systems we create. Alexander Boldizar provides an adrenaline-pumping read that will leave you contemplating love, fear and the abyss.
-
This week, Halley Sutton is back to talk about good gateway or starter thrillers - like when your non-thriller reader friend asks you what they should read and you don't want to scare them away from the genre immediately.
Books We Talked About
Kate's Picks
All the Missing Girls
Death of a Dancing Queen
All Good People Here
The Lies I Tell
Never Have I Ever
Halley's Picks
Stephanie Plum Series
Gold Coast
Carl Hiassen Books
I Have Some Questions For You
Fake Like Me
Hollywood Homicide Series
Patricia Wants to Cuddle
-
This week, I talk with Kimberley G. Giarratano about her second book in The Billie Levine Series Devil in Profile. We dive into her favorite parts about writing the series and where she got her inspiration for the art theft plot.
Devil in Profile Synopsis
Unlicensed P.I. Billie Levine is trying to bank some extra cash, so she picks up hours working as a process server for another investigative firm. Mindless and mostly 9 to 5, Billie is content to simply hand over court documents until during a routine stakeout, she stumbles upon the corpse of an elderly man, an art collector with ties to Nazi Germany.
Compared to Billie, the dead man has it easy. Billie is feeling on edge lately. Maybe it’s because her father is insisting his estranged kids come to his wedding in Sedona, or that David is making plans to move out, or that a smug teaching assistant is getting underfoot on her latest case.
Although, it’s possible she could use the help when the cops zero in on Billie’s boyfriend, Aaron, and his connections to an international art ring. Turns out, Aaron’s stint in Israel has left him with more than just a thick scar across his neck. The woman he screwed over wants revenge, and she’s determined to leverage Billie’s murder case to get it.
With the detectives focused on Aaron, Billie sets her sights on stopping a killer who is tying up loose ends — Billie being one of them. -
Gare is back! And we are talking about all the summer 2024 thrillers we are excited to read!
Books We Talked About
Bodies to Die For
A Talent for Murder
On the Surface
The Sorority
Ladykiller
The Hollywood Assistant
Letters to a Serial Killer
Assassins Anonymous
Shadowheart
It Had to Be You
The Last Party
The Haters
The Best Lies
Behind You
Society of Lies
Talking to Strangers
You Will Never Be Me
The Last Girl Left
-
This week, I talk with Mailan Doquang about her action packed jewel heist thriller Blood Rubies. She shares how her work as an architectural historian influenced the way she approached writing fiction, and we discuss our mutual love for anti-heroes.
Follow Mailan on Instagram
Check out Blood Rubies
Blood Rubies Synopsis
Seven days are all it takes for Rune Sarasin’s life to completely derail. It starts with a routine heist: lifting a pouch of rubies from the Bangkok hotel room of wealthy smuggler Charles Lemaire. Rune nearly gets caught when Lemaire’s goons give chase, but she manages to escape with her boyfriend Kit. Then Kit delivers some terrifying news: his teenage sister Madee has gone missing. They track her cell phone to the dangerous Khlong Toei slum, but the trail ends there. The night gets even worse when Rune realizes she lost the pouch of gems somewhere in the slum while searching for Madee.
Charles Lemaire is the wrong man to mess with. He is a perfectionist when it comes to both his attire and his crimes, and he isn’t afraid to kill to get what he wants. When he catches up to Rune and Kit, he gives Rune an ultimatum: return his rubies or she will never see her boyfriend again. Now Rune must race against time to either recover the lost gems or find something even more valuable with which to ransom Kit back from Lemaire. But she also still needs to find out what happened to Madee. As Rune investigates deeper into the shadows of the Khlong Toei slum, she uncovers a web of crime with consequences far more insidious than just one missing girl and a handful of stolen rubies.
-
This week, I talk with the co-host of Thrillers By the Book Club Podcast Olivia Day Wallace about our favorite tropes in thrillers!
Books We Talked About
Murder Road
Nightwatching
Alias Emma
My Darling Husband
The Mentor
I’m Not Done With You Yet
Th1rt3en
Fourth Monkey
Original Twin
Where You End
Blood Rubies
Counterfeit
Nena Knight Series
The Inheritance Games
Very Bad Things
House on the Cerulean Sea
On the Surface
Chloe Kates is Missing
Dark Corners
Everyone is Watching
How to Kill Men and Get Away with It
They Never Learn
If Something Happens to Me
First Lie Wins
Bluff
The Night Side
Pretty Things
Look Closer
Sometimes I Lie
None of This is True
Small Secrets
The Inmate
This Girl’s a Killer
Look in the Mirror
What We'll Burn Last
The Midnight Feast
You Will Never Be Me
Ladykiller
Everybody Knows
It Had to Be You
The Peacock and the Sparrow
Long Time Gone
-
This week, I talk with Kellye Garrett about her writing journey and her new thriller Missing White Woman. We discuss Kellye's early interest in writing, her inspiration for her Hollywood Homicide Series, and her writing process. Kellye also shares how her experience in TV writing influenced her novel writing, particularly in creating suspenseful chapters and realistic dialogue. We dive into the themes of Missing White Woman, including true crime Internet culture and the racial dynamics explored in the story.
-
This week, Amy Allen Clark, host of the Book Gang Podcast and the Book Gang Book Club, joins me and shares 5 non-thriller books she thinks thriller lovers would love!
Books Amy Recommends
We Are Watching Eliza Bright
Rust Stardust
The Warehouse
All's Well
One's Company
-
This week, I talk with Halley Sutton about the books we loved reading in our childhood, and how they shaped our reading preferences as adults!
Books We Talked About
Ella Enchanted
The Uglies Series
The Hunger Games
Sally Lockhart Series
Sammy Keyes Series
Mara, Daughter of the Nile
Inside the Walls of Troy
Walk Two Moons
Song of the Lioness Series
Into the Land of the Unicorns
A Wrinkle in Time
A Ring of Endless Light
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
-
This week, Steph and Kate discuss different ways you can support authors that don't cost a thing! Then, they dive into thriller authors they feel deserve more attention on Bookstagram and BookTok.
Authors We Talked About
JM Cannon
Vera Kurian
Yasmin Angoe
Hannah Morrissey
Susan Walter
Julia HeaberlinAudra McElyea
Jaime Lynn Hendricks
Sagit Schwartz
Jess Lourey
Faith Gardner -
This week, Audrey Egner and I share some of our thoughts on this season of Vanderpump Rules and share recommendations for books that are as messy as reality TV!
We talk about Vanderpump Rules for the first 20ish minutes, so if you want to get straight to the book recommendations, skip ahead to 23:10.
Books We Talked About
Shiver
The Hunting Wives
Tell Me Everything
The Hunting Party
Unmissing
The Romantics
The Real Deal
The Daydreams
The Club
Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead
Kill Show
We Are the Brennans
- Laat meer zien