Archives de catégorie : Crime & Thrillers

HEART OF GLASS de Jennifer Hillier

A serial killer recants his long-ago confession regarding a small-town high school girl—and her then-best friends are forced to confront what really happened that night and what’s happening now.

HEART OF GLASS
by Jennifer Hillier
Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press, August 2026

Twenty-five years ago in Seaside, Washington, a charming drifter named Sam met three inseparable teenage girls at the local amusement park. Days later, one of them was found dead, her body surfacing in a flooded cranberry bog not far from where she was murdered.

Barb and Nicolette were shocked to learn that the man they all met at Wonderland was the Carnival Killer. After he’s arrested for the murders of five young women – one of whom was their best friend, Lorelei – Nicolette moved to the city to pursue her dreams of being famous. Barb stayed behind in Seaside, eventually becoming a reporter for the local paper. Their past safely behind them, they’ve both moved on with their lives.

But when the Carnival Killer recants his confession and a new body washes ashore on the eve of Wonderland’s grand reopening, the secrets that Barb and Nicolette have worked so hard to bury begin to resurface, threatening to destroy everything in their carefully constructed lives.

Instant New York Times bestseller

« Jennifer Hillier is the master of suspense. » —Freida McFadden

« Amazing dialogue, complex characters and a dazzling plot. Never has betrayal seemed so fascinating. . . No one maps the valley of fear that exists in the hearts of her characters better than Jennifer Hillier. She doesn’t just write thrillers, she creates epics that take you beyond the event horizon where what we think we know breaks down and we just hold on for dear life. Not to be missed! » ―S.A Cosby

« Hillier delivers another knockout thriller with compulsively readable prose and sly, subtle twists. A must-read. » —Booklist (starred review)

Jennifer Hillier was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, and lived in the Seattle area for years before returning home to Toronto, where she now lives with her family.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE WOODS de Lily Braun-Arnold

In the vein of Wilder Girls and Sawkill Girls, WHAT HAPPENED IN THE WOODS is a dark, speculative, atmospheric thriller set on a college campus.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE WOODS
by Lily Braun-Arnold
Delacorte, May 2027
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Egan, an introspective if not slightly self-conscious high school senior, travels to Ryland College to visit her best friend Jamie before Thanksgiving Break. Excited to see Jamie after months apart, but worried that their relationship has changed with distance, Egan isn’t sure what to expect of the weekend. Add to that the fact that Jamie has suddenly stopped communicating with her before the visit, and it’s a miracle that things seem normal between them when Egan arrives. Except…something is off about Ryland. Campus is virtually empty, students are acting strange, and there are crazy rumors flying around. Soon Egan can’t stop noticing everything wrong—students with mysterious bloody holes in the backs of their necks, fake smiles and vacant expressions, things moving beneath their skin. And Jamie, who seems to know more than she’s letting on…

When an illicit party in the woods takes a disastrous turn, Egan finds herself at ground zero of a deadly outbreak, fighting for survival. As time winds down, Egan must learn who to trust, and must confront the reality of her friendship with Jamie if they have any hope of getting out alive

Lily Braun-Arnold is currently an undergraduate at Smith College studying English. When she isn’t writing, she can be found working at her local independent bookstore, Watchung Booksellers, or daydreaming about living in outer space.

LOOK WHAT YOU DID de Kaitlin Reilly

A page-turning debut thriller for fans of Kathleen Glasgow and Megan Lally about a teen who must confront her own buried trauma to clear her friend’s name of murder and expose the dark secrets of her small town.

LOOK WHAT YOU DID
by Kaitlin Reilly
Sourcebooks Fire, September 2026

« I know about Will….I know what he did that night »

After the tragic death of golden boy Will Ashford, everyone in town is in mourning. Or almost everyone. Seventeen-year-old Mackenzie couldn’t be more relieved. Because she knows Will’s veneer of perfection hid something dark and dangerous. It was a truth she learned one night at the Ashford house and swore never to tell.

But her plan is threatened when she starts receiving texts from an unknown number. Someone knows the secret Mackenzie has tried so hard to hide—and they are determined to reveal it.

When Mackenzie’s former best friend is found dead, she is convinced the anonymous texter is connected to her murder, and she will stop at nothing to find them. But doing so will mean confronting the trauma she’s fought so hard to suppress and exposing the dark secrets her town has tried to keep buried—or risk being the next girl dead.

The author is a screenwriter, which shows in the voice, cinematic storytelling, and propulsive pacing that keeps readers eagerly turning pages.

Kaitlin Reilly is a journalist and screenwriter who grew up on Long Island and has called Los Angeles home for more than a decade. Her first film, the YA rom com How to Lose a Popularity Contest, is heading to Tubi in 2026.

THAT GIRL WON’T DIE de Jumata Emill

At Prentiss Everton Academy, the past doesn’t stay buried. . . and survival is the ultimate status symbol. Gossip Girl meets The Count of Monte Cristo in the new YA thriller from acclaimed author Jumata Emill.

THAT GIRL WON’T DIE
by Jumata Emill
Delacorte, January 2027
(via Writers House)

When Tessa Edmond steps onto the campus of Prentiss Everton Academy—the most exclusive all-Black boarding school in South Georgia—she’s immediately singled out. Students whisper. Teachers stare. Because Tessa looks exactly like Whitney Templeton, the super popular, well-connected golden girl of the school, who died three months ago in a so-called accidental drowning.

Tessa’s gone from rags to riches overnight, dropped into a world of privilege, power, and ruthless social hierarchies. At Prentiss Everton, reputations are everything—and Whitney’s former friends, rich, connected, and dangerous, don’t know what to make of the girl who looks like a ghost.

But no one suspects that Tessa and Whitney were estranged cousins, and that Tessa came to Prentiss Everton with a mission. She’s there to find out what really happened to Whitney. Because Whitney’s death certainly wasn’t an accident—and someone at the school knows it.

As secrets unravel and tensions explode, Tessa digs deeper into Whitney’s inner circle, using their lies against them. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more bodies start turning up, and soon Tessa realizes the same people who killed her cousin may be coming for her next.

Jumata Emill is the critically acclaimed author of The Black Queen, Wander in the Dark, and I Don’t Wish You Well. He earned his B.A. in mass communications from Southern University and A&M College, and now works as a journalist covering crime and politics. He’s a Pitch Wars alum and member of Crime Writers of Color. When he’s not writing about murderous teens, he’s watching and obsessively tweeting about every franchise of the Real Housewives.

BURNOUT de Michael Cooper

A debut literary novel about a down-on-his-luck former detective in LA whose most famous case comes back to haunt him.

BURNOUT
by Michael Cooper
Range Literary Publishing, 2027
(via David Black Literary)

Former Detective James Rivers—JR to his friends—has long left behind his career. He has surfed off into the easy life: hiding out in an Airstream with an ocean view, downing one glittering-green Midori after another, caring for his bulldog and his old man, taking each L.A. day as it comes. But when he learns that convicted murderer Dylan Turner has been let out of prison, a lock unlatches in his brain. He has always known—hasn’t he?—that something wasn’t right with that case, but he never figured Dylan would go free. Was his most famous case his worst mistake? And if so, how will he protect the brother who betrayed Dylan? And how will JR save himself if Dylan comes for him? Pressed back into action by his old-partner-turned-chief-of-police, JR is teamed up with Brittany Charles, a young detective with an unflinching sense of justice and no patience for a has-been’s hesitation. As new victims of brutal murder surface, JR and Britt realize that the clock is ticking.

BURNOUT is the vivid and absorbing story of a man who must face his worst mistakes and discover what’s on the other side. A detective story for our moment, this tale centers on an unruly and vulnerable man, a tarnished knight with a heart that’s been chipped and cracked but not shattered, a man tiptoeing towards sobriety and a more honest life. Fueled by day-glo dialogue, brilliantly vivid humor, one-of-a-kind characters, and vast quantities of heart, BURNOUT is a raw and blistering ballad—about ancient mistakes and lingering regrets, about violence and what crawls beneath it, but also about the life-saving possibilities of empathy, hope, and love.