CBTB's Guide to Ruth Ware Thrillers

May 16, 2020

There are so many talented crime writers at work today, but there’s no one quite like Ruth Ware. Ruth Ware has been a staple of Crime by the Book since I first began my Instagram and blog—her debut novel was published just a few weeks after I launched my Instagram account, and it was one of the first I photographed for my Instagram, too! (Spot the very early CBTB-Instagram photo above!) Her books will always hold a special place in my heart, but nostalgia isn’t the only reason I’m such a die-hard Ruth Ware fan. Ruth Ware is one of those authors whose writing just consistently works for me. Picking up a new Ruth Ware book is, for me, the ultimate pleasure: it’s an instant-escape, and a return to a writing style that never fails to captivate me and sweep me up in a thrilling, page-turning mystery. Ware has been called “the Agatha Christie of our generation” (by David Baldacci, no less!), and that very high praise is so well-deserved. Ware’s books feature an irresistible blend of the old and the new, crafting clever crime stories that would make the Queen of Crime proud. In today’s blog post, I’ll be walking you through Ruth Ware’s books—including a general overview of why I love her crime stories, what kind of reader I think will best appreciate each of her books, and a little glimpse into her 2020 release, too! Ruth Ware is one of my absolute favorite authors, and I hope this blog post will encourage you to give her work a try. Read on for my guide to Ruth Ware’s thrillers!

Book Excerpt: THE NESTING by C.J. Cooke

May 7, 2020

You know that feeling when you learn about a book that sounds so extremely up your alley, it almost feels like the author wrote it tailor-made for you? That’s my sneaking suspicion about C.J. Cooke’s forthcoming release THE NESTING, which will hit US bookstores in September. This book is—wait for it—a Gothic suspense novel set in Norway. Yes, you read that right, and this might just be the perfect combination for my reading tastes (and, I suspect, for many of yours, too!). THE NESTING follows an architect who has just built his dream high-concept home in Norway, and a nanny who begins to suspect that something isn’t quite right in the house… and that something sinister might be lurking in its shadows. I am beyond excited for this book: it has a Norwegian setting, a story of Gothic suspense, a character working on writing a Scandinavian crime novel… basically all of my favorite things wrapped up in one chilling package. THE NESTING is one of my personal most-anticipated reads of the fall season. Thanks to C.J. Cooke’s US publisher, I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to give CBTB readers an early glimpse into THE NESTING. In this blog post, you will be able to learn more about the book, including plot details and fabulous early praise from CBTB-favorite authors like Simone St. James (!), and you will also be able to read an early excerpt from the book’s first chapter.

Book Review: WATCHING YOU by Lisa Jewell

May 6, 2020

There are few things better than finding a book that you can completely lose yourself in—and that’s exactly what I found in Lisa Jewell’s utterly irresistible psychological suspense novel WATCHING YOU. I’m a relatively recent convert to Lisa Jewell’s work, which, on the one hand, I now find utterly shocking (how on earth did I wait so long to start reading her?!), but on the other hand means that I’ve still got plenty of older titles from this incredibly talented author to catch up on. That’s what I call a silver lining. WATCHING YOU originally released in the US in late 2018, but if you, like yours truly, missed it when it first released, consider this your friendly nudge to check this book out. WATCHING YOU is an irresistibly sinister and dramatic story of relationships, voyeurism, and the dark secrets that lurk in a posh English neighborhood. Following a robust cast of characters whose lives intersect with deadly consequence, WATCHING YOU is the rare psychological thriller that manages to be both smart and delightfully juicy at the same time. This book’s intricate plot demands the reader’s attention from page one, and its binge-worthy entertainment value guarantees that your attention will never waver, not until the story’s final shocking page has been turned. (And even then, you might want to grab your friends and have your own book club to discuss it.) WATCHING YOU swept me up in its deliciously dark suspense tale, and proved the perfect piece of “popcorn reading” for a weekend at home.

CBTB’s Favorite Crime Fiction Series

May 3, 2020

If there’s one thing I love as a reader, it’s finding a crime fiction series that I can’t put down. There’s something so special about finding a fictional world that you never want to leave, and if you’re in the market for a crime fiction series to sink your teeth into while you stay home, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog post, I’m rounding up my personal favorite crime fiction series—the series I personally come back to over and over again. As you’ll see in this list, my personal tastes skew Nordic. You’ll find here a whole assortment of (if I may say so myself!) top-notch Scandinavian crime series to immerse yourself in this spring, and sprinkled in among these Nordic picks are a number of excellent serial killer thrillers and police procedurals from elsewhere in the world, too. These books have a lot of differences—some are fast-paced, some are slow-burns; some are gritty and violent, some are stylish and refined—but they are all staples of my crime fiction library, and books that I would highly recommend to any crime reader.

Book Review: LITTLE SECRETS by Jennifer Hillier

April 26, 2020

I’m not much of a crier—especially not when I’m reading crime fiction—so imagine my surprise when, as I turned the last few pages of Jennifer Hillier’s newest release, I found myself (no exaggeration!) wiping tears off my cheeks. That’s the beauty of this book. LITTLE SECRETS, Hillier’s outstanding new suspense novel, isn’t just a suspense novel—it’s also a heartfelt story that delves deep into the lives of its characters, thoughtfully crafting these fictional women and men so they begin to feel more real than not. LITTLE SECRETS is a story that begins with any parent’s worst nightmare: the disappearance of a child, kidnapped from under his mother’s nose on a busy day at a market. What follows is a twisty, heartbreaking story of grief, loss, and the ties that bind a family together—and the secrets that might tear them apart. Following a grieving mother on a desperate mission for revenge, LITTLE SECRETS delivers a fresh take on the domestic thriller, one that will captivate readers of Sandie Jones, B.A. Paris, and Paula Hawkins. Readers looking for an outstanding work of psychological suspense with a knockout ending will find LITTLE SECRETS right up their alley. This was my first book by Jennifer Hillier, and it absolutely won’t be my last.

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