Friends, itβs the most wonderful time of year: spooky season!! Halloween is my favorite time of year (yes, I consider it a time of yearβnot just a single day!), and itβs the perfect time to cozy up with an extra-chilling crime, suspense, or thriller read. Iβm so excited to share with you a blog post that has been quite a while in the making: my Halloween 2020 Reading List! While many (if not most!) of the books I read and cover here on Crime by the Book could fit on a Halloween reading list, the books Iβve chosen for this blog post have that little something extra that will make each of them perfect for Halloween reading (think: ghosts, supernatural sightings, extra-creepy villains, and more!). Dive on in and find your perfect Halloween read!
Read MoreCBTB's Guide to Ruth Ware Thrillers
There are so many talented crime writers at work today, but thereβs no one quite like Ruth Ware. Ruth Ware has been a staple of Crime by the Book since I first began my Instagram and blogβher 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 isnβt the only reason Iβm 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: itβs 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 βthe Agatha Christie of our generationβ (by David Baldacci, no less!), and that very high praise is so well-deserved. Wareβs books feature an irresistible blend of the old and the new, crafting clever crime stories that would make the Queen of Crime proud. In todayβs blog post, Iβll be walking you through Ruth Wareβs booksβincluding 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 Wareβs thrillers!
Read More3 Late-Summer Must-Read Thrillers
Summer might be winding down, but this seasonβs fantastic lineup of new crime fiction releases shows no sign of letting up. Whether youβre in the mood for a new psychological thriller, a serial killer novel set in Denmark, or a spine-tingling suspense novel with horror undertones, the end of summer 2019 has the book for you - and Iβm rounding them up for you in this post! Here youβll find three must-read late-summer thrillers from established masters of the genre and newcomers alike. Read on for book recommendations for your end-of-summer TBR!
Read MoreBook Review: THE TURN OF THE KEY by Ruth Ware
Every summer, thereβs one thing I look forward to arguably more than anything else: the newest novel by Ruth Ware. And every summer, without fail, Ruth Ware outdoes whatever brilliant novel she delivered the year prior. Wareβs 2019 release is no exception - THE TURN OF THE KEY is Wareβs best novel yet. Equal parts old-school gothic suspense and modern psychological thriller, THE TURN OF THE KEY seamlessly blends an homage to Henry Jamesβ The Turn of the Screw with a page-turning story of surveillance, paranoia, and domestic drama. Following a young woman who accepts a nannying position at a state-of-the-art smart house in the Scottish Highlands, only to wind up imprisoned for the death of one of the children in her care, THE TURN OF THE KEY is one of the most binge-worthy, genuinely addictive suspense novels you will read this summer. Itβs a truth universally acknowledged that if Ruth Ware writes a suspense novel, yours truly will read it and love it, but THE TURN OF THE KEY blew even this die-hard Ruth Ware fan away. If you havenβt already picked up Ruth Wareβs newest, add it to your TBR immediately. Iβm calling it right now: this is one of my favorite books of 2019.
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