Editorial Content for The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Ragnar Jónasson is a huge fan of Dame Agatha Chrisite. In fact, he often has modeled his work after Christie and enjoys paying homage to her whenever he can. That has never been more apparent than in his latest novel, THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING CRIME WRITER. Here, he takes an infamous part of Christie’s past and incorporates it into a new mystery featuring a missing Icelandic crime writer who is being pursued by a young detective. Read More
Teaser
One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing. There are no clues to her disappearance, and it is up to young detective Helgi to crack the case before it is leaked to the press. As Helgi interviews the people closest to her --- a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge --- he realizes that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than the fiction she wrote. As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of the writer's very unexpected life.
Promo
One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing. There are no clues to her disappearance, and it is up to young detective Helgi to crack the case before it is leaked to the press. As Helgi interviews the people closest to her --- a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge --- he realizes that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than the fiction she wrote. As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of the writer's very unexpected life.
About the Book
The next thrilling golden-age-style mystery from #1 Icelandic bestseller Ragnar Jónasson, author of DEATH AT THE SANATORIUM and REYKJAVÍK.
One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing.
There are no clues to her disappearance and it is up to young detective Helgi to crack the case before it is leaked to the press.
As Helgi interviews the people closest to her --- a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge --- he realizes that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than the fiction she wrote.
As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of the writer's very unexpected life.
Audiobook available; read by Cicely Whitehead, Jane Slavin and Rufus Wright
Editorial Content for Hot Wax
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
On tour with a hard-living rock ‘n’ roll band is no place for the faint of heart, the easily offended, or a 10-year-old girl. But what if your dad is the frontman, and life on the road usually keeps you apart? What begins as an exciting family adventure just might end in violence and result in decades of bad memories and emotional turmoil. Read More
Teaser
Summer, 1989: Ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning. The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next 29 years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband, Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers.
Promo
Summer, 1989: Ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning. The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next 29 years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband, Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers.
About the Book
The new novel from the bestselling author of IF WE WERE VILLAINS and GRAVEYARD SHIFT --- a vivid and immersive tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is.
Summer, 1989: Ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning --- one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.
The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next 29 years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband, Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost forever: desire, adventure and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country --- and drives her to a desperation all her own.
Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, HOT WAX is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back --- where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.
Audiobook available, read by Helen Laser
Editorial Content for A New New Me
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
The fast-paced, tech-heavy world in which we live, the 24-hour news cycle, and the constant streaming tend to do weird things to our brains. At work, you’re thinking about home; at home, you’re working while also wondering if your passport will allow you back into the country after a trip, or if you need to have a copy of your birth certificate on you in case someone asks you to prove who you are. It’s enough to cause serious meltdowns. Add in menopause, and it reaches critical levels. Read More
Teaser
Kinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week. There’s a Kinga for every day. On Mondays, you can catch Kinga-A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga-E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath. Kingas A–G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life. Between them is a professional matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer, and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion and bossiness. At least three of them are Team Toxic. It’s an arrangement that’s not without its fair share of admin, grudges and half-truths. But when Kinga-A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.
Promo
Kinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week. There’s a Kinga for every day. On Mondays, you can catch Kinga-A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga-E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath. Kingas A–G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life. Between them is a professional matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer, and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion and bossiness. At least three of them are Team Toxic. It’s an arrangement that’s not without its fair share of admin, grudges and half-truths. But when Kinga-A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.
About the Book
A masterful story that asks: What if the different sides of your personality had trust issues with each other?
New Day, New You!
Kinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week. There’s a Kinga for every day. On Mondays, you can catch Kinga-A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga-E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath.
Kingas A–G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life. Between them is a professional matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer, and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion and bossiness. At least three of them are Team Toxic.
It’s an arrangement that’s not without its fair share of admin, grudges and half-truths. But when Kinga-A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.
How many versions of oneself can one self safely contain?
Audiobook available, read by Fleur De Wit
Editorial Content for Crazy Spooky Love: A Melody Bittersweet Novel
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Josie Silver, the New York Times bestselling author of ONE DAY IN DECEMBER and THE TWO LIVES OF LYDIA BIRD, kicks off her first series with CRAZY SPOOKY LOVE. This spellbinding, laugh-out-loud rom-com features Melody Bittersweet, a young woman who can see ghosts and communicate with them. Read More
Teaser
In the leafy, charming town of Chapelwick, the Bittersweet family has been a fixture on High Street for as long as anyone can remember. Their rambling black-and-white building houses all three generations of ghost-sensitive Bittersweet women and their business, Blithe Spirits. On her 27th birthday, Melody Bittersweet converts the disused back storeroom into her office and opens her own business. Right away, the freshly minted Girls’ Ghostbusting Agency takes on its first case: a grand old house that won’t sell because a trio of incumbent ghost brothers raise merry hell whenever prospective owners arrive to view it. Leo Dark, Melody’s rakish ex and business rival, is also on the case, along with the TV crew that trails him. To make matters worse, the sarcastic and skeptical (and annoyingly good-looking) local reporter Fletcher Gunn has his nose in the story as well.
Promo
In the leafy, charming town of Chapelwick, the Bittersweet family has been a fixture on High Street for as long as anyone can remember. Their rambling black-and-white building houses all three generations of ghost-sensitive Bittersweet women and their business, Blithe Spirits. On her 27th birthday, Melody Bittersweet converts the disused back storeroom into her office and opens her own business. Right away, the freshly minted Girls’ Ghostbusting Agency takes on its first case: a grand old house that won’t sell because a trio of incumbent ghost brothers raise merry hell whenever prospective owners arrive to view it. Leo Dark, Melody’s rakish ex and business rival, is also on the case, along with the TV crew that trails him. To make matters worse, the sarcastic and skeptical (and annoyingly good-looking) local reporter Fletcher Gunn has his nose in the story as well.
About the Book
A plucky medium, her fame-chasing ex, and an infuriatingly handsome skeptic reporter make for a complicated love triangle --- and that's before the ghosts get involved. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ONE DAY IN DECEMBER comes the first novel in a ghost-hunting series full of romance and humor.
Ghosts and spirits are business as usual, but love just might be enough to scare Melody Bittersweet.
In the leafy, charming town of Chapelwick, the Bittersweet family has been a fixture on High Street for as long as anyone can remember. Their rambling black-and-white building houses all three generations of ghost-sensitive Bittersweet women and their business, Blithe Spirits.
On her 27th birthday, Melody Bittersweet converts the disused back storeroom into her office and opens her own business. Unlike the rest of her family, she’s not taking down messages from ghosts, she’s taking them out.
Right away, the freshly minted Girls’ Ghostbusting Agency takes on its first case: a grand old house that won’t sell because a trio of incumbent ghost brothers raise merry hell whenever prospective owners arrive to view it.
It soon becomes clear that there’s a whole heap of unfinished business between the Scarborough brothers --- including murder --- and Melody isn’t the only one trying to unravel the mystery. Leo Dark, her rakish ex and business rival, is also on the case, along with the TV crew that trails him.
To make matters worse, the sarcastic and skeptical (and annoyingly good-looking) local reporter Fletcher Gunn has his nose in the story as well. Sniffing out a way to publicly discredit the Bittersweets is his favorite assignment --- and has absolutely nothing to do with his inability to resist Melody.
With her business on the line, it’s up to Melody to work out the brothers’ issues, but can she protect her own very susceptible heart from Fletcher’s charm? Does she even want to?
Which of the following titles releasing in paperback in September have you read or do you plan to read? Please check all that apply.
September 19, 2025, 490 voters
September 19, 2025
I had such a great time interviewing Adriana Trigiani at the Milford Readers & Writers Festival last weekend. We have been friends for decades. I remember reading an advance copy of her first book, BIG STONE GAP, which originally was written as a screenplay, but her agent felt it would work much better as a book. Adriana is celebrating her 25th year of being a published author.
September 16, 2025
Although it has been years since I had children headed back to school, I always see the weeks after Labor Day as a chance to reset. It’s a great time for your book group to stop and take a look at what you are doing. We call it the Book Group Checkup. It's an opportunity for your group to do a self-check to be sure that your goals are still being met. Years ago, we created some questions for a Book Group Checkup. You can find them here, along with feedback that a few groups shared in the past.







