• Heated Rivalry, Rachel Reid
• How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates, Shailee Thompson
• Matchmaking for Psychopaths, Tasha Coryell
• Out of Time, Jodi Taylor
• What to do When Someone Dies, Nicci French
• First Sign of Danger, Kelley Armstrong
• Runner, Thomas Perry

This seems like a good place to confess that I have read ALL of Rachel Reid’s gay hockey books, and enjoyed the process. Her characters are all different, their path to love is different, and I sure enjoyed the Olympic hockey games from a new perspective. Heated Rivalry is getting a lot of attention now because of the amazing TV adaptation, but they’re all good.

How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates, Shailee Thompson

Our protagonist is a gal who loves her horror movies, but hates it when she’s cast the in the role of Final Girl in real life. Jamie, who’s writing her dissertation on the intersection between rom-com and slasher movies, and Jamie’s best friend Laurie, agree to go on a ten-round speed dating event. Then the building’s plunged into darkness, and you guess it . . . someone’s dead when the lights come back on. Have I sold you on this novel? I hope so.

Matchmaking for Psychopaths, Tasha Coryell

Lexie had an upbringing from hell, so it’s no surprise that she wants her life to run smoothly.  She’s a matchmaker at a niche agency specializing in hard-to-match clients. Lexie is the yenta for psychopaths. When her own fiancé confesses to having an affair with Lexie’s best friend on Lexie’s birthday, no surprise that her reaction is . . . extreme.

As you know (if you’ve read many of the columns) Jodi Taylor is one of my favorites reads. Out of Time may be one of her Time Police books, but Max is in it, and so are dinosaurs. Who could ask for anything more?

Nicci French’s What to do When Someone Dies is a thoughtful book. When Ellie Falkner’s husband dies in an apparent accident, another body is found in the car . . . a woman’s. Everyone tiptoes around Ellie, trying not to say the obvious. Ellie remains adamant that Greg was not cheating on her, and she’s determined to discover the identity and purpose of the female companion. It’s really kind of wonderful that Ellie stays true to her course. Well worth the reading.

Kelley Armstrong is one of the most consistently good writers working now. Her novels about Rockton (now relocated and named Haven’s Rock) are set in a community of people who needed to disappear from the world. First Sign of Danger is set in a remote area of the Yukon. When Haven’s Rock police (now parents to a baby girl) Casey and Eric run into a couple in distress in the wilderness, their first reaction is skepticism. But the deaths start piling up, and Casey and Eric’s first responsibility is to keep their little town safe.

Thomas Perry is a great thriller writer, and his Jane Whitefield novels are uniformly excellent. Runner is no exception. Jane, an indigenous American, is now happily married to a doctor and trying to make their lives as smooth as she can. But she herself has a double life, helping fugitives escape from bad people, and though she’d considered herself retired, when a young pregnant woman shows up on her doorstep she can’t say no. All Jane’s strategic thinking is called into play when the young woman’s pursuers appear hot on her trail.

Stay Away from Him is a superior thriller. Newly divorced Melissa meets a gorgeous man, a doctor, at a gathering in her new neighborhood. Melissa is in a bad way: she has to have a new job, she’s the sole parent of Bradley, who is five years old. Thomas Danvers seems to be everything she needs . . . but he’s been accused of murdering his wife. And he has a suspiciously good friend, Amelia, who actually lives next door. Melissa is needy and it doesn’t take long before she and Thomas are heavily involved. But their relationship is too good to be true.

Blog:

I won’t lie, I’m pretty excited about getting nominated for an Edgar for my short story “The One that Got Away.” Short stories are really hard for me, since they have to be concise and have a whomp ending. I may have written thirty or forty short stories, and I am so chuffed to have this one nominated. It’s the only Lily Bard short story, and it appeared in the January 2025 issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. But the other stories are really great, and I’m practicing my gracious loser smile!

This year I’ll be the Edgars in NYC in April (very quick trip), and returning in May for ThrillerFest. I will enjoy both events, since I have a lot of friends in both overlapping fields. I get to interview Luis Alberto Urrea, and I get to present an award to Harlan Coben. I know both men, and it’ll be a lot of fun.

All my children are doing well, and my grandchildren are wonderful, and even the dogs are having a good time. My husband is playing as much bridge as he can, because he loves the game. No, I don’t play. We’d have to get divorced. I can’t get serious about a game, and bridge really requires that.

I hope you all have a lot of good books to read, and that your health is well.

I just found out my next book will come out in 2027. Not optimum, but that’s the way it is. Publishing is a mysterious industry, in some ways. Now I’m working on a short story, and then I’ll begin on the next book.

Charlaine Harris