Fabulous Fiction Firsts #737, Spring Chillers

Fri, 05/22/2020 - 11:43am by muffy

The New Girl (also in downloadable eBook) by Harriet Walker, the fashion editor for The Times of London, follows the intertwined lives of three women, and “movingly portrays the fragility of friendship and the corrosive effect of mistrust and recriminations in a wickedly funny psychological thriller that's in turn brutal and tender.” (Publishers Weekly) 

Margot, a fashion editor and her lifelong friend Winnie are both expecting but when Winnie loses her baby, their friendship suffers. Maggie, Margot’s handpicked maternity temp - bright, plucky and ambitious, turns out to be good at her job, and emerges as the darling of the fashion world.  As Margot becomes increasingly jealous and paranoid, Winnie sets her sights on revenge, and Maggie schemes to make her temporary job permanent.  Each woman's alternating narrative offers her own perspective on the unfolding events, from which no one escapes unscathed. 

Ghosts of Harvard * (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) by Frances Serritella, co-author of Chick Wit, a column in The Philadelphia Inquirer (with her mother Lisa Scottoline). This “many-faceted first novel… begins as a thriller and ends as a story of personal growth and redemption.” (Library Journal)

Harvard freshman Cady Archer arrives on campus searching for answers to her brother, Eric, a schizophrenic genius who leapt from his dorm room window the year before. While struggling under the enormous pressure of college, she investigates her brother’s final year, armed only with a blue notebook of Eric’s cryptic notes. As the clues that she unearths grow increasingly sinister, she begins to hear voices - three ghosts from different eras of American history that walked the halls of Harvard.

“Serritella makes keen use of quantum theories about time and simultaneity in this busily plotted, emotionally astute, thoughtfully paranormal, witty, and suspenseful drama involving historical figures, academic ruthlessness, and the tragic riddles of mental illness.” (Booklist) 

The Fire Thief by Debra Bokur, launches a new police procedural series featuring Maui detective Kali Māhoe. When Police Captain Walter Alaka'i discovers the body of a teenage surfer among the lava rocks, he calls in his niece, Detective Kali Māhoe, the granddaughter of one of Hawaii's most respected spiritual leaders, and herself on the transcendent path to becoming a kahu herself. What initially appears to be an accident, Kali suspects a ritual murder. Then another body washes ashore, Kali must draw on her own knowledge of the legends of the Islands to track down the killer.

“Bokur nimbly contrasts the Hawaii of sun and golden beaches with its less well-known underbelly of poverty, discrimination, and crime. Fans of strong female cops will look forward to Kali's further adventures.” (Publishers Weekly)

* = Starred review