A Book A Week

Born a mere three minutes apart, Penny and Nix were inseparable. The twins looked nearly identical, but their personalities couldn’t have been more different. Penny was the cautious one, always doing the right thing, making the logical choice, playing it safe. Nix was the wild one, unafraid to go against the grain simply because she could. As close as they were, their bond would end in tragedy. Nix succumbed to addiction, overdosing far too young, leaving behind only a cryptic voicemail and a hole in Penny that she would spend the rest of her life trying to fill.

“In the space between dreams and the waking world, I felt her with me, sleeping as we often had, turned toward each other like a closed set of parentheses.”

As if trying to keep her sister alive through imitation, Penny begins to abandon her lifelong caution. She ends her steady relationship with the man who would have made a perfectly safe husband. She quits her job in the culinary world. She enrolls in the police academy. And that’s where we first meet her—on her final shift as a police trainee, called to the scene of a brutal murder.

The blood shocks her. The violence overwhelms her. She struggles to comprehend how one person could do this to another human soul. But then Penny recognizes the victim—one of the men she holds responsible for Nix’s death—and another emotion cuts through the horror. Satisfaction. A quiet, unsettling sense that this man met the end he deserved.

Shaken, Penny steps away to catch her breath and stumbles upon a blonde woman drenched in the blood of that victim, gripping a box cutter. Before Penny can make the arrest, the woman calmly reveals that this murder is only the beginning. It's part of a much larger story that is far from over. A story about sisters. A story that Penny now finds herself a part of. 

And then, just like that, the killer disappears, leaving Penny to decide how far she’s willing to go to see this story through to the end. 

Joshilyn Jackson has long thrilled me with her inventive standalone novels that balance page-turning suspense with sharp, emotionally grounded character work. Missing Sister is yet another example of that skill. I’ll admit it’s a bit darker than her previous books, and it took me a few chapters to fully get behind Penny as a character. She’s complicated in her motivations, walking a thin line between her naturally cautious nature and her late sister’s more reckless, daring spirit. She makes frustratingly poor decisions at times, and it can be tough to watch her spiral into self-destruction. But at the same time, that’s grief, isn’t it? It pushes us toward choices we might never otherwise make.

Jackson populates the story with characters who feel authentic to the world she’s built, each wrestling with their own complicated relationship to Nix, whose shadow stretches over everyone she touched. All of it comes together in a tightly plotted, page-turning thriller with a twist ending I genuinely didn’t see coming. Sure, there are a few moments that require a small leap of faith, but I was so invested in the characters that I hardly minded. It’s a dark, fast read that proves Jackson isn’t afraid to explore new tonal territory. Missing Sister is another strong entry in her catalog and a reminder of why I keep coming back to her books.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2026, 18)

Fame can be a fickle thing. There are pros and cons to anything in life, but celebrities see these different poles at the most extreme. On one side, there is the enormous success that stems from their notoriety. They are able to live a life of luxury, filled with the wealth and status that that lifestyle affords. On the other hand, any true sense of privacy goes away. Everyone knows just about everything about their life. The good, bad, and ugly are all displayed for the world to see. It is this darker side of celebrity that Joshilyn Jackson chooses to focus on in her new thriller With My Little Eye. In the book, she imagines a celebrity who has lost any sense of anonymity. It is as terrifying as it is electrifying. 

Meribel Mills is starting over. At least that's what she keeps telling herself. She jumped at the opportunity to take on a regular role in the latest cop procedural to grace network television. Yes, roles like this are rarer and rarer for an aging actress in an industry that is cutthroat to women. It wasn't just the chance for steady work that appealed to Meribel, however. It was more about the opportunity to relocate from LA to Atlanta. This is a chance to leave behind the stress of Hollywood and bring her adopted daughter a life of routine and stability. Even as the family of two begins to settle into their new luxury apartment, Meribel can't help but fear that none of this will be enough. 

When the first letter arrived, Meribel barely took note of it. Years had passed since her breakout role, but she still received the occasional piece of fan mail. This one was strange, of course, but that's the price you pay for being a celebrity. But the letters didn't stop. With increasing regularity, she would open the mail to see another letter written in bold, fruit-scented marker. The notes became more disturbing with each new appearance, some even containing threatening drawn images depicting Meribel in various violent states. Meribel had crazed fans before, but this Marker Man was different. As paranoia and fear invaded her every thought, she couldn't help but feel as if this man had been in her LA home, her sheets smelling of unfamiliar cologne. Finally, determined to put a stop to this stalking, Meribel moved her entire life to Atlanta, praying that the Marker Man would leave her alone for good.  

As she sits in the cafe in the lobby of her new building in Atlanta, Meribel feels hopeful that this move was the right decision. Surely Marker Man can't find her here. But then she gets that uneasy feeling that has plagued her with each new letter. Someone is watching her. She can feel his eye taking her in, reveling in her every move. As the rain hammers the street outside, Meribel just catches a glimpse of the figure of a man standing beneath an umbrella. She can't make out any of his features, but his gaze is undeniable. The Marker Man is here. Despite her best efforts, Meribel hasn't evaded her worst fears. Her nightmare is just beginning. 

I first became aware of Joshilyn Jackson when I read her book Mother May I a couple of years ago. That thriller wowed me by combining a riveting plot with deeply drawn characters. With My Little Eye brings many of the elements that I enjoyed in that previous book while blazing a terrifying new path for the author. Jackson just knows how to get under your skin, and she's not afraid to fill each page with paranoia and dread. There's a well-rounded cast of characters that make up this story, and Jackson smartly shifts perspective from character to character to give the reader a deep insight into each of their threads. The main plot about a stalker drives much of the action in the book, but I found the protagonist's twelve-year-old autistic daughter to be the most compelling. Jackson writes her through an empathetic lens that I found to be refreshingly impactful. Some of the plot points veer into the implausible, but the characters helped me mostly overlook that. I was blindsided by the revelation of who the stalker was and found the conclusion to be completely satisfying. With My Little Eye is another fantastic thriller from an author who is fast becoming one of my favorites. 

For more information visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2023, 23)

What are the lengths you would go to in protecting your family? I'd walk the ends of the earth to make sure my family and friends are okay. When you think about the situations you may encounter, you might think of driving at late hours, lending/spending money, or even just being an open ear to listen. But what about things that are a little bit more morally ambiguous? What secrets would you keep? What laws would you break? How far is too far? In her latest thriller Mother May I, Joshilyn Jackson grapples with that question. 

As a mother of three, Bree rarely gets any quiet time. As she wakes up early in the morning, her two teenage daughters, infant son, and husband are all still asleep. This is her moment, a quiet time to just be with her thoughts, uninterrupted. As Bree stares out of the bedroom window, her solace is suddenly broken, giving way to first confusion and then terror. Staring back at her, just on the other side of the glass is a witch. The witch has all the notable features, wrinkled skin, wiry grey hair, cloaked in black, a look of pure menace upon her face. Hesitant to believe what she's seeing, Bree quickly glances away and back. In that instant, the witch is gone, like the remnants of a nightmare that managed a brief escape from the world of dreams. 

That odd occurrence stays with Bree as she begins her day. She takes her daughters to school, her infant in hand, and tries to forget the scare that began her morning. But she sees the witch again, this time in the parking lot of the school. Her mind must be playing tricks on her. Bree turns away from her infant son for just a moment, distracted by the goings-on at the school. That's all it takes. When she turns back around, her son is gone. Just as panic sets in, she gets the call. The unmistakable voice of the witch is on the other line. She has her son, and Bree will do whatever she asks to get him back. 

There's something both terrifying and relatable to any story involving child abduction. Recent thrillers like Adrian McKinty's The Chain and C.J. Tudor's The Other People have used a kidnapping to propel their stories, but Joshilyn Jackson takes things a step further. Mother May I sees the author not only explore the lengths a mother is willing to go to save her child but also forces that same character to come to terms with her own place in the world. Her privilege, marriage, and troubled past all come into question, adding depth to the novel that takes it beyond the typical thriller. I had the privilege of listening to the audio version of the book, a gift from the publisher, narrated by the author herself. The same passion and suspense that Jackson imbues in her writing come forth in her narration. Mother May I is everything I want from a thriller, suspenseful, quick to read, and with just enough extra depth to keep you thinking about it after you finish. 

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2021, 14)