A Book A Week

James Patterson is already known as one of the bestselling authors of all time, but in recent years, he’s taken on a different role, collaborating with high-profile figures to help bring their distinct voices into the thriller world. From Bill Clinton to Dolly Parton, and even the late Michael Crichton, his partnerships have produced major bestsellers that still feel rooted in each collaborator’s perspective. In each case, there’s a sense that Patterson shapes the pacing while honoring the voice at the center of the story.

So when I saw his latest collaborator was none other than Viola Davis, I was instantly intrigued. And when I realized she was narrating the audiobook herself, I didn’t hesitate. I jumped at the chance to listen.

Judge Mary Stone is probably the last person you’d expect to see sitting on the bench in Union Springs, Alabama’s courthouse. A strong Black woman elected by the people of her small town, she’s built a reputation for ruling with both firmness and empathy. Judge Stone is a pillar of the community, hosting weekly Saturday breakfasts at her family farm that are open to anyone who wants to attend. Of course, she isn’t without her detractors. The district attorney in particular bristles at her approach, arguing that she tries to influence the direction of cases from the bench rather than simply rule on them.

Judge Stone isn’t prepared for the firestorm that erupts when one of the most controversial cases in decades lands in her courtroom.  A local doctor is accused of performing an abortion on a thirteen-year-old girl without her mother’s consent. The case forces Stone to confront painful echoes of her own past. She feels for both the doctor and the child, but the law in this Bible Belt corner of Alabama seems clear. Legally, the path forward is straightforward. Ethically, far less so. And with reelection looming, Judge Stone may be facing the most difficult and dangerous decision of her career.

It’s kind of remarkable just how great a read Judge Stone is. It has all the makings of a classic legal thriller. There's a morally ambiguous case with both sides passionately defending their perspective, a small Southern town with a history of racism where religious leaders wield just as much influence as the political ones, and at the center of it all, Judge Mary Stone—the perfect protagonist to guide us through the storm. She’s headstrong, empathetic, and determined to do the right thing, even when “right” is open to interpretation.

Davis and Patterson blend their strengths seamlessly, delivering a novel that’s gripping, emotional, and unafraid to explore complicated issues without offering easy answers. Viola Davis also narrates the audiobook, bringing a richness and intimacy to the story that only an actress of her caliber could provide. The result is a novel that feels both deeply personal and strikingly cinematic. Its an engaging, thought-provoking read that’s well worth your time.

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

(2026, 20)

Sydney Lowe thinks she's living the perfect life. She has a successful legal career in New York City, a thriving husband whose company is on the rise, and a marriage she believes is unshakable. Then Curtis confesses to an affair with a client—“meaningless,” he insists, a one-time mistake. For Sydney, it’s a fracture she's not sure can be repaired.

Therapy helps, but not enough. So Curtis proposes something drastic. He’ll walk away from the company he built and move them to a crumbling villa in the mountains of Spain. A clean slate. A new beginning. Against her better judgment—but still clinging to love—Sydney agrees.

As they renovate the villa and begin the ambitious project of starting a winery, a knock at the door interrupts their fragile rebuilding. A young Australian couple, stranded by car trouble, asks for help. Craving connection beyond her strained marriage, Sydney invites them to stay. Curtis is wary, but he plays along—especially when repairs will take days, and the couple offers to help with the renovations in exchange for lodging.

But isolation has a way of magnifying cracks. As days stretch on, secrets begin to surface on both sides. Beneath the charm and shared meals, something darker simmers. Because no one who arrives at the villa is entirely honest, and not everyone will make it out alive.

Robyn Harding is no stranger (see what I did there?) to writing engaging thrillers layered with suspense and intrigue. Her novel The Drowning Woman first introduced me to her work and impressed me with its use of shifting perspectives to methodically unveil twists and motivations. Strangers in the Villa continues that structural approach, though the story itself takes on a different emotional tone.

Here, Harding leans into the theme of rebuilding. The Lowes are attempting to reconstruct their marriage, restore trust, and quite literally renovate the crumbling villa they now call home. The physical and emotional strain leaves them exposed—perhaps more vulnerable to the influence of the strangers who enter their lives. As the narrative alternates perspectives, we gain insight into those mysterious visitors as well, and it becomes clear they may be rebuilding something of their own.

The novel moves at an unrelenting pace, pulling you deeper into the lives of all four characters. I read it in a single day, unable to step away from the pages. While I did piece together the ending before the final reveal, Harding’s careful character work and the steadily tightening suspense made the journey more than worthwhile. Strangers in the Villa is a tense, immersive thriller that proves she knows exactly how to keep readers turning the pages.

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

(2026, 19)

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)

I’m continuing my attempt to read more of the books I already own rather than constantly chasing the latest shiny new releases. This week, I turned my attention to a title that returned to my radar after it was adapted into a gripping series on Apple TV a couple of years ago. Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent, his 1987 debut, was released to both critical and commercial acclaim, spawned a film adaptation starring Harrison Ford, and reignited the legal thriller genre for modern readers. When I dusted off my paperback copy and cracked it open, it didn’t take long to see why it became such a phenomenon.

The novel opens in the aftermath of a murder that has shaken the DA’s office in Kindle County to its core. One of their own—rising star prosecutor Carolyn Polhemus—has been killed, and now her colleagues must investigate her death and prosecute her killer. The timing couldn’t be worse. District Attorney Raymond Horgan is in the middle of a losing reelection campaign against Nico Della Guardia, a former protégé turned political rival. Della Guardia is already using the unsolved murder as ammunition, turning tragedy into campaign fodder.

Desperate to stop the bleeding, Horgan assigns his right-hand man, Rusty Sabich, to lead the investigation. What he doesn’t realize is just how personal the case is about to become.

Rusty and Carolyn shared a history that extended far beyond their professional roles. They were former lovers. Their affair ended months earlier, and Rusty returned to his wife, chastened and determined to move on. Conflict of interest aside, what should be a straightforward investigation quickly becomes anything but. Rusty is forced to navigate the wreckage of a relationship he thought he had neatly compartmentalized. As evidence mounts, buried secrets, office politics, and private betrayals rise to the surface. Before long, the seasoned prosecutor finds himself in an unthinkable position. He's the sole suspect in the murder of his former lover and colleague.

He swears he’s innocent. But as the trial unfolds, the question becomes not only who killed Carolyn, but whether anyone involved can truly be presumed innocent.

With Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow transforms the familiar courtroom thriller into an intimate and unsettling character study, tracing the slow, suffocating unraveling of reputation, marriage, ambition, and truth. The novel takes its time at the outset, carefully establishing its cast and their tangled relationships.  But once the investigation gains momentum, it pulls you in and refuses to let go.

I was especially impressed by how Turow makes us care about characters who so often teeter between ego and justice. I found myself rooting for Rusty even when I wasn’t entirely convinced of his innocence. That tension between belief and doubt drives the novel forward with remarkable force. By the end, it’s clear that innocence is anything but simple, and that truth can shift depending on who is claiming it.

The final revelation is as riveting as it is heartbreaking. It's not exactly a twist in the traditional sense, but a moral reckoning. With Presumed Innocent, Turow doesn’t merely set the standard for the modern legal thriller; he redefines what the genre is capable of.

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

(2026, 17)

She sits in the dark—cold, alone, afraid—waiting.

He used to open the door. He would bring her food, yes, but it was that brief slice of light she craved most. A reminder that the outside world still existed, even if the girl she once was did not.

But then he stopped coming.

A few days passed. Then a few more. Hunger gnawed. Silence pressed in. And slowly, dread settled into certainty. He was never coming back.

So she remained there in the dark, chained to the wall, surrounded only by the others—the girls who came before her, the ones who never left.

Audrey never stopped searching for her ex–best friend, Janie. They were only teenagers when Janie vanished, but the shock of her disappearance sent ripples through every corner of Audrey’s adult life. When she’s not teaching at the local high school, Audrey volunteers with search-and-rescue teams—part devotion, part penance, as if finding someone else might somehow atone for not finding Janie.

But when a search for a runaway girl uncovers evidence of a possible kidnapping, long-buried secrets and old traumas begin to surface. Audrey is forced to finally reckon with the truth she’s avoided for years and to confront what really happened to Janie.

I didn’t need to read the synopsis to know I’d be picking up The Girls Before, the latest from Kate Alice Marshall. She became a must-read for me after What Lies in the Woods and A Killing Cold, so my expectations were high. Still, the premise of this standalone thriller immediately hooked me.

Marshall employs shifting perspectives between the trapped girl and the woman searching for answers, a structure that creates an early sense of urgency and dread. The opening is undeniably gripping. But as the story unfolds, that momentum begins to thin. There are the bones of a compelling thriller here, but elements like the folkloric legend and a romantic subplot pulled attention away from the central mystery. 

By the time the major twist arrived, I’d already pieced it together and found myself more ready for the conclusion than surprised by it. Even so, Marshall’s ability to craft suspenseful scenarios and emotionally driven stakes remains as strong as ever. While this one didn’t resonate with me as much as her previous novels, it won’t stop me from eagerly picking up whatever she writes next.

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

(2026, 16)

There often comes a point in our lives when we’re faced with a fork in the road. For me, that moment arrived after completing my master’s degree. I had been working in both public and private education while also building a career as a musician, but my work–life balance was virtually nonexistent. There was simply no way to stop thinking about work; it followed me everywhere. Eventually, I made the difficult decision to leave the only field I’d ever known and try something entirely new.

Ten years later, I couldn’t have imagined how much I would enjoy my work, the fulfillment it would bring, or the balance I would regain in my life. I certainly never expected to grow into a leadership role. Over the years, I’ve appreciated listening to and watching Brené Brown speak about leadership, so I finally decided to pick up her book, Dare to Lead, to explore those ideas more. 

Brené Brown’s approach to leadership centers on leading with courage. She challenges leaders to wrestle with their own vulnerability, urging them to move beyond performative leadership and make genuine efforts to connect with their teams. She reminds us several times that great performance is ultimately about people, people, people. Brown argues that true trust, connection, and commitment grow only from a leader’s willingness to have hard conversations, own their mistakes, and show up imperfectly.

What I appreciate most about Brown’s writing is that she makes this kind of leadership feel attainable. Courage is a skill that can be taught and practiced, if we’re willing to lean into discomfort. Brown contends that leadership that avoids vulnerability breeds fear, while leadership that embraces it builds brave cultures. In a world often driven by posturing and image, that message feels radical and necessary.

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

(2026, 15)