Beach Reads
The island hums with the easy rhythm of summer, sun-drenched days, salt in the air, and laughter echoing down the shoreline. It’s the season of sunburns and sand between your toes, when time slows just enough to lose yourself in a good story. I’ve found a few reads this month that promise to send a shiver down your spine even in the August heat. Whether it’s a twisty thriller or an eerie mystery, these are the books guaranteed to cool you off, at least for a few chapters.
“She Didn’t See It Coming” by Shari Lapena
If you’re in the mood for a thriller that grabs you from page one and doesn’t let go, cancel your plans because this one demands your full attention. Shari Lapena returns with another twist-filled domestic mystery that will keep even the most seasoned suspense reader on their toes. When Bryden, a devoted wife and mother, suddenly vanishes from her high-rise condo in the middle of the day, her husband Sam is left stunned. Her car is still in the garage. Her phone and keys are untouched. Her laptop sits open, mid-task. It’s as if she evaporated into thin air. What starts as a missing-persons case quickly evolves into something more sinister, as detectives dig into the couple’s seemingly perfect life. The deeper they look, the more fractures they uncover – and not just in the marriage, but in the entire tight-knit community surrounding them. Lapena masterfully builds a sense of paranoia, tightening the web of suspicion around each character. Could a neighbor know more than they’re letting on? Is a friend hiding something? And how well does anyone really know the people closest to them?
“The Missing Half” by Ashley Flowers
Nic Monroe’s life is quietly unraveling. At just 24, she’s stuck in her Indiana hometown, nursing the wounds of a traumatic past, drinking too much, and working a dead-end job she landed through pity. Her world has been frozen since her sister Kasey disappeared seven years ago without a trace. Her car was abandoned, purse untouched, and no solid leads in sight. The case went cold, leaving Nic to drown in questions and what-ifs. But when Jenna Connor, the sister of another girl who vanished under eerily similar circumstances, shows up, Nic feels something she hasn’t in years: a flicker of possibility. As the two women dig into their sisters’ disappearances, they uncover a trail of secrets buried deeper than they imagined and ones that could finally lead to answers … or tear their lives apart.
“This Book Will Bury Me” by Ashley Winstead
After the loss of her father, college student Jane Sharp finds herself unraveling until she stumbles into the strange comfort of true crime forums. Online, she’s no longer a grieving daughter; she’s a respected voice among amateur detectives, trading theories and parsing clues with anonymous allies. But when a series of shocking murders rocks the small town of Delphine, Idaho, the line between observer and participant begins to blur. Jane and her online circle go from speculating behind screens to being pulled into the heart of the investigation. The deeper they dig, the stranger things get. The town feels staged, the authorities too perfect, and the killer always one step ahead. Now, a year later, Jane is finally ready to speak. And what she reveals isn’t just the truth behind the case, it’s a chilling confession of how far things went, and what it really cost to chase justice in a world addicted to performance.
“Our Last Resort” by Clémence Michallon
What begins as a serene desert escape quickly spirals into a haunting reckoning with the past in Clémence Michallon’s gripping new thriller. After fleeing a cult 15 years ago, Frida and her brother Gabriel have done their best to bury the trauma, though not without distance and scars. Now, they reunite at the remote and luxurious Ara Hotel in Escalante, Utah, hoping to heal old wounds under the sun. But paradise is short-lived. When a young woman turns up dead having been last seen with her wealthy husband, whispers begin to swirl, and all eyes turn to Gabriel. It isn’t the first time he’s been linked to a crime, and as police close in, Frida finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew about her brother.
“The Last Ferry Out” by Andrea Bartz
Grief brings Abby to the remote shores of Isla Colel, a once-lively tropical getaway now left eerily quiet in the wake of a devastating hurricane. She’s come searching for closure after the sudden death of her fiancée, Eszter. But the island holds more secrets than she ever imagined. Cut off from the mainland with a ferry that barely runs, Abby finds herself drawn to a mysterious group of expats who seem friendly enough until one of them vanishes after hinting he knows what really happened to Eszter. Strangely, no one else seems alarmed. As Abby digs deeper, suspicion and paranoia settle in. The island’s paradise veneer gives way to something far darker like hidden histories, fractured truths, and the growing fear that someone close to her might be capable of murder. The closer she gets to the truth, the clearer it becomes: Someone on this island has something to hide, and they may be willing to kill to protect it.
“We Are All Guilty Here” by Karin Slaughter
Karin Slaughter delivers another knockout with “We Are All Guilty Here,” a haunting, high-stakes thriller set in a small town where the line between guilt and innocence is razor-thin. North Falls feels like the kind of place where nothing ever really changes until two teenage girls vanish during a Fourth of July celebration, sending shockwaves through the tight-knit community. For Officer Emmy Clifton, the case cuts deep. One of the missing girls is the daughter of her estranged best friend, and Emmy is tormented by the moment she failed to act when it mattered most. But as she dives into the investigation, Emmy uncovers unsettling truths. The girls weren’t who people thought they were. Neither, it seems, is anyone else in town. As secrets unravel and loyalties fracture, Emmy is forced to confront just how little she, and everyone around her, really knew.
