All Books Considered

Ruby Falls by Gin Phillips Blurb from Goodreads : One body. Five suspects. Total darkness. A tense, claustrophobic historical mystery set almost entirely underground at the onset of the Great Depression about the discovery of a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain, the unthinkable crime that happens in its caves, and a woman who’s never felt more alive.    In 1928, a Chattanooga man disappears down a hole in the ground and discovers a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain that he names after his wife: Ruby Falls. Within months, visitors can buy tickets to see the falls for themselves. Ada Smith has been sneaking into the caves at night, entranced by the natural wonders around her and the freedom granted by this new underground world. But it’s tough timing for a natural wonder. As the country flounders in the Great Depression, a shrewd public relations ploy seems like the only way to save Ru...

The Social Circle by Sophie Wan Blurb from Goodreads : When Maggie Tang arrives as a transfer-student at UC Berkeley in 2005, she has no idea how her life is about to change. In the hallway of her dingy apartment building, she meets Adam, Charles, and Hari, the friends with whom she’ll create Circle, the world’s first major social media platform. But navigating her ambitions alongside love and friendship isn’t so simple, and when they inevitably collide, Maggie exits Circle in dramatic fashion. A decade later, Maggie is struggling with a new professional venture when she receives an invitation to celebrate Circle’s 10th anniversary on a private island in Norway, with the three people she has tried hardest to forget. While she’s still bitter about how things ended, her company desperately needs the publicity, and deep down, Maggie can’t resist the h...

Gunk by Saba Sams Blurb from Goodreads : An electrifying first novel from one of Britain’s most celebrated young writers, the story of two women circling one another—working side-by-side, sleeping with the same man, inching toward friendship—until an unplanned pregnancy reveals the true nature of their connection. Jules has been divorced from her ex-husband Leon for five years, but she still works with him at Gunk, the grotty student nightclub he owns in central Brighton. She spends her nights serving shots and watching, from behind the bar, as Leon flirts with students on the dancefloor. In the early hours of the morning, she trudges home to sleep alone. But then Leon hires nineteen-year-old Nim to work the bar with Jules—Nim, with her shaved head and steady pour, her disarming sweetness and sudden distance—and Jules finds herself jolted awake. Wh...

I Came Back for You by Kate White Blurb from Goodreads : A mother begins to challenge everything she’s been told about her daughter’s murder in a shocking novel of suspense by a New York Times bestselling author. Ten years after her daughter, Melanie, was murdered, Bree Winter is finally moving on with a new love, a new home, and a new beginning. Then a deathbed confession from the convicted killer throws Bree’s life into a tailspin all over again. He readily confesses to murdering four girls. But not Melanie. At first, Bree and her ex-husband don’t buy a word of it. Until inconsistencies about the crime emerge. So does the dreadful feeling that the monster who shattered Bree’s family isn’t lying. The only way she can get to the truth is to power through the trauma and return to the town in upstate New York where Melanie’s life came to a brutal end. B...

The Fall of Iris Henley by Jennifer Graham Blurb from Goodreads : For fans of Megan Lally and Kara Thomas, a twisty thriller about a Texas teen accused of murder who's desperate to clear her name. All it takes to ruin someone’s life is the stroke of a key. Just ask Iris Henley. Her life is destroyed when someone posts an anonymous message on her high school’s subreddit thread: “Iris Henley is a killer. I’ve been too scared to come forward until now, but I saw her murder Rocky and Lynette last summer.” Just like that, Iris loses everything. Her reputation. Her friends. Her hope of getting into college on scholarship. Even, possibly, her freedom, once the police start to investigate. After all, she’s the perfect suspect: Rocky was her boyfriend, and Lynette was her ex-best friend—and the girl he was cheating on her with. But Iris didn’t do it, and...

Cleaner by Jess Shannon Blurb from Goodreads : A disaffected young woman’s work as a cleaner takes her on an increasingly surreal search for a creative fulfillment, gainful employment, and the meaning of life in this sharp, tragicomic debut—perfect for fans of Melissa Broder, Jen Beagin, and Alexandra Tanner. A young artist returns to her childhood home, with a host of degrees and diplomas in her back pocket. But when forced to confront the reality that the world sees no use for her scholarly exploits, she must find a job—and quickly. Overqualified, underemployed, and idle, she starts a job as a cleaner for a gallery, where she meets another aspiring artist—Isabella—and they begin a passionate affair. Isabella could not be more different from the she’s elegant, successful…and living with her filthy rich boyfriend Paul. Isabella sneaks the cleaner into her life by hiring her to scrub the apartment she shares with Paul....

Motor City Love Song by Lisa Peers Blurb from Goodreads : No one knows why the queen of indie rock vanished from the Detroit scene twenty years ago. Now, her ex-girlfriend is determined to track her down—and what she uncovers will change everything. Detroit, 1997. At the Artemis Club, Paloma is chasing rock-and-roll stardom, with her girlfriend and manager Jace committed to making her a worldwide indie sensation. But when Paloma suddenly disappears from the public eye in 2001, Jace is left to pick up the pieces.  Two decades later, Jace thought she’d left music for good. Yet when the Artemis Club is threatened, she commits to saving the venue even though she’ll have to track down Paloma, whose early-career hit just went viral. Paloma has her reasons for not wanting to be found, and Jace isn’t eager to reopen old wounds. Still, each keeps measu...

The Jills by Karen Parkman Blurb from Goodreads : Virginia is a Jill—a cheerleader for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills—living the life of her she spends her weekdays practicing, her weekends cheering, and her nights hopping between bars and clubs with her teammates, including the fearless, charismatic Jeanine, whose friendship has given Virginia confidence in spades and helped her forget her troubled past with her estranged sister, Laura. One Sunday, Jeanine fails to show up for a game, and calls and texts to her go unanswered. Virginia embarks on an investigation into Jeanine’s disappearance, aided by a network of Jills, ex-boyfriends, seedy fixtures of Buffalo’s criminal underground, and unexpected figures from her past. But as her search grows increasingly dangerous and spirals into obsession, disturbing questions about who Jeanine really was begin to emerge. Soon, Virginia finds herself wond...

Murder Bimbo by Rebecca Novack Blurb from Goodreads : An exhilarating and provocative debut perfect for fans of My Sister the Serial Killer, Yellowface, and Killing Eve—the origin story of sex worker turned assassin turned unlikely folk hero, Murder Bimbo, as told by the Bimbo herself (and then revised, uncensored, and reconsidered). A thirty-two-year-old sex worker is shocked when she’s approached by undercover government agents to aid them in a top-secret plot to assassinate a politician known as “Meat Neck.” But once the deed is done, she realizes what made her the perfect She’s 100% disposable. Holed up in an off-the-grid cabin in the woods, she now has only two days, her wits, and a laptop to save her own life. Her best bet is to reach out to the wildly popular feminist investigative podcast Justice for Bimbos. In a hastily typed series of emails, the newly minted “Murder Bimbo” explains how she was recruited and ...