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Nicole Blades is a novelist and journalist with nearly two decades of experience in the media industry. Her cover stories and features have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Runner’s World, Women’s Health, and more. Her novels often focus on the façade and filters people put on to face the world. Her new book,Would I Lie to You?, will be out April 21 2026! The domestic thriller joins Nicole’s previous novels, Have You Met Nora?, The Thunder Beneath Us, and Earth’s Waters. She’s also a member of the International Thriller Writers, Crime Writers of Canada and the Crime Writers of Color organizations. A proud Caribbean-Canadian, Nicole currently lives in New England with her husband and their son.
What if a covert, high-stakes cat burglar is given one last job before she can retire, but the gig is to steal the classified code to an innovative genetic editing tool her unaware husband is developing?
Ask anyone about Lucille “Lu” Barlow and they’ll tell you that she’s a loving wife and mom, fire-body Pilates studio owner, and kind neighbor. But none of them know the true Lu. Because Lu is a liar and a thief—albeit reluctantly lately. She’s been part of a dangerous, deeply covert crime syndicate for the last thirty years, with a string of incredible, international heists under her belt and a shoebox full of fake passports, weapons, cash stacks, and skeletons.
But when her unsuspecting husband, Harry, accepts a lucrative job at the nation’s leading biotech company, it means moving the family from her familiar Brooklyn base to the well-heeled New England town of Partridge Hollow. Lu sees it as her shot to finally retire from crime life, something she’s wanted since her son’s birth eight years ago. But Partridge Hollow isn’t what it seems either. Lu quickly discovers that her new Stepford Wives–esque neighbors each have their own secrets hidden inside their mansions, into which she occasionally creeps.
She also uncovers the most scandalous truth of all: that this move for her husband’s career was orchestrated by her illicit employer. Worse, she’s tasked with stealing the heavily protected code for a tool Harry is developing.
Sara Maurer lives with her family in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Albion College and her master’s from Eastern Michigan University. She honed her creative writing craft while completing Stanford’s Continuing Studies Novel Writing Certificate program. Her short fiction can be found in Dunes Review, Hominum Journal, and The Twin Bill. A Good Animal is her first novel.
In the farm country outside Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan—a border town where life moves slow and dreams run fast—most kids want out. Not Everett Lindt. He’s set on staying put, rebuilding his family’s sheep farm, and carving a future from the land he loves.
Then he meets Mary, a new girl in town with restless energy and bigger plans. When their relationship reaches a crossroads, Everett sees a life together. Mary, however, is desperate to find a way out. Together, they make an impulsive choice—one that could change everything.
Tense, lyrical, and deeply felt, Sara Maurer’s unforgettable debut breathtakingly captures the ache of first love, the beauty and brutality of rural life, and how one decision can echo through generations and shape who we become.
Nick Petrie‘s first novel, The Drifter, won the ITW Thriller and Barry Awards, and was nominated for Edgar, Anthony, and Hammett Awards. He was named one of Apple’s 10 Writers to Read in 2017. Light It Up was named the Best Thriller of 2018 by Apple Books and was nominated for a Barry Award, along with The Breaker, his sixth novel, and The Price You Pay, his eighth. His most recent novel is The Dark Time, published in March 2026. He is a husband and father and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Katelyn Thorsen, known as KT to her friends and enemies, is an independent journalist who receives a very specific death threat. Fortunately, Peter Ash has arrived in town to protect KT at the request of his girlfriend, June Cassidy. From the moment of his arrival, he’s thrown into a maelstrom of violence trying to protect KT and her daughter and discover the source of the death threat.
Even after June and Peter’s best friend Lewis arrive in Seattle to help, this challenge may be too much for them – with enormous consequences should they fail.
Named 2025 Indie Author of the Year by the Indie Author Project, Cynthia Swanson is the author of three novels of psychological suspense and a forthcoming short story collection. Her debut novel, The Bookseller, was a New York Times bestseller, an Indie Next selection, winner of the 2016 WILLA Literary Award for Historical Fiction, and is translated into 18 languages. Her second novel, The Glass Forest, was a USA Today bestseller, and her third novel, Anyone But Her, won the 2025 Colorado Book Award (Thriller) and was named 2024 Best Mystery/Thriller by the Indie Author Project. Her story collection, This Isn’t New: Women’s Historical Stories, is forthcoming in May 2026. She lives with her family in Denver.
An 1880s theologian. A 1940s high school principal. A 1970s, first-ever-anywhere (she’s pretty sure) female take on Bozo the Clown.
In this collection, Cynthia Swanson explores the lives of nine women, including several ancillary figures from Swanson’s beloved, bestselling novels. Covering more than a century of American history and landscapes, these stories examine recognizable struggles: gender presumptions, body image, gaslighting, and abuse, among others. The women’s lives differ from one another, but they share a singular trait: their sex dictates the expectations stamped onto them. Each woman, in her time, must fight for who she is against the forces working to constrain her.
This Isn’t New asks: What can uniquely female history teach us about our own lives-and how can the power of story inform our choices going forward?
The Back Room is the brainchild of bestselling authors Hank Phillippi Ryan and Karen Dionne.
Learn more about how they conceived of The Back Room, how it works, and about their books too!

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