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Summer's Best Books
August 16, 2026 at 5pm ET
Jennifer Hillier
LJ Ross
Hank Phillippi Ryan
Robert Thorogood
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Jennifer Hillier
Jennifer Hillier is the USA Today bestselling author of Things We Do in the Dark, winner of the ITW Thriller Award for Best Audiobook. Earlier novels include Creep, Freak, The Butcher, Wonderland, Jar of Hearts (winner, ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover), and the national bestseller Little Secrets. Her novels have been published in 25 languages so far. Born and raised in the Toronto area, she currently lives in Oakville, Ontario, Canada with her family. Her newest thriller, Heart of Glass, will be coming August 25, 2026 from Minotaur Books.
Heart of Glass
Twenty-five years ago in Seaside, Washington, a charming drifter named Sam met three inseparable teenage girls at the local amusement park. Days later, one of them was found dead, her body surfacing in a flooded cranberry bog not far from where she was murdered.
Barb and Nicolette were shocked to learn that the man they all met at Wonderland was the Carnival Killer. After he’s arrested for the murders of five young women – one of whom was their best friend, Lorelei – Nicolette moved to the city to pursue her dreams of being famous. Barb stayed behind in Seaside, eventually becoming a reporter for the local paper. Their past safely behind them, they’ve both moved on with their lives.
But when the Carnival Killer recants his confession and a new body washes ashore on the eve of Wonderland’s grand reopening, the secrets that Barb and Nicolette have worked so hard to bury begin to resurface, threatening to destroy everything in their carefully constructed lives.
LJ Ross
LJ Ross is the author of the #1 international bestselling series of DCI Ryan mystery novels, as well as the bestselling Dr. Alexander Gregory series of psychological thrillers and the Summer Suspense series. Her books have sold more than eleven million copies since 2015.
Louise was born in Northumberland, England. She studied undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Law at King’s College London and studied abroad in Paris and Florence. She spent much of her working life in London, where she was a regulatory lawyer for a number of years before taking the decision to change career and pursue her dream to write.
Hysteria
In a beautiful world, murder is always ugly…
Recently returned from his last case in Ireland, elite forensic psychologist and criminal profiler Dr Alexander Gregory receives a call from the French police that he can’t ignore. It’s Paris fashion week and some of the world’s most beautiful women are turning up dead, their faces slashed in a series of frenzied attacks while the world’s press looks on.
Amidst the carnage, one victim has survived but she’s too traumatised to talk. Without her help, the police are powerless to stop the killer before he strikes again – can Gregory unlock the secrets of her mind, before it’s too late?
Murder and mystery are peppered with dark humour in this fast-paced thriller set amidst the spectacular Parisian landscape.
Hank Phillippi Ryan
Hank Phillippi Ryan is the USA Today bestselling author of 17 thrillers, including All This Could Be Yours (just named the 2026 Mary Higgins Clark Award winner and now also an Anthony Award nominee for Best Novel) and Mother Daughter Sister Stranger. She’s previously won five Agathas, 5 Anthonys, and the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award, and her thrillers have been translated into multiple languages worldwide. Her fiction is inspired by a lifetime of writing groundbreaking true-crime stories during her career as an on-air investigative television reporter for which she was awarded multiple journalism honors, including an unprecedented 37 Emmy Awards. A TedX speaker and in-demand literary moderator, Library Journal calls her “a superb and gifted storyteller. ” A native of Chicago with roots in Indianapolis, Ryan lives in Boston.
Mother Daughter Sister Stranger
The sole survivors of the fiery plane crash that killed their parents, Eliza Ramsey and her sister Bea share an unbreakable bond. But now, on the eleventh anniversary of the tragedy, Bea fails to retrieve her pre-teen daughter from a sleepover at Eliza’s.
Eliza knows her sister would never leave her precious Piper behind, and fears the worst. But did Bea plan her own disappearance?
The Ramsey’s lives have already crashed and burned once. Now, Eliza discovers she’s the only one who can protect her niece from the horrifying legacy of her family’s sinister history. Together, the two must prevent their lives from going up in flames once again.
A missing mother. Her frightened daughter. And a sister on a desperate search for a happy ending. But someone knows the deadly key to their shared past, and won’t stop until they’ve written a devastating final chapter. Mother, daughter, sister—stranger.
Robert Thorogood
Robert Thorogood is the creator of Death in Paradise (plus two other spin-off shows) for the BBC in the UK, and has also turned his Marlow Murder Club novels into a TV show for PBS in the States.
The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts
Someone is killing celebrities in Marlow. First, it’s a famous soccer player. Then, a bestselling thriller writer. When two shocking deaths rock their quiet riverside town, Judith, Suzie, and Becks–the unstoppable Marlow Murder Club–must untangle a dangerous web of blackmail and scandal to catch a killer.
But with their trusted police ally DI Malik suddenly suspended, and Judith’s own past threatening to resurface, the women are on their own. Suspects are multiplying like tabloid headlines, secrets are stacking up, and time is running out.
Can the Marlow Murder Club crack the case before the killer strikes again–or will this be the end of their crime-solving adventures?
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Meet Your Hosts
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!