This week, I talk with Emma Dues about her stunningly creepy debut thriller Return to Midnight! We dive into the inspo for the book, how teaching affects her writing, and the mystery inherent to Victorian mansions.

Return to Midnight Synopsis

Nearly ten years ago, five Ohio university students were murdered in an off-campus Victorian home. The media dubbed it the Midnight House Massacre. Ever since, survivor and novelist Margot Davis has wanted to forget it, and never again utter the killer’s name. Until she’s compelled to write her side of the story. To do that, she’s returning to Midnight House.

It’ll be a chance for Margot to reconnect with other survivors, heal the trauma, and dispel the ugly conspiracy theories of obsessed true crime fanatics. But when news of Margot’s book gets out, she receives a threatening note that demands she stop lying. Or else. It chills Margot’s blood. Because she hasn’t been telling the whole truth.

As the threats continue, each more sinister than the last, a journalist comes to Margot with new suspicions about that brutal October night. Now, to save her own life, Margot must reveal her well-guarded secrets—ones that, for good reason, she’s been too terrified to share.

This week, Halley and I once again commit to one subject, and end up covering multiple. On top of some great female rage thriller recommendations, we dive into the film Heretic, talk about religions' obsessions with rules and workarounds, and get into a brief rant about twists verses reveals (more on that in future episodes).

Books with Female Rage

This GIrl’s a Killer

In Defense of Witches

The Lion Women of Tehran

They Never Learn

Their Vicious Games

House Woman

Her Name is Knight

Smile and Look Pretty

Hurt for Me

A Certain Hunger

Lay Your Body Down

Out

Eleven Percent

The Lady Upstairs

This week, I got to talk with Jan Gangsei about her salacious new thriller Dead Below Deck! We dive into how the idea came to her, how she chose to structure it, and what drew her to YA.

Dead Below Deck Synopsis

It was supposed to be the best-ever girls’ trip: five days, four friends, one luxury yacht, no parents. But on the final night, as the yacht cruised the deep and dark waters between Florida and Grand Cayman, eighteen-year-old heiress Giselle vanished. She’s nowhere to be found the next morning even after a frantic search, until security footage surfaces . . . showing Maggie pushing her overboard.

But Maggie has no memory of what happened. All she knows is that she woke up with a throbbing headache, thousands of dollars in cash in her safe, a passport that isn’t hers, and Giselle’s diary. And while Maggie had her own reasons to want Giselle dead, so did everyone else on board: jealous Viv, calculating Emi, even some members of the staff.

What really went down on the top deck that night? Maggie will have to work her way backward to uncover the secrets that everyone—even Giselle—kept below deck or she’s dead in the water.

This week Vanessa Lillie and Gare “Bleak” Billings share recommendations from Indigenous authors for Native American Heritage Month, and I think I might be reading fast paced, paranormal horror for the rest of the year!

Check out these great recommendations:

The Berry Pickers

Blood Sisters

Never Whistle at Night

The Only Good Indians

Bad Cree

The Haunting of Room 904

Shutter

Winter Counts

Where They Last Saw Her

The Highway of Tears

Never Name the Dead

On the Savage Side

And Then She Fell

Venco

Indian Burial Ground

Sisters of the Lost Nation

This week, I got to talk with Emma C. Wells about her stunning debut serial killer thriller This Girl's a Killer! We dive into her inspiration for the book, how Cordelia was unavoidable for her, and the way women have to consider violence in ways men don't.

This Girl's a Killer Synopsis

Ask Cordelia Black why she did it. The answer will always be: He had it coming.

Cordelia Black loves exactly three things: Her chosen family, her hairdresser (worth every penny plus tip), and killing bad men.

By day she's an ambitious pharma rep with a flawless reputation and designer wardrobe. By night, she culls South Louisiana of unscrupulous men―monsters who think they've evaded justice, until they meet her. Sure, the evening news may have started throwing around phrases like "serial killer," but Cordelia knows that's absurd. She's not a killer, she is simply karma. And being karma requires complete and utter control.

But when Cordelia discovers a flaw in her perfectly designed system for eliminating monsters, pressure heightens. And it only intensifies when her best friend starts dating a man Cordelia isn't sure is a good person. Someone who might just unravel everything she has worked for.

Soon enough Cordelia has to come face to face with the choices she's made. The good, the bad, and the murderous. Both her family, and her freedom, depend on it.

Check out Bitter Southerner where Emma got her Hell Hath No Fury shirt

If you've enjoyed episode of Bookwild, an easy way to support ongoing episodes and content is to join the Bookwild Patreon. Just $5 a month helps me spend more time on this content, and bring you more of it! And if you're interested in Bookwild's Backlist Book Club, you can join the $10 tier and chat with the community at Book Club each month!

This week, Gare, Steph and I share backlist books we really want to read. We also manage to sneak in two that aren't even really backlist, but we still want to read them too!

Comfort Shows

English Teacher

Insecure

Top Chef

How to Die Alone

Law & Order: SVU

Books We Talked About

Godshot

The Year of the Witching

The Lake of Lost Girls

The Lighthouse Witches

Beautiful People

Playing Dead

Black Sheep

The Memory Police

Return to Midnight

Her Pretty Face

The Bright Lands

Eleven

American Psycho

The Cipher

The Final Act

This week I got to talk with writing duo Katherine Greene, made up of A. Meredith Walters and Claire C. Riley. We dive into how they became friends and writing partners, the initial image that was the inspiration for this story, and how they approach writing thrillers together.

The Lake of Lost Girls Synopsis

It's 1998, and female students are going missing at Southern State University in North Carolina. But freshman Jessica Fadley, once a bright and responsible student, is going through her own struggles. Just as her life seems to be careening dangerously out of control, she suddenly disappears.

Twenty-four years later, Jessica's sister Lindsey is desperately searching for answers and uses the momentum of a new chart-topping true crime podcast, Ten Seconds to Vanish, that focuses on the cold cases, to guide her own investigation. Soon, interest reaches fever pitch when the bodies of the long-missing women begin turning up at a local lake, which leads Lindsey down a disturbing road of discovery.

In the present, one sister seeks to untangle a complicated web of lies.
In the past, the other descends ever deeper into a darkness that will lead to her ultimate fate.

This propulsive and chilling suspense is a sharp examination of sisterhood and the culture of true crime.

This week, Halley Sutton and I talk about scandals both fictional and non-fictional!

Books, Movies, Docs We Talked About

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Sin Eater: The Crimes of Anthony Pellicano

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood

Once More From the Top

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr

Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara

Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop

Mommy Dead and Dearest

I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth V. Michelle Carter

Hollywood Babylon

Missing White Woman

The Two Mrs. Grenvilles

La Cote Basque, 1965

You're Wrong About

The Favorites

On the Surface

Picnic at Hanging Rock

The Hurricane Blonde

The Lady Upstairs