This week, Halley Sutton is back and we talk about some of our favorite bookish characters!

Books We Talked About

Where Are You Echo Blue?

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment

No Road Home

Lay Your Body Down

How Can I Help You

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The Man on the Train

Follow Her Home

Midnight is the Darkest Hour

Thursday Next Series

Over Her Dead Body

Must Love Books

I Didn’t Do It

Vladimir

The Outlier

Kill for Love

Eight Perfect Murders

This week, Steph Lauer and I share books that pair well with each other. If you liked the first one, you'll probably love the second one.

Books Kate Talked About

The Hollywood Assistant

The Force of Such Beauty

The Hunter’s Daughter : Blood Sisters

Pretty Things : On the Surface

Almost Surely Dead : Missing White Woman

Big Little Lies : The Other Mothers

The Lady Upstairs : Twisted

Books Steph Talked About

Do What Godmother Says

Like it Never Was

Ask for Andrea : Before You Knew My Name

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder : That’s Not My Name

Butcher and the Blackbird : The Girl in 6E

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife : The Girls Are All So Nice Here

Notes on an Execution : Don't Forget the Girl

This week, I talk with Debbie Babitt about her new Hitchcockian thriller The Man on the Train. We dive into how she gets to know her characters, how she figures out plot and what she's working on next.

The Man on the Train Synopsis

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Linda Haley is awakened early one morning by two police officers at the door. She has no idea that her husband has been living a secret life during his daily commute from Scarsdale into the city. Now Guy is the prime suspect in a brutal murder that could derail Linda’s high-powered career and may be connected to a cold case.

And Guy has disappeared.

With a warrant out for her husband’s arrest, Linda sets out to prove his innocence accompanied by an ex-cop who harbors a secret affection for her. Together, they travel to the scene of a forty-year-old unsolved murder and a night of violence that shattered the serenity of a small fishing hamlet just past the Hamptons.

But as the manhunt intensifies and she begins to uncover the shocking truth—and the past Guy has buried deep—Linda must decide if the stranger she married is innocent or guilty. And if he truly deserves to be saved.

Featuring tense, atmospheric suspense that moves at breakneck speed, this Hitchcockian thriller careens from a bedroom community just north of New York City to the picturesque beaches of eastern Long Island to a suburban train station, where a killer hiding in plain sight waits to exact a final revenge.

This week, Halley and I share updates on our 1,000 Words of Summer challenge and dive into what we love about our favorite book covers. We also share what we've been reading, watching and listening to.

Books We Talked About

Almost Surely Dead

Stone Cold Fox

The Last Housewife

The Favorites

The Lies I Tell

The Force of Such Beauty

This week, I talk with Rob Hart about his new action packed thriller Assassins Anonymous. We dive into how he came up with the idea for an assassin who swears off killing for moral reasons, why musicals and action movies are similar, and how he created an empathetically accessible assassin as a main character.

Assassins Anonymous Synopsis

In this clever, surprising, page-turner, the world’s most lethal assassin gives up the violent life only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the first option is off the table. What’s a reformed hit man to do?

Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind, and joined a twelve-step group for reformed killers.

When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him. All without killing anyone. Or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns, nonviolence is a real hassle.

This week, Steph Lauer and I talk with Lori Brand about her insanely fun thriller Bodies to Die For. She shares her inspiration for the book, and her personal journey writing it.

To check out her article about why she wrote Bodies to Die For, click here

Bodies to Die For Synopsis

Popular fitness influencer Gemma has transformed herself from a Before into an After, complete with washboard abs, thriving business, and gorgeous husband. But social media can be deceiving. Offline, the cutthroat world of bikini bodybuilding may just eat her alive. That's if she's not first devoured by the secret nemesis that lurks beneath her polished surface, waiting to destroy her.

Software engineer Ashley is fat and frustrated. Frustrated with failed diets. With a world that wants her to shrink. With biased doctors, online trolls, and even her own mother. Until Ashley falls in with a mysterious and radical sect of Fat Activists who are fighting back ... by any means necessary. She's never felt so alive, so full of purpose. She'll do whatever it takes to ride this high, destroy Diet Culture, and win the approval of her charismatic leader.

But when Gemma's toughest rival turns up dead, and more fitness girls fall like dominoes, it's beginning to look like the body image war has gone too far.

With breakneck pace and keen insights, Bodies to Die For takes a hard look at social media, the $70 billion diet industry, and the war on women's bodies--the wars we wage with each other, and with ourselves.

This week, Olivia Day Wallace and Lori Brand join the podcast and tell me all about their experiences at ThrillerFest! They share their most memorable moments, their favorite panels and new books that grabbed their attention.

Books We Talked About

The Den

Such a Bad Influence

A Friend in the Dark

The Drowning Woman

Syndicate Spy

For Worse

Sing Her Down

This week, I talk with Sara Koffi about her addictive domestic suspense While We Were Burning. We dive into her inspiration for the book, how she ended up writing thrillers, and her favorite part of writing the book.

While We Were Burning Synopsis

After her best friend's mysterious death, Elizabeth Smith’s picture-perfect life in the Memphis suburbs has spiraled out of control—so much so that she hires a personal assistant to keep her on track. Composed and elegant, Brianna is exactly who she needs—she slides so neatly into Elizabeth’s life it's almost like she belonged there from the start, and proves herself indispensable. Soon, the assistant Elizabeth hired to distract her from her obsession with her friend's death is the same person working with her to uncover the truth behind it.

Because Brianna has questions, too.

She wants to know why the police killed her young Black son. Why someone in Elizabeth’s neighborhood called the cops on him that day. Who took that first step that stole her child away from her. And the only way she’s ever going to be able to find out is to entwine herself deep into Elizabeth’s life, where the answers to her questions lie. As the two women hurtle towards an electrifying final showdown, and the lines between employer and friend blur, it becomes clear that neither of them is what they first appear.